Re: Air Power was: REALITY CHECK TIME!

At 11:27 PM -0700 7/24/02, Eric Foley wrote:

>That's a huge issue by itself.  Not only does that mean that the
weapons
>have no offensive usefulness at all, but more importantly, if the
planet is
>presented with a situation where it just can't win (and with only one
>planet's resources against interstellar empires, that situation _will_
come
>up), those weapons have no way of escaping when they're in trouble.  So

Neither does the massive industry that you've built around this 
planet and on it. More so the millions of people that live on this 
planet.

If it's a core world of say the NAC, then you bet they'll defend this 
planet more than they would others.

>sure, you can spend most of your empire's resources on fortifying
planets
>beyond all reason to a degree that I can't even throw a milk carton out
of

Building something massive on the surface of a planet where you don't 
have a hostile environment and you don't have to deal with lifting 
the parts into orbit is quite cheap compared to building things in 
space where your transportation costs are exponentially higher.

>my starship's waste disposal without it getting vaporized on the way
down,
>but that means your defenses in space to keep me from the planet will
be
>lighter, and once I get to it with enough hardware and/or troops to
take it
>or blow it out of the stars altogether... guess what, you lose all
those
>weapons without being able to save a single one of them.  Genius move.

One would assume the same thing about a fleet that you've collected 
enough men and materials to use to beat. The thing about planetary 
defenses is that you've built them on/around the planet. They can't 
be used elsewhere. Thats both a boon and a problem. They won't be 
away when and unexpected attack comes.

>Then there's the issue of how you're going to supply all these
defenses.
>You have one, repeat, one, planet's resources to maintain this stuff. 
If an

That dog won't hunt. Again look at your costs. Its a hell of a lot 
cheaper to supply these defenses on your core worlds than it is to 
supply a fleet on exercises in a distant part of your space. Its 
close to industry. You've got your entire solar system for resources 
and its at the hub of your transportation.

I live in Atlanta Georgia. Getting gas here is cheap, cheap cheap. We 
have the cheapest gas in the Eastern Seaboard from some accounts I've 
heard. Why? We are a distribution hub for petroleum products like 
gasoline to a good part of the US. The corresponding transport costs 
are lower because it comes here anyhow. Space defenses aren't going 
to use just huge amounts of bulk materials anyhow, they'll need high 
tech manufactured goods. Guess what, they're made there. Hmm. No 
problem there.

>interstellar starfleet is coming at you, almost by definition you're
going
>to be out-gunned on materiel just by virtue of the fact that they'll be
able
>to throw more at the planet than the planet can maintain on its own for
any

They have to get it there past the fleets that are based there. 
Additionally, your surface defenses will have the advantage in 
firepower and protection.

>length of time.  Which means that if you're going to expect to stand
off
>that whole fleet with just the one planet, you're going to have to put
a lot
>more weapons on the planet than the planet can maintain on its own
>resources.  Which, in turn, leaves the enemy with the beautiful option
of
>just interdicting the star system, making sure no supply ships at all
get to
>the planet, and then come in when their recon drones tell them that the
>defenses have rusted to a degree that they're no longer such a big
threat.
>
>Or, if they don't have time to do that, then I guess they'll just have
to
>blow the entire planet away and move on.

Not much point in a campaign of planet grabbing if you just toast the 
massive population center. Sure the NAC doesn't like the ESU or the 
FSE, but I don't see them shiva option-ing the Either star nation's 
main planets. The NAC's people just wouldn't stand for it.

-- 
--
Ryan Gill	       rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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