Were the Earth forces too weak?

[Llama]

Oh, I See

soz for the typo

 

[Asknoone]

I have a speculation... The Xen wildlife first infested US right? and US was also the first country to be invaded by combines right? since its the most powerful country and was sadly defeated by combines. Maybe the rest of the world gave up having seen or heard US destroyed.

The xen wiildlife came in waves from all over the place, they didnt strike anywhere in particular. Niether did the combine

 

[Combine Hybrid]

There's no proof that the combines striked the US first. They probably striked all over the Earth.

And would the rest of the world give up just because US was defeated? It makes no sense what so ever.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

The Portal Storm, as far as I know, was a growing region that was centred in New Mexico. It didn't take long for it to spread to everywhere else.

The Combine, however, attacked everyone at once. They placed their citadels in EVERY major city in the world. That's a whole lot of cities.

One of the big reasons Earth got beaten down was due to the fact that we, as a species, can't stop fighting amoungst ourselves. The war could have lasted much longer, and been won, if Earth was a single force, and not a number of little countries fighting it out.

Anybody who thinks that the whole world would surrender based just on whether the US got beat is seriously underestimating everything that isn't American.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Asknoone]

They placed their citadels in EVERY major city in the world.

Thats not true, they certainyl didnt do that, because practically half of those cities were abandond and left for dead, overun by xen wildlife. There are only 24 or 32 combine cities i think.

The Portal Storm, as far as I know, was a growing region that was centred in New Mexico. It didn't take long for it to spread to everywhere else.

Where did you learn that?

 

[Angry Lawyer]

My reference is from logic. Stuff was phasing in in Black Mesa (in New Mexico), and nowhere else, during the original HL game. It's only resonable that Nihilanth's death didn't break down the teleportations, and stuff started appearing in larger and larger areas.
Besides, if stuff was appearing all over the world at the same time as Hl1, I think the Marines would have been despatched to fight them off, rather than silence a few scientists.

What's your reference for the 32 cities? If you're talking about the train timetable, bare in mind that trains can't really go off-continent.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[kirovman]

I don't think creatures being teleported in through 'portal storms' was random. I think the combine organised them.
I am not sure if the Xen life started coming in through portal storms directly after Black Mesa, or later, even years after Black Mesa.

We do see in Half-Life though Xen's equivilant of the Dropship, which does lots of damage, drop grunts, and get chased away by Military Aircraft (F-15s?).

 

[NimChimpsky]

We do see in Half-Life though Xen's equivilant of the Dropship, which does lots of damage, drop grunts, and get chased away by Military Aircraft (F-15s?).

could you find an screenshot of that dropship?

 

[Jenga]

yeah please, i don't seem to remember that one

 

[Combine Hybrid]

I've only seen flying Xen alien and that was a sting ray looking flying thing.

 

[Is This Tea]

I've only seen flying Xen alien and that was a sting ray looking flying thing.

And it dropped grunts and what not... Same thing his talking about.

 

[Sid Burn]

And it dropped grunts and what not... Same thing his talking about.

yeah... its a Xen-Combine tech.

 

[CAUT10N]

I'm trying to remember the photo on the front page of the newspaper pinned up in one of the resistance strongholds, I think the one right before Hwy 17. It shows a photo of a large city and I seem to recall it showing a large "storm/portal" and a citadel. Maybe my memory is fuzzy. Doing that all at once across the world would be some real shock and awe.

Each modern country with high tech weaponry has a few major cities that if incapacitated would pretty much make them a push over. Combine that (no pun intended) with a denial of terrain attack, the bio or synth weapons of mass infection (headcrabs, etc) forcing folks into cities, and you can topple the key countries in a 7 hour invasion.

Once the major cities and command and control nodes are done, it's cake.

Holding it? That's the tough part.

Hell one angry civilian and something simple like a car and a few extra cans of gas can wipe out a company sized element of troops -- or at least render them inefective for a while. Thank god it's only a game.... er well, sadly terrorists do this now all the time.

 

[Is This Tea]

Holding it? That's the tough part.

Absolutely. Baghdad being the obvious current example.

 

[Jenga]

Hell one angry civilian and something simple like a car and a few extra cans of gas can wipe out a company sized element of troops -- or at least render them inefective for a while. Thank god it's only a game.... er well, sadly terrorists do this now all the time.

Yeah, but the Combine was able to beat the people into submission so that they had practically no will to fight until Freeman came (yes, there was the Resistance, but their activities were restricted to helping people escape City 17, not fighting the Combine head on). I think that's what the US was trying to accomplish with the shock and awe campaign in Iraq.

 

[$kelet0r]

In Britain if london fell or was destroyed without warning bye bye england
on a larger scale if the 10 biggies in US were destroyed the US would collapse easily
7 hour war could happen
remember the world record for a war is 25 minutes :cheers:

 

[Jenga]

Which one is that? the Falklands?

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Zanzibar, or something.

Yeah, it's feasable for the Combine to win in 7 hours. An image of the Pentagon in flames was originally meant to be part of a slide-show you view at the beginning of the game to explain what's happened. Shame the slide-show was cut, too.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Sid Burn]

Zanzibar, or something.

Yeah, it's feasable for the Combine to win in 7 hours. An image of the Pentagon in flames was originally meant to be part of a slide-show you view at the beginning of the game to explain what's happened. Shame the slide-show was cut, too.

-Angry Lawyer

Yeah... I was expecting that slide show part too... it could've been cooler.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Because the Earth Armies were busy slugging it out with the Alien Grunts. As you all know, One alien Grunt can easily take out two Marines in HL1. By the time the combine arrived, we didn't have enough soldiers which allowed the combine to take over with ease.

The Rebellion was underestimated by the combine.

 

[Jenga]

or maybe G-Man helped 'em out?

 

[Sid Burn]

Because the Earth Armies were busy slugging it out with the Alien Grunts. As you all know, One alien Grunt can easily take out two Marines in HL1. By the time the combine arrived, we didn't have enough soldiers which allowed the combine to take over with ease.

The Rebellion was underestimated by the combine.

well, I think most of the soldiers died in Xen... wen they started conquering it.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

Humans wouldn't be foolish enough to send most of their army just to conquere another dimention. They only sent only those army who were already ready for an invasion of Xen, plus all the countries on earth did not attack Xen. It was probably a joint invasion signed by USA with other countries.

 

[Asknoone]

The military didnt invade xen at all...

 

[Eejit]

I kinda think that when the G-man talks about the right man in the wrong place (or whatever it was) making all the difference in the world he might me talking about himself.

After all, he sets you loose and is also involved with other rebel forces, probably advising them.

And even if that's not what he meant I still think it applies more to the G-Man than to Gordon


One of the things that puzzles me is that if Breen wanted the resonance cascade to happen - just so that the Combine would invade and he'd become Head Honcho - how did he know about the Comine and communicate with them beforehand?

 

[Combine Hybrid]

The military didnt invade xen at all...

And what were those army in xen? Bunch of mercenaries I guess?

 

[Asknoone]

Those armies were the military, that was quite obvious, but they werent in xen, that was a piece of earth. I cant explain it, but its not xen. so there

 

[Combine Hybrid]

I'm pretty sure some sites claim that the place was a Xen.

Does Raising the Bar tells anything about this?

 

[Asknoone]

I'm pretty sure some sites claim that the place was a Xen.

Sites can cite (forgive the pun) what they want, but ultimatley, it was never confirmed. anywhere.

No, RTB doesnt unfortauntly.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

Then how do you know the army never invaded xen

 

[justmatt]

Are there any Dune fans here? In reading this post, I can't help but think of the Combine as a combination of the Tleilaxu from Dune (the bio-engineering side of it), the Ixians, and maybe even the Borg from Star Trek. Pretty cool.

 

[$kelet0r]

at the end of op4 didn't the gman tell shepherd that he had conquered xen??

 

[Combine Hybrid]

G-Man also said that to Freeman in end of HL.

Don't know this "we" he was refering to, but I'm defitnely sure it was the human army.

 

[Asknoone]

at the end of op4 didn't the gman tell shepherd that he had conquered xen??

Take anything said in opposing force with a grain of salt.

Don't know this "we" he was refering to, but I'm defitnely sure it was the human army.

I dunno, i dotn think so.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

I repeat I think it was defitnely the human army.

 

[KarkuRi]

Sorry if this has been posted, but the element of surprise was on the Combines side when they attacked, the element of surprise + lots of planning were on the side of the rebels ( can be seen on the walking bridges ).

 

[Seppo]

I wonder why the slide-show was cut from the game?

 

[Sid Burn]

Humans wouldn't be foolish enough to send most of their army just to conquere another dimention. They only sent only those army who were already ready for an invasion of Xen, plus all the countries on earth did not attack Xen. It was probably a joint invasion signed by USA with other countries.

yeah, most of the earth's forces are still intact... but that invasion made USA weak... that's why the combines were able to conquer USA easily... resulting the surrender of the other countries and the end of the 7 hours war.

 

[Grigori]

Well maybe the earth forces were too weak, the combines weaponry too powerful for them. but the rebels scavenged the combines weapons giving them a better chance.

ye?

 

[Sid Burn]

Well maybe the earth forces were too weak, the combines weaponry too powerful for them. but the rebels scavenged the combines weapons giving them a better chance.

ye?

nah... they were weak in numbers. Remember... the Human Forces are plagued by the Xen creatures and at the same time are being attacked by the combines... no wonder they lost the war.