why do you need gas to make bullets?

 

-----signature-----

diesel runs on most types of oil so, no gas would be needed

Im sure there are some 'make it yourself' parts available, however, i doubt strongly that the average group has enough miners, metallurgists, chemists, blacksmiths, physicists, and glaziers to bootstrap a munitions industry from pre-steam technology to 'modern' weapon compatible parts in any useable length of time. The whole thing is basically a race between who can get UP or DOWN to basic powder tech first. and the resources are simply on the side of the natives...if for no other reason than a few thousand people are not going to be able to oversee enough resource locations (even assuming they lucked out and had someone who knew how to FIND the resources in their group) to build the technology involved.

The marines in this scenareo HAVE to stick together, if they start splitting up they are going down to everything and anyone who wants their toys...not just the romans. You can be all gunji gunji ooh-rah about it, but the natives will slit your throat in a heartbeat if they see you as some foreign invader who has things that ROME will buy.

You attack rome at Cesarian strength with one single really effective army? you lose. for the same exact reasons that the US military is such a formidable force today. Logistics, its our stock in trade, and it was theirs as well. But the marines in this case do not have the entire US force backing them up.

Im still saying independent city state, gear down in tech as fast as you can find people who know how...and let your descendants work it out.

 

-----signature-----

China and the rest of those arent a part of ancient Rome, Great Britian is. So basically your stance is you are going to take the most convenient place to land a Marine group and ignore the rest of the Empire just because it fits your view just so that the Marines win. My view is that they could have landed ANYWHERE in Rome based on the actual question being asked, and depending on where they landed they may or may not win.

 

-----signature-----

fwiw, that 30 day number is for fully sustained combat readiness (active go), a MEU may opt to stand down to 25% watch to extend that number out to 100-120 days (1 or 2 meals a day, no live firing, rationing of fuel, limited sorties etc)

 

-----signature-----

and that's not to suggest that the MEU could not use local resources (indigenous peoples or wildlife) for food procurement and other means of shelter.

 

-----signature-----

and you conveniently pick the furthest point away so that the marines loose?

whats the difference.

 

-----signature-----

No air support, no tanks, no vehicles.


If we take out that the Romans win easily just by manpower. They could lose men thousands to 1 and still win. Just need their archers at that point.

 

-----signature-----

I'm not picking any location, I am saying it COULD be any location. You are picking the one convenient enough for the Marines to win.

 

-----signature-----

The majority of those Marines would be off on their own (in small groups) and taking over their own personal kingdoms before the Roman legion ever got in sight of them.

The support guys would probably mostly stick around whoever ended up in command after the senior officers fought with each other in a grab for power. As the single most technologically advanced group of people on the planet, they would offer their services to the most powerful (and most generous) group of indigenous people around and live like gods with hot and cold running whores and slaves to do everything for them.

The entire MEU would dissolve into disparate groups of highly trained and capable people, each group of which was set upon making the best possible lives for themselves. 2 years after they arrived in the past, the entire region would be fragmented into hundreds of enclaves of warriors led by tech guys. 10 years after arrival, the most powerful of those groups would have taken over completely and 4 or 5 different nations would have been set up that either agreed to ignore each other, or actually worked together.

30 years after arrival the "New Rome" would stretch for thousands of miles and continue growing, the only limit on the speed of growth being how long it took to get the natives up to a workable knowledge of advanced tech.

100 years after arrival, "New Rome" would control the entire world, it's people able to subjugate any other nation on earth.

200 years after arrival, "New Rome" would be a failing, decrepit, and corruption laden corpse of it's former glory

300 years after arrival, "New Rome" would be a legend

500 years after arrival, "New Rome" would be a fantasy tale that no one of any education background at all believed in....but those unbelievers would be doing that doubting on computers while flying on planes between continents.