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

G'day,

To answer a heap of questions in one go....

John said:
>Well, they have to eat something.  Food generally is
>difficult to grow on bedrock outcrops.

They do gather from the local countryside - mainly for variation not
staples
- but their primary source is hydroponics inside the city. Power sources
are
independent generators based on fusion, geothermal and solar energy
depending who and where you are (Flak got it right about short outs,
there
is also the tyranny of distance for a large scale grid anyway so just
easier
to be independent).

>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 missiles
>from VTOLs, or a HAR strike?  

Probably not well ;)

>Do you have more reactors than I have shells?	

I think the cities would be in pretty bad shape anyway whether all your
shells had hit energy sites or not.

>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!

Very true, though the guys on the outside may find the fauna equally
annoying, thus attempted breaches happen sooner in "traditional" warfare
in
this place. Doesn't mean an offworlder can't do it more effectively by
shelling from space and then coming down.

>Taking this planet would be a really tedious exercise... 
>It would probably take years...

Yep, which is why they've survived this long (in my fiction timeline at
least, though no games so far... hopefully to change very soon to answer
Karl's campaign comment) 

>Internal warfare is likely to be indecisive and
>protracted, more along the lines of raids...

Yep! Though the fauna and flora aren't insurmountable once you know how
to
deal with them, though they do remain a "drag" ;)
 
Flak commented:
> Actually, I think what Beth has in mind for her people's setting
> is something like a GZG version of Australia....

There is a good deal of that ;)

> 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...

That was something I was after. If you're really out there on your own
how
enterprising can you be and where does it take your culture? Guess its a
semi-fascination that grew out of my transition from farm-life to a city
dweller, there's just so much waste in town compared to what we had to
do on
the farm. I figured if there same were true in colonisation efforts they
may
well be doomed to failure.

> She has algae-based body armor, so
> presumably, there are algae forms of clothing... 

Yep... lichen net stockings were all the rage last season ;P

Cheers