Re: [OFFICIAL] Colony lists? (was:Re: Locations of Stars etc.)

Laserlight wrote:
> Agree.  I'd use Alderson Points, myself, but anything that limits
strategic
> maneuverability helps the defense and makes it possible to hold
territory
> instead of having an all-attack MAD policy.  Think: if you can reach
any of
> five enemy star systems from each of your five, and you both have 1000
> points to put into a fleet, then you either smash his 200pt flotilla
at
> each place or you have an 80% chance of taking an undefended system
(and
> destroying it, since you can't hold onto it either); meanwhile, he
does the
> same to you.

	Precisely.  Keep in mind that Niven and Pournelle had the	
	Alderson Drive designed with the specification that it
	would allow interstellar combat.

	As you point out,
	without the choke points the Alderson drive imposes,
	you don't have a war, you have 30 seconds of
	every planet in both empires being blown to
	Emm Cee Squared followed by the surviving starfleets
	wandering aimlessly until their fuel runs out.

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