Prev: Re: GenCon? Next: Re: Communication and Travel

Re: Troop Capacity

From: Brian Bell <brian.bell@a...>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 10:45:38 -0700
Subject: Re: Troop Capacity

> Minor peeve--note that it's only possible to actually conquer a small,
> small colony from space.  Once you get a couple million colonists with
> a homegrown industry, it becomes impossible to physically land enough
> troops to do more than raid.	Example:  Israel, with 6 million
> inhabitants, can field 13 armored divisions, and one parachute
division
> (or is it 12 and 1?  I don't recall).  Taking down a force that big
> would require either massive and indiscriminate use of orbital support
> (trashing what you're supposed to be trying to conquer!) or one even
> larger--which would be prohibitive to transport.
>
  This is especially true with the troop capacity listed for FT/MT
dropships. The example in MT shows that it takes a 60 ton vehicle to
deliver 31 vehicles and 197 combat troops (including vehicle crew). As
was pointed out above, this is very poor odds.
  With the FB the maximum size limitation is gone, but ships are
generally more massive to accomplish the same thing as in FT2/MT. I see
this type of thing in many SF games. I would like to see this system
revised.
  I usually picture several ships that launch dropships carrying
specialized assault forces. These forces job is to clear and hold enough
ground to land the real troop carriers. The main troop carriers would be
atmospherically streamlined cruisers carrying thousands of troops in
cryosleep or hundreds of Armored Vehicles.
  For this to work, usually, a force would have had to landed special
forces to take out the tactical/stratgic infrastructure (communications,
radar, etc.) timed with the assault. And the assault force would need to
gain space/air superiority.

Brian Bell
brian.bell@axom.com

The Full Thrust Ship Registry
http://www.axom.com/bkb/fthome.html
Cygnus Eclipsers' Dirtside II Site
http://www.axom.com/bkb/ds2main.html
Cygnus Eclipsers' Stargrunt II Site
http://www.axom.com/bkb/sg2.html
Cygnus Eclipsers' Sci-Fi Games Site
http://www.axom.com/bkb

Prev: Re: GenCon? Next: Re: Communication and Travel