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Old October 4th, 2005, 11:26 PM   #13
WarMachine
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rjandron -

You bring up several excellent points here; my comparison of Warriors to Soldiers was a bit rushed, as I was at work, and trying to go home.

While it's an interesting take, I think that the Samurai analogy goes a bit too far; maybe more like European knights, who are an elevated group, but have well-known flaws.

I think that the Council Guards are wannabe's, people who couldn't cut it as Warriors(they either washed out, or never had the guts to try); they know it, and so do the Warriors -- who never let them forget it.

The differences within the Gal's crew are more superficial, I think. Most of the "blue-suits" - the 'Command Officers' - seem to be at least Viper or Shuttle rated, and most seem to have been in-service for a long time(specifically, Tigh, Omega and Tolen; Athena was a Command Officer and was already Shuttle-rated in 'Saga').

The Warriors flying Vipers I see as more akin to helicopter pilots - they fly very demanding aircraft that can land almost anywhere, and tend to be right up on the action; they are a cut above the rest.

In their own way, though, I think you would have seen that Colonial Infantry had the same attitude as the Viper pilots; veteran infantry, no matter the culture, all share certain characteristics - and a certain elitism or 'standoffishness' - that "outsiders" usually find offensive.

In re Colonial culture, it's obvious that they have a rather feudal/theocratic structure to them; Baltar is a 'Count', and Adama - even though he is a serving military officer - is both a political and a religious leader, at least among Capricans.

At the same time, I don't think that the Colonies had lost the ability to construct battlestars; at Cimtar, four battlestars were destroyed by fightercraft alone(granted, a LOT of fighters). So their loss rate would dictate that the Colonies had to be able to construct replacements.

Battlestars are huge, though; construction times could run well into multiple yahren, even if they are stripped-down designs.....Which is yet another argument in favor of fewer ship types -- find a design that works, and stick to it:

*Battlestars are general-duty combat vessels, and form the bulk of the Fleet

*There would be a specialized troop-carrier that would 'triple'-up as a fast "armoured supply vessel" and a 'shake-n-bake' Viper carrier to esort convoys

*There might be 3 or 4 other highly specialized designs like fuel(Tylium) transporters, mobile spacedocks(for battlefield repair), courier/scout vessels, etc but no more than that...This allows rapid planning and execution of build schedules, large-scale interchangability of parts, and the ability to store major components in advance.

As far as reaching the upper limti of their tech, I don't think so. My personal belief is that the Colonials' ancestors terra-formed multiple planets in their home system to make the colonies viable for the Twelve Tribes.

Finally, while technology may be very different, war doesn't change that much; you simple face different challenges caused by the environment......
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