On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 8:22 PM,  <xxxxxx@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

> At typical Imperial tech levels, every object in a star system will be
> tracked or have its gross characteristics (size, signatures across the EM
> spectrum, orbital elements) readily measurable.
>
> The defender will have a big situational awareness advantage over an
> intruder as a result.

 The defender is more likely to have current situational information, yes.

If your objective is to jump in-system at 100D from the main world and
land an i nvasion force on the planet, the location of ships too far
away to impact the combat may not be terribly relevant to the
invasion.

OTOH, jumping in at 100D to land an invasion may be suicidal if the
planetary defenses (weapon sats, warships, and deep meson guns) are up
to the task.

Which may lead the invaders to jump in farther out (say, at a gas
giant) and refuel/reconnoiter the system before making a move on the
target planet.

On the gripping hand, an invader could, for example, send some sort of
commercial ship ahead of the invasion fleet by several hours, to scout
the target system and relay that information to the invasion fleet.

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
kook." -Alan Morgan