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[Darrian Wolffe]

[ItsTehPope]

Sudeten

[deadlyfire2345]

Recon raid will be that much worse when buying items. As much as I'd want to, I'll back off from that one.

[ItsTehPope]

Think of the men we left behind.  We have a chance to recover them, and another chance to bloody the burds.

[Hat]

Sudeten

Ummm.... No.  Not a chance.  Of these, there are only two that looks halfway decent to me - Operations JUSTICE & BLOODFIRE.  

Operation JUSTICE, short contract, nearby.  Allies won't be worth much, but should be decent salvage of which we'll keep half.  BLC is 80%.  Should be able to get better Transport Terms.  This is arguably more for the salvage than the cash.  The only thing that makes me a bit nervous is that it's an extraction.

Operation BLOODFIRE I guess could have possibilities.  Allies are worth a bit more than JUSTICE, but not much.  Opponents shouldn't be as difficult and should be high salvage.  Better transport and higher base funds for an extra month transit time.  No BLC though, and no option to change it.

Operation BACKHAND - Planetary Assault - close by, not what we're built for.  Good allies, tough opponents, decent salvage.  Could try and bump up the BLC, there are a lot of customized mechs in the unit and BLC's based on base variant rather than modified value.

Operation NEPTUNE has nothing going for it.  House command, exchange salvage, low starting BLC.

Operation JUBILEE, just No.

Other thoughts / opinions?

[Hat]

Think of the men we left behind.  We have a chance to recover them, and another chance to bloody the burds.

We'd be returning a year and a half later.  There's no guarantee that any of the 3 are still alive.  If they are, there's not a strong likelihood that we can search for them effectively during the Recon.  I don't like leaving anyone behind, but I'm not looking to fly across the entire Inner Sphere on a wing, prayer and pocket change given the lousy terms.

[Darrian Wolffe]

given the lousy terms.

Strictly speaking, 25% salvage that isn't negotiable is lousy...but that's 25% CLANTECH salvage.  No exchange.

(Not arguing for it, but not arguing against it either)

[Hat]

given the lousy terms.

Strictly speaking, 25% salvage that isn't negotiable is lousy...but that's 25% CLANTECH salvage.  No exchange.

(Not arguing for it, but not arguing against it either)

Understood.  While it's Clantech, the ability to find replacement parts is extremely difficult for any Clan Mech.  Repairs on mechs that integrate Clantech is extremely hard and the lances that are best positioned to maintain them aren't the ones likely to be taking the brunt of the damage in getting it.  Not a good investment of time and resources.

[deadlyfire2345]

Backhand, then bloodfire in that order for me.

[Darrian Wolffe]

OK, here's my thoughts on the missions.

JUSTICE
That guy we just extracted from the MOC?  Yeah, that's probably us being hired to go get him back.  Allies are crappy, but that's never bothered us before.  Veteran/B-rated opposition is pretty decent, and it's probably the last time we're going to see the majority of the OPFOR be IntroTech.  Salvage isn't terrible, and not negotiable.  Transport is OK, and if we don't get better it's not a major problem since it's close by.  BLC is very good.  The big advantage this has is that it's a contract that's close by, SHORT, and that we should be reasonably able to win due to the B-rated opposition.

BLOODFIRE
Go raid a tropical world that's noted for massive citizen militias and its insurgencies?  I mean, OK, but everyone better have "Fortunate Son" queued up on their Mech speakers.  Regular F allies is again pretty "meh", and Veteran/C-rated OPFOR means that we're unlikely to get salvage that we actually like.  The bright spot here is that everything is negotiable, and we're likely to see a decent amount of money from the Transport Compensation.  The big downside - aside from Charlies in the Trees - is that 0% BLC rating that the FedCom won't renegotiate (with the Clans going on, not that I blame them).  Pretty much a hard pass for my vote.

BACKHAND
Good salvage with A-rated enemies, good allies (1st Cuirassiers or 1st Light Horse, with those ratings), and mostly negotiable.  Salvage rating isn't great, but 50% isn't terrible either.  Note that Allies aren't actually going to help us if we're an Independent command.  The strongest mark against this one is that it *is* a planetary assault against A-rated FWL opposition; we're going to see a LOT more assault-class opposition than we're used to, and while that's great for three lances (two of which who have already chimed in in favor of BACKHAND), it's not so great for 4-5 other lances.  I see this as a better-than-average chance of going south on us.  It's doable, but dangerous.

NEPTUNE
A long way away, but to a planet with really good beer and with decent opposition (Veteran/B).  Again, it's short, which is a help, and while the base ratings besides Transport are pretty crappy, they're all negotiable.  In particular, if we can just get salvage to flip away from Exchange (a decent chance), this becomes an OK contract.  Personally, it also puts us back out of the ass end of the Inner Sphere and back to where things may actually happen.  I'd support a deeper look at this mission and running a bit of negotiations to see if we can get the salvage to flip.

JUBILEE
Wasn't this the name of the Dieppe raid back on old Earth?  Who the hell comes up with these names?
Anyway, this is high risk, high reward.  25% ClanTech salvage is fantastic, and we don't have to turn it over to the FedCom this time.  BLC can be renegotiated, which is good because we'd be pretty likely to take losses on this, for all that we're hitting 2nd-line forces.  But hey, the 2nd-line Mechs can't possibly be as scary as those front-line OmniMechs, right?  A Marauder's basically a Marauder, whether it's got a "3D" or a "2-C" variant number after the name, right?

Given these options - none of them a clear winner - I'd personally support them in this order:
Neptune / Justice (tie)
Jubilee
Bloodfire
Backhand

I don't think any of them are a clear disaster in waiting, and none of them are an obvious "gimme", but I think we're in a place as a unit where we could use some more raiding and less full-on line battles for a little while.

[Ice]

I see what you mean considering the unit as a whole isnt ready to commit to a grinder

Rule out Backhand and Sudeten - clan salvage is nice but some of the lances will be pretty much in name only depending on scenarios and well zell. Didnt think about the weight ratio for backhand which will be a slugfest which we can take but at loss although nowhere near as bad as clans

Neptune gives chance at flipping exchange for most likely newer 2nd line units or advanced units to swap out into tech in some cases for some people to cut down on factory time. I'd almost say try flipping the salvage and if we get 40-50 straight salvage go for it - nvm I am PRO FEDCOM - gents I veto this option unless its closer to the steiner side of the fedcom half.

If that fails bloodfire is my next go to

[Black Omega]

Justice is preferred due to proximity to CapCon.
Neptune 2nd although going against FedCom, I am not happy about.  It is Katherine's half though and Nondi is still a @#$%^&*. [mmmmmm-beer].
Bloodfire sounds like the beginning of a land war in Asia.
Backhand=meat grinder
Jubilee=snowball in hell

[deadlyfire2345]

Being Lyran with connections to both the FS and LA, I would rather avoid fighting them altogether.

[Hat]

Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate and will attempt to accommodate nationalistic ties when reasonable.  The Ranger officers represent the Capellan Confederation, both halves of the Federated Commonwealth and the Free Rassalhague Republic at a minimum.  Eliminating all of our nations of origins would leave very few options.  As seasoned professionals, I'm sure we'll do fine.

[ItsTehPope]

OOC: Its been a fun flipping day of security hell.

IC: "Colonel, I can appreciate the concept of we're all professionals here, but I'd still like to request not going after the FRR..it's like kicking a puppy.  A puppy that's blind.  And missing two legs.  Named Lucky."  (Or Rooney...grumble)

Personally, I'm not in favor of any line brawls for a while.  Our heavier elements have been getting abused for the past year or so, and several could use some time to resupply and rearm.  Alpha company has had its teeth kicked in since Somerset, Reaper is not great either from what I've been made aware. Personally, I'm nearly literally out of ammo.

We're a raiding company first and foremost - we should go raid something.  And while I would like to go back to Seduten to kick some Falcon ass, reading the room says I'm in the minority here.

I'm in favor of Justice myself.  We can let the raiding elements, well, raid.  Barring that, we should go for Nebula and ask Team KleptoTech to stop stealing snow globes and go raid beer"

Thoughts?