Originally posted by Pera:
Not the worst, but close 
Seriously, GTVA invading Shivans? Get real.
Though that idea about stopping a civil war by making a war against a distant enemy is pretty realistic...
I wouldn't be quite so harsh as Pera. Its not that bad.
On the other hand, I have to agree with Pera about the GTVA invading Shivan space. First, its not too likely. Every time they've encountered the Shivans, they've learned just how weak and ineffectual they are. Further, Who knows where the Shivans really are? In FS2, the GTVA encountered them when going thru Knossos-01. Knossos is gone (anyone else get hit by the shockwave?
and the GTVA have no way to get back to the nebula.
I would go in a different direction. Again, Para is right: making war on a distant enemy is a good way to curb unrest at home. An even better way is via expansion. By making a push to colonize, the GTVA takes care of several problems: population growth, civil unrest, and their small size. The first two are obvious, but the last bears some further examination.
If I were GTVA brass or a politico, I'd worry that a proper invasion fleet of Shivan forces, backed by squadrons of Sathanas class star killers could come in and lay waste to all our major population and support centers. Expansion, as much and as fast as possible, can help with that.
Campaign-wise, you can almost go in a Battlestar Galactica direction with that. You can have a carrier and a few destroyers and a lot of transport ships on their way through system after system, looking for new homes and defending from shivan stragglers, new alien races, old HOL and NTF dissidents and perhaps spaceborn lifeforms. Eventually, your little fleet could run head long into the real Shivan front, and trigger off the real Second Great War.
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--Mik
