The Grand Alliance Grand Attack

I wonder how independant Maya truely is, and if it is is it far more powerful/together than the RF would like.

There has been no evidence that they are or are not MA aligned via the leaders. It seems unlikely, but so does that journalist.

We know that only the manties and haven have fought a true long distance interstellar naval war. THe key to which is logistics, so instead of targeting ships, they will target naval anchorages, stations, ports, transfer stations and out posts. Strike at where fleet commands for an area are.
The league long distance shipping is already stressed, so they will be harmed attempting to aid the military much here. Also, if they cant project forsce, then the verge will break down completly and help mess with the league.

kzt wrote:There has been no evidence that they are or are not MA aligned via the leaders. It seems unlikely, but so does that journalist.

Given that Rozak thoroughly shot down their plans for Congo, and the MAlign was quite upset about the failure, it is highly unlikely.

SYED wrote:We know that only the manties and haven have fought a true long distance interstellar naval war. THe key to which is logistics, so instead of targeting ships, they will target naval anchorages, stations, ports, transfer stations and out posts. Strike at where fleet commands for an area are.
The league long distance shipping is already stressed, so they will be harmed attempting to aid the military much here. Also, if they cant project forsce, then the verge will break down completly and help mess with the league.

Concur, SYED, and you managed to say it with much fewer words than I did.

This is a Political-Economic War as much as it is a Military one, and making the systems hurt enough (but not outright conquering them) and then showing them that "we're not your enemy, the Mandarins and the incurable corruptness of the SL is your real enemy, and we can help you" is going to be crucial to make for a real substantial peace.

I just wonder how Honor/the MWW plan to pull it off....

Whitecold wrote:Given that Rozak thoroughly shot down their plans for Congo, and the MAlign was quite upset about the failure, it is highly unlikely.

There are drawbacks to "need to know" and onions.

kzt wrote:

Whitecold wrote:Given that Rozak thoroughly shot down their plans for Congo, and the MAlign was quite upset about the failure, it is highly unlikely.

There are drawbacks to "need to know" and onions.

I think we've been in Rozak's head enough to know where he stands. Barregos, not so much, but considering Rozak controls the guns ...

SYED wrote:We know that only the manties and haven have fought a true long distance interstellar naval war. THe key to which is logistics, so instead of targeting ships, they will target naval anchorages, stations, ports, transfer stations and out posts. Strike at where fleet commands for an area are.

This is exactly what Gold Peak did in SoF: Deny Meyers (and the rest of the now-former Madras Sector) to the SLN as a base for further attacks against the Talbott Quadrant. We may safely assume that (especially once the Admiralty gets all the after-action reports from each liberated system and writes up a summary for other fleet commanders tasked with doing the same thing) this to become the model to be repeated for every OFS-administered Sector that the GA peels away from the League.

The limiting factor for the enterprise would seem to be how fast Mycroft systems can be brought in to take over defense, especially of the systems that were nodal bases for the SLN (and if those basing facilities are captured intact by the GA, are now bases for the GA), freeing up the offensive forces to strike at the next target.

I'm wondering, given how well Mike kept anyone at Meyers from getting away to tell anyone the system had fallen, if some SLN ship(s) will wander along expecting they can top off their magazines, reload their reactor bunkerage, etc., getting clearance from the local authorities to proceed upon a particular course... once they're well inside the hyper limit to find themselves locked up by lidar, with the senior GA officer there (quite possibly not even a Captain of the List) demanding their surrender over Hermes buoys.

I see that success is the biggest vulnerability to the GA's current strategy to take down the league by being the champions of freedom. They are making exactly the same mistake that President G W Bush made in the war on terror. By adopting the NeoCon dream of spreading democracy at the barrel of a gun, Bush ensured that any successful invasion against terrorist supporting states (and all revisionist history not withstanding, Iraq as well as Afghanistan was a terrorist supporting state. See the first bombing of the world Trade Center and Iraqi payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers) would impose an onerous defensive obligation on the US. Occupying first Afghanistan then Iraq was a burden that neutralized the US ability to conduct further offensives against North Korea and Iran, not to mention Pakistan which had been not just the Taliban's puppet master but had replaced France as the World's nuclear weapons proliferator. Conducting purely punitive operations that destroyed the ability of Afghanistan and Iraq to feed themselves by destroying all industrial and transportation systems as well as irrigation systems would have neutralized them without encumbering the US. Iran, North Korea and Pakistan would have then become the next victims.

We have already seen in Shadow of Freedom that offensive operations against Meyers and Mobius that are waged under the banner of freedom are burdening the GA with defensive commitments that the GA can not meet. Weber has allowed us into Adm Henke's head enough to know that she was already concerned about her ability to properely defend the few Talbot Quadrant systems that had joined the SEM. Attacking Meyers was motivated by a desire to deny the SLN with a forward operating base that could project force against the SEM systems. If Adm Henke had been content to merely destroy the SLN Ships and the SLN Fleet bases and
then rape and pillage Meyer's industrial infrastructure so that the SLN Fleet base could not be rebuilt, it would be great. However; she has conducted the operations against Meyers and Saltash as a crusade to protect freedom rather merely punitive expeditions. Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Meyers seems to have a functional, rational government with effective security forces
that can provide governance. However; it appears that by launching a crusade to protect freedom, Adm Henke has assumed a responsibility to provide a naval presence to protect the system. She simply does not have enough LACs and missile pods much less the starships to meet more defensive obligations. Taking out Mesa will make this problem worse.

If the GA continues to wage a war to spread and protect freedom rather than merely punitive operations, the GA will soon spread itself so thin that it will be possible for the SLN to counter attack successfully against small, isolated RMN system pickets. Even if the system picket of a few DDs withdrawal and send for the Calvary while the LACs evade combat, the SL will be able to occupy systems long enough to destroy their industrial infrastructure and may be hit more than a few planetary targets which will now understand has been normal, SLN procedure. If the SLN can wage such operations often enough, every system will realize that aligning itself with the GA is A BAD IDEA.

namelessfly wrote:I see that success is the biggest vulnerability to the GA's current strategy to take down the league by being the champions of freedom. They are making exactly the same mistake that President G W Bush made in the war on terror. By adopting the NeoCon dream of spreading democracy at the barrel of a gun, Bush ensured that any successful invasion against terrorist supporting states (and all revisionist history not withstanding, Iraq as well as Afghanistan was a terrorist supporting state. See the first bombing of the world Trade Center and Iraqi payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers) would impose an onerous defensive obligation on the US. Occupying first Afghanistan then Iraq was a burden that neutralized the US ability to conduct further offensives against North Korea and Iran, not to mention Pakistan which had been not just the Taliban's puppet master but had replaced France as the World's nuclear weapons proliferator. Conducting purely punitive operations that destroyed the ability of Afghanistan and Iraq to feed themselves by destroying all industrial and transportation systems as well as irrigation systems would have neutralized them without encumbering the US. Iran, North Korea and Pakistan would have then become the next victims.

We have already seen in Shadow of Freedom that offensive operations against Meyers and Mobius that are waged under the banner of freedom are burdening the GA with defensive commitments that the GA can not meet. Weber has allowed us into Adm Henke's head enough to know that she was already concerned about her ability to properely defend the few Talbot Quadrant systems that had joined the SEM. Attacking Meyers was motivated by a desire to deny the SLN with a forward operating base that could project force against the SEM systems. If Adm Henke had been content to merely destroy the SLN Ships and the SLN Fleet bases and
then rape and pillage Meyer's industrial infrastructure so that the SLN Fleet base could not be rebuilt, it would be great. However; she has conducted the operations against Meyers and Saltash as a crusade to protect freedom rather merely punitive expeditions. Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Meyers seems to have a functional, rational government with effective security forces
that can provide governance. However; it appears that by launching a crusade to protect freedom, Adm Henke has assumed a responsibility to provide a naval presence to protect the system. She simply does not have enough LACs and missile pods much less the starships to meet more defensive obligations. Taking out Mesa will make this problem worse.

If the GA continues to wage a war to spread and protect freedom rather than merely punitive operations, the GA will soon spread itself so thin that it will be possible for the SLN to counter attack successfully against small, isolated RMN system pickets. Even if the system picket of a few DDs withdrawal and send for the Calvary while the LACs evade combat, the SL will be able to occupy systems long enough to destroy their industrial infrastructure and may be hit more than a few planetary targets which will now understand has been normal, SLN procedure. If the SLN can wage such operations often enough, every system will realize that aligning itself with the GA is A BAD IDEA.

So you're arguing for a return to the tactics of the 30 Years' War and Sherman's march through Georgia?