In terms of the blockade question, in the event mines are not an option, I'm tempted to pose the idea of a blockade that focuses on the most important planet, supported by a roving patrol that is intended to snag any ships attempting to jump in and resupply other planets.
It will tie up resources, of course, and I'm not entirely convinced it's the most efficient option, but for lack of a better idea that's what I would do.
Locking you up on radar since '09Wow, this thread is quiet.
To help kick it back into life, here's a question for you all:
Since a future military force is probably going to be mostly - or may I be so bold as to suggest entirely - mechanised, that would probably mean that they can act and react faster than ever before. What sort of tactics/strategy might evolve to take advantage of this newfound agility? Or would we just find that it would be more or less the same tactics and stratagems as before, albeit carried out at a higher tempo?
Locking you up on radar since '09^ Partially. The concept of deployability will emerge as a key player. The faster you can move mass amounts of troops, vehicles and supplies over a greater range, the better off you'll be. Air assault will be one of the primary means of accomplishing this type of strategy.
After all in a war that can span planets, you won't be fighting for every inch of ground. If you have the level of deployability to where you can land troops and vehicles anywhere on a planet within 24 hours ideally, hiding in the boonies insurgent style ain't gonna save your enemies.
This concept and the change in strategy is emphasized three-fold if orbital fire support is a thing. (And no I don't mean fling rocks and doomsday shit. I'm talking like the equivalent of parking the battleship Missouri in low orbit and pasting ground targets with continuous fire.)
rollin' on dubs
It depends on how you want to take the world in question:
TEOTWAWKI:
- "Wrath of God": Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, Orbital Bombardment, Colony Drop. Useful for those planets with only military targets or if a villain wants to "make and example" of a city.
- Gamma Ray Burst or Grey Goo (for less hard sci-fi). There was a planet full of life, but not anymore.
Storming the Beachs, And The Plains, and The Cities:
So Dropships, SpaceFighters and Standard Sci-Fi Fleet have encircled the planet, now what?
- What ever you do, don't just land directly on the capital if they have KillSats and other missiles, use Fraction Orbital
approach. Make a half orbit and then land.
- Or Zerg Rush the cities with AttackDrones and lots of DropShips.
- Some would take the cities, others would surround the cities and lay siege YMMV.
edited 21st Feb '14 5:39:53 PM by TairaMai
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....The orbital equivalent of paratroopers would probably deploy via Drop Pods, for those occasions when Drop Ships are too vulnerable. Drop them on someone's head (or behind their front lines) to secure high value locations (airfields, command posts, etc.) or just to force an opening in the enemy defenses for conventional forces (drop ships, ground vehicles, etc.) to move through. Expect some heavy casualties from this approach, as I just don't see how you can drop someone from orbit near a high-value target in anything resembling a discrete fashion.
Generally speaking, I'd say establish a beachhead in a relatively quiet area on the planet, and use that as a stepping off point to launch a massed planetside (air, ground, sea) assault.
edited 21st Feb '14 10:11:40 PM by AFP
You can either do air assault Grenada style and deploy airborne troops via Drop Ship from a distance out in orbit (below the horizon groundside) and move on conventionally. Or alternatively you do Drop Pod assaults Operation: Overlord style and you cover their insertion with precise orbital bombardment of local military targets, mainly Anti-Air and anti-orbital defenses.
I wonder if you can make a Drop Pod or something like it which is the Space Age version of a runaway bouncing cannonball? (Like that scene in The Patriot. You know the one.)
Drop it from orbit at an oblique angle and watch it bounce and crush anything in its path. Obviously it has to be small enough to not be a WMD.
edited 23rd Feb '14 8:21:09 PM by MajorTom
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Isn't that pithy quote the entire thought process behind a Colony Drop?
Someone help me out, who was the World War One flying ace who had his fighter painted up to look like a fish? I'm on a gov'ment computer, so naturally Google is Gimped.
Not sure where this is going. I saw two results. A stunt Biplane done up like a fishing lure and a Donnet-Lévèque Flying Boat that had sort of a fish scheme also referred to as the Flying Fish.
edited 24th Feb '14 8:38:57 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?OK, how about spaceships painted to look like fish. Space Is an Ocean, right?
So...I was thinking...isn't the logistics of invading a planet ridiculously large? I mean I just imagined the so called "invasion fleets" from various tv shows and applied them attacking earth.
I mean outside of planetary bombardment and the tech advantage....what?! Sheer numbers would simply overwhelm them eventually. The amount of troops needed for a genuine planet invasion would orders of magnitude higher than the amount of ships they shown on screen
New Survey coming this weekend!
rollin' on dubs
An Acceptable Breaks from Reality. Most wargames hide the fact that the Soldiers at the Rear far outnumber the shooters. In Real Life, it's 7-12 soldiers who support each troop with two boots, a ruck, a helmet and a rifle.
Cities are a nice pile of resources all gathered up. Farmland will be needed later. Now if Aliens Are Bastards or Humans Are the Real Monsters, they could just do a Colony Drop (a large asteroid would do nicely, as would diverting a comet). The problem with bio-weapons would be risking them mutating or not working if you've made mistakes with your enemies Bizarre Alien Biology.
edited 3rd Jul '14 9:40:43 PM by TairaMai
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....^^ The easiest Hand Wave for that is what you see on screen are purely the warships.
It happens in historical fiction. In Operation: Overlord the majority of vessels in the D-Day fleet were of the auxiliary, support, supply and transport type. The minority were dedicated warships. (A minority of that were capital ships like cruisers.) Yet if you watch The Longest Day, you almost don't see the auxiliaries.
Of course in an interstellar war if FTL capabilities exist you'll get a shuttling of new reinforcements and supplies over time as the Ships Of The Rear move in and out.

It depends on what the fleet's objective is:
edited 2nd Feb '14 2:54:51 PM by TairaMai
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....