Re: [HIST??] Culture shock

I have been listening to these arguments about fixed TO&Es and am
very suppressed none have brought up the biggest issue. Each of these
colonies is a frontier to start with. You have various communities with
mines, farmland or some other specific item being produced that are
scattered with little contact between them and no large population base.

You are talking about planets with population density's measured in
hundreds maybe thousands of miles per person. You don't have
brigades or even battalions (except for political reasons). You have
local communities which may have 500, 50 or 5 "soldiers" present
and only what weapons are on hand (or some special weapons
that are surplus from the colonies originators). The threat that they
make is that they are armed, scattered and will resist.

Now you want to land an invasion force that may have a brigade or
a battalion to"take and hold" one of these worlds. The act of tying
up your military force may be more costly to you then anything your
enemy could do to you. Fine you hold the planets spaceport and
most valuable raw materials and industries but how many of your
best soldiers are going to be tied up and how long before your best
soldiers start breaking down.

So you replace you first line fully equipped invasion force with a
second
line not so well equipped National Guard (NG) (territorial to you
English types) force. This is not the cream of the army but the no fat
skimmed milk These NGs may be up to present TO&E, one that was
issued 10 years ago or get drunk each time they look at the list of
equipment that they are supposed to have.

Now lets start talking about the real type games.

A company of  NGs (all 50 of them) are chasing a company of raiders
(about 15 to 20 soldiers) who snuck into the spaceport and changed
the piping in a warehouse so that liquid hydrogen instead of water
came out of the sprinkler system. The NGs may have special forces team
(4 men) somewhere but then again maybe not. The raiders may have
some special weapons but probably not.The NGs may have fire support
on call but will the FO (who has never called a live fire mission) be
able
to direct it.. The raiders may have an ambush force, command detonated
mines of other type of nastiness (or maybe not). The village that is on
the
table may be pro raider, anti raider or pro/anti everybody.

Have FUN!!!

Scott Siebold