Zarek Kree
Lunatic Legion Holdings
208
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Posted - 2017.05.07 18:22:44 -
[1] - Quote
MRietfors wrote:But EVE is a space game, not a sea game. In space more space means more power, much more power, nothing small should be able to kill anything big, unless in large numbers.
As a student of military history and tactics I can tell you that there is no example in real life in which something big can't be defeated by something small. And that's true at sea, on land or in the air.
1. Aircraft carriers are designed to fight with escorts to protect them from air and subsurface attacks. They can certainly defend themselves with their own point defense systems, aircraft and anti-sub aircraft, but it's not doctrine to rely on those things because they can easily be overwhelmed. The same was true in the era of battleships. In fact, the battleship era ended because they were too vulnerable to smaller combat craft. Even in the 1500's, the great Spanish Armada was defeated in the Battle of the Gravelines by smaller English ships who used superior maneuverability to their advantage.
2. Tanks are designed to fight alongside infantry to protect them from dismounted troops with anti-tank missiles. If you add up all of the tank losses in the world since their introduction in WWI, the vast majority were not killed by other tanks. Most were killed by small, cheap anti-tank systems in the form of mobile infantry with big guns (tank destroyers) or missiles and rockets launched by dismounted teams. No doctrine in the world sends tanks into battle without infantry support to guard against small threats that have the ability to get in close.
3. In the era before mechanized warfare, you had heavy infantry that relied on body armor and shields. They were big and lumbering, but were often the decisive unit on the battlefield because they packed such a devastating force. But they were incredibly vulnerable to fast moving and lightly armored cavalry that could get around the flanks and archers that could rain projectiles on them well outside of engagement range (something that was eventually replaced by artillery and mortars when gunpowder came along). You never, ever sent heavy infantry in without support because of their vulnerability.
4. Even in the story of David and Goliath, Goliath was actually the underdog in that encounter because, as heavy infantry, he was the natural prey of a projectile warrior like David. Far from being remarkable, any tactician could have told you that David would win that encounter. It couldn't have gone down any other way.
5. In terms of air warfare, larger aircraft are always vulnerable to smaller aircraft. The heavy bombers of WWII were probably some of the most heavily armed aircraft ever sent aloft (relative to the time period) and yet they were decimated by small fighters when they attempted to fight without escorts. Even today, large aircraft rely on escorts or stealth.
I personally dispute the idea that bigger is better in terms of gameplay balance, but it's also not reflective of the way that real life combat works (or has ever worked). |