Re: Retrograde skirmishers

-----Original Message-----
From: stiltman@teleport.com <stiltman@teleport.com>
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Monday, June 12, 2000 04:05 PM
Subject: Retrograde skirmishers
>
>You're making something of a straw man argument here.
>
>There is a role that can be filled by skirmishers:  harassment.
You can
>try to cut off supply lines, you can interfere with logistical
supports for
>a war effort... and that's basically it.  If you can't bring
any meat and
>potatoes to the table to back it up, that is not going to win
any sort of
>war by itself.  (See also the Atlantic naval theatre of either
World War.)

See the Pacific campaign, starring US subs vs Japanese shipping.
Even in N Atlantic, it's not that "raiders can't destroy
you"--the lesson was that convoys with air support can work.
>
>And no, overstocking your PDS is a _suicidal_ countermeasure.
As you can
>see, they have both their own ships that would shred such
tactics, as well
>as numerous slave-allies whose ship-to-ship tactics are far
more focused
>than their own.  If you overstocked your PDS against the master
race, they'd
>thank you for making it easy and let their slaves draw straws
to choose which
>one gets to hand your butt to you.  (Read:  it's been tried.)

You're changing the universe again.