Text 12099, 84 rader
Skriven 2007-02-12 07:10:33 av Vorlonagent (15540.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Military tactics in sci-fi?
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"Jeffrey MacHott" <Raguleader@netzero.net> wrote in message 
news:3HTzh.29514$971.22266@fe01.news.easynews.com...
>> We have no baseline for what "normal" EarthForce tactics are.  Most (if 
>> not all) of the combats we see in B5 are extremely unique situations. 
>> You're assuming that Sheridan conducted Into the Fire as a routine 
>> EarthForce operation even though there wasn't an EarthForce unit larger 
>> than a Star Fury in the fight.  Sheridan could have had other reasons for 
>> sending the fighters and medium-class ships in first, such as the 
>> telepaths distributed among the capital ships.
>
> Well, we have seen that smaller ships, if nothing else, are traditionally 
> excellent for drawing fire so bigger ships can do their thing.  Witness 
> the Narn Starcruisers fighting the Shadows in season 2 vs. the G'Tok 
> pounding Battlecrab after Battlecrab while White Stars keep them busy. 
> Say what you will about single-ship combat effectiveness, the Narns know 
> how to build a sledgehammer.

That was open melee.  You couldn't expect that the G'Tok was using the 
Whitestars as blockers or diversions so much as teaming with them in a 
moment of conveienence.   "Hey, those two whitestars have a Shadow pinned. 
Let's help finish the job"  It helps that Shadow ships feel something akin 
to pain.   You can stop one in its tracks with a hard enough hit.


> Pretty much every Earthforce fight we've seen has involved the capital 
> ships firing at each other from ten paces, rather than going for 
> broadsides or close engagements.

I disagree.  How many times could an Earthforce ship have closed and seemed 
to have chosen not to.  I don't think any.

* Earth Ships, even the Shadow Omegas, didn't have the speed or 
maneuverability to close with whitestars, so we can drop No Surrender, No 
retreat and Between the Darness and the Light.

* The White Star was deep in Jupiter's atmosphere, a place the Omega 
dispatched to deal with it couldn't follow so we drop Voices of Authority.

* It's hard to tell mow much Sheridan's ships stood off against Earth's 
Defense Grid in Endgame because they were trashing stuff as fast as they 
could.  Leave a question mark there.

* Likewise it was hard to tell how far back the Agamemnon stood back when 
facing the Strieb ship in All Alone in the night.  But it was close enough 
to fillet the Strieb ship nicely with lasers.  Question mark.

* Severed Dreams, both The Churchill and Alexander went point-blank 
toe-to-toe.

Like I said, we have no baseline for "typical" earth tactics.


> Sometimes this works more or less (Severed Dreams, A Voice in the 
> Wilderness), sometimes it catastrophically doesn't (most of the Earth 
> Minbari War, where the Minbari proved to be much better suited to that 
> tactic,

Nothing worked all that well against the Minbari, in point of fact.


> Sheridan's rebellion, where the primary combatants were agile, heavily 
> armed small ships that swarmed the Destroyers), but the Earthforce 
> destroyers in general tend to lack the kind of agility they'd need for a 
> maneuvering fight, though we HAVE seen Omega destroyers haul ass when 
> motivated (A Call To Arms)

One of the most fake-looking bits of B5 CGI I have ever seen, I might add.


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