With the advent of Bombers and new shuttles ((R1.F12) thru (R1.F25) the various races had an administrative quandry to solve. How to get the best use of the abilities of the equipment.

The Federation approached it with a distinctly utilitarian technique.

The first, (and that adopted by most races) was to treat the new shuttles similar to the use of the ubiquitous Admin Shuttles, (i.e. 'ad hoc' where bases and ships could buy special shuttles with commanders options points for use when the special abilities were required to complete various missions.

The second, was to organize the special purpose MAT Squadrons. these were squadrons of 6 shuttles (of a single type, such as A-HTS , HTS, VFS or HFS) and operated out of a modified BHB (Heavy Bomber Base) or MBM (Medium Bomber Base) and treated as if it were a tactical combat unit for purposes of deployment and resupply.

Missions for such MAT units tend to be outside of the scope of Star Fleet Battles, but would include assisting Base construction, repair, modifications (such as upgrading defense Btn to Defense Regiment or a regiment to Brigade status), terra forming, and Colonial Development efforts.

During the General war, MAT squadrons carried out Combat resupply missions to bases cut off from normal resupply by enemy blockade. (limited to those missions that were within the range limits of transports.

MAT squadrons were organized (in part) as there were times that the missions were needed to support the war effort, and the civilian (and semi civilian) personnel of corporately owned shuttles refused to participate due to the risk of combat.

One such mission was planetary assault on hostile (and enemy occupied) territory where the target was within the operating range of the shuttles. there is record of MAT's being placed upon an asteroid, and using a casual base (R13.2) to stage from when they pariticipated in the attack.

Since the Federation did not operate PF's, the ability of HFS and VFS to land both boarding parties and ground combat vehicles became a combat requirement.

Proposal:that a new base type, TMB (a modified (BMB without the ability to operate bombers, and no reload facilities present) be added that would operate a squadron of shuttles (HFS).

A second type, HTB (a modifed BHB, again without the reload facilities) to operate Very Heavy Freight Shuttles.

In game terms, such bases (and the shuttles operated) would be present in SFB scenarios as units present (and possible targets for Victory Point purposes) as well as possibly participating in offensive operations as assault landing craft for ground combat operations.

Since shuttles of this size can not be operated by ships, the ability for raids is limited and very little use by Orion Pirates was made of such craft, but some star systems used large numbers of such shuttles in civilian freight service.

MAT Squadrons did find employment on planetary survey missions where the full ability of survey ships and scouts were not needed yet the planet biology, ecology and mineral resources required many shuttle missions. In these cases, the TMB or HTB would be docked with a small base (with a science module) or deployed on a convenient (and near by moon) along side with a ground science base.

Mining operations where many small (well, small compared with freighters capacities) shuttle loads needed to be transferred from prospecting shuttles for transfer to the refining facility.

Very few MAT's were organized for personnel transfers where the large number of people carried, were carried for relatively short distances. such as from earth to the moon, or Mars to either of its two moons or between the various moons of Jupiter. (note these are cases where normal transporters can't be used due to the distances involved.) these special "buses" only appear in capital hexes such as EArth, Vulcan or Rigel and never ever outside of the capital hex.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 05:19 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

Actually, such units in general already exist. They do not show up in most scenarios involving an attack on a planet (where you would normally find them) because they flee the scene with various valuables. It gets back to the point made before. Approaching ships can be detected fairly far off, while shuttles are small enough not to be seen at such ranges. So the shuttles take off with the exception of those deemed necessary to support the defense. Since most HTS shuttles and their larger cousins are unarmed, we tend to not allow players to get carried away using them to "soak up casualty points", or by their mere existence force the attacker to only use specific allocation to kill defending troops. It would be fairly ridiculous for a planet to be reasonably immune to an attack by a battalion of enemy troops because the company of defending troops is hiding behind 30 HTS shuttles.

In any case, there is no reason to add additional ground based defense phasers (even if only phaser-3s) to accomodate the addition of such units. Their maintenance needs are simply assumed to be taken care of by the "good old boy" network because they are much simpler to operate (no phasers with their own power couplings to the engine housing, etc.).

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 05:46 pm: Edit

OK- point taken.

What about the "no Fed PF's" effect on planetary assault?

(other races have PF's dedicated for ground assaults), do the feds have a modified Skiff or other similar capable non ship unit that is more effective than shuttles or HTS?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 06:02 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

Other people have PFs dedicated to RAIDS.

You do not really need a PF to do a ground assault.

As described before, phase one of a ground assault is to eliminate the enemy space forces, i.e., drive away his ships.

Phase two, frequently done in conjunction with phase one, is to eliminate the ability of the planet to affect anything in space around it. This basically means destroying ground based defense weapon systems and any ground bases that are not the object of a seizure attempt.

Phase three is the actual landing and is done (for the Federation) with a combination of shuttles and transporters.

Ground assault PFs are simply not needed for such an operation. They are sort of nice to have, but they are not needed.

Nor are cargo PFs an absolute necessity for such an operation to be conducted.

The Federation is simply less likely to risk losing large numbers of ground troops on a raid conducted solely by a force of PFs. Other races are willing to risk having a PF carrying fifty marines be gutted by a ground based phaser-4 shot or two.

It is the philosophical difference between the Federation and other races that kept the Federation from building PFs.

By Steve Cain (Stevecain) on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 03:06 am: Edit

Jeff- The Feds have many ways of getting troops to a planet. As SPP has pointed out the commando PF fills a very specialized mission of raiding outposts and other areas that do not take a lot of force. I could quote a half a dozen WWII raids that used (at best) PT boats to get the troops in; but the idea is evident.
If the Fed needs to make a raid there are ways of doing it.
1. Use a warship, load it down with troopers and blast your way in.
2. Don't need any space based power... use a force that is comprised of free troopers, free tankers or a combo of these.
3. Think cargo bays can hold people... An APT or Fed express, modular transport or even a skiff can bring a few GROPOS (sorry B-5 term) in.

These should cover any real raid needs the Feds have.
Options 2&3 are direct landing potentials.
Module M clearly states that the structure given is NOT (and I say again- NOT) for assaulting 20th Cent. Earth or any major inhibited location. The small Mod M ships & a little escort should take care of most NON WARSHIP (ie not Texas Class Cl) commando raids.

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 03:27 pm: Edit

I'd also like to point out that, in the specific case of the Feds, they have a warship that can (and is specifically designed to) actually land on the planet to disgorge her troops...the Commando Cruiser (based on the old CL hull). See the R description for the CMC (R2.31).

IIRC, only two other races has a ship that can do this: The Orions (several ship types) and the Romulans (the Commando Eagle).

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 04:31 pm: Edit

Richard Sherman:

While the Federation Commando Cruiser could land and deploy troops, IIRC the text of R2.31 also indicates that considerable effort is needed to relaunch the ship. This is not a good characteristic to have when performing a raid on an enemy held planet.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 05:19 pm: Edit

Richard Sherman:

Jeff Wile is quite correct. The CMC is only going to land on a planet if you are going to STAY. It will not do so for a raid, but would support a raid with its transporters and shuttles.

Anyone that wanted to land on a planet for a raid would use a Free Trooper or three or four, and maybe a Free Tanker or two. These are available to all races, except the Romulans, from about Y125 or so (the Free Tanker probably later than that, and of course even the Romulans can use them from about Y160 or so). They are fast enough, shielded enough, and carry sufficient troops (or tanks) to get the job done, and can land on planets, although they need to be supported. And, frankly, if you were pulling a raid where a landing was necessary you would be backing it with supporting ships anyway.

The Orions are, of course, always another matter.