Well, I was talking about Flanker's Barghest suit. From how s/he describes it is designed to provide excellent protection against sustained anti-personnel fire (whatever that would be in this universe) and be able to survive a few hits by anti-tank fire. However, it's also supposed to be slow as fuck and cumbersome to boot (although less cumbersome than a conventional AFV). It's the speed that's the problem. In open terrain that suit won't be able to keep up with tanks or mechanized infantry, and it's big enough to make a target. In urban terrain it might make for a good armored heavy weapons platform, although at that point I'm not sure why you wouldn't take the pilot out of the thing and make it automated or remote-controlled.
Lighter powered armor, which can remain highly mobile while still offering good firepower and protection, would seem to be overall better. The best option would be those Starship Troopers powered armor suits, which are heavily armored and highly mobile and heavily armed, which makes for a best of all worlds kind of situation.
I doubt that with powered armor we would ever have the kind of jump pack equipped air-assault troopers such as in Halo or Warhammer though, at least not with jumping directly into combat. At least going by current trends, weapons tech would probably outstrip armor tech to the point that, to paraphrase Schlock Mercenary, "A flying trooper wouldn't be air support, he would be skeet."
edited 24th Aug '13 3:25:33 PM by Mars444
Dreams of Revenge
@Taira:
I did intend the powered armour to be used as part of a combined arms approach. I figure that in the future it would be exceedingly unlikely for any one part of the military to act entirely alone (inter-service meddling like that of the Confederate Navy and Air Force aside).
Thanks for the input! Would I be correct in thinking that in certain areas - such as urban warfare - the powered armour might be used to flush out enemies from dug in positions while the tanks or what have you mop up afterwards?
I should probably provide a reminder that the Coalition and the Confederacy don't really have a like-for-like answer to the Sirian PA. The closest to powered armour they've got are things similar to the HULC and Sarcos powered exoskeleton that Taira mentioned. They are used mostly for non-combat work such as logistics, aside from perhaps a few experimental systems that haven't proven terribly effective. From an out of story perspective, this is to provide the Sirian Union with a trump card (though I'd probably feel happier if I had something else to supplement it).
@Mars:
You've hit the nail on the head in your description of the Barghest; out of all the Sirian powered armour, it would be the one most deserving of the title "bullet sponge", since it'll just keep on trucking even if it's barely holding together (not that the other powered armour isn't tough, it's just that they're going to be compromised or destroyed outright sooner* than a Barghest).
However, if its speed is crippling to its effectiveness, then is there anything I can do to mitigate that without making it perfect (or at least so great that it'd be stupid not to make every soldier use one)? The only thing that occured to me is to make its lack of speed irrelevant by ensuring that it deploys once it's already wherever it needs to go*.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Bloody Fossil
Though you've said that urban areas are where a Barghest would be most vulnerable, I'd suggest, going by the second point Taira brought up, that maybe that's exactly where it could be put to good (if somewhat niche) use, supporting regular infantry. Say, you're rooting out resistance in a densely-packed city, instead of sending in a tank or two with your infantry squads, you give them a couple of Barghests.
They give some of the advantages of a tank (big firepower, can take a pounding and draw some enemy fire, a certain factor of intimidation) while mitigating some of the problems a traditional tank (so far as it exists in your setting) would have in the same situation (limited mobility and maneuverability, an enemy's ability to get close enough to exploit weak spots). The limited speed wouldn't be as great a problem either, as it mostly wouldn't need to or even could move very fast in the confines of urban space anyway. Perhaps the sensor system you mentioned could also be set to respond to threats automatically, e.g. returning fire with the HMG when shot at.
edited 24th Aug '13 6:13:08 PM by Catfish42
A different shape every step I take A different mind every step of the line
rollin' on dubs
I took a different tack:
That's why I have the powered armor and other Mecha in my setting glide short distances instead of fly. Aircraft/spacecraft do the flying, they drop them and they glide to the target.
Large Powered Armor is redundant if you have mecha and tanks. As a static defense, I could see a large "suit" or robot (that's what a missile launcher is anyway, a robot that fires a missile when told too). This would be a large, Mighty Glacier, or it might be fixed emplacement with many "arms" (each with a different weapon).
The largest are still smaller than light AFV's only because they are part of "hunter-killer" teams. AFV's, powered armor and infantry. The AFV's have heavy weapons and lots of sensors, the infantry are small, faster in certain terrain (woods, jungle, urban etc) and can do the "hearts and minds" thing.
The power armor is there to bridge the gap. Provide heavy weapons and backup until the slower AFV's arrive. Protect the soft skinned vehicles (many armies use these because they are cheap and lighter) and add their firepower to the rest of the unit. Put on a good network and they can take good sensors to places AFV's can go and would be too risky for infantry.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
In the Honor Harrington backstory, it's mentioned that tanks still exist, but were considered obsolete due to the amount of man-portable firepower that modern technology allowed (basically, any crunchy footsoldier could theoretically carry and fire a BFG that could skewer a tank with a beam of focused plasma, though said footsoldier would probably burn himself pretty badly if he wasn't wearing protective armor, and the gun would be pretty damned heavy to carry for long). Those powers that have such tech capability instead use Power Armor soldiers who can carry quite a bit of heavy firepower, be protected from the collateral effects of the same during a firefight, and which gave them a good degree of mobility thanks to such features as jump jets.
That said, one short story did feature an obsolete tank being used to shoot down a modern military shuttle (being used as air support for the enemy. The shuttle also got a killing shot off in turn, despite the tank being able to use considerable countermeasures to prevent anything but a line-of-sight shot).
One of the recent books features a battle between a group of Manticoran Marines (in Power Armor) and a group of irregular-type bad guys with modern weapons but no armor in an underground hideout. Most of the enemy casualties were due to fratricide and autofrags because the weapons were never intended to be used by crunchies in an age of powered armor. One example being a grenade which had a blast radius wide than the distance it could be thrown by a human. The same battle also had a Manticoran Marine unexpectedly falling through the roof when a roof he lands on turns out to be not designed to support the weight of a space marine in full armor.
Deputy Director, Space-Time Gradient LV-114
When I use multiple intelligent species, I try to make their tactics an outgrowth of their psychology, technology, as well as practical concerns.
Examples: The Ugashi from Ugash are communal, arboreal, semi-humanoid beings with four arms and four flexible octopus-like eyestalks, giving them potentially 360 degrees of vision. They are perfectly at home in the trees and although industrialized they have taken special care to protect tropical forests where they live.
The Ugashi have had space travel via Alcubierre Warp for about a thousand years. Although they have a minimal government called the Confederation, as well as communal tendencies, they can also be very independent, and some of them virtually live aboard their spacecraft. Ugashi starships are small and well armed, though they also have virtually harmless weapons used for games of "counting coo" among themselves. They operate independently, mostly exploring and expanding Ugashi scientific knowledge, but they answer to no agency. Ugashi have no military and being very tribal, little need for police. However, Ugashi train their children in civil defense, including flight combat, and if Ugash were ever threatened, thousands of Ugashi starships would warp to its defense, utilizing group tactics including the swarm model.
I created a race of colonial worms (the "Tantalac") that parasitically infest recently dead flesh and reanimate it. In colonial form, they exhibit intelligence, with each colony behaving like a single individual. With bioships stolen from a conquered civilization, they attempted a larger invasion, but failed because the Colonies had no idea how to cooperate like the units of soldiers they encountered. So they would land troops and weapons, but without other species' in-built cooperative tendencies, they were just picked off one by one. They didn't understand social concepts that weren't based on symbiotic colonial lifestyles. They weren't capable of groupthink or effective coordination, and ended up a bunch of bad-smelling corpses and a blockaded homeworld surrounded by a fleet of nuclear-armed cruisers.
Fungaloids are a non-planetary intelligent species that grows most of their own technology, but can't grow weapons that can be controlled, so they must purchase them from other species and have the superstructures of their bioships absorb the conventional weapons. They favor large, fast-moving, armored and heavily armed dreadnoughts and small combat drones. However they have only a single task force of these ships, preferring instead to meet new species by trading technology. The only time they engage in hostilities is when their planetary economy is threatened. They'd even tolerate an invasion so long as their economy survived. They consider it the basis of their civilization and their strength.
In some of my settings, humanity has been able to create Krasnikov Tubes (a portal network) allowing for almost instantaneous travel throughout the solar system, but have only been able to leave the Sol System by reverse engineering alien Warp Drives (Alcubierre-style Warps). They've just begun to build large exploratory ships with defenses based on the defenses used in the home system.
The problem with Krasnikov Tubes is that they fry digital systems. So a ship has to be thrust through with all its systems off, and reactivated after exit. The Military decided to counter this problemby building entire analog carriers that carry smaller assault craft powered down, in order to counter incursions or invasions. T He portal exits are located at strategic points in the solar system. Variations of the same small but VERY well armed and fast assault craft are used on the large explorer Warp Ships for defense. These assault craft, rather than being "space fighters," are more like Flying Cavalry. They're rockets that burn their fuel delivering a massive payload of weapons and a minimal crew right up in the enemy's face, and attacking the whole time they're accelerating, with long range weapons like heavy tactical lasers and relativistic missiles.
The Warp allows humans to overcome the Krasnikov Tube problems (though the defense network still operates because it's still effective) and leave the solar system but they haven't really developed tactics yet for interstellar warfare because they don't have a long-range strike force and they've never been at war with another species.
Then there are the Dedjerac, who have access to technology that violates our physical laws, because their home is actually a parallel universe with very different physical laws. By manipulating space-time they are able to make their technology work in our universe. Instead of directly harming their targets first, they immobilize them using some kind of energy shield. Then they take over the planet, subdue it and set up outposts to xenoform it to their habitat standards, and come back and destroy the enemy spacecraft later. They travel using spacecraft whose cores are the re-engineered cores of geologically hyperactive rocky planets, each surrounded by a ring of identical, spherical, metallic spacecraft that seem to perform every function in the Dedjerac fleet, including acting as Command and Control ships for armed drones.
And then there are the Paragons who you can read all about in post on Non Lethal Weapons for Pacifistic Species. They use all non-fatal weapons, for personal as well as space combat. The Paragons' favorite field weapon is a multi-function auto-loading dart gun, and their ships use repulsor beams and wormhole/teleportation technology to transport enemy ships far away so they don't pose a threat. They rely heavily on different types of shields, like electromagnetic or gravitic shielding. If faced with a numerically superior force, they'd have Wormhole Bombs they can detonate that would suck an entire Star Fleet in and spit them out somewhere random, light years away.
I also invented a swarm of probes, created by an ancient species, that are like smaller versions of the Doomsday Machine from the famous "Star Trek." They are small probes with a beam that converts matter into energy and stores it either as added bulk in the form of additional weapons, engines, sensors, etc or in some kind of matrix for later use. In this way they absorb a target systems force and can reproduce by using accumulated matter and energy from their incursions. Unfortunately they're strictly sublight, and it's been a long time since they evolved. How lucky for the power-hungry A.I.s that they just happen to stumble upon a wormhole to the Oort Cloud in the Terran Solar System. Unfortunately, as I already stated, Earth's defense system is quite adequate. These probes would use a Swarm mentality probably at first, but would adapt quickly to whatever resistance they encountered, like the Borg before their Villain Decay. If enemy tactics are successful against their tactics, they would simply alter their tactics, either to match or surpass fuel and energy efficiency.
Sepulidae: A very aggressive aquatic species with a combination of squid and worm traits, their homeworld was destroyed long ago, so they scout for Earth-like planets with plenty of ocean water, where they can live. They use a combination of inorganic technology and biotech, and are prone to using combat drones rather than assault spacecraft due to their aquatic physiology. They do, however, have an egg-shaped, three-legged containment suit that is nimble, balanced and has multiple weapons emplacements; Sepulid warriors often wear these suits so that they may fly maneuverable small assault ships without liquid filling the volume, and also so they can set down and have a good ol' time massacring land-dwellers... but that's just something they enjoy, rather than consider practically necessary. The Elite Warriors basically get to go hellblazing, and the rest of their military force (which accounts for most of their civilization) works at disabling a target's defenses with attack drones and huge shipboard cannons.
I've created thousands of species over the years with varying defense strategies from pacifism to pre-emptive strikes. T His is just a sample of creatures I'm currently working with.
edited 25th Aug '13 7:42:04 AM by fulltimed
Dreams of Revenge
Right, I see! I figure that a Barghest would actually be very good for suppressing enemy positions, depending on what it's deployed with (Sirians can already use much heavier and bulkier weaponry than humans even without powered armour, so a Barghest user* can be equipped much more strongly than their human counterparts). Would it be too far fetched to say that a Barghest could almost be used as a mobile emplacement*?
I'll say this - all of the major groups in the setting (for our purposes here, the CUP, the Svina Confederacy, and the Sirian Union) still use tanks* and similar vehicles, though from what you guys have been saying I imagine that Sirian tanks might have less of a role than they traditionally have enjoyed, just because the powered armour's capabilities are significant enough to reduce the need for them. However, even the largest powered armour (in this case the Barghest) isn't bigger than a Sirian tank (MBT or otherwise), and nor can it carry heavier weapons than one. So the tank still has a role to play.
As for the sensor system, it can be set to automatically engage threats with the appropriate weapon*. The Barghest user can override the auto engagement mode if necessary.
@Taira:
Pretty interesting, thanks. So in your setting, AFVs and powered armour almost have a symbiotic relationship. At least, that's my understanding of it anyway. I imagine that it would be similar in my own setting, with powered armour being used both as frontline units and also to wade into areas that more traditional vehicles can't get to themselves.
@AFP:
I've been meaning to at least check out the Honor Harrington books, since they sound rather neat. That's by the by, however.
The balance between offense and defence in my setting is one that I haven't fully puzzled out yet (and so is subject to change), but I imagine that although offensive systems do have something of an upper hand. Not enough to render the tank or similar concepts obsolescent, but definitely enough to ensure that armies can't just sit there all day sipping margaritas (or the local equivalent 
) while the opposing side plinks away at their defences.
@fulltimed:
Hi, and welcome to the thread! 
I like the various races you've come up with. They're certainly more inventive than the vast majority of aliens I've seen*.
That's a very good point, actually, and one that was broached indirectly earlier in the thread I believe. This is one area that I'm struggling in, not least because I want to ensure that there's sufficient diversity of tactics that not everyone is doing things exactly the same way (not least because that would be dull).
The Coalition of United Peoples and the Confederacy (both of which are human - or at least human dominated) have essentially been gearing up for one great big throw down at some point in the future, much like how NATO and the USSR prepared for warfare in Western Europe and elsewhere. The CUP hopes to strike so quickly and so hard that the Confederate decision making apparatus is paralysed or decapitated entirely, whereas the Confederates wager on being able to outlast their opponents and making them pay dearly for every piece of rock that they claim. This would either bleed the Coalition dry* or break their will to fight. Both sides would prefer to wipe out the other as utterly as they can, though in a pinch they'd settle for making their opponent into a vestigial realm that could not seriously interfere with their actions. The Sirian home planet and colonies, as far as they're concerned, are just another pawn in their cold war*, and both sides have spent significant effort in an attempt to convince them to join their cause*. The Confederacy probably encourages independent thought and action more than their counterpart, but the Coalition isn't as rigid and as lacking in initiative as some would think.
The Coalition has the sort of technology that most people think of when asked to imagine futuristic warfare, and it's generally extremely reliable. The Confederates employ more exotic solutions, but it can be more temperamental than what the Coalition fields.
The Sirians, meanwhile, were meddled with (genetically and otherwise =P) by an ancient alien empire to be used as a warrior race*. This occured long before the actual events of the story took place, and so although the Sirians are still heavily militarised it's not as severe as it used to be. It should be noted that when I say "militarised" I don't mean that the military is doted on to the exclusion of all else. Rather, it's a significant part of society that provides a major influence on the Sirian way of doing things.
Technologically, they're extremely advanced compared to what we have today, but they're not quite on the level of the Coalition or Confederacy. If you want an idea of their physiological characteristics and/or how their government works*, you can find that info in the general setting thread that I linked to in the first post*. Feel free to contribute there too, if you wish. /shamelessplug =P
Hopefully I didn't scare everyone away with that wall o' text.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Bloody Fossil
It's kinda hard to say, I find heavy powered armor blurs the line between something that's worn and a vehicle that's operated, but 'pilot' works, to me. Implies a very direct connection to the machine and already isn't limited in use to aviation.
Then I guess that's how you could play it out, deploying very heavy, mobile weapons is still the realm of the tank, MBTs still exist, but otherwise (light tanks, tank destroyers) it has been largely supplanted by powered armor.
And "mobile emplacement" could definitely work. With the HMG and missile pods you say it has, the Barghest is already a moving machine gun nest and mortar position, with the right missiles (~Stinger equivalent) and targeting maybe even a light anti-air emplacement. Add to that whatever main weapon is carried.
A different shape every step I take A different mind every step of the line
It depends on the size and style, but "pilot" implies the presence of a vehicle, not an armor. I'd call power armor operators simple infantry (or power armored infanry) to contrast with the pilots of tiny fire-support mechs (like Flanker's Barghest or FEAR's REV 6, larger mechs would of course be useless and a waste of resources), because even in an environment with lots of power armor, between two sides with equal technological bases power armor equipped infantry would still probably be called "crunchies", given that the weapons and defenses of everything else on the battlefield would have advanced commensurately.
Basically, consider the question of "Can you get out of the thing to piss?" If yes, then it's a tiny mech, and you're a pilot. If no, then it's power armor, and you're an infantryman/woman. It would give a new meaning to "mechanized infantry", but I'd still say infantry.
@Flanker, from the beginning:
Going by a lot of sci-fi settings with, options are to design it so it has a high cross-country speed (although being a big suit of armor, it won't be very manuverable) and/or to give it jump-jets to allow it to traverse difficult terrain (although the physics of that are a lot more difficult and require quite a bit of thought to work in a realistic setting). As it stands, the Barghest only seems like a heavy weapons platform that can also take a lot of anti-infantry fire. That doesn't seem like it's worth putting a sapient being inside it. Tanks can exploit gaps in enemy lines, spearhead assaults, and flank and roll up enemy formations, things which require a quick thinking tactical intelligence to do. The Barghest shoots guns and gets shot, which really doesn't.
Drawbacks of a suit that is heavily armed, heavily armored, and fast can be many (and you can think of it along the lines of a M1 Abrams). The suit could be extremely pricey, limiting the number of them that could be deployed, or extremely difficult to operate. It could need a lot of power to keep running, limiting its range to the support troops who have extra fuel for the suit's power generator or spare batteries. The more sophisticated a piece of equipment is, the more parts are in it that can break, and given that the Sirians have the lowest technological base of the factions you have their stronger power armors could also be finicky and require extensive maintenance.
Here's a question, Flanker: if the Sirians are the least technologically advanced of the factions, why are they the only ones with widespread use of power armor? If power armor is available in-universe, then there is no reason why frontline infantry would not be using it, especially as guns get bigger and bigger. And protection is not the most important aspect of power armor: instead, it's the increased mobility offered by power armor and the ability to much, much more gear, weapons, or ammunition. Standard issue, fairly light weight "Infantry" power armor should be used by everyone.
RE Honor Harrington: Tanks being obsolete is a function of how the technologies that Weber set up work. There are no "energy shields" in that universe, or at least ones that can be scaled under spaceship-sized.
edited 25th Aug '13 4:18:00 PM by Mars444
Indeed, for the first six books or so, anything smaller than a destroyer was considered cannon fodder in space combat, and in planetary combat, it was pretty much about who could lay down firepower more effectively. The inability to generate protective shielding for anything smaller than a jumbo jet (or for anything that operates in an atmosphere) pretty much precludes traditional armored vehicles in that setting.
HGW XX/7
Technical term for powered armor user: Got to be "knight".
Schild und Schwert der Partei
Deputy Director, Space-Time Gradient LV-114
Thanks, Flanker
Dreams of Revenge
Hi, Achaemenid! It's good to see you here. 
@PA user technical term chat:
Hm... how about we split the difference and say that the Coalition and Confederates refer to them as "pilots" or "[powered] infantry" (PI for short?) but the Sirian term is the local equivalent of "knight"*?
And "mobile emplacement" could definitely work. With the HMG and missile pods you say it has, the Barghest is already a moving machine gun nest and mortar position, with the right missiles (~Stinger equivalent) and targeting maybe even a light anti-air emplacement. Add to that whatever main weapon is carried.
That was roughly what I was aiming for, yes. I imagine the powered armour's anti-air missiles are sort of like larger MANPADS*.
I haven't decided on the Barghest's main armament, but one possible idea that occurs to me is something like a futuristic GAU-8*, designed to chew through enemy armour (and if necessary infantry) like a hot knife through butter*. However, ammunition would be an obvious issue. I can easily imagine a trigger happy newbie burning through their entire supply of shells too quickly - trigger discipline would be something that needs to be emphasised throughout training.
Thanks for the input*! Based upon that, an idea or two presents itself to me:
1. The Barghest is deployed as is during the early stages of the conflict, but after finding it rather niche in its application and not that effective* it's dispensed with (or relegated to units behind the front lines) and work is done on creating a successor armour that's much lighter and more agile but still incorporates some of the better elements of the design. Being based on an existing powered armour might save costs, I imagine (especially the Wolf, since it is the most easily customisible suit). Being given the name "Barghest II" optional.
2. As above, but instead they simply gut the life support and other systems necessary for a living being and replace it with drone hardware. This would be very workable, and at the least it would be consistent with Sirian drone design (which tends to favour very tough, heavily armed machines to make up for the fact that there are less of them). Perhaps it could be used as an interim measure?
Regardless, I imagine the surviving (which would have been modified along the lines you suggested) Barghests would be husbanded very carefully and only committed when they'll do the most good. Though this could also lead to situations where Barghests could have affected the outcome of a battle, but were either deployed too late to influence the situation or weren't deployed at all. But hey ho, nobody's perfect!
@Only Sirians having PA:
The question you've posed is one that's occupied a lot of my thoughts, especially since the human factions aren't idiots. I don't want to fob off people with a low effort answer, though I've found myself struggling to come up with a solution that satisfies me*.
As a result, I'll post some potential explanations (which may make more sense for either the Confederation or Coalition) and let you guys decide what makes the most sense. Personally I believe that it would require a cocktail of different issues to do in a human powered armour programme. My apologies if the explanations aren't sufficient.
1. Political considerations. Perhaps some big wig general who greatly favoured traditional tanks (or politician taking payments under the table from a tank manufacturer) caught wind of the powered armour development efforts and exerted political pressure to freeze or slow the programme(s). Perhaps there wasn't the political will necessary to continue research. This last point would be more important if a more left leaning government is in power, since they would likely wish to cut defence spending.
2. Economic issues. Developing powered armour would, I imagine, require a significant investment of cash that has to come from somewhere. During leaner times it may be difficult to justify the existence of a research programme dedicated to something that might appear of no real benefit to a government presiding over an ailing economy (or indeed the voters who have to live in such economic conditions). This dovetails nicely with the above point, since the political willpower may just not be as significant as it would be during the boom years. This may be magnified if other expensive technologies need to be researched to make powered armour viable.
3. Technical issues. A series of well publicised failures (especially if they lead to injuries, loss of life or destruction of the prototypes) might make it difficult to secure further funding, particularly if the prototypes or test models do not exhibit any significant gains over more "traditional" systems that are already well proven and comparatively cheap to produce. The technical expertise just might not be there, or if it is it might be highly experimental and difficult to utilise reliably/cheaply/safely etc.
I would be very surprised if the Coalition and Confederacy didn't attempt to emulate Sirian PA once they see its effectiveness, though. After all, many armies throughout history have pounced upon new innovations as soon as they've made an impact.
Hopefully that's a satisfactory explanation! I didn't expect the powered armour to be such a big topic of discussion, though in hindsight it makes sense (and I'm rather glad it was brought up, since folks are pointing out things that I hadn't considered, or that I had considered but not in enough detail).
@fulltime D:
No problem, my friend!
edited 26th Aug '13 2:59:27 PM by Flanker66
Locking you up on radar since '09
I had a fun idea for a jet-pack trooper (possibly a Power Armor user), called the "Hop Light".
Bonus points if the first ones used and called such (maybe as a nickname) are a Greek military unit.
Eye'm the cutest!
^ People are gonna ticked off at such users. Mainly for letting them in on such a horrid pun.
"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."
Dreams of Revenge
Hah, that'd be pretty neat, though I keep wanting to rewrite "Hop Light" as "Hop (Light)". Don't ask me why, it just seems... right.
Also hi, Major Tom.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Zzzzzzzzzz
It does seem right-er. Maybe introduce another type first, with heavier armor and larger weapons, called Hop (Heavy) units.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Dreams of Revenge
@Madrugada:
I think it might be because it sounds closer to something that a military force would name their equipment? If that phrasing is a bit clunky to repeat more than a couple of times, you could resort to shortening it to something like Hop-L and Hop-H.
Also hello, and welcome to the thread!
I'm not sure what extent of discussion of weaponry/equipment would be appropriate for this thread; it's a bit late to say "no discussion" since I've already engaged in some lovingly written paragraphs. Should they only be discussed in relation to how they might be employed*, or should it be permissible to let descriptions of weapons and equipment stand alone, as it were? I'm tempted to say the latter, but I am concerned it might fall outwith the topic of the thread.
On another note, I think I might discuss Coalition defensive tactics & strategies at some point in the future, especially since I still have yet to suss out the tactical thinking of my other two factions*.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Oh-ho-ho, definitely introduce them initially as Hop (or HOP, if I can figure out an acronym... ) troops, then maybe as the jetpack technology gets better, introduce a heavier variant (the "Hop, Heavy" trooper), maybe later going back and reclassifying the original ones as "Hop, Light" troops.
If I can stretch it out long enough, it'd make for a great Brick Joke pun.
rollin' on dubs
I'm going to post a bit more on my setting on the tactics and tropes side. As soon as I get my stuff (tropes, infos and such) in order...
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48
Deputy Director, Space-Time Gradient LV-114
Star Trek Deep Space Nine is actually a great example of sci-fi tactics. It's not particularly realistic (mostly capital ships fighting, and Space Is an Ocean, of course) but there were wings of Strike Fighters and similar attack craft operating in concert with larger cruiser-type ships. Although the ultimate reason was budget (it's unrealistic to come up with sixteen different kinds of Jem'Hadar warship, so they stuck with the one, later two large cruiser types and the common attack fighter). Basically, the Federation-Klingon-Romulan Alliance had way more different and specialized types of ships, from the powerful, maneuverable and fighter-like Defiant plus the Federation Fighters and fighter-like Klingon Birds of Prey that operated like a flying cavalry, preceding the main fleet and punching holes in the enemy's defenses. Then the big ships like the Romulan Warbirds, the Klingon Battlecruisers and the Federation mostly cruiser-type ships would strike at the ships who'd been softened up by the first wave. They kept doing this and beat the Cardassians out of Bajoran and Federation space.
Personally though when I write Sci-Fi I try to make it laser/missile duels between ships at very long range. Use the lasers for missile defense until your smaller assault boats (which are NOT Space Fighters, at least according to the technical specifications and the pilots who fly them) have opened a hole in the defenses, switch your lasers from targeting the missiles and use them against the enemy ship firing the missiles. Do it right, enemy ship explodes. Do it wrong, you're vulnerable to attack. Battles take place of distances of several light seconds. Lasers are light-speed weapons, obviously, and the missiles are usually relativistic unless a specific kind of payload/warhead is called for, like a compliment of armed drones or something.
edited 28th Aug '13 4:36:02 AM by fulltimeD
Zzzzzzzzzz
AFP in #45: That's what my thinking was. I consider the lag time between hearing something and realizing it was a pun to be a big part of how good of a pun it is. The longer the lag between delivery and groan, the better.
Acronym for HOP: Hover Operations Personnel
edited 28th Aug '13 7:21:55 AM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
I was thinking "Harassment, Observation, Persuit", have the acronym describe their specialized role rather than their specialized mode of transport.
Zzzzzzzzzz
That works too. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Unless you're taking about Starship Troopers style powered armor, there's no reason PA can't work alongside tanks. To whit:
- Yes a PA pilot can't ditch like a tank, but many tankers do get trapped in burning vehicles. It's a common fate in tank warfare.
- PA squads could replace light tanks and act as "super infantry": more armor and more flexable in urban terrain, able to tote more weapons that the standard mudfoot. Many tanks might have "handholds"/mounts for powered armor to ride on. A reactive armor bit going off won't hurt a pilot in a suit.
- A tank is a bully in an urban environment, but a bully with a glass jaw. Clamp charges to the tank, drop sticky bombs, molotov cocktails and it's done. Infantry are supposed to protect the tank but what about IE Ds? Powered Armor gives more protection and bridges the gap.
- The Real Life items like the Sarcos Exoskeleton and the HULC are designed to take lots of the stress off a soldier from carrying 50kg(100lbs) of gear around. Sci-fi versions would enable troops to carry lots of gear.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48