[DIO]

To my knowledge, it seems that the war started rather accidentally, and both sides initially seemed to think that the war would be over quickly, but the war entered into a stalemate with neither side gaining clear advantage, and it dragged on for years.
But what I don't understand is what exactly were GTA and PVE's objective for this war?
Was it simple as advancing to Earth/Vasuda Prime and subjugating their enemy? What were their governments trying to gain from it?

[Mobius]

[mobius]Regional security and taking control of important systems, full of resources.

After the first carnages, however, the main objective surely become exterminating the enemy. It's the classic "We don't remember how it started, all we know is that we must revenge our fellow comrades died because of them!".[/mobius]

[k19]

It seemed that the T-V war started as a fight over a dispute (which probably could have been resolved without a war) but then turned into a meaningless slaughter. Which might have lasted another several decades. Both races could have been destroyed...but thankfully (in an odd sort of way) the Shivans came...

[Snail]

If the Shivans hadn't come, I think the war would have continued on for a bit longer, and then a peaceful resolution would come when both sides had completely exhausted their war machines. A few years later, it would've started again...

[Mobius]

[mobius]When the Shivans come both the GTA and the PVE were on the verge of internal collapse, so that sounds plausible.[/mobius]

[ShadowGorrath]

I don't think that the winning faction would exterminate the one that lost. There were vasudan agents in the GTA, as well as terran agents in the PVE, and etc.

[Imposible Uncorrect]

The objective of this war was just to get the control over the systems the factions had a knowledge about. (I hope I can say that this way ) 

[Snail]

I think it was similar to historical wars. The objective of the GTA was to capture Vasuda Prime, and the PVN's objective was to take Earth.

[Mobius]

[mobius]Saying that their objective was capturing the opposing species' homeworld is too much of a simplification. Doing that wouldn't have ended the war, just as sure as bombarding Vasuda Prime did not prevent the Vasudans from retaliating during the Great War.[/mobius]

[Snail]

Saying that their objective was capturing the opposing species' homeworld is too much of a simplification. Doing that wouldn't have ended the war, just as sure as bombarding Vasuda Prime did not prevent the Vasudans from retaliating during the Great War.

It might not have ended the war, but strategically I believe that's the GTA's goal. Taking the capital of the PVN would certainly be a serious blow to the Vasudans.

[ShadowGorrath]

Occupying Vasudan/Terran space would be the goal, I suppose. Like it was done in WW2.

Or the GTA could have dropped 2 Meson bombs ( once they research them ) on Vasushima and Nagasuda and then occupied the Vasudan homeworld.

[Mobius]

[mobius]It wasn't that easy. It's not that easy to discuss it, either.

Striking or worse, taking control of the enemy's homeworld means suffering heavy losses. Risking to get most of your force blown off only to achieve a goal that might have ended the war is a bit pointless, isn't it?[/mobius]

[ShadowGorrath]

I'm not saying it would be easy...

Besides, you'd first make sure that you'd get as little resistance as possible, until there's nearly none.

[Snail]

The entire war was pointless.

[General Battuta]

Well, see, the GTA's flag was on Earth, and the Vasudan flag was on Vasuda Prime, and you only get a point if you bring their flag back to your base, soooo...

[The E]

Also, wasn't Sol the terran's major industrial center? Taking that out to hurt the terran's warfighting capability would be pretty high on the PVEs list of desirable achivements, I imagine. I guess the same holds true for Vasuda Prime.

[Mobius]

I'm not saying it would be easy...

Besides, you'd first make sure that you'd get as little resistance as possible, until there's nearly none.

[mobius]And means defeating the whole PVN. In other words, there's no difference between taking over Vasuda Prime as an attempt to achieve a decisive victory and crushing the whole PVN to win the war.[/mobius]

[Black Wolf]

I don't think there were objectives the way we think of them in a modern sense, like the objective of the Afghanistan war was to get Osama and prevent Afghanistan from being a terrorist haven. I think it was more like the american wars against the Indian nations - humans were expanding into space, and had encountered an agressive inhabitant. It wasn't safe to move around in space, so we had to eliminate the Vasudans ability to threaten us. So the broad objective would have been "Make space safe for human travel, colonization etc.". This might have been achieved through a number of different means, the most logical being space-denial to the Vasudans - get into V Prime, scrap their orbital and planetary defence capabilitys and set up a military cordon to prevent them launching any dangerous vessels, effectively ending their ability to make war. If they had other facilities in other systems, you do the same to them.

[Titan]

The entire war was pointless.

Name one war that isn't.


The war started because of the Terran's being completely unaware of the importance of the 'conversation'. The Vasudans got pissed, and all negotiations broke down. Frankly, I think the Vasudans are pricks for being so instantly offended. It's like finding an acorn on the ground in the woods, leaving it, then getting angry because you see a squirrel running off with it the next day.

[Knight Templar]

I don't think there were objectives the way we think of them in a modern sense, like the objective of the Afghanistan war was to get Osama and prevent Afghanistan from being a terrorist haven. I think it was more like the american wars against the Indian nations - humans were expanding into space, and had encountered an agressive inhabitant. It wasn't safe to move around in space, so we had to eliminate the Vasudans ability to threaten us. So the broad objective would have been "Make space safe for human travel, colonization etc.". This might have been achieved through a number of different means, the most logical being space-denial to the Vasudans - get into V Prime, scrap their orbital and planetary defence capabilitys and set up a military cordon to prevent them launching any dangerous vessels, effectively ending their ability to make war. If they had other facilities in other systems, you do the same to them.

This.

 Additionally, with Vasudans feeling the same way in return regarding Humans. Also note, despite whatever the tech room briefings or whatnot say, wars are rarely if ever started "accidentally." You don't have a friend that you get into an argument with one day, call him a ****wit in the heat of anger, and then pull out guns and start shooting each other. It's a process of escalation and calculation. As it states in the FSRef. Bible, most details were kept vague for a variety of reasons: Prequels, possible book deals or fictional pieces, fanboy enthusiasm...