Re: GZG DS2 Mikko: Genres for DS2.

At 12:03 AM 9/12/98 +0300, Mikko wrote:

Good points.  A couple of comments to toss in:

>>     HS combat cars were open topped because they were based on a old
Soviet
>> apc wich was open topped. I get the impression David Drake didn't
like
>> M113s!
>
>"Hammer's vehicles were designed around the M48s and [M113] ACAVs I'd
>ridden..." - David Drake, Afterword to Counting the Cost, 1987

True, but Drake still gives the impression from the attitudes of a
number
of his characters that he personally doesn't LIKE open-topped combat
cars.
Although he'll tell you on the one hand that because of the greater
visibility some people are more comfortable in them than in tanks, the
protagonist will generally tell you in the same breath that those folks
MUST be crazy.

>>     HS also isn't NBC capable. Their rules of war didn't allow NBC
weapons
>> to be used.
>
>"...and then the nukes, against a regiment more likely to advance
>stark naked than without a nuclear-damper up!" - David Drake, The
>Butcher's Bill, 1974
>
>"'We have clearance for a nuke'" - David Drake, The Interrogation Team,
>1985
>
>"The political soldiers had naively failed to consider gas. The
Slammers
>introduced KD7 into the forced ventilation system, then spent three
days
>neutralizing the toxin..." - David Drake, Standing Down, 1979

And also the passage in "But Loyal to His Own" where Tromp shows him
video
of mass graves at a village that had been gassed.  Hammer's response was
"Via! I thought you'd be pleased with the way we handled that.	We
considered using a nuke and there's no way we could have kept that
quiet."

Also, IIRC, in "Rolling Hot" there is a scene where a combat car goes
through a fireball or something and the combat helmets close up to
provide
ventilation.  One character (the reporter I guess?) isn't prepared for
it
and panics for a moment when it happens.

NBC is still around, it's just that the Slammers are well equipped
enough
to treat it as one more hazard of the battlefield.  If they weren't
they'd
be out of business in a hurry.

Jeff