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Remaining holes in SLN intel

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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by Joat42   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:04 am

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tlb wrote:
Brigade XO wrote:We have TWO concrete pieces of information about what WILL happen at Beowulf and actualy none about if they have seceded from the the SL. Well, one piece on Beowulf and one on a apparently non-alined (non-SL member). The first is that Beowulf is going to suffer about 10,000 casualties when something happens. Exactly what, how, by who (- always intersting because we may see who but the people in the Hornorvers many not), and where it fits into Bowulf post plebiscite or whatever crisis the League forces. The second is that a piece of the SLN is going to kick the living shit out of some non-League system for trading with Beowulf "after" they have said they are withdrawng AND for apparently continuing to trade with Manticore. We need more information and we are perhaps a year from getting it.

The number I read was 10 million casualties on Beowulf.

We know that the SLN is planning a punishment expedition for Beowulf, it may be so simple as being careless where they aim their missiles while attacking the system. One stray missile hitting a population center will easily reach 10 millions of casualties.

---
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by Brigade XO   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:59 pm

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tlb wrote:
Brigade XO wrote:We have TWO concrete pieces of information about what WILL happen at Beowulf and actualy none about if they have seceded from the the SL. Well, one piece on Beowulf and one on a apparently non-alined (non-SL member). The first is that Beowulf is going to suffer about 10,000 casualties when something happens. Exactly what, how, by who (- always intersting because we may see who but the people in the Hornorvers many not), and where it fits into Bowulf post plebiscite or whatever crisis the League forces. The second is that a piece of the SLN is going to kick the living shit out of some non-League system for trading with Beowulf "after" they have said they are withdrawng AND for apparently continuing to trade with Manticore. We need more information and we are perhaps a year from getting it.

The number I read was 10 million casualties on Beowulf.



Sorry, left off the million part.
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by Joat42   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:07 pm

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Brigade XO wrote:We have TWO concrete pieces of information about what WILL happen at Beowulf and actualy none about if they have seceded from the the SL. Well, one piece on Beowulf and one on a apparently non-alined (non-SL member). The first is that Beowulf is going to suffer about 10,000 casualties when something happens. Exactly what, how, by who (- always intersting because we may see who but the people in the Hornorvers many not), and where it fits into Bowulf post plebiscite or whatever crisis the League forces. The second is that a piece of the SLN is going to kick the living shit out of some non-League system for trading with Beowulf "after" they have said they are withdrawng AND for apparently continuing to trade with Manticore. We need more information and we are perhaps a year from getting it.
tlb wrote:The number I read was 10 million casualties on Beowulf.

Brigade XO wrote:Sorry, left off the million part.

That's the difference between a tragedy and a statistic...

---
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by cthia   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:07 pm

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Weird Harold wrote:
cthia wrote:If the Harrington Plan is to work, they must fracture a big enough chunk of that 3000. Systems are not going to split on account of promises. "You'll send us some ships when? Oh hell no. We are not going to be the next Beowulf!"


The Harrington Doctrine doesn't rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off League members. It relies on accelerating the existing stress and fracture lines that are in the process of breaking up the Solarian League without SEM/GA interaction.

Governer Barregos sees the writing on the wall and has been preparing his "Sepoy Option" independently of the SEM's interactions with the SL.

The Renaissance Factor is organized and planned to take advantage of and accelerate the breakup of the SL. MAlign agents and catspaws are working to accelerate the existing stress and fracture lines; causing rebellion in the verge, priming other OFS governors to follow Barregos' example, inciting the Mandarins and SLN to take the most counter-productive options for holding the League together, etc.

The SEM/GA is NOT the only factor breaking up the League; they are in many ways, just another MAlign Catspaw applying a sharp blow to the League's structure to accelerate the pre-existing fracture of the SL.

What you mean is the Harrington Doctrine relies on Manticore being instigators in League business and politics.

Accelerating those fracture lines doesn't make any sense, to me. The fault lines have always been there. They would have remained for thousands more years because no system within the League would ever have gained enough weight, or balls, to challenge the gorilla. So, IMO, the Harrington Doctrine does rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off systems because...

1. Without their support their could be no coup. Where would it have left Beowulf w/o their Manty friends? Do you think Beowulf would have ever grown the balls to go it alone without Manticore?

2. I recall the doctrine originally called for the SEM contacting, soliciting and spiriting these dissenters away from the League. Hence, instigators!


An aside:

Is, and was, the League aware of these fracture lines? Or can we chalk it up as another fail on the intel?

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by n7axw   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:22 pm

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I would think that if the League breaks up as fast as everything we have been hearing implies, Manticore probably won't have the time to do much meddling. In fact Alignment meddling probably will have more to do with it than Manticore.

Presuming that those 10 million casualties are caused by the League rather than the Alignment, something I'm not quite ready to sign off on, that could well be the tipping point that cracks the League open.

Don

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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by kzt   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:47 pm

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n7axw wrote:Presuming that those 10 million casualties are caused by the League rather than the Alignment, something I'm not quite ready to sign off on, that could well be the tipping point that cracks the League open.

Well, I'm sure it will certainly LOOK as if it was the SLN. As to what actually happens, we'll have to wait and see.
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by cthia   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:10 pm

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kzt wrote:
n7axw wrote:Presuming that those 10 million casualties are caused by the League rather than the Alignment, something I'm not quite ready to sign off on, that could well be the tipping point that cracks the League open.

Well, I'm sure it will certainly LOOK as if it was the SLN. As to what actually happens, we'll have to wait and see.

If it is a frame job, won't that just be fine karma for the League? What's good for the Manticoran goose is good for the gorilla. Even that probably wouldn't awaken the idiots to a third party.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by Jonathan_S   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:23 pm

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tlb wrote:
kzt wrote:Haven cruisers and BCs run SDMs. So, while their defenses are better, they are roughly comparable.

So Haven did not get the Extended Range versions from Erewhon?
Dunno. I don't think we've seen any new Havenite ship other than SD(P)s, CLACs, and LACs directly engaging in combat since the end of the ceasefire.
So we don't know what, if anything, has been done to improve their BCs, cruisers, or destroyers.

They might have a BC(P) design. They might have ERMs / LERMs. Or they might still be basically the same designs they had at the end of the 1st war (just upgraded with bow walls and improved compensators - which we know has been happening to at least Mars class CAs.). Given Haven's military structure - and the lethality of pod based system defenses - they don't seem to have had a pressing need for modern light units in their quest to achieve at least military parity with the RMN during the ceasefire era. (So it's possible the smaller ships have been largely neglected; we just don't know)
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by Joat42   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:25 pm

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Weird Harold wrote:
cthia wrote:If the Harrington Plan is to work, they must fracture a big enough chunk of that 3000. Systems are not going to split on account of promises. "You'll send us some ships when? Oh hell no. We are not going to be the next Beowulf!"


The Harrington Doctrine doesn't rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off League members. It relies on accelerating the existing stress and fracture lines that are in the process of breaking up the Solarian League without SEM/GA interaction.

Governer Barregos sees the writing on the wall and has been preparing his "Sepoy Option" independently of the SEM's interactions with the SL.

The Renaissance Factor is organized and planned to take advantage of and accelerate the breakup of the SL. MAlign agents and catspaws are working to accelerate the existing stress and fracture lines; causing rebellion in the verge, priming other OFS governors to follow Barregos' example, inciting the Mandarins and SLN to take the most counter-productive options for holding the League together, etc.

The SEM/GA is NOT the only factor breaking up the League; they are in many ways, just another MAlign Catspaw applying a sharp blow to the League's structure to accelerate the pre-existing fracture of the SL.
cthia wrote:What you mean is the Harrington Doctrine relies on Manticore being instigators in League business and politics.

Accelerating those fracture lines doesn't make any sense, to me. The fault lines have always been there. They would have remained for thousands more years because no system within the League would ever have gained enough weight, or balls, to challenge the gorilla. So, IMO, the Harrington Doctrine does rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off systems because...

1. Without their support their could be no coup. Where would it have left Beowulf w/o their Manty friends? Do you think Beowulf would have ever grown the balls to go it alone without Manticore?

2. I recall the doctrine originally called for the SEM contacting, soliciting and spiriting these dissenters away from the League. Hence, instigators!


An aside:

Is, and was, the League aware of these fracture lines? Or can we chalk it up as another fail on the intel?

Did you miss the memo about MAlign being the driving force behind the fracture?

The whole point of the Manticore - Haven war was that there should only have been one winner and then MAlign would have set that winner up to be clobbered by the League.

And then MAlign would have used that to further their plan to fracture the League by engineering events and by using a number of star systems they control or indirectly control to secede from the League and create the Renaissance Factor. This relied on that the winner of the Manticore - Haven war would have been to weak to be a threat to the RF or that they would haven been conquered by the League.

Now, the war between Manticore - Haven didn't go as planned and it seemed that Manticore would clobber Haven and still be strong enough to pose a threat to their plans, hence the rushed Oyster Bay operation to gut Manticore to make it an easy target for SLN.

And then Cachat & Zilwicki just turned everything upside down by making Manticore and Haven became allies which then kicked the shit out the SLN.

Manticore quickly realized that a war against the League wasn't winnable - not in the long term - especially since it could galvanize the League into some coherent action - hence Honor hatched her plan to fracture the League by stripping it of much needed income. (The League; ie it's bureaucracy, and the SLN are primarily funded through trade and not on taxes from citizens or star systems + what the OFS can squeeze out of the protectorates).

This brings us to why the League can be fractured. The League Assembly and the Executive Council have become more and more paralyzed over the centuries and can't get almost anything important done. I guess this is mostly due to the sheer numbers of members and their different priorities. When there is only debate and no consensus for centuries people tend to get fed up and they only stay because of sheer inertia.

On top of that we have the League Bureaucracy that has grown as a cancer and more or less usurped the responsibilities of the League Assembly and the Executive Council because their inability to get their shit together.

And now we come back to the MAlign, their next step to push the League to the breaking point is to engineer the SLN to do stupid things - like Eradani Edict level stupidity - and at the same time make them look incompetent. And here we are back at the star systems that MAlign has control or influence over - they would declare that the League is a shambling corpse and because of this they will secede.

The MAlign is both cursed and blessed by Manticore at this point since Lacoon 1&2 will make the League fall much faster than projected in their plan, but at the same time the RF now has to contend with the SEM/GA stepping up to the position the RF would have had if the SEM/GA didn't exist.

I doubt very many in the League see clearly enough to discover that it's on its last breath since most are focused on their own little problems and pet projects. We have seen some examples of those that see clearly and have started planning for the aftermath of the fracture.

Regarding Beowulf; no matter which scenario played out, they would most likely be one of the first systems to secede because of their liberal and progressive worldview. Especially if the MAlign could have engineered it to push them to it and at the same time make the SLN punish Beowulf for it - which is pretty much what's going to happen but maybe not for all the reasons MAlign would have liked.

And the Harrington Doctrine, the plan that Honor described was to hinder "complete disorganization" by making sure that as many independent systems as possible can be viable after the fracture and trade with Manticore and each other. The plan came into being because if Manticore is going to to survive they have to help the League fracture first and then help friendly former League systems. If some of those system wants to join the SEM/GA, that's just a bonus.

---
Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer.


Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool.
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Re: Remaining holes in SLN intel
Post by ldwechsler   » Wed Feb 21, 2018 6:10 pm

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Joat42 wrote:
cthia wrote:If the Harrington Plan is to work, they must fracture a big enough chunk of that 3000. Systems are not going to split on account of promises. "You'll send us some ships when? Oh hell no. We are not going to be the next Beowulf!"


The Harrington Doctrine doesn't rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off League members. It relies on accelerating the existing stress and fracture lines that are in the process of breaking up the Solarian League without SEM/GA interaction.

Governer Barregos sees the writing on the wall and has been preparing his "Sepoy Option" independently of the SEM's interactions with the SL.

The Renaissance Factor is organized and planned to take advantage of and accelerate the breakup of the SL. MAlign agents and catspaws are working to accelerate the existing stress and fracture lines; causing rebellion in the verge, priming other OFS governors to follow Barregos' example, inciting the Mandarins and SLN to take the most counter-productive options for holding the League together, etc.

The SEM/GA is NOT the only factor breaking up the League; they are in many ways, just another MAlign Catspaw applying a sharp blow to the League's structure to accelerate the pre-existing fracture of the SL.
cthia wrote:What you mean is the Harrington Doctrine relies on Manticore being instigators in League business and politics.

Accelerating those fracture lines doesn't make any sense, to me. The fault lines have always been there. They would have remained for thousands more years because no system within the League would ever have gained enough weight, or balls, to challenge the gorilla. So, IMO, the Harrington Doctrine does rely on the SEM/GA fracturing off systems because...

1. Without their support their could be no coup. Where would it have left Beowulf w/o their Manty friends? Do you think Beowulf would have ever grown the balls to go it alone without Manticore?

2. I recall the doctrine originally called for the SEM contacting, soliciting and spiriting these dissenters away from the League. Hence, instigators!


An aside:

Is, and was, the League aware of these fracture lines? Or can we chalk it up as another fail on the intel?

Did you miss the memo about MAlign being the driving force behind the fracture?

The whole point of the Manticore - Haven war was that there should only have been one winner and then MAlign would have set that winner up to be clobbered by the League.

And then MAlign would have used that to further their plan to fracture the League by engineering events and by using a number of star systems they control or indirectly control to secede from the League and create the Renaissance Factor. This relied on that the winner of the Manticore - Haven war would have been to weak to be a threat to the RF or that they would haven been conquered by the League.

Now, the war between Manticore - Haven didn't go as planned and it seemed that Manticore would clobber Haven and still be strong enough to pose a threat to their plans, hence the rushed Oyster Bay operation to gut Manticore to make it an easy target for SLN.

And then Cachat & Zilwicki just turned everything upside down by making Manticore and Haven became allies which then kicked the shit out the SLN.

Manticore quickly realized that a war against the League wasn't winnable - not in the long term - especially since it could galvanize the League into some coherent action - hence Honor hatched her plan to fracture the League by stripping it of much needed income. (The League; ie it's bureaucracy, and the SLN are primarily funded through trade and not on taxes from citizens or star systems + what the OFS can squeeze out of the protectorates).

This brings us to why the League can be fractured. The League Assembly and the Executive Council have become more and more paralyzed over the centuries and can't get almost anything important done. I guess this is mostly due to the sheer numbers of members and their different priorities. When there is only debate and no consensus for centuries people tend to get fed up and they only stay because of sheer inertia.

On top of that we have the League Bureaucracy that has grown as a cancer and more or less usurped the responsibilities of the League Assembly and the Executive Council because their inability to get their shit together.

And now we come back to the MAlign, their next step to push the League to the breaking point is to engineer the SLN to do stupid things - like Eradani Edict level stupidity - and at the same time make them look incompetent. And here we are back at the star systems that MAlign has control or influence over - they would declare that the League is a shambling corpse and because of this they will secede.

The MAlign is both cursed and blessed by Manticore at this point since Lacoon 1&2 will make the League fall much faster than projected in their plan, but at the same time the RF now has to contend with the SEM/GA stepping up to the position the RF would have had if the SEM/GA didn't exist.

I doubt very many in the League see clearly enough to discover that it's on its last breath since most are focused on their own little problems and pet projects. We have seen some examples of those that see clearly and have started planning for the aftermath of the fracture.

Regarding Beowulf; no matter which scenario played out, they would most likely be one of the first systems to secede because of their liberal and progressive worldview. Especially if the MAlign could have engineered it to push them to it and at the same time make the SLN punish Beowulf for it - which is pretty much what's going to happen but maybe not for all the reasons MAlign would have liked.

And the Harrington Doctrine, the plan that Honor described was to hinder "complete disorganization" by making sure that as many independent systems as possible can be viable after the fracture and trade with Manticore and each other. The plan came into being because if Manticore is going to to survive they have to help the League fracture first and then help friendly former League systems. If some of those system wants to join the SEM/GA, that's just a bonus.[/quote]

Manticore and Haven together are a huge bonus for MAlign. Together they can smash a real lot of the League. The more fractured it is, the less the Renaissance Factor will be noticed.

As it is, as sectors break off, the Renaissance Factor can bide its time, let the Mandarins attack other systems, and once the collapse comes, start to build. Remember Renaissance means "rebirth."
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