From: skyhawk@milton.u.washington.edu (Scott Northrop)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Anti-SC bombing. (Was: Iron Man Netrekkers)
Date: 10 Oct 92 12:09:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: milton.skyhawk.718718951
Reply-To: skyhawk@u.washington.edu
Organization: very little

In <Bvvwwo.MCn.1@cs.cmu.edu> spot@CS.CMU.EDU (Scott Draves) writes:
>>>>>> On 9 Oct 92 18:02:31 GMT, thalerj@cps.msu.edu (Jay C Thaler) said:
>Jay> ... Plus when you have sc bombed for hours upon hours, you learn
>Jay> the best ways to defend against it.
>please enlighten.

Don't chase the scout.  Protect the armies, even unto death.

"So it is that good warriors take their stand on ground where they cannot lose,
and do not overlook conditions that make an opponent prone to defeat.
Therefore a victorious army first wins and then seeks battle;
a defeated army first battles and then seeks victory."
                               -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Book IV

The scout bomber is there to destroy your armies, your goal is to prevent
that.  Don't do anything that doesn't achieve the goal.  Specifically, don't
chase the scout out of your space just because it seems like a good idea.
Clued scout bombers will conserve fuel in your space, so they have a full
tank of fuel to dump out all over your face if you try to chase them.
(They'll refuel in 3rd space before you can get back to the, too.)  And, if
you do manage to kill them, *it was for nothing* unless you pop before they
can back into your space and bomb.  Protect your armies, and if the scout
comes to bomb them out from under you, swat it like the tiny little fly that
it is.  As an added bonus, you now have a kill and can ferry the armies to
the front, the base, or your home planet (depending on what type of strategy
you're using.)  If the scout does the sensible thing and stays away, you've
done your job.

Since all you want to do is prevent the scout from bombing the armies, it is
perfectly acceptable (in the normal case) to mutual with the scout.  You're
closer to the planet than the scout is (or you've got a lot of planets, and
don't really need to worry about the bomber in the first place), so you can
go back to guarding the armies until someone else can come by and pick them
up (15 seconds, unless the ogging has been intense).  I have bombed many
planets because the person guarding the planet tried dogfighting when they
should have been ogging.  If you're in a bigger ship, it's unlikely that
you'll have to mutual.  But if you have a kill, be worried about *being*
ogged, since the scout may opt to deny you the ability to move the armies if
it looks like bombing won't be successful, and there aren't any other
targets.  (Yes, Virginia, you can ogg in a scout, but you need a good
keymap.)

It is usually useful to have someone hanging around the most easily protected
agri (or both), if you're hungry for armies.  This strategy keeps more armies
than trying to chase the scout out of your space all the time, if you can
spare the ship.  (And unless you have a lot of armies, you *can* spare the
ship.)  If the scout can draw you away from the armies, you will likely be
outmaneuvered and lose the armies anyway.  ("Oooooh, I'm crippled!  Come kill
me...  Psyche!")

This is what I've noticed in my career as a scout bomber; I imagine this is
covered pretty well in "playing-sc" in the archives.  Ignore the scout; focus
on the armies.

Skyhawk		The Pesky Gnat of Proctology
Caveman		Proof that you can ogg in a scout.  Frequently!
PowerForward	"So *this* is what flying a cruiser is like!"
-- 
Scott Northrop  "Don't forget to vot." <skyhawk@u.washington.edu> (206)784-2083
ObVirus:  As a juror in a Trial by Jury, you have the right, power and duty
          to acquit the defendant if you judge the law itself to be unjust.
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek