Morrow Logististics (Heavy)

[ArmySGT.]

There was always something missing from the Project documentation. There is Prime Base with all the materials there. There is Delta base with its automated system (lame inefficient floor plan and design). Then there are team caches and the unspecified Regional bases.

Getting the stuff somewhere. V-150s are poor cargo vehicles, Rangers are worse, and and XR-311 is overloaded with two rucksacks and a box of triscuits (tasteless wheat crackers for the Non-Americans).

So how to get stuff from one location to another? Well you could break down a load and move it a few boxes at a time.......... yeah right. The way to move it is by the ton in a standard load.

Much has been discussed about the ISO containers. The US Army loves them. Usually the 20 foot model, though the smaller 5 foot ISO cubes are common enough. I have deployed with 2 per platoon for all the bulk gear (B bag winter clothes, tent-age, camo nets, foot lockers,and other soft sides stuff) in one, and square or metallic odd like the pioneering kits, stoves, and all other items not carried by the individual onto the plane. The five foot cubes (Army Parlance ISO 90s) are commonly used to move Weapons, commo, and sensitive items to training centers in Conus and sometimes OCONUS too.

The Army loves them, Units love them, Commanders love them. Equipment arrives in a clearly marked boxes, weather proof, and materials are not liberated, re-allocated, acquired or whatever is the cover word for theft that day.

Loved so much so, that they have acquired means to use them and take them miles and miles in land from port of de-embarkation.

The US Army calls this the Palletized load system (PLS) because together with the US Air Force and some extent the US Navy has standardized around load configurations. Air Force load masters your prayers were answered after a fashion.

The PLS can be a flat pallet with one end or double ends. A 20 foot ISO can be attached to these pallets. These pallets are compatible with Air Force Cargo fleet aircraft (C-130, C-141, C5, C17).
http://www.tpub.com/content/constructionpaletizedsystems/TM-9-2320-364-10/css/TM-9-2320-364-10_40.htm

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/pls.htm
http://www.oshkoshdefense.com/products/17/pls#overview
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/ArmySGT_photos/Morrow%20Project/TM-9-2320-364-10_40_3.jpg
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/ArmySGT_photos/Morrow%20Project/PLS-unloading-containers.jpg
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/ArmySGT_photos/Morrow%20Project/PLSMidposition.jpg

In addition many items common in other styles, have been reconfigured to the dimensions of a 20 foot ISO container such as Generators, Water (reverse osmosis) treatment, power distribution, asphalt plants, cement plant, expandable shelters, petroleum fuel pods, and more in Engineering Mission Modules.

So this is the direction I think that the Morrow Project would take for its Logistics and Transportation needs.
1) Less personnel. The driver can drop off the loaded equipment without leaving the cab of the truck.
2) Less Vehicles. The truck is returning for more cargo while the pallet is unloaded instead of waiting to be unloaded. Multiple pallets can be stacked and returned together to be loaded again.
3) Modular support packages. Purpose designed and compatible with the carrier, the Truck does not need to be a dedicated one purpose (one trick pony it is not)
4) Morrow can design and build their own modules in 20 foot ISO container fashion. Cryo beds, bio-comp beds, HAAM suit support modules, Fusion power plants suitable for refugee camps, and more.

http://www.aarcorp.com/gov/Mobility/Shelters/Tactical_Mobile_Shetlers/PDFs/05-09-AES.pdf
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/ArmySGT_photos/Morrow%20Project/REVERSE_OSMOSIS_WATER_PURIFICATION_UNIT.jpg

http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_pls.php
http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_pls_m1076.php

A Regional base or redesigned Supply base may even do the loading and unloading further reducing the need for staff.
http://www.directindustry.com/prod/beumer-group-gmbh-co-kg/automatic-truck-loading-systems-6191-571923.html

There are cheaper civilian models to choose from. http://www.americanrolloff.com/hook-models.html

Discuss!

[Legbreaker]

I don't know a lot about Morrow Project, (know the basics, but never had the chance to read the background) but it strikes me that these modules may not have been developed in time to be used by MP.
What's the timeline look like for them?

[ArmySGT.]

Original Game WW3 begins on 18 November 1989 with a US strike on the Soviet Union after a war game simulation is accidentally fed into NORAD computer systems.

I have never heard of anyone playing an original game though. Most come later than 1989; so they can use newer, cooler toys. There was game written about where the PD set events as if the Cuban Missile crisis blew up into a nuclear exchange.

The copyright for the 3rd edition is 1980 and 1989 was in the future then, however most people want to play something with a start a little closer to present.

[ArmySGT.]

This here is another fine idea for the project.

This could combine rail freight, semi trucks (at terminals and as sort hauls), and ISO containers without the need to a large industrial terminal or cranes at the destination.

The Megaswing trail railway wagon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6QIh0LWdhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh3d5c9PU04&NR=1

[Father Fletch]

Good Ideas in this thread so far.

There are, in my experience, two ways to look at MP logistics (LOLgistics) and Supply Caches:
As written, which I have played, they are part of MP canonical lore. As a player and collector of everything MP my take is that all of the module authors had a common goal/theme that they developed. Mind you, I don't believe that they did this in concert or planned it out, but it was consistently developed across the various modules

Scarcity and Difficulty.


The modules used elements like "don't underestimate the locals" and "let your players think they are invulnerable and then teach them a lesson" frequently. Even finding a supply cache was supposed to be difficult with the Project Director being encouraged to allow players to find the cache location on their AutoNavs and then forcing the players at the table to look around or use their metal detectors to try and find the entry point to the cache. Dig it up and then figure out how to open it. Make it hard to get things out of the hole in the ground. Have it be raining or have them be under fire or being chased while they try to find it.

Frankly I always got a feeling that the authors were telling the players, "good luck punks!" And I think this was because the PCs were SUPPOSED to have it tough. This was not meant to be a gonzo Gamma World type of TEOTWAWKI, with high tech glossed over top of a fantasy world. It was supposed to make the PCs really have to do without, improvise, adapt and rebuild (not overcome, that is for Twilight 2K).

To that end, why make LOLgistics easy? Give them a handful of supply caches, let them struggle to find them, make it hard for them to move the stuff out of there, make it so they routinely lose their toys, make them sorry they ever went into the freeze tubes, don't even give them a home to go back to! Think about a one use, can't close the door hole in the ground that says GET OUT. Think about the modules or adventures start with the bolt hole already compromised.

This is really useful from a PD/GM/DM perspective: they HAVE to leave the bolt hole and go find adventure, they HAVE to make friends locally for the sake of eating more than 3-months out of the hole (add up how many rations are actually in a standard loadout), and one good firefight against the Imps/Slavers/Krell Scouts etc. later they HAVE to go find a cache to top off their magazines and replace the NVGs. MP modules are what D&D gamers would call a "killer dungeon." Not just because of the danger offered by the opposition but also the risk from the environment and the constant admonishment from the authors to not let the players off the hook for bad choices.

From my personal observations of groups that have played MP using the original modules some start off as "we come from the past with boom sticks-bow before my might!" and don't really try to get into the rebuilding mission. For those groups that do start the rebuilding mission the job is hard but do-able if they enlist the help of the locals.

Again, MP LOLgistics as written are a tool for the PD to create adventure and keep the PCs on a leash. If you are feeling generous you can let them find a cache with a minimum of difficulty, but ambush them on the way back to Riverton with their haul. That is an easy day in MP.

The second way to look at MP LOLgistics is what is done on this and other discussion boards; the "real world" way.

How would we do this if we knew we only had 25 years to prepare.
What kind of efficiencies would we use?
How would we plan for recon and rebuild knowing almost everything else was destroyed?

Frankly, salting small teams all over the country with no secure rebuilding base doesn't make as much sense as a moderate number of regional bases with large stocks of supplies and a wealth of expert and specialist staff that can be well defended and act as a hub for rebuilding. IMHO of course.

This thread makes sense, and other than the timeline issues with when CONEX containers became ubiquitous, and if the XR311 should actually be the HMMWV (which evolved from the XR311) it makes sense to suit the MP LOLgistics to your style of play. In the "real world" MP absolutely would use CONEX containers, cargo trucks, multiple bases for PCs to go to or come from, etc. But, it will be a different game to some degree.

[ArmySGT.]

Hey thanks for the reply.

I can think that may be at the heart of the the reason for the MP lack of popularity.

The Missions are damn near impossible. On the order of one chance in one hundred. People hate losing. The Players do not want to be turned away in defeat.

My efforts here don't actually mean to run counter to the Canon of the Material provided. However I am a believer in filling on the holes and firming up the source material.

Is this where I elaborate that my idea is that the source of material for the Project beyond the immediate source materials for Team needs is................. WW2 Surplus.

The best PDs have built for them selves a wealth of source materials and source materials.

[ArmySGT.]

I meant to add I know that there is a reason to restrict the Teams supplies.

Keeps them Lean and Keep them hungry.

This keeps the Team adventuring and prevents them from settling down into Warlords.

Gets them out of the Bolthole.