GA tactics

Hutch wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:I don't know. So far the League Government has picked 2, arguable 3 fights with Manticore and lost big each time.

Now the League government is going to be scrambling to raise funds (and hence putting pressure on member governments to help with that).

I'd start by sending a diplomatic message to various core governments portraying this war an an unprovoked vendetta on behalf of the Mandarins. And one that Manticore would be happy to leave you out of if you'd just agree not to assist this illegal undeclared war of aggression against them.

Also, if they'd be interested in resuming trade we do have these idled freighters that would love to get back to work. And if you hint you have security concerns we might be able work something out.

IOW let the League government be the one to apply the pressure, at least in the short term. Manticore is the one offering an out from the pressure.

Now if a system actively participates in future attacks against Manticoran interesting (I don't know, sends their SDF out raiding, hosts a FF base used to mount attacks) then Manticore counter-attacks and shows why they're a bad enemy to provoke.

You can't do this indefinitely, because it gives initiative and time to the League. But in the short term acting reasonable and restrained despite repeated (unprovoked) attacks seems like a good diplomatic ploy.

I agree with most of what you said, Jonathan, but I think you add to the pressure by hitting Solarian League targets in their systems, while leaving alone the resources that belong to the system.

For an example, the Core World Pittsburg has a large SLN manufacturing base for BC's. There is a Squadron of SLN SD's defending it, and Pittsburg's SDF amounts to a couple of 50-year old CA's and a half-dozen older DD's.
And suddenly a Squadron of Havenite SD's, with a half-squadron of Grayson CLACs and 6 Sag-B's come hypering in.

The Commander of the GA force then makes the following speech: "We are here for the sole purpose of destroying the SLN installation in this system. We have no wish to injure or cause any destruction to units of the Pittsburg SDF or to the economy or civilian installations of the planet. We will not fire at or request the surrender of the Pittsburg SDF, provided they do not fire on us. We will, however, fire upon any ship that tries to impede us on our mission. We will give the civilians working on the SLN platform time to evacuate the station and have no intention of capturing any merchant vessels that belong to Pittsburg interests. We do wish to leave you with the records of the SL aggression against Manticore and our efforts to end it, and we will be sending diplomats and economic experts to your planet to consider other options."

"To the commander of the SLN SD Squadron; you have 90 minutes to surrender your ships and abandon the BC-building slips; at 91 minutes we will fire for effect, and we are transmitting the battle details from Manticore, Zucker, and Cinnammon to show that we mean it. If you comply, no SLN personnel need to die today; but if you think today is a good day to die, we can accomodate you."

I think that would be an interesting approach...

We shall see, eventually. IMHO as always. YMMV.

OlorinNight wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:I agree it's an interesting approach. And basically what I'd say to do once you decide to move against the SLN bases.

But my personal preference is the run a little risk, given the current tech edge, and wait. If FF or BF units in a given sector are just acting to maintain real order (piracy surpression; not the bully tactics they use on Verge planets) I'd tend to leave them in peace. But in retaliation to any raids or offensive action; well that's another thing entirely.


But I do acknowledge that it's a risk leaving those (currently 'peaceful') bases and forces free. It's a lot easier to preemptively hit them while you know where they are than risk them getting dispersed hither and yon chasing down your commerce. OTOH if you had another proto-Maya situation where the FF commanders was quietly supporting the local planets in their attempts to maintain peace and sit out this League Manticore war then attacking them is likely to rile the planets no mater how clearly you explain you're really just hitting SLN targets.

The problem I see with the "waiting approach", you leave the initiative to the league, and thus risk getting hurt quite seriously. It is clear that the SLN has no chance to win facing the GA fleet, and they (finally) realise it. And they are already planning something that is far more dangerous for the GA: they plan to hit the GA by attacking convoys, maybe hitting a few backwards system in the havenite area,... With enough battlecruisers, even the SLN may succeed in taking over a convoy, and they have plenty of them.

You need to place them in such a situation that most of the SLN forces will end up scattered between the core worlds, being thus useless for more offensive actions...

Weird Harold wrote:

OlorinNight wrote:I may have missed it, but I do not think anyone suggested that murdering entire governments (and their families!) was a good way to win the war. Anyway, no one in the GA will ever stand for it, so it's not a problem.

That's pretty much what Terekhov did:

Shadow of Freedom
Chapter Thirty-One
(in orbit above Mobius Beta) wrote: “Why is it,” Terekhov asked conversationally, “that people like you always think you’re more ruthless than people like me?”

Something about his tone rang warning bells in the back of Yucel’s brain, but she refused to look away. She held her glare locked on him, refusing to back down, and he shrugged.

“Stilt?” he said without glancing away from Yucel.

“Yes, Sir?” a voice replied from outside his com pickup’s field of view.

“Pass the word to Colonel Simak. Then set Condition Zeus.”

“Condition Zeus, aye, aye, Sir.”

...

She frowned, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

She was still wondering two and a half seconds later when the kinetic projectile struck Lombroso Arms Tower at approximately thirty kilometers per second.

* * *
...

The projectile impacted at barely one tenth of a percent of light speed. The tower was enormous, the projectile wasn’t all that huge, and its velocity might seem positively snail-like compared to the eighty percent of light speed a Mark 23 could attain, but it was sufficient. In fact, its produced an effective yield of just over sixty-seven kilotons as it struck dead center on the tower’s roof at an angle of exactly ninety degrees and punched straight down, pithing it with a spike of plasma that vaporized everything in its path.

Admittedly, the results were positively anemic compared to those of the far heavier strikes Yucel had used to obliterate “rebellious towns” as object lessons, but that suited Aivars Terekhov just fine. The structure’s massive ceramacrete walls confined and channeled the blast, and the towers around the impact point acted as cofferdams, further confining the blast and restricting the damage. Yet the explosion still reached out to obliterate the Presidential Palace and everything else (including the residential towers in which the System Unity and Progress Party’s leadership and the majority of the transtellars’ off-world personnel had been quartered) in a three-block radius. Within the primary zone of destruction virtually nothing survived; outside it, except for shock damage, there was remarkably little devastation.

SharkHunter wrote:Hazarding a guess....

David is on record that a huge number of Beowulfan citizens are not going to survive.

I think that means that the GA's gloves come all the way off, short of Eridani edict violations. At that point, I think the tactic will be "SLN ships, drop your wedges, bubble sidewalls, etc. we take control of your ships and space stations until further notice... Either that or ka-boom plus the slow strangle.

kzt wrote:I seriously doubt that the SLN and regular manufacturing are clearly separated.

For example, Manticore. Where all the manufacturing for the RMN and everything else for the entire planet is on a single gigantic platform.

drothgery wrote:

kzt wrote:I seriously doubt that the SLN and regular manufacturing are clearly separated.

For example, Manticore. Where all the manufacturing for the RMN and everything else for the entire planet is on a single gigantic platform.

Well, the sites where the SLN does its manufacturing probably aren't clearly separated from anything else in that system. But there just aren't that many SLN shipyards.