Space warfare
A model of space warfare for games
Various levels of defence of a planet exist:
a fleet of motherships and fighters than patrol the interstellar space (and potentially intergalatic space)
a fleet of motherships and fighters than patrol the interplanetary space (i.e. within the planetary system)
motherships, fighters, space stations orbiting a planet (or moon), together with surface based space fighters (geospace)
fighters, missiles, etc that can operate in the atmosphere
tanks, ships and troops that operate on the surface
Correspondingly, there will be several phases of the invasion of a planet:
Stage 1 - fleet (mothership and fighters) to fleet in interstellar space resulting in interstellar supremacy
Stage 2 - fleet to fleet in interplanetary space resulting in interplanetary supremacy
Stage 3 - fleet to fleet and space station in orbit/geospace resulting in orbit/geospace supremacy
Stage 4 - space fighter to fighter in the atmosphere (accompanied by orbit-to-air and surface-to-air weapons) resulting in air supremacy
Stage 5 - bombing runs (air-to-surface and orbit-to-surface) to neutralise surface forces
Stage 6 - landing and control of the surface
Stage 7 - subsurface
The key unit types and attack capability types are:
motherships - space-to-space, space-to-air, space-to-surface
space fighters - space-to-space, air-to-air, air-to-surface
space station - orbit-to-orbit, orbit-to-space (orbit-to-air? orbit-to-surface?)
air - air-to-air, air-to-surface (air-to-orbit? air-to-space?)
surface - surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, surface-to-orbit, surface-to-space
sub-surface - subsurface-to-subsurface, subsurface-to-air, subsurface-to-orbit, subsurface-to-space
Notes:
some space fighters may be able to operate in both space and atmosphere, some may only be able to operate in space
forces may be manned or robotic
the model largely ignores nuclear, biological, electronic warfare
the best defence will be subsurface units with subsurface-to-space capabilities (e.g. a submarine that can launch a missile into space)