Re: Stopping the Swarm in Campaign Games...

John Atkinson wrote:
> >Good for tournaments, really bad for campaigns or scenarios that are
> supposed >to reflect RL.  (As much as Sci-Fi can reflect RL.	(8-) )
> 
> Now, now.  BTW, what is disadvantage in campaign games?

Small ships usually aren't FT capable; thus they can't project 
offensive power.  Furthermore, they usually are limited in range, 
equipment, or some other factor that makes them cost-inefficient in
games.	(This ties in with the modern wet-navy idea, see below...)
 
> >Modern wet-navies given a costal defence mission.  Try crossing the
> 
> Well, I figure that there have to be system defense elements of any
> space fleet.	And these seem ideal.

Yes.  However, costal defence is not the only mission navies have.  
Costal defence is only a small subset of the Sea Control mission, 
denying the use of the sea (or space) to the enemy.  It's very hard
to escort convoys long distances with small vessels; they just don't
have the range and the equipment.  The same problem occurs with Power
Projection (the other main Navy mission); since the little ships 
don't have the endurance to get from here to there, how do you
project power?	Their combat endurance is pitiful as well; you 
better hope you got everybody, or you're toast, as you've got
nothing left to throw.

For example, the USN is betting that small ships will be extremely
vulnerable to carrier-based aviation From The Sea doctrine
depends critically on this premise.  Unfortunately, this seems to be
invalidated by the fact that the USN will not be using the stand-off
range of their carrier aircraft, putting the carrier in harm's way.
Or use subs, take out the harbour facilities for the boats before
going after the boats themselves.  Take out their means of resupply
and repair (because small boats have extremely limited organic 
qualities of each), and then wait till they fall apart.  On the flip
side, the USN is going to send a fleet of small ships to project
power half-way around the world; they'd never survive.	The OHP FFGs
are a perfect example of this; an example of the 'High-Low' 
philosophy of purchasing, they turned out to be too fragile for the
hard use the USN puts them through, which is why they're retiring 
early when ships like USS Enterprise (33 years old, and due to serve
until 2005 or something like that) are still serving.
 
> >In FT, area weapons like the Wave Gun or Nova Cannon would be good
> counters.
> 
> Speaking of goofy and abusive weapons. . .

Not abusive if done right.  But definately goofy.  (That's a small
oversight in FTII; no real area affect weapons.)
 
> >Loading your ships with PD would help.  Fighters.  Banzai Jamming (if
> >your universe supports it.)	 There's only so much you can do because
> 
> Banzai Jamming?

Oh sorry.  (8-)  This doesn't really work in vanilla FTII, but you 
can kind of fake it with Sensor rules (i.e. make every ship you 
have look like a Capital, and then have the swarm decide what to 
shoot at...) 

Anyways... Banzi Jamming.  What you do is use signature enhancers
(radar transponders, FTII Weasel Boats, etc) to enhance your target
footrpint.  THEN (this is where the 'Banzai!' comes in), you put
your ship along the threat axis.  The incoming missiles (or whatever)
being stupid, lock on to your tin can as opposed to the valuable 
target you're protecting.  Then depending on what happens next, 
you either lure the missiles so their sensors can no longer find
the target you're escorting, and turn off your signature enhancer,
so you disappear.  Or, you end up taking every missile that was 
intended for the target plus whatever they decided to fire at you
to take out an escort.	Ouch.  (Essentially, you set yourself up
as a more inviting target than what you're escorting, and sucker 
all the pain giving stuff on to you.  Takes guts.)

In the FTII case, since all they're doing is firing missiles, you 
nominate a poor destroyer as the Banzai Jammer.  When they launch,
you set up your destroyer in the way, turn on the jammer, and sucker
most of the missiles on to it.	You lose the destroyer, but they
lose their offensive punch, and gotta run for it.  Thus, if they
salvo, you can sucker their missiles away.  If they launch singly,
your PD can handle it.	In other words, you've got effective 
counter-moves to whatever they can put out.  You win.  (8-)

Apologies for rambling...

J.
 
-- 
 *** Jerry Han - jhan@idigital.net - http://www.idigital.net/jhan ***
       "And we will raise our hands, and we will touch the sky; 
	      Together we will dance in robes of gold; 
    And we will leave the world remembering when we were kings..."
      When We Were Kings - Brian McKnight/Diana King - TBFTGOGGI