Abstract
We are going to attempt Titan Indra next after Titan Hadad, but its system density will cause an Alert flood which prevents the final Spire site progress from reaching inward and exposing the Titan. Allowing it some expansion then driving it down to 43 systems in a single week should address both problems.Foreword
Everyone has done very well against the Titans thus far, both directly and in the grand context! Many squadrons and Commanders therein all want many different regions of space returned to them, yet thus far everyone has been excellent in enacting a very reasonable alternation between strategic targets and popular targets. Setting aside that the first two were surrounded originally in 3309:- As the first to attack us, Titan Taranis had always been the clear popular choice; its systems were of moderate strength and there was one potential strategic problem with the final Spire position, but everything aligned well and we took the opportunity successfully.
- Titan Leigong was less popular but lived in a very easily-won region of space; it ought to have been first strategically, but definitely it was well not to obstruct the Taranis drive, and that Commanders were then happy to choose an easy and obvious target.
- Titan Oya was one of the more popular, notably being closest to Sol. It posed not much strategic problem; its inner systems were much stronger, but that challenge was met well!
- Now we are closing upon Titan Hadad, which has modest popularity generally, but has much easier inner systems and zero strategic trouble. At present the Titan is projected to become vulnerable enough for direct attack on 23rd May 3310.
Assuming Titan Hadad proceeds as expected, and based on the resolute defence effort by many local squadrons represented collectively by the Post-Disaster Evacuation Service and after synchronising plans with the Anti-Xeno Initiative, we will alternate back to the popularity set: Titan Indra.
This one will much more difficult to coordinate, for a few reasons which will become clear! The weekly activity shows well that many Commanders want that space back, and I think we have an option which could work—but it will require patience, and its success relies much on patience not being too much to ask.
The problems
Our clearance approach used for four Titans thus far will not work at Titan Indra, at least not directly. Considering the core Indra systems, the first problem is that its final Spire site is twelfth place by distance, which means there is a terrible mistake to be made! Whatever we do, that Spire site must not become vulnerable prematurely; we need everything to align so that it helps remove systems closer to the Titan, not farther. Spire sites affect the outermost ten systems each week, so if the Spire site falls, we need that to occur along with a Control reduction which reaches inward and leaves around two remaining systems, not eleven!The second problem is more complicated to describe, although would become apparent much sooner with a basic clearance effort. Normally the act of clearing Control systems is conducive to itself, because those systems also are needed for Thargoids to launch attacks, thus limiting the attackers can strangle the total attack options and prevent Alerts entirely. This is not at all true around Titan Indra, for its systems are placed so densely that a ten-system periphery will not progress well enough spatially, so there will always be maximum Alerts possible. As long as we still need Spire site progress to reach a Titan, we cannot have that it nine of those ten systems each week are just fighting away new Alerts.
So, we cannot proceed normally because we will reach a point where Spire progress is needed to continue, but is not available due to all the Alerts each week. Thargoids can attack systems with 10 light years range, and one Indra periphery is fundamentally so little spatial advancement that maximum attacks remain possible, and each week the Spire sieges will do nothing more than help to defend the attacks launched at the end of the previous week.
Nor is it an option to advance only a few systems weekly; if we do that, the final Spire will be gone well before the Titan resistance is lowered. Would that it were Titan Hadad, which has its final Spire site also as its closest system!
Short of gaining some entirely new way to clear Thargoid systems, we need an Alert-stopping victory cascade, and we need it to align it very carefully so that we have the most possible advancement which avoids exposing the Spire site.
The shell
For this to work, we need to consider the Titan Indra systems both spatially and sequentially. Consider a feasible victory, and work backwards from there:- The system containing its innermost Spire site is Arietis Sector KR-V b2-1, twelfth place from the Titan. Without undermining its position expensively, that means the fewest it can leave behind is two systems. For some error margin and because we have achieved it before with Titan Leigong, assume we will leave it with three systems.
- To end at three by using ten-system peripheries and assuming no attacks interfere, the remaining system totals in the preceding weeks will follow the pattern 43, 33, 23, 13.
- Given that a recently-cleared system cannot be attacked again for four weeks, that means our Spire sieges need to start with 43 systems, to proceed to reduce it down to three. In theory we would need also to account for Spire sites farther out than 43rd place, but in practice those have already been cleared once and should function now as normal Control systems instead, to be tested rather than relying on the Galaxy map.
- Now we switch to spatial strategy—wherever that 43rd system lies by distance to the Titan, we need to consider the spherical shell which begins there and extends 10 light years beyond, that being the range at which Thargoids can attack systems. If every system within that shell were to become unassailable by means of being cleared recently, we have a path to victory.
The 43rd system is HIP 20679 at 17.87 Ly. Noting that the 44th system is HIP 20419 at 17.95 Ly, an appropriate choice for the shell cavity radius appears to be 17.9 Ly, thus the shell extends outward to 27.9 Ly. If that entire region of space were to become unassailable due to having been cleared recently, we would enable an Alert-free victory cascade, and it would align well with the final Spire site.
In theory, everything within that shell from 17.9 Ly to 27.9 Ly needs to become Thargoid-controlled, then to be evicted all together. We need to wait rather than defend, then we strike. We need to take over a hundred systems from Titan Indra in a single week.
The purge
Where the Titan Oya front was impressive for the size of its payloads, the Titan Indra front will need to excel in the number of its systems. The Research limpet may perplex the intelligent minds of Commanders, yet to a strategist the Research limpet works. The Research limpet is our friend, and we know not why, but the Research limpet will succeed.Research payload stockpiling has begun for the weaker systems around Titan Indra, to be joined later by a stronger drive after the Hadad threat is neutralised. It will be difficult to track, and we will need Commanders to be very careful to deliver Research items to the correct Fleet Carrier for each system, but it must be done! The Post-Disaster Evacuation Service represents the present point of coordination; the responsibility of keeping the full list will be unenviable, but the hope is that we can at least make it thankful.
In practice with Commanders still defending systems within the shell, unfortunately this will leave a few gaps, but these should be manageable:
- By chance, some prematurely-defended systems will still be unassailable at useful times.
- Those which become targets will at least only do so once during the following month, with no continual replacement.
- We can predict the attacks and we have some ability to make corrections, be it stopping an attacker or simply advancing the next periphery to compensate.
That said—as much as possible, please stop completing systems around Titan Indra! Its systems amount on the Galaxy map will grow, but precisely that is the plan—take them all back together, so that the attacks actually stop for a month.
Purge week will be whenever we are ready to deliver it; any major form of war-related communication will be very much aware, during which we repel all Alerts, defend all Invasions and leave Titan Indra with exactly 43 systems. We then complete peripheries, but this time only with any specific manipulations needed to manage an aligned collapse.
There is no particular rush to prepare the purge itself; time pressure applies only once delivered, after which we are committed to completing peripheries weekly. The real test is that we must not clear a single system more than that! Unless it is to clear a full set of ten systems, overachieving will ruin it.
Afterword
Part of the reason for writing this is to offer a little insight into the various Titans, their differing difficulties and strategic considerations. Thankfully it has now become clear to most Commanders that there will not be uniform times between Titan assaults, especially refuting the extrapolations based only on Titan Taranis, although many still look at the Thargoid War information on the Galaxy map and assume that the Titan with the fewest systems ought to be next.Remember that a Titan having many systems implies that many are at far distances, and therefore much weaker to recapture. If a Titan has 200 systems, it is because several are far enough for one wing to remove 50 in a week. Unless any fundamentally different ideas are forthcoming, the best strategy really is to let the Indra region grow until the time comes to purge and push for the Titan—until then, to defend closer space is to make it more difficult than it needs to be, and it compromises the future assault.
The Indra venture will not be simple, nor will the approach be conventional—however, one thing it will be is next!
