2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[The Romulan Republic]

If San Dorado was involved with the airstrike Coulson's investigating, your men could be trying to cover it up. Or your men and my men could get in each others' way by chance. Or they could have to work together for some reason.

What do you want?

[Siege]

None of the major PMCs are responsible for the air attacks, they have too much to lose if the city implodes. Could well be a handful of San Doradan mercenaries flying for a rival cartel, the guerillas or some other group though. Or the air strikes could be carried out by someone else entirely.

I'd prefer working together, maybe after some hijinks and misunderstandings. I'm not sure working in opposition would work, having our people consistently failing to kill each other during multiple run ins would get awkward quite quickly .

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm open to have an encounter with Coulson, but since my guys don't have names it could be awkward. Unless of course the "encounter" is Coulson meeting an informant only for my team to snipe him.

EDIT: TRR, there's your opening, Coulson can be a witness to this other guy getting blown away.

[Simon_Jester]

You know, it occurs to me that an isolated commando running around in Cali might well run into all sorts of random trouble, since it's not like the place isn't riddled with small gangs that define their own 'turf,' plus all the various private security organizations.

As ways to kill people at will with impunity go, being a sniper operating in urban terrain is one of the riskier ones.



Just saying... for now.

[Eternal_Freedom]

This is why we send in teams...if one dies, there are others waiting. But good point.

[The Romulan Republic]

I've got an idea, but I have a question. Siege, would it be plausible for Coulson to have a contact, a mole/informant, inside one of the San Dorado mercenary units?

[Siege]

It depends on the type of knowledge you're after and the rank of the informant, but generally speaking I'd find it totally plausible that one of the mercs might sell information on the side.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm thinking someone with a mid-range rank (like whatever the mercenaries' equivalent of a captain is).

[Siege]

As long as the information being sold isn't obviously a danger to that person and her or his immediate surroundings, go for it.

(I do reserve the right to spin a double agent story out of this .)

[The Romulan Republic]

Incidentally, Steve informed me a while ago that I'm supposed to name the countries bordering Corona. So here goes.

Country Number 31: The Kingdom of Miranda (monarchy).
Country Number 9: The Divine Protectorate (theocracy).
Country Number 8: The Republic of South Port (democracy).

And while we're at it, my name for the NPC allied to Corona in the middle of the ocean: The Free Marine Republic/The King Edward Islands (Corona's name for it).

I hope this is acceptable.

[Steve]

Sure. Does the Divine Protectorate have a geographic name, even if it's one the government no longer uses? (Like how "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" didn't make geographic distinctions clear)

[The Romulan Republic]

Let me think about that.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Siege, whereabouts is the Lothal Coast? I may have a ship nearby.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Yes, I suspect Orion has a ship nearby, especially if the area of a known pirate region. We do so hate pirates after all.

Indeed, it's entirely possible I had a surface action group heading out there to fight said pirates, if that's the kind of thing you were thinking of.

[Beowulf]

I'm not sure Lothal is really a great candidate for repeated pummelings by tropical cyclones. It's essentially right on the equator. You need to be at least 5 degrees north or south of the equator for them to form, and they tend to avoid getting too close to the equator after formation. It all has to do with Coriolis effect, which is non-existent at 0 degrees latitude. Next country north or south is a better candidate.

[Siege]

Interesting, I did not know that. In that case if no-one has a problem with it I'd like to propose switching nations 22 (Lothal) and 23 (Principality of Gujura) around on the map. So 23 would become Lothal and 22 Gujura. The nations would otherwise stay the same, so that Lothal as a storm (and possibly earthquake?) wrecked husk of a nation would work, correct?

As for E_F's suggestions: I find it unlikely you would have an entire surface action group that far out. Single ships for patrol and anti-piracy ops sure, but let's not instantly graduate to throwing carrier battlegroups at the issue. We can ramp this up to Mogadishu-style invasions later on if need be, but I do think there ought to be a few intermediary steps up to that point. I feel it's up to Rheinland to take the lead, since it's their ship.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fair point. Ok, I can say I have one of my destroyers cruising about a hundred miles away, which is still 3+ hours at full speed. If Thanas wants to take the lead though, that's fine with me.

[Simon_Jester]

Again with the guys half a world away meddling...

I am STUPIDLY busy today but would kind of like to get something in there, because it really does make a lot of sense for the Umerian navy to sweep the high seas along the eastern side of the Vedic peninsula.

For the record, the Technocracy considers its "zone of naval influence" to run roughly along... the quadrangle whose corners lie at:

70 degrees east, 10 degrees north (off the coast of the Vedic peninsula)
120 degrees east, 0 degrees north (in the equatorial sea, far far from land)
105 degrees east, 70 degrees south (the Antarctic coast; the line between this and the last point roughly divides in half the sea between Umeria and Shinra)
60 degrees east, 70 degrees south (the Antarctic coast, east of Eulica and Belkan).

Anywhere in that region (not counting national waters of foreign countries) is often visited or patrolled by Umerian naval vessels. Outside that region you are unlikely to encounter any Umerian warship other than a nuclear attack submarine, and usually, you'd only encounter those only if they have a specific reason to be there.

So you will almost never see a Umerian warship within one or two thousand kilometers of, say, Orion, unless the Orions make us want to pay them a visit. On the other hand, it would be pretty normal and common to see Umerian warships that close (or closer) to the eastern Vedic coast.

However, it may be a while before I can respond to this event, and I don't want to play dog in the manger.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well in that case I'll take my destroyer and go home

But seriously, you make a good point. I'll just have to find some other boats for my ships to obliterate. Hmmm...maybe those cartel dudes use boats to smuggle stuff places.

[The Romulan Republic]

Siege, whereabouts is the Lothal Coast? I may have a ship nearby.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Yes, I suspect Orion has a ship nearby, especially if the area of a known pirate region. We do so hate pirates after all.

Indeed, it's entirely possible I had a surface action group heading out there to fight said pirates, if that's the kind of thing you were thinking of.

There's probably a Coronan destroyer in the area at least some of the time if its a piracy hotspot.

[Simon_Jester]

Well in. that case I'll take my destroyer and go home

But seriously, you make a good point. I'll just have to find some other boats for my ships to obliterate. Hmmm...maybe those cartel dudes use boats to smuggle stuff places.

I'd be all for it except that you already had two "conveniently my ship was right the there" stories fairly recently.

There's probably a Coronan destroyer in the area at least some of the time if its a piracy hotspot.

Corona is a bit closer, and has more of an overall strategic interest in coastal traffic around Austrafrica than Orion would since it's at least on the same continent.

[Eternal_Freedom]

True enough. I'll let The Service continue to wreck havoc in Cali for a few months, then look at it again.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, if no one objects, I'll respond to Siege's distress call. If anyone else responds, Corona will work out how best to cooperate with them.

[madd0ct0r]

champa is really hoping someone else responds. I'm not sure a frigate could even chase off a boat load of pirates, it'd be a like a benny hill chase.

[Thanas]

So a lot of what I am writing will probably have to be retcons, including the state visit of Rheinland to Britonia.

As for the freighter, you can all be free to intervene, but I don't see much sense for Orion to have forces there, nor for Umeria to have forces there as well (given how large their influence zone is). Actually, the Likedeeler and Großbremen will have a rather innovative solution for the pirates, but I don't require the freighter for that. Best leave it in the hands of pirates (unless any of you are willing to conduct a risky assault to free the ship, which makes little sense to me given the powers and risks involved).

[Eternal_Freedom]

Don't forget Fischer's visit to Orion, we have important defence contracts to announce