RE: [GZG] [GZG Fiction] Basic Street Fighting Manual

G'day guys,

Now I'm back in the land of real email I thought I'd finish off the
reply.

> Organization:

Like I said that was Chuikov's idea not mine ;)

> WTF is a shock group going to do with sniper rifles and GMS/P??
> SMGs, PPIGs, and IVARs make sense.  The absolute worst possible
> weapons for street fighting are sniper rifles, followed closely by
> long-range antiarmor weapons.
> Snipers support assaults, they don't participate in them.

Again Chukiov's suggestion, but not so that they fought with the
assault, but so they could go on rapid detachment and do what snipers do
best in those situations, which is basically recon via mobile stalks,
plus covering routes of approach/exit and even act as spotters to call
in heavy support. Mark Spicer (15+ year sniper veteran in the UK army,
as well as instructor for both the Brits and US Marine Corp) also points
out their usefulness in such roles in a bunch of essays on the topic and
touches on them (though lightly) in his book "Sniper" published by
Salamander Books.

> Which requires heavy weapons and gives away tactical surprise.
> 12 gauge slugs will take locks off doors no matter what species builds
them.

Given I know a bunch of marine species where that doesn't even hold on
Earth, I don't mind saying what I did re Kra'Vak locks too even if it
doesn't make sense for us today. I was trying (maybe failing) to get
across the idea that the cost-risk analysis may change with alien
adversaries. Somethings will stay the same some will change. Maybe I
guessed wrong, but so far it worked in the games ;)

> Open ground, at point blank?	Lots of supressive fire and a dead
sprint.
> Lowcrawl across open ground and you are dead.

Again relying on reports and advise from veterans of Stalingrad, maybe
because it was slippery or something in all the winter ice, but a whole
bunch of them talk about preferring to slide belly first over rubble
than to risk running.

> Crap.  Top-down. Gravity works for you. 
> Stairways are lethally dangerous going up.

This one I played with based on the German/Allied preference to enter
anywhere and Chuikov's for going in low. I was also rationalising it
away on the fictional assumption Kra'Vak stairways may not resemble ours
;)

> How do you get grenades through two floors?  I'm confused. 

I'm guessing through windows, again this was Chuikov's advise, something
the Germans say the Russians did unnervingly well.

> If the KV are going to blow the building, they have demolitions
placed. 
> In that case, slam a couple HE rounds into the building and beat them
> to the punch.

Ok this is probably my fault for playing with WWII material, as they
were low on ammo and didn't want to bring down too many buildings as
rubble was a pain for them (well some of them, others loved it).

> I'm baffled by this.	Obviously the writer
> has never seen ruined building.  Fine rubble?

This one was adapted from recommendations published in the U.S.
Department of War WWII "Combat Lessons" Series and US veteran reports.
All I can guess (and what I imagined) was that the vets were talking
about rubble that was fist sized or brick sized rather than half wall
sized.

> I'm baffled as to how it works to the human advantage.  Allegedly
> the KraVak have all sorts of experience and 'know all the tricks'. . .
> They have Grav Tanks and no compunction about knocking down buildings,
> further they are the defenders from the tone of this piece, yet they
> don't know how to take advantage of rubble?

The bigger tanks were having trouble fitting down the rubble strewn
streets in the game, so we decided that was one trick the humans were
allowed to be a bit further ahead on. We didn't want it too much in one
direction ;)

> Honestly, I'd think if they react to DNA, then the easiest way to do
> it would be to spray a solution from small flying drones. 
> And easier on the drones.

You could well be right and that may turn up in a later piece (with due
credit), but for now they're just learning. The date stamps on the
pieces show they've been in this kind of fight with the Kra'Vak under a
month and a half at this point. Based on the speed in development of
doctrine in WWII there is a lot of learning to be done.

Cheers

Beth

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