81 replies to this topic

[KraftySOT]

And no you cant have both. Name one army in the history of mankind that has had both.

Not Hannibal. Not at Athens. Not at Marathon. Not at Cannea. Not at Brest. Not at Liepzig.

Ask Clauswitz and Jomini. As you increase the size of your forces, the experience training and preparation begins to diffuse. The more soldiers, the less any individual soldier matters, the more the training is diffused, the more casualties youll take, the more 'newbros' will lower the general experience level of a unit as replacements come in.

A huge unwieldy army, will NEVER be of the same quality as a small force.

Its impossible.

This is why everyones special forces are small units. Everyones. You cannot have a large elite force, its impossible. The turnover prevents it. Not to mention a plethora of other factors that are as old as 'On War'.

What you may be thinking of is the disparity between the words "light infantry" and "infantry". Since "Light infantry" usually carries more equipment on their person and is more heavily trained than actual infantry. "Light infantry" is a misnomer. Of which Stavka had plenty of.

But even the Russians knew their soldiers were crap. This is why they went to the Corps structure over the Divisional structure. Because you NEED 35,000 men to take on a single 9,000 man German division.

[KraftySOT]

Lord0fHats, on 20 March 2015 - 05:10 PM, said:

Resources matter. The IS became such a backwater worked in a vacuum on its own. The Clans coming in through quickly created a giant "wtf?" situation, which proceeded immediately to many more wtf?s.

And I dont disagree with that at all. Just not particularly for the reason you mention. When Kerensky, the real one, took the Russian Imperial army, they kept their equipment better maintained, even being on the run, than the Red Army.

Whereas Kerensky had one enemy. The Reds. The Reds spent much of their time infighting and deciding "who were the real communists" (Kronstadt) which helped deplete them. Molotov and Trotsky also had no idea what they were doing. So what little quality the Russians had, completely disappeared within the Reds.

Though even with International Support and foreign powers taking huge swaths of Russia as a "protectorate" the Reds won, because they had the industrial base, the manpower, and eventually, the quiet nervous support of their people. After two years of running in the mud, even winning most of the battles, the Whites had to quit.

I think since many of the FASA guys were history majors and poli sci majors, and quite possibly anti communists at a time in the US when the cold war was 'serious bidness' probably wanted (well they wanted $$ too) the Whites to win. Hence the Kerensky reference and general situation of the clans.

Edited by KraftySOT, 22 March 2015 - 09:05 AM.