V'han invasion force tactics...

[Dr. MID-Nite]

I'm running an invasion by Istvatha V'han. I know what I want their overall goal to be and even some of their immediate secondary goals, but I'm having a bit of trouble figure out how they are going to execute this invasion on an operational level. Are they just going to wipe out the military, occupy population centers, or what? I can't see resources being a big issue for them. My initial thoughts is that they're going to hit major population centers as a show of force, but probably not occupy them per se. Military targets would probably be mostly air bases. One thing I plan is that they're hitting the world's super prisons to try and recruit all the paranormals for the Imperial Legions. They'll also strike at any known PRIMUS or UNTIL bases as their tech level is closer to what the invaders are probably using. Any other thoughts?

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

It's very very difficult to compose a sensible set of tactics without knowing their objectives.  Are they after a MacGuffin?  Getting revenge on the heroes who spat in her eye?  Taking over the world?  Just passing through to some other military campaign somewhere else?  Keeping Earth busy while [other thing] happens?  All of those would require wildly different approaches. 

[Dr. MID-Nite]

1 minute ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

It's very very difficult to compose a sensible set of tactics without knowing their objectives.  Are they after a MacGuffin?  Getting revenge on the heroes who spat in her eye?  Taking over the world?  Just passing through to some other military campaign somewhere else?  Keeping Earth busy while [other thing] happens?  All of those would require wildly different approaches. 

 

Well...their objective is to conquer the entirety of our dimension.....starting with our planet.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

Their biggest threat would be a unified Earth.  In terms of nations, people, or superhumans.  They've tried kicking down the front door once and been slapped with their own boots for it. 

The obvious solution is subterfuge and politics. 

The invaders should keep their identities a secret for as long as possible while doing as much damage as possible.  Pick off superhumans, undermine countries, anything to make the stomp-stomp bang-bang part of the invasion have fewer things to deal with. 

Likewise, the invaders would want to divide their opposition as finely as possible.  Get countries to go to war, ensure supercriminals don't fall in with heroes, and do whatever necessary to keep the rest of the world out of the way of dealing with one country at a time.  Promises of power in the new regime, no matter how false, would be an excellent tool. 

 

An alternative would be a "clean doomsday".  Execute some scheme that would kill everyone on Earth without significantly damaging the planet's resources and habitability, then resettle it.  A billion dimensions must have enough emigrants to fill a planet quickly enough. 

[Lord Liaden]

Can we assume that you have Book Of The Empress and the examples of her past invasion attempts, and her plans for "softening up" Earth before her next invasion?

[Tjack]

   Dear Doctor, 

It seems you have a number of consultants ready to assist, but we need to know what the enemy wants our planet for after the conquest.  

1) A dead radioactive ball of glass hanging in space. 
2) An active colony world providing raw materials and brute labor (Humans; that nutritious, tasty treat.) overseen by their own people.

3) A refueling/supply base wiped clean of the vermin who used to live there.

  Each answer requires different tactics to achieve.  You might want to look at the history of WWII and the way that the Nazi’s saw and used different countries.  (Nazi’s are wonderful examples of scumbag behavior.)

[Ninja-Bear]

I see her as going for military targets only. And if she occupies any population centers at first it’ll be hard to tell, like a gilded cage. I see the first military zone would be Rogue Nations and such.  Say invade North Korea, who would care if she took over? Especially if she seems a better option.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Can we assume that you have Book Of The Empress and the examples of her past invasion attempts, and her plans for "softening up" Earth before her next invasion?

 

Yes. Again....I have a general idea of what I want to happen, but I want their operational level tactics to make some kind of military sense.

[Lord Liaden]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Can we assume that you have Book Of The Empress and the examples of her past invasion attempts, and her plans for "softening up" Earth before her next invasion?

 

2 minutes ago, Dr. MID-Nite said:

 

Yes. Again....I have a general idea of what I want to happen, but I want their operational level tactics to make some kind of military sense.

 

Just by going from those examples/suggestions, V'han will attempt to have cultivated allies and fifth columnists on Earth to subvert and disrupt its defenses preparatory to her main invasion. As superhumans have given her the most trouble in the past, she'll probably have her operatives try to neutralize as many of the more dangerous ones as possible. She may even have sought allies among other civilizations in the galaxy. Then she'll open a dimensional portal to send her forces through, and broadcast an announcement of her arrival and demand that Earth surrender, as she always does.

 

I don't think V'han would actually attack civilian population centers directly, at least at first. She styles herself a benevolent ruler and doesn't want to cause unnecessary casualties (although she can be utterly ruthless if she believes she needs to be). Her priority would probably be military targets. Also she'll want to control the means of communication among her enemies. Our satellites would probably be wiped out very quickly -- her own ships could provide short-term com links after the invasion. Transportation infrastructure would likely be targeted as well, to limit the mobility of opposing forces.

 

Given how very publicly she announces her invasions, I think she'd start with "shock and awe" tactics, hitting her chosen targets with overwhelming bombing/bombardment to intimidate Earth into surrendering before she sends in occupying troops. I wouldn't rule out her annihilating an entire city as an object lesson, particularly if it's a focal point of resistance. If that doesn't work, based on past invasions she'd probably switch to attrition; her forces are effectively inexhaustible, and can wear down almost any opposition.

 

I'm not sure if she would try to free superhuman prisoners en masse. Almost by definition their loyalties would be suspect, and she could be releasing potential opponents. However, any that she already made agreements with would definitely be liberated.

[Tjack]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Given how very publicly she announces her invasions, I think she'd start with "shock and awe" tactics, hitting her chosen targets with overwhelming bombing/bombardment to intimidate Earth into surrendering before she sends in occupying troops. I wouldn't rule out her annihilating an entire city as an object lesson, particularly if it's a focal point of resistance. If that doesn't work, based on past invasions she'd probably switch to attrition; her forces are effectively inexhaustible, and can wear down almost any opposition.

  Like the man said.  “Nuke ‘em from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.”

Although as Babylon 5 showed, mass driving targets from space is a lot easier and just as effective with much less radiation to deal with after.

[segerge]

9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I don't think V'han would actually attack civilian population centers directly, at least at first. She styles herself a benevolent ruler and doesn't want to cause unnecessary casualties (although she can be utterly ruthless if she believes she needs to be). Her priority would probably be military targets. Also she'll want to control the means of communication among her enemies. Our satellites would probably be wiped out very quickly -- her own ships could provide short-term com links after the invasion. Transportation infrastructure would likely be targeted as well, to limit the mobility of opposing forces.

 

Given how very publicly she announces her invasions, I think she'd start with "shock and awe" tactics, hitting her chosen targets with overwhelming bombing/bombardment to intimidate Earth into surrendering before she sends in occupying troops. I wouldn't rule out her annihilating an entire city as an object lesson, particularly if it's a focal point of resistance. If that doesn't work, based on past invasions she'd probably switch to attrition; her forces are effectively inexhaustible, and can wear down almost any opposition.

 

 

This was my approach to writing this war for its first few days in the TASK FORCE universe, though somewhat inverted.  She started with the message broadcast through the Phobos Portal, which displayed on every communications method throughout the Milky Way Galaxy in whatever language its percievers spoke (The War Room in the Varanyi Imperial Palace, a council chamber on Mandaar, the Phazarian Arena on Malva, the Chamber of Overseers on Odrugar, and Camden Yards in Baltimore as I finally wrote it).

 

As for the initial assault on Earth, I tried to keep the first few days as close as possible to what was presented in "The Book of the Empress," which more or less goes as Lord Liaden describes in his quote.

 

Also keep in mind for future Dimensional Wars that V'Han will be much less reluctant to use her powers of time travel to achieve a strategic advantage (which is the basic plot for the TASK FORCE story "V'Han Returns").

[Steve]

If she wanted to run a more subtle campaign rather than a shock and awe one, replacing high-level government officials and possibly a handful of respected superhumans with well-trained other-universe doppelgangers might allow her to avoid an actual war. Telepaths among her forces could strip-mine information from the originals to give to their duplicates, such as passwords, code phrases and more personal information. She could use her time travel powers to do such substitutions mere moments after the last war ended and leave them as sleeper agents waiting for her next arrival. If she coupled that with a change in tone when she next appears, such as offering free things to the masses with no apparent strings attached, millions might join her cause quickly. Starting with smaller countries and moving up to larger ones like Russia would keep her away from awareness by most superteams, since the majority of superhumans are in the US in most worlds.

 

Just in the US alone, she would probably only need to replace less than a thousand people to effectively take over, especially if she also replaced media personalities.

 

If she succeeded in such a takeover, the campaign might shift into a resistance mode against V'Hanian tyranny and her collaborators and secret police among the locals.

[bluesguy]

Hi

 

I am curious to find out @Dr. MID-Nite how this worked out with your group.

[Echo3Niner]

Taking the approach of several here - I'd go with a bit more of an X-com approach; slow-roll, trying to get countries (governments &/or the populous) to align, so that when she finally does invade, making her "grand statement", it's basically over before it begins, because she has so much backing of various groups on earth to make "resistance futile"...