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[Shadowclaw777]

I still think their's a problem of stealthy-deployment, like we can't just send a tank across the border into a neutral-country just so that we can go to some country-rural place and destroy the place with a tank. The tank would have to be covertly air-dropped with a giant helicopter or something, which is quite unrealistic, since I don't even think in modern war that tanks are air-dropped. Maybe some sort of armored jeep that has a machine gun in the back? Or just a simple APC could work, that's seem more sensible.

[evictedSaint]

What about just developing a plain-clothes military?  Regular military troops, wearing civilian clothes and wielding machine guns and grenades.  Astoria has agents wearing body armor and machine guns - let's just start sending military troops in wearing flimsy disguises to avoid "violating neutrality".  Both companies like whoever goes in the loudest and causes the most deaths, so let's do that.  We'll strap silencers to all the weapons to fulfill the "stealth" requirement (which itself is a rather dubious requirement).

[Chiefwaffles]

"General! Have you heard about WGOAM!" Said the Senator enthuastically.
"Those Astrian bastards won't even know what hit 'em," chuckled the general while reclining back into his seat and lighting a cigar. "Sure, we may have been outgunned at first but this will surely change the nature of espionage as we know it! No more barely concealed fighting; finally we'll actually have an advantage. As everyone knows, stealth is straight-up better than military confrontations in any theater."
The Senator laughed along while subtly taking one of the general's cigars. "Be sure to give them our support for such a wonderful job this year; we're really glad that we can stop this fighting before the Global League takes notice."

As the general is in the middle of agreeing, the two are interrupted by someone opening a door to their office. The nervous-looking government employee carried behind himself a filled folder. He tentatively steps towards the desk, drops it, and bolts off before either of the two already in the office had a chance to kill the messenger.

The general leaned forward out of his chair. The Senator's look changed from amusement to worry. On their desk lied a design for a tank.


Guuuys.
The reason for fighting is because that's, like I said, the natural clashing of the two skillsets. When both sides are doing their job by sending in armed teams to do their jobs, fighting is going to happen without any other solution for the confrontation. Fighting is meant to be suboptimal (though a valid component of a strategy in Singleton Arms, and to a much lesser degree Human Power). Merkan just decided to try to improve on the fighting front by doing things such as designing a DMR instead of things like the WGOAM.

[Madman198237]

Guys, the GM has stated that if we want more stealth, we've got to go about getting more stealth, though Singleton Arms is going to stay the same way, meaning that I still want a DMR fix (Duh).

I think that WGOAM needs a brand-new design in order to get moving, so I still want to protect ourselves so we have somewhere to go next turn. (i.e., do the ID papers and rifles to protect the country itself, and work on WGOAM next turn)

[evictedSaint]

@ChiefWaffles:
The Central Thread explicitly said "Companies favor a more aggressive approach when the results are ultimately decided."

That's partly why we're frustrated, I think. The other reason is because we aren't 100% sure what our goal is. Is it to overthrow the company? Kill all the Astrians who live there? Steal documents? Sabotage equipment? Infiltrate and gain control of the company? Gain nebulous "espionage points"? Just have better control than our opponent?  Because right now it's been "kill the Astrians" and they're intrinsically better at that than us.

[Madman198237]

I point out again the idea I briefly described in the thread: Could you (Additional work, I know, but I think it'd add a LOT to the game) give us the scenario before each mission at some point? Like "This year we're trying to get a key member of the board on our side, how do we do that?" and we use our tactics or whatever to get in, and choose what we do.

[Chiefwaffles]

This was already posted in the Core thread, but there's a Shadow Race Discord for anyone interested in that.

Furthermore, in response to comments on this thread I'll be giving basic mission objectives in addition to the already-planned skill/tech usage voting to the Operations Phase. In the future, at the end of each Operations report, you'll be given the objective for each theater the next operations phase.

Skill Revision: Masked MOLES
[6]

Covers are pretty easy in their bare sense.

First, we come up with fake identifying information for the agent. John Doe, lives in 123456 Apple Lane, born to Helena Doe and Johnson Doe in October 3rd 1925. That kind of stuff.
Then we use our subterfuge to enhance this identity - make it real. We didn't have enough time to come up of processes to make this really convincing, like a hefty chronology of public events regarding their fictional life, but we can do some things. Forge a driver's license, fake some prior work contacts, and more.

The result is a fake identity which should stand up to any and all basic scrutiny. We simply didn't have the resources in a revision to create new governmental records or to make a complete fake history for their fictional life, but all that stuff requires serious looking into to find out. If KOSMIC suspected an agent of a fake identity, they'd have to somehow gain access to our governmental records or perform some notable investigative work into things such as the registration of their license or work contacts.
But other than that, people shouldn't be able to expose our agents on the spot unless we specifically want them to know. For now, at least.

Despite the flaws exposed when looking deep enough into the fake identity, the ease of creating them means every single agent can now receive a fake identity. Furthermore, our ability to manipulate the identity makes having agents hired into target sites easier and therefore makes WGOAM Cheap.

If desired, we can have nearly all agents utilize WGOAM now and hide in the target site. But we'd still need an external agent to succesfully activate them without any other form of communication, and Tech is still an issue.


Tech Revision: Reconfigurable Subduer
[2]

While the concept of allowing for field deassembly and assembly of our guns is a very sound one, it's much more difficult to allow for reassembly into different, subtle configurations.

Additional, higher-quality, parts must be used to ensure the gun doesn't break during reassembly. Operatives have to be trained to re-assemble the gun properly. And the more precise engineering requiring is just an all-around more expensive and time-consuming process. But it's possible and done.

We've created a variant of the Subduer - the Reconfigurable Subduer - which can be reassembled to and from a relatively inconspicuous object in the field. It takes roughly a minute for an agent to turn it from hidden to gun form. While it won't ring any alarms, it's fairly recognizable if seen in the open by someone who's seen it before. Finally, it's Very Expensive.

It is now the Operations phase!
Vote for what Skills and Tech to use in each theatre. No other instructions may be given.

The objectives per theatre are the following: (Note: This will be given at the end of the operations phase in the future instead of after the revisions phase.)

Human Power Inc. - A Merkane executive has publically expressed doubts regarding Astrian domination of the company. Merkane representatives are already making headway; MOLE's mission is to ensure the executive stays safe and with an unchanged mind by the end of the year. KOSMIC is predicted to be targeting this executive.

Singleton Arms - A worker's strike is underway at a Singleton factory. MOLE has the opportunity to ensure the continued and possibly complete shutdown of the facility in whatever way possible. KOSMIC will likely attempt to stop this.

The Global League is currently undergoing negotiations for a light investigation into the Merkane-Astrian conflict. The Merkane government believes it can benefit from this, and rumors suggest Astria feels the same way. MOLE (and without a doubt KOSMIC) must acquire a copy of an official report regarding the two countries to aid our diplomats in ensuring they'll come up on top.

A Merkane government official has shown suspicious behavior. MOLE is to investigate this behavior or to seize him for questioning, and KOSMIC involvement is suspected.

[Madman198237]

Use our new infiltration ability---

That government operative vanishes somewhere inconspicuous with a nice torture information extraction setup, a MOLE operative replaces him. Armed guards must be present. Wait, we can probably booby trap the room(s) with the nasty toxic smoke grenades instead. Anyway, the goal will be simple---if KOSMIC operatives show up on our turf, they won't be meeting the person they think they are. It's perfectly James Bond cheesy, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?


Similar procedure in HP---we fake up the documents needed to sneak a MOLE agent in to replace him, and when KOSMIC strikes we get to shoot up some of their team members. Even if the valiant agent dies, the executive owes us his life. We win.


Using our documentation, fill the factory with Merkans posing as, what are they usually insulted as, "scabs"? The guys they hire when people are on strike, to do the work even while there's a strike in progress. We'll outnumber the Astrians, and presumably outgun them as well.


Again, similar procedure for the Global League. Sneak some guys in the lowest levels, one of them should eventually get a shot at a simple snatch-and-runner gig, though without the running. We don't have to let it come to a fight---just get a secretary in there and PROBLEM SOLVED! Of course, we WILL still deploy agents the regular way should sneaky extraction fail.

The agent will be ordered (We can have them memorize orders at HQ, correct?) to grab the doc if possible, and if not, unlock a door at such-and-such a time (Surely we can get some of our guys hired as night guards? Wait, crap, background checks) for a Merkan infil team.

[Shadowclaw777]

Here's a simpler way to organize the information

Human Inc.:
Infiltration Team Alpha:
Tech: All of the Leading Officers will be equipped with a DMR Night Owl since its technically suppressed and offers stopping power, and a side-arm Subduer. The DMR Night Owl is use limitedly because even though its suppressed it still quite loud and very obvious, also limits mobility.
Everyone Else: Merkan Subduer
Tech: Squad Leaders are given the Blackout Smoke Grenade, and use it to either run away from a gunfight or make gunfight more beneficial for them, careful use because they can choke on that stuff.
Inside Team Alpha:
Skill: Inside Agents utilizing Masked Moles will offer support for Infiltration Team in case of a gunfight, secondary objective is to help move the executive safely away from the Astrians, one of the inside agents will switch his worker clothes with the Merkan executive, if the executive is easily convinced at least.

Singleton Arms:
Infiltration Team Beta:
Tech: DMR Night Owl is given to every squad leader, since its expensive
Tech: A-R1942 is given to every operative as their primary weapon
Tech: Every one is given a Subduer, if they need a backup side-arm.
Tech: Every Squad Leader has a Blackout Smoke Grenade, careful use.
Inside Team Beta:
Skill: "Masked MOLES", as many as possible MOLE workers will be utilize to shift the combat in our favor. As many factory-worker MOLEs is the ideal.

Global League:
Infiltration Team Gamma:
Tech: All Leading Officers are given a Reconfigurable Subduer, make sure their in "disguised" mode
Tech: All other operatives are given a subduer
Skill: Distraction will be used to acquire entry, normally, primarily sending the operatives with the reconfigured subduer
Skill: Have some Masked MOLES potentially working in the lowest level or some method of entry, and if given the opportunity will allow access to our Infiltration Team.
Inside Team Gamma:
Skill: Masked MOLES will work as the lower-class workers, watching out for "delivery-men" or potential Astrian agents. Masked MOLEs will help guide the Infiltration team to their target.

Skills: All agents will use Distraction, Conditional Retreat, and Memorized Orders in the appropriate situation.

Merkan Agency:
Inside Team Delta:
Tech: Everyone given a Subduer, Leading Officers will be given a Reconfigurable Subduer
Tech: Night Guards will be given the A-R1942 of the building, maybe some of the Squad Leaders could use the Night Owl DMR

[Madman198237]

As of now, Shadow's plan is Plan Crisp, my plan is Plan Potato.

Let the voting begin.

Potato: (1) Madman
Crisp: (0)

[Shadowclaw777]

We are at a impasse, we're going to need a tie-breaker vote

Potato: (1) Madman
Crisp: (1) Shadowclaw

[BBBence1111]

Potato: (2) Madman, BBBence
Crisp: (1) Shadowclaw

[evictedSaint]

Potato: (2) Madman, BBBence
Crisp: (2) Shadowclaw, eS

I like plan crisp because the formatting is easier to read.

[Madman198237]

It's fundamentally different, so why choose it based on formatting? Here's Plan Potato, in concise format.

Merkan Government
---Masked MOLEs: Replace government operative with a MOLE who looks a bit like him.
---Hide armed guards around the place (Memorized Orders and assault rifles)

Human Power
---Masked MOLEs: Replace the Merkan executive---establish communications through fake deliverymen (Using Masked MOLE protocol) and replace the exec with a MOLE, armed if possible.

Singleton Arms
---Masked MOLES: Get a bunch of Masked MOLES to sign up as strike-breakers. They won't be searched, so each one should have a gun of some sort, specifically handguns.
---Use more manpower and outgun the Astrians, with all guns available.

Global League
---Masked MOLEs: Fill lower-level positions (like janitorial staff and maybe even night guards) with MOLEs.
---Memorized Orders: Everyone tries to get the document. One person does not, instead opening a door for a MOLE strike team should the other attempts fail.

Here, organized format. The tech will be assigned according to default, these plans don't depend too much on the tech.

[evictedSaint]

Potato: (3) Madman, BBBence, es
Crisp: (1) Shadow