Re: Forcing fights

G'day Mikko,

 >There wouldn't BE any convoy if the nation running it wasn't so
 >gentlemanly as to give their enemies a shot at destroying the cargo.
 >THAT'S what I'm getting at.
 >
 >If I was playing the defender in that scenario, I would be asking:
"WHY,
 >oh WHY, would I use transports that are actually slow enough to be
 >caught?"

I haven't been paying attention so I may have the wrong end of the stick

here <if I have feel free to belt me with the right end ;)>, but the 
construction of merchantmen (at least when a conflict begins) isn't
going 
to depend on whether they're going to get caught or not but how cost 
effective it is. If I give my merchantmen a mass/size that makes it
worth 
hauling cargo from one end of my mega-super star empire (stop sniggering

the IAS, Independent Antarctic States for the new comers, WILL rule the 
universe someday....) then putting engines on it is going to take up
more 
valuable cargo space than I'm willing to sacrifice. So I end up going
slow 
enough that I'm gonna need escorts to protect them, but if they're going
to 
the job properly they're going to have stay at the cargo haulers speed
most 
of the time (at least until something turns up to threaten them) and so 
interceptions can happen.

Sorry if that was completely NOT what you were talking about.

I'll shut up now ;)

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
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AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au