The image link posted was to the 6mm dropship. I have both that and the 25mm
version. With the 25mm version, you could fit a low slung size 2 vehicle
(LIPPC or Coonhounds FSV) inside the main body area. That should give you some
concept of size. Quite a massive resin. I assume the ratio of size is
preserved in 6mm, so figure it can carry one small platoon (25 or so troops
ready to land and deploy) or
one small size 2 or 3 vehicle. Probably 12-16
PA.
Geohex does not have a pic of it I could find.
What you really need is a picture of it next to some other vehicles for
comparison. I'll get off my butt later tonight though the lander will be
pictured "barenaked" as I haven't got it done yet.
PS - Derek/Beth - this is a family list. And by
that, I don't mean about having families or lack thereof. Derek, his scars,
and his rabbits, are all far too graphic for my poor innocent mind.
PPS- Glen, dragonking.com is some sort of
"candid camera" site with a number of nubile young femmes in various stages of
dishabille. By some folks standards, downright offensive. By others, downright
tame. Sitting squarely in the middle of the pack, I rate it as "racy and
titillating" (no pun intended).
Pic now on store, with aformentioned vehicles alongside for comparison.
> -----Original Message-----
Dropships probably come in a variety of sizes, from the single person drop
capsule of the Powered Armour of Le Regiment Etrange Aerospacial de Les Etats
Federal Europa to the
Star-Wars like "drop pod" (lifeboat sized) which
could accomodate a fireteam, through a squad sized droppod, through things
which will carry platoons and companies (moving into the
dropship category here - especially an
armoured company with support).
When you'd see these would depend a lot on their value. An individual drop cap
isn't worth much (relatively). A company drop ship (full) surely is. So when
you've got to go in hot, you go in with drop caps, dummies, chaff, heavy duty
jamming and ECM, and lots of ortillery. When you've mostly got yourself a
Spacehead, then you deploy in squad to platoon sized landers. Once they've
secured a far wider landing zone and really taken root, made sure the enemy is
actually out of commission and that ground based ASW (air to space weaponry)
is out of operation and there aren't likely to be any surprise interceptor
launches, then you bring down the company and battalion sized landers with
main force units.
My guess is that the initial assault may take a few hours to seize the
spacehead for the small landers. Clearing space for the company and battalion
sized landers may well take a day or two. If you ever wanted to land a
Regimental Mothership, you'd be looking at having a *wide* area secured and
probably already having held that ground for a week or a month even.
So, to me, the question isn't so much how to implement dropships, but which
level of orbital assault capability are you talking about? And then, what
support will they have? Ortillery? Ground Support ships? ODCM (Orbital
Deployment Cruise Missiles)? Fighters?
VTOLs/Grav Lifters? High-mode (flight capable)
Grav Tanks? etc.
All of these things go together in the high tech world of planetary assault.
At least, for planets that merit that kind of effort. Otherwise a tramp
freighter sneaking a platoon of off planet mercs onto a contested planet may
well be the extend of the "orbital assault".;)
Small drop pods make sense if you have to drop onto the target. For a larger
scale invasion I would think that a DZ would be established and the
follow-on
forces move to the objective.
My old Tech 12 TCS design was 50K battleriders, each carrying @ a BDE of
troops (each ship being DS fire support for the brigade).
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
> Dropships probably come in a variety of sizes,
The mass 5 dropship is a general purpose "truck" size. Capable landing two
MBT's (
2 heavy tanks or 1 supper heavy in OGRE/GEV). I doubt drop ships per
say would be much larger then mass 10. Above that, you would probably be
looking ships built with Full Thrust ship rules. I like the idea of capping
atmospheric capable ships to Mass 50, just large enough to build a landing
ship (actually a tender with 4 thrust, full streamling, FTL, and a single mass
16 bay) capable of deploying a Mark VI or Doppelsolander (assuming 13.125
points per mass).
For comparison, a non-tender mass 50 landing ship would have 24 mass for
holds to carry troops, or defenses, or more hull. I view thrust 4 as minimum
necessary required to lift of a planet with atmosphere.
> When you'd see these would depend a lot on
Drop capsules are a great way to land a lot of troops quickly, but they can
only be used once. Under the ideas I'm working on, the Assault Lander on page
42 of the FB could land of it's troops in four drops with dropships, or half
in one shot with drop capsules, but then it would have to depend on dropships
from other ships to get the rest down.
> My guess is that the initial assault may take a
It all depends on how close you land to a defended place. Planets are big and
have a lot of area. For example, a small terrain planet with a radius of 4,000
km's has a surface are of 201,061,929.8 sq km. If only 5% of that is useful
(not oceans, glaciers, etc.), then you are looking at 10,053,096.48 sq km. 10
million square km's is a lot of realestate to defend on the ground. For
comparison, Earth has a radius of 6,378 km which gives a surface area of
511,185,932.5 sq km... I don't see how the ground forces can stop an invasion
force from landing, unless the invader tries to land right on top of them, say
at a space port. The disadvantage of landing away from the objectives, is
time.
> So, to me, the question isn't so much how to
High end assaults. Think operation Olympic (the largest amphibious
operation ever planned, but not carried out - invasion of Japan in
WWII). I
see drop capsules being very useful for high risk assaults - why send
dropships when 1/3 will die going in, and another 1/3 getting out,
leaving just 44.4% of the dropsihps sent in returning to the fleet. Makes more
sense to use drop capsules, and if the troops on the ground take out the
flack, then send in the dropships.
My current thoughts of dropships and drop capsules:
small: mass 2.5, 1 mass of cargo, no defenses, 1 hull, 6 points. medium: mass
5, 2 mass of cargo, 1 PDS, 2 hull, 12 points. large: mass 7.5, 3 mass of
cargo, 1 PDS, 3 hull, 18 points. huge: mass 10, 4 mass of cargo, 2 PDS, 4
hull, 24 points.
Endurance is the same for all dropships. Option points are scaled to size of
the dropship.
Each hull destroyed will destroy on 1 mass of cargo for dropships, 2 mass of
cargo for drop capsules. Drop capsules carry twice the cargo, but no
defenese, and cost 2/3 the points, but are not reuseable.