Silver Shogun

[Webstral]

Badbru, I must apologize for not writing feedback for your ideas in my previous post. I offer the lame excuse that I needed a bit more time to digest your food slanted idea.

There are lots of good ideas in your post. I think I’ll several, though I’ll scale them back a bit. I have a couple of ideas. I may have Tokugawa own a piece of the company that supplies The Phoenix with its food items. Alternatively, I may have The Phoenix have an in-house operation that goes to all of the distributors, bypassing the usual middle men. I think it’s a good idea that Tokugawa have some idea of where the food all comes from and how much is really left at the usual distribution points when the military confiscates the lot. He could and should have an inside source at one or more of these warehouses. I also like the idea of him having some sort of connection with the drivers, who would be in a position to pass information to him.

A couple of ideas have matured a bit more. If Tokugawa becomes the chairman of the conglomerate of casinos on the Strip, and if he becomes responsible for management and defense of the Strip with his own security force, etc., then where are the boundaries drawn? I can’t help noticing that the University of Nevada at Las Vegas is also very nearby. While the students will have gone home for the long weekend, the faculty and staff are going to be local residents. They won’t be on campus when the nuclear war catches up with CONUS, but they will be nearby. The facility and the faculty represent an invaluable resource. The campus will have unoccupied dorm rooms, while greater Las Vegas will become less and less tenable. If Tokugawa can extend his security zone to include the campus, and if he can get the faculty to move into the secure zone, then he will have a gained something really important.

The Strip is also very close to McCarran IAP. This is an obvious base of operations, since it is easily defensible and basically devoid of residents. I wonder if the Las Vegas government or Clark County government or both don’t move there early in the process or if they don’t go straight to Nellis. The people stranded there when the nukes start flying will have to be moved, of course.

[Badbru]

Rainbow Six and Webstral thanks for the kind words and by all means use or adapt anything you can. It's why I posted afterall.

Webstral, you seem fixated on the notion that the military will confiscate all the food, as seen in this quote

Originally Posted by Webstral

I think it’s a good idea that Tokugawa have some idea of where the food all comes from and how much is really left at the usual distribution points when the military confiscates the lot. He could and should have an inside source at one or more of these warehouses. I also like the idea of him having some sort of connection with the drivers, who would be in a position to pass information to him.

Yet in the following you also want him to have recieved some sort of legitimacy by the City, to be in some sort of unquestioned position of power atleast over a segment of the city, as seen here

Originally Posted by Webstral

A couple of ideas have matured a bit more. If Tokugawa becomes the chairman of the conglomerate of casinos on the Strip, and if he becomes responsible for management and defense of the Strip with his own security force, etc., then where are the boundaries drawn?

Have you considered the later happening before the former? That way he is "legitimately" in controll of, a segment atleast of, the City food distribution.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Badbru

Have you considered the later happening before the former? That way he is "legitimately" in controll of, a segment atleast of, the City food distribution.

I had not considered that idea. To be honest, I see the immediate seizure of food and fuel by the government as a foregone conclusion. If there are any preparations made by the government regarding nuclear strikes against CONUS, I believe seizure of food and fuel stocks will be at the top of the list. Not every scrap of either resource will fall into government hands on D+1. Private stocks of both probably will remain untouched by the government, unless the government knows about them and thinks obtaining them is worth the potential trouble. But fuel distribution points and warehouses, storehouses, and processing facilities will be well known to local governments and the local military leadership. I see food flowing from the government controlled warehouses and other stockpiles through the hands of the chairman's organization to the people on the Strip. I'd be very willing to consider an alternative point of view, though.

Now I suppose it's possible that Tokugawa assumes his new position on the Strip prior to the organization of a city-wide rationing system. Even then, though, the best that could be said is that stores already inside the zone of control of the new chairman would be "let go".

[Targan]

Some sort of public relations coup would be a helpful addition to Tokugawa's narrative. Whatever it is would need to occur while everyone still has easy access to TV and radio broadcasts. If, in the months leading up to the TDM, Tokugawa did something that was lauded by the media across the state of Nevada, maybe even across the nation, various authorities including the military may seek to use him as an ally or co-opt him into their own PR plans. Then they find themselves outmaneouvered by Tokugawa, the master of spin, as he moves himself into a position of actual (not just puppet) prominence.

I freely admit I haven't come up with a suitable chain of events for him to achieve popular acclaim.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Targan

Some sort of public relations coup would be a helpful addition to Tokugawa's narrative. Whatever it is would need to occur while everyone still has easy access to TV and radio broadcasts. If, in the months leading up to the TDM, Tokugawa did something that was lauded by the media across the state of Nevada, maybe even across the nation, various authorities including the military may seek to use him as an ally or co-opt him into their own PR plans. Then they find themselves outmaneouvered by Tokugawa, the master of spin, as he moves himself into a position of actual (not just puppet) prominence.

I like this idea, but I'm going to use it for someone else. At the moment, I'm leaning towards having Tokugawa's image among the Nellis types come about as a result of his unusually high level of planning and involvement during the period of time leading up to Thanksgiving 1997. He knows many city officials because he and his staff were proactive in asking how things were supposed to evolve in the event that EMP knocked out the grid and other strikes destroyed the transportation system. (I suppose in that way Tokugawa is rather similar to Thomason in that they take getting ready for the worst case more seriously than the balance of their peers.)

I have been thinking that the immediate aftermath on the Strip have markedly different results for different hotels. The Phoenix, located at the southern end of the Strip very near Luxor, deals with the initial chaos much more effectively than most other casinos. There are challenges inside and outside that change Tokugawa and his staff in a major way; but with a plan in place and a superior security force, The Phoenix is able to protect its physical integrity and the lives of most of the guests. Not so everywhere on the Strip. One casino collapses in a catastrophic fire. Others suffer very significant damage. The situation really doesn’t get under control until forces out of Nellis arrive on the Strip. It does not escape the notice of the surviving casino owners that casinos protected by Tokugawa’s private security fared the best during the crisis. This is one reason for the rest of the casino leadership to pick him as the chairman of a new board governing the casinos, their assets, and the surviving guests as soon as order is restored on the Strip. The chairman or his designee work directly with the surviving government on matters like food distribution, head count, public health, physical security, and so on. The city folks tell Nellis that Tokugawa is a good egg with whom they’ve been working. At any rate, he’s a much better choice than the other options.

This makes me think that I need to do a little research on how this sort of thing is managed in real life. If there’s a major earthquake that knocks out power and throws the city back on its own resources, how are things set up so that the needs of the guests at the major hotels are met?

I’m thinking of changing the name of the casino to Phoenicia so I can use the name Phoenix Security for the private security company partially controlled by Tokugawa.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Webstral

This makes me think that I need to do a little research on how this sort of thing is managed in real life. If there’s a major earthquake that knocks out power and throws the city back on its own resources, how are things set up so that the needs of the guests at the major hotels are met?

If things in the US are anything like they are here, planning and structural engineering rules and regulations get tighter over time. If the Phoenix/Phoenicia was a very new casino, it no doubt incorporated all of the latest and greatest structural/safety/fire suppression/emergency power/water sewerage systems. That alone would make it all the more likely it would survive intact and functioning while the casinos around it fail and fall.

Then there's the targeted clientele. I've never visited Vegas but I'm guessing that some of its casinos market themselves to a much more affluent crowd than others. What if one of the Phoenix/Phoenicia's major selling points was that it had absolutely everything covered in terms of taking care of its favoured clients? ER-grade infirmary. Gen sets and fuel for weeks of uninterrupted power. Better than average water pumping and filtration from independent reservoirs. First rate air conditioning including air filtration. Michelin star rated restaurants with vast larders containing the very best in culinary ingredients. Maybe even tax breaks related to a reserve FEMA facility in the basement.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Targan

If things in the US are anything like they are here, planning and structural engineering rules and regulations get tighter over time. If the Phoenix/Phoenicia was a very new casino, it no doubt incorporated all of the latest and greatest structural/safety/fire suppression/emergency power/water sewerage systems. That alone would make it all the more likely it would survive intact and functioning while the casinos around it fail and fall.

Then there's the targeted clientele. I've never visited Vegas but I'm guessing that some of its casinos market themselves to a much more affluent crowd than others. What if one of the Phoenix/Phoenicia's major selling points was that it had absolutely everything covered in terms of taking care of its favoured clients? ER-grade infirmary. Gen sets and fuel for weeks of uninterrupted power. Better than average water pumping and filtration from independent reservoirs. First rate air conditioning including air filtration. Michelin star rated restaurants with vast larders containing the very best in culinary ingredients. Maybe even tax breaks related to a reserve FEMA facility in the basement.

Now that's an interesting idea.