Yooper posted:

Whoever vandalized that Totoro sculpture is in big trouble. It's like 80 feet tall.

Agean90 posted:

So what does the Demoratic Republic 9f the Congo need payment for

this strikes me as something we should be investigating.

sniper4625 posted:

One day OKUSTUDENT will get the advice he dreams of.

Just might be posthumously at this rate.

sniper4625 posted:

One day OKUSTUDENT will get the advice he dreams of.

Just might be posthumously at this rate.

Coffeehitler posted:

It is good to see that Free State thinks the Kfirs went to South Africa, though they might find out the truth rather rudely.

Yooper posted:

Yvonmukluk posted:

Would we be able to undertake a large scale operation that hits multiple targets as part of our missions? I figure we want to get as much bang for our buck as possible.

So, for example, since we're probably not going to hit the Free state itself much, securing the highway on that front seems like a good call. Swiping their mine would be a nice bonus.

David Corbett posted:

I'm starting to think that it makes more sense to wipe out the Free State first and then hook into the capital from the newly vacated and poorly defended east side. This covers our back in the air, possibly opens up the ability to hire some of the Free State's remaining ground forces and - if we do it right - completely wipes out both opposing parties in two missions, thus ending the conflict and leaving Von Hoff in control of 100% of Angola by the time the Chinese show up.

Yooper posted:

I've updated the Google Working Map. (Thanks again Beer!) It should also work for those of you who it didn't. Please let me know if you continue to have issues.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WpTsgN4ZjD93Kh3EyjavoHjLJQA&usp=sharing

Now with more NATO icons.

Yvonmukluk posted:

Would we be able to undertake a large scale operation that hits multiple targets as part of our missions? I figure we want to get as much bang for our buck as possible.

So, for example, since we're probably not going to hit the Free state itself much, securing the highway on that front seems like a good call. Swiping their mine would be a nice bonus.

Davin Valkri posted:

The Dictator is the one who moved his tanks and Gadflies in. Blame him, not us.

Crazycryodude posted:

Dude with a cellphone and binoculars watching the runway.

Crazycryodude posted:

Hey Yooper can we call up the Free State ground mercs and offer them triple what Reddit's paying to switch sides? Or at least allow themselves to be pushed back a safe distance from the highway?

Yvonmukluk posted:

What's with the blue SpecOps at Quibala? Spotters?

Yooper posted:

Right now it's about a 30 to 1 ratio of Northern Angola Free State Troops to each mercenary. These folks will stick about until they've gotten a good enough pounding.

That's our dude that was at Kuito Airfield. He'll get eyes on a few SA-11's.

Yooper posted:

Right now it's about a 30 to 1 ratio of Northern Angola Free State Troops to each mercenary. These folks will stick about until they've gotten a good enough pounding.


That's our dude that was at Kuito Airfield. He'll get eyes on a few SA-11's.

Davin Valkri posted:

Nnn...I still wanna at least try a partial eastern push to secure the highway, along with the coastal CAS. That'll make the capital attack so much easier.

Also pay our cell phone man ten times what he's getting right now.

Loel posted:

We should put up signs.

"Free wifi and hot water, this way."

Yvonmukluk posted:

Wait, I thought those dudes were mostly draftees? Or are there a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool true belivers in the regular troops. Oh god, the Redditors are playing soldier, that's adorable!

Surely we could encourage a few defections, at least? Are there likely to be many more dudes crossing the lines now the Regime forces aren't in the way?

Yvonmukluk posted:

doesn't want people reconnecting their phones.

Galaga Galaxian posted:

Maybe he is worried about someone calling them, triangulating their location and bombing/missiling/etc them

Dunno if that'd actually work.

Bacarruda posted:

I think hitting 2-3 distinct targets is doable,. given our recent boost in numbers.

Taking stock of our combat aircraft, we have:

• 8 JAS 39C Gripen
  
• 6 F-4 Phantom II
  
• 4 Tornado IDS
  
• 4 Kfir C.1
  
• 2 Mirage F1.CR
  
• 1 Su-25 Frogfoot
  
• 2 AMX A-11
  
• 1 Hawk 209
  
• 5 SK 60Bs
  
• 1 EA-6B Prowler
  
• 1 MQ-9 Reaper
  

And our SPAA and SAMs:

• 1 I-HAWK
  
• 2 SA-22
  
• 2 ZSU-23-4
  

With all this in mind, we have enough to run two CAS operations, a small-scale deep strike, and provide it all with a CAP. Something like this:

Dreamsicle posted:

Yooper, can you update the asset list? I want to know exactly what Kfirs we have.

Yooper posted:

It's updated. The Kfirs are on the bottom of the list.

The Guardian Online, June 30, 2023: The Three Angolas, part 6: The Idealist posted:

The latest in our ongoing series examining the stories of some of the ordinary people embroiled in the ongoing Angolan Civil War.
Benjamim Delgado was born in Lobito, only recently liberated from the Regime. His parents fled the country and the persecution of the Dos Santos regime when he was only 5 years old, and he grew up in Sweden, a country that seemed so different from Angola. However, despite the jarring transition, the Delgado family managed to assimilate well, and Benjamim soon came to love this new country. But he never truly forgot his homeland. In his teens, he became active in community organising for fellow emigres, a keen follower of whatever news came out of the nation, and even as he built a career, got married and started a family of his own, he always hoped that he might one day be allowed to return to the land of his birth.

The outbreak of the civil war marked his opportunity to do so. While the southern regions had thrown off the occupation of the Dos Santos regime, there was a vacuum in public services that needed to be filled. While some of the administrative apparatus remained in place, there were many vacancies created as a result of the mass instability, as supporters of the regime fled northward in the face of potential reprisal. A civic & traffic engineer by trade, he was one of many exiles who returned to his homeland in its hour of need to step into the gap. In Sweden, most of his work was based around urban planning, but now he finds himself focusing instead on helping provide Angolans with food and water, helping coordinate the ‘Road of Hope’ that runs supplies from the coast to the remote eastern regions of the Free Angolan territory to fight the famine. As Free Angolan forces push northward, his role has shifted to help coordinate reconstruction of infrastructure damaged in the fighting as the front lines advance and to integrate the liberated areas and populations. The work has been difficult and often thankless, but he nonetheless continues to do all he can for his countrymen. Although the resources are often limited, Delgado is not dismayed. If he had wanted the easy life, he says, he could have stayed in Sweden; but his country needs him.

While he is hopeful that the fighting will end soon, he is concerned by the prospect of the United Nations intervention, and that the gains for which so many of his countrymen have fought and died for will be arbitrarily disregarded by outsiders. While he acknowledges such a position might seem hypocritical at first glance (the Free Angola movement is after all primarily bankrolled by Count Vidas Von Hoff and relies upon Hayerd-Gunes PMC to act as their air force), he emphasizes that the overall movement is one built upon the desires of the Angolan people – in contrast to the Free State in the north, another foreign intervention, which seems to rely almost exclusively upon mercenary forces. He does, however, have some respect for the idea of the United Nations, if nothing else – one of the few luxuries he brought with him to Angola was a copy of Dag Hammarskjöld’s Markings in the original Swedish. He hopes that the United Nations will follow the late secretary-general’s example and do the right thing for Angolans, and not simply bend to the whims of the superpowers.

Delgado is not sure what he will do after the war – if, as he hopes, the Provisional Government will be recognised as the legitimate government, he would consider remaining. He has a strong belief in that shared vision that binds them all – one of building an Angola that uses the dividends from its Lithium trade to build a strong and stable democracy to stand the test of time. He could use his training to develop Angola’s cities as this metamorphosis takes form. Perhaps he might even run for office. However, he does have other responsibilities. His wife, Lisbeth – a native Swede – and their 9-month-old daughter are still in Malmö, and he recognises that asking them to move from the stability of Sweden to Angola may be too much to ask. If nothing else, he would like to bring her back to Angola to visit one day, and hope that it will be a better place than when he left it. In an ideal world, he says, his daughter would have the same potential quality of life in Angola as she would in Sweden.