Re: [GZG] Armoured utility vehicles and IEDs in SG/DS

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m: "Eli Arndt" <emu2020@comcast.net>

"Also, I imagine that grav tanks don't spend all that much time in the
air.
This would make them unnecesarily visible and vulnerable to more direct
attack. I imagine they would make good use of pop-up attacks and similar
attacks as modern day attack helicopters."

[TomB] Depends. If you can transit around like a troopship (because
remember, we'll also be talking about AIFVs) and a gunship, you may just
choose altitude. If you can get real altitude, you may well be able to
outrange any smaller AA defenses. If you were fighting an insurgency,
like
they are in some places in the modern day, you might be happy enough to
be
above the ground by a fair piece. And of course, I'm presuming a fair
level
of stealth with grav is also possible which is a PSB choice to be sure.
Once
a fight is joined in earnest or if moving to contact with ground forces
or
to attack an objective, you are probably correct in describing how
high-mode-capable grav would be used. But there are plenty of transit
cases
where I can see just getting up and staying up, way up.

"I am not saying that grav mines don't have a place in some universes,
they
just seem overly complicated for something that could be done without
all
the wizzbang tech."

[TomB] Funnily enough, there are plenty of cases in this world
(especially
when it comes to electronics) where we end up choosing whizbang tech
*because it has become cheap*. If making a grav mine costs some very
small
amount (and it may) and said mine ignores the armour of the vehicle,
then it
may well be better than alternatives that do not ignore the armour. Even
if
you have to penetrate what is effectively ECM (that is various
electronic
countermeasures) or beat some concept of signature (stealth, tricky grav
field manipulations, etc), you may still have a better weapon than
something
that has to breach the hull. A lot depends on the relative difficulty of
getting through the armour vs. getting through the electronic/gravitic
defenses.

[TomB] I don't suggest it is the only tool you would have in  your
toolbox,
but it would be one of them, if your PSB makes such a thing possible.
And I
like it because it adds a bit of sci-fi to the game that fits with
existing
sci-fi bolt ons (grav tech itself) in a way that we understand
militarily
without having to tread off too far into 'how would it work' and 'what
are
the implications'.

-- 
"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a
terrible
responsibility but I have learned to live with it."
Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like
administering medicine to the dead." -- Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine