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Posted by: RotaryCookie
* Why could the UNSC hold their own, and in many cases win on the ground?
You mean in terms of the idea that the Covenant is supposed to have a huge technological advantage?
Rate and amount of technological advance in warfare often has different implications for different types of warfare. Creating a fighter jet with an AESA radar capable of detecting the enemy an extra 5 miles out can cause a decisive aerial victory due to having a range advantage over the opponent. Meanwhile, in the Vietnam War, on the ground, well-placed sharpened sticks proved a functional weapon for slowing down US tactical movements and inflicting costly wounding casualties.
In other words, the Covenant's advanced weaponry may not mean as much in ground combat as it does in space.
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With good tactical measures, it can also sometimes be possible for one side in a battle to force the other side to lose its advantages.
At Stalingrad, for example, Lieutenant General Chuikov figured out that, in the destroyed urban environment, the only defense against small tactical forces that practically "hug" your forces is to respond by using that same tactical and dividing up your own forces into small tactical groups that "hug" the enemy. The result is a warfare situation which neither side was prepared for, completely eliminating the all unit-by-unit advantage that the Axis forces had enjoyed in conventional warfare.
Furthermore, while this tactic didn't in and of itself offer the Soviets an advantage at Stalingrad beyond their higher troop deployment rates, it DID pave the way for them to bog down and occupy the Axis forces, making them rather vulnerable to conventional tactics (in late November, massive Soviet pincers encircled the entire German Sixth Army). And tactics are something the UNSC forces supposedly manage better than the Covenant.
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Edit: Also, because blasting aliens in video games is awesome.
[Edited on 02.22.2011 3:09 PM PST]