Re: [GZG] Small thought re: Orbital Assault

On 11/23/05, Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@telia.com> wrote:

> Which is pretty much what the US did in Iraq too - in spite of your
quite
> considerable troop transport capabilities, you had to drop off in a
rather
> useless part of the desert before you could move to the places you
really
> wanted to be... and quite a lot of your equipment and supplies were
carried
> by commercial freighters. (Not sure about the troops themselves,
though.)

That had to do with the physical geography.  We were limited to
coastlines since no one has invented orbital assault craft.  :)

> And, of course, it is *exactly* what the Imperial troops did on Hoth
<g>

Sure.  However, the defenses on Hoth, while apparently
near-invulnerable to bombardment, covered such a limited area that in
the space of a few hours from entering the system, the Imperials
managed to land a large force (brigade-sized?  More?) and lumber at
the speed of an AT-AT to within line of sight of the shield generator.
 At which point the Rebels were screwed.  Not precisely the best
planetary defense plan if you mean to hold the system.	I'm still
unclear on how, other than handwaving, the Rebels managed to evacuate
the planet coming from a known location on the surface.  I'd have been
far more focused on throwing up an airtight blockade than on
assaulting a base that was being evacuated.  Neither Vader nor George
Lucas are the best tacticians, though.

> >Because of the difficulty of logistical support,
> >there was practically no armored support availible.
>
> The lack of armoured support in the Falklands had at least as much to
do
> with the terrain as with the logistics. Even if the Brits had been
able to
> get MBTs ashore, they wouldn't have been able to drive very far
without
> running major risks of bogging down. The light vehicles they did use
were
> far better suited to the terrain - and since the Argies didn't have
> anything heavier to oppose them with, they were sufficient to do the
job.

Eh, even a few more trucks, never mind some more helicopters, would
have been highly appreciated.  But a lot of the advantages of the
British Army were nullified by inability to put a serious armor/mech
force on the ground.  It came down to simply training.	Fortunately,
the Brits were very good and the Argies very bad in that department.

John
--
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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