cthia wrote:May be I'm just missing something. Tester knows that I didn't formally enroll in the "New Manty Ships" thread. But I did crypt the course.Though I dropped it before the term ended.
So thanks for entertaining my notion. However, what I initially proposed seems doable with the current Apollo configuration. If not, a new variant of Apollo is a Bolthole's throw out of off the shelf parts.
In the final Battle of Manticore, Honor used the long reach of Apollo to destroy Chin's Second Fleet, then fired sixty Apollo missiles at Tourville's Fifth. Both attacks were from impossibly long ranges that employed a ballistic component. IIRC, Honor fired out of the RZ?
At any rate, with potential like that of Apollo, what's the difference of firing the missiles immediately versus deploying shoals of them at a strategic location, then activating them later on in an engagement to be fired then? With that tactic, a single ship can potentially mousetrap. The longbow of Apollo can be used in so many ways. I tink I taw textev stating that Honor and, I think Alice, Truman were still investigating the implications and possibilities of Apollo.
I wouldn't be surprised if my little trick isn't already tucked up Honor's sleeve and she just hasn't pulled it yet.
Or perhaps it'll be used by Gold Peak in one of her dustups where the gloves come off and mayhem comes from up her sleeves.
I just get the impression, from textev, that the ability of Apollo will be limited only by one's imagination, for awhile. From what I read, even RMN officers continue to be amazed by Apollo. When Honor came through the junction, cavalry bugle blowing, I remember someone saying "what just happened?" And "I don't blame the Peeps for 'wedge striking'."
Paraphrased for effect.
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Yes, the concept is doable. And as I pointed out, it has already been done. That is exactly what Admiral Henke did against Crandall.
As others have pointed out, there usually isn't much point in doing it, though, unless you have ammo ships you can deploy them from. First, you have to know exactly where the enemy will be. If you are simply depleting your own magazines, you lose a lot of your potential useful engagement time. Second, you have to be able to maneuver into a position where the enemy is in range of the deployed pods AND you are in control range of both the pods and the entire flight path of the missiles. That's a bit tricky.
Usually there's no point in doing this--if you can control that many missiles, you might just as well deploy them when from your podlayers when you actually need them. But it is possible, and it has been done. Sorry, not a new idea.
