Re: FT Fleet formations was Re: [GZG] FT vector movement systems

[John Lerchey <lerchey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is no indivdual order that accomplishes this.  You get to give 
orders to each ship, like everyone else, and try to manuever them 
appropriately to your plans.

Then again, if there IS a "group order" that maintains formation, you give 
each formation appropriate orders so that your screen goes where you want 
it to.  If the enemy doesn't cooperate and outmanuvers your screen, then 
you suffer.

Or do you maintain the screen is omniscient enough to always know where 
the enemy will be, so that you can give it an order like, "Screen us" and 
they will then always be in position?

J

John K. Lerchey
Assistant Director for Incident Response
Information Security Office
Carnegie Mellon University

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007, Richard Bell wrote:

> On 3/4/07, John Lerchey <lerchey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I would counter propose that this is two formations.  One is a screen and
> > one is your long range hitters.
> >
> > John
>
>
> Okay, it IS two formations.  Now tell me what FT movement orders will keep
> the screen in the correct position as the relative bearing between the heavy
> hitters and the enemy changes while maintaining a linear formation across
> the enemy's line of approach.
>
> > > A possible situation in a fleet engagement is redeploying a destroyer
> > > screen.  You have a core of ships with devastating long range
> > capabilities
> > > (graser-3's or HDC-2's) that have sacrificed close in firepower, so you
> > have
> > > a destroyer screen loaded with class-2 beams and submunition clusters to
> > > make it really expensive for your enemy to close (Note: unless your
> > opponent
> > > has your equal in long range firepower, you really do want him to spend
> > the
> > > time to blow away your screen, as it keeps the range open).  The problem
> > is
> > > having enough destroyers to completely encircle your core is equally
> > > expensive, so you need to be able to keep your incomplete screen between
> > > your enemy's fleet and your fleet's core.  The formation may be too
> > large to
> > > just treat is as a single ship, and you may want to turn in one
> > direction,
> > > while rotating the screen in the other.  Maybe your enemy has misjudged
> > and
> > > moved past your formation and you need to quickly get the screen to the
> > > other side.  Finally, as elements of the screen are destroyed, you need
> > to
> > > close up the gaps.
> > >
> > > If you chose to go the HDC route for devastating long range firepower,
> > you
> > > really DO have to exert finicky control of your formation to keep the
> > gaps
> > > in your screen facing a likely enemy location.
> > >
> > > BTW:  I do not think grasers are unbalanced.  At a distance they are
> > quite
> > > destructive, but at close ranges an equal mass of beam-2's cost less and
> > > inflict more damage.  They very much trade close in hitting power for
> > long
> > > range crunch.
> > >
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