Trekkie Combat, Writer Combat, Realistic Combat...

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2005-08-20 04:10am

Why the hell would any competent planetary government want membership in the Federation?

Because that poor economy still keeps food on the table, the "poor humanitarian aid" is a fiction of yours when applied to member worlds (how many times did we see the E ship supplies or medicine to member worlds ?), and that "paper tiger army" is a big enough deterrent to keep the Klingons and Romulans from outright invasion.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2005-08-31 06:42am

Dakarne wrote:
The point isn't that ST combat could be better/more successful, but that the writers and fans have no intention (or clue) of showing how realistic military actions occur.
The Macos were as military as I've ever seen in Star Trek, and they were pre-Federation.

Star Wars combat, while often run by madmen (ie Palpatine) or unsuccessful (Naboo) is not the one-note affair ST combat is. It can easily be critisized, but in the same way any military action can.
Well.. the Naboo Mission was ran by Greedy Traders who knew very little about combat... and relied on the cheapness of Battle Droids.

As an alternative, how about a 'SW battles in a ST mode'
Now the Battle of Hoth would be funny to see... primarily because of this:

After the battle, Darth Vader is wracked with remorse, declaring 'there should have been a peaceful solution!'.
That would be classic, just imagining Darth-fricking-Vader being remorseful, about anybody, is funny, but a bloody Stormtrooper...?

"TK-421 was alive! I felt it...! NAaaawwwwwwwooooooooooooOOO!!!!"

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2005-09-02 06:26am

Sidewinder wrote:The terrifying thing is the real-world US military was heading in that direction-- and might still be heading in that direction-- just when Americans needed the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps as our first line of defense against al-Qaida and other Islamic militants.

Don't tell me you mean the Stryker...

This is the downside of being 'of the people, by the people, for the people.' Are you predicting we'll turn out like the New Republic?

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2005-09-03 01:46am

Edward Yee wrote:
Sidewinder wrote:The terrifying thing is the real-world US military was heading in that direction-- and might still be heading in that direction-- just when Americans needed the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps as our first line of defense against al-Qaida and other Islamic militants.
Don't tell me you mean the Stryker...

I'm not talking about military equipment, but government policies towards military deployments. (The Stryker has its uses, but it becomes useless if it's employed for missions beyond its design capabilities-- it's not a tank, don't expect its armor to stop RPGs, don't put it in city streets where its advantages in speed and maneuverability are negated.) Watch, listen to, or read America's liberal media for an idea of how the US military is abused, which is almost a repeat of Vietnam. (We won battles with casualties that could've been prevented if we weren't tactically restrained to appease certain political and diplomatic factions. We lost the war because of domestic pressure on the Johnson Administration-- the idiots who restrained the US military in the first place-- to bring our boys home.)

Are you predicting we'll turn out like the New Republic?

The danger is there-- remember the idiots who kept claiming the US brought the 9/11 terror attacks on itself for its foreign policy, its relatively tolerant attitudes towards homosexuals, etc. Hell, one liberal idiot even compared al-Qaeda's terrorists to George Washington's revolutionaries!

MicroBalrog · Post by **MicroBalrog** » 2005-10-12 05:28am

Darth Vader would show remorse

Oh thanks.

Now I have visions of Darth Vader drinking Lipton tea in the command quarters of the Executor, Picard-style.

THANK YOU.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2005-10-12 06:17am

...uh, MicroBalrog, you wouldn't happen to mean that in a GOOD way, would you?

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2005-10-12 06:22am

Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote:Actually, I'd disagree with that. Imperial operations tend to make some sense. Rebel operations are often all luck. There is a reason why there was a thread awhile back in PSW asking whether there were any actions in which the Rebel Alliance beat the Empire fair and square (that we actually get some details on) - because there really weren't that many.

Read the entire X-Wing series. Or Dark Empire. Or Vector Prime of NJO. Or even TPM, ANH, ROTJ... it is all really, if you look critically rather than trying to rationalize whatever you see, a great big long series of copouts and deux ex machinas.

And this is why I've been an Imperial fan ever since getting TIE Fighter -- the Imps were the only ones who could win on their own without "the good guys must win"-style deus ex machinas, like DS9's "Sacrifice of Angels".

Heck, in a twist from the usual "ideal" of Rebel guerillas outsmarting the 'militarily powerful but stupid' Imperials, Star Wars: Empire #35 (considered canonical) has Darth Vader actually outsmarting a Rebel sympathizer, and it doesn't hinge on the Force either.

'Course, part of me would say that ("cop out"/"deus ex machina") about the Force...