It is safe to pressume that BAF suffered as much losses as KNF (or even higher, since KNF was winning sode of the past conflict). Unlike Kusari however, Bretonia lost majority of their industrial potential after Tau War and on-going Gallic Invasion - Leeds System.
Even if Bretonians have shipyards, they have not much room to refine materials needed to build ships, what is significantly lower than the past efficience. The Liberty is out of question, since they do not have any heavy industry due to lack of resources within it, as Libertonian economy is heavily based onto imports of already refined goods from other houses. The answer would be Rheinland, but Omegas are dangerous enough to go forth and back with materials catching an eye of local troublemakers - obviously interested into getting resources for their own ships.
I am really interested into reply to that question, since Kusari had no actual loses except for a fleet "only" - while Bretonia lost majority of industrial potential AND the fleet.
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For the sake of comparison, at the beginning of the Gallo-Bretonian war, Gallia had 500 battleships, while Bretonia had 30, although "only" 150 of the Gallic ones were performing the invasion. This is Igiss' lore. The remaining 350 were left to keep the home safe, which is not a terribly simple task if you're an autocrat.
Bretonia hasn't actually fought in any, at all, major battles against the GRN. At least by the lore, in game stuff is just for fun. They employed a strategy similar to the Russians against Napoleon. Retreat, scorch behind you. Leave the stations, but take every useful system which you can from them. Tell some Kossaks to fire a few shots when they see fit and then to run. The only notable engagement was the battle between the Villeneuve and the Derby in the Gallic invasion of Leeds, when the Derby rammed the Gallic command ship in order to give time for the defenders of Leeds to retreat and, as tradition goes in Disco, blast the jump gates.
Leeds was a major industrial center, that is true. Without it, Bretonian industry is weaker, that is a fact. A considerable part of what could be moved from Leeds elsewhere, however, has been moved, so we can expect acidic rain on New London soon, since that is where the main portion was moved to. Some of it is being moved to Sprague, but as the planet has been colonized only recently and hastily, it is enough for supporting the southern border against pirates, but hardly enough to help the front. The loss of LD-14 as an MOX (fuel) producer was important, but most of its elements have been moved to Birmingham Station in Manchester, which is compensating its lost function to some extent, which you can notice in-game by the higher fuel cost (it costs the highest in Bretonia out of all the Hosues due to LD-14).
Meanwhile, trade with Liberty and Rheinland is bustling, while goods exchange with Kusari (through other houses ofc) is rising since the war's end.
What Bretonia is relying on is that all the jump gates leading to its core territory from Gallic controlled space have been disabled. There are some jump holes, yes, but those always end in asteroid or waste fields and are unstable. The Gauls can use them to send small raiding parties, such as the stationary Valor in Manchester is (oops, forgot the name), but sending large fleets through there would be a huge gamble where the Bretonians would have an advantage.
The only hole in such defenses is Magellan, since the jump hole to Leeds is almost in clear space and apparently stable enough for Liberty to launch Operation Royal Flush. When (if?) the Gauls capture Magellan, it will be their choice whether to go to Manchester or to California -- or both.
tl;dr: apparently Bretonia relies on no reliable connection existing between their space and the one controlled by the GRN.
@Thunder
I think you omnitted the whole Tau War (a.k.a. Bretonia-Kusari War). Majority of losses for BAF, not only in form of Leeds infrastructure but also fleet, was also effect of Kusari blitzkrieg from Taus into Bretonia. From what I remember, KNF were in total control of Leeds with BAF trying to reclaim it. Gauls simply backstabbed KNF out of nowhere and pushed away both forces from Leeds, causing and using the utter confusion. What left of the winning KNF fleet was just two battleships and handful of destroyers, if memory serves me right.
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The numbers I gave above were so at the conclusion of the Tau War and at the beginning of the war with Gallia.
Additionally, Leeds wasn't under KNF control, at least the southern half of the system, including the planet. The KNF were pushed out of the Taus when the GRN attacked, and their initial attack had no direct consequence for Bretonia. It left the KNF Leeds fleet cut off in Leeds along with the Shogun. They weren't pushed back, but instead left to Kyushu to fight for power by the direction of Newcastle. The remaining Bretonians guarding the system retreated when the Gauls attacked, knowing they couldn't win an open battle.
PS: From what I know, Bretonia lost at least 4 battleships in Tau-31. Those were protecting the Leeds gate, but were disabled in a sudden EMP attack by the KNF, and probably destroyed not much later. At the moment when the KNF had their fugu cut in pieces by rapiers and baguettes, so a year or two after the prior event, the BAF had about 30 battleships total at their disposal, which I stated at the beginning of the post above. I don't know about the KNF, but the Gallic invading fleet numbered 150 battleships.
Weak or very weak, Bretonia is not relying on the strength of its fleet or industry or economy. Simply on the fact that there is no reliable connection between its space and the one controlled by Gallia, and on their allies in Liberty. That might change in case the Gauls manage to establish control over Magellan, both enabling jump gate access to Bretonia and halfly cutting them off from Liberty.
Ah yes, this we can agree, because last time I remember times of Kusari-Bretonian War, there was a KNF battleship parked next to the New London gate. Also, I've re-read the article about the Tau War and noticed the most ironic thing right now: Crayterians were fighting on Kusari side in that conflict and Mollys were fighting for BAF against Kusarians.
Looks like BAF quickly forgot on how Mollys helped to keep KNF in bay.
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The Kusari battleship was at Stokes, and Durham station (BPA; now destroyed by the GRN) was at the NL jump gate, which is now out of function, scuttled by the BAF.
True about the Crayterians. Politics...
The BAF actually want the Mollies to help them against the Gauls, but the Mollies don't. That is because the Gauls have recognized Dublin as an independent Molly state. Bretonia doesn't want to do that because the gold which the system has plenty of is critical for them, so that they could buy the resources they need in exchange. So if the Gauls wanted to invade Bretonia, Dublin could be a good choice as well, but it also suffers from the same "unstable jump hole in asteroids" problem. The Gauls need to ensure access to a jump gate.
Actually, the Mollys did help Bretonia against the imperial Kusari...
However they did feel betrayed by Bretonia did not, let's us say, reward them as they expected when they still were threated as criminals, and were often targeted by both the armed forces and mercenaries payed by them.
The molly then started to target both the Imperial Kusari, and the Kingdom of Bretonia.
When it comes to the Gallic-Bretonian war, the Mollys didn't help Bretonia against the Gauls, mainly because they've got no interest in doing so, at the moment as it has nothing to do whether the Kingdom of Gallia recognized Republic of Dublin as an independent entity or not.
They're simply too busy trying to end the independance war, and size the last part of Dublin, one way or another, while Bretonia is weaker than ever.
(03-31-2010, 11:48 PM)Sprolf Wrote: That is the crux of the matter.
If you aid us, and you aid them, you are the enemy.
If you do not aid them, you are worthless outside of extortion potential.
If you aid us, you will be treated with respect.
Why do you think that the recognition of the Molly state by Gallia has no impact? The Gauls have clearly stated that they wanted to take Bretonia, and Dublin is part of it. If the Gauls didn't recognize the sovereignty of Dublin, would they not be the greater threat, with a possibility to consume both the Kingdom of Bretonia and the Molly Republic using divide and conquer?
No one, obviously, is about to give away Dublin to Mollys.
Neither Bretonia, nor Gallia.
The question is: why Mollys exist for so long inside of the Bretonian house (actually, why criminal organizations are not being elimimated by houses with time?), and how long will it exist when / if Gallia conquers Bretonia?
What does it take for a house such as Gallia to eliminate, well, a criminal population such as Mollys? But again even Gallia has thriving outlaws inside of its borders...
This brings up a conclusion, that if no house is able to completely eliminate criminal groups, then those groups can simply go on their own and ignore the outer conflicts that affect "their" house. Thus, Mollys have no real reason to fight neither Gallians nor Bretonians. But this means that they will not be able to hold and control vast territories.
I think that we are wandering off the subject. What is important to conclude here is that Bretonia is weak. Well, we already knew that, but why don't the Gauls just storm in then?
Possibility 1: Bretonia is not weak enough to be subdued by a fleet small enough to jump through a jump hole.
Possibility 2: But hey, didn't the Gauls come out of a jump hole in Orkney when they started their invasion? Maybe they actually don't know the locations of the jump holes leading to Bretonian home systems, save the one from Leeds to Manchester.
Possibility 3: The Gauls are waging a war of attrition, besieging Bretonia and expecting the House's surrender. More economical for Gallic troops and hardware.
Possibility 4: Bretonia is, in fact, not the goal of the Gallic conquest. It was merely blocking the path to Liberty. The Gauls don't consider it strong enough to perform significant flank attacks, and it is that very weakness that keeps Bretonia alive.
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