Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
If you're using drop tanks, probably not.
The weakness of raiders is crippling their engines.
The weakness of raiders is crippling their engines.
Washington/London Naval Treaties
- Thread starter TheDS
- Start date
I was addressing Blackheart/Nemesis. It's a rather specialized asset and mission profile. It's also probably the closest thing to "strategic bombing" in the OTU.
Nemesis jumps while globed carrying a precise vector through jump. After a given amount of time, the globe is dropped, the spinal mount fires on planned targets, the globe goes back up, and the ship jumps away. It's a "shoot & scoot" mission. If enough of the opposition happens to be present, Nemesis globes and jumps away instead of fighting.
You can also see that a Nemesis is going to fire on infrastructure more than shipping.
Jump6 means a Nemesis' is going to get to it's area of operation sooner and that AO can be "deeper" in enemy territory.
Not sure.. I'd have to play it to answer.
I guess in some instances it could be worth for raiding, being able to overjump even the courriers spreading the news of your actions.
As the ships in those missions cannot refuel without droping the globe, their true radius if action would be J3 for the raid (see that if they can refuel in a lightly warded GG deep in enemy territory, their true range from "front lines" may be quite greater).
Not quite sure how this can work, frankly.
First, the ship needs fuel to jump, so it has to come in with enough reserve to do that.
Second, it doesn't know if it's mission can succeed until after it's dropped the globe.
Since, implicitly, the ship will be "near" things as it plans to start firing immediately, that suggests that the defenders will be "near" as well (ye olde things you're in range to shoot at are in range to shoot back).
When you drop globe, you'll be detected and the defenders start rallying and tracking you.
As soon as you globe up, you're a dead duck. You're a nice, ballistic blob flying through space, absorbing every erg of energy they can pump in to you. No agility, no maneuver, no pilot bonus. You don't vanish, you go dark, but not vanish. "They" know exactly where you are, because you're not going anywhere, you're a dead rock hurtling through space. It's you, Newton, and their ballistic computers.
So, you need the fuel to do the jump, and the capacitor depth to absorb whatever they can throw at you before you can light up the J-Drives.
Seems REALLY situational, and REALLY risky. A fine tale, but not something I think the operation planners would consider.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
Pro:
The enemy is probably not fully powered up and at action stations, so no defences active and not ready to shoot back.
Cons:
Any positions scouted from jump distance is weeks old.
Even black globes can theoretically be detected, since they occlude the background radiation.
The enemy is likely near a planet, so you have to jump out from within the grav limit.
The enemy is probably not fully powered up and at action stations, so no defences active and not ready to shoot back.
Cons:
Any positions scouted from jump distance is weeks old.
Even black globes can theoretically be detected, since they occlude the background radiation.
The enemy is likely near a planet, so you have to jump out from within the grav limit.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
It's why astronavigators are paid the big bucks.
Also, this is not what a navy would risk their capital ships on, perhaps a largish cruiser.
Also, this is not what a navy would risk their capital ships on, perhaps a largish cruiser.
J6 vs J4...
The only benefit is deep raid distance. Remembering the absolute lack of current data upon who is where. The Drawback is smaller weapons loadout (24% less hull space for payload & armor)
J6 is good enough for striking at known targets without bases...
... but you don't want to strike at the bases because they're more likely to have strong defenses.
It can Recon in Force, but it cannot deep raid major strategic targets.
The only benefit is deep raid distance. Remembering the absolute lack of current data upon who is where. The Drawback is smaller weapons loadout (24% less hull space for payload & armor)
J6 is good enough for striking at known targets without bases...
... but you don't want to strike at the bases because they're more likely to have strong defenses.
It can Recon in Force, but it cannot deep raid major strategic targets.
Tell it to DGP. It was their idea.
Hence the term "boomerang" fuel. It's not jumping 6 parsecs to raid. it's jumping six parsecs to get to the point where it will raid from. It jumps in a parsec or three with fuel for six parsecs, snipes, and jumps away. Wash, rinse, repeat.
If the vector is wrong, the defenders too numerous, or anything else isn't quite right, you raise the globe and jump away.
Near is a relative term. Weapon ranges are huge. You can shoot at things in Earth orbit from beyond Earth's 100D limit.
Read the section on how light speed lag effects tactics in RSB. You drop the globe and, if don't like what you see, jump away. You could be gone before they know you've arrived.
It's a raid remember. A few volleys at the high port and you're gone. You're not sticking around. You're sniping.
Only if you stick around. Again, read RSB. The intruder had an advantage because they know when the show is going to start.
Siruational, yes. Risky, it depends. It would tie up a lot of forces though. A fully alerted defender looking in the right direction at the right time has as little as one combat round to detect, target, and fire.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
I doubt you can achieve surprise by a double jump; only the Cylons managed that, and they had inside help.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Regular patrolling of empty parsecs.
Xerxeskingofking
SOC-13
unless you have star trek level magic sensors, a parsec is a impossibly large space to patrol. I'd quote Douglas Adams here, but instead I would suggest doing the maths on sensor range Vs a sphere one parsec in diameter. given the detection ranges in traveller, we are looking at millions of jumps to cover a single parsec of space.
add to that all the empty space in the parsec that a system is in, its realistically impossible to patrol that volume. it makes more sense to try and cover the much smaller amount of space that the systems represent.
a fleet at anchor anywhere near the "front" really should not be at total rest while a active war is being fought. Their should be pickets out, ships kept at readiness, and other such contingency planning.
Silverhawk
SOC-12
In theory you could put a net of automated sensor platforms at a given distance from a system. However, then the problem is transmission lag. The data is moving (presuming laser/maser comm) at FTL speed. But it will be old even a few light hours out from a world or system primary.
Detection of the sensor platform will likely result in destruction before enough information could be gathered to determine the intruder's course.
Just a couple of thoughts. Probably not worth even two cents at this point
True, but you can only maintain an alert level for so long which means only a fraction of your force will be active pickets. I'll point to Savo Island, North Cape, and Okinawa for examples of what can happen to exhausted crews.
I'll also remind everyone of the light speed lag effects again. RSB explains it neatly.
Finally, the DGP discussed attacking infrastructure as much as actual shipping. Before you arrive and drop your globe, any intelligence is going to be two weeks out of date. While that BatRon is most likely gone, the high port, orbital yards, mass drivers, Lagrange structures, etc. are still around. All that infrastructure in the outer system hasn't gone anywhere either.
A raider only has to succeed once in a while to maintain the threat. Defenders, on the other hand, have to succeed all of the time.
Xerxeskingofking
SOC-13
Oh, I agree that the majority of the fleet could and would be in in low power, not ready for combat state most of the time, with only a few ships at readiness to counter an attack. and by that I don't mean "at battlestations, ready to open fire at any second", but rather "has full crew and ammo aboard, reactors are lit and the ship can get under way inside a game turn". Since black globes are rare, a fleet defence plan would be on the assumption that you have at least a few hours warning of ships exiting jump before your in weapons range of a enemy.
very true, especially the last point. pretty much the whole point of raiding as a organised military activity (as opposed to piracy and looting) is to force the maximum dispersion of enemy forces with the minimum amount of friendly forces.
