Re: Just what will we see on the GZGVerse battlefield?

>What I see is only the regulars will have anything approaching armor
and 
>artillery.  The numbers are limited by shipping.  Battles in the Inner
Sphere 
>or on Earth would see the full gamut of weapons systems, but colonies /

>independents would have the last war's equipment (Surplus/hand me
downs) 
>instead of "Low tech".  It is just not cost effective in terms of
shipping
or 
>production. When a colony can afford (is allowed?) to arm, they will
probably 
>want to get the most bang for the buck.
>
>My vision is full combined arms teams of regulars against well
motivated or 
>numerous infantry (militia), or small task forces of regulars fighting
over key 
>objectives (spaceport, mines, alien artifacts...).
>

I agree.  There have been several military-sci-fi authors who have
explored
this sort of idea in detail, and most of them (Drake being a notable
exception) seem to suggest that most fights on distant colony worlds
will
be foot-infantry with little/no "heavy support".  Small-size forces
(landing a battalion would be a BIG deal) with assault landers but few
if
any vehicles would be the norm for any but the biggest and most
important
inner-system conflicts...

And as I'm a SGII player, this mindset allows for all kinds of great
conflicts without having to worry about the details of the heavy stuff
:)

To add to Michael's list above, you'd probably get a lot of the "small
task
force of regulars" against "numerous militia" type scenarios too - with
little heavy stuff on either side.

A colony with 50 years on the ground, unless they are terminally
incompetant or hopeless underachievers, will be able to get SOME sort of
industry going, one would think.  It doen't take much to convert a truck
or
farm transport into a Katushy-style MLRS platform, and to make mortars
up
to including big stuff (like 120mm).  I see that as being the de-rigeur
artillery for the low-tech colonial militia type forces.  The company
size
force of regulars might not have even this much heavy firepower.  Of
course, they counter with zoomie communications gear, PA, etc... to make
it
interesting.  

Good scenario opportunities there...

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com