Orbital Insertion (& other stuff)

About the nukes (I have been accused of being a bit nuke-happy,
but...),
as soon as the local governor sees the Bloody Huge Dropship coming down with
multiple battalions in its hold, the 'Oh Crap!' factor begins to
increase, and a nuke strike would be pretty easy to push through - or
just
go ahead an do - and worry later, if you're alive.  But the politics of
the whole thing would make for a fun random events chart during the game.
'OK,
I roll a 12 on the political table and...FILIBUSTER? Darnit, I need that
release! Can't we shoot a couple of Senators to prove our point, sir?'

A BHD could be useful, if you armor it real heavily, and escort it down, to
make a high atmospheric pass, pop out LOTS of PA troops, and then burn for
orbit again. It'd peobably take damage from ground fire, but the whole image
of a big ship blazing in, braking from Mach 12 to Mach 1, farting out troops
like a cloud of gnats, and then lumbering away is pretty cool.

The arrival of a BHD would also be a sign that a serious effort was being
made, and this was a 'big' war, not a little colonial dispute or raid. I
could see that happening, but rarely.  A monster atmospheric-capable
Assault Transport would also be a real white elephant to most governments, and
would have an interesting background...

Speaking of cool, I found a couple of models at a local hobby store today
(Hobbytown USA). They were a pair of the Zentraedi (alien) ships from the
'Robotech' cartoon/anime.  There was a 'Standard Battle Ship', about
11.5
cm long - sort of a bulging wedge, and a 'Landing Ship Tank', about 15
cm
long, a cigar-type hull with minor protrusions.  All come with alien
marking decals, and have base mountings that will easily (with a little
filing) accept a larger flight base. These are small enough to be really good
'BIG' alien ships, and will look great when painted up. The 'small'
one is about the size & mass of a Komarov-class SDN, and the large one
is
about half again as massive as the Von Theurdank-class CVA.  Detail is a

little light, but some stuff from the bits box should fix that. If anybody
wants more detail on the models (manufacturer, model number, etc), I'd be more
than happy to post or reply privately.

Personnaly I think using a drop ship in the assualt phase of the operation big
enough to hold several battalions is definately waiting for a disaster to
happen.. Even though Air Superiority in this type of Operation is a given it
would be hard to guarantee that ESU Private Ivan
Chong doesn't pop up from somewhere with an SA-33 shoulder fired nuclear
SAM and waste your invasion force. I'd prefer my drop ships in two
sizes. Platoon -ized ships (similar to Chinooks nowadays), though a case
could be made for companies.. Each capable of holding 30-60 troops OR an
AFV, and then a BIG ship which comes in well after the area is secure.

Of course Orbital drop is a way to go for the initial assault (ala
John's method w/ PA) as is just plain old paradrop (or whatever they'll
be using for chutes in the future). Drop ships come in come low, drop
troops at whatever altitude, (this would be non power-armored for those
armies on a budget <g>). One the DZ/LZ is secured then it call in the
drop ships. All this of course is situation specific. And yes you still need
infil of SOF r pathfinders to get the landing areas surveyed for the heavy
lander.

Los

> Noah Doyle wrote:

> About the nukes (I have been accused of being a bit