NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: This is basically the IC thread. You can start out by RP'ing arrivals and meetings, but the actual battle will take place in a second IC thread, to be set up on the planned start date, October the 24th. If you're looking for the OOC thread, it's Here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=502282).)

IC:

Innsbruck, Austria

Gerhard, mind it. I might be Van Luxemburgian aswell, but I'm referee. I will not allow cheating. Got that? Daniël Waldmann stood up in Gerhard Klein's luxurious office, after having complained about Klein's plan to use Mariniers to drop behind the OPFOR starting points, outside the battle area.

Then I'll have to cancel that plan. Too bad. General Klein said, while seated on his leather chair, behind a desk which incorporated a 19" TFT monitor, showing the logo of the Regional Command Austria. Meanwhile, General-major Daniël Waldmann had walked to the door, and had opened it.

I'll warn you again, Klein. One mistake and I'll throw you out. it's as easy as snapping my fingers. We got to give the right example, since we're the hosts. I'll be watching you even better than the others. It was clear Waldmann was holding back his fury, and was trying not to shout.

Es is ihren Wahl, Herr Waldmann (It's your choice, Mister Waldmann)

Keine Deutsch, Ja? Wir mussen English sprechen, nicht, Herr Klein? (No German, yes? We must speak English, not, Mister Klein?)

Whatever you wish, General-Major Klein said calm, but the door already slammed before he had finished his sentence.

On the hallway, Daniël Waldmann took the stairs down, and quickly passed several floors, where Military personnel was all preparing the MILEX battles. It wasn't his personnel, since these troops were busy with the Van Luxemburgian strategics, and he was part of the Arbitrage.

He left the building by the front entrance, and quickly got into his waiting Mercedes-Benz E-Class, which had been parked there by a valet a few minutes before. The car had to use it's four-wheel drives and Anti-Lock brakes to prevent the car from slipping on the spot, while the car drove away.

His office was only a few kilometres away, and he had reached it in several minutes. While his car was parked by one of the valets, he got inside the 3-story office building, which was permanently guarded by 2 men in full uniform. They both saluted as Waldmann walked past, and he saluted back. He immediately walked to his office, without greeting the receptionist, and sat down on a sofa conveniently placed on the opposite side of his desk. He accessed his PC by saying his password, and immediately requested his secretary. She also used the video-conferencing options to speak to him, while kindly asking what she could do for him.

Gutenmorgen, General-Major. Wass kan Ich tun für Sie? (Good morning, General-Major. What can I do for you?)

Morgen Anna. Ein Kaffee, bitte. Oh, eine Memo: aufmerksam sein mit General Klein, er ist ein Falschspieler. Danke. (Morning Anna. One Coffee, please. Oh, a Memo: Watch General Klein, he's a cheater. Thanks.)

(OOC: This was more of a filler, no Van Luxemburgian part of the exercise will cheat.)

Lt. Gomer Pyle Skivinski watched...

As troops marched off their boats and onto the dockside, though he was given only the command of approxomately a third of the Hurtian deployment, the task he faced was still daunting, first he would make sure everyone was propperly equipped for the Milix exercise, so as to prevent any tragic loss of life because some jock thought it was a live fire exercise like the ones back home.

The horses gave little trouble, but some were a bit uneasy on unfamiliar soil, others, like the men riding them, were stone faced veterans of warfare, and looked as if they would kill you if you gave them the chance.

He passed the day reading old news of combat abroad, including a casualty report from The World Soviet Party:
1 slightly burned coffee maker
1 badly bruised banger
1 Trampled target backstop (dead)

He tried to see the humur in the fact that they landed nearly 1 million men into the rear area of the enemy and took so few casualties that they bothered to count how many bangers they bruised...

Though he wondered what the target backstop would be used for unless they ran out of "targets" to shoot on their real war across the sea. And how do you 'kill' a target backstop?

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=11711033#post11711033

Near München

General Gerhard Klein had arrived only recently, and was now concentrated on a map of the area.

I think we should put our Mechanised Brigade....

Sir, High Command on the line.

Oh, heck, what is it now?

Klein took the field telephone from a soldier that had delivered it, which walked away immediately, after having saluted.

General Klein, how can I help?

Goodmorning General Klein, this is Minister of Defence Dermont.

Klein had to resist, because he almost saluted while on the phone.

Yes, Sir, how can I help?

Listeneisse participates in the Exercises, correct? They got some interesting Anti-Tank Missiles. My experts have seen the hull of an AMX-30 AuF-1 as a great alternative to mount those missile launchers on. We're writing up a request right now, but we need your men to cooperate with the Listeneissese. Pull out some of your mechanics, we already got two hulls on a shipment, including all the extra parts. We'll contact you with further details. Have a good exercise, General Klein.

Bye, Mister Dermont... Klein threw the horn down, and immediately called out some of his men.

Okay, Ladies and gentlemen, there are two AMX-30 AuF-1 hulls coming down here. The Listeneissese will be sending our a troop of men and a few missile launchers. Minister Dermont was vague about this, but we'll be contacted.

Luxembourg


Van Luxemburgian Ministry of Defence, Official Communiqé

To: Listeneisse MoD, COMKLEF

Sirs, Ma'ams,

We have information about your missile systems, named LOSAT. We are very interested in the concept of hypervelocity Anti-Tankmissiles, and we would like to have a demonstration of this weapon. Seeing we are currently in the same exercise, it was appropriate for us that we could get a demonstration there. We have cleared the Schwäbische Alb Shooting Range, so we could get a decent demo. We are planning to mount the weapon on an AMX-30 AuF-1, which is originally an Self-Propelled Artillery weapon. We have removed the turret, and we ask the Listeneisse Army if they're able to send a few experts to demonstrate the weapon and check the hull if it's suitable to mount the missiles. We await your answer,

Ministry of Defence,
Luxembourg, Van Luxemburg.

Two huge transports arrived in the Van Luxemburg docks, escorted by several Kirov-class heavy cruisers. The warships would not participate in the wargames themselves, but merely escorted the transports, lest one of Kahanistan's numerous enemies sink them.

The transports unloaded an entire army of 100,000 Republic Guards under the command of General Robert Hoffman, a veteran of the Freekish war who had commanded the first line of defense at the beachhead. He was eager to prove his mettle and repair the damage done to his reputation.

The soldiers who exited the transport were wearing Interceptor body armor and insignias, and carrying TAR-21 assault rifles. Some had Javelin anti-tank rocket launchers or RPG-29's, but most carried only basic equipment.

As the troops marched out, large numbers of heavy armored vehicles rolled out; tanks, Humvees, and mobile air defense artillery. The real beasts of the Kahanistanian military were the 210mm Al Fao heavy guns, capable of damaging naval warships too close to the shoreline in addition to being devastating artillery in ground combat.

The huge, flagrant display of military armaments signaled that Kahanistan was a powerful force on the ground, and they would not give ground easily.

General Oliver Berenevsky held up the field glasses and focused on the huge transport zepps bringing in his troops. They poured of the transports and they took off again, headiong back to Ollieland. He marvelled at the organisation of his men as they congregated by company and readied their vehicles to move. The Air Force units had already landed at their designated airfields and would soon be combat operational. He turned to his assistant, a young Captain, and started to bark orders.

"Three things, Smith. Firstly, I want a command post set up with direct communications to the Luxemburgian command post, the commanders of the forces from Wingarde, DMG and Kahanistan, and my four divisional commanders. Secondly, I want a meeting scheduled for two hours, to be attended by my 4 Brigadiers, all 13 Colonels and the 4 Majors from the independent Battalions. Better include the section Commander and the three Group Commanders from the Air Force as well."

Captain Smith was furiously making notes before he realised the General had stopped speaking.

"And thirdly, Sir?"

The General broke out into a wide grin. "Thirdly, whats for dinner, Smith?"

Trieste, Italia
45° 39' N, 13° 47' E

KLEF had decided to use the Free Port of Trieste as its port of embarcation, as it was the major port on the North Adriatic for Ro-Ro and container vessel traffic. The location put a number of cities within a 500 km radius, including Zurich, München and Wien.

Were this a "shooting war," such an embarkation would be tantamount to suicide. The official position of the KLEF commanders was that the actual story would have been a landing south in Italy with Trieste being taken by a land offensive. There was simply no reason to play out that element of the "story" of the pre-wargame advances in the OPFOR v. VL scenario.

Many ships had been put into service to carry the one hundred thousand troops to the Grand Duchy. Specially chartered cruise ships had been turned into troop transports, capable of carrying 5,000 soldiers at a time.

Over a hundred vessels dotted the bay. A kilometer of quays were busy with the unloading of troops and equipment.

The international airport was offloading even more troops. A major problem Listeneisse was running into was air basing. Where should they be flying their forces out of? How many runways would they have? What sort of sortee rate could they sustain?

Lord General Mordrains Orberica maintained a calm, stoic demeanor, not revealing his deeper thoughts. He had been informed that in the midst of the operation, some civilian bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defense had agreed to turn the wargames into an arms exposition.

Though he was not happy with it, he had agreed to assign a detatchment of LOSAT anti-tank launch vehicles to perform a live-fire technology demonstration for the Grand Duchy's consideration.

He had a feeling it would lead to a slippery slope. Once word got out, soon everyone's profit-minded nose would sniff out the chance to make a shilling. "MILEX" would soon become known as "MILEXPO" if it turned into an arms merchant's chance to hawk his wares.

Yet the decision was not the General's to make. He complied with the request.

Instead he turned his gaze to the maps he had on the conference table before him. He was still concerned about the actual start line. Each kilometer would make a difference for both the VL defenders and the OPFOR. There had seemed to be some problems with agreements on where both conventional as well as special forces would begin, and he wanted to get that settled before they were playing checkers with the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and airmen. The position of air basing was a grave concern. Most of the bases in Northern Italy were directly on what would be seen as the 'front line' of the scenario. They would clearly be in range of enemy air sortees and land-based cruise missile strikes.

"Please pass along my greetings to General Klein and General-Major Waldmann, would you? I would like to get this matter cleared up before we have forces stretched too far up the roads."

The disposition of the rest of OPFOR along a front line was also troubling him. He sent out word to find which of the forces were to take which sectors of frontage.

KLEF was stretching from Trieste towards Venezia. There was then the frontage from Venezia to Verona, Verona to Milano, Milano to Torino, and from Torino to the edge of the sector.

The Verona sector would be responsible for the main push up the road towards Trento, Bolzano and München. The Trieste sector would be responsible for the push towards Graz or Salzburg from the east. The Milano sector would be responsible for the drive towards Zurich. Torino would be responsible for moving on Geneva and Bern.

What he wanted to know was where the other nation's commanders wished to position their troops. He had no desire to shove a nation in a place it did not want to go, so he looked for their input first.

_____

To: Commanders, OPFOR
From: Lord General Orberica, Commander KLEF (COMKLEF), Commander OPFOR (COMOPFOR)

Your requests needed for sectors of frontage. Unless otherwise requested, KLEF will take Trieste-Venezia sector.

We then need:

Venezia-Brescia (center Verona and routes north).

Brescia-Novara (center Milano and routes north).

Novara-French Border (center Torino and routes north).

Please reply immediately with your chosen sector of operations.

OOC: Will type up an introductory pose when I'm not so pressed for time :) But I just wanted to mention I'll be taking the Venezia-Brescia Front, and will off-load my troops on the mainland side of Venezia. If anyone can tell me of an airport or airbase in that sector that I could take adavantage of, I'd apperciate it. :)

ooc: There is an airbase right in San Angelo, but it is a repair facility in the real world. Vincenza is also an overhaul center. I'm not finding much in the way of good fighter bases up northeast. Cervia is closest, with basing in real life for only one F-16 squadron. VL, we need a good list of air bases to be able to take the many wings that we're going to be using. I can use Trieste's commercial airport, I suppose, but we'll need more than that.

Venice, Italy

Dozens of large S3-class transport ships populated Venezia's seaport's piers, and were unloading tank after tank, soldier platoon after platoon, for hours on end. Countless Federal Air Force aircraft roared overhead as they streaked towards their assigned airbases in Germany.

General Heinrich Rickenbacker, commander of the Federal Army units involved in the excercises, oversaw the off-loading of all the equipment and men. A beautiful city, and luckily this wasn't a real war. It'd pain him to destroy such a historical place. He was reviewing a map of the battle area, encompassing all of Switzerland and Austria, plus a small portion of southern Germany and northern Italy.

The Federal Army had planned setting up base camps in the vicinity of Freiburg and Passau, in Germany near the Swiss and Austrian border, respectively. Airborne and mountain units would start from the Freiburg base camp, whereas the most vehicle-heavy elements, namely the mechanized, armoured and artillery units would be based at the Passau camp.

Once all the equipment, vehicles and personnel had finished off-loading, they were organized in their respective brigades and other formations and split up in two convoys, one heading eastward on the E70 and the other westward on the E64. Both groups had several hours of driving ahead of them. Strategic evaluation and planning would take place once they had arrived to their corresponding base camps.

OOC: This is the last OOC post in the IC thread, preferably. Plus, Scramble.nl shows the reader the normal peacetime occupation. These limits can be stretched in wartime, and so is MILEX.

The list:

(Overhaul means that they can take, let's say, 92 aircraft.)

OPFOR
Cameri-AFB, Overhaul
Piacenza AFB, 92 Aircraft
Linate AFB, 48 Aircraft (RL Helicopter base, but they got two runways.)
Ghedi AFB, 92 Aircraft
Vicenza AFB, Overhaul
San'Angelo, Overhaul
Istrana-Treviso AFB, 92 Aircraft
Rivolto AFB, 48 Aircraft (RL Helicopter Base, but they got one runway)
Venaria Reale, 48 aircraft (RL helicopter Base)
Casarsa della Delizia, 48 aircraft (RL helicopter Base)
Volpiano-Torino, 92 Aircraft
Villanova, 24 aircraft
Bergamo, 92 aircraft
Genova, 92 aircraft
Bologna, 92 aircraft
Venezia, 92 aircraft
Trieste, 92 aircraft
Milano-Malpensa, 92 aircraft

is 1320 aircraft spots available on or near the starting line.

All AFB's south of the line may also be used. It is accepted they all house 92 aircraft.

VL Side
Laupheim AFB. 48 aircraft
Lechfeld AFB, 92 aircraft
Erding, Overhaul
Landsberg AFB, 92 aircraft
Memmingen, 92 aircraft

By high exception, due to shortage of airbases, Colmar AFB in France will be handed over to the VL Side.
Colmar AFB, 92 aircraft

München, 92 aircraft
Donaueschingen, 24 aircraft
Lahr, 48 aircraft
Freiburg, 48 aircraft

is 628 aircraft spots avilable on or near the start line.

Airfields up north can be used, it is accepted they all can house 92 aircraft.

As you all can see, OPFOR has a great advantage at this moment. I haven't been including regions with them, as it's very hard to see which belongs to which region. (for OPFOR's defence regions, I mean)

From: General-Major Daniël Waldmann, MILEX Arbitrage (d.waldmann@marechaussee.vl)
To: All MILEX Participants, Commanders. (outgoing_mail@milex.vl)
Subject: Pre-MILEX Meeting

Ladies and Gentlemen,

MILEX is starting soon, and to clear the latest obstacles out the way, we have reserved the Barocksaal in the Hotel Europe Tyrol, in Innsbruck, Austria. This Five-star hotel, in the middle of the Battle area, will be the scene of the last meetings before the exercise starts. This is to discuss the Rules of Engagement and to ask questions, either to the Organization staff, or to the visiting commanders. OPFOR and VL Sides will be meeting together, and exchange the last wishes before the exercise starts, plus providing a platform to discuss deployments.

We wish to welcome you in the Hotel Europa Tyrol tomorrow at 11 o 'clock.
(OOC: which is, about, now. :p )

Signed,

Daniël Waldmann,
General-Major of the Marechaussee.
MILEX Organisation.

Hotel Europa Tyrol, Innsbruck

The area was calm, and traffic around the building was greatly reduced. only traffic with a destination in the area was allowed, and on several locations, police cars were parked to monitor traffic. Around the Hotel, several undercover cars of the IVD, Van Luxemburg's Intelligence and Security Service, were ready to immediately assist the security troops inside the building. The MILEX organisation was cautious, since several high-ranked officers would be visiting the hotel. Two Rafale jetfighters were ready at Innsbruck-Kranebitten, with the crew awaiting to be ready to go in several minutes.

The first one to arrive was Daniël Waldmann himself. For this special occasion, his Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI Diesel with M-plate (From Marechaussee) was piloted by a driver, while Waldmann was finishing his read on the Hotel's extensive history. The vehicle halted gracefully at the main entrance, and the two ceremonial guards saluted, while putting their JK-13 Assault Rifles, modified SIG 550's, to the ground. General-Major Waldmann saluted aswell, and while his car drove to the parking, his ID was checked by two IVD agents inside the building, before performing a full scan with a metal detector. Waldmann was asked to hand them his pistol, aswell as his service knife. As he walked on, he was directed to the Barocksaal, a large room of approximately 162 square metres large. He wondered about the room's extensive decorations, before he got seated at a desk facing the large U-shaped table. Next to him, two other chairs awaited, for both his secretary and his warrant officer. He deployed his laptop meanwhile, and connected to the wireless LAN network laid across the room. Seconds later, his warrant officer and secretary came in, both carrying a glass of fine Austrian wine.

You aswell, Daniël?

Waldmann's warrant officer asked, while pointing at his glass. It was very unusual to say Sir to somebody in the Army you work with everyday, as it was considered "stiff" and "Hard to Execute" by the High Command.

No, thanks, I'd like a glass of water. No alcohol for me during work.

Whatever you want. his warrant officer answered, while ordering a glass of mineral water.

Some half an hour later, as the three had finished preprations and had linked up PC's to play a game of World War II strategy.

You're losing this, Daniël. Bet on it for 10 Euro?

Better not, I think Anna will be beating both of us, Marc.

Marc, Daniël's warrant officer, looked over to Anna, which was very concentrated with her strategy. He then glanced at Daniël and nodded, before all three were forced to look up by a shout from the doors of the room.

Ha! Armchair Generals! I bet I'll beat you all!

General Klein walked into the room, while spreading his arms as a sort of greeting.

Didn't think so Gerhard. I was just beaten by my secretary.

Waldmann looked at the end screen, which showed a high score for Anna.

Maybe you should let her do your work, so you can be the secetary! But anyway, we'll just have to wait for the rest, isn't it?
Klein laughed, before seeing the glass of wine on Marc's table.

Can you get me the same? I'm almost dryed out.

Maybe I should, Gerhard, Maybe I should.... Anyway, the waitress should be on the way with your drink.

Lord General Orberica and a few members of his staff arrived by helicopter. The General had hoped to hold such discussions by teleconference, but Van Luxemburg was always a stickler for hospitality and personal relations.

To make matters more annoying for the commander of KLEF, there was a member of the Ministry of Defense that had come along to act as a liaison in regards to the technology demonstration of LOSAT. In deference to the civilian leadership, the General kept his objections to himself.

The representative of the MoD was one Undersecretary Augustus de Lyonesse. A rather dashingly-dressed fellow, younger in years, and utterly out of his depth in military affairs. He was a salesman, through and through. Beside him he had a specialist from the LOSAT programme, a Major who had been flown in from the Wasteland Proving Grounds.

Staff members of the Royal Army's field divisions and Air Force in the General's entourage were somewhat bemused at their presence, but followed the Lord's lead in terms of decorum.

They filed into the hotel and on into the meeting room.

Lt. Gomer Pyle Skivinski attended the Hotel meeting in Innsbruck.

For his report on the status of his unit, he merely replied:
"My men are progressing towards their assigned destinations as expected, and are fully outfitted with MILES combat simulation equipment, and have been brief on te rules for engagement.

However, our airborne forces have a few questions, how are we going to simulate EMP, obscrants, and other countermeasures?"

The Commander of KLEF had to concede there were special tactics that needed to be able to be simulated. If obscurants, EMP, radio jamming, or GPS jamming was to occur, all parties needed to agree on how this was to be effected. Either with real countermeasures, or with declared agreements to shut off electronics at times agreed to by game marshals.

There were safety concerns, as well as needs for verisimilitude of true combat conditions. Lord General Orberica curiously listened to the response from Van Luxemburg.

Innsbruck, Austria

Three WR-4T Field Ranger multi-purpose helicopters entered Innsbruck's airspace, closely protected by a flight of WF-27 Firebolts. A few minutes later, the choppers descended on the Hotel Europe Tyrol and touched down on the helipad. Several senior officers from every Wingardian unit involved in the excercise appeared from the helos' passenger compartments. General Rickenbacker and Lt. General Stelling, commanders of the Federal Army and Federal Air Force elements, respectively, were at the head of the officer contingent.

The group made its way down the stairs to the Barocksaal, the meeting room of the hotel. Once there, Generals Rickenbacker and Stelling glanced around for the Van Luxemburgian commanders, headed towards them once spotted and then introduced themselves in German.

"Herr Waldmann, a delightful place. I am General Heinrich Rickenbacker of the Federal Army of Wingarde, and this is Lieutenant General Tobias Stelling from the Federal Air Force. We are pleased to meet you, and have much to plan if we wish to emerge victorious in this excercise." Stelling nodded, Rickenbacker grinned and offered his hand to be shaken by the allied officer.

Daniël Waldmann checked his laptop first, and an image was projected on a screen in the room. It was a small part of the Rules of Engagement which had been in the Briefing.

As you can see, we forbade the use of GPS and EMS jamming. EMP can also jam EMS, which is Radio and Air Traffic Radar, so it is forbidden to use, in the interest of safety. Countermeasures can ofcourse be used, countermeasures such as chaff, flares and other equipment, which will be no problem at all. They will all be simulated by the MILEX simulation systems.

After that, Waldmann stood up, and shook hands with the Wingardian commanders. He introduced them to General Gerhard Klein.

Ah, pleased to meet you, gentlemen. I might want to introduce General Gerhard Klein, he's the Commanding Officer of the VL Side. I'm just referee, don't pay attention to me. He laughed, while General Klein also shook hands with the two Wingardian Officers.

Welcome!

Skivinski was a little displeased, as such a ruling set his forces at considerable dissadvantage.

"Can we then simply simulate some form of chaff that wrecks simulated missile guidance, and and simulated autocannon fire control systems utterly then? Forget about the simulated EMS and GPS repricussions, we'll assume those won't happen dfor some strange reason. We'll even drop our larger EMP air defense shells from the simulation."

He still had the idea of simulating regular chaff and flares, but he knew that those wouldn't be able to achieve desireable reasults, but it would be better than nothing.

(OOC: he's asking for the peolple running the Fire data computers to erase the guidance and set the missiles on ballistic trajectory and inform the pilots to turn off the electronic gunsights and HUDs when a simulated EMP is present, and ignore all other effects, large 15 mile EMP shells will not be used [never would have anyways, as those can only be delivered in special bombs or from super heavy artillery [which due to ban on railgun esque systems, don't exist in this RP])

Waldmann sat down after he greeted the Wingardian officers, and listened carefully to Skivinski. He then whispered with his warrant officer and secretary, before taking out a phone.

MILEX HQ, This is Daniël. Yes. I'm in the conference, yes. Listen, We got a suggestion to simulate EMP by switching off guidance systems and electrical systems, is that possible? Yes? Okay, thanks.

He laid the phone down, and looked up again.

MILEX HQ thinks that should do. Any objections to this proposal?

Waldmann glanced around the room, while awaiting the commander's answers.

"Thank you for accepting my offer, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be needed by my men."

Skivinski gets up to leave.