War of the Worlds, a review

[Rhydderch Hael]

A good imagination doesn't come cheap these days. It's really hard to think of advanced  alien technology that makes sense yet sets them apart from humans. I suppose most people would just think of "Terrablaster" and protonoghalohpic energy with the ability to uhh... blow up stuff and process humans for food!  :mellow:
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I know. It took me a while to dream up torp energizers, flash flak, and spatial-shock explosives for some of my own starship-based sci-fi work. But on that grace, those above are the human weapons. With the alien stuff: the funkier, the better.

I did take a page off of Bayblon 5 starship tactics concerning the flak battery and the energized torpedo in that, here, energy shields aren't going to do you a spot of good— the name of the game is to intercept the incoming shots before they get within lethal blast radius (which, given the unusual nature of a spatial-shock warhead, means direct contact when detonated in the vacuum of space). In the struggle between offense and defense: the faster and more advanced the computers controlling the plasma-burst flak guns, the faster the torps have to accelerate to defeat the flak. Faster intercept time means more elaborate flak batteries (with both barrage and phalanx burst patterns) to defeat the incoming.

Point defense missiles? Forget about it. Technology escalates to the point that the torps are being shot out of the tubes with rail guns— the onboard motor now only provides marginal course correction and further acceleration downrange. Too fast for missile intercepts. Only way to go is to throw up a concerted volley of flak shells set to burst either as a traditional barrage pattern, or as a phalanx burst.

Given that an energized torpedo shot has to be accurately aimed prior to launch, the approach vector is more predictable, and a "phalanx" of flak shells looks like a detonating finger of plasma fire burning along the predicted approach path from the defending ship to the attacking ship.

I haven't nailed the heavy capital ship designs down, but I love how the corvette, the fast-attack stealth model, has come along.