Hammers Slammers vs. Traveler Marines

BiopunkOtrera

BiopunkOtrera

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For whatever reason the Imperium is pissed off at the slammers and wants to get rid of them. The Slammers meantime are willing to fight it out, hoping to give the imperium a bloody nose and then negotiate from there.

So, who will triumph? Grav tanks vs. power guns?
 
Ford Prefect said:
The huge empire will beat the small mercenary company.
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Okay let me give a more precise scenario.

The slammers along with a coalition of various lower tech mercenary groups are doing the thing out of paying the piper, and have just reconquered the local space port from Solstice. The Imperium doesn't like this for reasons, says this is a disruption of trade and dispatches a marine division to try to try to reverse the situation and put Nonesuch back in charge.

This ends up with the Slammers facing off against one marine regiment as described here: Imperial Marines - Traveller

Can they do it?
 
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I think the issue for the Slammers is twofold: mobility and mesons. The Ursa is quick for its size but even in the absolute best conditions it pulls like 120km/h, which a fraction of the speed of even a fairly slow Third Imperium grav tank. The battlefield is essentially going to be whatever shape that the Marines want it to be because they've got an incomparable advantage in tactical and strategic mobility. And as tough as an Ursa is, meson guns just aren't going to care. That puts some real limitations on exactly how much force the Slammers can mass in one place, and if they disperse that puts them in a precarious position given how quickly the Marines can position themselves. The Slammers are real good, but the Marines are the elite forces in Traveller and combined with the edges they have I think they're going to take it.
 
Ford Prefect said:
I think the issue for the Slammers is twofold: mobility and mesons. The Ursa is quick for its size but even in the absolute best conditions it pulls like 120km/h, which a fraction of the speed of even a fairly slow Third Imperium grav tank. The battlefield is essentially going to be whatever shape that the Marines want it to be because they've got an incomparable advantage in tactical and strategic mobility. And as tough as an Ursa is, meson guns just aren't going to care. That puts some real limitations on exactly how much force the Slammers can mass in one place, and if they disperse that puts them in a precarious position given how quickly the Marines can position themselves. The Slammers are real good, but the Marines are the elite forces in Traveller and combined with the edges they have I think they're going to take it.
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I do actually think that power guns as built, and possibly slammers artillery as built is probably superior to what traveller has though. Like, missiles are much more possible in traveller than they are in the Slammersverse. Of course there are missiles that can defeat power guns at least over short distances but I do think Slammerverse artillery and power guns are a shade better.
 
BiopunkOtrera said:
I do actually think that power guns as built, and possibly slammers artillery as built is probably superior to what traveller has though. Like, missiles are much more possible in traveller than they are in the Slammersverse. Of course there are missiles that can defeat power guns at least over short distances but I do think Slammerverse artillery and power guns are a shade better.
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The relative strength of power guns vs fusion guns may favour the former, and certainly power guns have a tremendous potential range. Also the M53 has rocket assisted shells and a 130km range, which I think is better than meson guns. But unless anti-nuclear dampeners have some effect on the meson beam then I don't know that I would say the hogs are strictly better, Traveller's meson weapons are really good lol

Like, look, if you put an Ursa and a heavy grav tank in a room then I think I'd bet on the Ursa. But an Ursa is much more limited when it comes to getting around the field and I think that's going to be really critical.
 
I think the best play for the Slammers would likely to be to dig in around the space port and make the Marines come try to dig them out, possibly with combat cars and armour roving around a bit so it's not fully static.
 
BiopunkOtrera said:
I think the best play for the Slammers would likely to be to dig in around the space port and make the Marines come try to dig them out, possibly with combat cars and armour roving around a bit so it's not fully static.
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If they can keep Imperial artillery suppressed with their own and screen out fire control assets, this might work. But they've gotta keep those meson guns suppressed, if they get in range then there's no amount of digging in that will save them.
 
Ford Prefect said:
But unless anti-nuclear dampeners have some effect on the meson beam...
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They don't. Only meson screens stop mesons.



BiopunkOtrera said:
Okay let me give a more precise scenario.

The slammers along with a coalition of various lower tech mercenary groups are doing the thing out of paying the piper, and have just reconquered the local space port from Solstice. The Imperium doesn't like this for reasons, says this is a disruption of trade and dispatches a marine division to try to try to reverse the situation and put Nonesuch back in charge.

This ends up with the Slammers facing off against one marine regiment as described here: Imperial Marines - Traveller

Can they do it?
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Do they want the space port intact. Because if so that might limit what weapons the mariens can use but I will give the edge to the marines thanks to great mobility. But they will take alot of losses and realistically the imperium would not deploy one regiment to fight a force this strong but if forced they could do it with heavy losses. Both sides have the weapons to kill each other, both are competent forces with good leaders so it comes down to mobility.
 
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