The Space War Thread

[Smitty-48]

One of the things I find uninteresting about the constant rehashing of the Starship Troopers model is that it's not actually space war.

Space troops v. the space bugs is just pest control extermination.

There's no politics, there's no finesse, there's no story.

War is politics by other means, so I prefer space troops v. space troops.

One of the limiting factors in terms of exotic weapons and firepower will be the value of space infrastructure.

It's all going to be exponentially valuable, so it will always be preferable to capture rather than to destroy.

This is where space troops gets more interesting, because it would require much more stealth and guile than simply nuking the bugs, and probably more parley as well.

It is more likely to be like the gentlemanly war of the 18th century than it would be like a world war of annihilation.

More living to fight another day, less scorched earth, more capture, less kill.

[Smitty-48]

Monty is right about privateers and boarding actions.

Reason being there is nowhere to hide in space. There's no such thing as a cloaking device.

They can see you coming from lightyears away, so dedicated warships are basically just defensive guard ships.

In space, the Trojan Horse would be the king of battle.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Well... if we’re really doing this, nothing would be ‘visible from light years away’. Ever.

Any combat in space would happen along orbital planes. If you had intel on an enemy’s altitude and speed, you might get really slick and fire a projectile from the other side of a planet or something... but you’re not going to be dogfighting or firing broadsides from a stationary position.

That said, far away from a gravity well, your relative motion might appear that way. But there would still be an immense number of calculations involved in firing anything on an intercept at any distance over a few miles.

You’re more likely to see focused laser fire or emp warfare in that scenario. But it would be very slow, and not exciting to watch.

[Smitty-48]

Well... if we’re really doing this, nothing would be ‘visible from light years away’. Ever.

Everything is visible from light years away, any sort of spaceship gives off radiation

it's impossible to hide in space against the cold background

the radiation is detected long before the ship arrives, so there's no way to achieve surprise in space.

If a spaceship is approaching you, you'll see it months before it arrives.

You’re more likely to see focused laser fire or emp warfare in that scenario. But it would be very slow, and not exciting to watch.

Lasers and EMP are not that effective, ships could easily be shielded against that

both lasers and EMP require a lot of energy so very inefficient.

[StCapps]

Missiles and Torpedoes > Lasers and EMP

Space rail guns probably fairly effective at close range as well.

[Smitty-48]

The logic of battle in deep space is the same as it is now.

You would basically have an opening phase which would be a missile war, like ICBMs

Once you overwhelmed the enemies defenses, you conduct a landing and send in the troops.

But just like it is now, that would only be in extremis, most of the time it would be proxy wars.

Instead of massive battles, you would infiltrate by stealth and guile and conduct asymmetrical warfare.

To wit, you're going to have much more Space Vietnam's than you would have Space World War Two's

[Smitty-48]

Missiles and Torpedoes > Lasers and EMP

Space rail guns probably fairly effective at close range as well.

Ship to ship combat in space would not only be difficult, it would be costly.

Also, you're likely to have multiple colonies in the same places.

It's more like French & Indian war, your colony is competing with another colony, and you get into tribal war.

Space war is basically land war, just on other planets.

[TheReal_ND]

One of the things I find uninteresting about the constant rehashing of the Starship Troopers model is that it's not actually space war.

Space troops v. the space bugs is just pest control extermination.

There's no politics, there's no finesse, there's no story.

War is politics by other means, so I prefer space troops v. space troops.

One of the limiting factors in terms of exotic weapons and firepower will be the value of space infrastructure.

It's all going to be exponentially valuable, so it will always be preferable to capture rather than to destroy.

This is where space troops gets more interesting, because it would require much more stealth and guile than simply nuking the bugs, and probably more parley as well.

It is more likely to be like the gentlemanly war of the 18th century than it would be like a world war of annihilation.

More living to fight another day, less scorched earth, more capture, less kill.

You should try reading some WH40K. There are tyranids and gene cultists. The bugs send out infiltrators that that basically hijack people and start splicing genes so the effect is two fold on that front: the tyranids are able to replicate the genes of the planets inhabitants and use it against them and before they ever show up, basically skin walkers are running around creating havok. And that's just one tier of nid invasion it's actually incredibly complex and I can't be assed to type it all out.

[StCapps]

Missiles and Torpedoes > Lasers and EMP

Space rail guns probably fairly effective at close range as well.

Ship to ship combat in space would not only be difficult, it would be costly.

Also, you're likely to have multiple colonies in the same places.

It's more like French & Indian war, your colony is competing with another colony, and you get into tribal war.

Space war is basically land war, just on other planets.

Army making a comeback in space. Navy and Air Force less relevant. Convenient for former infantry writing about Space War, puts it more in your wheelhouse. Especially with it being like Space Vietnam, right up your alley.

[Smitty-48]

One of the things I find uninteresting about the constant rehashing of the Starship Troopers model is that it's not actually space war.

Space troops v. the space bugs is just pest control extermination.

There's no politics, there's no finesse, there's no story.

War is politics by other means, so I prefer space troops v. space troops.

One of the limiting factors in terms of exotic weapons and firepower will be the value of space infrastructure.

It's all going to be exponentially valuable, so it will always be preferable to capture rather than to destroy.

This is where space troops gets more interesting, because it would require much more stealth and guile than simply nuking the bugs, and probably more parley as well.

It is more likely to be like the gentlemanly war of the 18th century than it would be like a world war of annihilation.

More living to fight another day, less scorched earth, more capture, less kill.

You should try reading some WH40K. There are tyranids and gene cultists. The bugs send out infiltrators that that basically hijack people and start splicing genes so the effect is two fold on that front: the tyranids are able to replicate the genes of the planets inhabitants and use it against them and before they ever show up, basically skin walkers are running around creating havok. And that's just one tier of nid invasion it's actually incredibly complex and I can't be assed to type it all out.

Something like that, yes, it's not like Star Wars, it's more like Aliens.

You're not having big space battles between star destroyers, it's more asymmetrical.

You might infiltrate a habitat covertly, then launch an insurrection, then have your troops follow up.