Ortillery

[PsiTraveller]

A couple of odd questions about Ortillery missiles. They could be mounted on a firmpoint (limit of 4 correct?)

Do they have to be launched from orbit to get the damage of 1DD? Could they be used from fighters in atmosphere as aerial support?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

RAW they are just a type of missile, so no special restrictions.

Ortillery Torpedo: Like its smaller missile counterpart, this torpedo is designed to be launched from orbit

This might be a hint.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

These are just my opinions, but I'd say they can be mounted on firmpoints and do not need to be launched from orbit.

All missiles are the same size as far as I know - no variants state they differ from the 12 per dton of the standard missile.

The ortillery missile should deal the same damage regardless of how far its travelled. It moves slower and has a harder time hitting moving targets, implying a larger warhead at the cost of engines and menoeuverability.

Another thing to consider: should it have a greater blast radius than the 10 meters mentioned for typical ship weapons? Perhaps full damage within 10 m and then non-DD (which in this case, against ground targets, means regular DD, not DD times DD) within a secondary radius?

 

[Condottiere]

Who knows?

Since you can use them against any target, whether in space or dirtside, you have to assume the warhead is high explosive.

 

[phavoc]

Interesting quirk of ortillery - it doesn't work if you just 'drop' it from your ship. It has to have enough velocity to overcome the orbit of it's launcher as well as tangential velocity in the opposite direction. And that's just to get it to 'drop' straight down to your target.

A 10m blast radius is pretty tiny for an object accelerating from orbit. In that case I wouldn't consider it to be an orbital attack weapon, just a regular missile.

 

[Condottiere]

You drop a tungsten telegraph pole.

Of course, if the target happens to be on a smallish moon, how does that work?

 

[phavoc]

You drop a tungsten telegraph pole.

Of course, if the target happens to be on a smallish moon, how does that work?

Depends on the gravity. But if you look up on a clear night you might find your answers. Or images of say Mimas, or any other smallish moon. They have plenty of craters.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The 10m radius is small considering the Rods from God was supposed to generate the blast of 11.5 tons of explosive. That is the bonus energy of coming in from orbit.

 

[Condottiere]

When about 41 metres (135 ft) from the Schwabenhöhe, the tunnel was forked into two branches and the end of each branch was enlarged to form a chamber for the explosives, the chambers being about 18 metres (60 ft) apart and 16 metres (52 ft) deep[5] – see map. When finished, the access tunnel for the Lochnagar mine was 1.37 by 0.76 metres (4.5 ft × 2.5 ft) and had been excavated at a rate of about 46 centimetres (18 in) per day, until about 310 metres (1,030 ft) long, with the galleries beneath the Schwabenhöhe. The mine was loaded with 27,000 kilograms (60,000 lb) of ammonal, divided in two charges of 16,000 kilograms (36,000 lb) and 11,000 kilograms (24,000 lb).[10] As the chambers were not big enough to hold all the explosive, the tunnels that branched to form the 'Y' were also filled with ammonal. The longer branch was 18 metres (60 ft) long, the shorter was 12 metres (40 ft) long. The tunnels did not quite reach the German front line but the blast would dislodge enough material to form a 4.6 metres (15 ft) high rim and bury nearby trenches.[5] The Lochnagar and the Y Sap mines were "overcharged" to ensure that large rims were formed from the disturbed ground.[5] Communication tunnels were also dug for use immediately after the first attack,[5] including a tunnel across no man's land to a point close to the Lochnagar mine, ready to extend to the crater after the detonation as a covered route.[11] The mines were laid without interference by German miners but as the explosives were placed, German miners could be heard below Lochnagar and above the Y Sap mine.[10]

The Lochnagar crater on the 1916 Somme battlefields in France is the largest man-made mine crater created in the First World War on the Western Front. It was created by a mine laid by the British Army's 179th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers underneath a German strongpoint called.The mine was exploded at the launch of the British offensive against the German lines on July 1, 1916

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2825063/Still-bearing-scars-war-beautiful-landscapes-scene-World-War-One-s-bloodiest-fighting.html#ixzz4hS7W3bdS