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Old 08-07-2018, 08:51 PM
Enfield Enfield is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swaghauler View Post
I can give you a bit of the "lay of the land" in this region because I have driven it REGULARLY since 2004. I will go over interesting locations, as well as potential obstacles and choke points in the area. I will break each region down as a separate post. I'll start with an area you have already passed.

Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh is basically "trisected" into THREE major regions. The North Side (referred to as "The Side" by its residents), which is separated from the rest of Pittsburgh by the Allegheny River and contains the major stadiums (PNC Park & Heinz Field). It is bisected from the East and West by Rt 65 which proceeds to Beaver Valley and crosses I79 to the west (about 10 miles from the city center) and Rt28 North which starts in the city center and runs along the North side of the Allegheny River for over 50 miles (terminating in the PA Wilds at the edge of the Allegheny National Forest/Cook's Forest region). I think that the North Side would be a "ground zero" for the infected if you consider that Allegheny General Hospital has its main campus (1000 beds?) on East Ohio Street just above Rt 65. It has a second campus in Bellview 8 miles to the West above Rt 65. The infected might travel uphill into the projects above the hospital and cross I279 South to the East of the hospital trapping the residents of Spring Hill and Troy Hill too. All of these low-income, high-density housing projects sit on top of hills with only ONE or TWO main routes into them. Once the infected begin to move up the hills on the North Side, those residents will be cut off from any rescue. The local police (of which there are only 1200) will be hard-pressed just to hold the bridges across the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers.

The second region of Pittsburgh is "The Triangle" or "Downtown" which is comprised of several distinct sections or districts. The first is The Point which is comprised of Point State Park, The Ft Pitt Blockhouse, and Ft Pitt proper. The Point COULD be barricaded as a last line of defense and people could be evacuated by boat from there. It is at the very tip of downtown where I279 South crosses both the Allegheny (the Duquesne Bridge) and the Monongahela River aka "The Monn" (the Ft Pitt Bridge & Ft Pitt Tunnels). Those two rivers become the Ohio River at this location. The rivers are up to 1000m wide and The Ohio River is almost 2000m wide in most places here.

From the Point, you hit Downtown which is divided from The Hill District by I579 (The Veteran's Bridge) and I376 E & W/I579 S (The Liberty Bridge and Tunnels) and also includes the 10th St Bridge and Tunnels (from Downtown to the South Side). The First Energy Arena (for the Penguins) could be used as an emergency RP and is on the North Eastern border of Downtown. The greatest danger to Downtown is UPMC (University of Pitt Medical Centers) Mercy located ABOVE Rt 376 on Forbes Avenue (?) just SOUTH of the First Energy Arena.

Above the Arena is the Hill District (known as "the Hill" to residents) which is HIGH DENSITY and LOW-INCOME housing. It borders what is potentially "ground zero" for the largest outbreak of infected, the Shadyside and Oakland neighborhoods. This region houses SIX HOSPITALS (4 UPMCS, Magee's Women's Hospital, Shadyside Hospital) with over FIVE THOUSAND BEDS as well as the Allegheny Dept of Public Health and more than TEN THOUSAND college students living in "high-density" conditions in a 5-mile radius. It also is just 2 miles from the largest VA hospital in NW PA. That 1000 bed facility could also be a hotspot for outbreaks. Finally, Children's Hospital (1000 beds) is located over the hill from Shadyside in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. The majority of "infected" would be traveling "downhill" from Oakland into the Downtown area.

The South Side is segregated from Downtown by the Monongahela River (the Monn). This area includes the FBI Headquarters (on East Carson Street) and the River Terminals as well as the CSX Train Terminal. It is separated from Downtown by 10 bridges. I see the NG having to destroy these bridges to cut off the advance of the Infected from Downtown. I could see a concerted effort to preserve the South Side as there would be only ONE hospital to worry about (Upper Saint Claire Hospital). The major routes South out of the South Side are Rt 51 South (to Uniontown), Rt 88 South, I376 W/I279 S (to Beaver Valley & the Airport). The ARCOM units out of Oakdale would be a welcome addition to the local containment forces.

I will continue my posting after I unload.
First of all: thank you for this effort. The module is very inspirational and fun, but it is also lacking in pragmatic information for a campaign such as mine. Overall, you have enormously helped in providing that. Each of your entries provides a potential set of ideas for encounters. For Pittsburgh, at the very least this entry provides reasons why a lot of NG are tied down in this area.

I will comment on the other entries after.
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