Re: [SG] Boarding Party Considerations

From: John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>

> I'd put them [DCP] in Powered Armor.
Makes sense but it would necessarily have PA weapons handy.  On the
other hand, they will probably have high-intensity, short-range
cutting tools.

> There's 31 "Other"--sickbay orderlies, auxiliary craft
> crew, galley staff, and general flunkies.  WTF are
> they doing during a battle?  I don't know.  We have
> any former/current aquatic-type people who can tell me
> what these people are doing?	They aren't manning
> secondary weaponry, or doing DC, so what do they do?

Manning secondary weapons and doing DC, and generally being backups in
case the lead man on their assigned job is taken out of action.

> Then you start getting into what weaponry does the
> ship's crew carry?  Naval vessels who are assigned to
> customs and patrol duties will have a certain amount
> of small arms on board for arming boarding and
> inspection parties.  They may even have arms lockers
> for repelling boarding parties.  Does your average
> crewman carry during a battle?  Probably not today,
> but given the relationship between ranges and speeds
> in the GZG-verse, it may become more likely.

They won't unless they're worried about being boarded.	This may vary
a bit by navy--ESU ships almost certainly don't carry armed crew
(except masters at arms and senior officers), whereas AE crew almost
always have weapons.

> Now here's a fun question:  How to model decompression
> of compartments the hard way (Plasma gun, demo
> charge)?  What effects does it have on the crews
> inside?  On the attackers outside?

Bearing in mind that some navies migt start the fight dcompressed.

> What happens if the defenders retain control of the
> artificial gravity?  What if they can play with the
> gravity in the compartments the invaders are in (Now
> it's 0G, now it's 6G, now it's 6G but local down is
> what was local up a minute ago, etc).?

depending on how fine your control of the grav is and the size of your
passageways, you can bounce attackers off the overhead and deck on
something like 1/5 second cycle at 6 gees.  Not very healthy.

  What happens
> if you shoot up the various computers?  What happens
> if Joe Snuffy puts a 20mm grenade into the control
> panel of a fusion reactor?

Probably 9 time out of 10, the fusion reactor shuts down safely.  The