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Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:13 pm
Posts: 283
Location: North Wales, UK
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Very interesting, thanks for posting that, there are some very good ideas in there.
To be honest, the army and air force would be so dependant on the navy I would suggest they may not exist. The degree of interaction required between the three for any successful operation would make this very useful. At the very least most of the training exercises would be combined. The air force/navy difference is also moot I guess  I would not see ground forces determining sucess in any campaign really, as your navy can attack pretty much any ground target with sufficient force to neutralise it. Which means technically infantry taking and holding ground is almost meaningless, unless you want to keep that ground intact. But then again your defenders would know that they could be blown to tiny pieces with ease, so surrender would be likely. And if you cannot have a target, then in theory you would remove the enemies ability to keep it (barring humanitarian issues).
Engagements between rival fleets could be interesting, but ultimately at very long distances. Due to the size of space, it is unlikely fleets will ever meet away from static objectives, namely planets. In space, detection will be key, and you will be able to do it from a long way away, as there isnt all that much to interfere (there are things, suns, black holes whatever will distort sensors a fair bit, so using them could be useful). Once you have detected an enemy, you can launch missiles from huge distances away, until some missiles start getting through (they 'roll back' the defences with numbers or just stealth).
One big problem you have defending a planet, is that your opponent knows exactly where you are. He launches missiles from a huge distance out, with a travel time of 24 hours (using purely momentum for most of the trip), then moves so the launch vessels of the missiles cant be tracked, the missiles are launched in the general vicinity of the planet, in a sense with Semi-active radar homing, as soon as they near the planet, they lock onto ships, engage their terminal phase boosters and hit the ships in seconds.
Its all very hypothetical, and makes some big assumptions, but thats certainly how I see it, and to be honest I don't know how much fun that would be to wargame. Ive done some research into this (not enough it must be said, but there is only so much time in the day...) as Im writing my own starship combat rules, and its tricky. It becomes a battle of sensors and intelligence gathering, where tiny advantages in technology make a huge difference (if your missiles have a slight edge in stealth over their sensors, they are in trouble).
One thing I have ignored is any kind of FTL (Faster Than Light) travel, keeping the assumption this is impossible. This does throw things into confusion, as I feel it takes us back to very close range engagements between big battleships and the like, or at least can, as your ships can just jump in right next to them, without shots being fired as they close...but to be honest the details of that are tricky as the science is totally unknown.
Ive kinda gone off on a tangent to your post CC, but thats largely because I do agree with most of what you posted...
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Reaversbane (or RB for short...)
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). But the current principle of 'rolling back' the defences still applies. You are a static target, and just a couple (or even one) nuclear warhead through does a huge amount of damage.
