Conventional Warfare

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Has anyone ever played a game where they somehow disabled Trans-Newtonian tech and played a whole game with conventional technology only?

I want to make a starting scenario similar to the Expanse where Mars and the Jovian moons are independent and in a Cold War. However, due to the lack of PD defense I'm afraid this would just devolved into both sides flinging missiles at the other with no way to intercept said missiles. There is also no way to ferry troops to invade anyone.

Can anything be done about this, or is having a satisfying Conventional War inside Sol not practical with the current mechanics?

[RougeNPS]

I mean...couldnt you just limit the TN tech that is used?

[Borealis4x (OP)]

I mean...couldnt you just limit the TN tech that is used?

I suppose at this point (taking out TN tech) its not much of a stretch to add in vital techs for a more fleshed out conventional experience.

Lets see, you'd need to add in:

Conventional Beam Weapons, starting with autocannons (gauss weapons) and culminating in basic railguns. Perhaps even lasers but they would be energy-prohibitive in most cases due to privative reactor tech. Might use gauss weapons as actual anti-ship weapons in super-close quarters battles when the missile run out (like you see in the Expanse).

Privative sensor tech for passives, actives and FCs.

[liveware]

You cannot target missiles without active sensors which are not available until after TN tech is researched. So ground combat is really the only pre-TN option available.

EDIT: Boarding combat might be possible pre-TN (can't remember off the top of my head). You might be able to research boarding pods but still run into problems trying to board a ship without an active sensor lock. I've never tried boarding without an active lock.

[nuclearslurpee]

I looked into this a while ago, and concluded that purely conventional warfare is impossible as it stands presently:

• No beam weapons are available, even though BFCs and reactors can be designed and built.
• Active Sensor Strength is gated behind TN tech, so you cannot design MFCs, not to mention no active sensors to target with.
• Ground units are almost completely extraneous as troop transports are gated behind TN tech (inexplicably, IMO). The only way to "transport" them is to transport GU training facilities to another body and build them there.
• Colonization is virtually pointless as geosurvey sensors are, you guessed it, locked behind TN tech.
• Finally, with jump drives locked behind TN tech (this actually makes lore sense), no extraterrestrial encounters are likely to happen unless a superior TN-having NPR jumps into Sol and probably starts blasting you apart.

There was a petition in the suggestions thread for Steve to change some of these things but thus far I am not aware of a change.

There's two ways you can get around this using SM. The first is to just SM the necessary techs and then un-research TN tech, however due to the way prereqs work this will allow tech lines such as sensors or jump drives to develop to quite advanced TN levels while other techs such as engines stay at conventional levels, which is rather incongruous. If you house-rule not to research those techs it will work fine. The second way is to SM the necessary techs, then design nearly-conventional components (active sensor, basic railgun, etc.) and then un-research all of the associated techs leaving just the components available. This will prevent extra research and limit the available components (e.g. you can only use one of the pre-designed active sensors and cannot create a new one).

If you plan to just fight a short-ish Solar War scenario with little to no tech advancement, I'd suggest the second option. If you plan to RP a longer conventional period into eventually developing TN tech then the first option and some house rule/self control will probably work better.