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

G'day,

> Ah.  You also have to realize I don't read all the fiction,
> the title of this one caught my eye.	Limited internet time.	:) 

Ok.

> Now I'm thinking that you almost could consider all of Mars as an
> urban area. Take and hold the spaceports, throw up a blockade,
> and starve the little bastards out.  Presuming, of course, that
> you can get your fleet to do that.  And if you can't, then you 
> likely can't supply a massive ground assault safely either.

In case you're interested here's the breakdown.

11 years ago (2185) the Kra'Vak get serious and UN declares war, about a
year later is the first ground engagement which doesn't go well for
humanity. In fact no ground offensives do until Rheinhold and that seems
to be the exception, usually we have to beat them in space before they
touch down

2 years ago (2194) the Kra'Vak make it to the Sol system and begin the
"seige of sol"

Ok that's all canon and where I started

Now as part of the seige there is a showdown around Mars where they land
an invasion force (which may or may not have been intended for Earth
originally). Humans are a bit tied up getting from Earth and they're
engaged in orbit around Mars and so the kra'Vak get down and take over a
sector of the planet before numbers kick in and humans can pen them off
(or the kravak think they have enough space for now, either way they get
a toehold but not the entire planet)

Kravak are happy to use ortillery which undoes century plus of
terraforming advances so only decent atmopshere is back to being in the
domes, humans can't survive longterm in the open without big help. The
KraVak have enough space to go into major construction (mining and
construciton is ok beyond human bounds so more on the plain than typical
for human settlements but there is no evidence they can grow stuff out
there, humans certainly can't so there could be a good chance KV can't
either)

Now two years later humans have finally got Mars' orbit back, though
Earth is still under seige so no chance of much help from their, stuff
is trickling through but its not the major flood they need. Effectively
Humans on Mars can really only rely on what's on Mars (stuff beyond sol
is even more questionable source than from Earth). Kra'vak can self
supply on the planet (industrious little beavers they are) and humans
can't just "nuke" them from orbit because not only do they want the land
back (for painful sentimental reasons) but the environment can't take
it. 

End result, if humans want them out we have to get in there on a more
personal level. Lets just say to make the game fun and challenging I
chucked them a few curve balls to ensure life ain't simple ;)

> Depends on a lot of things.  If you can buy off-the-shelf, it's a lot
easier. 
> For instance, from the first few IEDs to the procurement of the first
Buffalos
> was something like a year or so, but this is a vehicle already in
production
> that just needed to be purchased and shipped to theater.
>
> Historically, the Germans got from PzKfw IV As to IV Ms in 5 years or
so. . .

Ok both are possible given on the one hand length of engagement on Mars
and on the other the total length of time the Xenowar has been running. 

> Look at the hedgerow fighting--how long did it take to go from never
> having seen a hedgerow to having worked out multiple battledrills
> and a field-improvised piece of equipment that could clear them
> quickly and efficiently.  That's what I mean by TTPs.

Thanks. The one to two momths it took to beat the bocage was what I had
pegged as reasonably-moderately fast learning given it took longer to
adapt in other situations. I figured that spread would be ok for a fight
with a whole different species (I haven't seen a faster learning curve
in the publically available docs, but that doesn't mean faster curves
don't exist in stuff I can't access). 

Cheers

Beth

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