Re: [GZG] FTverse colinies

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can see colonies flipping sides a lot. Without any immediate and direct
contact with the homeland or founding nation. Space is big and even in a
universe with FTL travel it's seldom immediate.  In most sci-fi settings
you really are left with the realities of old school colonies in that it
can take weeks if not months to receive effective aid.

Now, this is going to vary by setting but I think as far as the
"official" GZG universe goes this would still apply. So, you would
likely end up with a lot of colonies rolling over until they could be
"officially liberated unless the occupying forces pushed the limits and
abused the populace or the populace was particularly fantatical. Now, it
might come to pass that the parent nation might insite a geurilla
conflict by mandate which of course would present its own political
problems.

I really can't see most colonies being big enough to really resist a
government that really wanted to threaten it. Populations would be
incredibly centralized and vulnerable to bombardment and pinpoint
invasion. In addition, I don't imagine that most colonies would allow
for the "flee to the hills" approach all that well as many of them would
likely be on marginal or even hostile worlds with the colony being the
only truely safe place.

But as has been said, it really depends on how you want to run it.

-Eli

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@gmail.com> 

> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Enzo de Ianni wrote: 
> 
> > >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. 
> > 
> > Vietnam? :) 
> 
> Wrong. Flat-out wrong. 
> 
> 1) At no time did any Vietnamese unit defeat any American unit on the 
> battlefield. 
> 2) The PAVN was well-trained and equipped with artillery and armor by 
> the Soviets and the Chinese. 
> 
> Besides which, the strategic and political failures in Vietnam had a 
> myriad of causes. The one thing we can definitely rule out is the 
> idea that the US used insufficient force for the job. It used a great 
> deal of force very, very badly. 
> 
> > Both against line units and elite ones, on the move or in prepared
positions? 
> 
> Name an instance. 
> 
> > I would rate the US armed forces as quite good as a "high tech 
> > forces" (but I see RIchard Bell already thought of that example). 
> > I could go to any length on that, if you prefere. 
> > And, without intention of being rude, we could talk about Iraq, too.

> 
> Again, name an instance of a battlefield defeat. Come with date, 
> designation of unit involved, and place. 
> 
> 
> But like you said (and I snipped), the real questions behind it have a

> lot more to do with asking what are the realities in your particular 
> universe of space travel/transportation. 
> 
> Here's a novel one I doubt anyone's asked yet: Will the occupied 
> populace even care? More than a few European colonies changed hands 
> without guerilla warfare occuring, simply because the native populace 
> could barely tell one set of whites from another, and even the 
> colonists really didn't notice much of a difference beside the 
> language of the tax collectors. 
> 
> We are also presuming that the campaigns will be conducted in full 
> media glare rather like a modern campaign, and fought by democracies 
> that deeply care about things like world opinion and whether or not 
> their populace is offended by pictures of insurgents hung by the neck.

> Would international media be able to influence a campaign quite as 
> heavily? I suspect not, given travel times that prohibit the 'near 
> real time' coverage. 
> 
> 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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