DracSpy@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 99-02-12 10:34:15 EST, you write:
>
> << Yes,
>
>  In the beginning of the novel that is how they get the drop on
II/KG14.
>  However it's a new technology for them and not available on most
ships,
>  (or so believes the IIa from Oberkommando KriegsRaumFlotte.)
>
>  Los
>   >>
> Wonderfull, who does not have the cloaking device?
> -Stephen

If you are meaning what powers, I don't know. I'm sure most of the major
powers have some ships with cloaking capability. But if you mean what
ship
classes don't have  cloaking devices, I believe it's most, since it's a
rather expensive piece of equipment. Also note that most cloaking
devices
per FB rules are what i call black globe, meaning nothing comes in and
out,
so the ship in cloak cant fire or sense or navigate. it has to maneuver
via
dead reckoning.

In the story, the KRS Köhl is experimenting with a new version of cloak
(Spiegel Industries gmbh Mark IX) which allows it limited capability to
see
OUT of cloak. It still can't fire while cloaked but it can navigate and
sense. Though the quality of the cloak is degraded. This is similar to a
system developed independently by the NAC whch is used on some of their
Special operations ships as depicted by the RNS Meadows (BTW Dick
Meadows
was a Medal of Honor winning Air force officer who specialized in
Special
ops insertions amongst other things.) The Meadows has both systems,
"Black
Globe" and "Looking Glass". Even running under Black Globe the Meadows
can
use it's cloak generators to senses subtle changes in the  shape of its
sphere, as effected by the gravity of planetary bodies within the
system.
Through a sophisticated navigational sub-routine it is able to "hand
rail"
itself	close enough to the planet for insertion. Once at the IP
(Initial
Point), the Meadows switches to "Looking Glass". This is another form of
cloak which allows allows in and out visible light and passive sensing
but
masks all signatures. yes the ship can be seen with the naked eye, but
guess
what..space is a big place. The advantage of looking glass is that the
using
ship can deploy canisters or drop pods, or receive encoded messages  or
whatever, then move out and go back into Black globe for egress.

At least that's how it works in the story.

How did Kurt and I handle this type of system in our big battle. Simple.
With over 100 ships engaged we could not afford the time to fiddle fart
around with normal cloaking. As it was accepted that this was the first
time
the Kra'Vak would be exposed to cloak ships, and that the Speigel
designed
cloak was similar to looking glass in that it enabled precise
navigation, I
merely grabbed a handful of pennies (one for each ship), then stood over
the
battle area (we were playing on the floor) and tossed them where I
wanted to
declaok. Some landed dangerously close to other ships, some landed far
away,
some landed where i wanted them. This was done at the beginning of
Kurt's
movement phase. he then was told his sensors are picking up strange
anomalies in those areas. Kr'rt then had the option to maneuver or do
whatever he wanted in reaction to this information (he couldn't fire
since
the ships were in the process of decloaking they could not be reliably
targeted). During my turn I placed the models and away we went.

For the next fight, the Kra'Vak have now been exposed to this technology
and
are no doubt working out some sort of counter measures so we will have
to
handle this differently. However we still need a system that won't swamp
us
in a mega battle.

One thing to clarify, when kurt and I fight our battles we are first and
formost working under the framework of the Röt Hafen story and secondly
in
competition with each other. Kr'rt is ROLE PLAYING the Kra'Vak commander
and
is operating within character as he sees it, so he may do things that as
a
human in a tournament type of game he might not consider doing. This is
what
has made these battles interesting pieces to write up in the story.

Los

>