WELL, i got up and went outside with my dogs this morning and found 3" of
snow, visibility down to about 500 yards, flakes about 1" across and a
windchill factor of 18 degrees.....
i immediately thought of down under and strolling about in shorts,
T-shirts, tube tops, and flip-flops. . . .
UNFAIR!
soooo, what has this to do with SGII y'all ask?
well, how about a winter warfare, artic / anartic (spelling? my brain as
well as my butt is still frozen!) or ice age world warfare scenario for SGII?
now i realize that most folks do not have troops painted up in artic warfare
colors, but this could be fudged around.
i hav done scenarios in the past for cold weather fighting, but not with SGII
problems to be handled for scenario developement.
planetary gravity, atmosphere type, and density.
weather conditions and effects on troops, vehicles, visibility, weapons,
sensors, etc.
clothing. is it multi-layer as now, heated combat suits, or sealed
suits (powered armors or non-powered hard suits requiring portable
power sources for locomotion, air recycling and /or heating or
both(batteries), or wot?
if batteries are required, how long they last (very important in
linked scenarios or campaigns- bullets bandages, beans and boots
thing) ? re-supply problems in general.
shelters for troops, command centers, medical facilities, supplies, and
vehicles.
avalanche threat in mountainous terrain or around glaciers.
threat of accidental immersion and casualties or fatalities.
evacuation of the wounded.
navigational beacons for the use of troops, vehicles and or aircraft
to direct them to semi-permenant or permenant facilities during really
vicious weather.
land navigation. desert, jungle, and artic areas or snow covered areas all
tend to look alike. this of course assumes no orbiting
geo-satellites to assist in navigation for what ever reason.
wildlife.
these are just a few of the problems that immediately come to mind.
your thoughts, please.
From: DAWGFACE47@webtv.net
> I immediately thought of down under and strolling about in shorts,
Down Under? It was 75-80 in Virginia Beach this weekend and no Doom
Spiders, Killer Koalas etc (okay, we did have two shark fatalities this year)
> clothing. is it multi-layer as now, heated combat suits, or sealed
PA has power pack good for 12-36hr IIRC. Of course, most of that power
would go to locomotion, so a battery for electric thermal bodysuit should last
a while.
Also have to be aware of materiel problems--lubricants that don't flow,
metal and plastics that get brittle, etc. We sold UHMW-PE to a shop in
Florida that was building a work surface of some sort, and we told them "read
the material characteristics" several times. They built their table without an
allowance for the material to contract with temperature change, and shipped it
to Alaska. When it arrived, their customer found
the contracting plastic had sheared 3/4" stainless bolts. Much
unhappiness all around. Put that at the end of a 10 parsec supply line and
your Arrogant CoreWorld Elites may find themselves lacking the ubertech
they're used to, and 5000 unhappy colonists are suddenly much more of a
problem than anticipated.
> avalanche threat in mountainous terrain or around glaciers.
crevasses etc
Another reason for lower tech, local, manufacture.
Ubertech lands for a quick consolidation and mop of a minor incursion, but
gets sucked into a guerrilla war. 3 weeks into the campaign, they have
exhausted their fuel cells (HMT & Fusion) and look to the locals to supply
more. The locals explain that everything they have runs off of biodiesel, and
they do not have the correct chemicals to recharge the fuel cells.
> Bell, Brian K Wrote:
> Another reason for lower tech, local, manufacture.
Suppose said FGP's run off of hydrogen. High Tech force's support echelon,
who has a forward-thinking CO, has brought along a H20 to H converter
that
runs on electricity, supplied by a CFE-powered generator. The CFE CAN
use
the local biodiesel. Unit suffers a slow-down in refueling, but not as
bad as being left high & dry.
2B^2
From: Brian Bilderback bbilderback@hotmail.com
> Suppose said FGP's run off of hydrogen. High Tech force's support
A priceless asset, therefore a good sniper target
> has brought along a H20 to H converter that runs on electricity,
depending on how hard it is to replace (which in turn depends on how rough you
want to make life for that side), it may be worth a visit from a saboteur. H
isn't all that hard, if you have electricity, but if you need a liter of
uberchem to recharge the cell, then it's an interesting target.
> On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Bell, Brian K (Contractor) wrote:
> Another reason for lower tech, local, manufacture.
... while scurrying around in the background trying to sink their fuel cells
into the nearest swamp for safekeeping, and frantically trying to doctor the
local modular chemical plant's records & machinery so they don't have to
supply the military...
Fuel cells are incredibly efficent, and I don't think they're that hard to
manufacture - Ballard Systems over in Vancouver is, IFAIK, one of the
most advanced & largest fuel cell makers & developers today, and they don't
have a staggeringly massive plant or workforce. (Could someone here tell
us all what actually goes into the making of a modern-day fuel cell?)
Fusion - Karl covered fusion better than I can - but if you can have
something small enough, powerful enough and stable enough to run an MBT, that
certainly is going to find civilian applications. Cities and large
installations are going to be using fusion plants for power supply; depending
on cost & local economics large enough ranches & outlying stations might have
their own plants.
For colonial use, I'd say biodiesel would be a fuel of last resort; the steam
engines other people have mentioned would be left in the museums back on
Earth...
G'day,
> weather conditions and effects on troops, vehicles,
Well I'd say (off the top of my hat) that all movement is treated as one grade
lower (though frozen rivers would now be easier to cross I'd guess)
> visibility,
If currently snowing, close range only, if not snowing, but snow covered then
no effect on vis (assuming you don't suffer glare).
> weapons, sensors, etc. clothing
PA probably don't see much difference as the suit is taking up the slack, but
normal guys may find their motivation drops.
> avalanche threat in mountainous terrain or around glaciers.
After each round of firing roll a D12 on a 1-2 you messed up when you
thought that snow pile was safe....;)
> threat of accidental immersion and casualties or fatalities.
I'd say they become automatic casualties.
> wildlife.
Yetis..... ;)
Cheers