Hmm I forgot to process the smoke grenades, but if I did that would be 3 grenade throws and a hand to hand assault in one turn. And John Denning wouldn't be able to see shit to hit things with suppressive fire if his LOS was smoked.
Denning was supposed to be supressing the ayy in the elevator to our north--you know, the one that's flanking us--and not the clump. But, hey, I won't complain about that.
1.I will complain that my action was entirely ignored. Yes, you had decent reason to ignore the first two grenades I was gonna fire, but "fire 40mm HE at the clump" is still entirely valid, and makes a lot more sense than "sit there twiddling mmy thumbs". Could I please fire a 40mm HE or two at the clump?I looked at Syv's proposed armory: You do need an all-rounded service rifle. M249 is too heavy to qualify. Try sprinting or going toe to toe with it, and you might have problems.
I'll admit that vetoing the M4 was a
very close thing, but I'll stand by my opinion that our service rifle should be the M14. IRL, it was abandoned because 5.56 AP was perfectly sufficient, and still is, but in the game we will soon be running into foes who can easily tank a dozen rounds of 5.56. And that's for "
Light Infantry".
Your two reasons why the M4 is useful are "sprinting" and "going toe-to-toe". I kinda have to question why you don't use Real World reasoning for an assault rifle, but hey, I've got no problem with you making my side easier to argue.
Firstly, sprinting has little place on the battlefield if you're half intelligent and have flank security. Also, I was kinda assuming you wouldn't model exhaustion from carrying a heavy load, but I still don't think it matters enough here. Which is preferable--having less chance to be shot while running away, or having less chance to need to run away in the first place?
Secondly, nobody should go toe-to-toe with an M249 OR M4. An M26 costs 200$, people. That's a loss of two smoke grenades, plus an HE grenade for ammo and magazines. Every single person should buy one. I admit that my preference for the M249 is somewhat reliant on my vision of an optimal tac team and the accomanying strategy, which I didn't post... I'll do that after this post.
Also, for a spunkier handgun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_Desert_Eagle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_%26_Wesson_Model_500
2000 for the Desert Eagle. 1500 for the S&W revolver.
God no. Straight to the truncated list--we're keeping the M1911, thank you very much. If you're gonna hand us a better handgun, give us a FN Fiveseven. Level IIIA body armor penetration, and a twenty round magazine. Note that if the German military brass weren't selfish corrupt pricks, this would be NATO's standard sidearm.
...Although actually our current standard is the M1911, which is literally over a century old, so...
We can also look at PDW calibre smgs that would be reasonable alternatives as primary weapons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_MP7
Say, 5000 for the P90 and 4000 for the MP7, including the kits for their optics and accessories. Kits are compulsory.
Much as I love the P90, these go to the truncated list too. Due to how this game handles range stats, they're inferior to the M26 at melee range, and strictly inferior to the M4 in all other cases (except for ammo capacity, but that doesn't seem to matter much). I've already vetoed the M4, so an inferior gun that costs more is a vastly worse choice.
Also... M32 MGLs and Atchisson Assault Shotgun for the next mission. Only 6000 a piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchisson_Assault_Shotgun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkor_MGL
Already have the M32 in standard armory, and my ideal squad has three of them. Admittedly, that's only because I ran out of things to buy, but eh. The AA-12, though, that's a hard decision... It's better than the M26 in CQB, but costs thirty times as much. Whoever has that would be
the CQB guy, and they wouldn't even be able to afford much beyond a primary weapon, unless given money by friends. Also, my standard approach to CQB would be "frag every room before entering", so the M26 still seems like a better choice overall.
Another way to look at this is pointing out that you could frag
two hundred rooms for the price of a single AA-12, without ammo. Or flashbang forty, which is strictly superior to charging with an AA-12--frags might cause civvie deaths, but flashbangs prevent enemy fire AND work against armor. Yeah, I think the AA-12 goes on the truncated armory list too.
I'm kinda in favor of keeping the cruddy armour. Adds more to the cannon fodder x-com feeling.
Agreement. Despite the sheer amount of bitching I've been doing about this game, I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
@syvarris I believe that modern melee weapons are as much utility tools as instruments of murder; in that capacity alone they might be worth it. (This does not take in account how potentially good the futuristic melee weapons might be.) And then, in rare cases where really CQB happens, they are at least on par with most guns fired at point blank, and (depending on the weapon in question) often far more damaging - which is not so useful against squishy humans, but against tough aliens bred for war it might be just what we need.
Futuristic melee weapons aren't automatically excluded, for the exact reason that they might be really good. Take the ER ghost blade, for instance; it can kill anything with armor that isn't several feet thick. I disagree that melee weapons are better than guns, though. While automatic fire usually reduces damage done, when the barrel is touching someone that isn't true. I find it hard to believe a sword could possibly do more damage than twelve 7.62 rounds per second.
Also, awwww, please don't take the incendiary weapons away. They have their uses, they do. I mean, I considered asking for WWII-era flamers next time!.. (I have a few other things to mention, but let's keep it to the end of the mission, I guess.)
Why keep it to the end of the mission? If we end it now, we can decide what to buy quicker later.
My reasoning for excluding them is that I was under the impression most of our fighting would be CQB, where we're inside a building. If you're inside a building, it is a very
very bad idea to light it on fire. If we're gonna be doing building-to-building, or wilderness warfare, incendiary grenades start to make a lot more sense. One incen to light up a house is much cheaper, faster, and safer than one frag per room.
@Aigre Excalibur In anticipation of increase in alien armoredness and toughness, as well as especially in light of the next mission, I'd like to request a really large-caliber, high-power rifle. Might be an old anti-tank rifle from military stocks (should probably be quite cheap, if outdated), might be a more modern anti-materiel rifle, might be a specialised ERRANT model descending directly from the two (taking best relevant qualities of either, etc.) - basically, I'd like a weapon that can ruin the day of any "muton", "cyberdisk", golem (SECRET CONSTRUCTS OF ALIEN JEWS!), etc. - whatever armored shit aliens might throw at us. A weapon to reach the full potential of destruction inflicted on singular armored target by modern personal ballistic weapons. ...And one that should hopefully be within our ability to buy.
Yeah, Aigre, I'd like a price check for an M107. As the sniper, it would be nice to have something which can outdistance basically anything else.
@Team So, what are we to do? Better try and finish the flashbanged aliens (hoping their shell-shock takes a little more than one turn) or deal with the alien in the north-western lift lobby, dangerously flanking the team?..))
I'm gonna post my plans and orders after this venting post is done.
(Planning on flashing the north service corridor, but want to know if the door opens in a way that's beneficial to bouncing it farther down the hall.)
If it opens outward in the correct direction, it doubles as concealment for you. A RL CQB tactic when defending is to open all doors and nail them open, to make an assaulting group have a lot of corners to deal with.
It would greatly improve our effectiveness, but reduce freedom--Radio's demon.[/b]))
Do you hear it? Its subtle siren call?
"It just makes sense," it whispers, "victory is in your grasp, you just gotta take it! What harm would a little nudge here and there do, right?"
"B-But I'm not sure if it's my place to..."
"It's only this once, you can quit it anytime." it promises. "Besides, their characters will die otherwise, and then they'll be sad as well!"
You start to feel unsure as its insidious advice sneaks up on you, wears down your mental defenses, one small concession at a time.
"And hell, this is a rather serious military sim, and the gm is on board with it. It's the most logical course of action, all things considered." it's final assault starts. "So really, it's the right thing to do."
And so, the demon claims another for its infernal legion.
Oh, you're watching this thread? That's embarassing. Master General is watching me flail in a poor imitation of his talents.
((The military axiom is: Close-Combat is inherent in maneuver. The trend of avoiding, reducing and seeking to replace Close-Combat with decisive long-range munitions is known as Transformation.
It's been observed that the better your firepower, the more the enemy will try to steer you back into Close-Combat situations where you can't use it.
In ERRANT is likely that you are the insurgent forces here. Unless you want a stand-off engagement against plasma-cannons and death-rays... ))
Yeah, I'm 100% in favor of transformation. Still, my ideal squad has 1/3rd of people using shields, and everybody with a shotgun sidearm.
You've got a fair point about us being the insurgents in the future, though. It's just that our first mission was exactly the opposite of an insurgent mission*, so I've been thinking in terms of what we've already had to deal with...
*Admittedly, it has gone a lot like an real insurgent mission against a fortified position would go--a good chunk of the team dying within two minutes.SO. Questions:
2.Do Denning and I have real, solid, physical cover from the east, or not? My first action once off the chopper was to find real cover, but you seem to have ignored that and had me go prone.
3.Does holding your reticule on the spot that an enemy would pop out at provide any bonus to your shot, or at least let you shoot something without a cover save? Like, if I just went prone with my rifle aimed at the side of the lobby door that the NW ayy is covering behind, would I be able to shoot it when it popped out to shoot, and would it get a cover save?...Thought I'd have more. Huh. Most of the questions I want to ask aren't immediately relevant, though I've got nearly forty of them.
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Topic: ERRANT (Read 24963 times)