How would you attack the SL

Technodyne of Yildun is one of the SLN's prime contractors.

Its management is being indicted by the League's Ministry of Justice for the misbehaviour associated with the Monica op.

The Navy and Commerce are up to their ears in the resultant restructuring of Technodyne.

There's no way that this is not a League entity. The SL wouldn't have any jurisdiction in the case otherwise.

JohnRoth wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:
Yildun has no habitable planets and is notable only for the second-oldest wormhole and Technodyne industries' shipyards. I don't believe transtellars can qualify as League Members and there is no other mention of any political entity in Yildun. Plus, TIY has a seat of the Board of Mesa which is explicitly stated as not a league member -- I doubt that Technodyne is both "Solarian" and "Mesan."

There's a difference between "has been noted for" and "is notable only for". RFC hasn't gifted us with a comprehensive description of everything that's going on in Yildun. We only know what's important to the story at that point.

The status of the Yildun system has never been clarified; I find it rather unlikely that it's not a Solarian League member.

Technodyne of Mesa has a seat on the Mesa Board of Directors, not Technodyne of Yildun.

JohnRoth wrote:
Yildun would be a target anyway because of the junction under Lacoon 2. I'm mildly surprised that it hasn't been hit already. I'm not sure where the notion that Yildun is wholly owned by Technodyne comes from, though, or that it's not a League member.

I think Yildun is likely more heavily defended and reinforced than most Wormholes. Depending on how many hops you have to make, it might need its own dedicated task force to take and hold.

marcus wrote:So for this thread You are Honor 10 million plus Beowulf n’s have died from a SLN attack you are not allowed for political reasons to attack earth how do you bring down The SLN and Mandarins

If an attack on Beowulf has been made that has killed 10,000,000 civilian, either planet side or orbital inhabitants lives, There will be a military response that is not "gentile" like Lacoon-2, it will be a hard attack on SLN facilities. The atrocity of 10,000,000 dead at Beowulf will be a known and shocking fact to all the core worlds and the attack that follows will not be an unexpected surprise that is thought of as unjust or unfair.

Primary SLN targets will be attacked! Ship and weapon manufacturing facilities will be among those things attacked! Planets will not be! The GA could not possibly garrison occupation forces for any of them.

However, Missiles are going to be in short supply with the RMN ships. Only Haven has a large supply. RMN ships in a attack group using Apollo could provide targeting information to the Haven ships to make the Haven missiles more accurate. But if possible, I want to save as many missiles as possible, no matter which fleet of the GA they may belong to.

So,... scout the system to be attacked with a cruiser in stealth that deploys the sensor buoys. These buoys will provide targeting information for the attack groups. Launch the grazer armed LAC's from outside the targets sensor range. Bring in a large attack force to draw out the system's defence forces in coordination with when the LAC's "ghost" through the system. The visible attacking force gives warning to evacuate the things that are going to be attacked. Maybe they launch one pod of Apollo missiles to prove they have the range to carry out the attack. But let the "ghosting" LAC's and their grazers do the actual destruction. They can catch the mothball fleet at the same time. Lots of destruction, lots of demoralizing surprise, very few deaths, and very few missiles used.

Other than the fact that a significant effort will be made to prevent unnecessary deaths, the response will not be something "gentle" like previously attempted negotiations.

Smash technodyne and other manufacturing centers along with 3 or 4 other SLN hubs. Take Battle Fleet out of the equation for the Frontier Fleet. Bring down a hammer and make large cracks in the SL and the verge!! See how many system go for independence after the SLN causes 10,000,000 deaths on Beowulf!

Lord Skimper wrote:300 systems fighting 10,000 means you don't attack the lowly systems that have nothing for protection. You need to hit the SL Hard and hit them before they can hit you back. Hitting the systems that don't matter will just speed their development of their own good or better systems.

Hit and run attacks taking out some reserves here and there is useless as well. You hit hard and take out the best systems ability to make war and develop new stuff. You only use hit and run when you can't take systems.

You need the shell and rim to scream for protection to spread the SL resources and over extend themselves. You hit and take the biggest baddest systems and make the SL try and recoupe itself by maintaining as much of its former self. At the same time the rim and shell will scream for help, and will eventually turn to the GA. Andies will 'help out' those close to them. Peeps those on their side. Manties will take care of those near the Junctions. A few armed Silesian freighters those in what may be dangerous areas. A starving dog doesn't remain loyal when a strange comes by bearing steaks.

Hit the 30 largest best most advanced worlds closest to the Junctions and take and hold them. Peep and Andie pods and Mycroft systems. etc...

The GA can't take systems because it doesn't have the forces to occupy them. The targets should be the SLN and it's bases. They should also try to get as much stuff surrendered as possible in order to hand it over to systems that leave.

munroburton wrote:

filbert wrote:I'd point out that the SL has already been (counter-)attacked by the GA--and not just by Laocoon II.

Michelle Henke went and took out Meyers, and her fleet is in the process of "liberating" the entire Meyers Sector while she takes her little side trip over to Mesa.

Her strategy of punching out sector capitals, then dealing with the fallout, is de facto the current GA strategy.

Whether or not that continues to be the strategy remains to be seen.

However, the Mandarins are going to have to respond somehow (and sooner rather than later) not only to GA operations in the Shell and the Core, but also to GA fleets wandering around the Verge, punching out Solarian League sector capitals. Their actual capability for responding is extremely limited--almost to the point of being nonexistent--from what's been presented so far in the books.

Closer to later, really. Any Verge sector capital is probably approximately three months' hyperspace travel from Sol by dispatch boat.

If, as at Meyers, the GA force prevents any SLN vessels or couriers from leaving, that three month window increases to whenever a merchant wanders in and out. Since Meyers doesn't appear to trade directly with Sol, the news will filter much more slowly as long as the wormholes remain closed to Solarian traffic.

At some point, Manticore's ambassador will mention that the entire Verge has been liberated. And there'll be nothing the Mandarins can do about it by then.

And they can capture any stray freighters to keep them from carrying the news.

wyrm wrote:

marcus wrote:So for this thread You are Honor 10 million plus Beowulf n’s have died from a SLN attack you are not allowed for political reasons to attack earth how do you bring down The SLN and Mandarins

I suggest that the response is blatantly political. Organise a 'grand tour' (20 SDPs, escorts, and a large number of ammo colliers) visiting those star nations that voted against Beowulf.

Upon arrival, they announce "This is a punitive punishment for supporting the Mandarin's attack on Beowulf. You have 24 hours to evacuate your orbital facilities. Whether evacuated or not, we will then destroy those facilities in response for your support of the Mandarins' murder of millions of Beowulf citizens."

Once three or four nations have been hit, the advantages of leaving the SLN will appear obvious.

That force is vastly more powerful than anything they would need to do the job.

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:I think that going after the Reserve is a bad idea. As several others have pointed out, the existence of the Reserve is going to greatly slow down the SLN's ability to develop and deploy effective combatants. Another point is that each raid runs the risk of giving the League and the SLN another look at the GA's capabilities. While a LAC raid on Reserve SDs sounds awesome and would make a great read, it seems that the SLN and the League are as clueless about changes in LACs in the Haven Sector as they were about missiles. It would be a shame for them to discover that too soon.

The point of going after the reserve is to keep them from using those ships to keep a grip on systems that want to leave--the fewer hulls in the SLN the more likely systems are to revolt. The ships are of course nothing more than targets to the GA.

Loren Pechtel wrote:The point of going after the reserve is to keep them from using those ships to keep a grip on systems that want to leave--the fewer hulls in the SLN the more likely systems are to revolt. The ships are of course nothing more than targets to the GA.

There IS no point in going after the SLN Reserve:

A Rising Thunder
Chapter Thirty-one wrote: “Mr. Permanent Senior Undersecretary,” Kingsford said flatly, “any ‘additional fleet actions’ could only be one-sided massacres. Even assuming what Harrington said to Filareta in the recordings they’ve sent us represents a full statement of their capabilities, without holding any nasty tactical surprises in reserve, we simply can’t match them at this time. There probably hasn’t been this great an imbalance in combat power since the introduction of the machine-gun put an end to massed infantry assaults.”

Kolokoltsov’s eyes widened, despite himself, at the frankness of that response. It was refreshingly—and utterly—different from anything Rajampet had ever said.

“It’s really that bad?” he asked, curious to see how far are Kingsford would go.

“It’s probably worse than that, frankly, especially with Haven added to the equation,” the acting CNO said unflinchingly. “For all intents and purposes, the Reserve has just become several billion tons of scrap material. The superdreadnoughts we have mothballed are the wrong ships for this war, and I don’t see any way the existing hulls could be refitted to turn them into effective combatants.”

Well, that’s a kick in the head, Kolokoltsov thought dourly. On the other hand, if Omosupe and Agatá are right, we won’t have the cash to reactivate the Reserve, anyway. Of course, that leaves the little problem of where we’re going to find the cash to build new wallers if we can’t even de-mothball the ones we’ve already got!

The Reserve is just so many targets to the GA, but to the SLN assembly, it is a sunk cost that has to be brought back into service as quickly as possible. If the GA destroys the Reserve, they remove that public clamor to re-activate it and allow the Mandarins and the SLN to hide just how outclassed they are.

I have a new answer for this one. Lots and lots of courier boats, bearing a message from the SEM / Haven / IAN group, dispatched to virtually all of the Verge systems without an "in system SLN" terrorizing force", if you know what I mean.

The simple message from the House of Winton and the SEM/GA is "the Star Empire of Manticore has no desire to rule the galaxy, but having been brutally attacked we are going to take out our enemies ability to attack either ourselves or to continue corruptly destroying your systems economies to benefit the OFS and Transtellars, as they have been implicated in the attacks. While we can't protect everyone all at once, please send your plenipotentiary representative to meet with Michelle Henke as my authorized agent and we will plan for an figure out the force requirements to bring about your soon-to-be Manticore backed freedom from tyranny as an allied system."

Likely back up said dispatch boats with a bit of firepower to make sure the message is delivered and plenty of independent newsies aboard to prove that the offer wasn't extended at the "barrel of a starship gun".

Sometimes the idea of freedom is the most lethal weapon of all, and one the Mandarin(s), OFS, and the MAlign have no way to fight at all.

Thoughts?

Weird Harold wrote:The Reserve is just so many targets to the GA, but to the SLN assembly, it is a sunk cost that has to be brought back into service as quickly as possible. If the GA destroys the Reserve, they remove that public clamor to re-activate it and allow the Mandarins and the SLN to hide just how outclassed they are.

Obviously it's time to declare an emergency. And since they will clearly need a lot of money to build ships, time to pass some laws of questionable legality...