Warppoint assault ships

[ExChairman (OP)]

Well had to try after losing to many standard warships... Getting a small ship with a few box launchers, I built this one, as it is I could put in 2 more launcher but as I already have 10 its seems to be a little overkill... Cheap and easy to build...

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Cromwell class Missile Pod    1 650 tons     5 Crew     375.3 BP      TCS 33  TH 14  EM 0
1212 km/s     Armour 1-12     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 18
Maint Life 6.7 Years     MSP 142    AFR 21%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 5    5YR 82    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 5   
Magazine 120   

Green-West Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 280.02%    Signature 14    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 0.2 billion km   (44 hours at full power)

Yates Techsystems CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Fox & Potter Size 12 Box Launcher (10)    Missile Size 12    Hangar Reload 90 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Howells-Browne Missile Fire Control FC34-R1 (70%) (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1
ASM Hammer of Terra (10)  Speed: 40 000 km/s   End: 13.3m    Range: 32m km   WH: 50    Size: 12    TH: 306/184/92

Morton Foundation Guderian Search Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.0m km    MCR 2.5m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

To be able to use squadron jump I had to build a jump tender ship, its almost unarmed but that's ok... I presume the crew thinks the same...

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Cromwell Jump tender class Missile Pod    1 900 tons     12 Crew     317.3 BP      TCS 38  TH 14  EM 0
1052 km/s    JR 9-750     Armour 1-13     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.95 Years     MSP 104    AFR 28%    IFR 0.4%    1YR 18    5YR 266    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 9   

Sharp-Thomson J6000(9-750) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 750k km     Squadron Size 9
Green-West Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 280.02%    Signature 14    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 0.2 billion km   (44 hours at full power)

Yates Techsystems CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Morton Foundation Guderian Search Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.0m km    MCR 2.5m km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

In my first battle I lost 15 Cromwells and 1 tender... They lost more, a lot more somewhere around 110 000 tons of ships. My Hammer of Terra mostly crushed his ship in less than 8 missiles... So I am probably reduce my launchers to 6 and increase my armor instead, like this one.

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Cromwell MkII class Missile Pod    1 850 tons     5 Crew     455.5 BP      TCS 37  TH 14  EM 0
1081 km/s     Armour 9-13     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 10.8
Maint Life 5.6 Years     MSP 154    AFR 27%    IFR 0.4%    1YR 8    5YR 124    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 5   
Magazine 72   

Green-West Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 280.02%    Signature 14    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 0.2 billion km   (44 hours at full power)

Yates Techsystems CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Fox & Potter Size 12 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 12    Hangar Reload 90 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Howells-Browne Missile Fire Control FC34-R1 (70%) (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1
ASM Hammer of Terra (10)  Speed: 40 000 km/s   End: 13.3m    Range: 32m km   WH: 50    Size: 12    TH: 306/184/92

Morton Foundation Guderian Search Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.0m km    MCR 2.5m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[iceball3]

A couple of notes, suggestions, etc:
-CIWS will do very little to protect any ship that does not have any other layers of defense invested.
-From a logistical standpoint, I'd suggest running fighter-sized ships (500 tons). Might be tricky with how squadron jumps work, but you can still squadron jump using a ship larger than 500 tons at least.
-Your engine designs seem to be suffering from a strained fuel efficiency ratio. If i may suggest, try to push for at least 40% engine by weight, and it'll be easier to strike a good balance of speed and efficiency with multiplier adjustment beyond that.
-As these ships wouldn't (shouldn't) be firing on missiles, you could probably afford to make the active sensors smaller in exchange for a higher resolution to bring the range back up. Make sure you don't go much over 20 HS resolution if you want to hit smaller ships.
-The maint life is extremely long, assuming you don't have fighter maintenance spaces yet, you can save tonnage by simply removing it outright. In a this situation, with what the current fuel amount is, if the ship's been operating for more than 44 hours, you'd have bigger things to worry about than maintenance failures.
-Do note, that in current mechanics, jump drive capability is limited to the size of the ship that it's strapped to. For instance, that jumpship will only move 1,900 sized ships, at most. If you cannot make the jump engine any smaller, I'd advise padding the tonnage a bit with actual armor, bigger, more efficient engine, logistics (fuel for accompanying task groups, maintenance supplies, cryo bays for rescuing stranded and PoWs), and perhaps shielding since it's considered military anyway..

[83athom]

-CIWS will do very little to protect any ship that does not have any other layers of defense invested.

But they are the only anti-missile defense that works during jump shock.

[ExChairman (OP)]

My CIWS are for final defence but as it turned out they didn't have any missile ships at all

[Iranon]

CIWS make some sense for the planned mission... but if I wanted CIWS, I'd build one big ship instead of several small ones.

[ExChairman (OP)]

A couple of notes, suggestions, etc:
-CIWS will do very little to protect any ship that does not have any other layers of defense invested.
-From a logistical standpoint, I'd suggest running fighter-sized ships (500 tons). Might be tricky with how squadron jumps work, but you can still squadron jump using a ship larger than 500 tons at least.
-Your engine designs seem to be suffering from a strained fuel efficiency ratio. If i may suggest, try to push for at least 40% engine by weight, and it'll be easier to strike a good balance of speed and efficiency with multiplier adjustment beyond that.
-As these ships wouldn't (shouldn't) be firing on missiles, you could probably afford to make the active sensors smaller in exchange for a higher resolution to bring the range back up. Make sure you don't go much over 20 HS resolution if you want to hit smaller ships.
-The maint life is extremely long, assuming you don't have fighter maintenance spaces yet, you can save tonnage by simply removing it outright. In a this situation, with what the current fuel amount is, if the ship's been operating for more than 44 hours, you'd have bigger things to worry about than maintenance failures.
-Do note, that in current mechanics, jump drive capability is limited to the size of the ship that it's strapped to. For instance, that jumpship will only move 1,900 sized ships, at most. If you cannot make the jump engine any smaller, I'd advise padding the tonnage a bit with actual armor, bigger, more efficient engine, logistics (fuel for accompanying task groups, maintenance supplies, cryo bays for rescuing stranded and PoWs), and perhaps shielding since it's considered military anyway..

- The CIWS are only there for giving the small craft a small chance to survive, really only a morale booster if anything

- Yepp smaller is better, but I cant build SBMHAWKs from Star Fire, would be fun... So I went for something that probably could survive a small yield bomb or a small laser and hopefully fire of its missiles.

- About the engine, its an older fighter design, its really only to take the craft through the warp point, nothing els, didn't want to spend research on a new small engine, it does what its supposed to do...

- Yes its a small resolution sensor and I could probably waste a missile or two on that but I don't have any other small sized sensors so I take the chance... With some luck I will hit a fighter if nothing ells, a "bit" of overkill I admit, but better than nothing I suppose.

- Yepp right about maintenance, its now fixed to the smallest available.

- Well yes I have heavy frigates, destroyers and cruisers. My destroyers and cruiser's have standard missile launchers and my HFF has 10 box launchers, but all those ships are supposed to move by themselves to a target area. My WPA ships are to be carried by a carrier and for each HFF I get 3.8 WPA ships and since they are not trained they will fire there weapons in a staggered manner avoiding the the overkill and mostly important(  ) my frigates are crewed by 103 men and women compared to 5 or 12 on the WPA ships.

[ExChairman (OP)]

The new Mark IV WPA craft that has its passive defenses upgraded to withstand a shot from Abbeville Commonwealth heavy laser (damage 10) it still retains it CIWS, even though I haven't encountered any Abbeville missile ships, its more expensive but hopefully its more survivable and its crew is one less.

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Cromwell MkIV class Missile Pod    1 900 tons     4 Crew     461.9 BP      TCS 38  TH 14  EM 0
1052 km/s     Armour 10-13     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 10.8
Maint Life 0.17 Years     MSP 15    AFR 288%    IFR 4%    1YR 87    5YR 1311    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 72   

Green-West Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 280.02%    Signature 14    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 0.2 billion km   (44 hours at full power)

Yates Techsystems CIWS-250 (1x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Fox & Potter Size 12 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 12    Hangar Reload 90 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Howells-Browne Missile Fire Control FC34-R1 (70%) (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1
ASM Hammer of Terra (10)  Speed: 40 000 km/s   End: 13.3m    Range: 32m km   WH: 50    Size: 12    TH: 306/184/92

Morton Foundation Guderian Search Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.0m km    MCR 2.5m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

I started to think about removing my CIWS and got this MkV class, its almost as well armored as my battle cruisers...

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Cromwell MkV class Missile Pod    1 900 tons     3 Crew     490.6 BP      TCS 38  TH 14  EM 0
1052 km/s     Armour 16-13     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 10.8
Maint Life 0.26 Years     MSP 16    AFR 288%    IFR 4%    1YR 61    5YR 913    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 72   

Green-West Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 280.02%    Signature 14    Exp 20%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 0.2 billion km   (44 hours at full power)

Fox & Potter Size 12 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 12    Hangar Reload 90 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Howells-Browne Missile Fire Control FC34-R1 (70%) (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1
ASM Hammer of Terra (6)  Speed: 40 000 km/s   End: 13.3m    Range: 32m km   WH: 50    Size: 12    TH: 306/184/92

Morton Foundation Guderian Search Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 23.0m km    MCR 2.5m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s


[iceball3]

A couple more notes
-Straight armor rating is, generally, mainly useful for knowing if you can survive if you can survive a very large check against penetration. If you want to know the overall resilience of the armor, multiply the depth by the cross section.
So the 10-13 armor missile pod has 130 armor squares total, for instance, though narrower cross sections means that the armor is more likely to go down first, before internal damage leaks through the gaps carved out by weapons.
-Generally speaking, when comparing engines two engines with the same EP as each other by multipliers and size, the larger sized lower multiplier engine will be less expensive, harder to kill, and cost less.

[MarcAFK]

The armour is good, maximise how much punishment these assault ships can take before the enemy fires on more important ships, however you have reduced the firepower by 40% while increasing tonnage by 20%. Not a tradeoff I would have made in this case. How any more launchers could you get if you reduced the armour back down to 10, and maybe increased size to 2,000 tons?