Strike Command : The Commandering – A Cooperative Let’s Play

Strike Command : The Commandering

This will be a cooperative Let’s Play where you, the reader, vote on actions, procurement, and strike missions. It’ll be in the soul of Strike Commander using the CMANO engine. Interested in being a jet plane mercenary? Take a look!

Strike Commander was released by Chris Roberts in 1993 to much acclaim and some total radness. The entire premise revolved around you using your F16’s to fly mercenary missions while keeping the books balanced. You go to do awesome stuff like visit people on your base and choose weapons loadouts and fly missions in a pixelated landscapes.

Command : Modern Air Naval Operations (CMANO) is published by WarfareSims and models modern air and naval combat unlike anything else on the market. It simulates radar, flight mechanics, weapons performance, thermal ocean layering, and damn near anything that could impact combat operations. It’s kind of groggy but also pretty damn approachable.

This Let’s Play is Strike Commander in theme but CMANO as our engine. You won’t be flying the jets. You’ll be telling a squadron of mish mashed shit where to fly, what to bomb, and how to do it. On top of that you’ll be choosing our financials. Do we buy those used Egyptian MIG-23’s for a song or do we save up for some old F-18’s? You’ll need some ground and support units, and of course, you’ll need to pick the missions.

Because at the end of the day it’s all about keeping this sorry operation running. You will decide the fate of this endeavour.

You are the shareholders, executives, and tactical commanders of Strike Command : The Commandering

The game will be broken down into phases. First you’ll vote on the airframes from a list of possible choices. Some are cheap, some are expensive. Then you’ll pick some support options. Then it’ll be mission time. The world is full of hot spots and angry people with money.

Lastly will be the mission itself. We’ll see what works best to define the flight paths and mission protocols but I’d like to leave as much of it to you guys. Then I’ll build the mission in CMANO, run it, and upload a video. The game has time compression so you’ll only get the good bits.

Finally will be mission complete, an AAR, and the payday! Then, if this is all fun, we’ll do another round. You’ll need to not drive us into bankruptcy.

Regarding missions : If you choose to help evil dictators certain munitions options will go away. But other ones might appear. The same if you choose to do stuff that the US/NATO/UN/EURO doesn’t care about, or you side with them. The choices you make will have a direct impact on the financial future of this endeavour. Choose wisely.

After a brief period of US isolationism the world got itself into a shitfit. Wars are no longer being fought in buttfuckistan by major operators but across the globe in many, many regions. Now with a reduced budget, and a desire to keep taxes down, the US has sanctioned a bunch of Private Military Contractors.

(That’s us BTW)

With the defunding of NATO, Congress has decided to make these PMC’s earn each buck instead of just pissing it away in procurement. There’s a midterm election coming and by god the senator from Kentucky cannot have a tax increase. Similar situations have occurred throughout Europe. In a nutshell it’s like Ayn Rand wrote the military defense budget.

Fortunately there’s pockets of stability. Unfortunately most of the rest of the world shit in a bag and lit it on fire.

In 2019 China invaded Taiwan, or rather tried to. A fierce missile battle ended with the Taiwanese launching a tactical nuclear warhead into the Chinese invasion staging area. An hour later they launched a second missile that airburst over Guangzhou. This, in a brief EMP filled moment, destroyed the modern Chinese economy. The Taiwanese not only had managed to design and manufacture there own subs but also had retrieved some warheads from K-219 near Bermuda.

In the ensuing months China broke apart as a nation as the economy collapsed. Today there is everything from rampant capitalists to staunch Maoists. Beijing is trying to bring it all back together but it’s a damned mess. In many areas it’s unclear who’s really in charge.

The Taiwanese subs were suspiciously close to a variant of the US Navy. Speculation was that the US assisted the Taiwanese in designing the subs as conventional missile subs and they had no idea of the Taiwanese nuclear capabilities.

In this same area North Korea is shitting on South Korea but open hostilities haven’t started. Yet.

Russia in the East is a province of its own that as long as it supplies raw materials to Russia in the West, no one asks any questions. Oddly enough the fishing fleets in this area have proven to be the greatest source of friction as everyone is out to harvest those waters.

India and Pakistan haven’t tossed nukes at each other but Kashmir is still a sticking point. It was an autonomous UN zone for about a week and then the shitstorm hit. For now it’s a no mans land that no country dares claim. Tibet is in the midst of a rebirth, though China still has the hammer down.

Eastern Europe is simply the unstable zone. Russia, unable to conquer it all militarily, has instead sought to destabilize the zone economically, militarily, and culturally. Romania skirmishes with Bulgaria. Ukraine and Poland went at it in 2021. The Balkan states are just a huge basket of fuck no. Estonia leads up the anti-Russian league but lacks anyone with any muscle to back it up. For now Russia is satisfied to just create the chaos.

The Former Yugoslav states have merged into an odd economic zone that purchased all of Greece’s debt from Germany. Now they manufacture weapons for sale to damned near everyone else. Greece is poor but mostly stable. Though a good deal of Greek nationalists are foaming at the mouth for independence.

Turkey still stands but damn near everything near her is a dumpster fire. Iran and the Saudi’s came to blows and both sides were completely embarrassed by the UAE Air Force. The UAE is the only stabilizing force at the moment and if they pull back it’ll go to shit.

North Africa has settled into a staging point for everyone to get the fuck out and to Europe. Italy is the main collection point to send them all back. We won’t get into the rest of the details of Africa right now. But reserves of rare earth metals there have proven to eclipsed even the demand, and cruelty, for mining diamonds.

South and Central America is a playground for the CIA and DEA. PMC operations in that area are discouraged unless sanctioned. As of now the lithium deposits in Chile and Bolivia make those countries like Saudi Arabia was in the 1980’s. Rich.

The next step is procuring the planes. To make it easy I have contacted three suppliers in a range of prices. This PMC has a nest egg of $475 million. The majority of the funding comes from Goldman Sachs and the New York State Teachers Retirement Fund.

The Broadstreet group is the largest Ford dealer in the midwest. Once the financial crisis hit they were in prime position to purchase inventories from the National Guard. They offer a range of US systems, at US procurement prices.

Option #1 – Broadstreet Ford, Lincoln, and Military

10 Illinois National Guard F-16CM Block 42 Fighting Falcon ($32) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1755/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon

1 South Korean RF-4C Phantom II Reconnaissance Airplane ($3) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1489/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II_variants

1 C-130E Hercules Cargo Plane ($7) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1614/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules

8 Cessna A-37 Dragonfly Close Air Support Aircraft ($1.2) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1428/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_A-37_Dragonfly

1 KC-135 Stratotanker ($39) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1692/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker

A full loadout of AGM-65’s, AGM-84’s, AIM-120 AAMRAM’s, AIM-7 Sparrows, AIM-9 Sidewinders, MK82 Bombs, Hydra 70mm Rockets, Drop tanks, Paveways, and maintenance goodies for a short operating period.

They’ll even throw in floor mats.

$395 Million

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Option #2 – The Ivanov Brothers

Boris Ivanov and his brother run a very successful procurement service in Eastern Europe. They offer “honest deals for honest goods.” Bankrolled by the Israelis to accomplish what they can’t do directly. Cheap is the keyword, but cutting edge they are not. Expect to find Soviet Union bankrolls tucked into the seats.

3 SU30M2 Flanker G ($30) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-30 http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/3820/

2 Mig29K Fulcrum D ($21) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/3320/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-29

4 Mig23M Flogger B ($2.7) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/878/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-23

4 Mig21S Fishbed J ($2.5) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/2716/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21

3 SU24M2 Fencer D Attack Aircraft ($24) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/600/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-24

2 MI24D Hind D Attack Helicopters ($12) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/456/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-24

1 IL78 Tanker ($24) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/2686/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-78

1 IL76 Cargo Plane ($8) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/450/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-76

A full loadout of, erm, Boris just said a “Very very big pallet load of good weapons! Very Good! Soviet stamp of quality! Bulgarian Rockets! Yes! Now about whisky?”

$315 Million and a pallet of American whisky

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Option #3 – Klaus and Petersen

Klaus and Petersen is a joint Swedish-German firm offering the best of the European arms market. Very competitive pricing in comparison to the US market though the combat effectiveness is mostly unproven. Where the F16 and ex-Soviet equipment has seen it’s paces, the odd Swedish or French fighters don’t have the same track record. They will sell to anyone, at any time, regardless of political affiliations.

8 JAS 39C Gripen ($37) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/3226/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen

6 SK60B Saab 105’s Close Air Support ($1.2) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/2142/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_105

1 Saab S100B AEW&C ($45) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/563/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_340_AEW%26C

1 Airbus CN235 Cargo Plane ($15) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/3935/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CASA/IPTN_CN-235

1 KC135 Airborne Refueling ($39) http://cmano-db.com/aircraft/1692/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker

A full loadout of BK90’s, RB98’s, BK90 AP, RB75 Mavericks, 135mm rockets, GBU-12’s, RB107 Meteors, drop tanks, a pair of Durandals, and maintenance goodies for two months of operations.

$335 Million deposited in Zurich

All options include maintenance parts for one set of missions. In addition to that the first package will get us through the initial mission. After that we’ll have to source and procure all the weaponry ourselves. Make each shot count! Maybe instead of Mavericks we think about GBU’s instead?

Oh, we’ll have a Human Resources phase as well. This will allow us to choose a Lobbyist, Intel Specialist, and Ground Specialist.

And one last thing to go with your choice of aircraft.

This PMC needs a name.

Please put your votes in the comments below. This will also be happening on the Discord and an internet forum. Most of the communication will happen on the forum, but this is so non-card carrying members can still participate and watch the action.