Slow night at work, so I was going over the Changes List and figured I might as well test out the new C&C rules and figure out some layouts and how they might work out, as well as to figure out how quickly the rank pyramid grows.
The relevant posts by Steve are these two:
for ships
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg101818#msg101818for fleets
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103849#msg103849So your ULTIMATE HEADQUARTERS OF DOOM (UHD) is on Earth and it's the starting one that oversees everything else, so it's
General HQ commanded by your
First Space Lord Puffy von Moustache. So that's 10% bonus to everything in Sol.
Underneath UHD, we have NAVAL HEADQUARTERS OF SPACE (NHS), again on Earth and it's for maximizing bonuses, so it's
Naval HQ commanded by your
Admiral Horatio Hornblower, giving 25% bonus to Crew Training, Reaction, Engineering and Tactical in Sol. Alongside NHS, we would create Logistics and Industrial HQ's since those do not gain from Naval bonuses.
Note that Naval Headquarters Facility at Earth must be Level 2 to reach Alpha Centauri. It does NOT need to reach farther away.
Underneath NHS, we have COMBINED FIFTH FLEET (C5F), based at Alpha Centauri and for max bonus, it's another
Naval HQ command. That means another round of 25% bonus to Crew Training, Reaction, Engineering and Tactical in Sol. This would be commanded by
Vice Admiral Lily Poppycock. Alongside C5F, we would create Patrol/Survey/Training HQ's for specific purposes, unless we were really flushed with senior officers in which case they could be placed even lower.
Again, the Naval Headquarters Facility at Alpha Centauri I must be Level 2 to reach Tau Ceti.
This means we still have Rear Admiral left for administrative work. So let's create FORWARD OPERATIONS AREA (FOA) at Tau Ceti, once more a
Naval HQ, commanded by
Rear Admiral Edmund Blackadder.
And as long as the Naval Headquarters Facility at Tau Ceti is also Level 2, it'll reach the next system(s) over, where our Fleet(s) will actually fight.
Now let's say your Fleet operating at Van Maanen's Star, 1 jump away from Tau Ceti, is commanded by a
Commodore inside a Flag Bridge. The Dreadnought carrying the Flag Bridge is commanded by a
Captain (because Flag Bridge increases ship commander two ranks above minimum). Dreadnoughts can also have a Combat Information Centre and an Auxiliary Bridge as well as Main Engineering, it doesn't change the highest requirement.
The screening ships can have Auxiliary Command and still be captained by a
Commander, leaving the minimum rank of
Lieutenant Commander available to fill all those AUX and CIC positions, as well as for commanding scouts and FACs.
Unless I forgot a rank from the default British rank theme/system, it means that there isn't actually that much room for stacking admin commands. Remember how we start with a single Commodore, at least in a Conventional start, and unless you start stacking Academies quickly, it can take a five years until that Commodore gets promoted to Rear Admiral. And this organization honours all the requirements that mean that Fleet commanders are junior to Admin commanders who are junior to higher level Admin commanders, as well as the ship captain rules when adding in the new C&C modules.
What kind of organization will you try to create?
