RE: Babylon 5 Ground Combat?

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From:	SimonC@denplan.co.uk (Simon Campbell-Smith)
Sent:	Friday, October 04, 1996 5:35 AM
To:	FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject:	RE: Babylon 5 Ground Combat?

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From:	FTGZG-L[SMTP:FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk]
Sent:	03 October 1996 00:13
To:	Full Thrust Mailing List
Subject:	Babylon 5 Ground Combat?

>	Centauri:  Errrr....what makes the "Nazis-with-Reverse-Mohawks"
>different in combat?
Well how does politcal officers or units 'Who help motivate' units to
keep going forward? Any unit within command range of a stand may test at
a bonus. Any unit routing within cmd range of the unit get a chance to
rally or the PO fire on them. Every turn they are fired on by the PO
they take a test. Just a few thoughts. They do need a bit of refining.

>Vorlons/Shadows:  I don't even want to know. (Do the those BIG,
>invisble, gut-sucking Shadow Warriors seen in Season 2 count as
infantry
>or an AFV?)
The gut sucking warriors:- power armoured inf? Shadows attack cause fear
in units within 12" except Vorlon. This fear is an immediate morale test
at a suitable negative modifier. I would think that Vorlons would
refrain from ground combat. They tend to get the younger races to do it! 

Later,
Mark S.

In reference to the ground troop and organization concepts for the B5
universe, more to point to the above comments, I would like to put forth
the following.
	As we have seen, most of the B5 combat action we have seen has
been centered around captial ship to captial ship, fighter to fighter,
and captial ship to fighter engaugments.  We have only seen tid bits of
ground and atmospheric missions.  With the creation of the Thunderbolt
fighter, the B5 universe opened up another relem to Full Thrust, Ditside
and StarGrunt gamers to explore and develop the proper rules and
senerios for this relem.  I personelly have dealt more with FASA's
ST:SCS and RPG.  The rules to these games unforntunatly are somewhat
unfamilar,  so if I screw somrthing up during this, I'm sure you'll let
me know.
	As we all know, Star Trek is just ship to ship combat and
action.  The B5 captial ship actions are similar in appearance, but not
by any means aything like ST.....and I'm rambling.
	To the first question about the Centauri.  We must remeber that
the Centauri society is based on wealth and policitical power.	This
society looks at assisnations to gain power in much the same way the
Klingons view killing a Captain of vessel when he loses honor as a
logical means of rank promotion, only the Centauri do this with style. 
The Centauri are basically power hungry and expansionists.  Nazi isn't
to far off.  The use of the Soviet inspired "Polictical Officer" may not
be to far off the mark.  But we are seeing the "Grand Republic" as it is
now and not what it was, say, during the Occupation of Narn.  So it is
hard telling what it was like then.  We have only heard bits and pieces
of what the Republic was like before it met Humanity.  
	As for the Shadows........that is a good question.  It has been
suggested that the individual Shadow is either phased between realities
or possesses some sort of personal cloak generator.  The individual I
think would be charactorized as a ARI, not an AFV.  As for weapons, well
whatever they used on Kosh I would not used on me, that much is certain.
 It's even known if they are armored, but relying on the cloak or
phasing ability to provide constant cover and a constant element of
surprise.  
	As this season begins to unfold, I think we sill see more of the
ground activities between the races, including the Shadows.  Right now,
it's all guess work in a white lab coat.
	Of course, I have found the webpage "Babylon 5, the Lurker's
Guide" a very helpful sourse of info into the B5 universe, mainly
because JMS contributes to be directly.  He usually gives insights into
his "novel" and there is a E-mail address on the site for him.	Worth
looking into, if you havn't already.
"Ne sak, schneak, slem ba."
Qapla'!
Ed Bell (using Tim's computer)
Reachable at officer@cougar.barton.cc.ks.us