Re: Communication and Travel

On 15 Jun 98 at 14:40, Thomas Barclay wrote:

> Richard spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> > Can Mennonite farms produce apache attack helicopters, missile 
> > systems, AWACS, strike fighters, M1 tanks. Nope.
> 
> True. But doe strike fighters an AWACS land? yep. Do they need fuel?
> Yep. Do they need parts? Yep. Are they crewed by people? Yep. Is
> there a way to attack them? Probably.  Can they produce things to
> kill M1 tanks for $10,000 or less... probably. Can they deal with
> the 49% mission capable (with a full contingent of mechanics mind
> you) apache when it is grounded? Yep.  Can they hid from these
> things so they are nearly useless and infantry has to be sent out?
> Yep. 

The 'probably' is rather important.

> 
>  Farm machine shops 
> > on colony worlds won't be able to make state of the art hardare 
> > either. A guy with a rifle (ten guys with rifles... 100 guys with 
> > rifles?) Aren't much threat to state of the art systems. (q.v. road 
> > to basrah)
> 
> Oh, you mean the ambush of the already broken and fleeing troops by
> the overwhelming air, ground, surveillance, resources of the united
> force of about a dozen countries (although only 3 or so were major
> contributors to the war)? hmm. I don't think this is terribly
> analogous. Try the chechens vs. the russians. Try the russians vs.
> the afghans. Try the americans vs. the vietnamese. Try a number of
> other conflicts in the last century. I'm sure if the NAC, NSL, and
> the Israelis and OU banded together to pound on one annoying colony
> world led by Sodamn Insane or the like, they wouldn't have too much
> trouble trashing it. Especially if given six months to build up. But
> maybe, just maybe, other scenarios might pan out differently. 

True, my example was extreme. Chechen versus Russians is minor power 
using much the same technology as Russians (a second line 
'technological war machine'), with the Russians not commiting front 
line troops (In fact, I think they were raw conscripts mainly) due to 
political machinations back 'home'.
Americans versus Vietnamese, I think you will find the american 
military complaining that their political policies lost them the war. 
Although, I'll readily admit it still would have been difficult 
without that.

> To each his own, as far as a universe setup. Strictly from a
> gameplay point of view, I find a universe with a lot of colonies
> with different flavours (some defended by high tech regs, some by
> colonials, some by private forces or colonists) and different
> strengths (some an easy mark, some like attacking Switzerland - eh
> Oerjan?) makes for a much more interesting set of strategic and
> tactical problems - and maybe political too. So it's just then a
> matter of picking constraints for the universe in terms of economy,
> politics, and physics to make such an environment feasible. 

Agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard Slattery	     richard@mgkc.demon.co.uk
The only reason we're 7-0 is because we've won all seven of our games. 
     David Garcia, baseball team manager
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