From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 535 Simple Math Problems

When he was at the Federal Naval Academy, Randall always remembered that his teacher, General Guterres, who has now joined the Atlas Group, once said that no matter what tricks humans use in the current stage of space fleet warfare or how they arrange tactics, they are essentially doing a simple math problem.

Randall had also heard this sentence from Amber, but Amber added her own understanding when she said this "classic definition" recognized by many naval commanders.

In his opinion, the essence of fleet warfare is indeed a simple math problem.

And it is very simple, so simple that even an elementary school student can do the four arithmetic operations in a little time. Through this math problem, the total power of the warring fleets of both sides can be calculated, and the difference in total power between the two sides can be calculated.

In more than 90% of fleet battles, the fleet with higher total power will undoubtedly win the battle.

As for the remaining 10%, they have all become classic battles of "winning the battle with the few" in the textbooks of various naval academies.

However, Amber's understanding of the "four arithmetic operations" had some insights that made Randall admit that this magical man was indeed extremely imaginative.

During a communication between the command levels of the Amber and Atlas combat fleets, the "formula" for measuring the power and strength gap between the two fleets was mentioned. In fact, it is not as rigid as everyone imagines.

Instead, the "total power" parameters of both sides can be flexibly adjusted according to the real-time progress of the battle, and the result of this formula has actually been changing since the moment the two sides started fighting.

Especially when the gap between the two fleets is not so big that all external conditions can be ignored, a fleet commander should actually find the optimal solution to this "four arithmetic operations" formula.
Randall admitted that when he first heard the theory, he didn't understand what Amber meant.

Because in the eyes of him and pure academic officers like Cleves, as well as old-school commanders like Guterres, the total power of the two warring fleets is a fixed value after both sides engage in battle.

Unless one side continuously receives support from friendly fleets during the battle and is constantly doing "addition", this problem has been solved from the beginning.

But when he was commanding the Third Task Force to attack the Rubion Galaxy Garrison Fleet, Randall suddenly found that he seemed to understand Amber's meaning a little.

Because according to Amber's "perverse logic", this will be regarded as the target enemy fleet, and its total power is not the sum of the combat power of all ships.
But 0.

The reason is very simple. The axis of the opponent's fleet is not pointing towards our fleet, and it also exposes the sides with the weakest defense.

Judging from the current development of the "spear and shield" of the human fleet, it is difficult for the side of a warship to withstand the main gun fire of a ship of the same level even if the deflection field is fully activated.

Even if it wasn't sunk on the spot, it would be more than enough to cause a wound that penetrated the external armor plate and shattered the internal structure.

Of course, super flagships such as Infinity and Dawn will not be included in the discussion for the time being.

So the situation Randall is facing at this time, if Amber used her original words when describing a similar situation:
"The enemy's spear and shield are both pointing in the other direction. If you use your spear to stab the enemy from the side or back, do you still need to calculate the thickness of the enemy's shield and the sharpness of the spear?"

"Amber, you're a fucking genius."

Seeing the "juicy" side of the target fleet getting closer, Randall couldn't help but admire it in a low voice.

If Amber, who was speeding on the 'hyperspace highway' at this moment, heard Randall's praise, she would probably feel a little embarrassed.

After all, this set of "distorted ideas" of his was not researched by himself, but a kind of "game mechanism" of fleet battles in the previous life's "Starry Sky OL".

Just like some realistic ground vehicle driving games that take place on planets such as 'Anton Star' and 'Minsk Star', the settings for combat units, in addition to conventional firepower and armor thickness, also involve differences in attack effects at different positions and angles.

Friends who often drive tanks know that in armored duels, attacking from the 'front' or 'side' has a natural advantage.

The same is true in "Starry Sky OL" or the world where Amber is now. Since the main guns of human warships are axial guns, the position with the strongest deflection field effect is also at the bow. This causes the front of the warship to become the attack surface, and the side becomes a complete weak spot.

Therefore, the traditional navy's "grabbing the head of the T" was completely reversed and became "grabbing the tail of the T".

After all, the players in Starry Sky OL are not real fleet commanders. Even if they are naval officers in the real world, they cannot use their experience in the "blue water navy". Therefore, the game officials are very considerate and have opened an "official MOD" for players who play the role of "fleet commanders". In fleet battles, a value called "combat power" can be calculated in real time based on the current formations of both sides, the number of main guns pointing at each other, armor, and the strength of the deflection field.

This setting and the "official plug-in" have changed the fleet battles of "Starry Sky OL" players from the simple and crude shooting at each other in the early days of the game to a style of constantly maneuvering to find opportunities, grabbing the sides, trying to make their fleet's "combat power" exceed the opponent at a certain moment, and launching an attack at this moment.
However, the "wrong theory" brought by Amber had only been verified in Atlas' internal fleet exercises before. The battle commanded by Randall today was the first time that this "wrong theory" was tested in actual combat.

For everyone in the Third Task Force, the more than ten minutes of breakthrough process was undoubtedly extremely painful.

Because the entire fleet entered a completely "silent" state, especially after the radar wave cancellation was turned on and the optical camouflage was activated, the active detection devices of all ships were also turned off.

The Third Task Force formed an extremely dense, compact, and long "spindle-shaped assault formation", and the distance between each warship was maintained firmly on the red line of "safe navigation distance".

Therefore, the helmsman of each warship will "blindly drive" through the position data of surrounding ships sent back by blue-green laser communication.

As long as the relative position between itself and the surrounding ships does not deviate, it means that the warship is still maintaining the advance rhythm of the entire fleet.

The 'dragon head' leading the entire task force's assault was none other than the fleet's flagship, the Infinity.

Nothing but 'the tip of the spear and the thickness of the shield'
Because of this, she will be the first ship in the Third Task Force to launch an attack.

"Report, we have three minutes left to enter attack range! At the same time, we have entered the enemy fleet's 'outer warning circle' and may be detected by the enemy at any time!"

Although the Infinity's tactical information coordinator was one of the most senior crew members in the Atlas combat fleet, he still couldn't help but become nervous at this moment.

After all, no one had ever used such a tactic before, with a fleet of this size approaching the enemy's flank in a stealthy manner, and no one knew whether it would be successful. Moreover, the commander who arranged this tactic was Colonel Randall, who did not have much experience in fleet warfare.
If the Rubion galaxy's garrison fleet discovered any clues within the next three minutes, they would have enough time to react, even if they readjusted the axis at the last second. Then the difficulty of the battle would increase sharply for the Third Task Force.

"Hold on! Hold on! Maintain the current pace of advance!"

Randall now nervously grasped the armrest of the captain's seat - this was almost the 'universe-wide unified action' of all captains and fleet commanders in stressful situations.

At this moment, Randall knew that he and his fleet had no way out. The only way was to attack the enemy, so he could only pray that 'TF3' could dive into the blind spot of the Rubion garrison fleet's reconnaissance.

Perhaps Randall's prayer worked. Major General Kimmel, commander of the Rubion Galaxy garrison fleet, issued a new order just before the fleet was about to enter the attack range of the 'V6 Atlas Fleet' - and just before the second escort detachment on the flank was about to discover the abnormality:
"Pass my order, the Second Destroyer Escort Detachment will lift its alert and follow the main fleet to join the assault!"

When the Infinity's air observation team captured through optical sensors the enemy's flank alert destroyers and frigates pulling out long tails and chasing after the main force of the fleet, Randall suddenly felt that he might have hit upon the 'goddess of luck' in his dream.

The last three minutes of the advance were different from the previous dozens of minutes of "torture". It was as if the accelerator key was pressed and it was almost gone in an instant.

As Randall felt his heart rate rising rapidly, the navigator also said loudly what he had always wanted to hear:

"Report, the fleet has entered attack range!"

The bridge seemed to fall into silence at this moment, and in the next second, Randall's order resounded throughout the bridge.

"All fleets! Increase the combat output of fusion reactors, put all weapon units online, remove optical camouflage, and deploy in combat formation!"

"All HCPs and heavy armored combat boat squadrons, attack with all decks! After breaking through the enemy fleet's air defense circle, prioritize attacking the enemy's capital ships!"

"Infinity, super-heavy purification beam generator, target enemy battleship formation, prepare to irradiate!"

Restrained by the seat belt, Randall burst out with unprecedented strength, leaned forward, pointed his finger forward, and uttered a classic roar that was later recorded in the "History of the Atlas Combat Fleet".

"Gods, tremble at this blow!"

(End of this chapter)