Roger replied to me: > >One thing I've been wondering about, the usual assumption in literature > >seems > >to be that battlesuits are issued to privates fresh from boot camp, and that > >battlesuits replace unpowered troops at one for one in an infantry TO&E. How > >reasonable is that? > > It depends on how hard it is to produce an effective battlesuit > trooper, and to a lesser extent how much the suits cost (that can be > ignored in a high-intensity conflict). Take the training plus > equipment budget for one battlesuit trooper. How many unpowered > infantry does that give you? Can unpowered infantry even make a useful > contribution to the battle any more? Conversely, how many crewed tanks > does that budget give you? How does allowing for maintenance change > that?
As far as the rules are concerned, you can add the Battlesuit skill to infantry training or to even basic training in a few more weeks. Does each trooper need maintenance skills, or can that be left to specialized armorers? And does the firepower and speed of the suit require better Tactics, Electronic Ops (Sensors), and so on? > And can you build combat robots smart enough to make the battlesuit > obsolete? [...] I want to talk about battlesuit scenarios, not robot wars, so the answer is no. > To me the battlesuit says "organic" in the organisational sense -- > i.e. it implies a soldier with a built-in share of the platoon's > transport and fire support assets. When the brass says "we need you > over THERE on the other side of town", they can do it immediately, > without having to load onto APCs and re-deploy. When they need some > anti-armour missiles, or mortar rounds, they've already got them to > hand. So they're more flexible than unpowered troops. You could build > AFVs on a similar basis, but those will probably die when they meet > dedicated anti-tank tanks. But IFVs can outrun most suits. Over any distance, it pays to hitch a ride. > Personally I suspect that military verities will continue: the > higher-ups will continue to find more and more equipment for the > suited soldier to lug around. Battlesuits have two great advantages in this regard: * I'm assuming that suits have stealth and emission cloaking, so you can't just strap things on in random places -- the RCS would skyrocket. * New gear has to be tied into the suit control system. Again nothing you would do in the field. > >* How do you recharge a battlesuit in the field, anyway? > > Induction! If the battlesuits have their transport vehicles, they can be used for recharging, too. If not, you'd need a specific recharge vehicle, or carry charged power cells to the front. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
