Someone asked recently what kind of weapon works well in space. This kind.
(www.defensenews.com)
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Rail guns create thrust. Every shot is going to perturb your orbital vector. Super cool if that is in a direction you want to travel. But requires more reaction mass for thrust correction if not.
Lasers have no mass, therefore no thrust to the platform.
So you'd say space combat would be closer to The Expanse where it's majority missiles and defence turrets?
I believe they were using rail guns as well, at least in the second episode when the Mars ship was attacked.
they use the railgun to stay in orbit longer over the alien planet as well
Up until you were able to create gravitationally squeezed deuterium warheads to pump grasers (like in Weber's Honorverse books).
How much is a spaceship going to deflect if it fires the mass of a mortar round now at max velocity? It may not take much mass to punch a hole in another ship.