Ground Force 2300

[Murph]

Can it be argued that anything smaller than a battalion WITH orbital fire support would be completely ineffective? I suggest that in most instances it would take brigades to pacify a planet, or divisions in the case of some. You would almost have to ship either light armor or lots of combat walkers.

 

[Murph]

Weren't the HLI the sweeping of the Glaswegian gutter?

Originally posted by Uncle Bob:
Oops, no Guards. Sorry. In WWII the HLI were the Royal Highland Light Infantry, popularly known as the "Rileys".

The HLI wore trews and the Cameronians wore trews or trousers (I forget which). Except the Pipers like Uncle Willy, who wore the kilt.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Yes. Which is what made them so scary.

Think razor blades, stuck in potatoes or sewn into the edge of caps for off-duty fights. And those were the regulars. The Volunteers really had discipline problems...

 

[aramis]

In many cases, all you need hold is the port facilities, so on many smaller colonies, without sufficient terranized soil to support subsitance crops, a company or two could hold just long enough to make life rough.

Or, as is often the case in the real world, and modern Real Life begins to mirror Film, GWB is about to send a field army to do what should be don by a SO Company: remove one nutcase from power.

Inserting special ops personell can be profoundly effective, if they have sufficiently broad or sufficiently narrow engagement parameters. Need to besiege a colony? a single SO team, with the correct intell and time to do it, can shut down the fueling systems in a long-term fatal way; this makes most drops to surface one way trips until repaired or replaced.

Need to wipe out an entire colony dome? 4 to 8 SO teams can, if equipped properly, make certain that there is NO LIFE remaining.

Need a certain rabid cult erradicated, call the USDOJ's elite teams... Need it done quietly, call the SEALS or RNC's.

Alas, all special cases, but, in the 2300 setting, the Special Ops guys are hell of a lot cheaper to support, even if they take 4 times longer to train and at ten times the cost per day. And, if you do it right, they even get there on smaller, non-dedicated shipping which carries that stealth-lander.

 

[Murph]

Again, forces smaller than a battalion would be ineffective for no other reason than not enough boots on the ground.

 

[BMonnery]

Really? It only matters comparitively. B Coy, 2/24th at Rorkes Drift didn't seem to cave into a Divisional attack....

 

[Jame]

Wouldn't most futuristic forces be able to use roboticized force multiplyers?

Even if the designers of the game were rather conservative in their tech outlook?

 

[Murph]

Yes, but they held a static position, they were not tasked with occupying or the recce of an entire colony by themselves. I still don't think that the 2/24th could have taken the Natal colony by itself.

Originally posted by BMonnery:
Really? It only matters comparitively. B Coy, 2/24th at Rorkes Drift didn't seem to cave into a Divisional attack....

 

[Uncle Bob]

It depends on what you are tasked with.

Defending a static position or a surgical strike can be done with a company or less. Holding a city against imsurgents requires a brigsde or more.