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Thoughts on the update on the last page:
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May 14, 2017 15:52
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 02:34 |
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Three other thoughts of mine so I can stop posting every 30 seconds:
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May 14, 2017 15:59
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Davin Valkri posted:Still, why use F-22s as Super Reapers? Because he's not, this was a field test of their fully autonomous killbot software 
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May 14, 2017 15:59
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Davin Valkri posted:[*]Unmanned F-22s might explain how Tesla lost three of them. No need to worry about losses if you don't need to worry about pilots. Still, why use F-22s as Super Reapers? I told you, these newbies are all gonna have more money and hardware than sense. Ain't nothin' in the world stupider than a business visionary who just got into a new field.
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May 14, 2017 15:59
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power crystals posted:Three other thoughts of mine so I can stop posting every 30 seconds: There is no such thing as an export model F-22. The RAM skin in particular was decided to be unexportable, and after that there's not much point since it can't carry as much as our other export fighters. There is little point to blowing the Free State bridge as it can only antagonize the PRC and by extension the UN/world to the point that they may let the Chinese off the leash, at which point we're pretty likely to die in as many fires as possible.
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May 14, 2017 16:04
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Coffeehitler posted:There is no such thing as an export model F-22. The RAM skin in particular was decided to be unexportable, and after that there's not much point since it can't carry as much as our other export fighters. In our world, correct. In this world, since Yooper explicitly stated these to be export F22s...
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May 14, 2017 16:06
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Coffeehitler posted:There is no such thing as an export model F-22. The RAM skin in particular was decided to be unexportable, and after that there's not much point since it can't carry as much as our other export fighters. Yooper posted:Though one more faction is coming into the mix. A container ship arrived in South Africa two days ago along with a wing of the F-22 Export models. They lacked any logo except a dim gray T.
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May 14, 2017 16:06
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If China wants to go ham on our asses, they'll have to go through Apple and Tesla first. I mean, that's gonna happen anyways because Angola is obviously the flashpoint that starts the First Corporate War no matter what we do so Yooper has an excuse to break out all the high tech things in Chains of War, so why not take advantage of it? Back before the Corporate Overlords showed up China was an unstoppable monolith that we actually did have to worry about. Now that the two are playing off each other, though, we've got some breathing room. Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 16:12 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 16:07
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You're looking at this bridge thing the wrong way. Think like a politician. The bridge was built to launder a bribe from Angola to China. It getting blown up is a perfect cover for a "please leave" bribe. Both sides will be happy for the fig leaf.
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May 14, 2017 16:09
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I'd also like to add that if Yooper were an adversarial GM, he'd have the perfect chance to screw us over by sending the Raptors after us instead of Luanda. Blowing the bridge may result in an increased Chinese presence in our next op, but it shouldn't mean "the sky is now J-31s, game over".
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May 14, 2017 16:11
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Honestly, we all knew that Rohan wouldn't make it out of Angola alive. (A somewhat anti-climactic death kinda fits her story too, as sad as it is  ) Still, great mission! Could Colonel Musk be persuaded to sell us satellite photos of the Free State's command and communications centres before the final operation, Yooper? power crystals posted:
Everything that could be salvaged is probably on its way to China right loving now. I wouldn't be surprised if a nice man with a conspiciously American accent showed up and offered us a disgusting amount of money to sink some random cargo ship. PenguinSalsa fucked around with this message at 16:27 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 16:13
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Im inclined to hit the comm tower now, if only because it lets us control the narrative. Hit comms, release info about life conditions under Free State. Reddit posts, dysentary, people more concerned about waifu dolls than the Angolans, contractors being paid in Pepes and bitcoins. Lets gently caress up their reputation right before they come to sit at the table.
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May 14, 2017 16:14
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I really don't think it's wise to try going for Shadowban. Yooper is a fair GM, but I don't think he's going to pull punches if we start pissing off the UN with a goddamn Chinese CBG with a grudge and an excellent excuse lurking off the coast. We're good, but we're not "give a carrier and its escorts the middle finger and hope that one of the big fish will care enough to save our asses" good. We should focus on driving on to Luanda and only devote enough resources to stall/halt the Free State. We can always thumb our noses at the UN/China another time.
Soup Inspector fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 16:18
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The UN is even more toothless and limp-wristed in this grimdark future than it is today, the carrier battlegroup is 2 lovely ski-jump carriers way out on the end of their supply lines, and we've got Col. Musk and the 201st iProduct Sustainment Wing between us and the Chinese. Shadowban is risky, yeah, and it might make us look bad, but it utterly wrecks the Free State right before negotiations start which is more than worth it.
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May 14, 2017 16:21
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Also Comms tower next to bridge does not mean blowing up the entire bridge. Shadowban only hitting the comms link buildings is easier to repair but less aggressive.
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May 14, 2017 16:22
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Crazycryodude posted:I see that the only units (visible to us) holding the bridges into Luanda from our side are the Bulgarian armor. They've been severely depleted and must be able to see the writing on the wall, maybe we can work something out that doesn't involve them dying pointlessly to a rain of SDB's?
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May 14, 2017 16:23
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nothing to seehere posted:Also Comms tower next to bridge does not mean blowing up the entire bridge. The problem is that the microwave towers are just the backup system, the main communications line is a fiber-optic cable embedded in the bridge itself. Killing the towers does nothing without killing the bridge, and vice versa.
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May 14, 2017 16:24
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Crazycryodude posted:The UN is even more toothless and limp-wristed in this grimdark future than it is today, the carrier battlegroup is 2 lovely ski-jump carriers way out on the end of their supply lines, and we've got Col. Musk and the 201st iProduct Sustainment Wing between us and the Chinese. Leaving aside the physical dangers, the problem is that as you pointed out even if the UN is toothless it'll make us look like the bad guys. That in turn could end up making certain clients reluctant to hire us (could you see another Van Hoff wanting to hire mercs who intentionally hit a target on a neutral UN member state's sovereign territory?). This stuff isn't just going to affect the operational picture, it's also got the risk of hitting us in the wallet. e: You also seem to be assuming that the iPMC and Tesla will give a poo poo rather than just going "Meh, I guess this is Free State territory now" if we get hit hard. They don't give a drat as long as the people in charge of Angola aren't China, Tesla (in Apple's case), or the dictator. Soup Inspector fucked around with this message at 16:29 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 16:26
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Can we send someone to shoot at us from the bridge
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May 14, 2017 16:31
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Shouldn't we focus on the dictator? If we can storm the capital won't that be enough for the count, allowing him to enter the negotiation top dog? This way we maintain our reputation as a tight group of mercs!
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May 14, 2017 16:33
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Stago Lego posted:Shouldn't we focus on the dictator? If we can storm the capital won't that be enough for the count, allowing him to enter the negotiation top dog? This is what I'm thinking, but we'll probably need to devote some forces to keeping the Free State busy regardless. I think someone pointed out our position is currently a bit precarious w.r.t. the Free State's latest gains.
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May 14, 2017 16:34
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 Looks like Free State only has one mine left. So, Main group heads for capital, secondary group clear the way for the mine. They wont have much to negotiate with if its just African desert.  Like so. Blue group hits FS Radar, clears mine, returns to base Purple group clears mine, tags both airports, the radar and FOB, and we can begin runs on the capital if we have time. That gives us every mine on the map, and thats what the negotiations will be about. Loel fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 16:36
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Loel posted:Can we send someone to shoot at us from the bridge I got just the guy. Alternate plans - paradrop our mercs to cut the lines. This would involve sanitizing the airspace instead of dropping a few bombs. Ask Yooper to drop another "communication hub" target and say killing that will cut channels. After the strike we tell the Free State mercs their bosses are dead but we still have money on the barrel.
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May 14, 2017 16:45
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I've got an effort post coming later to spell out the situation on the ground. Refrain from any detailed planning until then. In regards to GM style : I have an idea for what needs to happen before the missions are even proposed. I mentioned in Discord I don't believe in symmetrical opponents. The Free State might not be our equal, they could be stronger or weaker, that's for us to decipher. For example we could have swung way east and driven all the way north to the Congo. What that would have done is debatable, but don't think everyone is our equal. I'm trying to walk a line between games as a puzzle and games as a simulation. There's no "right" way, but there might be wrong ways. Sure, you could tell me to shoot at the F-22's, but it will generate a response you might not like. Same with attacking a Chinese Carrier Group. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe it won't.
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May 14, 2017 16:47
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Yooper posted:Same with attacking a Chinese Carrier Group. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe it won't. 
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May 14, 2017 16:50
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Loel posted:
Honestly just running some CAS in the area near the sole Free State mine and allowing Von Hoff's forces to get a big enough push to make it to that mine is also a viable option. And while we haven't officially started the planning stages for this yet, I'd like to point out that we are really going to need Emergency ROEs for Tesla, Apple, or China showing up during the final op. There's basically a 100% guarantee at this point that the skies around Luanda are going to turn into the clusterfuck of the century as the opening shots of the First Economic War are fired so we really need to be ready for that.
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May 14, 2017 17:11
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This is why I had us make a concerted push for the mine in Knick Knack Paddywhack 
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May 14, 2017 17:14
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I would rather side with Tesla than Apple. One has autonomous robots, a Mars- (or ICBM) launch capability with reusable rockets and F-22s. The other one mainly makes phones. And Steve Jobs is not likely to be resurrected in this timeline to challenge Elon Musk, either. All hail Tesla! RIP to the fallen. You flew too close to the sun. And by sun I mean SA-11 battery. Somebody give me a cropduster and strap some rockets in the wings, maybe a .45 to shoot out the window. The Dictator will never know what hit him.
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May 14, 2017 17:14
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same, if only because the Tesla Loss Prevention division is likely as unprofitable as there cars are and we can snatch the f22s up if/when it goes under
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May 14, 2017 17:19
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Loel posted:
Although probably best to wait for Yooper to give us the full breakdown.
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May 14, 2017 17:22
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I think we can position ourselves and Hoff to be acceptable to both Tesla and Apple, and let the chips fall where they may against China. The nice thing about that is that Tesla doesn't want the dictator in and Apple doesn't care as long as Tesla and China don't get everything. That makes Hoff a viable compromise that already has most of the lithium and just needs a port. So the idea would be we work out a deal where both of them cooperate to get favored status by taking down Luanda and preventing us from getting creamed by air attack while we run a giant goddamn SDB train on the whole perimeter, both dictator and Free State to get us clear access to Luanda. We'd need fighter cover, but the F-22s are the premier fighters in the world unless they aren't LO, and even then they're super snazzy. Hopefully we present China with a fait accompli or close enough they have to back down as we deal the final blows to the dictator.
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May 14, 2017 17:37
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xthetenth posted:I think we can position ourselves and Hoff to be acceptable to both Tesla and Apple, and let the chips fall where they may against China. The nice thing about that is that Tesla doesn't want the dictator in and Apple doesn't care as long as Tesla and China don't get everything. That makes Hoff a viable compromise that already has most of the lithium and just needs a port. Yeah, I like that. Can we get a table with Count, Tesla, and Apple, and do all the horse trading before the capital falls? That way its a fait accompli to both China and the Free State. edit: sketched terms We identify each other's forces as friendly We identify Santos and Free State as hostile Goal is to secure all mines / capital under the Count's flag Tesla and Apple get most favored status (whatever that might entail) in the Lithium trade Loel fucked around with this message at 17:51 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 17:45
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 I've been in contact with Mbeke, Warlock, and I have a message from Von Hoff. The stress and schedule has gotten to Von Hoff and he's in ill health at the moment. The Provisional Minister Juan Joboco has stepped up as our contact while Von Hoff rests.  I spoke with Mbeke through a translator. He feels that there's no meat left on the Free State elephant and that the Dictator's elephant is short and fat. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but he looked quite sage-like as he said it. A part of me wanted to hand him an empty coke bottle, but I thought better of it. Logistically his forces are stretched but the Free State and Dictator haven' been able to interdict his lines. For this he is grateful and is sure with a nights rest he can be ready to push ahead. The S. African armored vehicles of ours are in position near the bridge overlooking Port Amboim. And here's the issue.  There's two bridges separating us from Luanda. But even beyond that the Bulgarians are holding the two bridges into Luanda itself. Mbeke is worried that they'll blow the bridges and we'll be down to using infantry alone. If we can destroy the command post at each bridge they'll not be able to blow them. But if they see us coming they'll blow them. Mbeke proposed another route. This one is slightly longer, 160 miles to the coastal 120 miles. It drives from from our current position in Quibala through Cambambe (where Fort Cambambe is located) and eventually into eastern Angola.  The eastern route is longer, but we don't risk the issues with the bridges. On the downside it's within range of the Free States air units. If we can sanitize that airspace then we can be reasonably safe. Mbeke is insistent that we don't need to worry about our east flank, that the Free State is just taking ground that the Dictators forces have abandoned.  Warlock reviewed the mission and ground intel and feels our biggest threat in the air is the SA-11 batteries. But he pointed out that they only have one radar station left, knock that out and those SA-11's might go radar active. Intel on the ground shows that the SA-11's have all been pulled into Luanda itself, seems the Dictator wants to cover his rear end first. Warlock is certain it'll be a target rich environment. In regards to the F-22's he kept it short, don't gently caress with them.  Von Hoff asked me to share this. quote:Hired Goons, the time for our victory is at hand! Or, it could be as far away as ever. If we can take Luanda we'll hold the keys to the country and everything that goes with it. If we don't then it might all be for nought. Help our troops on the ground drive the final nail in the Dictators regime, and bury his legacy forever. I spoke with one of Mbeke's Rangers about the fighting. He said the problem with attacking the Free State is they "didn't pay for what they took" and just fall back. On the flip side the Dictators forces pull back until they reach a strongpoint or armored unit and hold until flanked. He waved his hand dismissively when I asked about the Free State's troops. What he felt was important was knocking out those armored units and letting them gain ground. At the moment we have communication with Tesla, they said they launched 8 jets worth of SDB's and it took them all just to knockout a couple of targets. The SAM cover is stiff. Apple has made no comment to us at all. Last we heard of that Chinese carrier group puts them somewhere off the coast of South America and heading our way fast. Negotiations will be tough, no one wants to haggle until they're sure how the sides are going to shake out. For now the negotiations will be done with missile and bomb. Still no sign of the Free States new mercs either. edit : All we know from Tesla and Apple is we're considered "Neutral" and won't be fired upon unless we aggress. Yooper fucked around with this message at 17:54 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 17:52
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quote:I've been in contact with Mbeke, Warlock, and I have a message from Von Hoff. The stress and schedule has gotten to Von Hoff and he's in ill health at the moment. The Provisional Minister Juan Joboco has stepped up as our contact while Von Hoff rests. That sounds reasonable and not suspicious at all  Overall though, I think the initial sketch still works. Hit the coast, grab the mines.
Loel fucked around with this message at 18:01 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 17:53
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Yooper is it possible to reach out to the Bulgarians and either bribe or threaten them into keeping their bridges safe for us? No need to flip to our side or anything, we just work out ahead of time some kind of scenario that lets them surrender and save face. Maybe they develop comm troubles if they're ordered to blow the bridges before then or something. RE: Bridge command posts, do we know exactly where they're located? Plugging the GPS coordinates into some Tauruses and letting them get to work seems like a quick and easy way to save the two southern bridges. Also, I'm about 70-80% sure that Tesla tagged Dos Santos, so that'll be interesting come negotiation time. Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 18:03 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 18:00
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Crazycryodude posted:Yooper is it possible to reach out to the Bulgarians and either bribe or threaten them into keeping their bridges safe for us? No need to flip to our side or anything, we just work out ahead of time some kind of scenario that lets them surrender and save face. Maybe they develop comm troubles if they're ordered to blow the bridges before then or something. Command Post locations will be known, as will bridges. Bulgarians are locked into the mission mainly because they can't get out. They're committed like the pig, not the chicken.
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May 14, 2017 18:10
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 This plan ignores the coastal bridges problem, and runs the center. Phase 1: Blue Ranger clears the mine, punches the free state a bit, takes out the radar Purple Ranger clears the mine Phase 2: Blue + Purple Ranger becomes Yellow Ranger Yellow Ranger hits enemy bases, the airport, and clears the way to the capital.
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May 14, 2017 18:29
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I have a few mission ideas working around in my head, but I need to have an idea of how many sorties I can get. Topper, will the next mission be another 5 hour hit and run, or will it be closer to 8 or even 10 or 12 hours?
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May 14, 2017 18:32
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Davin Valkri posted:I have a few mission ideas working around in my head, but I need to have an idea of how many sorties I can get. Topper, will the next mission be another 5 hour hit and run, or will it be closer to 8 or even 10 or 12 hours? It'll be one set of Quick Turnarounds from our Gripens. That's a nice time length for me and things move quick.
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May 14, 2017 18:43
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 02:34 |
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Can we get the Ground Goons to pay a visit to SNARF's airfield? They haven't exactly been earning their keep this campaign.
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May 14, 2017 18:53
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