The 7-hour war

[CSM]

hi, im not sure if this has already been adressed, but any way... has anyone considered how the combine was able to wipe out earths armed forces in just seven hours? when u consider how much of a fight the resistance members do, only armed with small arms and with the combine fully entrenched they still make a hell of a lot of damage..... how then would all of earths forces be destroyed when u consider the level of technology we have TODAY... from M1 tanks to F117 bombers, how did the combine win with no foot hold already established win... and in 7 hours?!

(hope this is the right forum....)

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Heres an overwiew: Portal Storms spread across the Earth, human population moved into the big cities for military protection(City1,City2, Etc.). Then, suddenly in the middle of every city whole city blocks disappeared and a second later: The Citadel. Out came hundreds of Striders, Gunships, and whatever the Combine have. Human forces were, of course, crushed because the Combine had the tactical advantage and better technology. Now in the recent times Rebels put up such a good fight because they now know what the Combine are capable of and have developed better tech against the Combine over the years.

 

[CSM]

dude... i understand that they wud have eventually won( with probably nearly unlimited resources) but what i find hard to grasp is that it all happend in 7 hours!! maybe valve just thought it sounded cool and thats it.......

 

[CREMATOR666]

It's kinda weird how the combines, able to defeat Earth in 7 hours, fails to stop Gordon Freeman :O

 

[15357]

Where have you been?

 

[Asknoone]

Earth was already severely beaten by the portal storms, and alot of its populace butchered. 7-hours is realistic.

It's kinda weird how the combines, able to defeat Earth in 7 hours, fails to stop Gordon Freeman :O

Gordon fights Earths Overwatch, not the forces that they invaded with.

 

[$kelet0r]

cremator666 welcome back!! how goes the modding?

ontopic: the combine flooded the earth with their forces - earth armies were simply overwhelmed by the numbers
in hl2 you only see a caretaker combine force - enough to maintain their presence but not prosecute war

 

[pomegranate]

Maybe it's not that all the world's nations were military beaten, but more that the all the nations decided to surrender after seven hours?

 

[Cormeh]

Perhaps Breen had a hand in the surrender of the remaining human populace?

We don't really know of his exploits between Black Mesa and administering City-17.

 

[CREMATOR666]

Gordon fights Earths Overwatch, not the forces that they invaded with.

Still, I would expect more from a race with the technology to harness dark energy and travel through the universe :|

It's quite pathetic really. :hmph:

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Think of it as a form of extreme super-blitzkrieg. The difference between the combine that destroyed all of earth, and the combine that you faced in HL2 is very large. In HL2 you really only see two units from the real Combine warmachine, the Strider and the gunships. They also have crab synths and mortar synths, some kind of foot solider we haven't seen yet, and presumably, a whole array of other mean, tough and evil sons of bitches. And also, they have a lot of them.

 

[arclight]

I thought Breen was in charge of the surrender of Earth and the Combines selected "puppet leader" of sorts. In the same way they used Nihilanth they use Breen.

Or am I wrong?

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

I'm sorry I forgot. The Combine didn't "beat" Earth after 7 hours, Breen just surrended Earth after 7 hours of fighting.

 

[CREMATOR666]

I'm sorry I forgot. The Combine didn't "beat" Earth after 7 hours, Breen just surrended Earth after 7 hours of fighting.

But why the **** would we listen to Breen when he goes "ok we give up lol" (or something like that) ?

 

[Cormeh]

I doubt anyone had a choice.

 

[CREMATOR666]

Well, if Breen is the president of some country or something we might listen to him at least a bit, but he is just an administrator of a secret facility we didnt even know existed. I dont think he have that much a power to get people to listen to him.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Well, if Breen is the president of some country or something we might listen to him at least a bit, but he is just an administrator of a secret facility we didnt even know existed. I dont think he have that much a power to get people to listen to him.

We would listen to him if he's the only one the combine will talk to.

 

[DuBbL3 U To0]

The portals opened up everywhere & the combine had the advantage of surprise. Then, humans, being completley pwn'd in just 7 hours were surrendered by Breen

 

[CREMATOR666]

A pity that one man destroyed the 300 storeys somethin' citadel. I would've cried if I were the combine at the incompetence of the overwatch force and Breen ;(

 

[Bob_Marley]

We would listen to him if he's the only one the combine will talk to.

Yeah, and wasnt he hired by the UN after the start of the portal storms to adivse them on what to do as he was the person with the most experice dealing with aliens or somint'?

 

[ríomhaire]

Not only did the Combine attack with the stronger force, they attacked from behind. Earth was lucky to have lasted 7 hours. The rebelion on the other hand they were fighting much smaller force and the rebels had the tacktical advantage.

 

[Apocalypse89]

A pity that one man destroyed the 300 storeys somethin' citadel. I would've cried if I were the combine at the incompetence of the overwatch force and Breen ;(

If you listen closely to Breen's speech at Nova Prospekt, you'd see that the Combine are getting angry at exactly that. And the Overwatch aren't actually that incompetent. When pit against rebels(ie, normal humans) with similar odds, Combine Soldiers win almost every time. It's just that Gordon isn't a normal human(that, and the fact that rebels don't have shiny HEV suits).

Anyways, I'd be surprised if the Synth forces that you fight in HL2 comprise even 0.1% of the force that invaded Earth. And the only thing that took 7 hours was Earth's official surrender. Sporadic and not-so-sporadic fighting by rogue militaries probably continued for a while afterwards.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

If you listen closely to Breen's speech at Nova Prospekt, you'd see that the Combine are getting angry at exactly that. And the Overwatch aren't actually that incompetent. When pit against rebels(ie, normal humans) with similar odds, Combine Soldiers win almost every time. It's just that Gordon isn't a normal human(that, and the fact that rebels don't have shiny HEV suits).

And they don't have a Save/Load function.

 

[Llama]

It's kinda weird how the combines, able to defeat Earth in 7 hours, fails to stop Gordon Freeman :O

My God

It feels like the second coming of Christ :afro:

Back at last

 

[Jandor]

I thought Breen was in charge of the surrender of Earth and the Combines selected "puppet leader" of sorts. In the same way they used Nihilanth they use Breen.

Or am I wrong?

On the "In the same way they used Nihilanth" bit, yes.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

D: They didn't use Nihilanth though, Nihilanth was an independant dictator (arguably controlled by the Controller caste of Xenians)

-Angry Lawyer

 

[CSM]

seems a little bit like a conspiracy but maybe G-man and Breen were in on it together?..... think about G-man appears to represent some kind of multi-species mercenary group and so wars and conflict are good for him one way or another. theres a piece of dialogue in HL1 were he says he wants more power, 110% i think... maybe Breen gave it the go ahead(causing the "accident") after G-man offered him an office of power afterwards.... just a thought

 

[Polaris]

seems a little bit like a conspiracy but maybe G-man and Breen were in on it together?..... think about G-man appears to represent some kind of multi-species mercenary group and so wars and conflict are good for him one way or another. theres a piece of dialogue in HL1 were he says he wants more power, 110% i think... maybe Breen gave it the go ahead(causing the "accident") after G-man offered him an office of power afterwards.... just a thought

Maybe Breen know knows about G-man's procedures....
Breen said: I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills.
btw CSM - Cigarette Smoking Man aka CGB Spender ?

 

[iMMuNiTy]

Maybe Breen know knows about G-man's procedures....
Breen said: I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills.

I doubt it. Gordon was absent during those years, so Breen presumes that he was hiding somewhere. Hiding = incapable of further developing covert skills, at least not without being seen. Remember the first chapter - PoI? You got spotted just because of a miscount in the block.

 

[CSM]

good point who knows?..... after a while this all seems to mess with your head, i personally believe one way or another that G-man had something do with it one way or another...

btw - Yes Polaris that is what it stands for, CSM one of the main reasons i watched the x-files

 

[Apocalypse89]

I think Breen's "Your contract is up for the highest bidder!" line in Dark Energy is a bigger indicator that he is aware of the G-Man's dealings. The covert skills line just adds to it.

 

[CREMATOR666]

My God

It feels like the second coming of Christ :afro:

Back at last

Yep hopefully for good

ON TOPIC : I would, tbh, expect a larger amount of resistance inside the Citadel that houses a shitload of combines instead of a dozen or so around in an area. As a matter of fact I almost feel that it was too easy destroying the Citadel.

(yes, I'm really pro-combine)

 

[Bull Goose Loony]

tbh the american govt would probably launch nukes before they surrendered. hasnt anyone seen independence day...

 

[Captian Welsey]

hi, im not sure if this has already been adressed, but any way... has anyone considered how the combine was able to wipe out earths armed forces in just seven hours? when u consider how much of a fight the resistance members do, only armed with small arms and with the combine fully entrenched they still make a hell of a lot of damage..... how then would all of earths forces be destroyed when u consider the level of technology we have TODAY... from M1 tanks to F117 bombers, how did the combine win with no foot hold already established win... and in 7 hours?!

(hope this is the right forum....)

Actually I have quite a good explanation for this. You see, most people today don't realise that modern warfare is slowly evolving beyond the need for foot soldiers. What was most likely to happen is that the combine show up and say,

"Hey there humans, we got ourselves a big ole' doomsday device that has the capability of wiping out every living thing within the next three quadrants of your planet, due to the fact that we are all techno-ma-logically advanced,"

And the idea is that it would have taken the earth 7 whole hours to eventually respond with,

"Yeah....we give up."

But you see now that the combine have setled into earth, they cannot unleash a nuclear-esque doomsday, apocolyptic weapon anymore, because that would destroy the world they are currently inhabiting. It's kinda like the war with Iraq. If we really wanted to, we could just drop some nukes on em' and end all the strife with out breaking a sweat. But we aren't, instead we're policing the area, which is much more difficult because you need to do it with vehicles and soldiers and stuff. That's why even the radical insurgants, with their inferior technology are still putting up a good fight, because now its not all out war, and we ARE taking prisoners. Bottom line, Policing is much more difficult than just blowing up. It only took 7 hours to claim the earth, but it takes a whole lot more to crush a resistance without blowing EVERYTHING up.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

But why the **** would we listen to Breen when he goes "ok we give up lol" (or something like that) ?

Well, your the UN. One day a guy that was in charge of the Black Mesa Complex says: "Ok, well I can establish contact and surrender Earth, which would save u from extinction." The UN, obviously wanting the human population to survive, let Breen do it.

 

[ríomhaire]

D: They didn't use Nihilanth though, Nihilanth was an independant dictator (arguably controlled by the Controller caste of Xenians)

-Angry Lawyer

He was defenatly controlled by someone.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

He was defenatly controlled by someone.

Waypoints, naturally.