Re: [VV] Vectorverse FTL

On Monday 31 January 2005 19:58, Grant A. Ladue wrote:
> > On Monday 31 January 2005 18:35, Ryan Gill wrote:
> > > At 12:36 PM -0500 1/31/05, Grant A. Ladue wrote:
> > > >     The Bospherous (sp?) or Gibralter were pains *for the
technology
> > > > of the time*.  Right now, we'd just pound them day and night
with
> > > > cruise missile attacks until a manned force could just walk
right in.
> > >
> > > That ignores that they don't have their own systems for similar
> > > defense.
> >
> > Lots of ADAF around the gate exit to take out the missiles. Missiles
> > of your own to send back through the gate looking for whatever is
> > throwing the missiles your way.
>
>    And what do you do when the first weapon through the gate is a Nova
> Cannon shot (or some equivalent)?

Not worry because your defences are to the side of and/or behind
the gate so nothing on the other side has an arc of fire that
can hit you.

Exact tactics of course depend on weapons available and the nature
of the gate, but all sides are going to have wargamed the scenarios
to death to make maximum use of both assault and defence. If there's
some super weapon that can be used against the gate defences, then
the defences will be arranged in a way to minimise its effectiveness
(and attackers will of course try the opposite, with the advantage
of probably knowing the defences before hand).

>    I'm not saying that a fixed defense is completely impossible.  I'm
just
>  saying that it's probably so wildly expensive, even around a fixed
point
> like a gate opening, that's you're not likely to see too much of them.

Why should it be expensive? Non-mobile defences don't need FTL drives
or even standard manoeuvre drives. They can be larger for cheaper.
Stick a couple of hollowed out asteroids nearby, possibly with lots
of fighters and you combine mobile defence with heavily fortified
defence.

Such a place would probably double as shipyard and command post, so
you're paying once to defend lots of valuable assets.

> In 
> modern warfare, the best defense you have is mobility.  Once you're
fixed
> in place, it's only a matter of time before the other side can
assemble
> enough to overwhelm you.  If it was me, I'd limit the defenses around
a
> gate to a few class 3 batteries and some salvo missile racks, and get
down
> to the fleet vs. fleet battles right away.

Even if you've been given 100,000 points to defend the gate with? :-)

A fleet isn't going to stop the attacks coming through at 200", a
debris field might. There's nothing stopping you having a fleet and
decent defences (maybe equivalent in firepower to a fleet for an
important base).

What's the point in paying for a mobile fleet if it's just going
to sit in one place all the time? How much you want to pay depends
on how important the gate is, and what your defensive capability
is. If the latter is poor, then maybe you have to use a fleet just
because it needs to cover a lot more than just the gate.

-- 
Be seeing you,				   http://www.glendale.org.uk/
Sam.					jabber: samuel.penn@jabber.org