I was torn between Descartes or medlab, but we saw how the aliens took out the artillery lobed at the box. What chance do we have of our Descartes lasting more than a round before the aliens take it out as well. Then that's 250 down the drain.
And Research Borehole. Seriously, aliens want it, we need to know why and use it to power our own super weapons.
The problem with investing in the Descartes systems is that the aliens have very clear space superiority. We can't defend the satellites with our current interceptors. So, we'd get one, maybe two shots off before something shows up to blow them out of orbit while we just sit and watch.
The arguments above are quite convincing. Good reasons not to pick new Descartes until we figure out what the aliens will do against Descartes Premiere.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
G - 11, we still need to deal with the mandlebox. And if something from outer space needs stopping, you shoot it from outer space. Edit: And you guys are totally right about outer space stopping our outer space cannon. Guess medlab is next then. I'd still want more ELF detectors though.
I think we really should focus research on the mandlebox and ignore the other alternatives right now. Understanding how it affects our psyche could maybe let us land a team in it. Which is doubleplusgood, and studying the captured device might help us destroy it.
Edit: Swapping to Research #11, although I do not think it is the best one I prefer it over the non-mandlebox alternatives.
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wiltingI had fun once and it was awfulRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
G11
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
G 11
Something tells me we should bag a couple more interceptors at some point as well.
Voting for more orbital bombardment, and for the love of god we need to study the fractals at the borehole since the damn things seem to be showing up everywhere.
EDIT: Fine medlab. We need to work on this problem though - can't we use the alien death rays to build like a super-deathray that points up and will take out things in outer-space?
Research labs [+1d12 RP/turn]
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Exotic Materials Lab [€10M/turn upkeep, +1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Another Hangar [[Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn] Advanced Medical Lab [€250M, 25EP, €10M/turn: Replaces Sickbay. Treats 1 wound / soldier / turn and 1 psyche / turn]
International Assets
UNIT [Active in Europe, Oceania and Asia, provides bonus missions, €30/turn upkeep]
DESCARTES PREMIER [Free attack on any alien craft that end up in Europe. Target number is 12 and it deals 1d4 damage]
Kola Superdeep Borehole [Digging too greedily and too deep]
ELF detector array in Asia [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
LIVE ALIEN STORAGE
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Assault Pod Lander
2x Snowglobe Crew Replicants
1x Snowglobe Response Team jelly
STORAGE
Empty
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Gunslinger II] - On a natural 19-20 gains an extra attack
[Headshot] - On a natural 20 deals an extra 1d4-1 damage to the target
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
[Even The Odds] - +1 on combat rolls if outnumbered
[Iron Will] - +1 Psyche
[Medic] - Restores one wound after a mission
[Berserker] - +1 on combat rolls for every wound
[Quick Reactions] - +2 on combat rolls in first round
[Bloodlust] - Killing an alien restores 1 psyche
[Team player] - +1 on combat rolls if another soldier has the same trait
[Slow] - Fires every other turn
[Fragile] - Breaks on a natural 1
[Targeting Computer] - Lowers target by 2
[High explosive rounds] - +1 damage
· is a Black Mark. Collect two to drop a funding level with a council
Europe +€54 [Level 3] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 16]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -4 penalty]
Asia +€20 [Level 2] [Morale -0.5] [Difficulty 15]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
Oceania +€18 [Level 1] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 14]
North America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
South America [Level 0] [Morale -0.4] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
The Coca-Cola Company +€16[Level 1] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 14] [.]
Internal: +€20
Research
Gear III: Personal Armour [Cost €10M, 5EP. Gives a soldier 1 armour], Powered Armour [Upgrades personal armour to 2 armour, allows Beyond Humanity project], High Capacity Transports [Cost €250M, 10EP. Unarmed, 4, 3] [Transport 7] ]
Materials I: Basic alien scrap analysis [Allows exotic material lab]
Alien Tech IV: Alien Comms I [mounts comm packages on all aircraft], Alien Comms II [Allows ELF detector array], Death Rays [Cost €15M, 10EP: Difficulty 8, [Fragile]], Stun weapons [Phase 1 combat now deals stun damage]
Xenobiology III: Fractal Fish [gives +2 diplomacy bonus with Oceania], Jelly dissection [-1 max wounds on Jellies], Dust Bunny dissection [global +2 diplomacy bonus],
Mysteries III: Kola Superdeep Borehole [facility construction discount / mining spin out and excavation options], Vivsection Lab [allows advanced medical lab, identifies alien clones], Human composite blob [allows ELF detector to decode messages, allows unethical computation: increase research die size]
Narrative
Report after report on thing that they'd breached. Emails and phonecalls made to anybody and everybody. Dr Thomas was at her wit's end. A collection of salvaged alien mining equipment and a few crude spectrometers was not at all what she needed to figure out what the hell was down there. Worse, she knew that the exotic materials lab was now online. All the tools she needed were back in Europe. And here she was, top of her field, standing in the howling wind atop one of the wounds of re-solidified borehole debris.
Her heavy winter coat flapped in the gale. For once her pale Scottish skin was full of colour. Standing there with her back to the boxy site buildings she could try to pretend that she was on some distant. That the terrible truths lurking beneath the surface were not real. The Mandlebox was still a long way away, pinned down by the Chinese artillery. As long as she could come out here and see the clear skies, she could try to forget the strange fractal formations below.
They changed, that much was obvious. The patterns slowly evolved with time, tracing out sequences and hinting at the very cornerstones of the mathematics which held up the universe. What should have been metamorphic rock was instead a physical representation of pure maths. The Earth itself had abandoned geology and moved on to a more fundamental subject.
"You shouldn't be out here alone, lady."
That smug, patronising tone. It could only be Rook. Of the UNIT team stationed here and allegedly in charge of security,
"Are you going to arrest me?"
"You know I'm not a cop. I'm just telling you that since that ship came down all over the place it might not be safe. Just offering some advice. That and it's cold. Cold as hell."
As annoying as it was, he was right. Even through the layers she could feel that most of her warmth had seeped away. Turning, she marched back down the slag heap hill to find a cup of coffee. Rook watched her go and lit a cigarette. The tiny red spot at the tip danced as followed her down. Already the daylight was fading. Short, cold days.
Thomas fumbled with her ID card at the door but the dozing security guard buzzed her in after a few seconds of her trying to convince numb fingers to bend. The wall of warm air hit her like a fist. For a moment she actually couldn't catch her breath. Still, it wouldn't do to show any weakness in front of those UNIT sons of bitches. This was not the place to be a woman. It was a place to be a scientist. To be an antisocial psychopath. It was the only way to survive. This place was a prison.
The corridor outside her quarters had one of those old hot drink vending machines. She didn't want to think how old the various powders inside were as he keyed in a request for flavourless watery brown fluid (luxury hot chocolate). The ancient plastic cup only filled to the three quarters mark, and her wealth of experience taught her that she could easily fit in a couple of brief, acrid dribbles (gourmet espresso shot). The result was hot. Too hot for the little plastic cup to cope with, so Thomas swapped it from hand to hand as she went back to the room she'd claimed for her office.
Emails. So many emails. She'd only been away from the desk for an hour at most and there they were. Already nearly a hundred of them. Something about a new medical centre. A quick skim down and there was a note from Dr. Bishop. It was a mass mail about the signals that the ELF was collecting. Walther was apparently making progress in processing the signals. So far, he'd established that the transmissions from the craft weren't binary, but nor were they continuous. He hypothesised about some kind of dual base system, one counting to three and one to sixteen, but Thomas couldn't really follow the man's incoherent typing. No signals from the Mandlebox or the Borehole were being taken to mean that these were somehow distinct alien bodies from the Dust Bunnies and their Jelly drones. Fortunately, the ships and groundsites which had previously been entirely invisible to radar seemed oblivious to the ELF detector array and were generally quite chatty. A single ship seemed to broadcast endlessly during its time in range. A little longer and they'd crack enough of the code to start being able to hazard guesses about the nature of each alien mission. Maybe even enough to try communicating.
She'd come back to it later when she'd defrosted a bit. Dr Bishop was hard to understand in person. His written word suffered to an even greater extent from his scattered focus. And there it was. Plain as day in the subject line of an email just a little way down "Research Proposal Approval". They'd given her what she asked for. People. Equipment. Access Rights. Supercomputer time. Her study of the borehole was starting right away. In fact it had started thirty-five minutes ago. There was no time to waste. She started making a Gantt chart.
Unseen by Dr Thomas, a fresh blip appeared on the vast holomap within The Pit. A contact confirmed by radar and by ELF. A craft on a direct course for the Chinese artillery emplacement that was holding the Mandlebox in position.
Next
[Something is happening so it's an enforced combat round]
A - Intercept the rockship trying to destroy the artillery emplacement
B - Leave it to Pepsi Present Earth Defenders [50% chance of this happening] and intercept one of the random other alien craft
C - Leave it to Pepsi Present Earth Defenders [50% chance of this happening] and repaint your interceptor
1 - Fire a dropship of Rainbow Force members out to any crash site the above options cause
2 - Have Rainbow Force investigate another of the alien footholds in Asia
3 - Brandy and cigars all around for Rainbow Force as they take a breather back at the base
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wiltingI had fun once and it was awfulRegistered Userregular
I'd like to add to my vote, have the interceptors hold back until the last minute before engaging. It's possible (however unlikely) that the rock ship is moving to engage the Mandelbrot and just looks like it's moving against the allied artillery.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
I'd like to add to my vote, have the interceptors hold back until the last minute before engaging. It's possible (however unlikely) that the rock ship is moving to engage the Mandelbrot and just looks like it's moving against the allied artillery.
"Ok, get in range to intercept, but don't look too aggressive." "How am I supposed to do that in a state of the art fighter jet, bristling with missiles and several clearly painted rock silhouettes below my canopy?" "..."
"I dunno Lieutenant. Fly casual I guess?"
I don't really care about whoever's onboard the Chinese artillery interceptor provided it gets blown up. Tell the flyboys to go nuts - we'll put extra sand in the hangar if they can get it disintegrate in mid-air entirely.
Instead let's go deal with someone who's already on the ground and not understanding the concept of radio silence.
Keep in mind, the harder we hit the ground bases that we've detected, the quicker our intelligence asset is going to be revealed.
One or two we could believably stumble over, but if we just go hog wild on them, they'll relocate and go dark before the fly boys can crack open their second case.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
Turn 44 Battle Decision: A1: Activating my trap card Numbers:
Research labs [+1d12 RP/turn]
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Exotic Materials Lab [€10M/turn upkeep, +1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Another Hangar [[Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn] Advanced Medical Lab [€250M, 25EP, €10M/turn: Replaces Sickbay. Treats 1 wound / soldier / turn and 1 psyche / turn]
International Assets
UNIT [Active in Europe, Oceania and Asia, provides bonus missions, €30/turn upkeep]
DESCARTES PREMIER [Free attack on any alien craft that end up in Europe. Target number is 12 and it deals 1d4 damage]
Kola Superdeep Borehole [Digging too greedily and too deep]
ELF detector array in Asia [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
LIVE ALIEN STORAGE
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Assault Pod Lander Crew
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Bomber Pilot
2x Snowglobe Crew Replicants
1x Snowglobe Response Team Jelly
STORAGE
Empty
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Gunslinger II] - On a natural 19-20 gains an extra attack
[Headshot] - On a natural 20 deals an extra 1d4-1 damage to the target
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
[Even The Odds] - +1 on combat rolls if outnumbered
[Iron Will] - +1 Psyche
[Medic] - Restores one wound after a mission
[Berserker] - +1 on combat rolls for every wound
[Quick Reactions] - +2 on combat rolls in first round
[Bloodlust] - Killing an alien restores 1 psyche
[Team player] - +1 on combat rolls if another soldier has the same trait
[Sacrifice] - Automatically deals one additional weapon hit when killed
[Slow] - Fires every other turn
[Fragile] - Breaks on a natural 1
[Targeting Computer] - Lowers target by 2
[High explosive rounds] - +1 damage
· is a Black Mark. Collect two to drop a funding level with a council
Europe +€54 [Level 3] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 16]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -4 penalty]
Asia +€20 [Level 2] [Morale -0.5] [Difficulty 15]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
Oceania +€18 [Level 1] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 14]
North America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
South America [Level 0] [Morale -0.4] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
The Coca-Cola Company +€16[Level 1] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 14] [.]
Internal: +€20
Research
Gear III: Personal Armour [Cost €10M, 5EP. Gives a soldier 1 armour], Powered Armour [Upgrades personal armour to 2 armour, allows Beyond Humanity project], High Capacity Transports [Cost €250M, 10EP. Unarmed, 4, 3] [Transport 7] ]
Materials I: Basic alien scrap analysis [Allows exotic material lab]
Alien Tech IV: Alien Comms I [mounts comm packages on all aircraft], Alien Comms II [Allows ELF detector array], Death Rays [Cost €15M, 10EP: Difficulty 8, [Fragile]], Stun weapons [Phase 1 combat now deals stun damage]
Xenobiology III: Fractal Fish [gives +2 diplomacy bonus with Oceania], Jelly dissection [-1 max wounds on Jellies], Dust Bunny dissection [global +2 diplomacy bonus],
Mysteries III: Kola Superdeep Borehole [facility construction discount / mining spin out and excavation options], Vivsection Lab [allows advanced medical lab, identifies alien clones], Human composite blob [allows ELF detector to decode messages, allows unethical computation: increase research die size]
Narrative
Archer slumped against the cold metal bulkhead of the wall. Blood oozed from wounds that had been torn open before they were fully healed. Worse, he'd only been able to find a bottle of really unacceptably cheap vermouth to pass the time until somebody found him. He was slightly concerned that he might actually bleed to death.
Dust and smoke filled the air, his wrecked death ray crackled uselessly occasionally as the fried electronics sparked and stuttered.
At least the alert music had finally stopped. It turned out that Mother had a unique variation for the whole suite of possible emergencies that might arise. But really all it did was make a bad headache so much worse. And now the bottle was empty! Really, they needed to make sure that there were at least as many drinks cabinets as there were fire extinguishers and defibulators around the place. At least.
...
Elsewhere, Interceptor 1, the only interceptor, was almost home. The ship that had come down at the artillery site was more or less an exact replica of the one which had blown up the first mass of long range cannons. A mass of rocks, one with an engine and the rest just solid masses designed for impact. The plan was simple, it came down accelerating hard then detached and flicked back to kick a rain of debris down across a huge area at supersonic speeds. Anything in the area would be reduced to fire and glass. The downside to this bomber arrangement was that they couldn't really fight back against an interceptor.
And that was why they carried the same things as the big rockships. Weird clusters of razor-sharp ribbons that screamed as they flew. One had sheared along his wing, but they were slow and couldn't keep up. He'd gone in, dumped his missiles, blown the bomber out of the sky and turned around with minimal damage. Falling uncontrolled through the air led to a much gentler impact. As much as several hundred tonnes of rock can fall out of the sky gently. The artillery suffered only the most minor of damage, however. Shelling was entirely unaffected and the Mandlebox was held fast.
[Interception.
Phase1: Interceptor hits once. Bomber hits once.
Phase2: Interceptor hits twice. Bomber misses. Bomber crashes]
For Rainbow Force it was a simple mission. Dropship down. Men out. Stun the solitary wounded pilot. Load into containment. High fives all around and then back for tea and cakes at the base. When they got back inside the Dropship they found all manner of warning lights blinking.
[Rainbow force at crash site
Phase1: Rainbow force score five hits. Dust Bunny misses. Dust bunny bomber captured]
...
Archer had been roused from his pleasant dozing (along with one of the nurses who apparently didn't understand that the deal was she left before he opened his eyes) by the change in alarm. Seconds later and Hiller banged through the door shouting about the base being compromised. Four radar contacts had been made. They were coming down right on top of us and it was happening now. The active team were still in the field.
Rolling out of his bed, Archer hefted up his personal death ray while Hiller radioed into The Pit. DESCARTES had been activated and had managed to spear one of the craft. The radar ping had vanished so it was assumed destroyed. Sadly, there wasn't a clear shot at the other three. And a miss meant a chunk of superdense metal moving at many times the speed of sound would hit the base itself. That would be a bad thing.
The rest of the sickbay were also on their feet, arming up and getting ready to fight back. Word from The Pit now had it that the rocks had slammed into the ground topside and were now apparently burrowing through the earth. Three distinct breaches were about to occur almost simultaneously.
[DESCARTES hits one of the landers and destroys it. Three land successfully each deploying a solitary something
Base attack! All available personnel join the fray, forcing three teams to each face one of the mysterious aliens
Team 1: Cortez, Jarrah, Hiller, Poovey and Archer
Team 2: Ferretti, Hanson, Bosworth, Loeb, Rei
Team 3: Shinji, Tunt, Asuka and Greer]
Quite why the facility needed so many floors dedicated to loud, clanking machinery that may or may not have been some kind of vast steam pump was something that Archer did not understand. He was however aware that he may have drawn a short straw, as he was apparently on a team with Pam, two rookies and a very unstable looking Hiller.
At first the shuddering wasn't noticeable over the pounding of the pumps and occasional hiss of a steam vent. Within seconds though the whole network of metal gantries and serve passages was shaking itself almost to pieces. A huge spike, like a bird's beak split in three sections erupted from the ceiling. Sections of piping came down and eventually the rockship itself fell into the centre of the room. The spike opened into a kind of tripod, stabbing into the bulkhead floor and levelling the car-sized hunk of stone. This ship differed from the others by its tight coils of metal that traversed the exterior. One by one the metal radial hoops fell and broke and then the rock pivoted open, folding down in a burst of alien atmosphere.
Rockships meant Dust Bunnies but the thing standing in the brown haze was not a Dust Bunny. At least twice as large as its brothers. No three times. It could barely fit in the room. How did it fit in that damn ship. Stun grenades whistled through the air. Nobody needed an invitation to attack from Hiller.
It didn't last long. A minute? Maybe less. Pam's rockets churning up dust. The naked shell of that thing just taking impact after impact. Death rays and combat rifle fire streaking everywhere. And it just lashing out wildly. Those arms stretching into spears twenty metres long, or a bulbous mace that thumped into the ground. An endless barrage.
[Team 1
Round 1: Creature is stun immune, no damage. Creature also fails to hit
Round 2: Two hits from RF. Creatures hits once.
Round 3: No hits from RF. Creature hits twice.
Round 4: Two hits from RF. Creature hits once.
Round 5: Two hits from RF. Creature hits twice.
Round 6: Three hits from RF. Creature misses. Archer's death ray breaks
Round 7: Four hits from RF. Creature hits twice. Cortez is dead. ??? is dead]
And so Archer lay there. His empty bottle of vermouth sitting next to him and the ruined remains of Ana Lucia Cortez sitting opposite. From below he could hear voices. Hiller, Pam and Jarrah were apparently still alive then. The three of them had fallen down a sub-level when Pam's rocket hit the thing and knocked it from its perch up on the ceiling. It had come down hard and smashed a gaping hole deeper into the endless pipe network.
A few minutes later and Hiller had clearly found his radio. Reports were in from the other teams. Exactly the same thing. Bosworth and Asuka were both KIA. Archer closed his eyes as the Colonel gave his own report.
[Team2
Round 1: Creature is stun immune, no damage. Creature hits once
Round 2: Six hits from RF. Creature hits twice (one is critical, Ferretti takes an additional psyche damage and the creature heals one wound
Round 3: Three hits from RF. Creature hits once
Round 4: Three hits from RF. Creature hits once. Bosworth is dead. ??? is dead]
[Team3
Round 1: Creature is stun immune, no damage. Creature hits twice.
Round 2: One hit from RF. Creature misses.
Round 3: One hit from RF. Creature hits twice.
Round 4: Two hits from RF. Creature hits once.
Round 5: One hit from RF. Creature hits once. Asuka is dead.
Round 6: Six hits from RF. Creature hits once. ??? is dead]
[Medics restore 2 wounds]
[Jarrah, Archer, Greer, Shinji, and Loeb all rank up.
Jarrah learns [Sacrifice] - Free hit when killed in action
Archer learns [Gunslinger]
Greer learns [Quick Reactions]
Shinji learns [Revenge]
Loeb learns [Team Player]
"About damn time. No don't apologise, just get me to a bed. And get me a drink. And maybe something to eat. You know how long I've been sitting there? Do you? No. I didn't think so, so shut up"
Archer was pulled to his feet as a technical team moved in to recover what was left of the massive Dust Bunny (or whatever it had been). The little Dust Bunnies could reshape their limbs a little, but that thing was something else altogether. It barely had a shape at all. And it was fast. Fast as hell. The medics put Archer on the stretcher and did their best to ignore the fine mixture of abuse and bragging as they carted him back to sickbay.
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Perform focused engineering [additional +1d10 EP this turn]
C - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each]
D - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier to promote) [Cost is €2M * Old Rank]
E - Hold negotiations to improve funding / remove black marks(specify council) F - Start construction of an ELF detector array in [Region] [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
G - Start producing [n] suits of Personal Armour [€10M, 5EP] [10/19 troops armoured]
H - Start producing [n] death rays [€15M, 10EP. Difficulty 8 [fragile] weapon] [3/19 troops have death rays]
I - Implement Unethical Computation [€500M, increases RP dice to d15, atrocity]
J - Implement Beyond Humanity Cyborg Program [€500M, one soldier per turn returning to base with only 1 remaining wound is made into a cyborg at a cost of €20 +1 armour, -1 psyche, +1 on combat rolls, atrocity]
K - Buy/Build new aircraft [€250M Interceptor or €250M,10EP Dropship, two open hangar slots]
L - Build and have the ESA launch DESCARTES DEUXIEME [Asia or Oceania, €250M, 25EP]
COMBAT - Engage a contact in Asia [choose Ground-based or Aerial]
PROTOCOL OMEGA - Active the self destruct system
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
That was pretty flat. Still, better to keep the momentum going.
Make up your own post about new Super Aliens and spaceships that can drill through the ground.
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
Shit. We should probably get an ELF in Europe too real soon?
No we should really start killing some of these ground contacts. I presume base-invasions are what happens when the aliens are all like "shit, so we've got our quota of homeless people and chinese manufactured goods, now what?"
A
Re-deploy Rainbow Team to kill off a ship on the ground in Asia somewhere. And then let's keep doing it till we run into some more Giga Bunnies. At least that way we'll know they probably are trying to defend their holdings rather then attack us.
It also seems like we need to hire a full-time home-team.
EDIT: Apparently we have no combat turns. Then in that case I vote A for math power.
Would really like the borehole to be finished sooner rather than later. We really need the mandlebox gone as well, so we don't have the massive moral penalty sapping our funds.
Since the active team is fine, we can send them for combat next time.
EDIT: And why do we need a home team? As long as we leave plenty in Medbay after each mission, we'll have plenty of bodies to repel attack.
Remnember that the ground combat action does not progress time, so we got a free attack to perform now. Also, yeah. We need to hire a lot more soldiers so we can take base assaults in a less messy manner.
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wiltingI had fun once and it was awfulRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
C 7
So Dust Bastards and Drill Ships?
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
B
Now the reason for that milkrun becomes clear, Archer has been drinking it all in White Russians.
I am a bit reluctant to do too many more Combat missions though as I can see all the troops ending up in the hospital, then doing a regular turn and having to deal with some horrible big nasty at the pit.
B
Remember people, with a better med lab comes better meds. Maybe we can get space morphine!
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
I am a huge idiot and should have struck out combat (you can't have two combat rounds in a row). Sorry about that. Some of you will need to edit your posts.
Mojo_Jojo on
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Posts
I was torn between Descartes or medlab, but we saw how the aliens took out the artillery lobed at the box. What chance do we have of our Descartes lasting more than a round before the aliens take it out as well. Then that's 250 down the drain.
And Research Borehole. Seriously, aliens want it, we need to know why and use it to power our own super weapons.
I think we really should focus research on the mandlebox and ignore the other alternatives right now. Understanding how it affects our psyche could maybe let us land a team in it. Which is doubleplusgood, and studying the captured device might help us destroy it.
Edit: Swapping to Research #11, although I do not think it is the best one I prefer it over the non-mandlebox alternatives.
Something tells me we should bag a couple more interceptors at some point as well.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Voting for more orbital bombardment, and for the love of god we need to study the fractals at the borehole since the damn things seem to be showing up everywhere.
EDIT: Fine medlab. We need to work on this problem though - can't we use the alien death rays to build like a super-deathray that points up and will take out things in outer-space?
Maybe you can! OR something equivalent anyhow
Decision: G11: Fractal research and social medicine
Numbers:
Funds: €142M [+€88M/turn]
Research Progress: Borehole Fractals 26/100 [+3d12*/turn]
Engineering Progress: Advanced Medical Lab 8/25 [+1d10/turn]
Borehole Progress 100/100 [+2d10/turn] Suspended
Agency HQ, Madrid
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Exotic Materials Lab [€10M/turn upkeep, +1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Another Hangar [[Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn]
Advanced Medical Lab [€250M, 25EP, €10M/turn: Replaces Sickbay. Treats 1 wound / soldier / turn and 1 psyche / turn]
International Assets
DESCARTES PREMIER [Free attack on any alien craft that end up in Europe. Target number is 12 and it deals 1d4 damage]
Kola Superdeep Borehole [Digging too greedily and too deep]
ELF detector array in Asia [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
Personnel
ACTIVE
Sergeant Matthew Scott
[10,3+2, 4] [Team player] [Iron Will] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Charles Kawalsky
[10,3+2, 3] [Even the Odds] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Everett Young
[10,3+2, 3] [Team player] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Tamara Johansen
[10,3+2, 3] [Medic] [combat rifle]
Rookie Sanford Harris
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Amy Jessup
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Richard Alpert
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
STANDBY
Rookie Ana Lucia Cortez
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Sayid Jarrah
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
MEDICAL LEAVE
Colonel Steven Hiller
[6,4+2,1/3] [Gunslinger II] [Revenge] [Tough] [Fragile] [death ray] [Targeting Computer]
Sergeant Pam Poovey
[14[1d4+1],2/4,1/3] [Tough] [Berserker] [rocket launcher] [slow] [high explosive rounds]
Sergeant Sterling Archer
[8,3,3/4] [Bloodlust] [Iron Will] [death ray] [Fragile]
Squaddie Shinji Ikari
[10,3+2, 2/3] [Headshot] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Cheryl Tunt
[8,3+2,2/3] [Medic] [death ray] [Fragile]
Squaddie Asuka Langley Soryu
[10, 1/3, 4] [Iron Will] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Louis Ferretti
[10, 2/4, 3] [Tough] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Jonas Hanson
[10, 2/4+2, 3] [Tough] [combat rifle]
Rookie Jake Bosworth
[14, 1/3, 3] [rocket launcher] [slow] [1d4 damage]
Squaddie Mitchell Loeb
[10,2/4, 3] [Tough] [combat rifle]
Sergeant Rei Ayanami
[10, 2/3+2, 3] [Medic] [Headshot] [combat rifle]
Sergeant Ronald Greer
[14,3,3] [Bloodlust] [Berserker] [rocket launcher] [slow] [1d4 damage]
QUARANTINE
Alien Imposter, Mandlebox exposed, Colonel Edvard Wolner
[10,4+2,0/4] [Revenge] [Medic] [Tough] [Iron Will] [Combat Rifle]
MORGUE
Sergeant: 1
Squaddies: 6
Rookies: 5
LIVE ALIEN STORAGE
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Assault Pod Lander
2x Snowglobe Crew Replicants
1x Snowglobe Response Team jelly
STORAGE
Empty
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Gunslinger II] - On a natural 19-20 gains an extra attack
[Headshot] - On a natural 20 deals an extra 1d4-1 damage to the target
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
[Even The Odds] - +1 on combat rolls if outnumbered
[Iron Will] - +1 Psyche
[Medic] - Restores one wound after a mission
[Berserker] - +1 on combat rolls for every wound
[Quick Reactions] - +2 on combat rolls in first round
[Bloodlust] - Killing an alien restores 1 psyche
[Team player] - +1 on combat rolls if another soldier has the same trait
[Slow] - Fires every other turn
[Fragile] - Breaks on a natural 1
[Targeting Computer] - Lowers target by 2
[High explosive rounds] - +1 damage
Craft
Interceptor [10x2, 4, 3]
Dropship [-, 4, 3] [Transport 7/7]
EMPTY
Funding
Europe +€54 [Level 3] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 16]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -4 penalty]
Asia +€20 [Level 2] [Morale -0.5] [Difficulty 15]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
Oceania +€18 [Level 1] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 14]
North America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
South America [Level 0] [Morale -0.4] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
The Coca-Cola Company +€16[Level 1] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 14] [.]
Internal: +€20
Research
Materials I: Basic alien scrap analysis [Allows exotic material lab]
Alien Tech IV: Alien Comms I [mounts comm packages on all aircraft], Alien Comms II [Allows ELF detector array], Death Rays [Cost €15M, 10EP: Difficulty 8, [Fragile]], Stun weapons [Phase 1 combat now deals stun damage]
Xenobiology III: Fractal Fish [gives +2 diplomacy bonus with Oceania], Jelly dissection [-1 max wounds on Jellies], Dust Bunny dissection [global +2 diplomacy bonus],
Mysteries III: Kola Superdeep Borehole [facility construction discount / mining spin out and excavation options], Vivsection Lab [allows advanced medical lab, identifies alien clones], Human composite blob [allows ELF detector to decode messages, allows unethical computation: increase research die size]
Narrative
Next
[Something is happening so it's an enforced combat round]
A - Intercept the rockship trying to destroy the artillery emplacement
B - Leave it to Pepsi Present Earth Defenders [50% chance of this happening] and intercept one of the random other alien craft
C - Leave it to Pepsi Present Earth Defenders [50% chance of this happening] and repaint your interceptor
1 - Fire a dropship of Rainbow Force members out to any crash site the above options cause
2 - Have Rainbow Force investigate another of the alien footholds in Asia
3 - Brandy and cigars all around for Rainbow Force as they take a breather back at the base
About time we had another Milkrun.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
So fractal stuff is possibly distinct from other aliens after all? Interesting.
"Ok, get in range to intercept, but don't look too aggressive."
"How am I supposed to do that in a state of the art fighter jet, bristling with missiles and several clearly painted rock silhouettes below my canopy?"
"..."
"I dunno Lieutenant. Fly casual I guess?"
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
I don't really care about whoever's onboard the Chinese artillery interceptor provided it gets blown up. Tell the flyboys to go nuts - we'll put extra sand in the hangar if they can get it disintegrate in mid-air entirely.
Instead let's go deal with someone who's already on the ground and not understanding the concept of radio silence.
One or two we could believably stumble over, but if we just go hog wild on them, they'll relocate and go dark before the fly boys can crack open their second case.
A - 1, quoting this for posterity for when our milkrun turns into a clusterfuck.
We already know what's going to be on that ship when it crashes. Lets go exploring!
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
I mean, yes stopping the rock ship is priority......
On the other hand, the Interceptor is in need of a new paint job....
...and brandy and cigars are a luxury too good to pass up....
Decision: A1: Activating my trap card
Numbers:
Funds: €142M [+€88M/turn]
Research Progress: Borehole Fractals 26/100 [+3d12*/turn]
Engineering Progress: Advanced Medical Lab 8/25 [+1d10/turn]
Borehole Progress 100/100 [+2d10/turn] Suspended
Agency HQ, Madrid
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Exotic Materials Lab [€10M/turn upkeep, +1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Another Hangar [[Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn]
Advanced Medical Lab [€250M, 25EP, €10M/turn: Replaces Sickbay. Treats 1 wound / soldier / turn and 1 psyche / turn]
International Assets
DESCARTES PREMIER [Free attack on any alien craft that end up in Europe. Target number is 12 and it deals 1d4 damage]
Kola Superdeep Borehole [Digging too greedily and too deep]
ELF detector array in Asia [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
Personnel
ACTIVE
Sergeant Matthew Scott
[10,3+2, 4] [Team player] [Iron Will] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Charles Kawalsky
[10,3+2, 3] [Even the Odds] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Everett Young
[10,3+2, 3] [Team player] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Tamara Johansen
[10,3+2, 3] [Medic] [combat rifle]
Rookie Sanford Harris
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Amy Jessup
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Richard Alpert
[10,3, 3] [combat rifle]
STANDBY
Squaddie Sayid Jarrah
[10,2/3, 3] [Sacrifice] [combat rifle]
MEDICAL LEAVE
Colonel Steven Hiller
[6,3/4+2,1/3] [Gunslinger II] [Revenge] [Tough] [Fragile] [death ray] [Targeting Computer]
Captain Ronald Greer
[14,2/3,3] [Quick Reactions] [Bloodlust] [Berserker] [rocket launcher] [slow] [1d4 damage]
Captain Sterling Archer
[10,1/3,3/4] [Gunslinger] [Bloodlust] [Iron Will] [combat rifle]
Sergeant Pam Poovey
[14[1d4+1],2/4,1/3] [Tough] [Berserker] [rocket launcher] [slow] [high explosive rounds]
Sergeant Mitchell Loeb
[10,2/4, 3] [Team player] [Tough] [combat rifle]
Sergeant Rei Ayanami
[10, 2/3+2, 3] [Medic] [Headshot] [combat rifle]
Sergeant Shinji Ikari
[10,3+2, 2/3] [Revenge] [Headshot] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Cheryl Tunt
[8,3+2,2/3] [Medic] [death ray] [Fragile]
Squaddie Louis Ferretti
[10, 1/4, 2/3] [Tough] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Jonas Hanson
[10, 2/4+2, 3] [Tough] [combat rifle]
QUARANTINE
Alien Imposter, Mandlebox exposed, Colonel Edvard Wolner
[10,4+2,0/4] [Revenge] [Medic] [Tough] [Iron Will] [Combat Rifle]
MORGUE
Sergeant: 1
Squaddies: 7
Rookies: 7
LIVE ALIEN STORAGE
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Assault Pod Lander Crew
1x Dust Bunny Rockship Bomber Pilot
2x Snowglobe Crew Replicants
1x Snowglobe Response Team Jelly
STORAGE
Empty
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Gunslinger II] - On a natural 19-20 gains an extra attack
[Headshot] - On a natural 20 deals an extra 1d4-1 damage to the target
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
[Even The Odds] - +1 on combat rolls if outnumbered
[Iron Will] - +1 Psyche
[Medic] - Restores one wound after a mission
[Berserker] - +1 on combat rolls for every wound
[Quick Reactions] - +2 on combat rolls in first round
[Bloodlust] - Killing an alien restores 1 psyche
[Team player] - +1 on combat rolls if another soldier has the same trait
[Sacrifice] - Automatically deals one additional weapon hit when killed
[Slow] - Fires every other turn
[Fragile] - Breaks on a natural 1
[Targeting Computer] - Lowers target by 2
[High explosive rounds] - +1 damage
Craft
Interceptor [10x2, 4, 3]
Dropship [-, 4, 3] [Transport 7/7]
EMPTY
Funding
Europe +€54 [Level 3] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 16]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -4 penalty]
Asia +€20 [Level 2] [Morale -0.5] [Difficulty 15]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
Oceania +€18 [Level 1] [Morale -0.1] [Difficulty 14]
North America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 13, -3 penalty]
South America [Level 0] [Morale -0.4] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
The Coca-Cola Company +€16[Level 1] [Morale -0.2] [Difficulty 14] [.]
Internal: +€20
Research
Materials I: Basic alien scrap analysis [Allows exotic material lab]
Alien Tech IV: Alien Comms I [mounts comm packages on all aircraft], Alien Comms II [Allows ELF detector array], Death Rays [Cost €15M, 10EP: Difficulty 8, [Fragile]], Stun weapons [Phase 1 combat now deals stun damage]
Xenobiology III: Fractal Fish [gives +2 diplomacy bonus with Oceania], Jelly dissection [-1 max wounds on Jellies], Dust Bunny dissection [global +2 diplomacy bonus],
Mysteries III: Kola Superdeep Borehole [facility construction discount / mining spin out and excavation options], Vivsection Lab [allows advanced medical lab, identifies alien clones], Human composite blob [allows ELF detector to decode messages, allows unethical computation: increase research die size]
Narrative
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Perform focused engineering [additional +1d10 EP this turn]
C - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each]
D - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier to promote) [Cost is €2M * Old Rank]
E - Hold negotiations to improve funding / remove black marks(specify council)
F - Start construction of an ELF detector array in [Region] [€250M, 25EP: Detects previously invisible craft, collects alien signals]
G - Start producing [n] suits of Personal Armour [€10M, 5EP] [10/19 troops armoured]
H - Start producing [n] death rays [€15M, 10EP. Difficulty 8 [fragile] weapon] [3/19 troops have death rays]
I - Implement Unethical Computation [€500M, increases RP dice to d15, atrocity]
J - Implement Beyond Humanity Cyborg Program [€500M, one soldier per turn returning to base with only 1 remaining wound is made into a cyborg at a cost of €20 +1 armour, -1 psyche, +1 on combat rolls, atrocity]
K - Buy/Build new aircraft [€250M Interceptor or €250M,10EP Dropship, two open hangar slots]
L - Build and have the ESA launch DESCARTES DEUXIEME [Asia or Oceania, €250M, 25EP]
COMBAT - Engage a contact in Asia [choose Ground-based or Aerial]
PROTOCOL OMEGA - Active the self destruct system
Make up your own post about new Super Aliens and spaceships that can drill through the ground.
For now E(Asia)
A
Re-deploy Rainbow Team to kill off a ship on the ground in Asia somewhere. And then let's keep doing it till we run into some more Giga Bunnies. At least that way we'll know they probably are trying to defend their holdings rather then attack us.
It also seems like we need to hire a full-time home-team.
EDIT: Apparently we have no combat turns. Then in that case I vote A for math power.
Would really like the borehole to be finished sooner rather than later. We really need the mandlebox gone as well, so we don't have the massive moral penalty sapping our funds.
Since the active team is fine, we can send them for combat next time.
EDIT: And why do we need a home team? As long as we leave plenty in Medbay after each mission, we'll have plenty of bodies to repel attack.
Remnember that the ground combat action does not progress time, so we got a free attack to perform now. Also, yeah. We need to hire a lot more soldiers so we can take base assaults in a less messy manner.
So Dust Bastards and Drill Ships?
Now the reason for that milkrun becomes clear, Archer has been drinking it all in White Russians.
I am a bit reluctant to do too many more Combat missions though as I can see all the troops ending up in the hospital, then doing a regular turn and having to deal with some horrible big nasty at the pit.
*Edit*
Medlab!
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Remember people, with a better med lab comes better meds. Maybe we can get space morphine!