Well the cynical answer gives the lie to what @psychoticstorm was saying. But there's also the gravity well factor; it's easier to throw things down a gravity well than up it.
It's a question of accuracy and energy density, its much easier to provide enough energy to poke a hole in a ship from a battery of cannons/launchers on the ground with little to no constrain on the mass of power plants than it is to provide a proportionate response to a hostile from orbit through several conflicting layers of wind sheer with mass limited resources. Even if the ship has an advantage through luck or tactics, there are still political ramifications if you're caught doing it, which would result in calls or mandates to disarm your ships, or exclusion zones were your ships have to be under escort ect, since you're now "the orbital bombardment guys".
Yes and no. A rock falling from space will wreck pretty much anything. You have the advantage that gravity *adds* energy to projectiles falling into the gravity well, while removing it from weapons going up. I disagree that that would be relevant if someone was bombing the Combined Army. They are seen as diabolical by the humans; Umbra and Sheskiin, for example, make a point to portray themselves as scary killers of humans, the Morats kill POWs and civilians, etc.
I think you are forgetting the main reason for the Combined Army Invasion: Locating the T'zechi Digester. You can easily infer that, they made the early determination that indiscriminate bombing is too much of a risk of destroying the objective or clues towards their objective. They also don't care about their casualties and are not in a rush, as they vastly outnumber humanity, so they have no issues with a meat grinder. So CA orbital bombing is not needed.
In the Durgama takeover, none of the zones being fought over are expendable enough to allow it, Paradiso has enough weird geology that sensors might not be able to get a good firing solution without glassing a greater London sized area or two to make sure and elsewhere in general CA incursions are small enough that the panic caused in the civilian populous by the very visible bombardment would do more damage than a dozen or so troopers going Morat-poo...
Sure, and you could just have the ships in orbit commit kamikaze attacks (accelerating full power straight down). And it would be stupid for the same reason: Collateral damage, terrible maneuverability and the cost. Firing high speed projectiles at the ground that are big enough to take out military targets is going to do things like cause earth quakes. And that level of collateral damage is going to put whoever performs the attack on the O-12 Naughty List.
Fkn lol. Boost-glide hypersonics like AGM-183 and DF-17 beg to differ. As for inaccuracy, Pershing II had a 30m CEP in the late 70s. In short, you’re talking out your ass to justify bad fluff.
No, drones with small-yield warheads or something funny like a Smash Dragon could find and kill a specific person, let alone enemy forces in general.
you could drop a bearpode in from orbit too. Actually I think I just convinced myself you're right...
What if your CEP is 2km off target? What if the target is very valuable? How do you confirm the kill?
Bears are bad enough, don't give CB ideas. We don't need AD bearpodes. Though considering bearpodes are mega-illegal Ariadna wouldn't be doing themselves any favors by making those public.
The exact same methods we use now, but with 200 years more tech... We can hit a single person in a moving car with a blender missile. I don't think hitting a target is going to be that difficult in 200 years.
Goalpost shifting much? I was refuting @solkan’s specious argument. I get it, you’re invested in the fluff making sense. It doesn’t, because Gutier’s background and interest isn’t in STEM, it’s in history.
