Re: [OT] Re: Tired of the stupid comments about SST...

> The movie has silly satire pretending to be politics, military tactics
at
> the 'drooling moron' level of sophistication, and so many
inconsistencies
> as to be laughable. They also didn't use PA...

Like most of the rest of the list, I thought ST the movie was a total
bomb (in the
American sense of the word : ). Now, with that said I don't *think* the
tactics that
the MI (those guys... *mobile* infantry? Yeah right...) used in the
movie were *that*
bad- considering the enemy.

The bugs, with the exception of the tanker and the plasma bugs, were all
close combat
bugs! No ranged weapons. I would even argue that the tanker bug wasn't
much of a
ranged weapon too... However, those critter were *very* well armored- to
the point to
where it took quite a few rounds from the MI assault rifles to take down
just a single
warrior. When you combine that (well armored/protected close combat
fighters) with the
bugs total lack of ranged weapons, and throw in the fact that there were
Zillions of
them and they had a 'Dorito' attitude (kill those and we will hatch some
more),	you
have a situation where bunching up *isn't* such a bad idea! Yeah, if the
bugs had a
few machine guns they would really give the MIs a bad day... but they
didn't! The bugs
have to get in REAL close to attack... and the MIs *HAVE* to put as many
shooters on
target as they can just to take a bug down.

The Avalon Hill SST the Movie game makes this point painfully clear to
both sides- the
bugs *have* to sneak up on the MIs (using terrain and numbers), while
the MIs *have*
to keep close in mutually supporting groups (or a single mass group,
depending on the
scenario). To spread out in 'realistic' fire team tactics means to
spread out your
firepower... giving the bugs holes in your line in which they can
infiltrate your
formation and shread it.

Now my question is where are the MI's heavy weapons (mortars, light
machine guns),
AFVs, and artillery? If the fleet is suppost to provide the arty... then
they really
dropped the ball...

And by the way, the book also used massed starship formations. Remember,
during Bug
House one of the worst diasters was when two transports rammed each
other in orbit...
kinda hard to do in space unless both ships were *real* close : )

Let the flames begin : ) But off list please, this is getting off topic
: )

Scott