Orbital assault

Once again answer a # of points from people in Digest 1811

In a message dated 11/25/03 2:02:08 AM, 
owner-gzg-digest@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU writes:

<< While these always sound so much fun in stories and in games (and so
I 
don't want to see them disappear from those!) in reality how useful
would an 
orbital assault be and on how grand a scale would it have to happen? So
in WWII 
(sorry if I butcher the following ancient history is more my thing) they
landed 
in a few spots and pushed up from there. On the flip side Europe is a
small 
place relatively speaking and the top was penned off by Russia. How
would you do 
it in a bigger area? Starting at a continent scale, how would you do it
for 
the North American continent or even Australia? Going further how would
you do 
it for an entire planet, especially one settled for a century or more?
Or is 
this a case of "in reality you just bomb them into submission and send
in 
troops to pick off what you want later", which makes for a boring game
so we ignore 
that and pretend the much more dramatic beach-head style thing can
happen?

Cheers

Beth>>

It is possible You want the planet in 1 piece.

So you plan your assault around hitting Military Bases and polical
target to 
hope cut of the HEAD, and Securing LZ for your units.  To be honest with
you, 
I would hate to try to take a plaent with decent defenses and "loyal"
enemy 
population, however colony worlds.. Might be doable

------------------------------

<<John, that of course is based on several assumptions:

1) You get local space superiority for several days (a week should be

sufficient to gain a base position in strength) and then can hold

aerospace parity.  Loss of at least Aerospace parity means you will be

strangled into inability to resist - Logistics is #1 in strategic

warfare, right after Reconnaissance.  <VBG>

2) You are not assuming that a force in orbit automatically negates the

land forces' potential	via space to mud attacks.  (I know, every

zoomie's fantasy since at least 1930's.)  If that was so then you would

be playing the old SPI SF games instead of Full Thrust, Dirtside 2 and

Stargrunt 2. <grin>  But that of course is a big issue in the past

discussions.  

3) You are not stuck on balkanized world instead of a GZG star-spanning

forces type game.  LOL!

But all that aside, any force of mid-tech plus professionals, adequately

trained and led, should be able to conventionally defeat  low-tech

"People's Militia" unless radically outnumbered and cut off from supply

(I might note the latter is critical IMO.)   And should win any guerilla

war unless the political will fails (I refer to Vietnam where, in

reality, it was won on the field and lost at the table - like the

perennial Israeli problem, only quicker.)

Gracias,

Glenn>>

Glenn,

I have to agree, 
#1 is real sticking point, for an operation of Beachheading the Fleet
needs 
to make sure they have Orbital, Interfacing, and Aero Superiority.  The
longer 
the Planetary force can hope out and contest these, the more likely that
help 
can be gotten.	And then I can hopeful catch the enemy fleet, around my
planet 
in orbit while my fleet burns in hot and firing. 

#2.  I remeber those old SPI sf games..

#3. I agree that professional should take irregular troops, unless
something 
happens werid.

From: KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de (K.H.Ranitzsch)

This will, of course, depend on your campaign parameters.

If the enemy can FTL right into orbit, is unopposed in space and can
start

dropping pods immediately, you are right.

Under most other assumption, you will have several days' warning,

presumably. Enough to assemble and equip troops (for an historical
example,

see the Israelis in the Yom Kippur War), but not for training.

Yes, six weeks is pretty unlikely.

Greetings

Karl Heinz

>>

Even if you can pop out in orbit and strat dropping troopers, hopefully
my 
intel network has been able to determine that my systems are atarget and
get 
defense stand by to alert status.

Unless my system has a complete failure in intel, I honestly figure 6
Weeks 
as a min, to prepare my defenses.  Which will including launch of a # of

anti-small Craft Satelites, as I may not be able hurt the larger ships
but your 
landers are different breed of targets.

DOC Agren

     (Lurker on the Digest)