If I remember the concept clearly, in the 80's, IIRC there was a plan to build a Battleship-sized warship that could, literally, swamp an enemy with a missile salvo capable of overwhelming any fleet's point defenses.
Below is my interpretation of that concept.
As always, comments are requested.
Example Two:The Terran player determines that he needs to build a Dreadnought-sized warship with a larger than normal missile capacity. So the player begins to design the Anti-Ship missile he will use on the Arsenal ships. First he decides to use the Single Stage Rocket Equipment Point as the base template. However, he knows that he has to add a warhead and that a plain old ASM is not enough for his plans. So he adds a +2 Anti-Ship Warhead cap to his design for the added punch he needs, and decides to add a +1 ECM, and a +1 ECCM to his design. Normally, this would make for a VERY expensive ASM, so the player makes sure he has the -2 Expendable Reduced Cap. The player knows that the base cost for SSR's is 10 WU's, 2 IUU's, and 1 week of construction. To this he adds 8-4=4 WU's, and 8-4=4 IUU's for a final cost of 14 WU's and 6 IUu's, with a construction time of 1 week.
Now the player must determine what the ship itself will consist of. First he decides to use the Dreadnought Class Warship as the base template. However, he wants this ship to be, basically, a missile throwing monster of a ship. So he adds a +2 Deck Capacity Cap, a +1 Cargo Capacity specialized for missiles, a +1 Fleet Command Ship, a +2 External Point Defense, and equips it with a regular Diesel Engine he had already built and had in storage. The Dreadnought has a base cost of 400 WU's, 96 IUU's and size 6 per ship, but since the player has added a +2 Deck Cap, +1 Cargo Cap, +1 Fleet Command Ship Cap, and a +2 Point Defense Cap, and the engine to the design, it has a new base cost of 414 WUs and 110 IUU's that he multiplies by 6 for a final cost of 2484 WU's and 660 IUU's. The player then assigns it to a Ship Yard that has a slipway with the capacity to construct it. The Construction time for the new Arsenal Ship is 60+4+21= 85 weeks, with a cargo capacity of 2,000 TEU's of only missiles.
Now the Player must determine the cost and how long it will take to train crew for the new ship. The cost and time to train a crew for a Dreadnought is as follows; 40 WU's and 5 Manpower points. The Base Ship Class Training time for a Dreadnought is 48 weeks, and the eng TL is 7/2 = 4, and the Caps adds 7x3= 21 weeks. So the time needed to Train the Ship's Crew is 48+4+21= 73 weeks. The Final Talley is 40 WU's, 5 Manpower points, and 73 weeks to train the crew.
His Missile and Arsenal Ship Designs would look like the following:
Single Stage Rocket: Harpoon
14wu/6iuu/ Per EP - size .33 TEU
Industrial Upkeep: 0.02, Wealth Upkeep: 0.01, Fuel Upkeep: 0.01
AA 0/0 GA* 8/8 DR 1/1 EW 1/1
TL 7, +2 Anti-Ship Warhead, +1 ECM, +1 ECCM, -2 expendable
* = Naval Units Only
Dreadnought: Arsenal Ship - Terra Class - TEU's - 2000, Missiles Only
2484wu/660iuu/5 mp/ 85 wks to commission - 70 DP's - SSR Missiles Only
Industrial Upkeep: 0.3, Wealth Upkeep: 0.2, Fuel Upkeep: 0.1
AR 10/5 DR 11/11 AM 3/9
TL 7, +2 Deck Capacity (SSR Missile Cells), +1 Cargo Capacity (Missiles), +1 Fleet Command Ship, +2 Point Defense (External)
Engine: +1 Regular Diesel Engine
Now, a bit of explanation of what this stuff means.
In BTS! warships normally get to fire off missile salvos equal to their size. So, without any Deck Capacity, a normal DN can spit out 6 salvos of missiles per combat round, but this ship with a +2 Deck rating gets to double the base rate twice for a final salvo count of 36 missile salvos per combat round. Each salvo consumes 1 ep of SSR's per combat round. The Arsenal Ship will consume 36 ep's of Harpoons per combat round.
Each TEU can hold 1 size point of missiles. Since SSR's are .33 in size, each TEU of Cargo Space can hold 3 SSR class missiles. So this ship, when its cargo holds are filled, has 6,000 points of Harpoon missiles. Moreover, this equates to 166.6 combat rounds of ammunition. Truly an Arsenal Ship if I say so.
Cheers, Thor