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1568: The Wildfire Ring
military power
#51
if the neremians have a JSDF base with them nothing can face them in combat, the biggest problem would be hitting targets so primitive which most weapons arent desinged for. As for comparative powerlevels 6 spanjards could defeat 200'000 Natives in a battle. The neremians have a bigger tech advantage. (although different, I don't think 6 guys could defeat 200'000 spanjards. the spanjards where effectivly invulnerable to what the natives could do, with their armor. we shoot straight through their armor for a mile away, further with sniper rifles. Tanks would confer us the same invulnerability, as do airplanes. a single modern destroyer is undefeatable at sea for all navies of that time combined.)
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re: military power
#52
However, the tanks, airplanes and ships have limited ammuntion and fuel. Granted, they wouldn't be impossible to provide, but the support industry for all that would be complex.
Also, the ability to carry ammunition would not be unlimited. A modern tank could inflict absolutely horrible losses on a 16th century military unit, but it would only take one soldier to pry open a hatch and shove a grenade into it, to kill most of the crew. If enough soldiers swarmed the tank, then it could be beaten.
Equally, a modern destroyer can kill any ship afloat. But it's designed to operate against modern naval vessels. It's surprisingly difficult to sink a wooden ship - it would not be implausible for thirty or forty small ships to swarm the destroyer just to get two or three boarding parties aboard.
Modern technology is a huge force equaliser, but sooner or later someone will figure out weak points or just be bloody-minded enough to accept a horrific exchange rate of casualties in order to win.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
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Re: re: military power
#53
Really, Nuku-Nuku by herself would be an unstopable force against any conventional army of the time. On the other hand, Nuku-Nuku doesn't really want to hurt anybody.
However, I don't think Nerima here would be in a position for expeditions that far away for a while, because they aren't just up against conventional forces if this is the Inu Yasha past. With Fluffy and Naraku out there, tanks aren't quite as invulnerable as you might think.
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No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.
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Re: military power
#54
Jinx999... there in lies the point of their expanding empires. They took over larger and large areas... sending new captives and such to sacrifice. So more food... that source dried up they took over another area. Yes, they ate other stuff... but human flesh supplimented their diets. It also dropped the population a bit. They mostly ate corn and the like. It wasn't perfect, but the system was efffective enough.
Napalm is not fun for the other guy... napalm plus metal armor or burnable shields/armor is worse. That and if your in a helicopter a few hundred feat up... they can't hit you anyway... anything that gets up that far will lose all penitration. When all else fails.. carpet bombing hits hidden targets.
The controling the empire thing is why I suggested Austriala... lots of land and almost no one there to deal with. They have airconditioning technology. Air conditioners make Australia livable. A empire in a land no one will go to on purpose... it was a prison conlony for a reason.
The trick is turtling up Nerima so you don't get ever get over run in the first place. The tech advanage is an enourmous asset in this. Hidden cameras are tireless sentries that the invaders don't even know are there. Radio headsets will make comunications in an attack instant. The fact they need to put up 'Please do not break this wall' signs shows how dangerous the locals are... which should confuse any literate people coming into the area.
Another advantage is that the Nermites won't have nearly as much problem exepting non humans as the rest of the country. This means they can get nonpychotic entities to help/live there. Meaning magic will get an easier place there... so as long as they are not killing/raping people or practicing necromacy too much you can let them acclimatize to the place. Meaning that a large portion of possible skilled non humans could stay, and they wouldn't automatically get driven out the first time they start/end up in a bar brawl or something.
Nerima is suprizingly tollerant of the weird... few other places will clap as readily as the Nermites if mind control magic is used to make jerks and idiots beat themsleves up. If a somewhat terrifing demon gets attacked for no reason, its far more likely it will get a chance to be listened to. Its one of the few places where the locals may beat up the human in a fight and leave the demon alone. That and a demon can get people to understand the concept of it owning property and land.
Nerimites also understand snack food. Long lasting, yummy foods that resist weather and are cheap. Potato chips (salty and crunchy) are likely to sell well. Nerima can trade for supllies. While someone will try to invade... that grandmothers at random can beat up 20-50 guys on their own will make them a rather hard group to get a foot hold in... before the military shows up.
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Re: military power
#55
Quote:
that grandmothers at random can beat up 20-50 guys on their own will make them a rather hard group to get a foot hold in... before the military shows up.
That's assuming a fanon "everybody-is-a-martial-artist" Nerima. The Ranma manga suggests things are otherwise -- yes, there are a number of high-powered martial artists, and some pretty esoteric dojos, in Nerima, but you're not going to see the average granny or hot dog vendor practicing some obscure or ridiculous style that lets them cream flocks of black belts.

-- Bob
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For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...
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Re: re: military power
#56
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However, the tanks, airplanes and ships have limited ammuntion and fuel. Granted, they wouldn't be impossible to provide, but the support industry for all that would be complex.
Yes but the military is actually less so than most modern systems because it's desinged that way (for logistics and security reasons. Harder to disrupt)
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Also, the ability to carry ammunition would not be unlimited. A modern tank could inflict absolutely horrible losses on a 16th century military unit, but it would only take one soldier to pry open a hatch and shove a grenade into it, to kill most of the crew. If enough soldiers swarmed the tank, then it could be beaten.
It's not unbeatable, but a platoon of 4 tanks is. Most tank hatches can be locked to prevent just that. Also after your bullets and cannon balls bounce off and the tank destroys severall hundered soldiers most will probably run. but yes tanks are vulnerable to running out of fuel and ammo. the question is do they know that?
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Equally, a modern destroyer can kill any ship afloat. But it's designed to operate against modern naval vessels. It's surprisingly difficult to sink a wooden ship - it would not be implausible for thirty or forty small ships to swarm the destroyer just to get two or three boarding parties aboard.
Modern destroyer is unbeatable if the captian knows what he is doing. They will see ships from 35 miles away (which the wooden counterparts might not) and unlike the ships of the era they can hit at that distance, plus the destroyer can outrun and outmanuver anything else in the water. Plus some of the crew carry assault rifles, which is an increadible force multiplier, so even in a boarding action I expect the modern ship to win.
Columbuses ships had a top speed of about 8 knots under ideal conditions destroyers can reach in excess of 30 knots even directly against the wind. The turining radius is also smaller and it takes far less time to turn around. How is any normal fleet going to compete with that? They can't get their broadsides to bear, and they are sifficiently inaccurate that nothing else will do.
Now unconventional forces (demons, martial artists, etc) do present someting of a problem and if a 5-inch shell to the head won't solve it there is a limit to what modern military power can do.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
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Re: re: military power
#57
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you're not going to see the average granny or hot dog vendor practicing some obscure or ridiculous style that lets them cream flocks of black belts.
I said at random not as a whole. For instance Colonge. The one that practices Martial arts tea cerimony and a few others. An army can be seen farther off. Expesially with air power. Bandits on the other hand... those are going to have problems. Even if only 2-5% are that dangerous its going to cause issues for forces. Also, 17.9% are listed as being over 65. The ward has 14279 people per quare kilometer. Thats a large pool to draw from. I think the aera is around 5 squkms so thats 71,395 total or 3989 people and if on;y 5% are combat capable that means 199 random dangerous senoirs. If only 10% of those are as dangerous as above thats still 20 old MA threats.
Also, when their are nuts with swords doing random raids... people find that joining dojos is a good thing. Guns are going to be kept out of the general populous at large. So melee it is. So as time goes on the numbers will increase. It also won't be hard to find instructors for your level.
The time before the wall will be the worse. Though with constrution vehicals and MAs it won't take near as long as it should (for the time) once the stone is found. Give them 3-6 months and the city will be fortified. With towers and walls.
Yes, powerful youki will be tough... once they figure out the problems they can teach spirit wards and the like at school for the grunts. The immediate area will take a bit to invade... the bulk are in Nerima's modern place. The question is how will the youki react that are left... I mean the forest has a city in the middle. Even if they aren't hostile to start they are going to ask questions.
I'd need a good map to guess more. Nerima land locked so getting a harbor would take a while... also no cargo ships. so a oil derick will have to be air lifted.
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Re: re: military power
#58
I've got the map scanned in; now I just need a free imagehosting site that can handle a 4-meg JPG file. (Can't make it much smaller, everything just goes all blurry.) Any suggestions?
--Sam
"Then he threw a chimney at us!"
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Re: re: military power
#59
Quote:
One of the large advantages Ranma has is he knows several styles that haven't been invented yet... the style they were made to counter, and those to counter them.
On the other hand, he doesn't know the lost traditions, those of which no trace survives in the modern day, and his knowledge of style from outside south-east Asia will not be quite as encyclopedic as it is within his home ground.
It makes a better story if Ranma faces real challenges, including individuals who can give him a real fight.
Nerima's first priority would be self-defence; its second, holding its society together. Expanding quickly is a good way to get spread too thinly, and loose cohesion. Keeping the water flowing and the schools running means keeping most people in Nerima proper.
One of the first things they need to do is secure their food supply, which means growing it - relying on trade would leave them too vulnerable. Chemical fertilisers aren't a problem, but the local crops will be relatively low yield. They'll need quite a bit of land to do that - preferably in a corridor leading to the sea.
I'd say once they'd seized that land, they shouldn't be doing anything else aggressive. They be better off concentrating on self-defence and diplomacy for a few years, until they're stable enough for further expansion.
This might not be quite as exciting as immediately making Central America a protectorate, but it's still likely to mean a lot of action for the defenders of Nerima.
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Re: re: military power
#60
It seems kind of odd that this thread is going in a direction the Grantville leadership specificly rejected: First fortify, then conquer. Of course, Grantville didn't have the resources to pull that off, but they also rejected that path for moral reasons.
On the other hand, 1600's Europe has the seeds of the revolutions of the 1700's, so it is possible to work the social and political revolution angle. Japan 1500 is rather different.
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No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.
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Re: re: military power
#61
1600s Europe also doesn't seem to have youkai running around. ^_^
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Re: re: military power
#62
well we just got some new drives for our webserver. I ought to be able to work something for a while. IM me (cattynebulart on Aol IM) or otherwise let me know.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
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Re: re: military power
#63
Quote:
1600s Europe also doesn't seem to have youkai running around.
Not in Grantville's universe. In this Nerimaverse, it should have the local equivalent - elves, goblins, and the like. For Japan to be the only area thus affected makes no sense.
Visit Scotland and meet the Wild Hunt, rumoured to be undefeatable.
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Re: re: military power
#64
Quote:
rumoured to be undefeatable
At this, Ranma perked up, and started paying attention for the first time since the lecture on what hstorical records had to say about the rest of the world in this time had begun.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
A kung-fu nun in a leather thong was no less extreme than anything else he had seen that day. - Rev. Dark's IST: Holy Sea World
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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