[MatthTheGeek]

You can already point all four TerSlashBlues on a single target if you're positioned correctly. Basically, the target has to be somewhere on top of you.

[Mars]

I tried to make a mission once, that involved a disabled Diomedes, and eventually, a Karuna jumping in on top of it. . .

I couldn't balance it - even with the armor at HA20, the Diomedes would take out the Karuna before the Karuna had managed to take more than a couple of % off of the (LA100) Diomedes. This was after over a squadron of bombers had spent the mission targeting those beam cannons.

Anything that is remotely over the Diomedes will get shredded in short order. The Karuna will peck things to death slowly when it's about 2km further away, which isn't as much of an advantage as you'd think.

If you've ever played The Darkest Hour very often, you know how often the Valarie ends up killing the Wargods before they ever exist.

[CT27]

Continuing my line of thought  on the 'guesstimation' that the UEF will lose at least one Solaris destroyer in the final part of BP; which destroyer do you think will be the first to be lost?  I.e., which UEF admiral will bite the dust first?

[Ryuseiken]

My guess would be Calder.

Byrne's secret project will probably ensure he's needed plotwise, and his 1st fleet is probably in the best condition of all 3.

Netreba has received the least amount of characterization out of all 3 admirals, so I feel that his death would have the least amount of impact if he were to be killed off. He's also got the remainder of the 2nd fleet at his disposal.

Calder's obsession with revenge against Steele and the decimation of his 3rd fleet make him prime material for kamikaze/going-down-with-the-ship situations, and he has the least amount of fleet assets to provide protection.

[Aesaar]

And without Jupiter to protect, 3rdJRF can be completely committed to offensive operations, so the Toutatis would be more often at risk.  Calder's also quite competent, so I can see Steele wanting to remove him as a threat.  His death would probably inflict an absolutely massive blow to UEF morale.

[-Norbert-]

Or, depending on the way he died, spur them into fighting harder, maybe even draw first fleet out of their defensive position into a massive offense. Killing enemy leaders always carries the risk of creating martyrs.

[Ravenholme]

Or, depending on the way he died, spur them into fighting harder, maybe even draw first fleet out of their defensive position into a massive offense. Killing enemy leaders always carries the risk of creating martyrs.

Killing the Elder didn't manage it, I doubt it'll work with an Admiral.

[MatthTheGeek]

Or, depending on the way he died, spur them into fighting harder, maybe even draw first fleet out of their defensive position into a massive offense. Killing enemy leaders always carries the risk of creating martyrs.

Killing the Elder didn't manage it, I doubt it'll work with an Admiral.

It worked well enough to trigger the events of Delenda Est.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

You can already point all four TerSlashBlues on a single target if you're positioned correctly. Basically, the target has to be somewhere on top of you.

In that case, wouldn't the Diomedes would be quite a terror if it was placed right in the middle of a battlefield or somewhere below it?

[Mars]

Watch the WiH intro. The Diomedes demonstrates its abilities in fleet action pretty well.

[KyadCK]

I've flown the Dio in a fleet battle (with unmodified stats), plop it between 2 karuna in a broadside and watch as the UEF takes a few seconds to wonder where their ships went. Its not a joke, the Dio can deliver some serious punishment if you let it get in the right spot. It does need help getting there though as a Karuna is fully capable of putting a Dio in the red zone in a one on one starting 6k apart.

Its powerful, but its not something that can just do the job on its own.

[-Norbert-]

Or, depending on the way he died, spur them into fighting harder, maybe even draw first fleet out of their defensive position into a massive offense. Killing enemy leaders always carries the risk of creating martyrs.

Killing the Elder didn't manage it, I doubt it'll work with an Admiral.

That is an argument that works both for making the UEF fight harder or making them give up.
The UEF didn't fall into a collective berzerker rage, but neither did they all collectively fall down on their knees overwhelmed with hopelessness, though as MattTheGeek already pointed out, some UEF members did indeed start to fight all the harder in response to the assasination.

There is also the incremental effect to consider. The death of the Elder doesn't go away, just because the Admiral also died. Those two events together will have a greater effect - no matter if positive or negative - than each event on it's own would have had.

[LordPomposity]

And, as Norbert said, it depends on how he dies. If the Toutatis goes down fighting, maybe even securing a Pyrrhic victory for the UEF, the effect will be much different than if Calder is killed in an escape pod like a chump.

[Deadly in a Shadow]

And, as Norbert said, it depends on how he dies. If the Toutatis goes down fighting, maybe even securing a Pyrrhic victory for the UEF, the effect will be much different than if Calder is killed in an escape pod like a chump.

You think someone like Calder would flee? Calder?

[crizza]

Dragged from the bridge by someone who would believe that a living Calder is better then a dead Toutatis and a dead Calder?

[-Norbert-]

Or knocked unconscious by an explosion and then evacuated by the medics.

[CT27]

Or, depending on the way he died, spur them into fighting harder, maybe even draw first fleet out of their defensive position into a massive offense. Killing enemy leaders always carries the risk of creating martyrs.

Surely though if there's a chance to take out a Solaris the GTVA should go for it, even if it might create some martyrdom right?

[Mars]

Suddenly POP the UEF can't field any fighters worth speaking of any longer. Solaris would take 192 or so pilots down with it, out of a fleet that at the BEGINNING of WiH only fielded 996 fighters on mobile bases, and they're low on pilots already. Although it might hurt the political situation, the UEF would suddenly be left with a large chunk missing from its deterrence force and struggling to put people in fighters.

[Scotty]

Several things:

1) not all pilots die when shot down.  Some eject.
2) not all fighters would be shot down before the Solaris goes down.
3) not all fighters would stay around and die after it does.
4) not all pilots get to fly fighters at the same time, and the number of pilots relative to the number of fighters isn't 1:1.

[Mars]

True enough, but it would still be a 'significant victory' indeed.