Eh, I don't really know anything about R Ping anyway. :L
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else> implement democracy
> instant vote of no confidence
We're off to a great start.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Meanwhile, Rai's going to be trying to find out as much as he can about this mission, given that I'm pretty sure the majority of our team isn't Airborne-qualified, which has interesting implications on how we're going to get in.
And whee for having a secondary backup character who doesn't go on missions (yet) but who can provide dialogue!
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.All right, it's been three days or so and we still have no idea how the hell we're going to get to the target, let alone what to do once we're there. As it turns out I'm enough of a military buff to present the options we can choose from for the job of getting there; there might be other options too, so please present them if you think of them.
I'm assuming we're going in at night, of course. We have three choices; I do have a preference for one of them, but I'll present all our options.
- By sea. The Royal Navy lands us on a nearby, unguarded strip of coastline; we hike inland until we hit our target, raid it, and GTFO via the same method before the Germans can activate a Panzer battalion to chase us down.
- Advantages: relatively simple way in; can land more troops to hold beach while we execute our shenanigans. RN controls the sea, meaning our way in is likely to be uncontested.
- Disadvantages: much more likely to tip off opposition earlier. Going to be very hard to land us and then hustle inland without meeting opposition. Increased travel time from beach to target means increased chance of detection before we hit. Contingent on finding a good yet unguarded strip of shoreline. No heavy equipment—landing craft? What are those?
- By parachute. The RAF drops us near the target site—marked by pathfinder aircraft if needed; we gather up, attack the target, then withdraw to the coast, where the Royal Navy takes us off.
- Advantages: can potentially drop right on top of target, or very close by, negating need for long approach march/chance for detection.
- Disadvantages: very few of us are Airborne-trained; broken bones are more likely than smooth landings. Night drops on target are rare, since nighttime aerial navigational gear is in its infancy, so night landings typically mean men scattered over wide area, disorganizing everyone. No heavy equipment.
And my preferred option...
- By glider. Pathfinder aircraft or Resistance personnel mark a landing field for us; we land via Hotspur
or Horsa
gliders towed behind heavier aircraft—well, anyone see The Longest Day and the assault on Pegasus Bridge? No? Fort Eben-Emael? Pegasus Bridge level of the first Call of Duty game? Basically that. The cargo plane tows the big glider behind it; at a stated position it releases the glider, which is piloted to its target. The glider hits, we swarm out, do our stuff, and then run like buggery for the coastline, where the RN takes us off as stated.
- Advantages: can land very close to our target indeed
if the terrain allows, even inside the barbed-wire perimeter if we're lucky. No special training needed for us—though we'd have to trust to the skills of the Glider Regiment pilots not to kill us all when we land. We come out ready to fight.
- Disadvantages: contingent on finding a good glider LZ close to our target, and then having the target properly marked so our pilot can find it at night. Glider-carrying aircraft are easy targets if we're intercepted in the air. If we land in the wrong place we're bait for machine guns.
- Advantages: can land very close to our target indeed
As you can see, I prefer the glider assault option as the most practical; looking into British commando raids of WWII, it was also the preferred option for delivering large numbers of men with potentially the most precision. Also, this requires the Navy to expose itself as little as possible—provided, of course, they did their recon correctly.
So will we take that as our plan, or is there something else in the works?
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Glider's still very much being dropped in by plane—it's the closest thing we'll have to precision-drop capability, the logistical setup isn't very different, and it's pretty damn cool
to boot. (Unless we want to spend two hours finding everyone without attracting the attention of every German sentry in a five-mile radius.) I'm serious about not all of us being Airborne-qualified, which is kind of a big deal when you don't have an adamantium skeleton or a solid-bone skull.
Can you navigate, though? You're small enough not to worry about interception, but getting lost is a real problem—nighttime navigation is no laughing matter even with LORAN and all the fancy gear late-WWII bomber pilots had. In mid-1942, it'd be a serious issue; there's a reason bombers rarely dropped within five miles of their targets in the early nighttime air raids.
edited 3rd Jul '14 12:49:09 AM by SabresEdge
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Actually...for future missions, I do have a teleporter-type character up and ready: namely, Justina Williams.
Remember, her ability is to call up supplies and reinforcements under just about any circumstances, even when surrounded by the enemy. So, she can designate the rest of the supers as the reinforcements (her commanding officer needs to authorize this for it to work). After that, we just need to find a way to smuggle a European-looking woman and her typewriter to where everyone needs to go—agent infiltration, parachute training, or something else. A few clicks of the keys will enable them, and their supplies, to get to her location.
Logistics!
edited 3rd Jul '14 1:43:07 AM by SabresEdge
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

But I thought AG threw her outside.
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else