Combat-Writing Thread

Yes, but they don't always work properly, especially artillery assign.

Thanks for the advice! Shamefully, I don't have any Tom Clancy books of my own, but I'm sure I would be able to hunt them down.

I was indeed thinking of tanks, though advice for things such as IFVs would also be handy.

Am I right in thinking the basics of tank combat (which Sabre laid out quite nicely on the previous page) would remain the same even if we're talking about the far future?

Unless something big changes and tanks stop being a big gun tied to a box I don't see why not.

Things will change though, the rise of reactive armor and I'm sure active protection systems will shake things up a little. But the basics shouldn't change too much.

For a decent look at future tank combat, David Drake's Hammer's Slammers books are quite good.

Any references for Space fighters? I mean my gut instinct is to say fuck it and just have Space be Air but....

Kerbal Space Program. Dead serious, too, learn your orbital mechanics.

Plus in addition to having wonderfully realistic orbital and space travel physics, it's fun.

Send people to the Mun for shiggles. Just try to collect them again.

Rocketpunk Manifesto and its assorted sites also are very helpful; look for the 15-part article series on what space warfare might look like. Since the articles aren't tagged, you'll have to do some digging, but hey. If you're honestly interested in the subject, absorbing information from lots of well-written articles shouldn't be a chore.

Although the basic conclusion they come to is: the concept of "space fighter" doesnt work.

Watch some of the battles in the new Battlestar Galactica series. It's one of the more realistic representations of how space fighters are supposed to move.

How should I go about describing a one-man infiltration? The infiltrator possesses a version of XCOM: Enemy Within's Mimetic Skin for all intents and purposes (and uses it to get the drop on everyone), but has to interrogate the sentries/guards a la the first Splinter Cell games to get information on where the hostage the infiltrator intends to rescue is.

The characters I would have in mind could be best described as an XCOM covert operative trying to retrieve someone of potential interest vs. right wing militia fanatics trying to burn a witch (why yes, I have been reading the If I Am Ever Head Of An Alien Monitoring Agency page).

"If I am the head of an alien monitoring agency" I didnt even know we had that page. It's awesome!

The standard narrative way of doing what you describe is for your protag to arrange a diversion of some kind- usually a large explosion. He and the hostage can escape in the chaos.

edited 5th Jun '14 9:10:19 AM by demarquis

Ah, the classical one-man infiltration. It's a favorite of movies and video games, but it's not particularly realistic—hence why trying to describe it in a realistic fashion is going to be a problem. Still, all is not lost if you're willing to tone down some of the Splinter Cell aspects of it.

Sending only one person to do everything is an invitation to disaster; that person would have to be well-versed in everything from lockpicking to disabling alarms to physical combat, and even then if he makes the slightest slip-up he doesn't have the backup needed to catch him, or if there's nobody to stand guard when he does his mischief. Therefore, if at all possible, get two people involved; that'd be the absolute minimum. Not only would you have a wider skillset, you'd have a person double-checking work. How to get them into place is up to you, but the less cinematic and the more low-key, the better. (Or you could go the Persephone Hazard route and do a HALO parachute jump onto the roof of a castle at night; scroll down to chapter 1, Bloodstone Caper, for the details.)

The amount that a single person or two people can do is pretty limited; their job is strictly recon: grab the information and get out. As you've no doubt noticed in the EXALT missions in XCOM, if there's any chance of armed opposition at the target, the big guns come out—meaning the snatch team as opposed to the infil team. As should be obvious, trying to outshoot shotgun and SMG-armed guards with a pistol is only going to end in disaster, meaning that the quick-reaction force, the QRF, needs to be ready to respond in a moment's notice. Usually, they do the hostage rescue, since they're equipped for kicking down doors and trading fire with armed oppo; the infiltrator's job is purely to pathfind for them. (Ensure there's some protocol for him not to get slotted with blue-on-blue fire when he rejoins them!)

Well, would noting that the infiltrator is practically cheating thanks to an Invisibility Cloak count? My idea is that such an ability is why he's even attempting to do so in the first place. Not that he's going to do something dumb like stand in the middle of a doorway in front of a sentry, even if they are arrogant mall ninjas. My idea is the infiltrator waits for the sentries to wander out of vision and earshot of each other, then they get picked off.

My reason as to why it's just one man is that the entire thing is a spur-of-the-moment thing, with mission control being simultaneously annoyed (due to the entire invitation to disaster business) and curious as it is very out of character for the infiltrator. Would simply using a somewhat "generic" car to get to the area be sensible?

And yes, there will be a snatch team for exfiltration and any mopping-up required. While nobody can identify the infiltrator, the hostage can be, and in any event nobody is interested in letting the infiltrator remain in the immediate area in case someone does.

EDIT: As to avoiding blue-on-blue, what would be the ideal manner of doing so over radio? I've read Clear and Present Danger and know that not announcing yourself is a very bad idea, but how to do so well?

edited 6th Jun '14 4:42:01 AM by Krieger22

How about a challenge and response that only the relevant persons know?

For a silly example:

"Viper 1-0, this is Overlord, authenticate X-Ray."

"Overlord, Viper 1-0, [CODE]."

Or it could even be something as braindead simple as "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".

Considering the QRF has to be set up ahead of time, he'd better give his superiors some warning if he's to go ahead with it. Even if he's stealthed, he'd have to worry about noise, or thermal imaging (rather rare for most militia outfits to have, but always a possibility), or even the fact that someone might notice that sentries are failing to report in on time. Or if something doesn't go exactly as planned, meaning his margin of error is zero.

Almost no matter what, his job is recon, not assault, meaning he really shouldn't be picking off sentries. Something goes wrong, there's a burst of fire, and everyone's alerted. Basically, the QRF should be called in as soon as he identifies where they need to go. Even with camouflage, the lone Sam Fisher scenario is extremely high-risk and should be minimized.

As for avoiding blue-on-blue, that'd rely on him getting in radio contact with the QRF, authenticating, and then essentially warning them as he approaches them. ("Coming down the south staircase with camo active, don't shoot, don't shoot.")

Alright, so trying to scope out the potential location of the hostage in the "please avoid pouring dakka into this area" is a more sensible idea. So... would picking off some sentries after the QRF has kicked the door down and started engaging them work? I'm thinking of the QRF pinning some down while the infiltrator does the job of actually firing into them.

As to the notification issue, the infiltrator had been expected to need extraction (returning some other information/material) by the time the hostage rescue was needed, and had even signaled for that, but then followed it up with another signal informing HQ of the... contingency. Could that work?

Okay, I have a single combat scene I am working on for a certain fanfic.

The characters are Terry Bramford and Lord Morgaine.

The scenario is that Morgaine is trying to execute his plan, and basically use the entirety of San Jose as fuel for a spell that would propel him to Godhood. To do this, he needs a catalyst, which turns out to be Terry's Love Interest Tasha. As the two of them fight, the tentacles of Morgaine's spell draw more power out of her, in an audibly painful fashion. Needless to say, there's a lot of pressure on Terry. Previously, despite his namesake as a hero, he'd been very, very careful and tried not to badly injure any of his foes. Except with all this going on around him, Terry's not feeling so shy about doing whatever he needs to so as to bring Morgaine down. By the end of the fight, he's very, very sorely tempted to snap Morgaine in two for an attempt at an I Surrender, Suckers.

The atmosphere is the compound Morgaine has set up in which he intends to complete his ritual. It is a very dank, dark, stormy day out, the good guys would prefer to besiege Morgaine and his cult of followers on a brighter day, but this was all they could get.

Goals:

Terry: Rescue Tasha, stop the ritual, defeat Morgaine, but is very sorely tempted to lapse into killing Morgaine in a gruesome manner.

Morgaine: Complete ritual, ascend to Godhood, kill Terry for being there.

Narrative Goal: I want to depict a fight where the two of them are mostly equal, but slowly, it becomes evident that Morgaine does not have the stamina Terry does, nor the ability to keep going even one dreadful blow after the last. Also, it is made clear several times that Terry came close to killing Morgaine off several times during their fight in a very dark manner, but something always happened to prevent it. By the end, it is made clear Morgaine had some serious Sanity Slippage over the course of the fight, and there is a looming sense that Terry is just about to kill his foe at the end...but he doesn't.

I really want to give this arc some closure via an epic fight scene, but I am not sure if I have what it takes to deliver a fight like that.

edited 27th Jun '14 7:40:49 PM by NickTheSwing

Man, I always have complicated things.

So originally one of my characters began the story with a straightforward sword-cut on her leg that heals normally if slowly, but after I tweaked the plot to make things smoother, the sword wound changed to a blood-magic spell that was carved into her leg and explicitly stays scabbed but non-healing for a good two or three months, due to her betrothed the prince interrupting the spell and rescuing her.

Obviously walking around with a non-healing leg wound would suck, especially since she's also his sister's bodyguard and needs to fight several times, but generally it's an homage to Ashitaka's demon-infected arm where it gives her sudden supernatural strength/speed in battle and then returns to a painful resting state when the fighting's over. I'm more concerned that her emotional state is going to be read as some level of inconsistency: Normally she's very personable and courteous, though rather Hot-Blooded due to her fantasy-Celtic culture, but whenever someone even hints at touching her bad leg, she goes into borderline hysterics (of the loud and sometimes-violent nature), even when her own father attempts to heal it.

I can play it as a PTSD-type reaction since she was under a lot of non-magical stress anyway: The royal family was taken hostage two years ago, their attacker has named himself the new king despite the incomplete set of crown jewels at his coronation (he has two of three items, the prince stole back the third) or at least evidence of the royal family's deaths (his main flaw is that he wants the royal family alive so he can rule THEM as well as the country, despite the obvious problems that the heirs have both escaped), and the country is now in civil war as consequence. However, one of the secondary characters is pretty rude and snobby, so maybe she could make a comment about the guard being "whiny" and then get reminded that even normal leg wounds aren't fun, and this one's been magically stuck in the just-got-my-leg-carved-up stage?

edited 27th Jul '14 11:53:03 AM by Sharysa

I think her own father, clearly trying to help her, is pushing the acceptability; especially since many of the stressors for a PTSD-like condition aren't related to her injury directly but rather her living and social conditions. Bascally I'd expect someone in that position to be doing a lot of flipping out.

edited 27th Jul '14 12:04:49 PM by Night

Kay then, going to tweak it to "flips out initially and then manages to calm down once she meets up with her father."

I had a short paragraph of musing about unintended magical side-effects on her mental well-being, but it seems too complicated now that I worked it out. Your version is easier. XD

Don't suppose anyone knows off the top of their head a rough ratio of support personnel to aircraft in a squadron. (Any era welcome.)

A rough figure is 1 combat servicemember to seven yes 7 support troops. A pilot has an entire crew working to make sure the plane is flyable.

Consider the following scenario taking place around a planet with a single moon.

Cruiser-class (629 meters) space vessel approaches planet at high speed, detects five frigate-class (96 meters) enemy vessels via passive radar and visual from 50,000km away. Frigates orient themselves to face cruiser. Cruiser engages in a gravity assist maneuver to gain speed and break away - but as soon as it breaks visual contact by dropping below the horizon, it turns around, retro-burns and decelerates enough to be captured by the planet's gravity and enter approximately the same orbit as the frigates. Cruiser slightly accelerates and slingshots around the planet, coming up behind the frigates. Frigates reorient to face cruiser and deploy spinal coilguns at optimum range but end up limiting their own maneuverability due to flying retrograde: any use of their main engines for evasion would result in them decelerating and losing orbital speed. With their superior maneuverability thus taken away, two frigates are mobility- and firepower-killed before the remaining three deliberately deorbit and escape into the atmosphere. Cruiser moves to follow^note Protocol I Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions (the one that forbids attacks on parachuting aircrews) was extended to cover reentering vessels being fired at from above; once they finish reentering, they're fair game once more but deliberately screwing up someone else's reentry to make them crash and burn is considered excessively brutal but is forced to abort and evade by ground-based railgun battery fire, taking moderate damage in the process that forces it to land on the moon for field repairs (since they don't know the maximum effective range of the ground battery).

Do the physics behind this work?

edited 4th Sep '14 4:28:37 PM by amitakartok

It could be made to work, but there are some practical details that you should be aware of first. When a ship "de-orbits" (I presume you simply mean that they lose altitude, not "de-orbit" entirely) they actually gain speed, not lose it. That's how sling-shooting works. So the cruiser will actually be gaining on the frigates (and increasing altitude) when it comes up over the horizon. The same applies to the frigates- if they fired their main engines retrograde they could actually work it so that they lost altitude but eventually gain speed, and then altitude again (as long as they avoided actually entering the atmosphere- that would change things).

Also- why didn't the frigates position recon satellites on the far side of the planet? Seems pretty prudent to me.