RE: Cheese factor

G'day,

John pointed out:
 >Give a commander more than 5 things to worry
 >about and it overwhelms his ability to keep track of
 >things.

Mmm they need more mothers in the front line... ;P

 >And 5 man squads. . . It's your army, but you're going
 >to start loosing combat effectiveness quickly once you
 >start taking casualties.  I've considered taking my
 >light guys to WWII standards--12 or 13 man squads.

I do see you point, especially if you use Allan's cumulative damage
rules. 
However given who organisational ratios have changed in many other
fields 
over the last 100 yrs I'd fully expect their to be more room for change
in 
military ones over the next 200 yrs...especially if fancy gadgetry or 
platoon pets (drones etc) become popular (though there's not as much of 
that in SG).

Laserlight said
 >a. Guys bond

....must be good.... ;)

 >b. You need enough guys in a fire
 >team to look after each other and
 >cover all directions.
 >c. You need to have enough subunits
 >that your unit commander has
 >some maneuver choices...
 >d. On the other hand, you need
 >few enough units that your commander
 >can keep track of them...
 >
 >Therefore you will have 3-4 soldiers
 > to a team, two or three teams to
 >a squad, three to five squads in a
 >platoon, etc. Higher units are
 >usually triangular or square, ie
 >three or four major subunits, plus
 >attached support.

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that works and that's why its used
now, 
I'm just saying that future developments or even constraints may see
some 
changes to that (at least in some cases) so there is room for
flexibility 
when it comes to scifi.

Cheers

Beth

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