Zan replied to me: > For an assault landing are dropships the way to go? Heinlein's mobile > infantry dropped in reentry pods along with plenty of ECM and false > targets.
A question of tech levels, too. Two factors here: * Heinlein's description of capsules and their countermeasures was very 1950s-era. Active radar and chaff. Will those false targets work against TL9+ sensors with computerized processors? * Up to TL9 or early TL10, dropships depend on something like fusion rockets. Even worse than aerobraking pods. From TL11 or even late TL10, reactionless thrusters change the picture if they're available. > Then for each hit instead of losing a whole dropship, only a single > trooper is lost. > > On the other hand, depending on technology, the dropship might be a > much tougher target with improved stealth, armor and force screens. And point defense, and improved speed. The dropship can also turn into a gunship once the troops are dropped, and a recovery ship afterwards. A dropship can also be launched further out. Of course a high-TL drop capsule could use advanced tech, thrusters and stealth and all that. It would be roughly a single use (cheaply made?), single suit dropship. Last but not least, my TL12 suit has contragrav and thrusters to drop or launch without a capsule. I just didn't see that as smart against serious defenses. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
