Sorry to hear that Heffe, hope you're all doing OK.

I may be overthinking this (and / or don't know much about the subject of military comms) but would everyone who has a personal radio that is charged up and switched on be able to hear the conversation between Brozek and Kessler? Or is it only audible to those within actual physical earshot of the radio in the BTR?

Also, I presume it's relatively straightforward for us to change our frequencies at some point after the immediate episode is resolved? i.e. all we need to do is say we're switching from xx frequency to yy frequency (but not over the radio for obvious reasons).

I was going with all of the personal radios being offline due to being charged. Varis and your posts stay as they are though, that's fine.

Yeah, changing frequencies only takes a second. It's more complicated if you are using secure comms that hop freqs or whatever, but you don't have that.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:29, Sat 29 Apr 2023.

Sorry, I've been full on all day today. I'll try and get a post up tomorrow.

I’m not sure we’re getting very far IC in terms of best course of action so I’ve tried to summarise my own thinking OOC

1. Go along with the POW exchange

Pros
If it’s on the level we get our people back. Peacefully. We may also get some goodwill from the LoSA and another groups that get their people back.

Cons
It might not be on the level. If it’s not we’ve got no clue what Monolith’s plan is. Options include - but are not limited to

• Ambush us at the exchange point
• Attack the base while we’re out
• Other

We’d need to ask Nowak to hand the POW’s she’s holding over. She might say no. And / or it might cosy us some goodwill with her.

2. Pretend to go along with it and set up an ambush of our own against Monolith

Pros
A chance to inflict some damage on Monolith

Cons
Risk of casualties, particularly amongst the POW’s (If Monolith are on the level and think they’ve been double crossed it wont take much effort for them to machine gun thirteen prisoners).

Lack of manpower. I think we’re down to five functional Mad Dogs (Kessler, Kolstrup, Ferro, Babicevs, Voight) and I think one of them (Babicevs) is wounded? I haven’t included Rodriguez (definitely wounded) or Ward (hasn’t committed to taking part, has actually said the opposite IC). We can add in some NPC’s both from the Mad Dogs (Fischer, Aleksandar, Andropov, etc) and from the various Polish militias that are on site (Brezek, what’s left of the LOD, etc) but Fuse is going to need to give us a number for how many people are available. And the more people we take the less there are to defend the base if it’s a double cross and they plan to attack. We can try and alleviate that by asking to borrow troops from another unit (Osprey, Waterloo, etc).

Lack of surprise. It would be optimistic to think that Monolith wont be observing both our base and the Cemetery so will see us coming, deduce what we’re up to, and react accordingly. Kessler can ask Monolith to switch the meet point but no guarantee they’ll play ball

3. Do nothing

Pros
We’re safe

Cons
Piszceck at al may be executed

If it was on the level Monolith are pissed that we double crossed them and decide to shell us again just for the hell of it.

4. Other? Suggestions welcome.

---

Kessler agreed to Monolith’s terms but I’m happy to back track on that, so nothing is set in stone. As a player I’m dead against option 3, do nothing. I’ll happily go along with option 1 or 2 but if the decision is to try and set an ambush we’re all going to have to work out how to do it together, as a group, at least as much as Fuse will allow OOC.

I don't remember what our relationship is with Piszcek, aside from it's friendly.

Whatever we decide, we first need to know if Nowak is willing to release the prisoners. If no, our decision is made for us.

If yes, another option is to have her people do the exchange themselves. Monolith contacted us because they had our freq. That's as far as our middle-man role needs to go, unless they've got more insidious plans. Is Monolith going to be so torqued that Mad Dogs didn't show up at the exchange (but their people are being released by Nowak) that they'll execute their prisoners? If the answer is yes, they were going to double cross us for sure.

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Piszcek is probably our closest ally in Gdansk. He and his people have fought alongside us several times - the battle against Warmia at the Twins and the defence of the compound against the Merchant’s attack a couple of nights ago in game time spring immediately to mind, there have probably been others. And as Ferro said IC he pretty much saved Kessler’s neck at the Twins, losing an eye himself in the process.

Kessler’s not going to throw Piszcek under the bus if there is anything that he can do to help him.

I’m hesitant to try and get Nowak do the job herself without any Mad Dog involvement whatsoever. For me it has shades of ‘hey, there’s a chance this might be a trap and Monolith are waiting to ambush whoever turns up. Would you mind going instead of us?’

That said, what we could maybe do is say ‘hey, this is what’s been proposed. We don’t have the manpower to deal with it ourselves but can we borrow ten of your best fighters to back us up?’ If she agrees we can then start working on something where maybe Kessler and Nowak’s people can do the exchange while the rest of the Mad Dogs do overwatch. Just a thought.

Either way, it looks like next step at this stage is to get a hold of Nowak. I wont be able to post IC tonight but if nothing profound comes up overnight I’ll push on with that tomorrow.

In reply to Michael Kessler (msg # 957):

Ok, thanks. P is clearly a friend, rather than just an acquaintance, so doing nothing is clearly not an option.

I'm still worried that we're being set up for some kind of double-cross. We know Brozek already has forces within 82mm mortar range of the compound. We're likely currently under surveillance. I agree with Ferro's assessment that Brozek is trying to draw us away from the compound. Our fuel is his likely objective, given that his endgame is apparently getting out of Dodge.

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This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Mon 08 May 2023.

Right, I hope all of that makes sense

To summarise Kessler wants the following

Kolstrup - per your suggestion, use the NODLR to scan the ground but take Marta as a spare pair of eyes / hands. Secondary task to give overwatch to the scout party per below

Ferro, Babicevs, Voight - go on a scouting patrol in the vicinity of the base and try and get any intel on anyone that's been spotted watching it and / or using a radio. They have to have had LOS of the base so don't go too far.

Ward - sorry dude, you have heard too much to leave!

Rodriguez - I've left this one open ended 'cos I don't know how active the character can be given his wounds. If he's able to go on the scout patrol and wants to that's fine with me. Otherwise Kessler can find some light duties. Or if needs be he can rest up.

Hope that all makes sense. I stopped there to give everyone a chance to react / respond but Kessler's next planned action will be to contact Nowak.

Do we know where Monolith's "turf" within the city is? Some factions' territories are highlighted on the campaign map, but Monolith's is not (same with the City Factions/Defense Forces & OPFOR Dispositions map on p.2 of the Intel thread). Monolith is mentioned as a Free Company, but there are no further details in the Intel thread.

Some of y'all have amazing memories for stuff in this campaign so maybe you remember something that I don't.

If we have an idea of where Monolith usually hangs out, it might help the OP and search parties narrow down where to start looking for the mortar team. Per suspects they are observing from the opposite bank of the river but, ATM, that's just a hunch.

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This message was last edited by the player at 19:49, Mon 08 May 2023.

Dave - Rodriguez suffered some pretty hard, but ultimately somewhat superficial wounds. The biggest risk there is infection - he'll be pretty sore and unhappy, but I'd think light duties should be okay. Best to keep him near the docs if possible though, just to be safe.

It took some hunting in the wiki, but it looks like Brozek nominally makes his HQ in the SS Soldek. That intel might be a little old though, so no idea how relevant it might still be, especially given that the Soldek was probably one of the first places targeted by Nowak when the civil war kicked off.

In reply to Jose Rodriguez (msg # 962):

That's correct. They were a free company so they didn't have turf, so to speak. They were however using the freighter as a base of operations. And correct, it was targeted, being one of the first places Waterloo hit (Olowianka? Island).

Fuse, Janku's not at the compound is he?

And am I right in thinking we don't have any direct comms with the BND? It has to go through Janku?

No, he isn't.

I was actually going to have him go to Kessler at the compound when the coup kicked off, but that never happened.

No real means of comms-on-demand right now. The last contact you had with the BND, they said they'd be in touch with you in six days. That was the 12th I think and it's just turned over into the 17th. That's it really.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:37, Mon 08 May 2023.

@Ferro: Do you want Per and Marta to check the ground you're covering first with the NODLR before they focus on the north bank of the river, or check out the north bank first and then switch to over-watch for your recon team? Either is cool with me but I figured it'd be better to figure that out here than take up space in the IC with it.

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I'd like both really. If I recall the highrises in the north were used by snipers to shoot up the roof during the big attack. So personally I would be comfortable with you guys keeping that under watch. But if it's practical I'd also like to be able to periodically call in requests for an area sweep or to look at something specific (even if it's just quick).

In reply to Ferro (msg # 967):

Sounds good.

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Time is short for me tonight so I'll continue with the patrol tomorrow.

I'm currently out of town until Sunday and start a new assignment on Monday, so probably light posting from me when I find time.  I am enjoying the banter and interaction though; sorry I can't post more and keep it up a bit better!

How far is Varis and Voight moving? Just a rough number if you don't have a destination in mind. Thanks.

Also, which direction. You can't go opposite of Ferro because that would send you back the way you came from? East instead?

It's hard to say because of terrain and whatnot. He wants to cover as much ground as possible, but with caution, and budgeting time for the return leg. I imagine they'd be going fairly slowly, to maximize their ability to detent threats. I guess as far as they can go in five minutes walking at a cautious pace. I'm not sure how far that would be. 300m, maybe? A little further? Does that sound reasonable?



Yes, sorry about that. We'll head in the direction that Ferro suggested.

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This message was last edited by a game editor at 18:09, Thu 18 May 2023.

300m will take you a little bit past the arrowhead. Not too far past.

https://i.ibb.co/p30j2Cp/map-2-vv.jpg

It's a long weekend holiday coming up where I am so after tonight I'll be mostly offline until Tues.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:10, Thu 18 May 2023.

I'm a little stumped at the moment how to keep things going with the ground lying down.