giant magnifying glass - why didn't they use in flf?

[The Watchman]

so everyone's freaking out about the vord in flf, but tavi had created pretty much an ultimate weapon that could kill anything without using that much energy - the sun is providing the heat, so the aircrafters just fly around...why didn't he mention that to bernard for the last battle?

[Fox]

My guess would be that the vordknights, and taken citizen flyers would make it very difficult to manage.

[Kalis]

It is an excellent weapon against ground troops on a bridge. In an open battle field it would be too easily nullified since it requires all the Knights to fly in one spot so they would just be sitting ducks essentially.

In fact it wouldn't have worked in CuF either except that it caught the Canim by surprise. One balest bolt in Max would have ended it before it began.

[JRBobC]

And uh, when was it sunny enough to use it?  Way I remember the death ray is they had to make a patch of sunlight.  That would have been almost impossible in FLF because the skies were filled with VordKnights, and the windcrafting that Tavi had used caused the whole of Calderon to be covered in a rain storm.

[Sebastian]

Or the targets make a mirrorcrafting of their own and fry your aircrafters. 1,000 mantiswarriors to a score of knights aeris is a terrible trade for the alerans and probably better than they can hope for.

[jimbutcher]

They didn't use it, mostly, because they never had total air superiority the way they did in CuF.  The windcrafters doing it would have been really juicy targets, since they would have to maintain an unmoving and absolute relative position to pull it off.  Terrain was another factor.  It worked in CuF because the Canim were all packed onto the bridge, which was made of stone and which reflected the incoming heat back up, making things worse for the Canim, like they were trapped on a giant cookie sheet.  There was simply nowhere for them to run to get out of the way.

Finally, it wasn't used because a weapon like that is really kind of a shock-and-awe thing.  It's terrifying and absolutely effective within its reach--but it's cumbersome as hell to put together.  The real damage comes when the enemy panics and falls to pieces.  The vord don't get terrified.  They just keep coming.  All of those factors reduced the MGoD's potential effectiveness in FLF.

All of those factors together meant that it just wasn't going to be a practical weapon, except in limited situations.  Think of it as a WWII infantry flamethrower.  An absolute killer and the best weapon there was for some situations--but with very sharp and very dangerous limits that have to be kept firmly in mind if you want it to do its job while still letting you survive using it.

The MGoD /will/ get used a lot in the mopping up decades after the end of the war: unless you want to go volcanic, there isn't a better weapon for scouring acres and acres and acres of croach off the face of the land.  (Except maybe a ravenous population.)

[TheBlueBeetle]

They didn't use it, mostly, because they never had total air superiority the way they did in CuF.  The windcrafters doing it would have been really juicy targets, since they would have to maintain an unmoving and absolute relative position to pull it off.  Terrain was another factor.  It worked in CuF because the Canim were all packed onto the bridge, which was made of stone and which reflected the incoming heat back up, making things worse for the Canim, like they were trapped on a giant cookie sheet.  There was simply nowhere for them to run to get out of the way.

Finally, it wasn't used because a weapon like that is really kind of a shock-and-awe thing.  It's terrifying and absolutely effective within its reach--but it's cumbersome as hell to put together.  The real damage comes when the enemy panics and falls to pieces.  The vord don't get terrified.  They just keep coming.  All of those factors reduced the MGoD's potential effectiveness in FLF.

All of those factors together meant that it just wasn't going to be a practical weapon, except in limited situations.  Think of it as a WWII infantry flamethrower.  An absolute killer and the best weapon there was for some situations--but with very sharp and very dangerous limits that have to be kept firmly in mind if you want it to do its job while still letting you survive using it.

The MGoD /will/ get used a lot in the mopping up decades after the end of the war: unless you want to go volcanic, there isn't a better weapon for scouring acres and acres and acres of croach off the face of the land.  (Except maybe a ravenous population.)

YA! What he said.

[Sebastian]

The solution to a Croach infestation 

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/Cabf09.jpg

[Gman]

Wow, I guess Croach is going to be on the standard Aleran diet for a while. Just reminds me of the Monty Python Spam skit. What do you have to eat? Croach, potatoes, Croach and Croach. Lamb, Croach, Croach and salad.

[thelordbeans]

Wow, I guess Croach is going to be on the standard Aleran diet for a while. Just reminds me of the Monty Python Spam skit. What do you have to eat? Croach, potatoes, Croach and Croach. Lamb, Croach, Croach and salad.

It's the circle of life! They must eat croach to restore the land to its earlier fruitfulness, because the croach must, I repeat, MUST be turned into that glorious thing known as poop. Croach becomes poop, poop becomes life, and the Vord are once and for all defeated.

What's a word that means the opposite of precocious? Because I'm feeling ashamedly that way right now.