While you and others have made good points about what Merlin could/should do, Merlin is David Weber's creation and David Weber knows, better than anybody else, how Merlin thinks.
Now we could have misunderstood what David Weber has said concerning what Merlin would or would not do.
After all David Weber has surprised all of us at one thing or the other.
But please consider the possibility that we know more about what David Weber's characters would or would not do than you.
We enjoy speculation but get tired of people seeming to "beat a dead horse".
I mean no insult but IMO you're "beating a dead horse".
abrax894 wrote:All, excellent points. I'm in the middle of reading MTaT atm and it's funny that Nimue did bring up the temple again and it's armoring. More detail was put into what it could and could not withstand. I was working, when I first posted this, that BS was the outer shell, with some 'lighter' armor on the outside as something of an all around weather coating. Protects from anything short of a direct attack. But, DW went in to a lot more detail about the actual temple/bunker itself and yes, I would conclude that my initial supposition about multiple small KEW strikes might not be sufficient, especially if they put more armor underneath the temple, I hadn't considered that before.
I'm not gonna bother with discussing the possibility anymore because it wasn't my main point. As for the rest, I understand where you all are coming from with modern tech stuff, but the loss of life debate is something that has been going on for a very long time. With the 'fleet disappearances' I'll make these points: First, you said that everything would come out in the end, granted, however, WHEN that would come out would be after the war was over, probably YEARS after. Second, when this information came out, as it stands, don't you think Merlin is going to be questioned heavily and why he didn't stop or at the very least, even the odds a bit in favor of Charis during certain operations? Especially when those operations resulted in massive CHARISIAN casualties? Given a choice, I would be picking my allies lives to save vs those of my enemy, and you will have to face your allied FAMILIES when this information comes out too. While the enemy families may be upset that you used some of this tech to defeat them, it IS war. Your allies on the other hand would have a legitimate complaint. Sometimes things ARE unavoidable with the limitations that are in place, but sometimes direct actions could be carried out, both at sea, out of site of EVERYONE. Hell, even on land, a small detachment could play merry hell with the enemy behind the lines. Guerrilla tactics have been the bane of every large standing army since forever. Hit and fade strikes, sew fear amongst your enemies and that detachment could be vetted heavily before introducing them to new weapons, nothing to raise eyebrows but enough to give them a decisive advantage in the field. On the sea, it is much easier, we've already, multiple times in fact, that CoG fleets have a hard enough time staying within site of one another, much less in any kind of formation. Someone wanders off, and they disappear, a detachment sets out to make rendezvous with the rest of the fleet and they never make it. It's selective and you don't use it ALL the time. The overall strategic picture remains relatively the same, but you're giving your allies just a bit more of an edge, not to mention a morale boost. Given the choice between saving the lives of my enemies and saving the lives of my allies, I'll take my allies thanks. Sometimes there isn't anything you can do, but when there is, yes I think it should be taken. You may say that Merlin already does that but, I've seen a number of opportunities that were passed up because it would be hard to explain. That, in my mind, would be a good thing. Not knowing what happened to a ship squadron, or a guard detachment, they just disappear, THAT is scary. It takes weeks, if not months to move from one place to another, whether your talking about land or sea, it would be at least that long till those groups are reported missing. There is no telling what happened, where it happened, or if it was natural or they just ran afoul of someone with a bigger force. The point is, you disguise your more advanced weapons/explosives to LOOK like their current, or very close to current tech level (lets face it, they aren't more than 3-4 generations away from semi-auto weapons anyway). The way you employ those weapons is key. The ability of Charis to progress down this line so quickly (Manticore anyone?) is what is allow them to, at the very least, break even with, and in most cases win, every battle they have been in, with few exceptions. The enemy is already used to coming up against 'New Charisian weapons', what's one or two more.