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hermit
Hi,

Since I'm planning a larger-scale adventure in San Antonio, that split city, I'd like to know what the place is like. Especially things like climate, vegetation, and ... well ... feel. For instance, would a tight jungle-ish forest a bit farther towars Rio Grande be viable, or is that more like semi-desert? Also, apart from Lone Star, what other multis have major investments there?

Never been there, so I'd appreciate any information. Thanks.
Tachi
Go here for data.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio,_Texas

Don't let the green pictures fool you, it's mostly desert like with scrub and grasses outside of town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:STMC_SA.jpg
hermit
Okay, so it's more a No country For Old Men type landscape, no Central American Jungle setting. Thanks.
Tachi
Right up against the Rio there are sometimes huge thickets of acacia, elm (the weed of the tree world), but mostly just scrub. In town, on the other hand, tends to look gardenish in the rich/old parts. As for the feel, I don't know about 2070, but today there also tends to be growing racial tension, or out right hatred. And, keep in mind that it is close enough to the border to be getting overflow crime problems from the frontiera drug wars. In 60 years, with the border moving right into the city, I'd expect it to get a lot worse. But, I may be wrong, I haven't been there in ten years.
hermit
Yeah, just read and saw images on the find of that Cartel militia arsenal. Jeesh.

The article also says there's a lot of military there, which propably will be even moreso in 2070, what with the standoff accross the occupied/free Texas borders between Aztlan and thse CAS ... the cartels are a nice idea for one of the guerillas I was considering to have roam the place. Another would be something like a Texan Resistabnce of former US Texans in occupied Texas. Still looking for a good name for them.

Acacia, eh? Nasty stuff, having these vicious thorns all over their branches ... okay, I can work with that.
Tachi
T.L.F. Texas Liberation Front?
T.L.A. Texas Liberation Army? (my favorite, a P.L.A. knockoff)
T.R. Texas Reborn?
N.T.A. New Texan Army?
hermit
TLA is good. Would it be overdone to put their HQ below the remains of the Alamo (I bet the Aztlaners blew it up, just to spite the Texans), into Vietcong-ish tunnels?

Then I'd take the Gulf Cartel (a narcotics-smuggling outfit) as the other adversary. And, of course, Aztlan's army and the ACS.

Come to think of it, the CAS had mainly a land-based army, right? no great air force or fleet? It's one of the countries that really could use some more coverage, come to think of it.
Tachi
Under the Alamo would be strangely appropriate. For the adversary you could use the Mexican Mafia in general. With that much coastline I thought it strange that the CAS didn't have a more adaptable force, i.e. much of a navy, even with the Carib League cutting into it. I believe they did get the Marine Corps, though. Right? Somebody has to drive the Marines around. grinbig.gif And, that would be the navy's job.
hermit
Don't the Marines have their own fleet to drive themselves around? Like, landing ships and all that?

Anyway, okay, just thought it would be a bit cheesy. So the TLA has it's HQ under the remains of the Alamo. And I suppose the CAS navy will have ne or two landing ships, if only to shuttle their marines around and occasionally invade pirate strongholds if the pirates get too cocky, as well as many amphibious craft, like hovercraft corvettes.
Snow_Fox
The navy has what it calls 'assault ships' that are used to move marines quickly but they are crewed by navy personel. They use to look like mini-carriers to handle but the current generation have a more traditional ships front and a flatter stern to handle copters. Like what the Brits had in the 70's through the Falklands- HMS Fearless, I don't think those survived cut backs though.

What is the race problem? white/hispanic? Black/hispanic? Black/white? I thought the border areas were less uptight about border crossings. by 2070 with the rise of Aztlan this would be a defended border and porbably more hispanics forcibly expelled.

hermit
Just looked it up, according to NAGNA, the CAS has one larger carrier unit around a ship called CFS Atlanta, some submarines, no nuclear capabilities and otherwiese a reasonably robust coast guard. It's forces are mainly land and airborne, though, and concentrated at the Texan front/border.
AngelisStorm
I'm glad Hermit beat me to it. Of course the CAS has a navy. They are a part of the old United States, after all. And they have a really extensive coastline, bordering a hostile nation, and with pirates running rampant.

Marine: My Ass Rides In Navy Equipement.

(Marines: My Ass Rides in Navy Equipment, SIR!)

Remember, the marines are in existance because the navy figured out that having the big sailors wade ashore, in wet white bell bottoms, just wasn't intimidating.

(Not the true story, of course, but it's fun to say. wink.gif )
Starglyte
Big thing about San Antonio is that our suburbia sprawl is north. That has probally changed by the time of 2070. Fort Sam Houston and Lackland are close to the center of the city. We don't have a subway, we use the bus for mass transit, which has seen better days. Because of the Spurs, we love Basketball, which can bleed into the Aztec rubber ball game. Tourism and military are the key things about us.
Kronk2
QUOTE (Tachi @ Nov 8 2008, 08:43 AM) *
T.L.F. Texas Liberation Front?
T.L.A. Texas Liberation Army? (my favorite, a P.L.A. knockoff)
T.R. Texas Reborn?
N.T.A. New Texan Army?


you know that We Texans would go in for TNA (Texas NeoNational Army)
Kronk2
San Antonio is quite warm most of the year. Lots of red dirt and clay for the ground. The landscape in No Country is a bit extreme by comparison, there are green hills and rivers to the north, and lots of black farmland to the south east and west.
As for culture, the city really plays up its Mexican heritage to tourists, but some of the oldest churches are German. Unless I am mistaken SA is part of Aztlan, it is below the Colorado river which is the assumed border.

Nightlife is very active along the River walk. It is a kind of almost sublevel of all the buildings in the district, adjoining the river and providing food, beer, music and shops all along its length. There are some places that have food on the river taxis, or used too anyway. The river taxis are basically small barges that ferry people up and down the river. Security is always relaxed but present.

It used to be that you could not look outside with out seeing at least 20 Air Force personnel in their casual blues. Lackland is an important training facility, but does house a ready squadron. It may have a UAV wing, but I am uncertain about that, I know that they have a linguistics and intel wing.
Kronk2
My thought on this would be to make the Texan resistance river, and ATV based, With strong UAV presence out of Dallas or Abilene.

I was working on a something of a similar campaign. The best way across Texas if you don't mind pissing people off, is by 4x4 pickup with fence breakers on it. Get a bunch of ranch trucks with pintle mounts on the back for grenade launchers and away you go.

Course you can do much the same with 2 guys on 4 wheeler. this also has the added benefit of feeling like a horse charge.
And never underestimate the power of nitrate bombs.

quick edit...
for those of you not from here. Bexar is pronounced bear.
hermit
UAV support, huh ... that would be quite easy for the Azzies to jam and/or subvert, would it? I was considering UAV (or UGV) only for more high-profile operations (like terror attacks), where a simple IED at the roadside won't do. Also, good you brought up the churches; given aztlan's anti-Christian attitude and Texas being Texas, I guess the various churches play a significant role in teh resistance (much like in Eastern Europa back in the day).

And of course, 4x4 trucks are the way to go. No guerilla army is complete without them. the Quads are a nice idea though.

And thanks for the general info on the city. smile.gif
FlakJacket
QUOTE (hermit @ Nov 8 2008, 12:49 PM) *
TLA is good. Would it be overdone to put their HQ below the remains of the Alamo (I bet the Aztlaners blew it up, just to spite the Texans), into Vietcong-ish tunnels?

One of the books, can't remember off the top of my head which, had a section that introduced the Sons of the Alamo. Written by native Texan Patrick Goodman they're a paramilitary policlub that carries out attacks on Aztlan across the border and that tries to harness political support in Texas and the CAS at large for taking back the lost land. IIRC some of the shadowtalk mentioned that Atlanta wasn't really interested in picking a fight with Tenochtitlan so the Sons were trying to start a border incident between CAS and Aztlan troops that could maybe roll into something bigger and force their hand or at least use to drum up support for the cause. As for the HQ below the Alamo that kind of depends on your game, personally I probably wouldn't in mine since if Aztlan ever found out about it then it would become a death trap. Between drones, elementals/spirits, and all the other resources they and Aztechnology could bring to bear all it would take would be one break in your information security and you're screwed IMHO.


QUOTE
Then I'd take the Gulf Cartel (a narcotics-smuggling outfit) as the other adversary. And, of course, Aztlan's army and the ACS.

Just the bear in mind that Aztechnology pretty much directly grew up out of one of the old drug cartels and is still in an undeclared war with the remaining ones. After having first hand knowledge of things like that and considering the type of justice system that Aztlan has would Aztechnology really allow any kind of serious competition to exist? I'd expect the remaining drugs cartels to avoid Aztlan like the plague and ship their goods via the Pacific or Caribbean on the way to north America.


QUOTE
Come to think of it, the CAS had mainly a land-based army, right? No great air force or fleet? It's one of the countries that really could use some more coverage, come to think of it.

Again going from memory but I'm fairly sure that Rigger 3 mentioned that whilst they don't have much in the way of large assets like super aircraft carriers they still have a very respectable brown water navy based mostly on frigates and destroyers to take care of coastal defences. That and a decent sized submarine force.
Starglyte
Just to point out, the Alamo was moved to Dallas right before the fall of San Antonio. I believe that little tidbit is in Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America.
brennanhawkwood
QUOTE (Starglyte @ Nov 10 2008, 04:56 PM) *
Just to point out, the Alamo was moved to Dallas right before the fall of San Antonio. I believe that little tidbit is in Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America.

Yep. Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America pg. 63 in the section about Other Places of Interest in Dallas/Fort Worth. According to that in 2034 it was moved 'block-by-block, including a large portion of the land on which it rested' while the Texas Rangers were holding off Aztlan forces. It is now a major attraction at Eight Flags Over Texas theme and amusement park.
hermit
Pity, there goes my idea ...

Guess it'll just be a random underground camp then. Maybe in an abandoned military base or something.
Fuchs
In our campaign, in the 2050s, the CAS set up a border incident between CFS and Aztlan (using the PCs), involving the Japancorps and the PCC as well, and fired up the Yucatan insurrection. When Aztlan was busy handling that, the CAS (having massed the armed forces "in response to the unstable situation") struck and took back most of the lost parts of Texas in a classic mechanized war before Corporate Court pressure and diplomatic efforts accomplished a cease-fire. Since then the border's been tense still, with the CAS (and the PCC to a lesser extent) backing T-Bird based "smugglers" to keep the border area busy and support rebel movements in Aztlan. (That way I can explain why such maintenance-intensive military craft can be used for smuggling without running out of funds.)
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