Capships, prisoners, & fighters should be saved
Greetings everyone, my name is Joshua Harrington.
If you think about it, it's much more intelligent to save opposing capships, fish, and prisoners. The United States Central Intelligence Agency would totally agree with this. Why do you ask is it important to save prisoners, capships, & fish? Well, let's look at the following reasons:
PRISONERS
They can be used against opposing forces to get other opposing forces to surrender. It's more likely that prisoners can
They can be interrogated for intelligence gathering purposes.
They can be used as hosts.
They can be used to fight opposing units (some prisoners might defect and team up with those that capture them -- I think this is an option in WCIV where you get to assist some Confeds that want to defect).
They can be traded for equipment, information, hostages, or other things/personnel.
They can show that diplomacy is possible. It's likely the Kilrathi would never have attacked Confed had the Kilrathi known that Confed would've been so willing to team up with them against the Mantu.
FIGHTERS & CAPSHIPS
They can be salvaged for parts. Throughout history, the United States has been known to salvage captured stuff. George Washington had salvaged cannons his forces captured from the British. Only a stupid fool would want to pass on salvaging anything he/she could.
They can be used for covert operations. An opposing unit is less likely to fire on a unit if it looks like a friendly. So it would have been more intelligent to have entered Kilrah with the T-bo using a Kilrathi fighter than a Confed fighter.
They can be used as decoys. What's the point of having your own units shot up when you can use the partially damaged fighters/capships you captured as decoys?
They can be used to cause command disruptions -- it doesn't look good in the commander's eyes when the fighter/capships under control of a subordinate is captured -- it looks like the subordinate has betrayed the commander by giving away stuff to opposing person (you).
They can be used for more patrolling, more missions, and more fun.
They can be used for reconnaisance -- an opposing unit (such as a Kilrathi) is less likely to fire on a friendly looking unit (such as a Kilrathi spacecraft you captured).
They can have their information databases researched for intelligence gathering purposes.
They can humiliate commanders -- it doesn't look good to subordinates if commanders's spacecraft were captured -- it makes the commanders look stupid and/or like the commanders only started the war to get rid of undesirable people -- this can cause subordinates to rebel against the commanders.
They can be used to escort other units such as the Tiger's Claw.
I myself would love to see the WC games remade so that players are given the option to salvage all fighters and capships and be able to use them if they want. It would be cool to have all those Dorkirs, Ralaris, and Fralthis we attack become captured so we can have them escort the Tiger's Claw. A few players might think that both Confed & the Kilrathi would have to agree to take prisoners whenever possible, but I disagree. I see no reason why both sides have to agree take prisoners. Also, I doubt that many of the Kilrathi would've committed suicide. From my read of the novels, it seems like the Kilrathi would've been willing to be taken prisoner as opposed to have committed suicide -- the "die with honor" routine didn't go well with Kilrathi -- in Heart of the Tiger or Fleet Action, the Emperor told Thrakhath how that many of the Kilrathi weren't buying the "die with honor" belief. George Washington had taken many prisoners during the American Revolution.
Greetings everyone, my name is Joshua Harrington.
If you think about it, it's much more intelligent to save opposing capships, fish, and prisoners. The United States Central Intelligence Agency would totally agree with this. Why do you ask is it important to save prisoners, capships, & fish? Well, let's look at the following reasons:
PRISONERS
They can be used against opposing forces to get other opposing forces to surrender. It's more likely that prisoners can
They can be interrogated for intelligence gathering purposes.
They can be used as hosts.
They can be used to fight opposing units (some prisoners might defect and team up with those that capture them -- I think this is an option in WCIV where you get to assist some Confeds that want to defect).
They can be traded for equipment, information, hostages, or other things/personnel.
They can show that diplomacy is possible. It's likely the Kilrathi would never have attacked Confed had the Kilrathi known that Confed would've been so willing to team up with them against the Mantu.
FIGHTERS & CAPSHIPS
They can be salvaged for parts. Throughout history, the United States has been known to salvage captured stuff. George Washington had salvaged cannons his forces captured from the British. Only a stupid fool would want to pass on salvaging anything he/she could.
They can be used for covert operations. An opposing unit is less likely to fire on a unit if it looks like a friendly. So it would have been more intelligent to have entered Kilrah with the T-bo using a Kilrathi fighter than a Confed fighter.
They can be used as decoys. What's the point of having your own units shot up when you can use the partially damaged fighters/capships you captured as decoys?
They can be used to cause command disruptions -- it doesn't look good in the commander's eyes when the fighter/capships under control of a subordinate is captured -- it looks like the subordinate has betrayed the commander by giving away stuff to opposing person (you).
They can be used for more patrolling, more missions, and more fun.
They can be used for reconnaisance -- an opposing unit (such as a Kilrathi) is less likely to fire on a friendly looking unit (such as a Kilrathi spacecraft you captured).
They can have their information databases researched for intelligence gathering purposes.
They can humiliate commanders -- it doesn't look good to subordinates if commanders's spacecraft were captured -- it makes the commanders look stupid and/or like the commanders only started the war to get rid of undesirable people -- this can cause subordinates to rebel against the commanders.
They can be used to escort other units such as the Tiger's Claw.
I myself would love to see the WC games remade so that players are given the option to salvage all fighters and capships and be able to use them if they want. It would be cool to have all those Dorkirs, Ralaris, and Fralthis we attack become captured so we can have them escort the Tiger's Claw. A few players might think that both Confed & the Kilrathi would have to agree to take prisoners whenever possible, but I disagree. I see no reason why both sides have to agree take prisoners. Also, I doubt that many of the Kilrathi would've committed suicide. From my read of the novels, it seems like the Kilrathi would've been willing to be taken prisoner as opposed to have committed suicide -- the "die with honor" routine didn't go well with Kilrathi -- in Heart of the Tiger or Fleet Action, the Emperor told Thrakhath how that many of the Kilrathi weren't buying the "die with honor" belief. George Washington had taken many prisoners during the American Revolution.