Gang warfare, with complications. Options

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

This is bragging. By this time next month it'll be a stonewall... in two months it'll be a couple of stonewalls...
considering that at least two of our characters have the compulsive (braggart) negative quality, I think that capturing the APC is going to be important to them.

Sounds likely... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Emperor Tippy]

The first question that must be asked is what resources do you have to work with. How much nuyen can you spend on this? What drones do you have? What's your teams composition? What kind of time limit do you have? What weapons can you get (or not get)?

The second question that must be asked is what resources do your enemies have to work with. How many gang members are there? How well trained are the gang members? Do they have magical support? Do they have good matrix support? How well armed are they? How much nuyen do they have to spend? What local sources do they have?

After you have answered those two questions to the best of your initial ability it's time to figure out how to get more information on the gang. Place stealth drones with high rating cameras and sensors over the area to track them. Place sensors unobtrusively around the area to maintain surveillance on them. Track lower level gang members and hack their comlinks for things like previous locations, contacts, schedules, etc. and upload surveillance packages (every comlink is, at minimum, a microphone and many are also cameras and more exotic sensors (when they are tied to things like eyewear)). Take pictures of every gang member or hanger-on and then run them through databases and the matrix. Get blood samples, if at all possible, from as many gang members as possible (ideally including the driver of the APC). Have your face infiltrate.

Once you have done your surveillance it's time to begin planning the take down. What communications set up does the gang use? Can your matrix support (ideally) take it over or at least disable it on command (preload shutdown commands in advance on every gang members comlink and then when you send a single they all stop working and refuse to restart, for example)? Can your matrix support hack their guns and drones in advance and again set kill switches in them? What time of day is the gang at it's weakest? How many gang members can you dispose of in advance without raising the alarm (can you kill their mage in a car accident with a car driven by your rigger?)? Can you preposition sniper drones around the area of the hit and use them to drop a number of gang members simultaneously? Can you dose them with drugs or poisons? Who is supplying their weapons, ammo, and vehicles and can you co-op or remove them?

After you have the takedown planned, run it in VR a few dozen times and have random problems and elements thrown in. Take the results of those runs and your plan and have a high level agent with the appropriate skill and knowsofts stress test it (point out problems, etc.) Once you have a plan that you are confident will work with backup plans for as many contingencies as you can imagine it's time to execute the run.

The more time, effort, and expense you put into pre-run planning/preparation the less likely you are to fuck up the run. What happens, for example, if the gang has half a dozen suits of milspec power armor and laser weapons? They have an APC so it's not outside the realm of possibility. What happens, for example, if the gang has a high level combat mage or two? What happens, for example, if the "gang" is a Lone Star black op's team trying to take over the local underworld? What happens, for example, if the gang has blackmail on a number of important individuals and their destruction will result in the information's release?

Plan for everything and do the leg work so that you run into as few surprises as possible.

[FuelDrop]

The first question that must be asked is what resources do you have to work with. How much nuyen can you spend on this? What drones do you have? What's your teams composition? What kind of time limit do you have? What weapons can you get (or not get)?

The second question that must be asked is what resources do your enemies have to work with. How many gang members are there? How well trained are the gang members? Do they have magical support? Do they have good matrix support? How well armed are they? How much nuyen do they have to spend? What local sources do they have?

After you have answered those two questions to the best of your initial ability it's time to figure out how to get more information on the gang. Place stealth drones with high rating cameras and sensors over the area to track them. Place sensors unobtrusively around the area to maintain surveillance on them. Track lower level gang members and hack their comlinks for things like previous locations, contacts, schedules, etc. and upload surveillance packages (every comlink is, at minimum, a microphone and many are also cameras and more exotic sensors (when they are tied to things like eyewear)). Take pictures of every gang member or hanger-on and then run them through databases and the matrix. Get blood samples, if at all possible, from as many gang members as possible (ideally including the driver of the APC). Have your face infiltrate.

Once you have done your surveillance it's time to begin planning the take down. What communications set up does the gang use? Can your matrix support (ideally) take it over or at least disable it on command (preload shutdown commands in advance on every gang members comlink and then when you send a single they all stop working and refuse to restart, for example)? Can your matrix support hack their guns and drones in advance and again set kill switches in them? What time of day is the gang at it's weakest? How many gang members can you dispose of in advance without raising the alarm (can you kill their mage in a car accident with a car driven by your rigger?)? Can you preposition sniper drones around the area of the hit and use them to drop a number of gang members simultaneously? Can you dose them with drugs or poisons? Who is supplying their weapons, ammo, and vehicles and can you co-op or remove them?

After you have the takedown planned, run it in VR a few dozen times and have random problems and elements thrown in. Take the results of those runs and your plan and have a high level agent with the appropriate skill and knowsofts stress test it (point out problems, etc.) Once you have a plan that you are confident will work with backup plans for as many contingencies as you can imagine it's time to execute the run.

The more time, effort, and expense you put into pre-run planning/preparation the less likely you are to fuck up the run. What happens, for example, if the gang has half a dozen suits of milspec power armor and laser weapons? They have an APC so it's not outside the realm of possibility. What happens, for example, if the gang has a high level combat mage or two? What happens, for example, if the "gang" is a Lone Star black op's team trying to take over the local underworld? What happens, for example, if the gang has blackmail on a number of important individuals and their destruction will result in the information's release?

Plan for everything and do the leg work so that you run into as few surprises as possible.

... I want you on the team. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Your plan is through, well thought out, makes excellent use of resources, intel, enemy strengths and weaknesses, the all-consuming nature of the matrix and is in general excellent. There's just one minor problem with it...

Yup, my group is no-where near professional enough to pull it off. The two players veteran enough to do it are playing characters that are too impulsive for that level of planning, with the other two team-mates not past the 'run around shooting people and getting paid for it is a fun game' mentality. That leaves me and the Rigger to pull this off... harder, but not impossible. I think I'll run the Rigger's surveillance footage through my data-searching Agent program and have him running Face recognition, Vehicle identification, Weapon watcher, Gait Analysis, Visual spotter, Noise analysis and maybe a high rating language program for lip reading...
that might give us something to use. Thanks for the ideas, I'll try and sell as many of them to the group as I can.

[Seriously Mike]

Your plan is through, well thought out, makes excellent use of resources, intel, enemy strengths and weaknesses, the all-consuming nature of the matrix and is in general excellent. There's just one minor problem with it...

Yup, my group is no-where near professional enough to pull it off. The two players veteran enough to do it are playing characters that are too impulsive for that level of planning, with the other two team-mates not past the 'run around shooting people and getting paid for it is a fun game' mentality. That leaves me and the Rigger to pull this off... harder, but not impossible. I think I'll run the Rigger's surveillance footage through my data-searching Agent program and have him running Face recognition, Vehicle identification, Weapon watcher, Gait Analysis, Visual spotter, Noise analysis and maybe a high rating language program for lip reading...
that might give us something to use. Thanks for the ideas, I'll try and sell as many of them to the group as I can.

Well, I know one incentive:
"Guys, wanna steal a tank?"