Dramatic SFB: Question regarding Hostile Miltia

[Matt]

> I have a question regarding Hostile Militia Scenario.
>
> After taking quite a few internals, [the defender] disengaged by 
> acceleration and managed to put 16 BP on the planet plus the 15 
> militias. There is no way with my single DD with 16 BP and 4 HW that I 
> can dislodge him even if only my ship remains on the board.
>
> Does he win the scenario even if i am the only ship remaining?


The scenario's victory conditions have it right. If the defender leaves, 
the attacker would still win. The reasoning boils down to "He who 
controls the space around a planet, controls the planet."

Consider the effects of fire support (D15.13) from shuttles. Shuttles 
directly providing some additional firepower against the ground force. 
Being the only ship in orbit means they can destroy opposing 
shuttlecraft; interdicting the ground combat from rude strangers.

There's the effects of local superiority. The ships, vice the ground 
forces, have transporters. This allows them to (potentially) swamp the 
defenders if the entire ground force is spread across more than one GCL. 
Additionally, certain ships can land on the planet (D15.53) and provide 
a greater unload capacity.

And then the ship can dip into the normal ship's crew (D15.83) to 
provide additional firepower outside of the "normal" channels of getting 
boots on the ground.

It is not a simple matter of whom has the largest ground force, but how 
that force is used and supported. The force doesn't even have to have an 
immediate superiority. They could win with means and tactics that aren't 
covered with the rules that govern a short-term gun-vs-gun battle. The 
effects of morale and logistics could easily win when applied over days 
or weeks.


The final effect is that ships can be the deciding factor in ground 
combat if they have no opposing units to worry about. Besides the 
practical effects that *somebody* has to be declared the winner at some 
point. Those people with ships still hanging around have a decided 
advantage over those with no ability to dig their way out of the mess.

--Matt