Bertil <referring to Steve's>:
>> Boarding actions are a really neat trick unless you have blown away
>> the maneuver drives in advance. But if that is the way you want it...
> The subject was touched upon once or twice during the seminars and
>some sort of grapplingboats was mentioned.
> (Actually, a 6g ships-boat with *really* fast (AI?) comp might be
>able to match speeds with ships of lesser agility?)
I doubt it would ever fly. If I was a peaceful merchantman being harassed
by pirates, I suspect that I would be less concerned with the condition of
his ship than he is with mine. So for the several hours he tries to get
close enough to board, I think I would be burning big ugly holes in his
ship. And popping nukes off nearby. And his "grapplingboat" would have
to get through a cloud of missiles and laserbeams intact before he would
even have a CHANCE to dock.
Board and storm only works if (1) the stormers don't care what the condition
of the target is when they get there (and so can afford to blow big, ugly
holes in the ship to kill its weapons and M-drives first), or (2) BOTH
ships WANT to board and storm. Which would be an insane attitude for a
merchantman to have.
It also helps to keep in mind that the pirate only has 4.5 hours to detect
the target and close with it before the jump button is pushed. Only 1.5
hours if the merchant captain is willing to take a chance on a 10 diameter
jump. So that pirate has got to be awfully close by to have a chance in
hell of executing a boarding action. (within 425,000Km, assuming ideal
geometry for the chase, and that the pirate can detect the target, and
begin chasing within 10 seconds of the target's departure from orbit. And
that only gives the pirate about 5 seconds to execute his boarding action
before the jump button is pushed. If we allow ten minutes for a boarding
action (which is optimistic, unless merchant captains are chosen for abject
stupidity), then 300,000Km is the critical distance, again assuming ideal
geometry for the chase, and a start within seconds of the target's
departure. This is assuming a 1G merchant and a 6G pirate, of course.)
---Steve
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