Re: Planetary defenses

On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Eric Fialkowski wrote:

> I have one problem with the "stand off and bomb the planet into
oblivion"
> approach.  Why are you attacking the planet anyway?  Chances are you
want
> something from it.  Doesn't make sense to obliterate it.  

Well, it does in some cases.

a) You might be an alien attacker with motivation incomprehensible to
humans
b) You might be a religious/political fanatic with motivation
incomprehensible to sane humans :-)
c) The planet might not contain anything of value besides the enemy
base(s)
d) The *threat* of total annihilation coupled with demonstrated ability
can cause a surrender. You do remember Hiroshima, don't you?

Standoff tactics are boring as hell to game. But they can work, and
they're typically the safest option in terms of manpower. Thus, if time
is
on your side, they're likely to be the first thing to try.

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