(12-08-2022, 08:41 AM)Ninurta Wrote: Either standoff shooting at the substation itself or taking out transmission lines and towers will end the party, and ... simply vanish like a puff of smoke and keep their yaps shut.
... can ruin your whole day if they take out several substations at once, ... and then just vanish into the aether.
If the grid of substations is taken out, the whole of the population will turn on the government, or turn away from it. Memory doesn't serve well at the moment, but blasting 7 or 9 of these stations would take down the entire continental grid. I think I saw an estimate saying that it would take more than ten years to recover. And, anyone that determined wouldn't stop after the ninth one was taken out (is my bet).
Second order effect of nuclear power plant meltdown is No Joke McDoke. If a power plant can't offload the energy generated into the grid, it has to be shutdown ... and right quick too. Problem is getting people there who can do it ... and very few approaches into any facility like that. A smart team laying in wait to pop 'em as they rush in ...
Third order effect is the inability to get the grid back up to 100%, even if it is not entirely taken out.
Long haul transmission lines are incredibly vulnerable to small arms fire. One skilled marksman (who does that disappearing act you mentioned) can repeatedly cause severe short-term outages. But, with a small support team can turn those in to long-term events.
And if there's no further indicator of more damage being inflicted, how do you know and how do you stop folks who continue to run amok? Ten years to see electricity again? I don't think I've got ten years left in me. A lot less than that with no running water and nothing efficient to get it hot.
You can't claim victory ... if you don't live to see the end of the war.