Re: [GZG] Re: Mines

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Foley" <stiltman@teleport.com>

>I would tend to think that a mine could do a passive sensor shot, and
if it 
>detects something that doesn't match IFF it simply blows up with a bomb

>pumped laser directed towards the target or perhaps fires off as an 
>autonomous missile in a wait mode.

This is still a very limited engagement range with no persistence to the

defences.
The maximum range of passive sensors is 24", unless you go to the
additional 
expense of enhancing the sensors. So you need to have the mines pretty
close 
together to get any kind of coverage.

There are no rules for a bomb pumped so its not possible to quantify its

destructive power in game terms. But in order to be a threat it would
have 
to be capable of outputting sufficient dice to cripple a Dreadnought and

kill a cruiser. (Most ww2 or modern capital ships can't take many mine
hits 
before they become combat ineffective). This kind of destructive power
is so 
far out of kilter with any game weapon as to preclude its introduction.
If 
you tried, mines that can output 20 beam 2 as they self destruct would 
quickly become the new super weapon.

Currently the mines in the rulebook that have the destructive power of a

beam 1 or a submunition pack have the effect on a capital ship of a
burst of 
machine gun fire.

If you use Oerjan's suggested scale of 1 mu = 100km then you need a lot
of 
FT rule book mines to cover a planet and then 99% of them would not be
able 
to fight if a capital ship attempted to assault the planet because they 
would be out of range.

In order to have a viable planetary defence grid you would need to have 
defences that can attack from range and last longer than one use. Or the

mines need drives to move to the fight. Mines also need drives to be
able to 
reposition so as to fill in gaps in the defence grid.

An effective defence platform could be to have swarms of automated ships

similar to the Islamic frigates. 2 MT missiles and drives to reposition
to 
continue the attack and the ability to withdraw when ordnance is
expended 
makes for a nasty defensive barrier. Supplemented with some orbital
stations 
with fighter capacity would make for a defence grid that could defend 
itself.

John

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