Grand Prize Winner posted:

That one was actually one William Forstchen. Who also co-wrote a book about the Nazis invading the US in 1947 with the help of Newt Gingrich.

Rockopolis posted:

Wait, was this a book Newt Gingrich helped co-write about Nazis invading, or a book about Newt Gingrich helping the Nazis invade?

xthetenth posted:

WWII US tank doctrine gets a lot of people very mad and furiously discussing some war like WWII, but fought on a featureless plain in a vacuum by individual tanks that drowns out better posting about early modern knitted nosebags.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

That one was actually one William Forstchen. Who also co-wrote a book about the Nazis invading the US in 1947 with the help of Newt Gingrich.

PittTheElder posted:

Unless your power armor is made of magic, this will never work. In order to have your guys not turn to goo inside their suits, you're going to need to slow down somehow. Propulsive landing would work, but you're going to need to it over a long period of time to spread the g-load, and then your guys are going to be just as vulnerable to counter fire in the period where they're decelerating to safe speeds, and in very complicated drop pods to boot. You might as well just run some sort of SEAD mission from orbit, and then land troops in more conventional landing craft, assuming you need to at all.

Trin Tragula posted:

quote:

I underline the difference that, in my mind, must exist between a position and a trench, a position war and a trench war. While position warfare, as I had described it above, has been a thing of the past for long time now, trench warfare, lasting several long years over great expanses during the European war, has not only become commonly known, as tens of millions of people took part in it, but with its victories it had time to mould the heads and spirits of men and even create a unique military language. In 1914, at the beginning of the European war, the trench belonged exclusively to tactics, the method of conducting combat. Beside the rifle, every soldier carried into battle a shovel as an inseparable element of his equipage. And whether he was to defend against the enemy, or engage him in an offensive, he had to use that shovel as a means to fight. Thus, in the rapid movements and manoeuvres that opened the four-years-long great war, the trench was used everywhere, be it on the attack or on defence, but it was never assigned as the goal of great battles and it never barged into the field of strategy, which assigns those goals. Occasionally, thanks to its strength, its defensive strength, it took on the significance of a position, which name once referred to unique elements of terrain, bestowed by nature with defensive value – but even then it was merely an episode in the great struggles of million-man armies, who, until the end of 1914, would not abandon the main factor in victory – movement.

It was not until next year that in the fields of France and Belgium both enemies stood unmoving and powerless, halted opposite one another with a long, unbroken line of trenches. At that point, the trench, as an invincible blockade, victoriously broke out of the field of tactics and into strategy.

As a proud victor, it started to grow fat, to amass great delights, and demand from the war leaders, like a moloch, new and new sacrifices. So lines of trenches grew, one after another, forming entire labyrinths, where a new man upon arrival was like in an unknown city, where without a map, road signs, street names and constant inquiries one has to get lost. The trench demanded sacrifice of everyday human life. Soldiers made it their home, and great efforts of men were undertaken to make this unusual place into comfortable housing, good for work and rest. The new fetish of war required that everything a country at war had at its disposal be shackled to his chariot. Thus an engineer, not a mere infantryman, applied his technical knowledge there, and numerous factories provided huge amounts of construction material, which the trench absorbed. Like in a great city, wires ran in all directions, connecting headquarters and commanders, depots and warehouses, hospitals and stables. The trench grew fat, reinforced its power with every passing month, and ever so meticulously, ever so profoundly demolished and undid the force of the erstwhile winner of wars: movement and manoeuvre.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

That one was actually one William Forstchen. Who also co-wrote a book about the Nazis invading the US in 1947 with the help of Newt Gingrich.

Kaal posted:

You clearly haven't watched enough sci-fi. The Spirits Within had a very clever version of a hard-drop, where the troops fired ablative semi-liquid landing pads at the ground to land on. They landed in the goo, which absorbed and sublimated their kinetic energy, and misted away. It was rad.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8amxx_final-fantasy-the-spirits-within-pa_webcam (Skip to 6:40)

HEY GAL posted:

Look dudes, I know a whole lot about fabric now, and I gotta share this with someone.

Edit: Actually, since fabric is cheap in the US and expensive in Germany, I hope to start up a little side thing selling cloth to my regiment. I'm still going to be pumping massive amounts of cash I don't have into my regrettable life decisions, but that and the part where some countries pay you to reenact should cover some of it.

Phobophilia posted:

Just have your soldiers be combat drones they can take g-forces.

...
So, I dunno, semi-autonomous combat drones that can be cleared to acquire targets by themselves, with a local human controller in some kind of power suit that can provide CnC at short range at a number of frequencies (to get around jamming), like radio, visible light, IR, maybe even audio.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

That one was actually one William Forstchen. Who also co-wrote a book about the Nazis invading the US in 1947 with the help of Newt Gingrich.

Rockopolis posted:

What's the looting like?
Or, more seriously, do you only reenact battles, or do you do any of the crazy things mercenaries did, or trials? Or paperwork?

the JJ posted:

Anyway he discusses 'helping trapped comrades' as one of the great motivators: relieving Bastogne, that sort of deal, and discusses airdrops in the context of generals deliberately cultivating that idea. He explicitly lists Arnhem and Dien Bien Phu as times when that went badly awry, of course, but yeah, he basically insinuated that the French were more or less challenging their regular ground troops to pick up their game and fight north to relieve the paras.

Rockopolis posted:

What's the looting like?
Or, more seriously, do you only reenact battles, or do you do any of the crazy things mercenaries did, or trials? Or paperwork?

Musicians, flag drones, and brightly colored uniforms?

Eej posted:

At that point why don't you have all your future drop troops do drops in future Bradleys which roll out of the crater guns blazing.

HEY GAL posted:

I hope to start up a little side thing selling cloth to my regiment. I'm still going to be pumping massive amounts of cash I don't have into my regrettable life decisions, but that and the part where some countries pay you...should cover some of it.

Jazerus posted:

Yes, this sounds like the authentic landsknecht mindset.

Alchenar posted:

The orbital-drop Gavin.

Zorak of Michigan posted:

I recently read "The Last Valley," Martin Windrow's Dien Bien Phu book, and it got me feeling kind of angry. Overall it sounds like the French high command just kept committing more and more men to a battle in disadvantageous circumstances and daunting odds because a) giving up now would have been bad for the French political leadership and b) hey, you never know, maybe the Viet Minh will get tired and go home. Is there some better military logic to that battle that I'm missing? I get that it looked like a good spot until the Viet Minh got their artillery ranged on it, but after that, it seems like the first artillery impact should have caused their generals to either expedite a relief column or order a breakout and retreat.

Nenonen posted:

Nenonen posted:

Arquinsiel posted:

Is this rabbithole of infinite depth?

Alchenar posted:

The orbital-drop Gavin.

JcDent posted:

Also, Paras vs, Helos - helos are kind of succeptible to RPGs, 50cals and such and such. Plus, a big rear end helo convoy needs to cross a lot of space, full of enemy observers and such, and they have trouble with weather, altitude, etc.

PittTheElder posted:

Although I just realized that the correct answer is to not have them stop at ground level. Wearing the crazy future-armor, the troops should fire a fast projectile downwards, breaking up the ground below them, and then just plough through the ground to slow down, safely out of the way of enemy counter fire. Then jump jets to lift them out of the very large hole that would result.

Phobophilia posted:

People make fun of the Osprey for continuously killing its occupants but the fundamental mission is sound. Not sure if it'd stand up against a real SAM battery though.

Animal posted:

Which is why the Marines pushed so hard for the V-22 Osprey. They can fly a longer distance, at altitude and relative high speed, then drop in and surprise the enemy.

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

What kind of scams are 30YW mercenaries most vulnerable to?

INTJ Mastermind posted:

At this point why not just drop them on top of the enemy and literally squish them from orbit?

Nenonen posted:

Why don't they just build an aircraft that combines the qualities of F-35 and Osprey?

Animal posted:

You mean a VTOL jet dropship? It would be the most fuel inefficient thing ever created for no benefit. Turboprops are perfect for the task, the are jet engines with a shaft and a prop.

Nenonen posted:

Why don't they just build an aircraft that combines the qualities of F-35 and Osprey?

Pornographic Memory posted:

Maybe we could scale that back to a jet that can take off and land vertically, from the same ampihibious assault ships the Ospreys do.