On 1/18/06, Grant A. Ladue <ladue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I agree, whether a *race* would surrender or abandon it's ships is more of
a campaign or setting issue. I think that the issue of whether it's
*possible* to surrender ships in battle is something we can talk about in
general game terms.
What I'm getting at here is that the major problem for surrendering your
damaged/sinking ship in modern times (WWI -> ) seems to be communicating that
surrender to the other side. Combat from WWI onwards was frequently not
fought at the kind of ranges where a visual "white flag" was feasible, and
the comm equipment on a ship is often knocked out along with it's fighting
ability. It's in these circumstances where abandoning ship may be the only
way to demonstrate that you are no longer a combatant. Off hand, I can't
think of a single surface ship that surrendered during combat from WWI on. A
few submarines did, but they could demonstrate their surrender by moving from
their normal fighting position (underwater) to the surface and then not
manning the quite visible guns. Surface ships don't have that luxury. I
would think that spaceships have the same problem. It seems like the
convention that has evolved is the "honorable" way to surrender is to abandon
your ship after ensuring that it will be destroyed after most of the crew is
off. It gives the crew a shot (perhaps just a long long shot) at survival
without handing over valuable property and info to the enemy. I would expect
that space combat would be similiar, although I can see an argument for
having the surrender mechanism be to eject the power core and subsequently
destroying any secret weapons or info on board. This would be so that the
life support of the remaining vessel could be used for the crew until other
arrangements can be made.
Could this be a resolution level below FT's granularity setting? Kinda
would be covered with the 'striking the colours' rule, just PSBing it
one way or the other, no?
As for no ships surrendering since WWI, maybe that's just an artifact
of how war at sea has evolved. I have this vague impression (remember:
this is Tuesday, and Tuesday is just a lot of leftover Monday...no,
wait, this is Wednesday - hoo boy!) there was a whole different mindset
with regards to naval warfare and end results of damaged/losing side
ships pre-WWI than post-WWI.
Mk