[Mirificus]

Originally Posted by Keroko

That is the point, they didn't anticipate that Signum would lose, hence why they send her. They anticipated that Signum could hold off Zest, that plan failed but how could you possibly know a plan will fail from the start?

They know that Vita was utterly defeated. Why assume that someone slightly stronger would do the job? You don't need hindsight to realize that if you want a decent chance of stopping Zest, then you shouldn't be sending someone roughly equal in power to him. You should be sending enough to overwhelm him if stopping him is important enough to you.

The numbers are not an urgent and definite threat? Hell yes they are! Remember what I just told you about the army of tanks that snuck into the base? At the moment they rolled out of the base, they would not be concidered an 'definite urgent' threat by your calculations, but they gave me victory.

They aren't in any base. They're in an abandoned city full of empty buildings.

Any enemy is a definite threat. Any enemy headed for your base is a definite urgent threat.

What if they're 30 minutes away. An hour? Five hours? A day? A week? A month? Not all threats are equally urgent.

I dunno, maybe because A: victory was not guaranteed (I have no idea where you got that idea).

If the forwards can win, then three Aces can certainly win faster. It is the difference between a small advantage and complete overmatch.

B: They don't have the time to play cat-and-mouse games. You can't simply say 'we'll send our powerfull force to play cat-and-mouse with the enemies heading for our base' why? because the enemy could just as easilly tie up the Aces for hours by simply playing that cat-and-mouse game. That is a glarring error staring right there.

Seems like you're the one making the tactical mistakes now.

Why would you assume that the Aces would inflexibly cling to a course of action when it is no longer appropriate? That in itself is a gross tactical error.

If the numbers dissipate their forces before contact is made to play cat and mouse games then the Aces can simply keep heading towards Jail's lab and the Cradle and they'll have delayed the numbers from getting to the Ground Force HQ as it'll take time for the numbers to reassemble.

Twenty-two, if you count the special assault squad that went in. And Nanoha is also working on the Cradle, Vivio is key to the Cradle as well.

I see you're counting TSAB redshirts that haven't even linked up with Nanoha or Vita yet.

Hindsight again. They know that Vivio is the key to the Cradle. They don't know if rescuing her will disable the ship. On the other hand, they know where they can disable the engines but of their capable mages, they've sent only Vita out of all of RF6.

Yes, lets just leave the enemy lab alone, it might just contain the key to stopping the Cradle, or perhaps even a weapon far worse then the Cradle. It's not as if they're going to evacuate all convenient material while we deal with the Cradle.

The lab has been left alone for years you realize.

Sarcasm aside, the enemy base was found then and had to be dealt with there and then. You can't just leave the enemy base alone just because there is another threat flying around.

You seem to be under the impression that all of the threats were dealt with immediately. Fate didn't reach the lab immediately. She was in transit for quite a while. Hayate, Nanoha and Vita were in transit for even longer before they reached the Cradle.

I fail to see how this is a tactical error. Even a perfect plan can fail if the dice rolls wrong.

Why would you want to increase the number of possible rolls that will result in failure?

Of course it wouldn't hurt. But sending Hayate in is like asking the guy with the panzerfaust to be a bodyguard.

Panzerfausts are pretty good at blowing holes in walls. She could have been trying to blow holes closer to the engine room and throne room so assault teams could insert closer to their targets or try disabling the engines from the rear.

And so far the forwards have been pretty effective in holding back the numbers/Lutecia. Hell, Tiana even defeated her batch.

Hindsight, right?

Shamal, Zafira and recently Vice were pretty timely reserves to me.

You keep on harping on hindsight. Vice and Zafira were not known to be available. They didn't even know that they would be available. A reserve isn't a reserve if its commander is unaware of its existence.

How? By playing cat-and-mouse with the numbers? That is only time consuming.

Cat and mouse? They were all out in the open.

In fact, there were several tactical errors on your side of the planning. Most of all that you plan with hindsight. The TSAB didn't know Signum would lose to Zest...

At most, they should expect even odds of Signum defeating Zest. Really all they need to know is that Signum has less of a chance of winning than Signum + RF6 mage. If it is important enough to stop Zest, then make sure you have a reasonable chance of actually defeating him. To do otherwise is to waste critical forces that are needed at the decisive point.

...they didn't know where the reactor and throne were located...

They should have been sending additional forces regardless of where the reactor and throne were located.

they didn't know Due even existed, much less in the middle of their base, they didn't know a lot of things, and you can't plan for something you don't know.

I never said anything about Due. That Zest would try to stop Due is where the actual hindsight is as far as RF6 is concerned.

You haven't answered how abandoning maneuver, mass, economy of force, simplicity, security and surprise is not a gross planning failure.

Before you say it, splitting up your forces and ensuring that each force has enough combat power to win, is far more complex than concentrating your forces, even with perfect intelligence.

Trying to secure everywhere is never a tactical error.

I think this remark alone speaks for itself.