RE: Re: [sg] platoon stuff and combat engineers

On Fri, 2002-06-28 at 12:27, John Atkinson wrote:
> How well distributed is your power network?  As the US
> demonstrated in Serbia, once you start smacking power
> plants the pain level gets pretty high pretty quick. 
> How does a fusion reactor react to a barrage of 20cm
> RAM shells, or an SOF team with a HAMR, or precision
> strikes from aerospace fighters, or antitank missles
> from VTOLs, or a HAR strike?	Do you have more
> reactors than I have shells?	Sieges would suck much
> because you don't even have the ability to allow the
> civillian population to leave the city because they'd
> all get eaten by the nasty fauna!

No power network, individual fuel-cell generators or microturbines
(heck, they're developing semi-feasible ones NOW.)  See, all those
exotic algae and metal snails that make life sooo difficult have a
tendency to break down/short out or otherwise cause problems for
wire-based power grids... so each organization tends to provide for it's
own power consumption.
 
> Taking this planet would be a really tedious exercise
> in siege warfare assisted by airmobility, followed by
> a long-term counterinsurgency campaign.  Expect heavy
> usage of defoliants, non-persistant chemical weapons,
> and neutron warheads just out of sheer frustration. 
> It would probably take years to take the major
> settlements, and generations to track down the
> bandits.  Which is, I suppose, the point.  Too
> expensive for the potential return.  The only thing
> that would make it economical is if you bribe a
> faction into accepting your aid and use them.  But
> then collaborators make any enterprise easier.
> 
> Internal warfare is likely to be indecisive and
> protracted, more along the lines of raids to secure
> portable wealth and quick grabs of border territory
> intended to secure easily exploitable resources
> (because next year you might lose it again).	This
> makes for a warfare style that resembles blood feuds
> more than anything else.  Think Middle Eastern
> mountain people, Balkans, or Scottish/English Border.

Actually, I think what Beth has in mind for her people's setting
is something like a GZG version of Australia.  A place where
ferriners think "Why the hell do they live there?" and the locals
think "There's no place else I'd rather live."

Dangerous enough to make it hazardous to be a little ignorant, but
mostly interesting and a little challenging if you're raised around the
particular (and peculiar) flora/fauna that pose the risks.

I think it's neat the way the same kinds of things that cause some the
problems are also part of the solutions:

Algae:	Airborne grab stuff from the air and excrete toxic by-products
for REAL acid rains... but they also purify the air in the habitats when
used properly as a type of "filter element", as well as being a source
of food and fuel when processed.  She has algae-based body armor, so
presumably, there are algae forms of clothing... 

-- 

--Flak Magnet
Hive Fleet Jaegernaught