Excerpt from Clausewitz's Puzzle The Political Theory of War by Andreas Herberg-Rothe
The idea of extreme violence as a means of achieving military success is expressed particularly clearly in Clausewitz's treatment of the pursuit of the enemy after a victorious battle. Destroying the enemy by pursuing them is one of the distinctive characteristics of Napoleon's way of waging war. Clausewitz emphasizes that in earlier wars (the cabinet wars of the eighteenth century), commanders were so preoccupied with the honour of victory that they did not pay sufficient attention to the destruction of enemy forces. They saw this as just one method among many, 'certainly not the main, even less the only one. They were only too ready to sheathe their swords as soon as the enemy lowered his.' Nothing seemed to them to be more natural than to stop fighting as soon as the outcome was clear; they saw any further shedding of blood as unnecessarily brutal.
Clausewitz disagrees with this, and stresses that no victory on the battlefield can have any great effect unless it is followed by the pursuit and destruction of the enemy. In recent wars, he says, the pursuit of the enemy has become 'one of the victor's main concerns'. The energy devoted to this pursuit is the main factor determining the value of the victory, and in many cases is even more important than the actual victory on the battlefield. As it is pursued, the defeated army suffers a disproportionate level of sickness and exhaustion, and its spirit is so weakened and worn down by constant worry about being lost that it is no longer able to think of resisting effectively. With every day that passes in this pursuit, thousands of soldiers are taken prisoner without any further blows being struck. The aim of pursuit is the destruction of the enemy, especially of his order and morale.
What Clausewitz means here is not the physical destruction of the enemy, but the attempt to reduce him to such a state of disintegration that he will not be able to undertake further military action. Clausewitz explains that whenever he uses the phrase 'destruction of the enemy's forces', he means that 'the fighting forces... can no longer carry on the fight'
+Break+
Alexander hummed.
The master plan was advancing, as much of it could be called a master plan at any rate.
Build up a force capable of fighting the Combine being part A was, well, working.
Part B wasn't due for completion yet, but the work of Hauptmann General von Randt was proceeding well enough. They would have the bait ready for deployment soon enough which would incentivise the Combine to leap over the border into a prepared trap.
Part C was more difficult, the build up of a logistical capacity and capability that would allow him to take the fight to the Combine instead of waiting for them to attack. Or, more importantly, to have the logistical capability to begin the pursuit of the enemy once they were destroyed.
After all, as Clausewitz had written, it was in the pursuit that the enemy took the most casualties and thus were destroyed.
The battle was merely part 1 of the enemy's destruction.
"This is very exciting." Huu said to his left as he perused the same information.
The other man had been a surprise. A welcome one at that. He had thought him an industrialist. Capable beyond measure, but focused on his numbers and statistics. Instead, he was something of a polyglot, for anyone who knew about Field Marshal William Slim could only be a genius.
"I didn't think I would be in the position of the Indian Tea Association, like, I figured I would be one of the soldiers on the ground doing the fighting right? What child doesn't think that they're going to be a great warrior of some kind? But, this is pretty amazing too. We're making history here! Ha, I'll be the person that they will be writing history books about! Providing the logistical support needed to wage war when every other supply chain is tied up with other units and fronts." Huu's voice continued on as Slim nodded his head.
He hadn't thought anyone else would have known about the Indian Tea Association and their actions in driving Slim's success.
"I always dreamed of being the William Slim of this age. Finally driving back the Combine. Destroying the DCMS so thoroughly they will speak my name in fear." Alexander replied as Huu nodded along.
"I mean, you have the same name, so someone clearly figured the same right?"
"Well, that or I am a descendent of the man." The gene-child of said famous general said. Unable to actually say that he had been born from a genetic sample scraped off a dead mercenary decades prior.
"That would be pretty cool too." The industrialist said with a guileless face.
Alexander hid the urge to sigh, the man was gullible like nothing else. How he had managed to build so much without being taken advantage of was a wonder.
He suffocated the thought that he was the one taking advantage of the man for his own self-aggrandisement.
"I mean, seriously. Those guys were pretty amazing you know? They figured out how to make parachutes out of Jute and Paper once the British back in the British Isles refused to hand over their stock of parachutes for the aerial campaign. Managed to get it so that only 20% of packages failed to land safely." Huu continued to speak, the subject clearly something he was passionate about.
Alexander nodded, he knew that story, it was famous after all.
"Or how they built the roads during the monsoon for the army to advance."
"Yes. They are certainly impressive. Of course, I'm not asking you to do that Huu. It would be a bit too much to ask I feel." He said finally.
"Haha, I wouldn't know what to do there either. It's not like my System knows the specifics right now." Huu said, referring to that strange system that he used to build the fastest concentration of industrial might in the Inner Sphere.
How he had done so baffled everyone that Alexander knew.
He was still getting questions from his previous colleagues in the monetary payments for destruction business if Mount Utility was real or not.
To be fair, they weren't able to bear witness to the sheer amount of industry that he could.
"In any case, if you're aiming to prosecute a war like General Slim, then you need to have the transportation logistics to support your troops wherever they can be found." Huu continued, looking at Alexander with a raised eyebrow. Or at least that man's attempt at a raised eyebrow given that both eyebrows went up and started wiggling desperately in their attempt to stay there.
"I'll need help with that one unfortunately." Alexander replied, not even bothering to give a sidelong glance at the man or a helpless shrug of his shoulders. He wouldn't parse them anyway.
"Tell me what you need." The industrialist that could have been boosting his own industry to make all the money in the galaxy said.
He wouldn't be getting the glory from this, he wouldn't even be remembered by most people, but he was ready to suffer regardless.
Alexander stared at him.
He really did need to ask, why. Why was he so willing to help?
"Why?" He asked before he caught his mistake.
"Well, because if I don't know what you need, I can't do much to help right?"
"No no, I mean, why are you willing to help to this extent Huu? You're putting your industry on pause to help me in this little crusade. You could be building more Battlemechs to help the LCAF and get into their good graces. Could be building more of those Ute Factories to make money there. There are so many things you could be doing instead of just helping me." Alexander interrupted Huu before he could continue.
"What was it that Uncle Bill said? 'We fight evil for all that is good and free?' Yeah, I can't fight. Like, I'm terrible at it. But, I can help those who fight. The Free Worlds League? We can live with them. They're stupid as all hell, but we can live with them. The Combine? We can't live with the Combine. So I'm doing my part. Besides, you don't need to worry about the Factories. It doesn't care what it makes, so long as it is making something."
Huu then laughed.
"Besides, it doesn't matter what we're trying to do here, the System will account for it anyway. So, tell me what you want and I'll get started on making it happen. My resources are currently tied up in the two Battlemech and one Aerospace fighter lines that I just put down though. You're going to have to wait."
Alexander side eyed him.
One year and one month ago the man had been nothing but a fool with a dream.
Now he had the industrial capacity to have Duke Brewer of Defiance come for a personal visit.
In fact, Huu now had more factories than Hesperus 2's six.
Counting only military factories he would be at 5.
All factories he would be at 10.
The man had more factories than Hesperus II right now.
Alexander supposed that his point about the factories not caring about what it produced, so long as it produced something was true enough.
"I need transport to supply my men at the front. Can you do that?" Alexander looked at him.
"Specifics Alexander, specifics. I build you anything you need, but I'll need specifics."
"I need jumpships, specifics are that they need sustainability, cargo capacity, defensibility, and transport." Alexander said, thinking deeply. He wasn't sure what he needed and he wasn't going to specify in case it was a foolish notion.
Asking for C-47s and Bitthess airfields was stupid in the age of fusion powered flight after all.
Huu looked at him with a cocked head.
"You're essentially asking for aircraft and an airfield to keep your troops supplied aren't you?" He asked.
Alexander nodded.
"But mobile and flying and dangerous. You know what, why not. I'll workshop a design and get back to you." He said with a grin.
+Break+
I looked at the design.
Well, not really looked given that I was asleep and my brain was interpreting this through the lens of something that didn't compute with my meat brain, but well, close enough.
I had a jumpship.
A primitive one at that given what I was trying to do with it.
1,200,000 tons.
One point 2 million tons.
That's a lot of ship!
20 Light year jump range which would get her close enough to most systems.
Wait a moment.
The time to manufacture this would be, well, forever.
Years.
Not soon enough for Slim's planned advance in the next few years.
Dammit.
I guess I would need to go with the smaller design.
Phe!
Okay.
New plan.
The Irrawaddy class transporter.
100,000 tons of primitive jumpship.
Structural Integrity of 52.
Armour of 104 tons.
20 Light Year Range.
3 Grav decks.
Safe thrust of 2, max of 3.
2000 Tons of fuel for 101 burn days or 67 at maximum burn.
32 AC/2s with 10 tons of ammunition each.
32 Large Lasers.
8 Fighter Bays with 4 doors
4 Small Craft bays.
8882 Tons of cargo.
A BV of 4,567.
A C-Bill cost of 3,893, 450,000.
Still cheaper than an Atlas Assault Mech.
One million C-bills more expensive than a Manticore tank.
In short, really really cheap for something with its capability of jumping through space and time.
Assuming my mathematics was working properly that is.
I'm really bad at mathematics.
The only problem, really, was that, from my basic napkin levels of mathematics, there were several levels of logistical supply that had to be worried about.
A combat force had several inputs and outputs after all.
Or rather less levels and more categories.
1: Food to the fighters.
2: Fuel to the fighters.
3: Ammunition to the fighters.
4: Spare Parts to the machines that fighters used.
And of course, that one product so hated by a fighting regiment,
5: Wounded/KIA going back.
An infantry regiment would need less in the way of spare parts and more in the way of food than, say a Battlemech Regiment.
Overall however I was looking at around 20 tons of food for an infantry regiment, 20 tons of fuel (assuming no fusion), 20 tons of spare parts, 10 tons of ammunition.
Wait.
Why was a Brigade 3 Regiments?
A Brigade was 3 Battalions.
Who the hell was organising things in the LCAF?
Why was this so… dumb?
Ahhh.
So, 3 Battalions into a Regiment, 3 Regiments into a Brigade.
A Regiment therefore needed roughly 400 tons of supplies a day.
No?
That was a Division which was an amalgam of 3 Brigades during WW2 at least.
Actually.
Fuck it.
A Division had infantry and armoured units, mix them all up.
400 Tons for a Division in the attack.
This was a far cry from the days of WW2 after all where an armoured division only used 247 Tons in the attack. Having given up all of its heavy artillery to do so, no wonder its tonnage wasn't all that high. An infantry division was expected to use 162 tons.
There was a lack of artillery in the Commonwealth but still, 400 tons sounded about normal with all the heavy metal involved.
Therefore the 8882 Tons of cargo space would need to accomodate quite a bit of heavy metal as well as all of the supplies needed to wage war.
A single fully loaded Irrawaddywould be able to sustain a division's advance for 22 days roughly. Which meant keeping 3 Regiments or 1 Brigade in LCAF terms on the attack for 22 days.
Not the best.
A defending Battalion would need approximately 60 tons, mainly artillery shells.
A Brigade of infantry in the attack without any artillery support would need 15 tons a day.
Ah. This was complicated.
I'll just give it 400 tons.
200 tons of artillery a day.
That sounded about right.
Problems that artillery could not solve either indirectly or directly were not problems that a division could handle on their own.
Or Brigade in the parlance of the LCAF which was closer to that of the Imperial Japanese Army than it was to either the Wehrmacht or the British Army or even the Americans.
Truly these Germans have done something vile to their cultural heritage.
Calculating the tonnage involved for each unit would be difficult.
108 vehicles made up a Regiment which was only 2 Battalions.
Seriously?
120 Battlemechs made up a Regiment, 36 to a Battalion.
Roughly 3 Battalions and a Headquarter Company?
Okay, that was passable.
What was this abomination of an organisation structure?
Aaaaagh.
The worst and perhaps the best part of this was that if this design was going to be produced ubiquitously through the Commonwealth which meant that what I designated as 'standard' would become the standard.
Hmmmm.
Screw it, they can work it out.
100,000 Tons of space, Slim and the Hauptmann-General can figure it out if they really want to.
Or they will get their staff to do it.
112 Alpha Strike PV whatever that means. Like, what even is Alpha Strike and why do I need to care about it is an important question to ask.
What was even PV?
BV is Battle Value, that much was clear, what was PV?
But, well, I was stuck here without the ability to check what PV meant.
Player value?
Still, a Warship's construction cost was done in PV which then translated to RP.
Thankfully it still counted as a civilian vessel… probably because it didn't mount Capital grade weapons.
That meant I could drop a full 12 Resource Points per turn into its construction, which would equal one Dakota every… 9 and a bit months. So call it 10 months.
Not bad.
Soon the Combine would feel them in force over their worlds, and wouldn't that be a sight to see?
+Break+
Excerpt from Defeat Into Victory by Field Marshal William Slim
My engineers proved equal to the need. They built the road with bricks, millions and millions of them. Every twenty miles or so was a great brick kiln, looking in the distance rather like a two-funnelled ship. We imported skilled brickmakers from India, brought the necessary coal by rail, boat, and lorry, and baked our bricks. A brick road is terribly apt in rain to sink into the earth, but, constantly having fresh bricks relaid, it held, a monument to ingenuity and determination.
These three roads were pick, shovel, and basket roads, made by human labour, with an almost laughable lack of machinery. The men who built them worked under the most arduous conditions of climate and with the most elementary scale of accommodation, often with the enemy within striking distance. The whole of the labour, many thousands, was Indian, and much of it came from the Indian Tea Association, which organized, officered, and controlled some forty thousand of its own workers. Without this contribution we should never have built either the roads or the airfields that were vital for the Burma campaign and for the supply of China.
+Break+
Total RP Turn 10 2991 + 1 Year 2 Months
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory
32 RP 16×2 Commando 1B Factory
24 RP 12×2 Griffin 1S Factory - Newly Built
RP Bonus Calculation = 0.8 (Indytech 3) + 0.3 (Lyran Bonus) + 0.1 (Economic Treaty) = 1.2
Total RP = 116×1.2 = 139.2