RE: [semi OT] Women wargamers

I think PA will become the norm rather than the luxery of the
future(DS/FT
Future).  There will be war on earth, assuming there always has been and
always will be so my argument isn't including good old Terra.  Here is
my
argument:

1. I imagine most skirmishes will be small (Brigade or smaller) in the
future.  

2. Transport will be at a premium.  Why transport APCs/Tanks/GEV
infantry
when most conflicts involve securing the high ground (orbit) and picking
your battles.  And if you decide to bring the APCs etc.  you have to
have
something big enough to transport them dirtside.

3. PA will be airtight making it great for harsh/vacc environments,
boarding
actions, etc.  As well, they won't need an airtight dropship.

Don't get me wrong, I love tanks and big armored formations.  I just
can't
see DS era conflicts having much of them.  Why transport all these units
to
wipe out a colony when you can sit there pounding it from orbit.  Why
transport all these units to garrison a colony when all a fleet has to
do is
sit in orbit destroying you at his leisure.  I'm loosely basing my ideas
on
the island hopping campaigns of the pacific.

Comments?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Los [SMTP:los@cris.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 4:58 PM
> To:	FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> Subject:	Re: [semi OT] Women wargamers
> 
> tom.anderson@altavista.net wrote:
> 
> >
> > > And also
> > > that the MI _did_ require a high standard of physical fitness and
> > > stamina--remember their basic training had a more than 80% failure
> > > rate, a failure rate more in keeping with Ranger School in the US
than
> > > with basic or infantry school anywhere in the world.
> >
> > true, but i suspect that this was more for plot reasons than
technology.
> >
> 
> How do you figure? Guys in power armor still have to walk and run
> everywhere. Power Armor doesn't make it any easier to run five miles.
It
> just makes it easier to run five miles carrying a one ton armored
suit. If
> you think you're going to pull some slug off the street and watch him
do
> miracles in PA, that's just not gonna happen in anyone's universe,
except
> maybe GW. (maybe not even theirs) The use of power armor, at least as
> described in any SF I've ever read, still required a VERY high degree
of
> fitness and is usually a "specialist" trade.
> 
> 
> 
> > >  I do know that they dismounted some
> > > normally mech units and sent them to the Falklands as foot troops
> > > because they don't/didn't have the sea lift capability to send
them
> nor
> > > the logistical infrastructure to sustain them.
> >
> > now that's a bloody good point; i can envisage planners looking at
some
> hundred-man rebel army on New Boxtead (unimportant backwater world)
and
> thinking 'do we really need to send power armour? nah.'.
> >
> 
> Again, if you are looking at managing your military resources, and PA
is
> not what your whole army is made out of, OR, you don't feel you have
the
> extra logistical capabilities required to keep PA troops in the field,
> then	I think that is a very real startegic decision.
>