Solar Federation Navy, 2097

[Bremen (OP)]

(As a note, most of my combat in the game has been with a race regarded as a spoiler, so some direct combat results will be spoiled. If you haven't played a game with the Invaders box checked, please save the surprises to discover on your own.)

The Solar Federation has been under near constant attack for decades, by an enemy both advanced and seemingly numberless. Only with the sacrifice of dozens if not hundreds of warships has it managed to endure and eventually grow.

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Ark Royal IIIb class Missile Destroyer    8,000 tons     256 Crew     2047 BP      TCS 160  TH 1500  EM 0
9375 km/s     Armour 5-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 27
Maint Life 4.32 Years     MSP 1639    AFR 49%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 141    5YR 2115    Max Repair 750 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 252   

Large Military Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 1500    Fuel Use 68.89%    Signature 1500    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 900,000 Litres    Range 29.4 billion km   (36 days at full power)

ASM Missile Tube II (6)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 75
Missile Fire Control FC638-R120 (1)     Range 638.9m km    Resolution 120
Javelin VI ASM6 (42)  Speed: 50,000 km/s   End: 97m    Range: 291m km   WH: 16    Size: 6    TH: 200/120/60

Active Search Sensor MR638-R120 (1)     GPS 38880     Range 638.9m km    Resolution 120

ECCM-3 (1)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
The venerable Ark Royal, alongside its companion ship the Illustrious (Yes, I may have forgotten to change my empire's naming theme...) are the two oldest ship types still in service. The Ark Royal has in fact been completely discontinued, and the design was never updated with the new Magnetic Fusion drives. A scant half dozen of the vessels still survive and serve in garrison fleets on underdeveloped colonies.

While its range, developed specifically to counter The Enemy's powerful ECM, makes it capable of fielding newer missiles to deadly effect now that it has been refitted with ECCM, the Ark Royal has proven too small and fragile to survive in missile duels against the larger (and longer range) ships The Enemy now seems to field exclusively. Thus the decision to halt production in favor of the newer Invincible missile cruiser design. Even with its relatively thick armor, large weapon impacts had a distressing tendency to damage internal systems despite failing to penetrate, and the Ark Royal in particular had an unpleasant habit of being destroyed or crippled by single missiles penetrating a fleet's point defense coverage and damaging the engine, often causing a catastrophic explosion.

The primary missile types employed by the invaders in my game have 20 and 27 point warheads, so shock damage is a reality of combat for the Solar Federation.

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Illustrious IV class Destroyer    7,500 tons     245 Crew     2079 BP      TCS 150  TH 1875  EM 0
12500 km/s     Armour 6-34     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 11     PPV 30
Maint Life 4.54 Years     MSP 1906    AFR 40%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 150    5YR 2247    Max Repair 937.5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1   

Large Destroyer Magnetic Fusion Drive (1)    Power 1875    Fuel Use 55.11%    Signature 1875    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 43.5 billion km   (40 days at full power)

Light Railgun (10x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 12500 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Railgun Fire Control II (2)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Primary Fusion Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 30    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Backup PD Sensor (1)     GPS 84     Range 11.8m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1
Designed when the Federation was desperate for a low tech point defense method against The Enemy's brutal missile attacks, the kludged together Illustrious class proved surprisingly apt at this role, and remains a key part of Federation fleet doctrine. With a full third of it's hull given over to a single, heavily boosted engine, the nimble destroyer disdains complicated turret assemblies in favor of a large number of hull mounted, fast firing railguns. While lacking the tracking speed of the newer dedicated point defense turrets, the destroyer more than makes up for this with sheer weight of fire.

In addition to its point defense role, the speed of the Illustrious made it unexpectedly well suited for chasing down damaged or ammo depleted enemy vessels and finishing them off with sustained railgun fire. In two cases groups of Illustrious class ships were able to save their fleet by destroying damaged enemy beam warships after missile stores were completely exhausted, though they took extremely heavy losses in both instances.

Though the Illustrious class shares the same fragility issues as the Ark Royal, its proven usefulness to the fleet means it has remained in production. The crews of these small ships know they risk much, but also serve as their fleets' first and last line of defense.

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Invincible II class Missile Cruiser    18,000 tons     548 Crew     4098.5 BP      TCS 360  TH 2500  EM 3600
6944 km/s     Armour 6-61     Shields 120-400     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 26     PPV 72
Maint Life 5.48 Years     MSP 3743    AFR 98%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 209    5YR 3137    Max Repair 625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 672   

Large Military Magnetic Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1250    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1250    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 50.0 billion km   (83 days at full power)
Theta R400/384 Shields (30)   Total Fuel Cost  480 Litres per hour  (11,520 per day)

ASM Missile Tube II (16)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 75
Missile Fire Control FC638-R120 (2)     Range 638.9m km    Resolution 120
Javelin VI ASM6 (112)  Speed: 50,000 km/s   End: 97m    Range: 291m km   WH: 16    Size: 6    TH: 200/120/60

Active Search Sensor MR638-R120 (1)     GPS 38880     Range 638.9m km    Resolution 120

ECCM-3 (1)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
After many bloody battles, it became obvious to fleet designers that no amount of armor or point defense could keep ships alive for long against The Enemy. The development of energy shield technology provided a way for vessels to endure a few unlucky missile strikes without critical damage. Early versions of the cruiser had screens a third as powerful as the new Invincible II class, which improved survivability at first but eventually proved insufficient as the battles grew more destructive. Improvements in technology as well as dedicating 50% more space to shield generators means this newer version is protected from all but sustained bombardments. More redundant systems and improved damage control capabiity also makes the cruiser more resistant to internal damage than the Ark Royal.

The Invincible now serves as the primary punch of the Solar Federation navy, though missile shortages have become a fact of life in the face of The Enemy's ceaseless attacks without regards to casualties. The recent adoption of new missile designs with 16 megaton warheads instead of the old 9 megaton designs have helped reduce the number required, though they are somewhat lacking in range and accuracy compared to the older munition. One day the navy hopes to develop missiles with range matching that of The Enemy's weapons, but until then the Invincible class must pay a brutal price to close before it can unload its own weapons.

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Broadsword II class Jump Cruiser    18,000 tons     537 Crew     4101 BP      TCS 360  TH 2500  EM 3600
6944 km/s    JR 5-50     Armour 5-61     Shields 120-400     Sensors 11/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 30     PPV 24
Maint Life 5.11 Years     MSP 4272    AFR 86%    IFR 1.2%    1YR 273    5YR 4089    Max Repair 625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Spare Berths 138   

Cruiser Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 18000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 5
Large Military Magnetic Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1250    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1250    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 50.0 billion km   (83 days at full power)
Theta R400/384 Shields (30)   Total Fuel Cost  480 Litres per hour  (11,520 per day)

Light Railgun (8x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 6944 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Railgun Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 24    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Point Defense Sensor (1)     GPS 324     Range 58.3m km    MCR 6.4m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
An alteration of the Invincible design, the Broadsword was intended as a command and jump ship at a time when the Federation Navy was doing particularly well and had grandiose plans for a more aggressive war against The Enemy. Unfortunately an increase in attacks has forced the navy into a more defensive stance, though a handful of the Jump Cruisers are still maintained so the navy is not dependent on jump gates, and to provide a sturdy support vessel.

Originally designed with a variant of the Illustrious' mass railgun PD, it proved less suited to the slower vessel. Future designs are planned to incorporate the new gauss turret technology, though the ship has not yet been updated with the newest advances.

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Trafalgar class Heavy Cruiser    24,000 tons     665 Crew     6657.5 BP      TCS 480  TH 3750  EM 7200
7812 km/s     Armour 6-74     Shields 240-400     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 35     PPV 80.64
Maint Life 5.58 Years     MSP 6198    AFR 128%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 336    5YR 5035    Max Repair 625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Spare Berths 1   

Large Military Magnetic Fusion Drive (3)    Power 1250    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1250    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (111 days at full power)
Theta R400/384 Shields (60)   Total Fuel Cost  960 Litres per hour  (23,040 per day)

15cm Secondary Laser Cannon (9)    Range 300,000km     TS: 7812 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 5    ROF 5        6 6 6 6 6 5 4 3 3 3
38cm Spinal Laser Artillery (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 7812 km/s     Power 38-6     RM 5    ROF 35        38 38 38 38 38 31 27 23 21 19
Quad Gauss Turret (2x16)    Range 30,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Point Defense Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 25000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Long Range Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 7812 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Primary Fusion Reactor (2)     Total Power Output 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Point Defense Sensor (1)     GPS 324     Range 58.3m km    MCR 6.4m km    Resolution 1

ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 30
The newest and most advanced ship in the Federation navy, only a single Trafalgar class has been completed, with a sister vessel under construction. The design was a result of two problems facing navy planners; the continuous shortage of missiles, and the heavy losses incurred by brave Illustrious class destroyers when forced to engage with energy weapon armed enemy vessels after fleet missile stocks were depleted. The Trafalgar is intended to finish up wounded and solitary enemy vessels without the need to expend additional missiles.

Mounting extremely heavy shielding and thick armor as well as a variety of light, medium, and heavy direct fire weapons, the heavy cruiser design is a promising combatant. Unfortunately the ship was still undergoing training maneuvers at the time of the third battle of Liverpool, so it has not yet been combat tested.

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Sentinel class Missile Base    3,550 tons     171 Crew     728 BP      TCS 71  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 6-20     Sensors 1/252     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 45
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 132   

ASM Launch Tube (10)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 120
Missile Fire Control FC386-R120 (1)     Range 386.5m km    Resolution 120

Active Search Sensor MR386-R120 (1)     GPS 30240     Range 386.5m km    Resolution 120
An older, mostly obsolete design, the Sentinel class planetary missile bases were intended to provide minor defense and public reassurance on colonized worlds while the fleet was occupied with duties elsewhere.

Of late, the Sentinel design has been brought to the front lines by The Enemy's use of stabilized wormhole technology to drop battlefleets directly into colonized systems, bypassing the fleet's listening posts and forward deployments to lay siege to federation core worlds directly. Updates to the antiquated design are planned, pending advances in sensor technology, though for now new production is focusing on the newer Warden class.

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Warden class Point Defence Base    21,350 tons     1191 Crew     3194.8 BP      TCS 427  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 6-68     Sensors 1/324     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 326.4
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   

Quad Light Meson Cannon Turret (20x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 12-12     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Point Defense Fire Control (5)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 25000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Primary Fusion Reactor (8)     Total Power Output 240    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Point Defense Sensor (1)     GPS 324     Range 58.3m km    MCR 6.4m km    Resolution 1
With battles recently erupting as close as 200 million kilometers from colonized planets, the navy has recognized the need to protect the populations of those planets, as well as ships and shipyards in orbit, from errant multi-megaton missiles. The Warden is the first, crash developed solution to that problem.

Using high speed turrets based on the Trafalgar point defense design, but with meson weapons capable of penetrating the atmosphere, the Warden is a powerful anti-missile defense and is also capable of demolishing any foe foolish enough to enter planetary orbit while the base is still intact. While not an ironclad defense on its own, one or more Wardens are capable of turning a genocidal bombardment into one that is hopefully survivable.



Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."

[sneer]

how do you keep up with minerals and ordnance production with battles of such intensity ?
p.s. I decided to add invaders in my game around 2070 and hit 2110 without seeing any

[Bremen (OP)]

how do you keep up with minerals and ordnance production with battles of such intensity ?
p.s. I decided to add invaders in my game around 2070 and hit 2110 without seeing any

It's been a struggle, and I've run into some gallicite shortages (that was actually a second reason for transitioning from the Ark Royal to the Invincible, the slower cruiser uses less gallicite per equivalent fighting power). And of course I seldom have enough missiles to even keep my ships at 100% ammo. That's one reason I haven't been making use of AMM defenses.

Currently the Federation has populated colonies in 5 systems, and automated mines in two more, so they have a lot of income. Which is good, because most battles (like the one in the picture) are less victories and more just managing to have so many ships the enemy runs out first.

At this point I think half the federation's minerals come from the salvage ships.

[sneer]

aren't bigger ships like 30-50k longer standing on battlefield in long run ?

[Bremen (OP)]

Probably. That's one of the goals with the new Trafalgar class, but I should probably aim at still larger shipyards.

On the other hand, the recent Third Battle of Liverpool had The Enemy fielding three of a new class of 45,000 ton missile battleships that each hurled 40 size 6 missiles per salvo. I can't think of anything I could build that could survive 120 strength 27 missiles. So there's definitely still room for smaller support vessels in my fleet rather than trying to rely entirely on capital ships.

I'm actually considering a carrier design next, to try to gain a range advantage rather than having to close while getting hammered by missile fire.

[sneer]

see my designs from similar period and technology level
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6539.0.html
I would forget about carrier but rest should work fine
it was built around 2 concepts
missile salvo size and PD

[3_14159]

A few ideas that might help you:

- The Warden doesn't need a sensor that big. If you go for redundancy, give it one sufficient to go out to about 10 x the speed of the enemy missiles, which is definitely less than 3mkm. This could save you a few build points.

- One of the tactics I employed against the Invaders/The Enemy was to place missile pods on the jump points. You can put about 8 size 6 box launchers into a fighter-buildable design, plus a fire control (ten mkm should be sufficient) and maintenance life for about 25 years. It had cost of about 80-100BP, significantly cheaper than its actual missile load. Plus, can be reloaded with a carrier.  Of course, that requires them to come through jump points, which might not be given from your description.

- If you're salvaging, do you have plasma torpedoes available? That would probably solve your ammunition problem.

- Lastly, you can build a different Ark Royal design: Use only box launchers. You should be able to fit about 50 box launchers plus a few fire controls in that, for more total firepower and a higher alpha-strike. If I remember correctly, Invaders have only beam PD plus absorption shields, meaning the difference between 10 x 10 missile salvoes and a 1 x 50 missile salvo may be (assuming four hits for PD defense) 60 vs 96 missiles hitting.

[Bremen (OP)]

A few ideas that might help you:

- The Warden doesn't need a sensor that big. If you go for redundancy, give it one sufficient to go out to about 10 x the speed of the enemy missiles, which is definitely less than 3mkm. This could save you a few build points.

- One of the tactics I employed against the Invaders/The Enemy was to place missile pods on the jump points. You can put about 8 size 6 box launchers into a fighter-buildable design, plus a fire control (ten mkm should be sufficient) and maintenance life for about 25 years. It had cost of about 80-100BP, significantly cheaper than its actual missile load. Plus, can be reloaded with a carrier.  Of course, that requires them to come through jump points, which might not be given from your description.

- If you're salvaging, do you have plasma torpedoes available? That would probably solve your ammunition problem.

- Lastly, you can build a different Ark Royal design: Use only box launchers. You should be able to fit about 50 box launchers plus a few fire controls in that, for more total firepower and a higher alpha-strike. If I remember correctly, Invaders have only beam PD plus absorption shields, meaning the difference between 10 x 10 missile salvoes and a 1 x 50 missile salvo may be (assuming four hits for PD defense) 60 vs 96 missiles hitting.

The Warden's sensor was just thrown on during the crash development process, but I think I'll keep it. Not only does it give more warning of incoming missiles but the increased time tracking them gives an accuracy bonus. And the sensor is a very small part of the platform's total cost, given its size.

I don't currently have box launcher tech, though its currently in development for fighter purposes. The idea of defense satellites for jump points is a good one, but I think I'm done with the Ark Royal design. A box launcher missile destroyer could be effective, but only once I can obtain range parity or better. Until then the Ark Royal just has a tendency to go boom before it can launch.

With regards to The Enemy (fairly hefty spoilers) in the current version they don't use plasma torpedoes, so I can't salvage them. Instead they behave much more like a conventional NPR or precursors, with a mixture of missiles, beams, and AMM ships, just with spectacularly high tech.

[Brian Neumann]

With regards to The Enemy (fairly hefty spoilers) in the current version they don't use plasma torpedoes, so I can't salvage them. Instead they behave much more like a conventional NPR or precursors, with a mixture of missiles, beams, and AMM ships, just with spectacularly high tech.

Currently according to Steve the plasma torpedo's don't work at all.  They detonate when launched with a message about being out of fuel.  He has not gotten around to fixing the problem yet.

Brian

[sneer]

if gallicite is a mineral bottleneck and hiding is not needed  as enemy head directly to your planet consider using engines without thermal reduction - this alone will save you a lot of minerals

[JacenHan]

As far as I can see, he isn't using thermal reduction.

One engine power is one thermal point, right?

[sneer]

you are right
he is already in savings mode

[Bremen (OP)]

The development of the navy has mostly been practical, starting from early on when I didn't even have the tech for turrets. Given the nature of the war I never saw the benefit of reduced thermal signatures, especially once I started running gallicite shortages.

I now have a new 36,000 ton shipyard ready, just the right size for a new 4 engine design, but I'm unsure what to use it for. I could go for a scaled up version of the invincible using new tech and incorporating some PD, but I'm not sure how much of an advantage it would have over just more Invincibles. I'm also considering a carrier but since all the enemy warships use strength 7 ECM I'm not sure how practical missile fighters would be; the alternative would be to shift the Illustrious PD role over to a new type of fast light railgun fighter.

[sneer]

problem with shifting doctrine to fighters i that they will die unsupported and thay are not as cheap as people think
I think the bigger the better
there is always bigger chance to survive and accumulate experiance

[Bremen (OP)]

I decided to go with a scaled up missile cruiser, since I didn't see much gain to be had from fighters at the current point.

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Napoleon class Battlecruiser    36,000 tons     1088 Crew     8363 BP      TCS 720  TH 5000  EM 9000
6944 km/s     Armour 6-97     Shields 300-400     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 50     PPV 167.64
Maint Life 5.18 Years     MSP 7260    AFR 207%    IFR 2.9%    1YR 452    5YR 6780    Max Repair 625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 1260   

Large Military Magnetic Fusion Drive (4)    Power 1250    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1250    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,050,000 Litres    Range 51.2 billion km   (85 days at full power)
Theta R400/384 Shields (75)   Total Fuel Cost  1,200 Litres per hour  (28,800 per day)

Quad Gauss Turret (2x16)    Range 30,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Point Defense Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 25000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0

ASM Missile Tube II (30)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 75
Missile Fire Control FC803-R60 (2)     Range 803.1m km    Resolution 60
Javelin VI ASM6 (210)  Speed: 50,000 km/s   End: 97m    Range: 291m km   WH: 16    Size: 6    TH: 200/120/60

Active Search Sensor MR803-R60 (1)     GPS 25920     Range 803.1m km    Resolution 60
Backup PD Sensor II (1)     GPS 48     Range 11.5m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1

ECCM-3 (1)         ECM 30

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Essentially two Invincible class in one hull, the Napoleon makes use of new armor, heavier shielding, built in point defense, and a new armored magazine design to greatly increase survivability, at the cost of only slightly less firepower than two Invincibles. It also makes use of new advances in active sensors to have the potential for a longer range while being capable of locking onto targets with half the size; The Enemy has been known to infrequently employ fast attack craft that the current generation of sensors has trouble targeting.

Scientists are currently working on new missile designs that will take better advantage of the Napoleon's vast range, so while the sensors are overdesigned for the current missile generation it's viewed as future proofing rather than a flaw.

For now production of the Invincible will continue, to provide massed firepower.