Sirius Business - a C# Aurora forum game. v2.5

[GarfunkeL]

Does orbital bombardment by laser cause damage to ground structures, too?

Is it possible we'll encounter more Rakhas planets?

Everything causes collateral damage, just in different measures. Missiles and heavy artillery cause the most. Orbital beam weapons cause little, which is why hitting a unit is so difficult.

And absolutely possible to meet more Goon planets, though their tech level might be different.

 

[randakar]

Good to know, means I won't necessarily have to avoid any rakhas planets I encounter like the plague in my games.

 

[blue emu]

Our orbital bombardment has reduced the opposing force from 3,900 tons to 3,800 tons (originally 10,700 tons before missile strikes).

---

Picked off another one!

 

[blue emu]

We've just fired off the last of the missiles in Iche Bins' magazines. They will take a few minutes to run in to target.

The Escort Force is still rearming their Fighter squadron.

 

[blue emu]

The Sabres have picked off a third AA-Tank (not the Battlewagon mentioned above). Missiles got two more, earlier.

Now down to 3,700 tons.

 

[blue emu]

The Destroyers and Frigates will arrive to join the bombardment squadron in twelve minutes.

The Troop Transports will arrive to begin reloading in 55 minutes.

Unfortunately, the gun action forces us to take nothing but 5-second turns.

... so that's 660 turns just until loading begins...

 

[randakar]

I just had a thought.
- Beam weapons have low accuracy, but do little damage to the planet
- Missiles cause nuclear fallout, but have high accuracy

How does this picture look for laser warheads? I presume they have the same accuracy as regular missiles, but do they also damage the planet in the same way?

 

[blue emu]

Four Blaze III class Spinal Mount Destroyers pull within range of Klendathu and open fire, adding their weight to the bombardment covering the evacuation.

They continue closing, to bring the target within range of their PD armament as well.

---

I just had a thought.
- Beam weapons have low accuracy, but do little damage to the planet
- Missiles cause nuclear fallout, but have high accuracy

How does this picture look for laser warheads? I presume they have the same accuracy as regular missiles, but do they also damage the planet in the same way?

Worth testing out. I'm sure we'll find more of these clowns.

 

[blue emu]

The last salvo of Iche Bins' missiles approaches the planet. The escort force still has some missiles left, and a Collier from Earth is en-route.

 

[blue emu]

The Destroyers and Frigates have finally reached PD range of Klendathu and all twelve ships opened up with theit secondaries...

... destroying three Goon units in the first five seconds, including a Battlewagon!

Is point defense the way to smash them? Or was that just a lucky shot?

 

[blue emu]

The last of Iche Bins missiles are about to impact. The Escort Force is still rearming their strike.

 

[blue emu]

The missile strike took down eight tanks. Not bad for the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.

This reduced the remaining Goon force to 2,700 tons.

 

[blue emu]

Nice. Two more nasty tanks gone.

The PD fires most of the shots and gets most of the hits, but the Sabres with that 16-point Spinal Laser attack get a large percentage of the actual kills.

 

[randakar]

I'm guessing the number of kills is also increasing simply because all of the plinky hits wear down the armor.

I'm very curious what we'll find down there when this battle is over.

 

[blue emu]

Three of our 23 ships have already ceased fire due to their rapidly emptying spare parts lockers.

I'm guessing the number of kills is also increasing simply because all of the plinky hits wear down the armor.

I'm very curious what we'll find down there when this battle is over.

If we withdraw, we'll have to do this all again later. We'll see if we can kill him before then.

I rather suspect with ground units it doesn't keep track of armor wear... there's way too many to track individually. The hit/kill system for ground units is probably similar to Syd Meier's CIV series, where you sum the squares of the opposing forces and compare a random number to see if you nail him.

Eg: a 1-point attack against 3-factor armor has a 10% chance of a kill, because 1^2 + 3^2 = 10.

 

[blue emu]

We've worn him down to 2,300 tons. Not much more than 20% of his initial strength.

 

[blue emu]

Our Gauss PD vessels are rapidly running out of spare parts... but the Sabres and the Destroyers get most of the kills anyway.

 

[RobbieAB]

If the orbital bombardment keeps up, is the evacuation going to be required?

Are there any tricks you can pull to increase the accuracy of laser weapons in this role? I mean, once you have suppressed their ability to shoot back, in principle you should be able to just sit their grinding them down as long as you can keep laser ships on station.

 

[blue emu]

One of the Sabres has ceased fire rather than risk a breakdown that it no longer has the spares to cover.

I have plenty of spare parts in the system, but we're on five-second turns and resupplying takes a few hours.

If the orbital bombardment keeps up, is the evacuation going to be required?

Are there any tricks you can pull to increase the accuracy of laser weapons in this role? I mean, once you have suppressed their ability to shoot back, in principle you should be able to just sit their grinding them down as long as you can keep laser ships on station.

I've been thinking exactly the same thing.

The closer the Tugs get to the planet and the closer we get to beginning the actual boarding phase of the withdrawal, the more reluctant I become to carry it out and leave. I think I'll just move the troop transports onto the stack and then WAIT to see how the next ground combat goes.

 

[blue emu]

I think we'll just get READY to evacuate, but not actually start loading the troops.

Instead, when we run too low of spare parts we'll draw off and replenish from the Tenders and then resume the bombardment.