How do you use a dropship to establish air superiority?

[Redlord320]

How do you use dropships to take out airpower.

[Daryk]

That depends ENTIRELY on the DropShip(s) in question, AND the defending air/aerospace forces...

[Nathan Krynn]

What the previous poster said.  Depends on what your working with.

Unless your WOB and you just kamikaze into warships with a poo ton of dropships.

[AlphaMirage]

Depends, but you probably don't want to fight in Atmo.  Better to lure them up in orbit where you don't have to worry about crashing your super expensive dropship.  Even then a dropship is an inferior unit for taking on aerospace due to how the movement initiative works (dropships go last unless you have a warship).

[Weirdo]

If you absolutely must take on fighters in atmosphere with a DropShip, my advice is to do it from the very bottom of said atmosphere. After all, a landed DropShip fails no lawn-dart rolls. And a typical spheroid can put out some pretty hefty firepower into the air, though aerodynes can have to deal with firing arc gaps.

[Redlord320]

 A Dragau  wing hitting the air base, with eagle escorts.

[Cannonshop]

How do you use dropships to take out airpower.

open bay doors.

Launch Fighters.

a dropship's weapons packs are good for fighting other dropships in the black, or for defending an LZ from the ground.  it is NOT good for dogfighting.  This is why the majority of dropships carry fighters-because THOSE are your air-superiority units.

[Hellraiser]

A Dragau  wing hitting the air base, with eagle escorts.

I was going to say Avenger's but the Dragau works too  >:D

[Colt Ward]

Subcap orbital bombardment . . . blow their refueling facilities to splinters and they will have to set down somewhere.  The only thing that can get you will be ASF & Small Craft, so they will have to come up into orbit to get you which means you will not be facing Conventionals loaded with RL pods or AA A4 missiles to support the aero craft.

As a plan that has happened . . . consider the Okinawa-CC that was converted back as part of the Steel Wolves attack on Archenar.  The Steel Wolves snuck it into the landing pattern since it was still thought to be a cargo conversion.  Then the Okinawa launched its ASF, Small Craft and VTOLs to strike at the Standing Guard's base, destroying what they could on the ground before they had to face it in the skies.

[gunner]

A Drop doesn't,  What you have defending the drop ships Does.  Generally for a troop drop you want to control the drop zone FIRST.  and minor hint from History do not fly the drop ships OVER a nervous surface ships.  That did not go well over Sicily in 43.

[snewsom2997]

I would stick to using dropships for space superiority, use the ASFs for Air superiority. Lawn Dart Rolls suck. Especially for Mercs. Now if you are the WOB, or Star League, and pump out 10,000+ dropships a year it becomes a different story.

[truetanker]

The Outward Alliance had an old Avenger-class dropper in 3025 era as a ' ultra-heavy fighter ', from it's description.

I thought that was cool looking...

TT

[Weirdo]

Just because a House, Clan, or other major Battletech power did a thing, it does not mean that thing was a good idea.

[Ruger]

Just because a House, Clan, or other major Battletech power did a thing, it does not mean that thing was a good idea.

Why am I suddenly flashing to a certain section of speech from the UFP president in Star Trek VI?

Ruger

[Weirdo]

I flash to that bit a lot.

[Colt Ward]

Its been a while . . . all I can think of is the trial and then the Klingon General quoting Shakespeare while putting holes in the Enterprise while Bones mutters 'I would pay real money if someone would shut him up' while working on a torpedo.

[Weirdo]

The relevant quote(or close to it) is "Just because we can do a thing, it does not mean that we must."

[Colt Ward]

Ooo . . . I always associate that sort of line with Malcom from Jurassic Park.

Roughly- so busy trying to see if we can do something, they never stopped to think if we should do something

[Ruger]

Ooo . . . I always associate that sort of line with Malcom from Jurassic Park.

Roughly- so busy trying to see if we can do something, they never stopped to think if we should do something

There’s also: “He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing”

Ruger

[Charistoph]

There’s also: “He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing”

Ruger

It may date even older, but that is also in Frank Herbert's Dune by Paul Atreides, first published in 1965.

I think for a Dropship to be able to handle an air superiority role, it really needs to be heavily armed, armored, carry a good selection of ASF, but it really is at a disadvantage in initiative being the clunky "wet" frigate/destroyer being swamped by fighters.

[Ruger]

It may date even older, but that is also in Frank Herbert's Dune by Paul Atreides, first published in 1965.

That’s actually who I was quoting for that line.

 ???

Ruger

[Colt Ward]

perhaps the sage Clauswitz?  Or maybe Machiavelli put it down . . .

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

open bay doors.

Launch Fighters.

a dropship's weapons packs are good for fighting other dropships in the black, or for defending an LZ from the ground.  it is NOT good for dogfighting.  This is why the majority of dropships carry fighters-because THOSE are your air-superiority units.

It would be the best way to deal with enemy aircrafts. You may make your dropship to a pocket warship, sure, but on the atmosphere all you need to deal with are the fighters and anti-air weapons on the ground, then all you need is a dozen of aerospace fighters at most.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

   As the one in my gaming group with the most DS kills, nobody should ever be that desperate. In atmosphere, a DS is doomed, even against conventional aero, because they will be outmaneuvered.

  In space, all aero has to do is concentrate attacks from the same direction to concentrate damage, a DS will die, even though it has a higher chance of survival in space. Moreover, if aero doesn't care about casualties, be ready to lose a DS.

  As a GM, I've had players buy Mules and max out the armor to make them practically warships, but they aren't even close to stock models.

  Price of Union: Just over 200 million; Med Aero Lucifer: Just over 3 million... So, it's much cheaper to lose 50 Lucifers...and you'd have a far better air superiority with 50 Lucifers...

[Daryk]

Sounds like the nuke argument to me (which I DON'T disagree with).  If the damage you can inflict is cheap enough, it doesn't matter what defenses your opponent can buy.

[Redlord320]

Well piranhas do help.