Securing your position...

[kalos72]

As some of you may know, my campaign that I am working on is based in NYC. Staten Island/Long Island and Manhattan specifically.

After reading all these logs about how certain divisions cant hold the area they have against marauders and that they are losing precious farm lands, it made me wonder, how do you secure your farmland when we are talking about 100-1000's of acres

I supposes you could build a wall but with this large an area we are talking about 4-8-16 miles of wall for some. Not only that but you would need to patrol or place guard posts on those 16 miles too. Say you place one every 100yards - thats 200-300 posts - thats 600 men - for 2-3 shifts - thats 1800 men to just watch the wall.

Then the question that bothers me most, considering the area I am looking at is listed at almost half a million population according to canon, how do you defend against a swarm of 60000 people trying to run you over to take your food Remember The Last Submarine tells tales of that happening and wiping out entire military bases.

So considering the concept of a large cantonment of military personal trying to produce food for some large population center, whats to keep that population from just saying "screw you guys" and taking what they want

The only thing I could come up with is that perhaps if the local population knows you are there only chance then maybe they would work with you instead of against you. Or that perhaps the tales of walls of people over running a base were back when people were still localized and desperate. After a few years the local population has dwindled to only what the area can feed, if not very poorly.

I dont know... :/

[Targan]

Be prepared for anything but try to get some intel too. Random recon patrols and listening posts could be valuable tools.

[Cdnwolf]

Terror works well. Look at all these military dictators currently in power and find out how they do it. Brutalize and beat down the population... promise them food but keep it to a barely liveable amount so that they are too weak to revolt... and kidnap/recruit the strongest and promise them luxuries beyond their dreams to be on your side.

[chico20854]

There is no way to secure that much land against such large numbers in the long run. The least bad option is to farm someplace less populated. Bring food in to NYC if you need it, or else get food that doesn't need acres to produce - fish! IMHO the population of the NYC area would, by 2001, have adjusted itself to what can be grown, gathered/scavenged or traded (no mention of food imports into the NYC area, but who knows), probably at a level of less than 500k.

[fightingflamingo]

small fields might be fortified (former baseball fields, etc.). best option I can see is to actively sweep (e.g. patrol the surrounding area), and build berms around the immediate farmed site, with fighting positions around the berm... best option I think would be active patrolling a given radius around the farm to protect it and keep the unwanted away so that they would be unaware of the farms existance.

[kalos72]

So then when the 228th and CIVGOV are trying to feed the population of Maryland, how do they do it They must have large tracts of land some where no

Or perhaps this is where securing the region from marauders and just letting the locals worry bout farming for themselves perhaps taking a tithe of the food, turns out to be best.

[Trooper]

As some of you may know, my campaign that I am working on is based in NYC. Staten Island/Long Island and Manhattan specifically.

After reading all these logs about how certain divisions cant hold the area they have against marauders and that they are losing precious farm lands, it made me wonder, how do you secure your farmland when we are talking about 100-1000's of acres

I supposes you could build a wall but with this large an area we are talking about 4-8-16 miles of wall for some. Not only that but you would need to patrol or place guard posts on those 16 miles too. Say you place one every 100yards - thats 200-300 posts - thats 600 men - for 2-3 shifts - thats 1800 men to just watch the wall.

Then the question that bothers me most, considering the area I am looking at is listed at almost half a million population according to canon, how do you defend against a swarm of 60000 people trying to run you over to take your food Remember The Last Submarine tells tales of that happening and wiping out entire military bases.

So considering the concept of a large cantonment of military personal trying to produce food for some large population center, whats to keep that population from just saying "screw you guys" and taking what they want

The only thing I could come up with is that perhaps if the local population knows you are there only chance then maybe they would work with you instead of against you. Or that perhaps the tales of walls of people over running a base were back when people were still localized and desperate. After a few years the local population has dwindled to only what the area can feed, if not very poorly.

I dont know... :/

If you want create small fortified enclave that could provide surplus food, there is only one way - fishing. You should find a small island or waterfront area that you can fortify. Minefieds, walls, clear field for machineguns etc.

Israel even have tradition of "fishing kibbutzs" and usually they were located deep within hostile territory. If you cant protect fields you can always try protect small fishing harbour

One finish module (Kpenhaminaan) even has a "micro nation" - Lauttasaari. Fishing, trade, cottage industry and good site for keeping the hordes away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauttasaari

[kalos72]

Thats one of the reasons I am running this on Staten Island and Long Island - islands.

But you cant live on fish alone and feeding a population of 100k isnt going to work with fishing alone.

The way I am thinking, the Island combined have something like 2000 square miles of land and being both ISLANDS, relatively easy to secure.

[Cdnwolf]

Why does the movie Escape from New York or Resident Evil 2 come to mind

[Trooper]

Thats one of the reasons I am running this on Staten Island and Long Island - islands.

But you cant live on fish alone and feeding a population of 100k isnt going to work with fishing alone.

The way I am thinking, the Island combined have something like 2000 square miles of land and being both ISLANDS, relatively easy to secure.

Trade Canned fish should sell quite well in protein hungry world Even now there is countries that cannot grow vegetables.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Iceland

[kalos72]

Besides the fact I am not sure 'canning' in the T2k world on a large level is an option, I am more interested in the idea of tactical defense.

Any other suggestion other then to just throw a wall up and put people with guns on em Listening posts, barbed wire and such are an obvious addition to that.

[Trooper]

Some ideas about defended areas.

http://twilight2000.wikia.com/wiki/Common_Village_Defenses

[pmulcahy11b]

Anyone interested in this should research Special Forces fortified hamlets in the Vietnam War.

[kalos72]

Thats some good information to work off guys..thank you.

[jester]

Here are some ways,

1.) Elevated platforms like tree stands every 300m with marksmen with scoped rifles to snipe anyone who enters.

2.) Location, if its in a box canyon, a isthmus or similiar area you only have 1 real direction to worry about.

3.) Trenches or a moat, also used for irrigation, but it makes a decent vbarrier to intruders, couple with trip flares, punji sticks or even tincans on wire to alert you of an intruder where the marksmen mentioned above can zero in.

4.) Make it required everyone has their own home garden. Say everyone has a garden in their freind and backyards for vegetables that produce a high yeild.

5.) Put your larger field inside the town, with the dwellers homes forming a wall or ring around your main field, and they also include the mandatory personal garden of high yeild crops.

6.) Small bunkers two men, semi raised at key terrain areas to observe the aproach routes to the dfields. Remember, most fields are flat and open so, they also make a very nice kill zone.

7.) Cover the fields with machineguns, and the above mentioned marksmen to deal with tresspassers. Again, its open ground and who is going to be able to cross 100, 200 or 300 or more meters of open ground covered by machinegun fire and riflemen and survive