The GMG are experts in guerilla warfare, trained over hundreds of years to make and operate ships designed to work in the Sigmas.
The Rheinlanders charged in with a few fleets, against an unknown number of anti-cap snubs.
Basically, the Rheinlanders massively underestimated the GMG, and the reason the war took so long? The GMG didn't take many losses, they just whittled down the Rheinland forces over 80 years, until the Rheinlanders eventually left.
It wasn't a war, it was Rheinland getting their asses handed to them. Slowly. Over eight decades.
A) The Gas Miners Guild were effectively fighting on home turf knowing the pockets of explosive gases and how to combat scanner refractiveness and use this to your benefit this usually provides an massive advantage.
B) Guerrilla warfare. Fighting on your own terms provides numerous advantages over the enemy.
C) Make a mockery of your opponent.
If you can fool your opponent into thinking that you have more forces than they first thought they often become frighten of making moves so you can direct them into the ideal position then spring the trap .
D) Supplies. If you have snub craft your supplies will be less then a big Military fleet. If you cut their supplies they will be likely to mutiny, get stranded and decrease morale. (Mutiny in the case of food or water)
A real-life analogy to help you understand the situation:
Vietnam war.
One of the world's most modern and best equipped armies got its ass kicked out by what was a minor guerrilla resistance first, then thanks to external support, it evolved into a superior fighting force, yet keeping the previously successful methodology.
Except that in the vietnam war that's not what happened. In every direct confrontation between the two sides, the South+US came out on top. It was popular ppinion that failed, not tge military. Take the tet offeneive as an example: the North took huge casualties and made no real gains. Yet the fact that they could do it shocked the American public, ant it was that that ended the war.
By contrast, the GMG actually militarily defeated the Imperial fleet using guerrila tactics. So maybe the Soviet experience of Afghanistan or the Roman defeat in the Teutoberg forest fit better?
Yes, and exactly the same thing happened in the case of Rheinland as well. The populace got pissed at how incompetent the Rheinland leadership was and they revolted against it, the difference is that there was an actual revolution in Rheinland that succeeded, as opposed to the random hippies in the US.
I wouldn't say it was a full military defeat in the case of Rheinland either.
The GMG were pushed back into Kusari relatively easily as memory serves. However from there they received assistance from the Kusari Military both in some materials as well as near diplomatic immunity in the form of being able to stage operations from Honshu.
That is how the long term war was waged. The GMG were striking from a location that the Rheinlanders were hard pressed to attack, given that any Rheinland incursion into Honshu would have brought the KNF into the fight, who to that point were willing to sit back and involve themselves only passively.
The war ended from a combination of a mass slaughter of an illprepared Rheinland fleet in the Crow Nebula and massive economic and political collapse back home.
It wasn't an 80 year stand up fight. For all intents and purposes the GMG lost the majority of the battles but won the war.
The US won almost every major battle of Vietnam, prob was the political climate. As dorky as this discussion is, it was strikingly similar.
Rheiland steamrolled the GMG at first then were pecked down by hit and run tactics from Honshu (china). Then they lost support at home, the economy collapsed and they high tailed it.
' Wrote:Except that in the vietnam war that's not what happened. In every direct confrontation between the two sides, the South+US came out on top. It was popular ppinion that failed, not tge military. Take the tet offeneive as an example: the North took huge casualties and made no real gains. Yet the fact that they could do it shocked the American public, ant it was that that ended the war.
By contrast, the GMG actually militarily defeated the Imperial fleet using guerrila tactics. So maybe the Soviet experience of Afghanistan or the Roman defeat in the Teutoberg forest fit better?
At least someone with actual knowledge of what was going on in those conflicts.
Nope, my friend, Afghanistan was no better for mujahaddeen then Vietnam for the North. Much worse actually, due to terrain, and, well, more ruthless behaviour of Soviet army, although it hands were still tied, like USA's in Vietnam. I'm not willing to turn this thread into discussion about real world conflicts, but these 2 examples - Vietnam and Afghanistan, are both false in this situation. The defeats were not military, not even economical (although economy in USSR was in horrible state, it was by no means connected with the war), but purely political.
(wiki is a horrible source, but at least it shows the general picture - compare this soviet and afghani casualties,and look at soviet numbers at that time.(Total numbers of the army and those used in Afghani) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in..._in_Afghanistan - in contrast Rheinland lost everything )
Well, Im sorry for disappointing many, but in modern world guerillas cannot win against a well armed and dedicated military with untied hands, it's a myth created by... well, its another story. Good example would be Byelorussian resistance in WW2 - it was really furios.... with the results - Byelorussia lost 3/4 of it's population over those 3-4 years.
No idea about Teutoberg forest, but how large was "technological gap" there and really, did Romans lost everything? We're talking about technologically advanced militaries here.
Well, the only reasonable, at the moment, version that I see is provided by Anonymous User. They just made em win, out of nothing.
' Wrote:The US won almost every major battle of Vietnam, prob was the political climate. As dorky as this discussion is, it was strikingly similar.
Rheiland steamrolled the GMG at first then were pecked down by hit and run tactics from Honshu (china). Then they lost support at home, the economy collapsed and they high tailed it.
Nope, its not that. They got militarily annihilated over those 80 years. As a contrast to Vietnam, where USA was winning the war of attrition in terms of resources.
EDIT: Well, I do understand it's incorrectly to use modern conflicts as an examples, due to completely different conditions in which warfare takes place. But this still doesn't explain the fact how Gas Miners Guild managed to militarily defeat a nation with strongest army of all Houses... and not just defeat, but almost completely annihilate it's fleet in the process.
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