I don't doubt that CAS is around. I doubt that you use it in an Cold War Black ops operation. Especialy if you intend to say that you never were even near said operation. Everyone might even be outfited with some device to get rid of his body and gear in case of death.
I concur that USUALLY Infinity revolves about Wetworks, maybe not even with National Armies special Black-Ops Teams, but rather P.M.C. Mercs with Paramilitary Gear fighting glorified Security Guards during Corporate Espionage / Sabotage. Maybe NOT even on Svarhalheima Borders there is so much Heavy Combat going between rival forces (a good inspiration could be the old movie " The Fourth War" with Roy Scheider starring as a U.S.M.C. Colonel and Jurgen Prochnow playing a Spetsnatz Major that risk to escalate "Border Garrison Taunts" to a conflict between German Republic and D.D.R.) . . But Infinity JUST NOW has the Indipendence Rebellion of Japan fighting the WHOLE of Yujing Army on multiple Planet fronts and there were the Commercial Conflicts in the recente past. . . . . And in Paradiso a frickin ALIEN INVASION FORCE has taken root; maybe Your Local Garrison Commander will NOT order a Artillery Shelling of Zerat Scouts are reported patrolling No Man's Land, but when the WHOLE Sogarat Battalion start to spearhead multiple Morat Vanguard Companies pushing surely He start to call his Nation version of "Puff The Magic Dragon" (Vietnam era namecall of Bombers fitted with Vulcan Gatlings) !!!
Yup. You should read the Heavy Object light novels. Volume 9, specifically, where the 'Dragon Slayers' (aka the two idiots) get seconded to an intelligence op in a so-called Safe Country (where military operations are not allowed by treaty). They end up using a fun little drone called a Shortbow, which drops an image-guided smart missile on the orders of an app installed in a cellphone. Open the app, take a picture, watch things go boom. I'm wondering how long before someone messes around with a setup like that in the real world.
As mentioned, pretty much all of North Korea's towed artillery guns are pointed at Seoul (or other places on the DMZ), basically to be able to destroy Seoul in the first strike of a new offensive (not a new war, the Korean War is only under an Armistice, not a Peace Treaty). While it's never good to compare to current events, we are seeing arty in support of small teams in the Ukraine/Crimea, as well as Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, we're seeing single shots of GPS-guided shells for fire missions. The US does still maintain a pretty decent number of towed artillery pieces, in addition to the self-propelled types. Heavy Brigades (aka Armored Divisions) get the self-propelled guns to keep up with the armor, Infantry and Stryker Brigades get towed guns because their infantry walk. Marines also run towed artillery, but they're immensely infantry-focused. An Army battalion usually has a company of tanks attached, the Marines have a platoon. =============== But honestly, I expect most fire support in Infinity to be the Smart Missile REMs. SMLs basically replace both the heavy antitank missiles (TOW or equivalent that are too heavy to be infantry-portable) and the infantry mortar (81/82mm and 120mm). Getting back to my Heavy Object example, it'd be a bit tough to balance a weapon that is always available and basically unkillable. I mean, it's not like we'd have Shortbow UAV models on the table.
Hackable. But until proper scatter is added to rules, it would just magically disappear, instead of friendly fire.
Really, I think that "dumb" ballistic arc weapons would probably stick around as you don't need to faff around with laser targeting, getting a missile lock etc, you just use the next sexy mathematics of gravity and ballistic arcs. Just like how they took all the guns off air superiority fighters and then put them back on because it turns out they're pretty damn useful.
Yup, they're also almost always gonna be cheaper too, and a "dumb" launcher can always fire a smart round. As for planes, a good point, but the technophiles and other people who didn't learn anything from Vietnam (eg the Ministry of Defence) keep trying to remove them - look at how iirc two of three F35 variants use an external pod (though it does have a few dozen more rounds as a result) . Let's ignore that a gun is a good CAS weapon as well as a backup for when out of missiles.
Yup. Thanks, phoneposting! This is why simpler tech is always viable, the high tech stuff betrays you! Think I managed to keep that on topic pretty well there.
You prefer the Farrell to the original? I'd agree with you but then we'd both be wrong. :D While Kate kicking A and taking names is always entertaining to watch ... just ... no. There was NONE of the patented PKD mindfuckery in the film - that movie was a travesty not deserving to be called "Total recall" as a result. The whole "mars colony" shenanigans thing (from the Shwarzeneggar film) was intrinsic to the plot of the original story. Same with the ancient martian air making machine. And the whole "Doug Quaid" thing (although he was supposed to be more "everyman" than "brown condom stuffed with walnuts" - Dustin Hoffman was on the casting list for Quaid before Carolco got the rights to it. So Farrell might have been a better choice there ... Although the "remake" did feature flying "maglev" cars as well as police gunships.