[Dan1]

For the main FS2 campaign.  If you were "Command" and making the decisions, what kind of decisions would you have made differently if any at all?

For me, it would have to be pulling the blockade and letting Bosch escape, I would not have let that happen.  Also, during the 1st Sathanas missions, I would have had more than one squadron and the Collossus fighting the Juggernaut.  I mean all civilization going to be destroyed and that's all they can spare? (Yes I do know that they said the Sathanas destroyed the fleet blockading the node in GD but still..)

[Freespace Freak]

Well, they let Bosch escape because they wanted to know the capabilities of the ETAK.  Hmmm, I'm not sure what I'd do differently, though.

[Herra Tohtori]

After the Ravana (before Great Hunt) had destroyed multiple warships and their escorts, I might've sent in more than one bomber wing to take care of the bugger.

I would have installed a remote subspace activator to GTVA Colossus to prevent its idiotic death by stubbornly refusing to leave while clearly being overpowered by the Sathanas... I mean, what the hell did they think getting destroyed was going to by any time to anyone? Stubborn assault in front of superior numbers/fire power is never a good strategy, it will cost your troops and gain you nothing. To know when to withdraw is as important as to know when to attack.

Preferably, choose the time and location of the engagement. Fight on your ground. Prepare the defenses by doing something else than putting the fracking ships in the line in front of a node. Put some depth in the battle arrangement, make it difficult for enemy to concentrate fire. Surround the node instead of just putting ships in one side of it. One-sided "blockade" only blockades at maximum 30% of the node, what if some clever bastard decided that he was going into another direction? Yep, send in Alpha 1, he'll kill the rampaging cruiser or an odd destroyer...


What more... well, in general, keep more fighting power in reserves. Tactically it is usually considered minimum to keep third of available forces in reserves.

I would have made every single captain to read Sun Tzu instead of whatever they were taught in GTVA Fleet Academy or whatever TSM's they run through.

 8)

[Dark Hunter]

Well, I definitely wouldn't be so stupidly optimistic as Command was after killing Ravana, and later after killing the original Sathanas. I would be thinking: "If they have massive clawed-beetle looking juggernauts and a nearly inexhaustible supply of fightercraft, what else do they have in there?" Not: "YIPPEE! We killed a Sathanas, we're invincible! Even though the only warship that could possibly destroy another one is in drydock for the next few months!"

 
GTVA Command, you give Terrans a bad name...

[TrashMan]

First off, I would never have tried to stop the Sathanas in Gamma Draconis - I would have pulled all the ships to the Capella side of the node, bring in the Collie and make a defensive perimiter.
Ships would be ordered to jump out if the Sath gets a clear shot at them. and I would allways have a few heavy hitters standing by to jump behind the thing, hit it and bug out.

Mass production of Mljonirs is a must and blockading of all pertinent nodes. As soo nas the first sath was destroyed I would immediately bring every single ship that can be spared to Gamma Draconis and prepare to seal the GD-Capella node AND have another destroyer hidden in GD, ready to blow the node to the Nebula.

[Cyker]

Long term, I wouldn't have build the Collossus - biggest waste of resources...

I would have made the Ares and Boa as fast as a Perseus and made more powerful bombs

And also, everybody would have the callsign Alpha 1

[TrashMan]

And also, everybody would have the callsign Alpha 1

That would be a organizational nightmare, but no force in the universe could stand up the the GTVA.
Run Shivans, Run!

[Eishtmo]

I think you guys are giving Command too hard a time.  These guys are trying to balance the needs and demands of all of civilization while fighting for its very survival aganst odds they didn't know or expect.

First you have Bosch and ETAK.  They had a plan, get what Bosch knew about ETAK.  They had to keep him alive to do it.  Mistake?  No, it was a valid idea and remained so for quite some time.  After all, the Shivans hadn't been seen for 32 years, who would Bosch use it on?

The Knossos blindsided them, I think.  They didn't expect it, and when it showed they suddenly had three problems hit them at once:

1)  Need Bosch's info on ETAK
2)  Figure out how to use the Knossos to get back to Earth
3)  Fight the Shivans.

Now, there is some arrogence in that last one.  They fought and beat the Shivans the first time around, if by just the skin of their teeth, and now they had better weapons and the Colossus (which I disagree with being a mistake, it was a great tool for uniting the people of the GTVA and giving them a sense of security, how it was used wasn't great, but the ship itself was not a mistake).  They could handle the Shivans.

Then there's Slaying Ravana, which only proved that the GTVA didn't know what it was getting in to.  We see only the end of that battle, but I'm willing to bet the first phase was increadible.  At the time, they may not have had the resources on hand to deal with it, and the bomber wing was their last chance of taking it out before it left the area.  It's destruction was a moral boost and probably gave Command the idea that it needed to pour more resources into fighting the Shivans.

But then they could have shut down the Knossos, but they couldn't, and that's what started to hurt them.  They had to leave it open for as long as possible, and when the Sathanas popped up, they did the only thing they could do:  Run away.  Pulled their whole fleet out of the nebula, destroyed the Knossos and set a defensive line in the first available area:  Vega.

Now we get to Command starting to wise up as to what's going on.  One super ship like this, and they're in trouble, another would be worse.  Ships go back into he nebula looking for both Bosch and yet another Sathanas, which they probably figured was out there somewhere.  The little black ops run through the second Knossos proved to be the right decision on the part of Command to order, and now they had to run.

Run very fast.  There's not time to set up a defensive line closer than Vega, in fact I imagine the other side of both nodes were virtual fortresses.  They were running an evacuation from a genocidal species, and there was no reasoning with them.  Should the Colossus have stood it's ground?  I don't know, one would think not, but we don't know why the commander of that ship chose to stay.  Perhaps he knew more than he let on about the tactical situation, knowing that holding position (and the attention) would spare millions the wrath of that Sathanas.  Maybe he was just a fool.

The point is, they did they're best against odds they didn't expect and that just got worse as time went on.  Two things to consider here when thinking about it:  A:  Hinesight is always 20/20, and B:  They're only human.  Maybe that was the point.

[Polpolion]

I would not have the fleet engage the Sath, first I would have A1 destroy it's beam cannons, then I would dogpile it with cruisers and fighters. Also, I would inform all piolts of the cheat codes, and we'd own everyone via ~-K.

[Trivial Psychic]

I too think that collapsing the Capella-Gamma Draconis node would have been a better option, and would have saved the Capella system, but I'm betting that the time-constraints of getting an Orion outfitted for the job and brought into position was the limiting factor.  Too bad realy, but I guess it makes for a more desparate story.

[spartan_0214]

Why didn't they just trap the Sathanas in Subspace? It would have been easy, no one would have died, everyone would be happy.... 

[BlackDove]

...funny.

I would've done everything that they've done all over again. The mission "Wake up the Shivans" was a resounding success after all. Etamnanki was tested and completed. Knossos information was taken for further development on stabilizing broken nodes (note - you can't TEST it if the thing isn't active). Line was severed so the Shivans wouldn't come back. They even got the practical structural information on the Juggernaught's and the Comm nodes (<- I actually suspect that was a big one for them) as well as their rate of production.

All in all a resounding success. Had a few civilian casualties, but who gives a **** really. Knowledge is power. All ready for Stage 3.

[Turey]

The only thing I would have done differently is concerning the NTF. Quite frankly, both times the Shivans attacked was when the terrans already were weakened from fighting.

Let the NTF through to GD, you'll have more destroyers to concentrate on the Shivans.

[Taristin]

I actually agree 100% with Eishtmo. Which is something unheard of.

[NGTM-1R]

Let the NTF reach Gamma Drac and then lock them all in. Turn off or blow up the Knossos, blockade the Capella node with as many destroyers and Mjolnirs as you can scrape together. Maybe park the Colossus in the node's exit vector just to prove the point. "Excuse us, we need those destroyers back. Now."

Find some other way than further prolonging a civil war that is eating up your available combat power to get your hands on ETAK. Making a serious effort to capture the Iceni in The Romans Blunder sounds good. Bosch may be misguided but he doesn't seem crazy enough to blow himself up.

[Prophet]

What Eishtmo said...

Command could have had lot more things going on than we ever knew of. Possibly ****load of blackops stuff going on with the NTF. Therefore it is a bit unfair to judge their doings. Letting the NTF grow so big was an obvious ****up from GTVA, but that's irrelevant because without it nothing in FS2 would have happened. What Command did in a grand scale, I think I can understand.

But some smaller things it did, were just stupid. "Avoid the beam and you won't get hit". "Godspeed pilots, Allied Command Signing off", that's like saying "we don't care if you make it out or not.

One thing I disagree is the general battletactics command used. It was all arrogant fire beams and get some coffee while Alpha wraps up. What they need is battalions of badass marines, and a effective breaching pod/capture system. If they had spent the NTF war capturing back their ships, instead of blowing them, they would have had much more resources to deal with the shivans. But trought the whole campaing, I don't think we hear about a single serious capture attempt.

[Blaise Russel]

One thing I disagree is the general battletactics command used. It was all arrogant fire beams and get some coffee while Alpha wraps up. What they need is battalions of badass marines, and a effective breaching pod/capture system. If they had spent the NTF war capturing back their ships, instead of blowing them, they would have had much more resources to deal with the shivans. But trought the whole campaing, I don't think we hear about a single serious capture attempt.

Even a simple corvette carries 8,000 men, if I remember right.

[Mustang19]

Guys, think back to even FS1. There were NO capture attempts on anything larger than a small transport. There is a mission where you "capture" a Cain-class cruiser, but you're not really capturing it, you're just towing it back to base.

Now think of what it would be like for a few thousand marines to capture a ship. All kinds of automated defenses guarding the hallways, thousands of enemy defenders, the ship could self-destruct at any time, you can't be sure you'll be able to puncture the hull...

And it seems like capturing is reserved for important events, anyway. You have to go through the trouble of disarming and disabling it, which is a pain in the ass, when it would be easier to just lob a whole bunch of bombs at it. And even if you do capture it, the crew would probably sabotage the ship. If you look at the capture operations in FS1, they were never to get actual warships, they were just to capture certain people, etc.

[aldo_14]

It's probably easier to chopper in troops to capture a modern day aircraft carrier than it is to fly in marines to a destroyer....

[Prophet]

"Automated defences", yeah sure. Ofcourse every hallway could be full of automated lazer-zapper-napalm-cannons that scan the retinals of every passerby. But not only is that a hazard for the crew, but a nightmare to maintanace. And costs ****load of money, and takes space that could be used for something useful and safer.

Hull thickness should not be a be a problem. Air locks are easy to pierce, though also easy to defend. All of the ships have windows. And even thick hull could propably be craked if given enought time and peace to work. That would require a special engineering craft I think.

I am talking about a civil war. So no sane crew would blow themselves up just to prevent a cruiser from being recaptured by the enemy. Neither are they likely to fight to the death for Bosh when facing a barrel of a pulse rifle. It's not the same thing as space battle where you kill enemy ships, in boarding action it's man to man.

So fighting off boarders, or being vaporized by anti-cap beam. I'd choose fighting the boarders. Even then it would be hardcore marines versus engineers, officers and other personnell whose training was likley focused on other than close combat. The crew propably suffered casualties during the phase the ship was disarmed and disabled. And the marines only need capture certain areas. Like the bridge. Then ask nicely trought the PA system, "surrender or be spaced". Wreacks havoc on morale, don't you think? And when the ship is unable to do anything, command structure broken and banged up crew, then there is little do be done.

In FS way casualties would be the ship and the entire crew. Boarding action would propably cost at least 50 % less in lives and the ship would be saved. Unless something would go horribly wrong during the boarding. Say, robed figure falling to the reactor.

In my opinion boarding actions are entirely possible in the FS universe. What would you do in a destroyer that has no functioning systems left and is little more than a burning wreck, surrounded by enemy fleet? Prison camp, or burning/chocking to death?