Combined Arms questions

[Death by Lasers]

  Again, the 5 to 1 ratio is for the Regular Army which is a part of the AFFS but not the whole of the AFFS, reread my original post for clarification.  The infantry outnumbering other regiments is also explicitly stated as being for the Regular Army not the entire AFFS.  My calculations are based entirely on the verbatim description of AFFS in FM:FS and happily coincides with the outline of AFFS in the old FS handbook.

  It should also be noted that this rough ratio of 10+ conventionals to 1 mech regiment is also true of FWLM (60 mech, 700 conventional) from the old FWL House Book and the FRR military (15 mech, 191 conventional) from the 20 year update.  Implying a source actually means more than 20-1 when it states more than 10-1 is arguing semantics while ignoring intent.  When a source says "more than 10" they usually mean "a little more than 10" not 20 or 1,000 more than 10.

  As to your point that "not every conventional unit is going to go on the offensive" we are actually on the same page on that one.  I don't know who you are debating this this with but it isn't me. 

[truetanker]

Hellraiser, given your example:

Would you agree to the following for the Hegemony forces?

3x Black Eagle ( 36 Mechs )
1x Black Eagle Original ( 36 Light Tanks )
3x Black Eagle Original ( 36 Heavy Tanks )
3x Czar ( 3 Small craft, 108,000 tons of Cargo for fuel, spare parts and ammo as well as medical, 108 Infantry Platoons )
2x DroST IIa (( 2445 ) 4 Small craft, 4,422 tons cargo for tanks and 20 Infantry Platoons )
3x DroST IIb (( 2445 ) 24 Small craft )
1x Jumbo ( 2 Small craft, 101,331 tons cargo for fuel, spare parts and ammo as well as medical )

4x Liberty- class Jumpships
22x Ares Mark 1 Attack, small craft
11x Ares Mark 1 Cargo, small craft

TT

Or should it have more tanks?

[SCC]

Its long been my opinion that most RCTs don't move the entire RCT in just Military Dropships.

Its far more efficient to move "Most" of the Mechs and "Some" of the Armor/Infantry in combat dropships & secure an LZ with that & bring the rest in on bulk cargo carriers.

I'm going to have to disagree with this. First and most importantly infantry must be carried in a bay, there's ways around this, but they both mean you have to devote more tonnage to transporting the the infantry.

Right on to vehicles then. There's no reason NOT to transport 50 and 100 ton vehicles by bay and once you account for crews and maintenance staff a very good reason to do so that might also apply to vehicles 5 tons lighter then that.

So outside of that there's no hard and fast things you can say apart from the fact that 'Mechs will always require bigger bays then vehicles. Of course there is the problem that 'Mechs that twice as long to unload from cargo.

[Colt Ward]

Not true . . . when you start getting into moving the RCT.

Using a single Jumbo you could transport 7 armor regiments made up of 100t tanks along with about 2500t of food, fuel, parts and ammo.  And no regiment is made up solely of 100t tanks.  Yes the crews would have to be on another DS.  Yes the techs would have to be on another DS.  But that is WAY better than using 21 Triumphs to move the vehicles, and the name of the game when moving a RCT at any point is to use as few DS collars as possible since that is the bottleneck.  Even a combat movement will have just the first wave in combat transports.  Follow-on forces, support elements and supplies will be moved in cargo carriers rather than combat transports though they will need escorts of carriers and gunships.

As far as supporting movement of large bodies of infantry, armor crews and tech/support battalions, its why you have staging worlds like Palryma (or wherever Caleb got his clock cleaned) because you use 'free' life support.  We really do not have DS liners or stuff for conversions to liners (berthing containers?) which is what would/should be used to move large numbers of bodies.  Heck, it should be possible to put 'life support' containers on cargo dropships to increase that capacity.

[Hellraiser]

Hellraiser, given your example:

Would you agree to the following for the Hegemony forces?

3x Black Eagle ( 36 Mechs )
1x Black Eagle Original ( 36 Light Tanks )
3x Black Eagle Original ( 36 Heavy Tanks )
3x Czar ( 3 Small craft, 108,000 tons of Cargo for fuel, spare parts and ammo as well as medical, 108 Infantry Platoons )
2x DroST IIa (( 2445 ) 4 Small craft, 4,422 tons cargo for tanks and 20 Infantry Platoons )
3x DroST IIb (( 2445 ) 24 Small craft )
1x Jumbo ( 2 Small craft, 101,331 tons cargo for fuel, spare parts and ammo as well as medical )

4x Liberty- class Jumpships
22x Ares Mark 1 Attack, small craft
11x Ares Mark 1 Cargo, small craft

TT

Or should it have more tanks?

Question TT,  are you attempting to use early Terran DS to move a FS style RCT?
Or is this for a Terran RCT?   Or just a single Independent Regiment?

Either way I think 4 Czars is too much Infantry for establishing a beachead/LZ.
Not that I would complain about it having them, I just might want more Mechs available.
For the Single AFFS mech Regiment of the RCT, I gave a list that can drop 8 out of the 11 companies from orbit if needed w/ only 3 companies in cargo storage.
I think I'd cut the # of Drost & Czar DS in half to get more Mechs/Tanks in the 1st wave.

[truetanker]

I got 3 Czar and 2 DroST, 4,422 tons of tanks. This is the Hegemony after all.

So more Infantry, 128 platoons,  and since mechs are kinda a secret anyways, only a Battalion's worth!

I really don't have any Aerosupport...

TT

[Hellraiser]

I'm going to have to disagree with this. First and most importantly infantry must be carried in a bay, there's ways around this, but they both mean you have to devote more tonnage to transporting the the infantry.

Right on to vehicles then. There's no reason NOT to transport 50 and 100 ton vehicles by bay and once you account for crews and maintenance staff a very good reason to do so that might also apply to vehicles 5 tons lighter then that.

I think your missing my point SCC.
The issue is military droppers are not very large & we are talking about moving a big force in a limited # of DS/JS.

A single Mule is larger than 90% of the Military ships out there & it devotes less space than most of them to Engines, Armor, & Weapons.   Which means it has LOTS of space in bulk cargo.
Just 1 of its 3 cargo decks can hold over 2 battalions of Infantry in Steerage class quarters that have good Food Consumption rates.
The same space using Infantry Bays could hold 20 Regiments  (w/o the food they would need)
Either way that is more than a condor & its just 1 of 3 cargo bays.

2 Companies of 100 Ton tanks (4 of 50 tonners) can fit in another bay with plenty of space left over for their crews & the extra food needed.

But none of this food will really be huge amounts because I wasn't suggesting moving to & from Sian to Strana Mechty in bulk cargo.
I was saying you can use that method to make a single jump across the boarder to attack from Thorin to Dieron.

Yes, Military Bays are more efficient for sure, but Military Dropships are not.

So you move a big enough force to secure a port via combat drop & 1st wave & then the 2nd wave offloads from bulk haulers.