Re: Printed works of future combat

Los spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> 2.On Deadly Ground: The known universe faces it's most deadly threat
> from an arachnid like race. (My favorite)

As someone pointed out, it is On Death Ground. It's from a Sun Tzu 
quote which went

In difficult ground, press on. 
In encircled ground, devise stratagems. 
In death ground, fight. 
 
> 1. John Steakley: Armor.  This is kind of a weird book. The
> beginning and end of the book cover some pretty good ground SST-like
> combat, but the middle has a completely seperate story which many
> might find an annoying diversion.

Talk about a depressing book.... the main character certainly has a 
rough time in this book. But it is worth a read.  

> Also, Drake's Honor Harrington series has cool ship combat for which
> there is a FT conversion.

Weber's perhaps? Drake and Stirling wrote an 'addenda' to this 
series, but the books On Basilisk Station, Honour of the Queen, A 
Short Victorious War, Field of Dishonour, Flag in Exile, and the new 
hardcover (name forgotten) are all written by David Weber.  

The Sten Series by Bunch and Cole has some spec ops, some fleet 
combat, and some ground combat. 

The Crisis of Empire series that David Drake attached himself to is 
worth reading as well (Thomas T Thomas was another author involved 
with that series). It has fleet combat. 

Any of the Hammer's Slammers series (At Any Price, Counting the Cost, 
The Sharp End, Hammers Slammers, Rolling Hot, etc) are good military 
SF. 

There is a series by an author whose name I forget (but I will look 
up) on La Legion Etrange in the future (FSE Legion if you wanted to 
put it roughly into the FT universe). It had two or three books that 
were all worth looking at. Including a good discussion of 'defeat in 
detail' as a concept. 

Joel Rosenberg has two excellent books for the Mercenary fiction side 
(for you New Israeli fans) called Not For Glory and Hero that tell 
the story of Metzada (Masada) the New Israeli homeworld after Israel 
was nuked by Arabs (then the Israelis nuked Meca in revenge). It 
gives an impression of how a poor planet might export mercenaries as 
a resource in order to trade for things it needs. 

Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle was another interesting book, as was 
Falkenberg's Legion. 

There's some current series featuring US Marines in the future, whose 
name an author I forget (again, I'll look on my bookshelf). 

There are many more. Some focus to a greater or lesser extent on the 
characters (most are stories, after all, rather than some sort of 
future military treatise) but many will give you a good flavour for 
unit traditions, some potential TO&Es, and some ideas for mission 
cards. 

Tom.