Re: Fw: Weapons for Newtonian based FTIII

On Wed, 7 May 1997, And yah, up CLOSE I'm a threat. Beyond range 12 I'm
an amusement... wrote:

> I don't have the time at the moment to work out the numbers, but I'm
> thinking a base with NovaCannon and many PDAFs. I think I'd have a
> good chance. And if allowing Interceptors to engage missiles, load up
> a few fighter squadrons, too.

If you can mount a Nova facing each direction on a base, I concede. But 
I never use the nova stuff, so it doesn't really help me.
 
> If someone has the time for point calculations, see if this will work.
> My gut feeling says it will.

Let's assume a military base. 50% of Mass spent on weapons.
A PDAF kills a missile on 6 and it gets just one chance.
Thus it kills 1/6 of a missile per 1 mass of PDAF.

An interceptor, let's assume they get the bonus too, masses 1 too,
but it kills a missile on 5+, and it may get several chances to shoot. 
It's slightly more expensive, though.

How many chances? Assume launch at 60", missiles move 18", fighters move
in 12". They're not within range of each other yet. Missiles move
another
18", fighters move 6" so they're *just* in range. One shot. Missiles
move 
their last 18", they fighters turn around and catch the missiles. This
is 
not specified anywhere (as normally fighters can't attack missiles), but

we'll assume they get to shoot first. Two shots total.

Thus an interceptor stops an average of 2/3 missiles. An interceptor 
costs 3 1/3 points.

Ok, lets do calculations... for a vanilla base with only PDAFs and
an optional base with all interceptors.

The base has Mass X: 

			      PDAFs	Interceptors
Number of missiles stopped    1/12*X	1/3*X  
Cost			      3 1/2*X	3 2/3 *X
Cost to stop one missile      42	11
Mass to stop one missile      12	3

A minimal bathtub launcher costs 26 points with Thr8, FTL and one
missile.
So.... PDAFs fail utterly in the job they're supposed to do, but
spending
about half the available budget on interceptors works -- on the average. 

> Fine. As base commander, if you want to come in, pop off a volley of
missiles,
> then bug out again (via FTL) before my mobile units show up, the time
it takes
> for you to get from Point A (here) to Point B (reload), the time it
takes for
> you to reload, and the time it takes for you to get *back*, either
I'll have
> repairs underway, and/or reinforcements underway. 

That depends *entirely* on how long FTL travel takes. If it takes longer
to
travel to target than for the target to repair damages, any sort of
raids 
are also useless.
 
> Are you saying you have a tug on the rock *controlling* it's course
now?
> Okay...I'll shoot the tug, *then* move the station!  ;-)

That has all the problems of high-speed interception I've outlined
before.
 
> And if you want to drift into Real Physics, once you get something up
and
> moving at a high enough velocity, gonna take a HELL of a lot of power
to
> adjust it's course! 

Not for minimal adjustments. Most of the vector is pointing the right 
general direction anyway.

> This applies to FT, too, since the granularity of
> the turns would come into play. 

If you really want to nitpick FT, I suggest you check the rules on 
asteroids on pages 25-26. The immense velocity isn't actually even 
necessary...

> The point here being, you can think of something, someone else with
think
> of a response to counter it. It doesn't make it a no-win/no-lose
situation.
> It makes it a gamble against tactics. You can pick any scenario and
someone
> will be able to take it apart somehow. Half the fun (uh-oh! not That
Word!)
> is trying to come up with something and seeing if/how the other side
can deal
> with it.

I actually agree... I'm just still not convinced there's a
cost-effective
way to counter these immense-speed sandcasters. Or AI controlled ramming
ships. Or suicide ships that FTL out within 6" of a station... 

> As long as you are going to restrict yourself to this tactic, yes.
> Change tactics. Change options. You may eventually find yourself
> fighting near the base after all.
> 
> Like you wanted.  ;-)

But the stand-off is the BEST attack! It's zero-risk! If you can't pull 
that off with freely selectable forces, you can't pull off anything.

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