7
Gyrok, on 03 August 2013 - 10:11 AM, said:
You are trying to rationalize fiction...it never works out well for people who try to do so, however, you are clearly making assumptions about a few things. I would like to help you clear that up some...
(1) You assume that the invasion that had been planned for YEARS, was poorly thought out and supplied on a whim. Reality dictates that the Clans, who were superior strategists in many respects, would have planned resupply in advance. As a tactician, you are going on offensive light years away, your invasion waves would have resupply waves between them as your waves left. Therefore you would not be waiting to call for resupply that would come much later, you would anticipate what you would need and have it coming to arrive at the expected interval it would be needed. The shortfall of this is that you would have to take what you planned to bring for resupply and anything else would need to be improvised. Retooling factories would never be any part of any equation for an invading force that had no intentions of long term occupation. Their goal was Terra, once they conquered that, retooling and rebuilding would be thought about. Otherwise they would simply be scavenging for materials to improvise things they needed.
(2) Each wave of the invasion would also bring it's own supplies up front, even the first wave. If you think the Clans flew light years to invade and showed up with just 'mechs and pilots...you're extremely naive, or have no experience in strategically, logistically, and tactically planning anything.
(3) You have to understand, news traveled slowly then, the Clans likely had 20+ worlds on the periphery captured before any of the word traveled to the heads of the respective governments. Additionally, they likely did not anticipate the threat was as grave as it was until the Clans had advanced much further. They would expect that, as in the past, it was simply some raiders or other group, and the militia level units would take care of the issue before it became something big enough they needed to deal with directly. It wasn't until large swaths of the Inner Sphere were decimated that they began to realize how seriously threatened they really were. Even then, it wasn't until the heads of their respective governments were shown the map with the invaded territory that they realized how hard they were hit.
(4) Toward the end of the invasion, the resupply situation was getting to the point it was more serious, however, through the beginning and middle waves, opposition was so poorly outfitted, poorly trained, and poorly manned, that there really was very little in terms of invasion cost. It is likely the Clans arrived into the more heavily fortified areas with little to no supply issues what-so-ever, however, it was the high cost of the war of attrition with the heavier fortified Inner Sphere worlds that depleted their supplies, mechs, and manpower. At the point this began to occur, you could expect that some clan leaders would have expected an easy march all the way to Terra based on the initial resistance being sparse and untrained. Though, once they got into the heart of the Inner Sphere, the resistance would have been more significant, and they would be glad they had accounted for the supplies they did on the way in.
Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion you have about the invasion.
1: the outbound light was captured most of the way through 3048. the invasion happened in 3050. you are telling me that an invasion that was sparked by an event that happened 2 years earlier was planned for YEARS. lets say they had 2 years. that is just enough time to get to the IS and back.
2: you are making assumptions here as well, you are assuming each particular wave was a different set of warriors. yet nothing i have heard of supports this. the same units would attack again and again leaving behind provisional troops to defend captured worlds. (while yes there would likely be supply waves behind them, an invasion of this magnitude would have already stretched the clans transportation to its limits. so resupply would be limited and unreliable.)
3: wave 1 and 2 were mostly unopposed(other than units posted to that region.). 3 onwards however were not. (twycross and wolcott were both during the wave 3 time period.) twycross the falcons lost half a galaxy of troops, the jaguars lost most of a cluster. these losses could not be immediately replaced. also, the map thing was false. each government knew exactly how much they had lost. they didn't know how hard everyone else was hit though.
4: i think i already pointed out that only wave 1 and 2 were unopposed.
hopefully that clears up some of the confusion you have about the invasion.
