Hello everyone: As we all know, we have seen just about every aspect of B5
SPACE combat. (With a couple of exceptions: e.g. Did that Vorlon CA ram that
Shadow ship in "Interludes and examinations?) But we have seen little of
ground combat in the B5 universe. What kind of Dirtside II or Stargrunt II
rules can we come up with? I do have a few thoughts.
Earth Alliance/Narn/Centauri: The only kind of ground combat we've seen
so far was in (gag, spit) "GROPOS" and the only vehicle we saw was that cool
EA VTOL. We could assume that the Earthers and the otheryounger races have
access to other ground vehicles. Missiles, PPGs (DFFG?), and
other "medium-tech" weapons could be possibilities.
As for infantry (either DSII or SGII): Earth Alliance: Normal rules apply for
DSII. As for SGII what kind of weapon best matches a PPG rifle? Narn: Narn
have two aspects that make them different from Human troops; 1)Strength,
2)psychology (i.e. "battle rage", running directly into the line of fire to be
mowed down by the dozens.).
Centauri: Errrr....what makes the "Nazis-with-Reverse-Mohawks"
different in combat?
Minbari: If the Minbari do have AFV I would guess that they employ
anti-grav propulsion, carry energy beam weapons, and would be tough for
members of the younger races to destroy. Minbari infantry would have more
stamina than humans. (Remember Delenn after her ordeal in "Soul Hunter"?) I'm
not sure what hand weapons they have access to aside from fighting staffs.
Vorlons/Shadows: I don't even want to know. (Do the those BIG,
invisble, gut-sucking Shadow Warriors seen in Season 2 count as infantry
or an AFV?)
I say we go down to JMS's place with pitchforks and torches (ala
"Frankenstein") and demand he tell us about ground combat in the B5 universe.
If that doesn't work, we have to make things up. Anyone else have any ideas?
Later,
> You wrote:
> Centauri: Errrr....what makes the "Nazis-with-Reverse-Mohawks"
At DSII scale, infantry don't have to that different. Their AFV's would
probably function along the lines of EA tech, given the close repoire (sp?)
these two races have had. Of course, given Centauri fighter pilots as an
example, ground troops may be given to anarchic "heroic"
styles of combat (i.e. a free-for-all glory hunt).
> Vorlons/Shadows: I don't even want to know. (Do the those BIG,
Oh, jeez, I don't even want to think about close combat with those
bad-boys. :@
> I say we go down to JMS's place with pitchforks and torches (ala
I've got my citronella torches ready. Citronella? Well, you don't want
mosquitos hovering around while we pillage, do you?
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From: FTGZG-L[SMTP:FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk]
Sent: 03 October 1996 00:13
To: Full Thrust Mailing List
Subject: Babylon 5 Ground Combat?
> Centauri: Errrr....what makes the "Nazis-with-Reverse-Mohawks"
Well how does politcal officers or units 'Who help motivate' units to keep
going forward? Any unit within command range of a stand may test at
a bonus. Any unit routing within cmd range of the unit get a chance to
rally or the PO fire on them. Every turn they are fired on by the PO they take
a test. Just a few thoughts. They do need a bit of refining.
> Vorlons/Shadows: I don't even want to know. (Do the those BIG,
The gut sucking warriors:- power armoured inf? Shadows attack cause fear
in units within 12" except Vorlon. This fear is an immediate morale test
at a suitable negative modifier. I would think that Vorlons would refrain from
ground combat. They tend to get the younger races to do it!
Later, Mark S.
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From: SimonC@denplan.co.uk (Simon Campbell-Smith)
Sent: Friday, October 04, 1996 5:35 AM
To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject: RE: Babylon 5 Ground Combat?
----------
From: FTGZG-L[SMTP:FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk]
Sent: 03 October 1996 00:13
To: Full Thrust Mailing List
Subject: Babylon 5 Ground Combat?
> Centauri: Errrr....what makes the "Nazis-with-Reverse-Mohawks"
Well how does politcal officers or units 'Who help motivate' units to keep
going forward? Any unit within command range of a stand may test at a bonus.
Any unit routing within cmd range of the unit get a chance to rally or the PO
fire on them. Every turn they are fired on by the PO they take a test. Just a
few thoughts. They do need a bit of refining.
> Vorlons/Shadows: I don't even want to know. (Do the those BIG,
The gut sucking warriors:- power armoured inf? Shadows attack cause fear
in units within 12" except Vorlon. This fear is an immediate morale test at a
suitable negative modifier. I would think that Vorlons would refrain from
ground combat. They tend to get the younger races to do it!
Later, Mark S.
In reference to the ground troop and organization concepts for the B5
universe, more to point to the above comments, I would like to put forth the
following. As we have seen, most of the B5 combat action we have seen has been
centered around captial ship to captial ship, fighter to fighter, and captial
ship to fighter engaugments. We have only seen tid bits of ground and
atmospheric missions. With the creation of the Thunderbolt fighter, the B5
universe opened up another relem to Full Thrust, Ditside and StarGrunt gamers
to explore and develop the proper rules and senerios for this relem. I
personelly have dealt more with FASA's ST:SCS and RPG. The rules to these
games unforntunatly are somewhat unfamilar, so if I screw somrthing up during
this, I'm sure you'll let me know. As we all know, Star Trek is just ship to
ship combat and action. The B5 captial ship actions are similar in appearance,
but not by any means aything like ST.....and I'm rambling. To the first
question about the Centauri. We must remeber that the Centauri society is
based on wealth and policitical power. This society looks at assisnations to
gain power in much the same way the Klingons view killing a Captain of vessel
when he loses honor as a logical means of rank promotion, only the Centauri do
this with style. The Centauri are basically power hungry and expansionists.
Nazi isn't to far off. The use of the Soviet inspired "Polictical Officer" may
not be to far off the mark. But we are seeing the "Grand Republic" as it is
now and not what it was, say, during the Occupation of Narn. So it is hard
telling what it was like then. We have only heard bits and pieces of what the
Republic was like before it met Humanity. As for the Shadows........that is a
good question. It has been suggested that the individual Shadow is either
phased between realities or possesses some sort of personal cloak generator.
The individual I think would be charactorized as a ARI, not an AFV. As for
weapons, well whatever they used on Kosh I would not used on me, that much is
certain. It's even known if they are armored, but relying on the cloak or
phasing ability to provide constant cover and a constant element of surprise.
As this season begins to unfold, I think we sill see more of the ground
activities between the races, including the Shadows. Right now, it's all guess
work in a white lab coat. Of course, I have found the webpage "Babylon 5, the
Lurker's Guide" a very helpful sourse of info into the B5 universe, mainly
because JMS contributes to be directly. He usually gives insights into
his "novel" and there is a E-mail address on the site for him. Worth
looking into, if you havn't already. "Ne sak, schneak, slem ba." Qapla'! Ed
Bell (using Tim's computer)