Re: Military role of SJ ships in planetary conflicts

>
> >> Not with ease,  actually.  For an idea of the difficulties involved in
> >> destroying agricultural land,  take a look at Hanson's _The Western Way of
> >> War_.  Spelljammers might be able to change a few of the problems,  but the
> >> speeds you listed wereattained by Zepplins during the First World War.
> >> They proved rather ineffective at destroying Allied agro-industrial power.
> >>
> >
> >Ah, but a zepplin had quite few problems.
> >    1.  They were ponderous.
> >    2.  they were slower than the fighters that evolved to kill them.
> >    3. due to the use of hydrogen they were ridiculously easy to kill.
> >    4. #3 made them vulnerable to small arms, lightning, flaming
> >      projectiles.
> >    5. had to deal with mobile artillery, and ground vehicles with
> >smallarms.
> >    6. its mass was mostly in the bouyant gas making it difficult to steer
> >in highwinds.
>
> Zepplin's were the _opposite_ of easy to kill.  In fact,  due to the large
> numbers of machineguns they carried,  they were considered secodn only to
> observation ballons in difficulty!!! (until aircraft had developed to the
> point the comparison becomes mute,  about 1917).  During the early phases
> of the war,  against virtually no opposition,  they failed to do anything
> resembling serious damage to England or France.
> SJs would have advantages over zepplins,  of course,  but not somany as you
> mention.  And infact the have more to worry about.  Zepplin's never had to
> worry about teleporting,  fireball casting mages.
>
> >A SJ  used for the same purpose is nowhere near so vulnerable. Against
> >groundling forces only great magic, fixed defense ares, and storm weather
> >are an
> >SJ's enemy.  An Sj need not fear fire sources like a zepplincrew.
>
> Wooden SJs do burn,  and if you use metal SJs you are talking a difference
> in technology and altering the conditions of the scenario.
>
>
>
> > An sj
> >can drop ground forces out of range of a fixed position and then harry it
> >while the troops break in.
> >
> >field burning....get a few vats of oil and spray at low level....or heck
> >just pour lots of salt into  the area or do both... then withthe oil drop
> >torches.
> >
> >without artilery thereisn't much a ground force could do to save a field.
>
> I think you have an exaggerated sense of what ariel bombardment can
> accomplish with the materials you list.  Even with modern incindiary
> devices the kind of destruction you are considering requires a _major_
> investment in time and resources.  Time and resources not used in other
> ways,  against other threats or targets.
>
> >The terrorist uses of the SJ are limitless.
>
> Terrorists don't conquer anything. They simply attempt to inspire terror.
> No single aerial terror campaign (Battle of Britain,  Battle of Germany,
> Vietnam,  for example) has ever succeeded in destroying the morale of a
> people.  One (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) has suceeded in convincing a government
> to surrender (a very different thing from destroying a peoples morale)
> through the use of superior technology.  And even in that case a
> significent group (possibly a majority) within the defeated government
> advocated continued resistence.

  Paul, a few points I want to make after thinking about this.  A SJ ship is
more properly compared to a helicopter than a Zepplin both in logical use
and probable deployment.

  Compared to a helecopter however I believe them to have a superior cargo
capacity( Could you look it up?)mainly becaus SJ cargos are limited by
SPATIAL VOLUME/DISPLACEMENT NOT ACTUAL WEIGHT!!!!

 I believe a small hoard of "Helicopters" the size of a groundling nations
sea-going Navy would have a devastating effect on Ground combat especially
since they can be as fast and nimble as modern attack helicopters. Remember
the assumption is that Whatever air conflict for air supremacy is already
over or happening elsewhere.

  An SJ ship can perform all missions a Helecopter can even"stealth"
missions They make much less noise than a helicoptor.  The greater cargo
capacity means you don't have to have specialized "attack SJ ships" to harry
troops when you can carry enough weapons to do that + carry and be able to
deliver ground troops almost at will..(unloading a running SJ would be
an interesting diversion.. How to avoid the Gravity plane problem if the
helm maintains its own  g field.)

  What are your thoughts?

--Steve