His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
09/17/14 03:01 PM
172.56.20.110
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Yes I know. "Oh my god, not again!"
I thought of a tactic for war ships.
Use a pirate jump in point and accelerate towards the target planet.
As soon as you have a good speed going cut the engines to .01G and deploy the jumpsail. With the jumpsail between the warship and the planet no one on the planet can detect the warship do to the jumpsail is absorbing all light and radiation like radar.
As the warship is getting near the planet have all the dropships disconnect and hit there thrusters to slow down again the jumpsail is blocking all detention of the dropships..
Have the warship pass between the planet and the sun just out of range of the atmosphere to keep the dropships from being detected until the last possible moment. At best the defenders might have maybe an hour to throw up some kind of a defense as the dropships are making landfall at their targets.
After the warship is no longer helping hide the dropships it can pull in its jumpsail and then decelerate and return to the planet.
Something else I was thinking of when it comes to war ships. As they are coming in or leaving a planet it can coast and deploy its jumpsail to save time recharging at the jump point.
Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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Cray
09/17/14 06:34 PM
67.8.171.23
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Short version: it won't work. Good thinking, but a number of factors scuttle the idea.
Long version:
First, jump sails do not perfectly absorb all EM radiation, just most of it. As noted bountifully in BT's art, the jump sail is usually quite visible to the naked eye. More importantly, as noted in the rules, jump sails may be targeted by weapons deliberately - normal targeting systems have no problem aiming at jump sails from hundreds of kilometers. (Also, jump sails have big holes in their centers so JumpShips can fire their engines through them.)
Second, an arriving (or departing) JumpShip puts out a very powerful radiation pulse detectable across most of a star system. It is the single loudest, most easily spotted signal under the sensor rules (be those rules in Explorer Corps, AT2R, or Strategic Operations.) If you jumped to Terra's L1 pirate point between Terra and the Moon, you'd alert sleeping defenders at Saturn and probably be noticeable to sensitive military sensors near Uranus. Anyone on Terra would probably hear the jump pulse in their teeth fillings.
Third, the rules say it takes over an hour (80 minutes) to deploy a jump sail. Again, if you were arriving at the Terra-Luna L1 pirate point, then fighters and WarShips that only spent 2 thrust points per turn (a sedate 1G) would be half done with their intercept flight; they'd be getting ready to flip over and brake to match your velocity.
Fourth, if you ignore point 1, then there's the problem that sensors aren't grouped into one small location on one side of your jump sail. You'll have sensors (probably on satellites or fighter patrols) watching your sides. Heck, you'll probably have early warning satellites at the pirate point watching you head toward the planet.
Fifth, there's the matter that other sensors have a range in terms of the distance between a planet and its nearest pirate points. WarShip and DropShip drive plumes can be spotted at tens of millions of kilometers, much larger than the distance between a planet and its nearest pirate points. Radar is also good to over 100,000km range, which is enough for lots of defenders to watch your brief burn away from the pirate point and get a good fix on your heading before you deploy the visible jump sail. Any attempt to change course while behind the jump sail involves firing a giant atomic blow torch visible at long distances (it also fires through the jump sail).
Sixth, there's a matter of time scale. As noted in point 3, the Terra-Luna region (or equivalent planet-moon areas with pirate points) is a few hours across if you're constantly accelerating and braking at 1G. Orbital space near a planet is even smaller; orbiting fighters can be anywhere in a matter of turns. But that's if you're accelerating constantly. An invading WarShip that fired its engines for just a few turns (a few minutes) if actually going to need a few days (like the Apollo capsule) to drift across the distance between a pirate point and a planet, potentially months if you were using a pirate point formed by a star and the planet. That's a long, long time for defenders to watch you and prepare for you.
There are some chances of making a stealthy approach to a planet.
1) Since the arrival pulse is so brilliantly visible across a star system, you want to jump onto the far fringes of a system. In the case of Terra, you'd want to jump beyond Pluto's orbit.
2) Spend days or weeks accelerating at 1G. Drive plumes are visible at long distances, but not on the scale of the outer solar system. By doing this, you cut hundreds of years of flight time down to a month or three.
3) When you get close to the target planet, hit the brakes. If you were attacking Terra, somewhere around the Asteroid Belt I'd hit the brakes and spend an equal-and-opposite number of days slowing to a near halt. Your remaining speed should be similar to old, interplanetary, chemical-fueled spacecraft, like the Western Alliance's Altair-class. Expect to take 2 to 4 months to finish the crossing toward the target planet.
4) The reason for such a slow approach is that you'll only need to fire your engines for a few minutes when you get close to the planet, or you can even directly release the DropShips and they'll be able to stop safely.
5) The only problem area is the last few days of the approach, when you're vulnerable to radar detection. However, I think you can fine tune your velocity to look like a comet and cross the distance in a matter of hours. Don't aim directly for the planet, keep a clear separation - let the DropShips dart sideways to the planet.
If all goes well, the defenders won't launch an interception until you're a few minutes from the planet. At worst, they'll launch a patrol while you're a few hours away.
Or...
There's the non-stealthy approach. You can jump to the pirate point, hit the afterburners, and get to the planet in about 1.5 to 2 hours. Sleeping defenders won't have time to muster a concentrated response.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
09/17/14 10:48 PM
172.56.21.163
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That covered using the jumpsail to conceal your approach.
What about deploying the jumpsail wail drifting on approach or departing from a planet? Like the time between your accelerating and when you flip over to decelerate? You would be a lot closer to the sun so you can recharge faster.
Another thought what about deploying the jumpsail wail in a planets orbit waiting for shuttles or dropships to unload and load cargo? Since your so close to the sun what could take weeks at the jump point could take hours in planetary orbit.
Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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Cray
09/18/14 05:55 PM
67.8.171.23
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Quote:
His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey writes:
What about deploying the jumpsail wail drifting on approach or departing from a planet? Like the time between your accelerating and when you flip over to decelerate? You would be a lot closer to the sun so you can recharge faster.
Another thought what about deploying the jumpsail wail in a planets orbit waiting for shuttles or dropships to unload and load cargo? Since your so close to the sun what could take weeks at the jump point could take hours in planetary orbit.
This is specifically addressed in Strategic Operations and, yes, you can quick-charge your KF drive when you're closer to a star. For example, Terra is about 10x closer to Sol than the zenith/nadir points, so you could charge in 1% (yes, 1%, not 10%) of the time.
However, the quick recharge rules (first published in DropShips & JumpShips in the 1980s) make something clear: no matter what the source of the quick charging (sails, fusion engine, recharge station), you have a risk of frying your KF core. Recharging in just a few hours (which is possible at a pirate point) makes this chance basically 100%.
You don't want to quick-charge faster than 175 hours. Still, that can shave days of recharging if you're orbiting a dim, red star.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
09/19/14 07:22 PM
172.56.7.198
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So start your burn towards the planet and after a day of burn cut the engines charge for 175 hours then restart your burn planet side then flip and do your reverse burn to slow down. You are still out at a long range for a long charge but your moving towards the planet.
Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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Cray
09/19/14 08:41 PM
97.101.96.171
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Quote:
His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey writes:
So start your burn towards the planet and after a day of burn cut the engines charge for 175 hours then restart your burn planet side then flip and do your reverse burn to slow down. You are still out at a long range for a long charge but your moving towards the planet.
Sure, that works.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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