Originally posted by atpollard:
The situational modifiers make comparisons meaningless. If the infantry spreads out, the vehicles cannot bring firepower to bear - the result is a slaughter for the infantry. If the vehicles engage at the km+ range of the vehicle weapons and sensors, the infantry cannot even shoot back - the result is a slaughter for the vehicles. I'll leave this discussion to y'all.
BTL,
How do you keep vehicles from sniping your grav belt troops from Distant ranges? How many TAC missiles can your grav belted infantryman have? Could a rapid fire laser shoot down incoming missiles?
All of this harkens back to your original proposal that grav belted troops could replace vehicles at high TLs. I still find it an interesting concept, but I have trouble with the superior range, penetration and damage of vehicular weapons and sensors.
How do I keep them from getting picked off at long ranges? The real world isn't flat. While too many Game battlefields are. Long range is great. Long range direct fire against fast moving stealthy targets (Cameoline, full EMCON, small size and no fusion plants), an already difficult target, is made extremely difficult to detect and attack because of intervening terrain. Indirect fire, if you have something that can see or detect the target is a slightly different matter.
For direct fire weapons you are limited by the distance to the horizon. On Earth, which in Traveller terms is a fairly large planet, the distance to the Horizon for a person standing on the ground, or a gunner in a buttoned up grounded vehicle is less than 5 KM. (Provided there are no obstructions.) T20 and CT do not give NOE speeds for air/rafts or grav belts. However a helicopter with a trained pilot, is easily capable of flying NOE using vision as his sensors, at that speed during daylight. (I don't fly, but I have been a passenger for a couple of those flights.) That means that a Grav Belt Infantry unit should be able to cross that distance in 2-3 minutes, less than a minute, if you are prepared to just zip by. (That is still a long time to be in the line of fire.) However during that same time, the vehicle is also within sensor and visual range of the infantry.
A Starship missile (From the assault boat) or an MRL is not limited to the horizon. (And has substantial over the horizon range.) While a remote MRL (Definitely) or a Starship Missile (Less likely.) can be tracked back to the source using counter battery systems, that doesn't do a whole lot of good for the vehicles that are on the receiving end of the strike. 2-4 barrages should give the infantry time to get into range with Ram grenades to deal with whatever is left. Further if the vehicle is using point defense against the incoming barrage, it isn't using that weapon against the infantry.
Now realize that there will, under most circumstances, be terrain, which will limit both your detection range and your fields of fire. If there isn't any terrain that blocks line of sight, (You are fighting on a calm sea for example.) Make some (Hot Smoke/Chaff for example.).
Remember I am not advocating against a combined arms approach. I am simply stating that after a certain point, APCs become obsolete. Further, if you intend to do most of your fighting indoors, or outside of a gravity well, then tanks also lose most of their usefulness and are extremely expensive for a limited use vehicle. Artillery, on the other hand is relatively cheap and requires minimal crew. (Which, in the case of Remote MRL's the gun crew can have additional tasks besides emplacing and recovering MRL platforms.)
