Re: [DS] Calling all used tank salesmen: SPECIAL DEAL ON AEROSPACE!

>From: Ndege Diamond <nezach@earthlink.net>

>Hello all,

>It's been kinda quiet on the list lately.  To provoke some discussion I
was
>wondering if any of you Dirtside players out there had some design
>philosophies that you have found to be effective.

GMS systems are typically the best bang for your buck, but heavy
reliance on
them will catch every ECM and PDS system your oponnent carries. The
benefits
of the GMS are in the total vehicle design not in the weapon itself. A
class
1 vehicle is capable of carrying a weapon with the same range and damage
as
a MDC5 at medium range, with the same hit probability for the system
quality. The MDC/5 requires at minimum a class 4 vehicle, stealth costs
80
per level, for a signature of 1 would cost 240 points. General consensus
has
it that a class 2 vehicle carrying 2 GMS/H is capable of firing at two
targets (you pay for firecon with each weapon) in a restricted arc (90
degrees), spend 40 points on stealth (size 2 level 1) and you get a
similar
signature to the class 1 vehicle.

Remember that GMS alone will suffer from relatively cheap methods of
countermeasures, and lots of them, and they are ineffective against
infantry. Any army that dosen't have direct fire arms will be at a
disadvantage.

Usually I use infantry in a MICV (APCs don't have their own crew, they
are
"Battlefield Taxis" and not much else.) My Rhino MICVs are fast tracked,
amphibious, and mount: MDC/2 2xAPSW and 8 capacity for the squad. My
MBTs
use a similar chassis that carries a [Classified] and a [Classified]
with a
[Classified]. The rhino MICVs are the most numerous in my forces,
carrying
lots of infantry.

My infantry squads are made up of 2 fireteams (bases) each, 1 rifle, 1
specalist. A typical platoon consists of 1 squad w APSW, 1 squad with
assault, 1 squad with spotter, 1 squad with GMS/L. I can field a
battalion
of "Main force" infantry (3 companies of the above platoons) and a
company
of "special purpose" infantry Powered armors are usually kept to
rifle/apsw
squads as putting anything else in the PA teams makes them too much of a
fire magnet. (They are already assault & rifle or assault & APSW.)

Note I said I CAN field a reinforced battalion of infantry, not that I
necessairily WOULD field them...

Fire support is carried out by either light GMS carriers, or class 4
walkers
carring dual MDC/5s on superior firecon "If I can see you I can smack
you
around." and MDC/5s have better damage potential than HEL (Although I
have
laser variants). Being walkers allows them to take cover in any terrain
(last activation on turn 1: move from cover and fire. First activation
on
turn 2: fire and move to cover.) Infantry are almost required to take
them
out. of course each mech platoon has it's own infantry platoon...

For fast assault I like a Pegasus fast GEV with twin SLAM3 and superior
firecon. The SLAM system is effective against "Hidden" units that you
may
run over in a fast strike situation wether they are armor or infantry

On the topic of interface aerospace fighters:

I know that we can all argue about these untill we are blue in the face,
but
this is my $0.02

Weapon selection:
    Anti ship: HEL. Lasers/ light particle beams are affected by shields
as
normal.
    Anti fighter: GMS. Guided systems are able to follow fighters, but
standard ship anti-debris armament (for destroying small meteors,
discarded
satelites, other space debris.) probably comprises enough PDS superior
to
make it a statistical certanty that any GMS will be destroyed. If you
were
to sacrifice 1 mass to mount them it would consist of 25 PDS superiors*,
5
would probably be enough to do the job. Fighters don't have the
advantage of
raw mass for these systems in upsetting quantities, and GMS keeps its
effectiveness.

Standard Fighters:
    class 3 (carries class 2 armor max, leaves class 3 for heavy
fighters)
    2xHEL/2 (Anti-ship armorment, leaves class 3 for attack fighters)
    1xGMS/H
    1XGMS/L (Typical loadout for AtA missiles on a modern fighter craft,
1
mount AMRAM 1 mount sidewinder short range missile)
    2xAPSW (had to do something with that last capacity, twin axial
mount
.30 BMGs )

    Electronics as you wish

Attack variant:
    drop GMS/H (has only minimal dogfighting capabilities)
    enhance lasers to 2xHEL/3 (Maximum avalable to aerospace)

Interceptor variant:
    drop 2xHEL/2 (has NO anti-ship capability)
    add GMS/H

Torpedo variant:
    drop 2xHEL/2 and 1xGMS/H (leaves GMS/L for minimal dogfighting
capability)
    add 3 chits DFO (2 HEF, 1MAK or nuclear. Effectivley overloading and
dropping up to 3 pulse generators normally spent all at once through a
focusing mechanism.)

Fast, Long Range: irrelevant to DSII vehicle design. Either may allow
the
fighter to be able to be on table 2 consecutive turns of 6, both may
allow 4
turns of 6 (spending it's fifth turn endurance in entering and leaving
atmosphere, as well as loitering waiting for the carrier to show up.

Heavy variant:
    add to any of the above:
    class 4 aerospace (can carry class 3 armor, heaviest avalable to
aerospace)
Now for the extra 4 capacity: If a military is going to pay more for a
craft
that can shoulder the added armor it will probably act as a multi-role
air
superiority/ ground attack fighter.
    +1APSW ( for 3xAPSW. Overkill maybe but if you are on table one
sixth of
the time you want to be SURE that your target is dead.)
    1 load DFO.

I posted earlier that it takes about 24 chits of damage (DSII) to do one
point of damage FT *, so how can fighters hurt ships with 2xHEL/2?
Precision
targeting. When a fighter attacks a ship it is assumed to be skimming
the
surface of the ship picking vulnerable points and slicing off parts of
the
hull at extremely close ranges.

* 1 mass = 50 capacity
4 FT cargo carries 1 class 1 vehicle
8 DSII cargo carries 1 class 1 vehicle
2 DSII cargo = 1 FT cargo
100 DSII cargo = 1 FT Mass
1 mass of FT battery = 49xHEL/1, 24xHEL/2, 16xHEL/3, 12xHEL/4, or
9xHEL/5
Average chits damage 48/2 (HEL counts half) 24 chits.

ADAF = 10 basic ADS, 6 enhanced ADS and 1PDS/S 2PDS/E, or 5 Superior ADS
(at
least that's what fits in 1 mass) having 1 mass concentrated  in PDS
would
be silly. PDS systems are more likely to appear as a screen for
destroying
small floating debris scattered across the ship and included in the cost
of
the hull.

Using the same method Submunition packs are made up of 50 light, 25
medium
or 16 heavy artillery. I haven't done pulse torps (DFFGs?) yet.