Timeline for Why is ground warfare smaller scaled than space warfare?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 4, 2018 at 20:50 | comment | added | colsw | "Your policy options go from 'sternly worded letter' straight to 'obliteration from orbit', with crater size being your only variable." This is the best sentence I've read this week. | |
| Feb 4, 2018 at 4:12 | comment | added | Catgut | @Suthek It's not a P&P, or a game at all, but my answer is a rough paraphrase of the book Starship Troopers- if you haven't read it, you might enjoy it. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 19:01 | comment | added | Monty Harder | @KeithMorrison In the latter case, you still don't want your troops to be that visible (and thus have to worry about them becoming targets unnecessarily). You get new uniforms for the EPS, that might have a new (or revived old) flag on them, and of course the highest-ranking officers in the EPS go to jail awaiting trial by the new regime, and middle-management EPS (who were never associated in the public mind with any atrocities) get to move up to the top spots in those new uniforms. Let them spread stories that they were part of an underground resistance to the old regime. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 15:44 | comment | added | Keith Morrison | @MontyHarder, that's what I was getting at. You're not going to have troops on each corner, but a "ceremonial guard" for the politicians, while your other troops are squirreled away so as not to be a constant presence for your average citizen. Unless, of course, you've just overthrown a really unpopular government, in which case you want them a bit more visible to show the flag. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 13:00 | comment | added | Suthek | I'll be honest: Your first three paragraphs sound like a pretty dope pitch for a P&P where you play as precisely these elite infiltration teams. I'd play it. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 3:09 | comment | added | Maja Piechotka | Why bother with nukes? If you are at the latitude of ISS (low earth orbit) 1kg rock lunched to Earth will have a force of 1 kg of TNT (unless I made and error somewhere). Just get a few asteroids from belt and direct them to planet (you need to ensure that there won't be too much of atmospheric breaking but since you have FTL travel it is easy) - you won't even need to clean radiation afterwards. "Isaac Newton is the deadliest _____ in space". | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 22:22 | comment | added | Pingcode | Worth noting this reasoning already applies writ small to the modern world: you can't take over a city with just jets and bombs, no matter how powerful or precise they are. You still need ground soldiers to actually do the boot work of securing the city | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 22:18 | comment | added | Monty Harder | You don't have to remind the average person who's in charge. As far as they're concerned, it's still the "existing power structure" (EPS). You only have to remind the EPS that they take orders from you. So the main job for your "troops" is to escort EPS leaders to meetings at your Governor's throne room on your Imperial Star Destroyer, then when the meetings are over to escort the compliant among them back home, and the non-compliant to the transports headed to the prison planet. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 21:57 | comment | added | Catgut | @KeithMorrison I hadn't touched on occupation after the fact, but you're absolutely correct. Boots on the ground serve as a visual reminder of who's in charge, can deal with civil resistance (eg riots) with minimum necessary force, and can carry out hearts and minds operations. Forces like warships in orbit (or, in the present time, missile-armed drones) don't give you that. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 21:37 | comment | added | Keith Morrison | Assuming you're an occupying force, you're going to need boots on the ground for nothing else than to be a reminder of the situation and act as a police force in critical instances. Ideally, once you have control of the orbits, whoever is in charge on the planet surrenders. You park some troops in their center of government to remind them of that, but then using the existing power structure to maintain law and order and only bring in the big guns when necessary. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 21:22 | history | edited | Catgut | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 3 characters in body
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| Feb 1, 2018 at 20:58 | history | answered | Catgut | CC BY-SA 3.0 |