Tactics of War [Monday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.]

[replicarter.livejournal.com]

Sipping on her cinnamon latte, RC waits for the rest of the class to file in.

“One quick announcement before the lecture today, class. Callisto will be my assistant for this class. Please give her your highest respect and attention. Thank you.

And now, please take out your notebooks and pay bloody attention.

I’ve seen a lot of interesting warfare and I have an example to discuss with you today. The names have been changed to keep this as generalized as possible as we can quickly get bogged down in specifics. He totally drew the line in the sand, so bite me.

There was this planet. I’m going to call it Valero…. And it was pretty much what you’d call prime galactic real estate. Fresh air, good sunshine, lush continents, excellent seas, good location in the schematic of planets. Completely untouched, a glorious frontier of sorts.

The natives were friendly (generally speaking, of course) and related to a neighboring federation of planets, which I shall call the Evil Empire. The Evil Empire had laid claim on the planet Valero with a clever use of flags.

However, citizens from another neighboring empire (known as the Alliance of Unitedness) had infiltrated the planet with settlers, farmers,etc – as, well-- it was great real estate and had a great location between the Evil Empire and the Alliance of Unitedness.

The Evil Empire was okay with all of this as long as these new settlers agreed to be under their rule, pay their taxes, worship their gods, that sort of thing. Colonialism at its best.

Eventually, the people of Valero decided to break off from the Evil Empire to form their own independent identity – with the long term goal of joining the Alliance of Unitedness.

War, obviously, ensued and the Alliance of Unitedness decided not to help the people of Valero in their battle so it was up to all the people who lived on the planet to defend themselves.

The Evil Empire sent thousands of troops to the planet to make it a quick invasion and suppression of the rebellion. Several skirmishes took place but the largest battle was fought after the siege of Valeroian fort – which was actually the ruins of an old mission built by another race that had tried to occupy the planet.

Many brave men and women were holed up in this mission. There were people from the Evil Empire, people from the Alliance, people of mixed races, mercenaries, … the usual rag tag army in a war of this type. They were not the best soldiers in this backwater planet that had such potential. And yet, here they were, facing the most important fight for the planet’s independence.

There was no way that the garrison at this fort could beat the incoming troops from the Evil Empire and there was no way to send in more troops due to many tactical errors of the Valeroian generals as well as issues with technology and not having enough soldiers in the first place.

So, they held their ground. After a long siege, the Evil Empire’s troops finally attacked the fort itself in the dead of night and by morning, they had massacred everyone inside.

It was a huge victory for the Evil Empire. At once, they were even more cocksure than before.

The head general of the planet Valero took immediate advantage of the situation by moving his troops (which were of great number than those in the now completely ruined fort) to the battle ground of his own choosing. And now morale of the men was high as they felt the great need for vengeance over their fallen brothers.

The Evil Empire was caught in the final battle because they had decided to all take an afternoon nap (as it was in their culture to do so). The head general, of course, knew his enemy and knew this would happen and took advantage of this momentary weakness.

The battle was won, the planet was won. The Evil Empire let them be and eventually the planet joined the Alliance of Unitedness.

And the ruined-mission/fort became an icon of heroism and bravery for centuries. It is now a popular location for tourists.

Now.

Discussion questions (pick one):

1) You’re the commanding officer of the garrison under siege. You’re outnumbered, out-gunned. Your men and women are unable to handle the pressure. What tactics do you use to have a fighting chance? Also, due to circumstances and your own egotism, surrender is out of the question.
2) You’re the head general and you have a choice to send in valuable troops to help in a hopeless siege or you just let the garrison under siege be massacred. What do you choose? This is more of an ethical question, but it does involve a keen sense of the ethics involved in being tactical during wartime.
3) Consider yourself the general for the Evil Empire. Your tactic was to subdue the rebellion with superior force. What would have been a more successful way of destroying the insurrection?


OOC: (1) VICTORY OR DEATH! *fangirls* (2) I did this as an example of how students will officially IC hear the official fandom battles we’ll be covering (starring some of your classmates and peers as their adult selves).

Students will walk away from class knowing that they studied an example of the Evil Empire versus the Rebel Alliance, blah blah, even though – for clarity and fun, I’ll be using the real names (Aeryn Sun, Peacekeepers, cylons, daaaaaaahk lords of the Sith, daleks mebbe etc).

And you’ll get to ask questions of the real people (fh!Characters playing their adult/wartime selves). But -- NO ONE (including RC who is just pulling these examples out of her head) will leave the class connecting goofy John Crichton to some horrible war over a wormhole weapon (if I use that battle, still unsure, etc).

I’ll be making a schedule and clearing EVERYTHING with everyone, of course.

I’ve probably confused you. Plz ask questions if you have any.