Re: Real Space Combat Help:

Samuel Penn wrote:
> Especially true of Leviathan, which can't seem to decide whether
> 4-hex ship templates are really 4 hexes long, or just look big.
> Give me proper vector movement, with no grid, any day.

For Lev, proper vector movement and targeting done to nearest part of
model to firer would probably be best.	Leviathan cap ships /are/
supposed to be multi-km long, after all.

> I'd only assume use of gauss cannons for short range weapons.
> A few tens of thousands of klicks at most. For anything longer,
> use missiles. At light second ranges, I'd say don't use anything
> other than missiles.

I'm not even sure 10k kliks are even doable ... unless you have really
/really/ good intelligence on their future movements.  Missiles are
going to be your /surest/ long-range attack, for good or ill.

> I prefer nukes because they don't have to hit. Even if the nuke
> misses by a couple of hundred metres, the heat is going to hurt.
> If a KE missile misses by 1 metre, it does no damage (though it
> could do more damage than the nuke does if it does hit).

The heat (IR rads) is really going to be secondary to the cascading
through the hull you're going to see.  I'd /really/ hate to be in a ship
near either a nuke -or- a solar flare.

> But I haven't just travelled half way across the solar system.
> I might actually have more dV to play with than you do, since
> you've used a good portion getting here, and may be wanting to
> keep some in reserve to go back home in case you lose.

If I'm smart, I'm coming/going in high-storage carrier ships, retaining
fuel for the attack or planning to scoop hydrogen/water/ice from
somewhere in your system to refuel with.  Given those resources, I may
have more dV fuel/accelerant than you at that point.  This, of course,
is highly tech-dependent.

> Further, I might even have as good, or better, acceleration (and
> hence a larger manouevre sphere) than you do. A massive, well
> armoured and bristling with point defences defence battleship,
> with low mass ratio and very high thrust could dance rings
> around your interplanetary assualt force.

Now, if you have more outright thrust, I'm in deep kaka, no matter
/what/ is in the offing.  Your maneuver spheres easily overlap mine, so
I'm going to have to be a tactical genius to get anything done,
outguessing and out-maneuvering you in the details, not just the
outlines.

> I really need to be at the bottom of the well though, in order
> to intercept anything you might through at the planet. So
> whatever force I've got, I have that disadvantage, unless I
> split my forces to meet you much higher up.

A split is probably the best bet for you, probably with forces
moon-based in a Terra-like system with one moon, and planetary defenses.

> If you're really keen to keep hold of the planet, and
> especially if you're not too squeemish about punishing
> the locals for any acts performed against you (one hundred
> Narns killed for every Centauri killed sort of thing),
> then I've lost.

Being the TOGgie I am, you know where I fall on being gentle to native
populations.  (See Kes'Rith.  :)

> Or of course, I'm the hero in a Hollywood movie, in which
> case you don't stand a chance! :)

In anime, I still have a chance, you being the hero or not.  :)

> Okay okay, I'll rephrase that! If your burn wasn't sufficient
> for me to compute a vector, then I still know where you are now.
> At now+1, you're not going to be more than a few seconds or
> minutes away, which gives me a very narrow window to look in,
> in order to find out *exactly* where you are. I do this again
> at now+2, now+3 etc, until at now+x, when I've plotted your
> vector and can track you at leisure.

Really, this is the whole idea behind maneuver spheres.  Your problem is
that if it takes you Now+X to track me entirely and it takes me
Now+(X-1) to get enough burn to do what I want, you're screwed ...  Fast
burns, high-G maneuvering is the only way to sustain the cloak of vector
secrecy.

-- 
[  Alexander Williams {thantos@alf.dec.com/zander@photobooks.com}  ]
[ Alexandrvs Vrai,  Prefect 8,000,000th Experimental Strike Legion ]
[	      BELLATORES INQVITI --- Restless Warriors		   ]
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