Combat in 2180

I forsee combat falling into several categories:

Outposts:
Small defence force - corp, colonist or military.
Raiders - small military or pirate force.

Small (new or marginal) colonies:
Small defence force - poorly equipped (small arms, maybe mortars,
basic ammo, mines), few combat vets, no planetary defenses, poor
comms, poor mobility. These forces have little ability to project
power.
Attacking force could be anything from a reg force unit (small but
well equipped) to another on-planet group of poorly equipped troops. A
pirate or privateer force could attempt to pillage a small colony, but
it is a big bite.

Mid Sized (established) colonies:
Medium sized defence force - decent equipment (some high tech imports,
small arms, artillery, mid grade ammo, some vehicles), some planetary
defences, a moderate number of regs and vets, okay comms, decent
mobility. These forces can probably project some of their power
reasonably.
Attacking force would have to be a fair sized regular force or another
medium to large sized force equipped to the same colonial level.

Large colony (inner colonies):
Large defence force - good equipment (line troops - not state of the
art, but not too far off, a fair amount of high tech kit scattered
about, small arms, arty, good ammo, vehicles, combined arms), good
planetary defenses, a good number of regs and vets. A tough nut to
crack. Good comms, good mobility. These forces have a fairly adequate
ability to project a significant force, and may have some offplanet
reach.
Attacking force would have to be a large force of regulars, or another
very large force of colonial equivalents. The defenders are tough
enough they won't be easy to ignore even by state of the art assault
troops.

Core:
Huge Armies - everything but the kitchen sink. State of the art
equipment, lots of vehicles and combined arms. Plenty of crack units.
Just overall a very very large force. Well equipped for excellent
mobility, comms, and weapons. All sorts of support vehicles and
specialist troops. Lots of combat vets, and brutal planetary defenses.
Any attacker here would require at least as large of a force and a
really good plan and the will to fight. This kind of fight only likely
happens during the SWs and is a real
excrement-hits-the-rotary-air-circulator kind of war. These forces
have real force majeur and force projection. They can deploy assault
forces as large as entire colonial forces.

It seems most conflicts would occur on outposts, small colonies, or in
subparts of conflicts on medium colonies. Only major events like the
SWs would prompt huge conflict on the larger more established core and
large colony worlds. They can too easily bring a large force to bear
on problems for this to happen too often.

Just my 0.02.

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008