Sci-fi Military Tactics and Strategy

Also, off-topic, but I love that the characters in the show are clearly familiar with sci-fi as a genre with the associated tropes, unlike the characters in most other sci-fi shows (or the Stargate movie.)

It certainly helps their situation.

O'Niel asking to rename one of the USAF space crafts to Enterprise was a great moment though.

It would have been funny if they pointed out they couldn't name it Enterprise because the Navy already had a ship with that name.

Also would have been fun to see the Navy and Air Force get into a turf war over the starships.

@Teufel Hunden:

They did perfectly fine (550 soldiers discounting the communists). They were reliable and skilled, as many had already completed their military service (may have also included veterans from Winter War).

All in all, forcible conscription of demotivated people, coupled with bad training is what usually destroys the unit. With the right terms of service and proper training you can create a perfectly functional unit. But always keep a stick at hand.

My current project in terms of military sci-fi is about a group of people developing over the years into a Quirky Miniboss Squad a la MGS.

edited 9th Jun '16 11:06:44 PM by TerminusEst

Terminus: Thanks for the useful history.

I have a soft spot for the weirder stuff in military history.

By the way, has anyone thought of the sheer amount of knowledge a normal soldier would have to have (in engineering, astrophysics etc.) to be maximally effective in an intergalactic context? Surviving boot camp would be interesting experience. Now imagine the SOF.

To be fair, during medieval times, your average peasant grunts also didn't exactly expected to have much skill beyond absorbing some blows and/or arrows. Also, this is often overlooked, but military equipments are, basically, designed to be as foolproof as possible (without sacrificing safety). Special forces tend to have customized tool that requires more technique, but then, they are called SPECIAL Forces for a reason.

I remember somewhere someone estimated that the amount of everyday knowledge a person has to have to thrive in a given society actually remains the same regardless of the tech level. The human brain is designed to accommodate a certain level of detail.

Not true. For example English longbowmen, the Scourge of French Nobles^TM pretty much all came from the commoners. They were some of the best archers to have ever graced medieval warfare and were in some cases required by law to practice and train using longbows for defense of the English realm.

edited 10th Jun '16 5:36:01 AM by MajorTom

Even typical spearchuckers had to posses lots of skills to survive. They were expected to live off the land during campaigns, after all.

And on the field, good army tends to be specialized anyway. Guys who give suppression fire and chucking guided explosives aren't the same with guys tasked to build fortification and preparing sanitation, just like there's cavalry and siege engineers in medieval times.

Okay since we brought up Stargate.

The Go'auld and the Asgard. Their weapons and tools, military use and supplies, go.

Go where?

The Goa'uld are pretty much feudal lords who use fear and intimidation to rule peasants in less developed worlds and whenever they face enemies with equal or superior technology they get their asses kicked because they suck at warfare, they barely have vehicles besides the Death Gliders, their shuttles and the Hak'tak space pyramids. Unless you get Anubis involved, they either rely on orbital bombardment to subjugate less developed species or zerg rush with the Jaffa.

The Asgardians are, in a lack of words, Over Powered in the SGU, but since they are suffering from Cloning Decay and are very isolationists their impact in the Galaxy is very small and their use of teleporters and energy weapons fueled by post scarcity means, guarantees they won't suffer much from logistics. The reason why they were getting their asses kicked by the replicators was due to their lack of lateral thinking and over reliance on pushing out for more advanced technologies against an enemy that could adapt and turn said technology against them.

Which is why once they transfer all their technology to the Tau'ri a.k.a Earth Humans, Earth becomes one of the most powerful entities in the Galaxy but also the smallest, which would remain as such but SGU runs on the there's always a bigger fish to work.

Which kinda makes me wonder why the Star Gate teams never developed vehicles meant to operate past the gates like jeeps and LA Vs besides the recon drones sent to scout the gates.

edited 10th Jun '16 9:57:34 AM by AngelusNox

G'ouald also have personal shielding.

And Asgard Ships are too OP plz nerf.

Not the weapons, but the tools. Earth weapons beat everything, humanity fuck yeah!

Those personal shields are only for the bosses or Elite Mooks, everyone else gets a fully exposed bellies.

Fair enough, been awhile since I've seen it on the show so I kind of forgot that.

Does this thread cover scifi and military related politics, both in the civilian government and military proper?

Made a thread for that a while back that is mostly ingnored

Ask your question, and we can tell you.

Mainly on personal opinion in a sense see if this is too much, unbelievable to some extent, forced etc.

Aspiring Presidential candidate graduated West Point at the top of his class in 2018 with a degree in Defense Strategic studies, as valedictorian. He was a leader from his freshmen year on and every activity he did revolved around fighting or combat (I.e boxing, fencing, drill team, squad tactics, etc) and eventually served as Brigade commander senior year.

Upon graduation he enters infantry school and once again contrary to Ensign Newbie he shows almost unprecedented hyper competence and is invited to try out for Special Forces. He spends the next ten years doing dozens of high risk missions and spent time working with the CIA and DIA, including SOG having the immense respect of all JSOC brass and the intelligence community in general Inspired by Presidents before him he plans to run someday and familiarized himself with policy even going so far as to get Masters and doctorates in economics and Public policy. For frame of reference he's as charismatic as say Obama, Clinton, JFK, Reagan

How would this play out in a campaign? Would the military members quietly back him? Civilians? Too padded of a resume?

^ Okay General Stu, can we conscript you to solve all the real problems the real US military has?

Okay, how would tactics for space change if you could fire weapons faster then light?

Admendum, they would not TRAVEL faster then light, there would not be any whacky E=MC^2 RKV, since the method of FTL travel basicly makes the distance to the target shorter, rather then the object using it faster.

What would happen, is there still planet ending WMD's to consider with this?

Reality Is Unrealistic ?

Just a quick browse through Wikipedia, and many flag officers have that kind of resume, or at least near to it.