Author Topic: Orbital bombardment  (Read 6906 times)

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Offline Foolcow (OP)

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Orbital bombardment
« on: April 07, 2011, 09:57:01 AM »
What ship-based weapons do you need to bombard a planet from orbit?  Can it be done with laser-based weapons?  Do you need missiles?

I found the home planet of a pre-industrial civilization, and I want them dead.  I'm trying to find an easier/quicker way than conquering them with ground forces and then transporting them to an uninhabitable moon.
 

Offline Hawkeye

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2011, 10:25:18 AM »
Um, why are you wasting a resource? Conquer them, garrison them and let them pay taxes!

Anyway, to your question:

Lasers (and Particle Beams, for that matter) work for planetary bombardement, but their damage is reduced by the atmosphere (Actual Damage = Weapons Damage x  (1 - Atmosphere Density), rounded down.
Example: A laser dealing 4 pts of damage  will only do 2 pts of damage to a ground target through a 0.5 atmosphere (4 x 0.5 = 2), if the atmosphere would be 0.6, it would only do 1 pt of damage (4 x 0.4 = 1.6, rounded down to 1) This also means, atmospheres of 1.0+ make lasers/Particle Beams useless.

Mesons and Gauss are useless in a bombardement role (gauss, because even a very thin atmosphere reduces their damage to 0 and mesons can´t be used against ground targets at all)

Missiles work best, but leave you with a radioactive wasteland buried under meters of snow (nuclear winter
Ralph Hoenig, Germany
 

Offline Foolcow (OP)

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2011, 10:48:25 AM »
Thanks for the help.

Do plasma carronades work for orbital bombardment?


As for why I'm wasting "a resource," I guess you could say it is for role-playing purposes.  Resources are only useful if they serve my purpose, which in this case is to secure more habitat-space for humans.

I am aware that population-growth of one species is not affected by the presence of another species, but I choose to disregard that; I think it should be changed, because resources are not unlimited.  If my human population grows at 10% per year on a newly colonized low-pop world, it shouldn't be able to achieve that same 10% on a world full of aliens no matter how friendly they are.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2011, 10:58:07 AM by Foolcow »
 

Offline Hawkeye

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2011, 11:30:43 AM »
Plasma Carronades should work like lasers and particle beams.
Ralph Hoenig, Germany
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2011, 01:15:10 PM »
With the exception of Meson Cannons, all beam weapons are subject to damage reduction do to atmospheric density.  While you can target ground troops with beams they are in-effectual, you'll get a message to the effect that beams are to precise a weapon.

Missiles have the inherent issues that hinder your colonizing the planet post genocide event.

Your best bet is pounding PDC's from orbit with mesons, and landing a lot of ground troops.  My experience is that having at least 2 divisions that can be dropped is a good start.
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline Thiosk

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2011, 01:52:05 PM »
Simple question: when you conquer and garrison a planet, can you exterminate their populace, or are you now a multiracial empire?

Aliens are best studied through a rifle scope.
 

Offline Karlito

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2011, 02:12:15 PM »
If you want them dead, your best bet is to put a bunch of terraformers in orbit and pump toxic gasses into the atmosphere.  That'll allow you to keep their installations intact as well.
 

Offline Rastaman

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2011, 02:12:35 PM »
Isn't there an enslavement option?

Another frequently quoted idea is the addition of toxic gases to the atmosphere via terraforming. Flourine or Chlorine for example.
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Offline Shadow

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2011, 02:32:56 PM »
If you want them dead, your best bet is to put a bunch of terraformers in orbit and pump toxic gasses into the atmosphere.  That'll allow you to keep their installations intact as well.

Might as well launch a planetary invasion. A developed world would take ages to be chemically "cleansed", and then you'll have to extract all those toxic gasses from the atmosphere for the sake of your own colonists.

Conquered populations go through four political phases of productive inefficiency before they're finally integrated into your culture. I think it takes them at least a year to go through each phase. But I guess you can gradually ship the aliens off to some inhospitable planet if you have enough colony ships. Said planet might not, well, have enough infrastructure. ::)

But then again I don't know if you can merge an empty alien population (and all its structures and things) with a human one on the same planet.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2011, 02:34:58 PM by Shadow »
 

Offline Thiosk

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2011, 02:44:58 PM »
Aliens are best studied through a rifle scope.

I want them gone.
 

Offline Brian Neumann

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2011, 02:56:30 PM »
Even a developed work will have a problem building the infrastructure to protect the population.  It only takes a .01atm amount of a gas in the atmosphere to jump the habibility index up to 2 or 3.  For this I would go for Bromine which i think is a 3.  This will give you a -75% growth rate.  In addition their ag sector is going to grow from 5% to 20% of the total population which is going to shrink the population available for building things from 20% down to 5%.  This means they will probably only be getting 1/2 thier industry working effectivly, and this only if they shut their shipyards, reasearch facilites ect down. If they go the infrastructure route they need 300 infrastructure to save 1 million population.  Or they need to have a faster terraforming rate than the terraformers in orbit have.  

This is actually pretty terrifying to look at.  I moddeled the effects using a standard 500m population start on earth and adding .01 atmosphere of Bromine.

Brian
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2011, 02:57:08 PM »
<snip>you can gradually ship the aliens off to some inhospitable planet if you have enough colony ships. Said planet might not, well, have enough infrastructure. ::)<snip>

Closest solution to GFFP in Aurora
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline Rastaman

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2011, 04:16:07 PM »
Closest solution to GFFP in Aurora


GFFP?

Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership?
Gumby's Final Fantasy Page?
General Fund Food Program?
Gates Formed Fibre Products?
Grace Factory Farm Project?
Global First Financial Partners?
...
...
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Offline Erik L

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2011, 04:26:11 PM »

GFFP?

Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership?
Gumby's Final Fantasy Page?
General Fund Food Program?
Gates Formed Fibre Products?
Grace Factory Farm Project?
Global First Financial Partners?
...
...

Genocide For Fun and Profit

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Orbital bombardment
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2011, 04:27:26 PM »
Genocide For Fun and Profit

A popular, though very exploity tactic in Starfire

Matt

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