Re: [GZG] Small thought re: Orbital Assault

[John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/22/05, Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> To me, these numbers suggest rather small colonial populations (with a few
> exceptions where a power had gone all-out to push the population up fast,
> eg. Albion). For real-world comparisons, compare the size of the forces
> deployed in North America during the French and Indian War and the War of
> 1812 with the field armies in Europe in the same period - and relate the
> force sizes to the sizes of the *populations* in North America and Europe
> at the time.

Entirely possible.  I'd differentiate between places like Albion,
which are de facto "core" worlds from places where introducing a
brigade of Legion troops is going to make a real difference to the
political situation.

> *If* the regulars have total air/orbital supremacy, which is not at all
> certain:

If I have starships capable of blasting other starships from
light-seconds away, then if I'm in low orbit your fighters are
screwed.  If one side owns space, then they also own the atmosphere by
extension.

> >And COA superiority (Close Orbit/Aerospace) is a precondition to even
> >attempting to land
> >troops.
>
> Nope - or, rather, you only really need local COA superiority over your
> chosen drop zone; everywhere else COA *parity* is enough to give the
> invasion a chance to succeed. A planet is a very big place to defend, and
> unless the defences are truly outrageously massive you're pretty much
> guaranteed to find an unprotected spot to land in.

True.  Although to sustain operations, you need air superiority. 
Maybe not Desert Storm-style supremacy, but without air superiority
you leave yourself open to getting done like the Germans.  At least if
you are operating small forces against large opposition forces.


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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