Imperial Overlord wrote:So the Darhel can magically find the right people in the right spot to corrupt and corrupt them, without ever choosing wrong, but the guys helping the SS are the only ones corruption proof? This is one my points, if you recall. There's the SS, weaklings, and dirty race traitors. The Darhel have magic corruption powers that work only to reinforce a hard right world view and they never, ever choose someone who might have second thoughts. Hells, the Darhel don't even have the option of murdering guys they think might be wavering like a human conspiracy would and we all know big conspiracies don't work because you pick just one wrong guy and its out in the open.
Big conspiracies do not work in real life, no. In fiction, they do it all the time. I am not saying it is realistic, but it is no worse than any ten thrillers off the shelf. And, well, it is realistic to suppose that one smaller, tightly knit group with paranoid security measures that gets special privileges by being outside the normal chain of command should suffer less than standard units from organised sabotage.
And the Jews, Poles, and French who join them. People who, by all rights, not join the SS if there's any other choice of effective military units to join. But they join the SS against the wishes of their loved ones because only SS he-men can save Europe.
For the same reason many joined the Waffen-SS in real life - it was the only German unit that would accept foreigners as a matter of fact. And by then, it was pretty much only Germany that was still putting up an organised defence against the Ravaging Hordes.
"But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books."
Hells, the Darhel don't even have the option of murdering guys they think might be wavering like a human conspiracy would and we all know big conspiracies don't work because you pick just one wrong guy and its out in the open.
Actually they do that in the first book. Of course, the fact that the one ordering it nearly goes into a cataconic state means that if his hit man was denser or more sociopathic he could have killed the Darhel by badgering him.
Darth Hoth wrote:
Big conspiracies do not work in real life, no. In fiction, they do it all the time. I am not saying it is realistic, but it is no worse than any ten thrillers off the shelf. .
I'm accusing the book of being a piece of crap. Saying other books are also crap isn't a defence, it's a concession.
And the Jews, Poles, and French who join them. People who, by all rights, not join the SS if there's any other choice of effective military units to join. But they join the SS against the wishes of their loved ones because only SS he-men can save Europe.
For the same reason many joined the Waffen-SS in real life - it was the only German unit that would accept foreigners as a matter of fact. And by then, it was pretty much only Germany that was still putting up an organised defence against the Ravaging Hordes.
Saying that only the SS can defend Europe not a defence against the charge that the book is deliberately set up so that only the SS can defend Europe. I remind you of your previous statement:
Second, it was not only the SS that fought. They were one out of, what, fifteen Corps? For Germany to do as well as it did, they could scarcely have been the only ones to.
Either only the SS can fight or there are other parts of the German military they can aspire to join. Given the situation, the only reason that the rest of the German military isn't accepting foreigners in its ranks would be the author deliberately loading the dice in a pro SS fashion, which of course he does for the entire book. Either Kratmann has made the SS the only effective fighters or he has deliberately created a situation where Poles and Jews would seek to join the SS instead of the rest of the German military. Of course, none of the characters say, "I'm going to sign up with the Germans, even with the SS if they're the only ones that'll take me," they all say "I'm going to join the SS."
Kratmann doesn't pose a moral dilemma. He creates the appearance of one, but in reality he is begging the question by loading the terms on every issue so that his answers will be favored above all others.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
I'm a little more than halfway through the preview, and I came across a passage that is SO wank, SO over the top, and frankly so cool that I just can't resist posting it:
Spoiler
"I hope creating loyal AIDs is not going to be my full purpose," Daisy said. "I'm the soul of a warship, General. Much as I look forward to that, my true calling is war."
"Uhm . . . you're a wet navy cruiser, Daisy," Jeff said, shrugging. "Not much call for that in this war."
"There may be, someday," Mike said. "But does she have to stay that way?"
"Build a new ship and install her?" Boyd asked. "We'll have to build ships, anyway."
"The nannites are in my steel, Bill," Daisy said, frowning. "If you kill them, by remelting the steel for example, you kill a part of me. And it would be . . . physically painful based on the battles I've been in. Think of being dropped into the furnace yourself. Prefer to avoid that if I can."
"Starship Yamato?" Takao said, smiling ever so slightly.
"Excuse me?" Mike asked.
"Anime, Dad," Cally said. "I mean, from your days. Granpa had a copy when I was a kid. Basically, they raised the Japanese battleship Yamato, installed space engines in her and she became a space dreadnought."
"Last choice," Mike said. "There has to be a way to take the Des Moines and turn her into a starship."
"Well, I know we're trying to get around using the standard Indowy methods of construction," Boyd said, thoughtfully. "But I would be unsurprised if with sufficient resources it wouldn't be possible to just turn her into a real starship."
"You mean, let some sohon mentats have a go at her?" Mike asked. "Sort of a full body mod for a ship?"
Yesss, kick-ass Japanese anime lives! Doubleplusgood for me, since my 4-year old son's favorite song is the opening theme to Uchuu Senkan Yamato! He likes it even better than the 6teen theme and "Life Is A Highway" from Cars.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
Imperial Overlord wrote:I'm accusing the book of being a piece of crap. Saying other books are also crap isn't a defence, it's a concession.
Of course. But a work should also be judged by the standards of its genre. Vast conspiracies are a very common cliché in "technothrillers" and sci-fi action, thus it is unsurprising that Watch uses it. Nevermind that the story is set in a retarded universe where that is the norm and actually predetermined by the existant canon, so it is hardly Kratman's fault.
Saying that only the SS can defend Europe not a defence against the charge that the book is deliberately set up so that only the SS can defend Europe.
Um, that was not what I said. I said that they were the ones that readily accepted foreign volunteers. Not only that, it was a policy decision, because the Waffen-SS had more experience with running integrated units than the Heer.
Samuel wrote:
Do they not have AIs that can be downloaded, uploaded, copied and manipulated in the future?
Usually, they do. That is one of Kratman's more retarded additions to the Posleenverse, from Yellow Eyes: Spoiler
A defective AI is added to the mothballed battleship Des Moines when it is reactivated, and it somehow fuses with the "ghost" of the ship's "accumulated conscious" (if I understood the BS right, it has an animistic personality-spirit of its own). The result is a faulty combat computer that has an irrational tie to the ship (as I recall it, basically it goes catatonic when the hull armour is disrupted) and whose busty blonde avatar has a major crush on the ship's captain.
"But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books."
Darth Hoth wrote:
Usually, they do. That is one of Kratman's more retarded additions to the Posleenverse, from Yellow Eyes: Spoiler
A defective AI is added to the mothballed battleship Des Moines when it is reactivated, and it somehow fuses with the "ghost" of the ship's "accumulated conscious" (if I understood the BS right, it has an animistic personality-spirit of its own). The result is a faulty combat computer that has an irrational tie to the ship (as I recall it, basically it goes catatonic when the hull armour is disrupted) and whose busty blonde avatar has a major crush on the ship's captain.
I... whaa.....
You know what, I'm glad I avoided Yellow Eyes because any sane military commander(Of which the Polseen verse has none) would not be syncing up an AI which sounds like it's one step away from full rampancy to a giant ship which has many guns. This is generally considered a bad move.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Well, if I recall correctly (can't find my copy to be sure), nobody was aware anything was up until the AID was plugged into the Des Moines and things went weird on them.
Which is a whole 'nother set of stupid, of course.
"I do not say the French cannot come. I only say they cannot come by sea." - Admiral Lord St. Vincent, Royal Navy, during the Napoleonic Wars
"Show me a general who has made no mistakes and you speak of a general who has seldom waged war." - Marshal Turenne, 1641
Imperial Overlord wrote:I'm accusing the book of being a piece of crap. Saying other books are also crap isn't a defence, it's a concession.
Of course. But a work should also be judged by the standards of its genre. Vast conspiracies are a very common cliché in "technothrillers" and sci-fi action, thus it is unsurprising that Watch uses it. Nevermind that the story is set in a retarded universe where that is the norm and actually predetermined by the existant canon, so it is hardly Kratman's fault.
If there's enough shit piled up, the shit doesn't change from shit to gold. This is, again, not a defence against the charge the book is shit, it's confirmation that the book is shit.
Um, that was not what I said. I said that they were the ones that readily accepted foreign volunteers. Not only that, it was a policy decision, because the Waffen-SS had more experience with running integrated units than the Heer.
Here's a hint: the book isn't set in 1940. The SS doesn't have the same relationship with the German nation, its people, and the people of its neighbors as it does in 1940. The idea of "we'll send all our foreign volunteers to this infamous unit of justly loathed pariahs who are known for committing horrific war crimes, including genocide against some to these grooups" is about as credible as "cold weather protects Canada from getting overrun from the Posleen, but somehow the Russians are easy meat." That is to say, it isn't.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
Darth Hoth wrote:
Usually, they do. That is one of Kratman's more retarded additions to the Posleenverse, from Yellow Eyes: Spoiler
A defective AI is added to the mothballed battleship Des Moines when it is reactivated, and it somehow fuses with the "ghost" of the ship's "accumulated conscious" (if I understood the BS right, it has an animistic personality-spirit of its own). The result is a faulty combat computer that has an irrational tie to the ship (as I recall it, basically it goes catatonic when the hull armour is disrupted) and whose busty blonde avatar has a major crush on the ship's captain.
I... whaa.....
You know what, I'm glad I avoided Yellow Eyes because any sane military commander(Of which the Polseen verse has none) would not be syncing up an AI which sounds like it's one step away from full rampancy to a giant ship which has many guns. This is generally considered a bad move.
Fun fact- the Darhel consider this (and having working AIs in general) an insane move because of the damage they can cause (and just recently did when they went beserk on them). Needless to say humanity ignores that entirely. When you do something so insanely dumb that the choatic stupid villians don't do it, you have hit a new level of incompetance.
Clarification- the Darhel mention building robotic war machines to fight the Posleen, but that they turn against them in A Hymn Before Battle, which is one of the reasons they are hiring humans. However in Watch on the Rhine they have ones that work and are used to defend their homeworld- although it appears to be more of a last ditch defense and is only speculated upon by the battle hungry SS commander.
Imperial Overlord wrote:If there's enough shit piled up, the shit doesn't change from shit to gold. This is, again, not a defence against the charge the book is shit, it's confirmation that the book is shit.
Very well. Still, that was the universe set that way, not Kratman's decision.
Here's a hint: the book isn't set in 1940. The SS doesn't have the same relationship with the German nation, its people, and the people of its neighbors as it does in 1940. The idea of "we'll send all our foreign volunteers to this infamous unit of justly loathed pariahs who are known for committing horrific war crimes, including genocide against some to these grooups" is about as credible as "cold weather protects Canada from getting overrun from the Posleen, but somehow the Russians are easy meat." That is to say, it isn't.
True. I can only speculate that the powerful right-wing movement in Posleenverse Germany (demonstrated by full-blown neo-Nazis in the Bundestag) and the SS's own highly successful propaganda campaign has been successful in skewing public perceptions.
"But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books."
Imperial Overlord wrote:If there's enough shit piled up, the shit doesn't change from shit to gold. This is, again, not a defence against the charge the book is shit, it's confirmation that the book is shit.
Very well. Still, that was the universe set that way, not Kratman's decision.
Yes it is. It's presence in the previous books isn't his fault. It's presence in this one is. He could have had a bit where General Somedude turns in the conspiracy that attempts to recruit him, for example. Or even Politician Leftwing Cowardly Weenie But Not Quite A Traitor turns in the guys.
True. I can only speculate that the powerful right-wing movement in Posleenverse Germany (demonstrated by full-blown neo-Nazis in the Bundestag) and the SS's own highly successful propaganda campaign has been successful in skewing public perceptions.
Except he still has the politicians and people treating the SS like pariahs and strong resistance to the Chancellor's plans to rejuve them at the beginning of the book. Your explanation doesn't fly. Here's a hint: the series is written by shitty authors with axes to grind. You may gain enough enjoyment from the books to tolerate the crap in them. That's fine. That doesn't mean the authors aren't strawmanning their political opponents and sadistically murdering them by proxy or make the books good.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
Imperial Overlord wrote:If there's enough shit piled up, the shit doesn't change from shit to gold. This is, again, not a defence against the charge the book is shit, it's confirmation that the book is shit.
Very well. Still, that was the universe set that way, not Kratman's decision.
Well, he made the decision to stick with it, rather than ignoring it or not writing in such a blatantly broken and miserable universe. In a sense, by deciding not to do anything about this and even play with it himself, he's totally complicit in the continuing shitieness of the series.
Here's a hint: the book isn't set in 1940. The SS doesn't have the same relationship with the German nation, its people, and the people of its neighbors as it does in 1940. The idea of "we'll send all our foreign volunteers to this infamous unit of justly loathed pariahs who are known for committing horrific war crimes, including genocide against some to these grooups" is about as credible as "cold weather protects Canada from getting overrun from the Posleen, but somehow the Russians are easy meat." That is to say, it isn't.
True. I can only speculate that the powerful right-wing movement in Posleenverse Germany (demonstrated by full-blown neo-Nazis in the Bundestag) and the SS's own highly successful propaganda campaign has been successful in skewing public perceptions.
You would not have to be 'successful' in skewing public perception. You would need in many cases a complete reversal. Not only in Germany, but in many other nations as well. It's not something worth speculating on at all, because there is no sensible way to make it happen like this. The SS should have been getting attacked by its own 'side' for goodness sake. Sure, I'd sign up for the German military if they rejuvenated the SS-but only to drop as many shells and cluster munitions on them as I can.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
What sort of stories have such large conspiracies as this did? Angels and Demons had a conspiracy of 2, The Da Vinci Code had two conspiracies made of dozens, The Sigma Protocol had a conspiracy between dozens and hundreds.
The Posleen Universe has two major conspiracies that have thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of members that have opporated in complete secrecy. Oh, and major historical figures have belonged to both sides. Most conspiracies in fiction are small, in out of the way locations and focused around something magic/earth shaking.
Imperial Overlord wrote:Yes it is. It's presence in the previous books isn't his fault. It's presence in this one is. He could have had a bit where General Somedude turns in the conspiracy that attempts to recruit him, for example. Or even Politician Leftwing Cowardly Weenie But Not Quite A Traitor turns in the guys.
Correct me if I am wrong, here (I do not remember the original Posleen quadrilogy all that well, and have not kept the book to check), but I thought that Germany's fate had already been established in those books? In other words, Kratman had strict boundaries to work within.
Except he still has the politicians and people treating the SS like pariahs and strong resistance to the Chancellor's plans to rejuve them at the beginning of the book. Your explanation doesn't fly.
Because there can be no change in public opinion due to successful propaganda in a year of total war? Note that several people who are initially extremely opposed to the SS change their minds as their "glorious defenders of humanity" image is built up. Then again, they do have substantial support even initially (from neo-Nazis and the like, who are much more powerful and numerous in the Posleenverse than in @).
Here's a hint: the series is written by shitty authors with axes to grind. You may gain enough enjoyment from the books to tolerate the crap in them. That's fine. That doesn't mean the authors aren't strawmanning their political opponents and sadistically murdering them by proxy or make the books good.
I would maintain that the books are not so horribly written as people want to portray them (especially given the general Posleenverse standards, though as noted this would probably be damning by faint praise). Kratman, despite political axes to grind and various idiocies and personal flights of fancy (case in point, Daisy), is for the most part a competent author of military sci-fi, and makes the most so far of a retarded and contradictory setting.
"But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books."
Correct me if I am wrong, here (I do not remember the original Posleen quadrilogy all that well, and have not kept the book to check), but I thought that Germany's fate had already been established in those books? In other words, Kratman had strict boundaries to work within.
March 14, 2008 wrote:Last Transmission: European Union Forces, Innsbruck.
Later sources involved rewriting, but that was what he had to work with.
I would maintain that the books are not so horribly written as people want to portray them (especially given the general Posleenverse standards, though as noted this would probably be damning by faint praise). Kratman, despite political axes to grind and various idiocies and personal flights of fancy (case in point, Daisy), is for the most part a competent author of military sci-fi, and makes the most so far of a retarded and contradictory setting.
That is faint praise. You just like him because he uses tanks instead of power armor
Darth Hoth wrote:
Because there can be no change in public opinion due to successful propaganda in a year of total war? Note that several people who are initially extremely opposed to the SS change their minds as their "glorious defenders of humanity" image is built up. Then again, they do have substantial support even initially (from neo-Nazis and the like, who are much more powerful and numerous in the Posleenverse than in @).
Again, my point. You aren't going to get Jews and Poles in the SS if they have other choices. The SS isn't going to get nearly as good propaganda as more conventional militaries that don't contain Nazis. And from the reaction of their friends and relatives, the SS are still despised. Again, they join up because only SS he men can save Europe.
I would maintain that the books are not so horribly written as people want to portray them (especially given the general Posleenverse standards, though as noted this would probably be damning by faint praise). Kratman, despite political axes to grind and various idiocies and personal flights of fancy (case in point, Daisy), is for the most part a competent author of military sci-fi, and makes the most so far of a retarded and contradictory setting.
Let me give you a hint: having super tanks instead of super power armour only makes him slightly more competent than Ringo. Since politically he's even more batshit insane and likes to dwell on it, the overall effect is to make him a less effective writer.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
Imperial Overlord wrote:Again, my point. You aren't going to get Jews and Poles in the SS if they have other choices. The SS isn't going to get nearly as good propaganda as more conventional militaries that don't contain Nazis. And from the reaction of their friends and relatives, the SS are still despised. Again, they join up because only SS he men can save Europe.
Rereading, I noticed that the Chancellor ditched his Green coalition partners. Which other substantial political group mentioned in the story will replace them after the whole SS brouhahah, and how will they feel about propaganda and organisation?
Let me give you a hint: having super tanks instead of super power armour only makes him slightly more competent than Ringo. Since politically he's even more batshit insane and likes to dwell on it, the overall effect is to make him a less effective writer.
What about tanks? Yes, super-heavies do not make sense, although they are very much better than combat suits. I was talking about writing, here. Kratman does it fairly well, by genre standards; Ringo would probably not even have his manuscripts read without massive help from a spellchecking programme.
"But there's no story past Episode VI, there's just no story. It's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that's kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books."
Darth Hoth wrote:
Rereading, I noticed that the Chancellor ditched his Green coalition partners. Which other substantial political group mentioned in the story will replace them after the whole SS brouhahah, and how will they feel about propaganda and organisation?
From what I recall he was basically ruling unopposed at that point. I certainly couldn't say what imaginary political party, if any, would be needed to join his coalition because the political landscape certainly doesn't resemble Germany at all. That, of course, is another reason the book sucks.
What about tanks? Yes, super-heavies do not make sense, although they are very much better than combat suits. I was talking about writing, here. Kratman does it fairly well, by genre standards; Ringo would probably not even have his manuscripts read without massive help from a spellchecking programme.
I have lots of problems with Ringo, but I'm not going after the man's spelling.
Kratmann
1) Strawman's opposing viewpoints
2) Sadistically proxy kills political opponents
3) Writes unengaging characters
4) Railroads his plot
5) Has unconvincing superscience and unbelievable human behavior
6) Is dishonest in his portrayals of existing countries and their political systems
7) Predictable plot wise and his battles were dull
Hack.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
To be fair to the Empire of Man series, March to the Stars makes it clear that most of the Saints (or at least most of the leaders - the statement can be read either way) don't actually believe in the environmentalist religion; it's commented on how bad of luck it is to run up against a Saint captain who actually does believe. It seems that the empire is mostly held together by fear, not the religion.
As for the Posleen... yeah, I don't read that series much. I can see that politics would change almost unrecognizably with an alien invasion, but the SS? Really? Who came up with that one?
Favorite sci-fi books:
Mission of Gravity/Star Light by Hal Clement
Midworld by Alan Dean Foster
Eden Trilogy by Harry Harrison
Vultur wrote:To be fair to the Empire of Man series, March to the Stars makes it clear that most of the Saints (or at least most of the leaders - the statement can be read either way) don't actually believe in the environmentalist religion; it's commented on how bad of luck it is to run up against a Saint captain who actually does believe. It seems that the empire is mostly held together by fear, not the religion.
As for the Posleen... yeah, I don't read that series much. I can see that politics would change almost unrecognizably with an alien invasion, but the SS? Really? Who came up with that one?
Uh, their wacko environmentalism isn't a religion, but an ideology. And it is obvious that it is followed by the government as if it wasn't, they would actually act more intelligentally. Their actions are irrational which fits perfectly with fundamentalists- the reason we don't see many believers in the story is because we see mainly their military which seems to be the best way to escape the hell that is their planets. Seriously, they are North Korea IN SPACE- not remotely plausible.
The SS was come up by a man to the... far right. Hmm... a review seems to be in order...
One of the major points in the first book, is thanks to Galactic technology, we can "rejuvenate" people; e.g. take a 78 year old WWII vet and give him the body of a 18 year old. Another major point in the first book is that the US government is recalling anyone alive who has ever served in the colors.
A major MAJOR MAJOR issue in books 1 and 2 is that the MAJORITY of the US Armed Forces by the time the Posleen land either desert their posts en masse, or are full of incompetent idiots who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag.
Now, in later books; this dismisal performance is "handwaved" away by saying that the Darheel, who are shape changing aliens, infiltrated our forces and influenced politicans etc and generally screwed up our mobilization on purpose.
But this is utterly not credible.
We're rejuvenating people from eras which were uhhhh, not known for their kindness, and people who have seen combat first hand heavily; and then expecting them to bow before Ringo and Kratman's "the Darheel screw everything up in the name of PCness!"
You think a Vietnam Era Sergeant who gets rejuved and then put in charge of training new draftees into the military is going to listen to someone telling him that he cannot do things the way he sees fit?
Plus, these guys will have seen the footage of the Posleen EATING people alive; so they know the stakes.
I admit rolling a live grenade into an officers tent may be a bit over the top; but there's tons more these old guys can do to deal with the PC idiots and get them out of the way, like putting laxatives into their food, having the medical officer accidentally inject said officer with a live vacine, not a dead one....so he gets a light case of whatever contagious disease we're trying to vaccinate against.
It gets even more fun when you consider that we also are rejuving WWII era veterans:
"Uhm, Sergeant you can't take the company crawling up a hill for a kilometer, while firing with a ma deuce over their heads for training..."
"Yeah? and you'll stop me how?"
Another handwave is that all of our "good units" are sent offworld to fight the Posleen, and so Earth has nothing left but half ass dead end units. But this makes no sense, because I would imagine that pre-war units like the 101st Air Assault, 82nd ABN, 1st ID, etc etc would give up 1000 to 2000 of their general best officers and NCOs before leaving for off-world to act as cadres for the new divisions being formed in CONUS.
In WW2, it generally took about a year for a Division to be formed up to a workable state; and then another year before it was generally trained to a combat proficient state. And we have four to five years to do this; and yet all the units on Earth are half ass incompetent sad sack units EXCEPT for the *drumroll please* ACS units.
Hell, while I was at the library, it occured to me that a brilliant way to raise unit morale and esprit de corps would be to go through the Army's lineage like crazy and reform all the old WWII divisions, and then some entirely new ones; and then to fill out those divisions, go and resurrect all the old Civil War units whose colors have been cased.
I'm plenty sure that there would be a lot of fighting and jockeying by people to get into famous ACW regiments, like the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin IRs, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia IRs, 69th, 63rd, and 88th New York, 116th Pennsylvania IRs, 28th and 29th Massachusetts IRs, and most of all, the 54th Massachusetts IR (hint, Fort Wagner, Hint, Glory).
It's just beyond absurd that with this huge manpower advantage of combat soldiers who have fought in three major wars (WWII, Korea, and Nam), we produce a piss poor army, while little Panama (which hasn't even fought any wars since what, whenever) manages to put out a supoib army.
If anything else, Panama should be screwed to heaven and hell since the Darheel would easily be able to exploit the typical South American corruption found in the area, with Infantry officers selling half of their unit's weapons to a rebel guerilla army for $$$ from the Darheel.
But no, in Kratman's world....
A captain of industry who whips a corrupt and inefficient Central American kleptocracy into fighting shape within weeks.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
October 12, 2008 Last Transmission: Red Army, Nizhny Novgorod.
October 21, 2008 Official Determination: No coherent field forces outside of North America.
But we have him saying in the same book:
On the other hand, Canada's supplies of pitchblende were plentiful and above the weather-line that the Posleen preferred.
Wait, how can the Russians somehow magically lose their infamous harsh climate? They just need to keep walking east, cross the Urals, and the Posleen simply cannot touch them there, because Siberia is that cold; the Russians have done this before; in WW2, and they still have a rather big industrial base in Siberia, albeit with most of it idle since the end of the Soviet Union; an Alien threat would revive the Siberian factories quickly.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Darth Hoth wrote:And, well, it is realistic to suppose that one smaller, tightly knit group with paranoid security measures that gets special privileges by being outside the normal chain of command should suffer less than standard units from organised sabotage.
Except that you know, all these "Standard" units are essentially brand new. So what are they going to go by? Why yes! The Book! And we have lots of Books from WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam on building mass armies that FIGHT, and FIGHT damn well.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Samuel wrote:Uh, their wacko environmentalism isn't a religion, but an ideology. And it is obvious that it is followed by the government as if it wasn't, they would actually act more intelligentally. Their actions are irrational which fits perfectly with fundamentalists- the reason we don't see many believers in the story is because we see mainly their military which seems to be the best way to escape the hell that is their planets. Seriously, they are North Korea IN SPACE- not remotely plausible.
Really? Granted it's been a while since I read the book, but I thought the intention was that the Saint ship was atypical in that there were a bunch of non-believers and only one dedicated "cultural officer" or whatever. Also, they seemed more like they were space Russians rather than space North Koreans.
"To make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe."
— Carl Sagan
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
