Correct more or less, they do not fulfill all the tactical roles AFV would have, but fulfill the tactical role AFV would have in the micro conflicts done in Infinity cheaper and more efficient, now if the war was escalated in a more "traditional" way, things would change so would the tactical usage and battlefield roles of TAGs.
Not to go too far on a tangent, but isn't Paradiso a fairly large-scale, "traditional" conflict at this point?
Perhaps at times, but the conditions on the planet preclude heavy vehicles, especially in a combat situation.
As mentioned, a lot of it (particularly the East continent) is thick jungle or swamp, rendering most vehicles suboptimal. You could, conceivably, try and make armoured offensives up the planet's major highways, though I suspect any columns up there would just make juicy targets for enemy air support and artillery. Additionally, the frontline is large, obscured and (in places) uninhabited enough as to mean that in many cases there is no guards along any given stretch of it. This is why so many Combined skirmishers and saboteurs (and their human counterparts) can get so deep within enemy lines to cause chaos.
Paradiso is very much turbo-Vietnam, free jungle grows fast enough to reclaim urba areas in a matter of months.
No, not really it is a really large engagement of minor and major skirmishes that change constantly and without warning. In general I personally believe many of the battles and theaters described are misunderstood because of the presumption people have on how battles are or should be fought. CA does not fight a conventional battle of attrition and does not establish supply lines for such warfare likewise they do a constant probing warfare on an as much expanded front as they can and capitalize on failing front-lines, same happened with Uprising were the engagements were between rapid and light fast mobilizing units.
Regardless of your opinion on the story, it is a series of rapid engagements without clear fronts and constantly changing battle lines centered mostly in urban and enclosed areas were TAGs and Infantry (and artillery) have more utility than traditional armoured vehicles.
I mean, yeah probably. I'm sure that realistically, every faction has true MBTs, Super-heavy-TAGs/Tanks, (Flying?) Aircraft Carriers, extensive airborne drone/missile support and all of the other overwhelming firepower that evaporates infantry (of all flavours). However, in a setting designed to add flavor to a tactical war game centered around small-unit action, I imagine CB's comment on the matter would be something like: "All of the important/critical conflicts and engagements on Paradiso were running battles in urban/enclosed areas...or dense jungle...where traditional military vehicles and air support could not effectively support offensive operations."
More likely the larger and heavier vehicles are tracked and can land you some pretty damned serious sanctions if they see you using them against other humans during a joint campaign against Combined Army.
Thank-you for the clarification. It's a very valid point in my eyes that what we consider "traditional" warfare today may not have much bearing on how warfare is conducted 50 or 100 years from now.
The war game is centered on small tactical engagement and squad based covert ops. A TAG works in these situation in case heavy firepower is needed but they can keep a fairly low profile due to human like movement and agility. And they are fairly small. A large tank or super-heavy mech has no subtlety and would be instantly detected, risking mission failure and turning the Op into an all out battle. In the scope of the world of Infinity, there definitely are way more vehicles. The RPG book describe many of them, going from a basic Kum bike to the space Super Carrier, including jeeps and armored vehicles.
As I understand, Paradiso it's similar to a jungle/death world from 40k where heavy vehicles have a hard time traversing the terrain outside the dedicated highways or freshly cleared paths (limiting their use) and, without proper maintenance, even cities would be eaten by the vegetation. As per why we don't see heavier units outside of the battles(defence) on Paradiso, aren't the powers in the Human Sphere in "peace/cold-war" state? I mean, infantry and tags are easier to sneak into cities or in any kind of environment....
