11-16-2018, 09:54 AM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2010
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[Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
Superficially, there are a lot of similarities between warfare at TL6 and TL8. Everyone's using smokeless powder, high explosives, and motorized vehicles, right? But look a little closer, and the changes are absolutely radical. It's worth asking what similar changes would happen by TL10 as presented in Ultra-Tech.
For me, the biggest thing that stands out is dirt-cheap electronics—and the implications are pretty terrifying for any would-be great power. A hunter missile with an SEFOP or HEMP warhead is more expensive than a HEAT load for a RPG-7, but only by a factor of four or so. Given the massive increase in effectiveness, expect insurgent groups to have tons of them. Against such cheap missiles, what Ultra-Tech calls "point-defense lasers" seem to expensive for the purpose. A semi-portable laser will be more cost-effective, but even that isn't a perfect solution: if treated like a normal robot character with a gun, you'll always have a 2% failure rate. Plus, if a missile pops up from behind a hill a quarter-mile away, your automated point-defense gun might not have time to aim before the missile hits (unless the GM gives it a limited version of Altered Time Rate or something). Robobugs, similarly, are only $50 a pop. Major militaries may disperse them by the thousands, because you can buy thousands for the price of a tank. But they might also be sold as children's toys, and if so, you could see insurgent groups using children's toys being used for fire-direction. That sounds crazy when you put it like that, but it would just be the 23rd century version of using $35 cell phones for the same purpose. Another change unrelated to cheap electronics is the possible emergence of "flying tanks". Even without superscience, if you run with Spaceships pegging fusion air-rams at TL10, the lack of need to carry fuel would allow aircraft with more armor than they have nowadays. Even relatively light armor would largely eliminate the threat from proximity-burst anti-air missiles. Lasers, rather than missiles, could become the preferred anti-air weapons. In that case, maybe fast-flying armor would be the preferred solution to ubiquitous hunter missiles. Any other ideas? |
11-16-2018, 10:15 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
Robobugs can also fly, so 10,000 of them could act as an effective screen against missiles given enough warning (they only have to get in the way, and they would deal 6d damage to a Move 600 missile during a collision). In addition, 10,000 flying robobugs could swarm enemy troops and try to inject anyone who was not protected by sealed armor with drugs or nano.
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11-16-2018, 10:51 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
Yeah, if you're talking about insurgencies you have to consider effective LC, not just cost. A weapon can be cheap but locked down so effectively that it's virtually impossible for anyone outside one nation's military to lay hands on, or expensive but openly sold to literally anybody willing to pay the asking price.
By TL10 with everything in ultratech on the table, there's a whole lot of ways to punish any squishy humans who think they can show up for a fight without sealed full-coverage armor. Does that mean everyone has it, or does it mean that some factions are severely disadvantaged? Ultratech can't really tell you that one. One of the big features of TL 10 is AI coming fully into its own. I'd expect manned vehicles to be essentially nonexistent, though some would transport humans as cargo. Whether humans have any combat roles depends on how costs stack up and the resources vs. casualty aversion of a given force.
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11-16-2018, 11:01 AM | #4 | |
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
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The word "Battlefield" was used, which is interesting because battlefields have become less important in recent wars. Most modern combats are asymmetrical and urban, and the "field" portion of battlefield falls out of use. This is not to say that all these wars are strong forces beating on weak ones: its to say that controlling large amounts of land is not nearly as useful as it used to be. That's only going to get more true at TL10.
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11-16-2018, 11:30 AM | #5 | |||
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
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When evaluating what LC1 technology insurgents are likely to have, I'd ask questions like "is it cheap enough to be ubiquitous in legitimate militaries?", "is it small enough to be smuggled?", "how hard is it to capture intact?", and "what logistical challenges does using it present?" If a technology is brand-new, that might keep it out of the hands of insurgents initially, but it won't be long before other people copy the design, and once something is no longer perceived as "cutting edge" people will get more casual about handing it out to allies. The 3e book Special-Ops has a nice discussion of the importance of external support to insurgencies. My guess is the average person underrates this as a factor, because weapons-providers often want to keep their support a secret, and weapons-receivers want to pretend they did everything on their own. But it's a common feature of real-world insurgencies, so in a TL10 multipolar world, insurgents will have all kinds of cheap LC1 gear, at least once it's been around long enough to no longer be cutting-edge. Quote:
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11-16-2018, 11:31 AM | #6 |
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
I'd say that even more important for the nature of warfare than the TL is global politics and culture.
It's not like modern wars really have two TL8 nations going full out against each other.
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11-16-2018, 11:40 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
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11-16-2018, 11:45 AM | #8 |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
That kind of thing can change fast, though. Human history has seen a number of periods of relative peace (key word being relative) that suddenly break out into a cataclysmic war. Think the 150 years between the Peace of Westphalia and the Napoleonic wars, or the period between the Napoleonic Wars and WWI. Of course, if such a cataclysmic war happened today it would probably involve nukes, which might render the rest of your military doctrine moot.
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11-16-2018, 12:58 PM | #9 | |
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
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11-16-2018, 01:17 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Re: [Ultra-Tech] What does the TL10 battlefield look like
The trend has been toward more powerful and independent individual soldiers. That trend is likely to continue.
An armored soldier would carry both energy and projectile weapons, plus a battlefield Ai. The AI would control multiple drones with lesser AIs, all connected into a network. Each soldier would have the equivalent of a company of specialists at his or her command.
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