Mine granularity

[Shyrka]

I have some questions relating mine deployment. I think the bigger mine is a Large mine (20 kT) with 4 Mine warhead III (damage 300) so it has 4 X 300 = 1200 damage. Let's call it BigMine (BM). The SmallMine(SM) would be a Small Mine (10 kT) with a Mine Warhead I (damage 100) so it has damage 100.

The cost for a BM is 600M + 240R, and for a SM 150M + 20R.

To reach the 1200 damage of a BM it is needed 12 SM that will cost 1800M + 240R so they not worth.

BUT they has an advantage: "granularity". An small escort (150 kT) that hits a minefield of a single BM will be destroyed, but also the minefield. The expensive BM is wasted (1200 minus more or less 150 equals to 1050 damage wasted) IMHO. But if this minefield is composed of 12 SM, only 2 of them will explode destroying the escort and leaving still a minefield of 10 mines capable of destroying another 5 escorts. I think this is interesting, and I never use the Large mine chassis. Have this been asked before?I'm wrong? Any thoughs?

[PvK]

You're essentially correct, I think. Also, 12 small mines are much harder to sweep than one big mine.

Advantages of large mines are that:

1) You can launch the same number of them as small mines per minelayer component, so you can launch more firepower per turn with large mines.

2) There is a limit on the number of mines that can be dropped in one sector, so with larger mines, the sector can be made more destructive.

3) There is a limit on the number of units that can be deployed in space (highest allowed setting is currently 5000) - so, in the long-term in a large/advanced game, each mine in space reduces the number of mines, satellites, fighters, and drones that can be deployed in space at one time. So, larger mines give more firepower for the amount of this capacity that is used.

PvK

[Suicide Junkie]

There are many situations where the larger mines become more effective.

Economics:
Using your numbers, it would take only 1 bigmine to kill a battlecruiser, but it would take 12 small mines to do the same job.
This situation is much more common than the escort attacks

Game Limits:
The large mines are essential once you begin to reach the units-in-space limits.
At the extreme case, you will have a choice between 5000 small mines, or 5000 Huge mines.

Deployment:
Another advantage is when laying the mines. A minelayer can deploy X mines per turn. Say a particular minelayer can deploy 12 per turn.
It can then kill 12 battlecruisers per turn using the large mines, or 1 battlecruiser per turn using the small mines.

Sweepers:
The biggest disadvantage of using larger mines comes when minesweepers enter the picture. A MS-V will kill 5 mines, no matter whether they are the expensive large ones, or the cheapo small ones.

Find your balance

EDIT: wow, almost the exact same reply at the same time

[ 20 February 2002: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ]

[Arak Koba]

What I am wondering is wether the game will know to use up small mines first, or waste the BMs against small ships if the sector has a mix of SMs and BMs.

[Fyron]

The game uses the mines in the order that they were deployed. The first mine you set down will be the first mine to detonate. It is the same as how ground combat works. First down, first to action.