Re: [LoGH] Babylon 5 vs Galactic Empire logh@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU:
Hank Wong (hankwong@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
Fri, 16 Mar 2001 11:36:06 -0800 (PST)
This is a forwarded message.
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From: Daniel@dhiggs.ne.mediaone.net
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Reply-To: "Daniel L. Higgs"
To: logh@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: [LoGH] Babylon 5 vs Galactic Empire
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After months lurking on the ML and the IRC channel (before it
hopped servers), Dan speaks!
On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, Josh Yuan wrote:
> The reason is simple. Just like current day Carrier battlegroups. The
> flagship would be screened by a number of protective ships.
This is a bit off-topic, but if you're going to make the carrier
comparison, why is it that it seems Imperial fighters are always
destroying the FPA carriers before they even get to launch, unless in LoGH
carriers are plentiful and therefor somewhat expendable. You'd still think
they'd put some cover fire on those, or at least some better shielding.
> Second,
> the flagship wouldn't be at the head of the battle, no admiral is
> foolish enough to step all the way infront and get killed and lost the
> battle.
It would also take away from the distinguished services of the individual
commanders for an Admiral to upsurp their position and take the
lead. I think Reinhard almost made the mistake of doing this at Amlitzer.
> Third, at 6 million km, I don't think a white ship is gona
> look too different from a gray ship. It is more likely that Yang side
> sent out scouts to recon the Imperial formations. Remember many many
> hours pass while we watch a few minutes of battle.
>
It's also been shown that both sides can intercept each other's
communications on the battlefield (although they aren't always able to
understand/decode them). Perhaps It's easy to pick out flagships by
monitoring which ship is giving the orders, and although the distances are
great, I'm sure someone has some sort of telescope/image enhancer that can
at least distinguish ship profiles. Plus a simple check of the light
spectrum being reflected by that ship would clue you in to all sorts of
details like the composition of the hull, the existance of any dust
between you and the ship (zephyr particles maybe?), not to mention the
color of the ship.
> Finally, the form of combat in LoGH is based on 18th and 19th century
> European wars. And during those wars, it was a common curtesy not to
> target enemy leaders. It was suppose to be un-gentlemen like.
>
Which means Yang must have really ticked off the Imperials when he
targeted (and destroyed) Seeckh's flagship.
Reinhard also seems to have had no quams against destroying the flagships
of the 4th and 6th fleets at Astarte. The "gentlemen" rules of war may be
the way of the old guard in the Empire (Merkatz, Muckenberger, etc) which
Reinhard loaths so much. We already know that Reinhard went against the
old ways by learning the names of his troops at Legizma and Tiamat, and he
is also a staunch opponent of the current class structure so he may be
displaying this by showing no special treatment for enemy commanders.
But I suspect it may be more that the FPA never respected the
"gentlemenly" way of combat from the beginning, and Reinhard was only
returning the favor, which is something the old guard could never bring
themselves to do because of their "warriors' hearts".
Well there. I've finally mustered up enough courage to contribute
something to the mailing list. If anyone has any objections, I will gladly
return to lurking.
Dan
(Daniel`za from Efnet #SG-1 and #LoGH)
