Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Socio-Economic Factors Influencing the Last War

HeatDeath · 04-01-2016, 11:32 AM

I omitted it in my initial writeup, but yes, exactly this. Towns are expected to be as easily rebuilt as any of the military equipment.

In WW1, they fired a billion shells. I'm not saying heavy tanks and infantry powersuits are as cheap as shells, but they may very well be as cheap as horses were. (The major powers ended up using about half as many horses as they did soldiers!)

War look interestingly different if you can build a bleeding-edge heavy tank for about what a college student pays for their first used car. Logistics and diminishing tactical returns become the primary limits on how much materiel actually appears on the field. When sound tactical doctrine limits how many units you want to squeeze into a square mile of space, that may tend to limit your production, even if you have the resources build significantly more than that.

04-01-2016, 11:32 AM	#4
HeatDeath Join Date: May 2012	Re: Socio-Economic Factors Influencing the Last War I omitted it in my initial writeup, but yes, exactly this. Towns are expected to be as easily rebuilt as any of the military equipment. In WW1, they fired a billion shells. I'm not saying heavy tanks and infantry powersuits are as cheap as shells, but they may very well be as cheap as horses were. (The major powers ended up using about half as many horses as they did soldiers!) War look interestingly different if you can build a bleeding-edge heavy tank for about what a college student pays for their first used car. Logistics and diminishing tactical returns become the primary limits on how much materiel actually appears on the field. When sound tactical doctrine limits how many units you want to squeeze into a square mile of space, that may tend to limit your production, even if you have the resources build significantly more than that.