-Oh I agree. But those actions are likely to be covert, or at least nominally deniable.
Fighters are not covert, and risk expensive assets, while a group of "bandits"/renegades with man- and animal-portable weapons are both cheap and eminently deniable, while providing valuable operational experience. And possibly, being one way of getting rid of said hardliners when their internal agitation becomes a distraction. The sort of low-risk harassment I expect to see around the edges of our sphere of influence before long while they trade with us.
Eh, sure probably- but such harassment won't do much to stop us, probably, and won't do much to protect Blackwell's reputation. He may have to lean very very heavily on the CMC Inquisitors to ensure that his will is enforced, and that sort of thing is costly and only goes so far. So there is a distinct chance of him making a significant attack on us with actual Victorian military forces,
before he achieves full rearmament in (realistically) 5-10 years' time. It's a possibility that would probably go badly for him IF we're ready for it... but by that same token we need to be ready for it.
- Not yet, no.
Heavy SAMs might be able to fit on a Des Plaines if you use box launchers for your Standard missile like Iran does; otherwise no.
But in a year or two, when I expect that Blackwell might have enough spare resources to throw his hardliners a bone, we probably should.
Radar will be the issue. But then, I suspect we'll be able to get others to supply that to us for intelligence.
My core point is that our next-generation successor to the
Des Plaines-class for fighting on the Lakes needs to be large enough to carry SAMs that are not shoulder-fired. The details are kind of beside the point.
Rabies is unsettling as fuck. And I have lived in places where rubber necklaces were a possible consequence for criminals caught in the act.
But the hatred it takes to attempt to trade for PoWs with people who you've never met before....
Brr.
To be fair, this would probably seem like a coldly rational act to the Children if, and this is important,
all the brainwashing abruptly vanished at once.
Which is the core premise of
Rabies, in my opinion, though
@clockworkchaos may have her own thoughts on the matter.
If Poptart descends from On High -- wait, sorry, read that wrong, from Ohio -- and decrees that henceforth all questers must create a character, define that character's views, get it OKed as lore-compliant, and vote in a way justifiable from that character profile, fine. That could be a fun sort of quest...
Yeah. I've already voted against what Sara Goldblum would say a time or three, I'm pretty sure.
So, thoughts on the Herald?
Chlorine gas is grossly overrated as a weapon of war. It disperses quickly. It does not leave a strongly toxic residue and so cannot be easily used as a long-term 'area denial' weapon against a bunker or something. It is visible as this extremely dangerous-looking green fog and so the enemy knows they are being attacked by chemical weapons immediately and can fall back. Soldiers are highly unlikely to be killed by chlorine gas unless you lay down very large barrages, unless they have nowhere to run to, or unless you have enough firepower to kill them reliably as they attempt to escape... which in turn entails having a lot of guys with guns.
While sometimes that's good enough all by itself (it can force the enemy temporarily out of a trench if they have no gas masks), it has limitations. Even the most rudimentary protective gear can provide significant protection against it, up to and including
pissing on a rag and tying it in front of your face (note that a normal wet rag would do this too).
If these guys are really serious about chemical warfare, they need, dunno,
at least phosgene or something.
Too many crew.
No reason to have both a vehicle commander AND a radio operator.
By the way,
@Sir_Travelsalot , this is pretty important. The bigger the crew, the bigger the crew
compartment, which in turn drives up the size of the vehicle. And makes it a bigger target, often a taller target. An effective crudely improvised armored car/light tank that's designed to be able to trade slams with any plausible enemy technical and win needs to be low-slung and good at getting in the first shot.
For reference, a
BTR-50 tracked APC has only 13mm of steel on it's frontal arc, and weighs almost 15 tons.
A BTR-70 wheeled APC weighs 11.5 tons, but only has 9mm steel to the front, and 7mm to the sides.
To be fair,
@uju32 , BTR-series personnel carriers have that giant crew compartment, which takes up a lot of physical space and requires that men be able to stand up inside the vehicle with some degree of comfort. This makes them much bigger, boxier targets, which in turn means you just can't afford to put thick armor on.
A smaller, lower-slung vehicle can concentrate more armor protection.
