Re: Bombers

Harry Bandoian wrote:
>
> Ok, lets think back to WWII.......................................
> 1) in WWII the small bombers could carry one or two heavy bomb and they were
> SLOW! and big bombers have little or no defenses and they require fighter
> escorts.

	Yes, but in spelljamming the situation is slightly reveresed: the big
ships will be both faster and more capable of defending themselves
(better chance for major helms, higher level magi, more weapons, and
lots of archers).  Little bombers won't be able to carry as much.

> 2) Small bombers could be conceled by spells better then large ships and
> teleport spells cant target moving targets can they?

	Which makes them better for precision bombing and knocking out minor
targets; they wouldn't have the payload for any serious damage (only
exception I can think of: holds of holding; but again, this works just
as well for big ships).

> 3) And could we all remebmber that we are talking about a 5-10 ton ship not
> a  1/2 ton ship!

	I wasn't thinking of a half ton ship.  Even a 10 ton ship can't take
too many hits from an intercept ship.  Two solid hits from a catapult
and it's pretty much junk.

> 4) The idea is get in and get out! as quick as possable. Not to hover around
> waiting for people to shoot at you.

	Question: WITH WHAT?  A catapult?  Bows?  Ballista?  They can't fire up
that high!  Can they reach a thousand feet straight up?  Howbout two
thousand?  Hell, there are virtually no spells that have that kind of
range (if you find them, point them out; even lightning bolt has a range
of 800 ft with a 20th level caster).  Nevermind the needed arc of fire!
Just hover about and drop barrels of smokepowder with special impact
runes (hmmm, new spell?) from 1200' and all you have to worry about is
enemy spelljammers, flying magi, or maybe flying monsters (in any case,
the bigger the ship, the better).

> 5) The other idea is to attack at night or in darkness so they (the people
> on the reciving end) cant SHOOT you. This is what the brittish did during
> thier bombing raides on germany. The US used day bombing, and they suffered
> heavy loses. And since u can use magic to help detect your target and for
> precise bombing you could devise some type of helm seeker modifcation.

	Yes, but what's the point when nothing can hit you?  The big worry in
WW2 was AA guns that could hit as high as the craft could fly.  There
was also the problem with having to fly lower to increase accuraccy
because of the momentium of the bomb being dropped.  With hovering
craft, you cut that problem to nearly nil.  All you have to account for
is wind.  Of course, the biggest problem with this kind of tech is your
going to have a horribly high number of dud bombs, which means that your
going to need lots of bombs to be effective at this tactic.
	In any case, I think that the larger bombers would be more effient at
mass destruction than smaller ones (need only one helm/ship as opposed
to, say 5 or 6), while the smaller bombers would be given less important
missions.  The smaller bombers would probably be good at hitting
isolated targets, such as a troop column, a caravan, or a small fort,
where the bomber needs to get in low to increase its chances of
hitting.  The bigger ships would be used to bomb major targets, such as
cities, castles, keeps, troop camps, etc, where you would want as big a
payload as possible and accuraccy really doesn't mean anything.

--
Night Druid

"DAMN!!  I get 25 E.P. for sewing my own wounds???
I'm rippin' them babies out and sewing them again!!!"
-Bob, Knights of the Dinner Table

"I only chewed in self defense; I never swallowed"
-Draco, Dragonheart