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Now 97 million km apart. The AWACS has a RADAR range of 110 million km, so I could illuminate them any time.

But the Cutlass's fire control is obsolescent, and we'll need to be a lot closer than this to penetrate their ECM.

So we wait...

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Less than 40 million km. OK, that looks good.

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We'll pop on our AWACS RADAR now.

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Yeah... that should do it.

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Let's see you dodge fourteen of THOSE, pal.
 
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Jeeze... they fired instantly.

What's their Crew Training?

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OK... 100% crew training and they've got their own officer.

This explains the instant response to orders.
 
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The Modron scout has changed his mind... but it looks to be too late.

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What shall we call this initial blackade-breaking operation? Operation Stack-wipe? That would be an optimistic name.
Ack, reminds me of the Delphic Oracle! That name doesn’t indicate who gets stack-wiped! :eek: No no no, let’s use another name.
Operation Icarus.
We’re both thinking of Ancient Greece, I see.
Operation PARTY
That’d do.
go gadget go
Or this; this’d be a great name for our initial blockade-breaking operation! <3
 
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The warheads are deployed and the upper stage starts homing on its Active Terminal Guidance.

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Jeeze... he was moving at over 12,000 kps, and every missile hit. Nice.

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Take that.
 
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go gadget go
In fact, the Dreaded Fortress of Doom contains more than 60 Gadget class and Gadget II class maintenance workshops.

... so Operation Go Gadget Go would be pulling our Fortress to pieces and redeploying the pieces into the Neutral Zone, using Tugs, to take part in the battle.
 
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August 18th, 2033. - Diplo +282.3

The usual builds.

Still no reciprocal treaty. That means that at the moment we offered trade access, the Modrons must have been below about +35.

Any less than -99 would be war, so they must have been somewhere within the range -99 to +35.

Operation Proposal will get underway as soon as the Combined Fleet finishes loading supplies.
 
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We enter the Neutral Zone. This time it's personal!
Operation Proposal is launched at 7 PM August 21st, 2033.

Tactical. - We've turned off all of our RADARs except one FAC AWACS to watch for enemy missiles.

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The Combined Fleet, currently crossing the Neutral Zone.

1,750,000 tons of Naval vessels.

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Following a circuitous route from waypoint to waypoint in an effort to evade the attention of the Modron scout, the Combined Fleet will take another day and a half to reach the ambush site at the Neutral Zone => Mechanus jump point.

Tactical

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I started off using one-hour turns...

We can't take game turns that are so long that the opponent can transit the jump point with his fleet, recover from jump shock, and then blast us with those nasty size-12 missiles all during a single sub-pulse.

... and as we neared closest approach to the enemy scout we shifted to 20-minute turns. Now we are past the closest approach and are back to one-hour turns again.

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Tactical, 4:30 PM August 22nd, 2033.

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Ten more hours and the Combined Fleet will be positioned directly on top of the Neutral Zone => Mechanus jump point.

... if we are not rudely interrupted.

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August 23rd, 2033. - Diplo +283.5

The usual builds.

Still no treaty.

Our Combined Fleet approaches the jump point into the enemy home star system.

This is the ideal spot to set up our ambush.

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Operation Proposal is successfully completed.

We are now in possession of the proximal (ie: nearest) end of the jump point leading to the enemy home star system.

It would now be very dangerous for the enemy to jump through, since we could hammer him at point blank range while he was still stun-locked in jump shock.

At this point we had intended to whack his scout, but the scout appears to be fleeing through the Phi Arietis jump point.

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Should we just ignore the fleeing scout and launch Operation Go Gadget Go, to dismantle our Fortress of Doom, drag the components into the Neutral Zone and over to the Mechanus jump point, and then re-assemble our Fortress on the enemy's own jump point?

... Fortresses can jump, yes? No? Surely Fortresses can jump. They're treated by the game engine as a fleet of ships.
 
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In regards to namings, if we get another three-part operation or if we built three large combat vessels, I' dlike to propose the names "Armageddon", "Kiki" and "Gerbil".
 
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At this point we had intended to whack his scout, but the scout appears to be fleeing through the Phi Arietis jump point.

Drat. The stag party fizzled out.


View attachment 1314498

Should we just ignore the fleeing scout and launch Operation Go Gadget Go, to dismantle our Fortress of Doom, drag the components into the Neutral Zone and over to the Mechanus jump point, and then re-assemble our Fortress on the enemy's own jump point?

Of course.
They know we're there, unfortunately, but let's give them time to make a mistake.

... Fortresses can jump, yes? No? Surely Fortresses can jump. They're treated by the game engine as a fleet of ships.

Or course, they were dragged through a series of jumps to get there in the first place.
But you'll find out quickly enough, just launch Operation Go, Gadget Go!

Do we have any contingencies in place if anything armed comes through the jump to phi Arietis?
 
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Jeeze... they fired instantly.

What's their Crew Training?

View attachment 1314401

OK... 100% crew training and they've got their own officer.

This explains the instant response to orders.
Does officers assign automatically when one is available?

Whybwas it the missiles might miss if fired from too far out? I thiigut they had ECCM 5.

Fortresses can jump, yes? No? Surely Fortresses can jump. They're treated by the game engine as a fleet of ships.
Is it worth losing a good chunk of it for that?