My, so much heat, so little light...
I am arguing about people and politics not AIs. Evidence in this discussion is from any text or stats (ship performance, planet defence, and the like) available in an unmodified EV 1.0.5.
Assuming that the confeds are stupid is a mistake. In general, you should not assume your enemy is stupid-- he might be pretending stupidity to throw you off (King George W, of the US for example). Assuming anything about your enemy's abilities in the absence of evidence will give problems. Evidence of confed intelligence is that they managed to conduct the slavery and oppression that you accuse them of without being immediately overthrown.
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cable_guy said:
**And how would you set up a bloackade between north and south right the way from east to west? All the rebels would have to do is to scrape together 3, maybe 4 cruisers and then find out where you are at your weakest. The resistance at this point could then be destroyed.
**
The idea of the Confeds blockade is not to completely stop all shipping all the time, but to create tactical delays for the Rebels so that Confed strategic objectives can be achieved.
An example: Suppose the confeds put enough cruisers into Capella and Rigel to prevent any rebel shipping from passing through those systems. The confeds then pull ships from Antares, Sirius, Pollux and Deneb to attack Sirgil. The northern rebels will be forced to take a very long route to relieve any attack against sirgil. Most likely, they will not arrive in time to prevent heavy losses to the Sirgil rebels. Alternatively, the rebels can break the blockade but that will cost heavily, and works in the favor of the confeds, who can replace people and ships more easily than the rebels.
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cable_guy said:
**Also, the Rebels have a major tactical advantage in that Sirgil can serve as a second HQ in the unlikely event that Palshife should come under fire. Plus, the major outfitting stellar is Akio, well out of the way of attack. Earth, Luna, mars and Stardock Alpha are all highly exposed. 1)They are all in the same system, and 2) only 2 jumps from safety, and one jump is through the weak New Sahara, where little resistance would be encountered
**
Out of the way does not equal safe. An exposed position is not a vulnerable position. Earth alone is defended by over 2000 frigates. No rebel planet has anything close to this.
Any attack causing a planet to change hands is not likely to be overlooked. New Sahara can expect relief from Sol.
Akio is also far from support in case of a confed attack.
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cable_guy said:
**And so a massive fleet could assemble right next to Sol, easily laying waste to all the planets with an air-to-ground chemical weapon. Hence warship and outfit production stops, and the confederation is crippled irreparably.
**
Planet-scale destruction will require at least nuclear weapons, and probably antimatter, neither of which are available in EV. You will also have to defeat the planet's defense fleet first which undoubtedly detected you entering the system. If the defense fleet commander saw he was outgunned, he (should) send a ship for help in the direction opposite your arrival vector.
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cable_guy said, and Captain Carnotaur agreed:
**As for ships, the frigate forms "the backbone of the confederate fleet". That's quoted from EV you know. So, if the frigate is beaten 6 out of 8 (from a fair start, I'd say more like 7 from 10), doesn't that mean that the fleet has a broken back? Since the frigates are the main part of the fleet, not the cruisers, it's these battles that really matter.
**
Go study the history of world wars one and two. In world war one, the preferred tactic for capturing fortified positions was to attack with overwhelming numbers. In world war two, the Germans built better ships and planes, but were defeated by numbers and lack of supplies. In the pacific, the Japanese had it all over the US at the beginning, but literally ran out of gas. Not to mention that the US outproduced them in ships and planes.
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cable_guy said, and Captain Carnotaur agreed:
**Plus, trying to separate north and south rebels would be dangerous and costly. It would easily be possible to set up a counter attack on the same system from both sides (north and south) and the rebels will win.
**
Actually, the rebels will have to do something like this to defeat the confeds. However, I do not believe they have the ship-building industry to support it. If they tried it, they will suffer the fate of the Japanese in WWII.
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cable_guy said, and Captain Carnotaur agreed:
**Oh, and if I commanded the rebel fleet when your confed fleet blockaded, I'd destroy you. Even if it just came down to cruisers 1 on 1, it would still be possible to win, but the rebels often lose these battles in the game because they utilise tactics where all the fed cruiser's strong points come into play. They just go straight at each other, allowing the feds to fire off the neutron cannons. If I were to be in a cruiser, I'd utilise my advantages; speed and manoeverability. With the manoeverability upgrades to both cruisers, the fed still can't lose missiles and torpedoes. The Rebel Cruiser can. So all I have to do is destroy all the patrol ships (leave it to the mantas), and then circle the cruiser, dodging all the torpedoes it can throw at me, and missiles if it wants. Then I launch all of my missiles from a distance, until I'm empty. Then, I come up behind the cruiser, letting loose with proton turrets and my heavy rockets, staying behind the cruiser all the time. Victory is almost assured.
**
In game play, the upgraded Confed Cruiser can lose torpedos and missiles, but it requires judicious use of afterburners. I sometimes accept the hits just to get the sucker into range more quickly... But, as I said above, I do not consider the AI an authority on ship performance.
Let see here, you (at palshife) get a message that confed forces are massing near sirgil. You anticipate the blockade at capella, arm your cruisers with extra torpedos and rockets and attack capella. Now while you are busy at capella, sirgil is under attack. If you win at capella, I withdraw from sirgil before you arrive and reestablish the blockade at capella so you cannot return by the same route. Now, to assemble your fleet, you probably pulled ships out of spica or turin.
The independent planets will support whichever government gives them more stuff (eg, money and technology). An analog today is all those "allies" of the US. The allies all together collect $52 billion a year from the US ranging from ~4 billion for the Isreali military to the Peace corps volunteers' work in Africa.
My reply is not done yet, but I have to leave. Read you tomorrow. Flame on.
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Rebels commit murder and piracy at every available opportunity. Notice how a pirate vessel will attack a Confederation ship over a Rebel ship, given the choice.
The Confederation could easily strike any Rebel held system with minimal assets, and win. The reasons they haven't are quite simple. The Confederation is in a defensive posture, not an offensive one. They are obviously seeking a diplomatic resolution, otherwise they wouldn't be sending government officials to independent worlds in Executive Transports with minimal escorts. Those escorts are meant to defend against random pirate attacks, not a dedicated Rebel attack, or a hired assassin.
the North, from Pelagon. the feds would be destroyed and Sirgil would be saved. The problem with hyperspace is that it takes so long, so tactics can easily be arranged to counter any force. the same works for rebels.