Re: Fw: Weapons for Newtonian based FTIII

(various people write:)

[...house rules - yuck!...]
>Anyway, it's a moot point since
>
>a) I'd bring enough missiles to do it in one volley. Wanna see the
point
>calculations? Show me a base, and I'll show a missile force that
>completely obliterates it for half the price. 

I don't have the time at the moment to work out the numbers, but I'm
thinking a base with NovaCannon and many PDAFs. I think I'd have a
good chance. And if allowing Interceptors to engage missiles, load up
a few fighter squadrons, too.

If someone has the time for point calculations, see if this will work.
My gut feeling says it will.

>b) Failing that and assuming the presence of mobile defenders, I'd FTL
out
>to reload. Even if following FTL is possible, you'd be stripping your
base
>of defenses *and* jumping into the wolf's lair. 

Fine. As base commander, if you want to come in, pop off a volley of
missiles,
then bug out again (via FTL) before my mobile units show up, the time it
takes
for you to get from Point A (here) to Point B (reload), the time it
takes for
you to reload, and the time it takes for you to get *back*, either I'll
have
repairs underway, and/or reinforcements underway. 

>>	   On the topic of using an accellerated rock to attack the
station:
>> as Joachim pointed out, getting the rock up to 1000" velocity takes
at least
>> 125 turns.  Using a tug to change the velocity of the station by 1"
takes...
>> less than 125 turns.  Your rock is over an inch in diameter on the FT
>> "ground scale"?  
>
>Did it ever occur to you that you can turn while accelerating? Under
>vanilla FT this even dead easy. Even with Newtonian movement, minor 
>corrections are easy.

Alright, earlier it was presumed that you got said rock up to speed and
let it go on a trajectory that would allow it to intersect with your
target.
You didn't specifically say that, but you didn't not say that, and I
think
folks assumed that once you got it up and moving your thrusting force
had
let its deadly cargo go.

Are you saying you have a tug on the rock *controlling* it's course now?
Okay...I'll shoot the tug, *then* move the station!  ;-)

And if you want to drift into Real Physics, once you get something up
and
moving at a high enough velocity, gonna take a HELL of a lot of power to
adjust it's course! Like (I think it was Rob?) said: miss by an inch and
the attack is wasted. Don't have to move the station that far out of the
way to cause a miss. This applies to FT, too, since the granularity of
the turns would come into play. If you're travelling at X and are Y
distance
away, you can end up at only points A, B, or C, depending on how many
course heading changes you implement, and which direction. Moving at a
significantly slower speed (ie, base), with a [small] tug could be moved
to point Z which is in a 'safe zone' between the calculated target
points.

The point here being, you can think of something, someone else with
think
of a response to counter it. It doesn't make it a no-win/no-lose
situation.
It makes it a gamble against tactics. You can pick any scenario and
someone
will be able to take it apart somehow. Half the fun (uh-oh! not That
Word!)
is trying to come up with something and seeing if/how the other side can
deal
with it.

>The point is: Whether the attack succeeds or not, the deciding battle 
>will be fought away from the base.

As long as you are going to restrict yourself to this tactic, yes.
Change tactics. Change options. You may eventually find yourself
fighting near the base after all.

Like you wanted.  ;-)

Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
"Yyyes ! Haha!! Tremble before the twin-headed, four-legged eleven foot
tall Engine of Justice that *is* Manuever 14B!"