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Medium scale warfare scenario

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CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
Medium scale warfare scenario
I'm constructing a scenario in which combat will be be contained to a medium sized cylindrical habitat (d=2km, l=10km). Basically everything is in range of seekers but at the beginning no one will have them in massive quantities. 4 factions will be involved with different goals and strategies. The alliance between any two of them will be pretty hard to imagine, let alone broker. Except for the obvious fact that you can shoot at every point of cylinder interior what I should consider? And are there any GMs familiar with​ medium scale warfare in EP or in general? Any tips for running it?
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Kojak Kojak's picture
When you say medium-scale,
When you say medium-scale, you mean...?
"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop
MrWigggles MrWigggles's picture
you know...
you know... medium Not that small But like you know not that big And they can tell the future.
CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
Haha, very funny. I don't get
Haha, very funny. I don't get the reference. Ok, so population of the habitat is 15k morphs. Size of the habitat is already described. 500 militias. 100 Predator Exhumans. About 25 Psi-Epsilon enabled psychics. And what can be basically described as zergs with about 50 units. Those are the starting numbers. Every side has a means of recruitment. Predators will use ego bridges to overwrite the egos of the citizens. Psychics will use extreme control sleight to brain rape their victims into thralls. Militias can arm the populace. Zergs will just consume biological matter and spit out drones. So you can use basic unit tactics and strategy, but spec ops teams can still make a difference in terms of firepower. Habitat has sculpted rural and park areas, bodies of water, some mountains, "heavy" population centers with buildings for few thousands people in very limited space. Overal what you could describe as miniaturised rural Europe right now. Willpower rolls for reliving the Fall will be made.
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Baribal Baribal's picture
Depending on the habitat's
Depending on the habitat's infrastructure, as little as a single missile, or controlled explosion, could vent the air in the cylinder. For that matter, so could sabotaged airlocks. A lack of atmosphere would probably take the zerg off the board, though depending on the stability of the habitat, other inhabitants may have gone without vacsuits, too. The predators and already active militias will probably be fine, but others might scramble for where emergency vacsuits are stored. If the habitat has gyroscopic controls, gravity can be adjusted by whoever controls them; controlled venting would probably do nothing in that regard (though it might if large amounts of water are available), but a sufficiently large ships (or a sufficient number of small ones) jammed against a sufficiently sturdy surface feature, and firing its engines, might be another way to mess with gravity. This would probably reduce the zerg and overwritten predator victims to skeets, while the militias will probably have basic thrusters in their equipment. I notice you haven't mentioned electronic warfare yet, though. Having access to the spimes would be essential to provide targeting information and battlefield awareness to one's own forces, and denying it to others. And what about the habitat's infrastructure? Ego bridges don't work without electricity. Even controlling as little as lighting conditions may provide an edge in combat. Blocking their access to fabbers would put a kink in the militia's ability to outfit new recruits. Are there a "sub-surface" layers of housing and/or industry that may be used to circumvent open areas and get in close with the enemy without being shelled? EDIT: I forgot one. What kind of ships are in the area? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSHdIsIOrsc
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CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
Habitat is very stable (one
Habitat is very stable (one of the newer ones) and danger of vacuum breach is low even when taking into account active warfare. This is because the habitat will have three layers or decks, one living space on structural support. Service channels and transport systems underneath. And then open vacuum deck where water tanks and radiator shielding are located. Short of a dedicated engineering crew or ship scale weaponry the habitat won't be vented. Due to this maybe a third of the populace has easily accessible vacuum suits, 1 fifth is sleeved into synths. I will present it to the players as possible move, but it could antagonise them to the milita (depending on the overall situation). Industrial CM machines will be overrun by Zerg from the begining (otherwise whoever got the access to fabbers would quickly dominate all the other sides of conflict zerg included), if you clear out the zerg and take the industrial complex you basically win. Other objects of interest: - water purification and redistribution plant (1 central) - atmosphere control centers 4 - neutrino comm center (contact with the outside world and farcasting, able to get through the jamming) - body banks and ego storage 3 (everyone who wants more soldiers wants it) - docking area (small ships can dock at the external hull or on some of rotating gyrostabilisers which have 0m/s to external frame of reference, larger ships can only dock at the axis) - community fabrication centers (1 per 3 main population centers, industrial fabbers are, well, for industrial purposes) - emergency analog habitat control center 4 - 2 power plants at the ends of the cyllinder. one in industrial area and second in the docking area. Gravity and rotation altering shenaningans I would leave up to the players to figure out. I will only tell them that altering gravity could potentially fuck up zergs growth and make them easier to exterminate. As for the infowar. I didn;t write anything because I'm currently uninspired mesh is impossible to take down, but maybe I could introduce mesh nodes which when controlled grant bonuses to Infowar actions in their area. EDIT: About the ships. Habitat is located in the Kuiper Belt so there are not a lot of ships around. At least sporting a lot of weaponry. There will be an Ultimate colonisation ship heading for the Discord Gate. If PCs are persuasive he will send his most hotheaded volunteers to the station. If not he will at least spare one antimatter warhead to get rid of the whole mess. I'm thinking about him giving the ultimatum that if the station isn't cleared before he exits the misilles firing range, he will just annihilate the station.
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Baribal Baribal's picture
CordialUltimate2 wrote
CordialUltimate2 wrote:
Habitat is located in the Kuiper Belt
So it probably has quite a bit of agricultural area so inhabitants don't have to solely rely on makers, and don't have to put too much energy into atmosphere reclamation, meaning that it also has a massive light source running down the center of the cylinder? I do wonder what'll happen if you pump sufficient amounts of energy into it. Maybe it even uses organic compounds as light medium, meaning that it can be used as an improvised chemical reactor for quite a lot of other, more nasty organic compounds. Or you could figure out what frequency the zerg and predators prefer to see on, and use that to blind them when out in the open.
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eaton eaton's picture
This actually seems similar
This actually seems similar to the thinking I did for my version of Whiskey Station in the current campaign. Multiple levels on a cylinder, population of 10-15k, Kuiper Belt, and eventual pitched conflict between security forces and an exsurgent threat. Some things that might be useful to consider: sufficiently paranoid habitat designers might design mechanisms to seal off different parts of the cylinder in emergencies, with movable bulkheads or what not. A population of 15k in a habitat the size you describe is actually pretty spacious. I ran the numbers for Whiskey Station, and discovered that a .5km diameter cylinder with multiple stacked levels would have a population density not unlike downtown Manhattan. In addition, the number of active combatants is a big factor in determining how it all plays out. In most of the United States, the ratio of full-time police personnel to citizens is 3.4. In other words, a city the size of your habitat would only have about 40-50 security personnel with (probably) a mix of supporting saucers and security drones. If the entire hab is starting to turn into a warzone, that's obviously different, but it helps put things in perspective.
CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
Yeah, it is not an ONeil
Yeah, it is not an ONeil cilinder. The central axle is the source of light. The habitat has some agriculture mainly as a landscape feature with most of the food coming from makers and the growing vats. With 63 km2 of the main deck surface it has density of population 500 people per km2 but most of the living quarters are confined to zones with 3000-6000 people per km2. As for militia they are somewhat like Titanian Reservists, not full time members or police force but people who were taught which end of the gun to hold and have their equipment handy.
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Baribal Baribal's picture
CordialUltimate2 wrote:With
CordialUltimate2 wrote:
With 31 km2 of the main deck surface
2*pi*r*l = 2*pi*(2km/2)*10km = 63km^2
Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
So basic error. I am ashamed
So basic error. I am ashamed
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