From: DOCAgren@a...
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:37:45 EST
Subject: Orbital assault
Once again answer a # of points from people in Digest 1811 In a message dated 11/25/03 2:02:08 AM, > owner-gzg-digest@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU writes: << While these always sound so much fun in stories and in games (and so I don't want to see them disappear from those!) in reality how useful would an orbital assault be and on how grand a scale would it have to happen? So in WWII (sorry if I butcher the following ancient history is more my thing) they landed in a few spots and pushed up from there. On the flip side Europe is a small place relatively speaking and the top was penned off by Russia. How would you do it in a bigger area? Starting at a continent scale, how would you do it for the North American continent or even Australia? Going further how would you do it for an entire planet, especially one settled for a century or more? Or is this a case of "in reality you just bomb them into submission and send in troops to pick off what you want later", which makes for a boring game so we ignore that and pretend the much more dramatic beach-head style thing can happen? Cheers Beth>> It is possible You want the planet in 1 piece. So you plan your assault around hitting Military Bases and polical target to hope cut of the HEAD, and Securing LZ for your units. To be honest with you, I would hate to try to take a plaent with decent defenses and "loyal" enemy population, however colony worlds.. Might be doable ------------------------------ <<John, that of course is based on several assumptions: 1) You get local space superiority for several days (a week should be sufficient to gain a base position in strength) and then can hold aerospace parity. Loss of at least Aerospace parity means you will be strangled into inability to resist - Logistics is #1 in strategic warfare, right after Reconnaissance. <VBG> 2) You are not assuming that a force in orbit automatically negates the land forces' potential via space to mud attacks. (I know, every zoomie's fantasy since at least 1930's.) If that was so then you would be playing the old SPI SF games instead of Full Thrust, Dirtside 2 and Stargrunt 2. <grin> But that of course is a big issue in the past discussions. 3) You are not stuck on balkanized world instead of a GZG star-spanning forces type game. LOL! But all that aside, any force of mid-tech plus professionals, adequately trained and led, should be able to conventionally defeat low-tech "People's Militia" unless radically outnumbered and cut off from supply (I might note the latter is critical IMO.) And should win any guerilla war unless the political will fails (I refer to Vietnam where, in reality, it was won on the field and lost at the table - like the perennial Israeli problem, only quicker.) Gracias, Glenn>> Glenn, I have to agree, #1 is real sticking point, for an operation of Beachheading the Fleet needs to make sure they have Orbital, Interfacing, and Aero Superiority. The longer the Planetary force can hope out and contest these, the more likely that help can be gotten. And then I can hopeful catch the enemy fleet, around my planet in orbit while my fleet burns in hot and firing. #2. I remeber those old SPI sf games.. #3. I agree that professional should take irregular troops, unless something happens werid. From: KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de (K.H.Ranitzsch) This will, of course, depend on your campaign parameters. If the enemy can FTL right into orbit, is unopposed in space and can start dropping pods immediately, you are right. Under most other assumption, you will have several days' warning, presumably. Enough to assemble and equip troops (for an historical example, see the Israelis in the Yom Kippur War), but not for training. Yes, six weeks is pretty unlikely. Greetings Karl Heinz > [quoted text omitted] Even if you can pop out in orbit and strat dropping troopers, hopefully my intel network has been able to determine that my systems are atarget and get defense stand by to alert status. Unless my system has a complete failure in intel, I honestly figure 6 Weeks as a min, to prepare my defenses. Which will including launch of a # of anti-small Craft Satelites, as I may not be able hurt the larger ships but your landers are different breed of targets.