(SPOILERS) Expected defeat at Beowulf.

What's everyone opinion for the next solarian attack on Beowulf ?

The time line tell us that drone defense system would be operationnal in one to two months.

As the Solarian are not really battle-ready. Their response time to launch this operation (as the operationnal plan was just put in place), plus transit time, I don't see them being capable to succee in this.

Would Mesa involve themself ? For what purpose ?

Would a successfull defense of Beowulf be seen as an attack on solarian suppremacy ? (I think yes)

Would that put more pressure from the solarian on Beowulf ?

Xuan-Wu wrote:What's everyone opinion for the next solarian attack on Beowulf ?

There will be a lot people killed when the SLN puts a frac C missile into Beowulf.

kzt wrote:

Xuan-Wu wrote:What's everyone opinion for the next solarian attack on Beowulf ?

There will be a lot people killed when the SLN puts a frac C missile into Beowulf.

I'm not sure about that. Alliance's shis (including Beowulfians) have the capacity for multiples threats, especially with realtime reaction involved.

The death for me would come if solarians ships would be to attack and translate really close to the planet, plus carry ground bombing from space.

kzt wrote:

Xuan-Wu wrote:What's everyone opinion for the next solarian attack on Beowulf ?

There will be a lot people killed when the SLN puts a frac C missile into Beowulf.

This is the only way Weber can give the GA a defeat at Beowulf given the incompetant useless corner he has painted the SLN into compared to the GA fleets.

In a stand up fight the SLN can't win if there are GA forces in the system when they arrive. The only way they can win is basically though terminal stupidity at a strategic level of forbidding Manticoran forces at the terminus from interviening AND the commanding officer actually following these orders. No matter what her orders if Truman is still commanding everything we have seen of her says that when the SLN arrives she will go straight for them regardless of career repercussions so they have to redeploy her to make the attack succeed. The Beowulf defenders may get chewed up slowing the sollies down but they should be able to buy time for GA forces at the terminus to get there.

IF the SLN commits an edict vilation or appears to thanks to sharks from the MAN then the league probably won't last another 6 months as the GA will ruthlessly crush all fleet centres and there will be a political crisis of unimaginable proportions as the SLN comes appart at the seams as non mesan corrupted admirals mutiny at such a fundamental breach of everything they have been tought to believe in.

Xuan-Wu wrote:What's everyone opinion for the next solarian attack on Beowulf ?

The time line tell us that drone defense system would be operationnal in one to two months.

As the Solarian are not really battle-ready. Their response time to launch this operation (as the operationnal plan was just put in place), plus transit time, I don't see them being capable to succee in this.

Would Mesa involve themself ? For what purpose ?

Would a successfull defense of Beowulf be seen as an attack on solarian suppremacy ? (I think yes)

Would that put more pressure from the solarian on Beowulf ?

At one point, David was talking about 10 million Beowulf casualties in the attack.

As far as readiness goes, they've got the 100 SDs in Admiral Tsang's task force plus the 600 SDs they were assembling at Tasmania for a second wave attacking Manticore. I don't think the GA knows about them.

As far as "Solarian suppremacy" goes, they want to send a message that leaving the SL isn't an option. I don't see the MAlign getting involved; they want to keep the Leonard Detweiller spider-drive SDs as a secret until they have to use them to support the RF.

JohnRoth wrote:As far as readiness goes, they've got the 100 SDs in Admiral Tsang's task force plus the 600 SDs they were assembling at Tasmania for a second wave attacking Manticore. I don't think the GA knows about them.

<snip>

Tasmania is >3 months travel from Earth at military speeds, so I don't believe the timing allows the Tasmania forces enough time to get the recall order and return.

However, Hyperion One in Sol is the largest SLN shipyard and base, with the largest reserve. If any base can scrape up more SDs in a snap, it will be Hyperion One. When you figure that ~400 SDs are undergoing maintenance, some of those should be able to be expediated back to the active fleet.

Silverwall wrote:

kzt wrote:There will be a lot people killed when the SLN puts a frac C missile into Beowulf.

This is the only way Weber can give the GA a defeat at Beowulf given the incompetant useless corner he has painted the SLN into compared to the GA fleets.

In a stand up fight the SLN can't win if there are GA forces in the system when they arrive. The only way they can win is basically though terminal stupidity at a strategic level of forbidding Manticoran forces at the terminus from interviening AND the commanding officer actually following these orders. No matter what her orders if Truman is still commanding everything we have seen of her says that when the SLN arrives she will go straight for them regardless of career repercussions so they have to redeploy her to make the attack succeed. The Beowulf defenders may get chewed up slowing the sollies down but they should be able to buy time for GA forces at the terminus to get there.

IF the SLN commits an edict vilation or appears to thanks to sharks from the MAN then the league probably won't last another 6 months as the GA will ruthlessly crush all fleet centres and there will be a political crisis of unimaginable proportions as the SLN comes appart at the seams as non mesan corrupted admirals mutiny at such a fundamental breach of everything they have been tought to believe in.

I Believe the Terminus is ~4 hours away from the Beowulf system. Until the publicite is completed, it has been agreed that there will be no alliance presence in the Beowulf system to combat arguments of forcible coercion- so RMN forces are located at the Terminus.

So - when the SLN does come calling, they will have ~8 hours before an RMN taskforce can respond. When defenses will be completed and available to the BSDF is in question.

We know the SLN force isn't leaving Beowulf space, the question is what happens in that 8 hours they have before the RMN response, and what really causes the loss of live David hinted at.

Theemile wrote:
I Believe the Terminus is ~4 hours away from the Beowulf system. Until the publicite is completed, it has been agreed that there will be no alliance presence in the Beowulf system to combat arguments of forcible coercion- so RMN forces are located at the Terminus.

So - when the SLN does come calling, they will have ~8 hours before an RMN taskforce can respond. When defenses will be completed and available to the BSDF is in question.

We know the SLN force isn't leaving Beowulf space, the question is what happens in that 8 hours they have before the RMN response, and what really causes the loss of live David hinted at.

The only thing that isn't clear, is whether the RMN/GA forces camping out at the Terminus are 4 hours for a Solarian ship, or 4 hours for an Alliance ship. There's a pretty big difference given compensator efficiencies. Scientists have a max acceleration of 422 (unclear if this is military, or 80% of military), while Invictus(i) have a maximum of 526 gravs.

And I'm not sure, but didn't Oversteegen refer to some 'newer' model of podnought than the Invictus? Something about an improved Medusa/Harrington, so we can guess that the Harrington II's are probably even faster than the Invictus.

If it's a 4 hour trip for the Scientists, then the Alliance superdreadnoughts (let alone the heavy cruiser screen) could make the trip in between 2.5 and 3, given their edge in acceleration. Faster if they just sent ahead their light units, which were proven to be just as good at killing superdreadnoughts. Roll off a bunch of Apollo pods for the heavy cruiser screen, let them make the trip at maximum military power, and hammer the fleet.

Even a brain dead incompetent Solarian admiral, who gets hammered that hard by cruisers, with the sight of superdreadnoughts still moving in his direction's going to decide really fast to run away. After all, he can live through a court martial alot easier than he can live through waller's delivering an even heavier punch than "however those damned Manties let cruisers throw larger salvos than our superdreadnoughts!"

Another thought here: What exactly does "no combat forces" mean?

If I were the GA I would dump a bunch of Apollo pods in the system. Pods are quite stealthy, nobody needs to know they are there so they won't have any influence on the vote.

If the Sollies come calling the pods can be fired by the ships barreling in from the terminus. They won't work all that well but they don't need to--with some Ghost Rider drones (again, stealthy, what the voters don't know about won't change the vote) to provide basic targeting they should still devastate Sollie ships.

This provides no point defense, though--while the Sollies would be devastated it would be up to the locals to stop anything heading for the planet if they deliberately or accidentally committed an Eridani violation.