Re: [GZG] FTverse colinies

Which begs the point, when the "Invader" controls Power, Water and 
communications how much "spare" population does the colony have?

Michael Brown
mwsaber6@msn

--------------------------------------------------
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 1:43 PM
To: <gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: [GZG] FTverse colinies

> On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 6:17 PM, Enzo de Ianni <enzodeianni@tiscali.it>

> wrote:
>
>> On another line, I do not believe in the "elite myth"... I think our
>> experiences show that high quality forces (with both training and
>> material superiority) rule the battlefield, but are very limited when
>> things move to the "asymmetrical" war... want to destroy a planet's
>> power grid? Having local aerospace superiority is all you need! But
>> if you want to occupy for any time the main population centers
>> against a motivated opposition, you'll need far more than SAS or
>> Delta Force or a few companies of powersuited infantry, or they'll
>> bleed to death through thousands small attacks from unarmored,
>> untrained militians, IMO.
>
> Cite an instance.
>
> Seriously, let me know when you come up with a circumstance where
> untrained militias managed to inflict a loss on an able enemy.  You
> might be able to come up with a handful of limited circumstances where
> tactical defeats of isolated outposts occured due to failures on the
> part of the high-tech opponent.  Name a campaign where this happened
> with anything approaching regularity.
>
> But if your point (and you confuse tactics with strategy here) is that
> by avoiding confrontation an "asymmetrical" opponent can avoid loosing
> decisively long enough for their high-tech opponent to decide it isn't
> worth the cost, that might be a valid point.	But that political
> consideration in no way justifies your dismissal of good quality
> troops (training and equipment-wise) as worthless.
>
> And even when it does work out, it's damned hard on your thousands of
> unarmored untrained militia boogers.	We tend to stack them up like
> cordwood at ratios of 10 or 20 to one, or better.  Which may or may
> not be a commitment a frontier colony can make.
>
> John
> -- 
> "Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
> and again. We're looking for thousands of Persians."
> --Vita Aureliani
>
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