Ah! Yes indeed, if that's the case it definitely explains why the first speaker shut the hell up. =)

>
>>The witches are effective not because they can fly, and not
>>because they have guns...
>>
>>It's because they have -shields-.
>>
>>Mundane soldiers in mundane aircraft simply have no answer to the
>>Neuroi plasma weapon.
>
>That is true, but on the other hand, a man with a rocket pack
>is a much smaller and (theoretically) more elusive target than a man
>in a Messerschmitt. (General von Reichenberg does not specifically
>know this, but Gryphon didn't have any equivalent to a witch's
>shield in 1943, and he survived. :)

Hm. Well, yes, the witches themselves dodge the beams on a regular basis, but they also have to fall back to the shields frequently when the Neuroi box them in. The beams don't come in ones and twos, after all. Though you're right, a Messerschmitt would have far less chance to dodge even one beam.

As for Gryphon's pack, the difference between the Miyafuji Striker and the new rocket pack is pretty obvious now--the speed and acceleration are pretty damn powerful, but there's nothing in the rocket pack that suggests superior maneuverability. We haven't actually seen how the rocketpack achieves maneuverability, but if it's just flight vanes or somesuch, the Striker will run rings around it. A rocket system really needs verniers to compete.

>
><I'm assuming Richtenberg is not a dumbkopf, he
>>has to have a plan in place to deal with that.
>
>Well, the first part is not necessarily in evidence so far, but the
>second... oh yes. General von Reichenberg has many plans, and
>we will see one in the next episode. It may provide a bit of a hint
>as to the nature of that plan, to a certain stripe of WWII weird
>aviation buff, if I tell you that Episode 05 is entitled "Operation
>Grass-Snake" (in Karlsländisch, Natter-Einsatz).

Wow. After looking -that- system up, I have to wonder if he plans to take down Neuroi by putting his own men in it, or witches by putting -them- in it. Either way, innovation in wartime is fine, but...yeah. Not for -ego-. I wonder how much it galls him he has to accept a witch is working on his project.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu