Securing your position...

[StainlessSteelCynic]

All of the information presented here is very good. However, how do you translate all of that to a built-up city environment such as New York City, where Kalos has his game set? The principles are the same but the execution is different in a city.
Not a lot of land immediately available for agriculture, lots of highrise buildings for observation of you by the enemy, those same highrise buildings obstructing your line of sight, lots of underground areas available for people to hide in or sneak up on you, lots of buildings/roads/tunnels channelling you as much as they do the enemy, a lot of material for making fires (for either setting you on fire or creating smokescreens etc. etc.), a lot of material for making walls or obstacles and if the enemy really wants to conserve ammunition, they can just drop rocks on you from on high.

[kalos72]

I can fortify Staten Island or Long Island fine I think with the same basic tactics as above considering I would have the huge benefit of them both being islands of course.

Where this topic developed from was the idea of perhaps moving the campaign to base of some area like the "Iron Triangle". Savannah or something similar. Lots of land, 3-4 major army bases, good road networks, good resources in those states. Seemingly, all the things I would need to survive and start rebuilding.

But then I thought about the descriptions canon used for these units and thought, how can they defend a 1500 acre base with 1000 men? And so the question formed...

[Matt W]

I had some similar thoughts when I was working on the history of Maxwell's Militia (a Morrow Project Encounter Group). This is the solution I developed to explain the origin of a feudal system with tanks

Artillery solves many of your problems. Self-propelled units are best, but towed pieces will also work.

1. Each tank, artillery piece, or mortar (or even something like the Mk19 grenade launcher) is assigned to an appropriately sized farming community.
2. The determination of "appropriate sized" depends on the range of the weapon. It should be able to hit anything within its area of responsibility. A little overlap is also desirable
3. All farming communities should have some form of (small) multi-story fortification. This could be built from scratch or be the result of modifying an existing building. They would probably look something like the PELE or PEEL towers of the Scottish Border region. Or maybe a Martello Tower. These towers would be a lookout,a place of refuge for local women/children and also serve as a command/control/communications position for the Artillery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele_tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martello_tower

4. Farmers, villagers, etcetera should be given light weaponry (shotguns and hunting rifles are OK), appropriate training and some way of communicating with the artillery - for directing fire against marauders
5. As well as Artillery, the military should maintain some form of highly mobile "Quick Reaction Force" that will respond to any incursion. Tanks, APCs and SP Artillery are great for this role but horse cavalry might be used.

[Matt W]

This article might be interesting for a T2K campaign

http://www.journeytoforever.org/garden_con-mexico.html

[Legbreaker]

One thing that does need to be kept in mind is if you're had enough time and manpower to develop the defences?

Would the location come under attack the moment the mere rumour of food leaked out, say as the seeds were being planted and only days after moving into the area?

How much labour is available for construction before the starving hordes arrive?

[kalos72]

Thats not so much a problem as I can work around the details there some. But sine Staten Island is uninhabited for the most part, should be an easy entry. Secure the bridges...watch the river. Done deal.

But the road I would like to takes this topics is more towards where would YOU drop anchor?

NYC Area - Two of the largest islands in the world to fortify and plant crops on, we are looking at almost 1500 sq mi total. Great ports/docks/drydocks. Tons of close salvage. Access to the great fishing areas on the Atlantic coast. Morale issue of repopulating and rebuilding one of the largest and best known of all US cities. But its very urbanized so alot of labor would be needed to clear land. Local population according to canon of almost 500k.

Iron Triangle - Large tracts of empty land. Many military bases to utilize as needed. Not many nuke sites. Already have military units en place to assist. More rural, less urban spawl to deal with in most areas.

[kalos72]

Here is a question for securing an area more so then a position/cantonment.

Just because I have a secure FOB to an area, what ways does that base exert control over the surrounding area?

Patrols sent out daily over 2-3 square mile area, is that large enough? Reaction forces to marauders being sighted/reported in the area? Artillery response to above attacks?

I am getting the idea that in T2K the only area you control is the area you have troops/bases in. So the more area I want, the more bases/resources/manpower I need to have to spread around.

[jester]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

All of the information presented here is very good. However, how do you translate all of that to a built-up city environment such as New York City, where Kalos has his game set? The principles are the same but the execution is different in a city.
Not a lot of land immediately available for agriculture, lots of highrise buildings for observation of you by the enemy, those same highrise buildings obstructing your line of sight, lots of underground areas available for people to hide in or sneak up on you, lots of buildings/roads/tunnels channelling you as much as they do the enemy, a lot of material for making fires (for either setting you on fire or creating smokescreens etc. etc.), a lot of material for making walls or obstacles and if the enemy really wants to conserve ammunition, they can just drop rocks on you from on high.

A urban enviroment! EASILY!!!!!

You have the advantage as it being an island. And, it is your home territory! You can set up your own LP/OPs, set up your own snipers, machineguns and rifle teams in the high points and key positions. They can be there first thus prepared. Remember, in urban fighting it is always in the defenders favor. And in the T2K world there will be no surplus of assault troops and supporting fire to be the battlefield force multiplier that it is now.

After all, is not a building just another high point almost as good as a hill. And if you have fortified it or prepared it you would have some escape routes, hidden routes of travel where you can move unseen. And you could even drop things on the enemy. From hornets nests to ruble to flaming liquids.

You can also set up avenues of aproach thus channeling the enemy to areas of your choosing. Rig the bottom floor of a building so that if someone enters ruble rains down on them. Or, it looks like ruble, but, it is a covering for a pit of stakes or even a pit with steep sides and water! Ah it was once an underground garage.

And wide streets with ruble from colapsed buildings are natural berms and trenches. Ever try to run to the top of a tailings pile, or sand pile, or ruble pile? Its is very taxing.

As for where to grow crops, parks, front and back yards, vacant fields. Alot of the areas where there were suburbs would have older wooden homes, these homes that have been damaged can be used for stakes for stake traps, building new homes and buildings and firewood. And the empty lots can now be used as garden plots. We should go with primative hortavulture using what primative peoples do, a couple stalks of corn, with some beans to grow around the stalk and something for ground cover like squash. Figure you have 40 such combinations in the front yard and another 40 in the backyard, each bunch has half a dozen plants of each type and you would have enough to produce a years worth of rations.

Another place, vine type crops like grapes, musk mellons, squash and cucumbers and peas and such grown up the sides of buildings and from the balconies from buildings, oh yeah and tomatoes too!

And of course using planters or even large plots of soil on the top of some of the larger buildings. Look at a Walmart, or a Best Buy, those are rather large flat areas. Put in planter boxes in rows of about 10 feet wide going the length of the roof and you have some rather large growing areas where you could probably grow grains for making bread.

As for underground areas. AWESOME! Your people and forces can manuver unseen to safety or to hit an enemy in the rear. You can also flood some of the areas. Encourage the myth of alligators in the sewers of New York. Make it actualy happen! And all maner of traps, again put traps, spike traps, falling traps, net traps...oh boy oh boy all kinds of traps!

And these underground areas could be used to aquaculture as well growing algae, shrimp, fish, eels, crabs, snails and rats. And if the enemy tries to sneak through them, well, who here has ever been in a dark stagnant pool of water and had something or somethings swim past them or brush their legs? It does make you do a moral check! So, if the hostiles try to move through there, lol, and someone encounters something and there is alot of splashing or screaming, or they bail out and break through a sewer cover. And of course you would want to encourage the myth that alligators do lurk in the sewers now. Or, encourage a super rat that is overly large and agressive which I think would be fairly common in the post T2K world as they would have developed a taste for human and thus lost their fear. As well as super cats to deal with these super rats.

I do need to find a copy of the Armies of the Night, I can go so many places with it!

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

All of the information presented here is very good. However, how do you translate all of that to a built-up city environment such as New York City, where Kalos has his game set? The principles are the same but the execution is different in a city.
Not a lot of land immediately available for agriculture, lots of highrise buildings for observation of you by the enemy, those same highrise buildings obstructing your line of sight, lots of underground areas available for people to hide in or sneak up on you, lots of buildings/roads/tunnels channelling you as much as they do the enemy, a lot of material for making fires (for either setting you on fire or creating smokescreens etc. etc.), a lot of material for making walls or obstacles and if the enemy really wants to conserve ammunition, they can just drop rocks on you from on high.

From your take on the matter, it would seem that clearing out the "Bad Neighbors" in the nearby/overlooking buildings is a priority. Once done, however, the use of ziplines or removeable bridges/walkways would provide non-combat mobility between the buildings making up your complex.

Signalling (mirror/flash/flag/handsign) from deep inside a room to a room in a directly-adjacent building is nearly uninterceptible.

Dropping rocks on uninvited guests is a possibility as mentioned, but if the inhabitants melt down enough salvaged tire balance weights, they could remold the lead into dart-like shapes that could be tossed out by the handful off the top of the building, letting gravity be your ally.

Rooftop gardens/greenhouses can be constructed, and rooms with a southern exposure will also be prime sites for urban agricultural efforts. Composting vegetable wastes with waste paper (you know, all those tax records, credit card bills, and other now useless documents) will extend the soil and improve the crop yields. Rain water can be collected with canvas funnels suspended over the edge of the roof: irrigation and drinking water with a gravity feed. And the Canyon Effect of tall buildings upon the prevailing wind could be used to generate electricity to provide light to the green houses/growing rooms in off-season. And can you imagine the market's asking price of fresh herbs in the middle of winter? (mmm....rat sauteed with basil and garlic.)

My favorite idea about harvesting an urban resource is very quietly lowering or extending large nets across a building's broken windows, then making a loud noise, allowing the huge flocks of pigeons formerly inhabiting the building to fly right into your larder. If you save a few female pigeons from being dinner, you can set up an egg-production operation. If you can also figure our a way to stampede rats in a desired direction toward your snares/traps, you'll have an embarrassment of culinary riches!

Next thing you know, you'll be planning hunting trips into the sewers to catch those titanic alligators--that's some good eatin'!

[copeab]

A tethered hot air balloon would make a very good observation platform.