For comparison, my magnetoplasma boarding boats:
Valkyr class Dropship 1 000 tons 18 Crew 211 BP TCS 20 TH 256 EM 0
12800 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 0 AFR 200% IFR 2.8% 1YR 61 5YR 910 Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months Spare Berths 1
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion
Turbo MP fighter 32 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (
Power 32 Fuel Use 392.02% Signature 32 Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 30 000 Litres Range 1.4 billion km (29 hours at full power)
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
1/5 the cost, and they drop a battalion, not a company. (because I wanted boarders before i got the tech for marine companies).
Once I get marine companies, I expect I can get a 50% increase in speed with boarding fighters because of the engine to payload ratio.
Which is a general problem with your ship, there are no applications where you want an 80-1 support to payload ratio. Even my bleeding edge scouts have a 6-1 total mass to sensor payload. If you are even contemplating it, you have to consider other ways of boosting your efficiency and effectiveness.
Another technical issue: if you ARE going to have non-parasite boarding pods that travel independently for months, you HAVE to use cryo boarding pods or you will lose morale and combat value on your embarked troops. If you are planning on using non-cryo boarding modules, then you are planning on having a troop transport with your fleet anyway, and you may as well have support carriers transporting your boarding pods as well, getting better performance.
The main targets for boarding pods are:
Enemy civilian ships. You need speed, but not really armor, and endurance in the few billion km at most. You want to have enough speed advantage so you don't lose many troops to landing issues. But comparing the cost of a marine company to the cost of a captured freighter, even if scrapped, a few casualties are acceptable.
Enemy space stations and certain slow Spoiler ships. Again, speed is necessary to cross their energy envelope, to deliver their payload before being shot. They will be shot afterwards, so building CHEAP is a good idea.
Crippled and semi-crippled warships. Here is the complicated part: After you have reduced an enemy to a single engine, it is very likely the next shot will blow them up, so plan on boarding pods with enough speed to effectively board a still moving warship. You are also likely to take pod losses from beam warships with intact armament. Microwaves can help, but if your goal is to capture intact examples of enemy fire control and sensor tech, somewhat counter-productive.
You can try baiting enemy fire with a heavily shielded warship that dances in at extreme enemy beam range as the pods close, or you can set the subphase high so the enemy only gets to shoot the boarding pods after they drop off their boarding parties.
If you don't want that payload issue I mentioned, you could simply put a cryo boarding module on your fast beam warships, which have the shields and armor to withstand a close approach, and use them, so you don't have the issue of ridiculous payload ratios.
