Hammers' Slammers Vs. Battle: L.A.

[TheMuffinKing]

Situation: The aliens (Aquoids?) from Battle: L.A. are invading Earth. The U.S. government starts handing out defense contracts like candy and by act of Me, Hammer's Slammers pick one up. Ignoring time/space continuum issues, the Slammers replace Marines from the movie (just the marines the film focuses on, ie: SSgt Nantz and company) and have assumed the marine's mission of rescuing hostages and eventually taking out the c&c ship. The Slammers are fully integrated into the defensive force, there are no commo issues (just throwing it out there).

Difficulty: DoD could only afford an infantry platoon and a rear area support element. No tanks or combat cars.

How do you think the slammers fare on their mission through L.A.?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Damn, I need to go and see the movie now.

Compared to modern infantry, the Slammers should have an electronic/EW advantage; all the fancy commo/mapping/imaging gear built into the helmet will still be there, and is probably given several centuries of field experience and refinement a lot more ergonomic than the modern equivalent.

Body armour, the Slammers' may be slightly more optimised towards energy weapons; not having got round to Battle; LA, don't know how much difference this would make.

Biggest single differences are weaponry and mobility; Powerguns, if taken at face value despite the fact that they depend on a physical principle that does not exist in the real world, are lightspeed line of sight weapons and produce a powerful burst/splash on what they hit. They're not much more theoretically lethal than, say, an automatic grenade launcher, but because of their reach and ease of aiming their practical lethality is way ahead.

And, of course, skimmers- one man hover platforms. Much faster if more noticeable than modern day, although they usually go to ground to fight. They can advance by bounding overwatch at armoured speeds, though.

One major problem- there would be less of LA left standing afterwards. The Slammers have demonstrated many times that they simply do not give a fuck about collateral damage, and on several occasions that they feel free to employ weapons of mass destruction. If they have to destroy the village to save it, they will. Possibly with a nuke, if they bothered to bring one. Unless given specific instructions in the contract to protect the locals, they probably would shoot their way through any of them they felt were getting in the way.

So yes, they would do better, but they would also leave a trail of devastation behind them that would make them look much less like the good guys.

[Balrog]

As good if not better. The aliens were still vulnerable to the Marines' weapons, despite the endurance factor; futuristic weapons should be even more so.

This assumes of course that the Slammers follow roughly the same script as the Marines (i.e. go to police station, try to leave police station, etc.)

[TheMuffinKing]

As good if not better. The aliens were still vulnerable to the Marines' weapons, despite the endurance factor; futuristic weapons should be even more so.

This assumes of course that the Slammers follow roughly the same script as the Marines (i.e. go to police station, try to leave police station, etc.)

That was the plan. As I and many others figured, getting a combat car in there would just too fast. The Slammer's would be in and out in a very short time, thus being a boring force substitution.

I just had a thought...Imagine how the defense of the Santa Monica F.O.B. would have gone with two or three hovertanks, or failing that, a pair of Calliopes and say a hundred support personnel. I'm sure it would be a massacre.

[Enigma]

Or one single MKXXX Bolo.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

they would also leave a trail of devastation behind them that would make them look much less like the good guys.

Heavy armour in urban operations is hardly a good idea; it's not good for the tanks, because they can be relatively easily blindsided at close range, and it's not particularly good for the urb either if the tanks are free to protect themselves by shooting at anywhere that somebody could be hiding. That's everywhere, essentially. The Slammers are bad enough- see the novels/novellas "Counting the Cost", "The Butcher's Bill", "Rolling Hot"- hell, any of them really. Suppressive fire, recon by fire, they do it a lot.

A heavy armoured vehicle that may not even fit down some of the smaller streets and has main guns of mountain- melting yield would manage to be a worse option. Even with Sci-fi-AI brilliant targeting and a conscience of sorts, this is basically hoping to save the planet at the cost of the city. A mere trail of devastation would be mild by comparison.

Unless the Slammers get completely out of control and start trying to play dominoes with skyscrapers (not impossible), they are going to squash and burn fewer angelinos than heavy armour, especially that.

[TheMuffinKing]

[quote="Eleventh Century Remnant"][quote]they would also leave a trail of devastation behind them that would make them look much less like the good guys.[/quote]

Heavy armour in urban operations is hardly a good idea; it's not good for the tanks, because they can be relatively easily blindsided at close range, and it's not particularly good for the urb either if the tanks are free to protect themselves by shooting at anywhere that somebody could be hiding. That's everywhere, essentially. The Slammers are bad enough- see the novels/novellas "Counting the Cost", "The Butcher's Bill", "Rolling Hot"- hell, any of them really. Suppressive fire, recon by fire, they do it a lot.

A heavy armoured vehicle that may not even fit down some of the smaller streets and has main guns of mountain- melting yield would manage to be a worse option. Even with Sci-fi-AI brilliant targeting and a conscience of sorts, this is basically hoping to save the planet at the cost of the city. A mere trail of devastation would be mild by comparison.

Unless the Slammers get completely out of control and start trying to play dominoes with skyscrapers (not impossible), they are going to squash and burn fewer angelinos than heavy armour, especially that.[/quote]

Those are all good points, however as I stated in the op, this is to be an infantry scenario, with the slammers replacing the marines. A full on assault by all of the slammers assets would be exciting to see, but is beyond the scope of this discussion.

[krakonfour]

I guess the Slammers (don't know much about what their infantry would do without their mobility, but well...
Marines using modern day tech, stupid tactics, Hoorah stubborness and general awesomeness at the expense of practicality (the entire US military in the sector is searching for the alien CC, hey!, let's go and search for it by ourselves! The aliens are retreating! Advance! By PISTOL fire!), we able to wreck the alien's invasion plans.
Give the same marines powerguns and armor designed to resist the hypervelocity rounds used by the aliens (they glow in flight and burn the Lt's face because they're going so fast they heat up. IT'S NOT ACID!!) and they'd do a lot more.
Fun fact: Who cares about aiming for the right to the heart when you can blast the slimy bastard into pieces with a single shot?