RE: [SG/DS] Orbital assault was RE: Troop Quality was RE: [SG2] weapons

Continuing on that thread:

Orbital bombardment doesn't necessarily equate with radioactive slag. 
The large rock, shower of Hyper-kinetic projectiles (Thor?) or possibly
even a mega-large class 8 beam weapon could be used.  The large rock has
the downside that you probably will be lucky to land it within the same
state (or 200 miles) of the target, but Hyper kinetic guided rounds
could probably land within 100 meters of the target and a Beam weapon
that can smack a thousand foot ship at light second distances is not
going to blink at a mere 50,000 miles for a 100 foot non-moving target.  

If you have orbital superiority, it doesn't matter that the class-8
(9,10 whatever) beam takes 30 minutes to charge between shots - your
target isn't going anywhere, or if it does, it can't move fast enough to
make a difference. (Even hypersonic aircraft are only going to get a few
thousand miles away, which will be visible from space).

I can't imagine that there would be more than 100 installations on a
planet worth knocking out militarily, especially if you have orbital
superiority.  So call it 50 hours of bombardment to remove any type of
major military resistance (military bases, supply centers, large
fortifications, automated military factories)  This also assumes that
you've only brought in a single Ortillery ship, three would be more
preferrable to give complete coverage of the globe.

There really couldn't be any serious massed resistance to an invasion
force then - if you mass more than a dozen vehicles in one place, a
single class 10 beam shot will vaporize them.  You would have to turn to
insurgent tactics or limit the fighting to the locations where you know
they won't vaporize you (in the mine shafts, in the power plants) but
will lose a lot of tactical flexibility in being able to choose the
ground in which you want to defend.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Beth.Fulton@csiro.au [mailto:Beth.Fulton@csiro.au]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 5:00 PM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: RE: [SG/DS] Orbital assault was RE: Troop Quality 
> was RE: [SG2]
> weapons
> 
> Bombardment from orbit doesn't necessarily leave you with a 
> nuclear waste ground. If you're from a different species (I 
> was thinking KV strike on humans) or you want the real estate 
> and don't care about the exact state of the fauna or flora 
> then the "drop large rock etc" option is viable. Ecosystems 
> continue after such catastrophes, just not necessarily in a 
> state where all previous community members can participate... 
> but if that is the goal of the exercise in the first place...
> 
> This just wouldn't be much fun to play though.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Beth
> 
> 
> 
>