@graydon @cstross The smart-alek in me wants to say...

The smart-alek in me wants to say that when I think of "artillery" in a military context my mind is including the forward observers, spotters, etc as part of the concept -- observation/recon is part of "artillery", too, in the offensive sense (in that it's significantly more effective when you can aim it accurately).

There's probably a whole pointless semantic discussion on where "recon/counter-recon" fits into the modern military metaphor.

But I do take your point. :D

(also, you're only the second person named "Graydon" I've ever interacted with, and I have to keep reminding myself that you're not a voice actor I went to college with)

Like 15 August at 13:20 | Wall-to-wall | Open on tenforward.social

4 comments

Graydon

@archangelzeriel @cstross Artillery _as an arm_ absolutely includes all that "what to shoot?" stuff.

Reconnaissance _as a function_ is bigger, it's maintaining the awareness of the commanders so there's some possibility of a productive decision. There's a reason Sun Tzu goes on and on about knowing yourself and knowing the enemy and has unkind things to say about generals who won't pay for spies.

(Definitely not a voice actor. Nothing to do with the Rust language, either.)

15 August at 15:16 | Open on canada.masto.host

Archangel Zeriel

@graydon @cstross

Honestly, my actual problem is that I'm so ensconced in a particular mindset from being both an amateur military historian and an avid wargame player, but who doesn't talk about those things often in spaces not also 100% colonized by war nerds, that "recon" has moved from "one of the tentpoles of successful military operations" to "so self-evidently important that one forgets about it as a separate concept because not having it means you lose, full stop." in my brain meats.

15 August at 16:19 | Open on tenforward.social

Graydon

@archangelzeriel @cstross The pros have that exact same problem of the head-meats.

Also getting a bit fixated on the how of doing the thing as should be presently customary, which is why cavalry-in-a-can comes as a shock.

(I maintain that the easiest and best way to think of drones is just that; they have all the functions and the same limitations as classic "horse guns and foot" cavalry. And the mental images of a bunch of grunts lugging around a can of compressed horse soldier are funny.)

15 August at 16:43 | Open on canada.masto.host

Archangel Zeriel

@graydon @cstross

(RE: cavalry-in-a-can, there was at least one D&D game in which that actually happened, except it involved a glass jar, my paladin, and the "Gaseous Form" spell.

I am assuredly not the only person to have thought of this, and I've seen similar tactics told elsewhere on ye olde internet)

15 August at 17:19 | Open on tenforward.social