Re: Close Orbit Support (COS) a.k.a. CSS (Close Space Support)

On Tue, Jan 01, 2002 at 02:36:49PM -0500, Z. Lakel wrote:
>I would suggest that the description of ortillery given above is the
upper
>end of it's potential and would expect from thte DS ortilllery
reference
>that it could be somehow "dialed down" to produce an effect no greater
than
>that of a standard groundbased battery.

Here's a thought. If you're invading a planet, you have to carry along
all your materiel - and given the huge costs of streamlining in the
GZGVerse, you're expecting to shuttle it to the surface.

So why not uprate some more conventional munitions such that they can be
deployed directly from orbit?

I'm a big fan of the Thoth missile concept - forward observer with a
designator of some sort, big aircraft away from the battlefield rolling
out missiles - and I think it could easily be adapted here. We've
established, I think, that kinetic weapons are the way to go if you want
mass destruction, but I certainly don't think that that's the only
desired or possible role for orbital fire support.

My vision is of a tactical missile - bigger than IAVRs, the sort of
thing you'd normally see on heavier aircraft - stacked in bundles of 4-6
and wrapped in a reentry shroud and expendable booster. The bundle is
rolled out of the ship, de-orbits itself, splits the shroud when high
over the battlefield, and the missiles find targets as required.

My own FT campaign rules, and others I've read, assume that if you're
the only power with ships over a planet the inhabitants will do what you
tell them. Partly this came from not wanting to write ground-combat
rules, but mostly it seems that:

- the attackers have complete choice of timing of their attacks;
- the attackers probably have better repair facilities (depends on
  whether the planet has a dockyard), though supply is likely to be a
  problem
- the attackers only have a problem at all if they're aiming to keep
  some of the population alive

Roger