The Task Forces of the United Gaian Republic

[Caesar (OP)]

I am currently fifty-seven years into my campaign on a rather low-resource start on Earth. So far I have expanded to two other systems, namely Sirius and 40 Eridani. Sirius is my main source of minerals, and I am constantly working on shipping automated mines to the three planets in the system, while shipping the mined minerals back to Earth. 40 Eridani has three extremely suitable planets, out of which I have colonized (and almost completely terraformed) one: York.

I have also discovered several systems containing the Star Swarm and two containing the Precursors. I know two other races, one which is friendly, and another which is hostile. After discovering the precursors somewhere around the year 2035, I have worked on small task forces that would not put too great a strain on my mineral supplies while providing me with good operating range and quality still:

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Illustrious MK III class Jump Frigate    8,800 tons     781 Crew     1512.6 BP      TCS 176  TH 720  EM 0
4090 km/s    JR 7-250     Armour 3-37     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 40     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 30%    IFR: 0.4%    Maint Capacity 8149 MSP    Max Repair 529 MSP    Est Time: 9.47 Years

J9000(7-250) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 9000 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 7
Newton MP Military Drive E5 (9)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 204.5 billion km   (578 days at full power)

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Resolution MK II class Recon Frigate    3,750 tons     341 Crew     911.2 BP      TCS 75  TH 320  EM 0
4266 km/s     Armour 5-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 33/42/0/0     Damage Control Rating 25     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 22%    IFR: 0.3%    Maint Capacity 759 MSP    Max Repair 210 MSP    Est Time: 5.18 Years

Newton MP Military Drive E5 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 96.0 billion km   (260 days at full power)

Active Missile Search Sensor MR26-R1 (1)     GPS 189     Range 26.5m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR207-R50 (1)     GPS 10500     Range 207.9m km    Resolution 50
Thermal Sensor TH3-33 (1)     Sensitivity 33     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33m km
EM Detection Sensor EM3-42 (1)     Sensitivity 42     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  42m km

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Tribal MK II class Missile Frigate    3,900 tons     393 Crew     577.4 BP      TCS 78  TH 320  EM 0
4102 km/s     Armour 3-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 23     PPV 15
Annual Failure Rate: 40%    IFR: 0.6%    Maint Capacity 278 MSP    Max Repair 50 MSP    Est Time: 4.74 Years
Magazine 303   

Newton MP Military Drive E5 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 46.1 billion km   (130 days at full power)

Size 3 Missile Launcher (5)    Missile Size 3    Rate of Fire 30
Paladin MK I MFC (1)     Range 62.3m km    Resolution 50
Paladin ASM MK II (101)  Speed: 26,700 km/s   End: 37.5m    Range: 60.1m km   WH: 3    Size: 3    TH: 124 / 74 / 37

ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

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


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Vanguard MK II class Escort    6,000 tons     638 Crew     992 BP      TCS 120  TH 560  EM 0
4666 km/s     Armour 3-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 26     PPV 20
Annual Failure Rate: 48%    IFR: 0.7%    Maint Capacity 620 MSP    Max Repair 63 MSP    Est Time: 5.92 Years
Magazine 308   

Newton MP Military Drive E5 (7)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 60.0 billion km   (148 days at full power)

Size 1 Missile Launcher (20)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
Web MK I MFC (3)     Range 26.5m km    Resolution 1
Web AMM MK II (308)  Speed: 48,000 km/s   End: 1.2m    Range: 3.6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 512 / 307 / 153

ECCM-1 (3)         ECM 10

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

So far they have done their job well in keeping the hostile and underdeveloped 'United States of Helsingfors' at bay. I feel they are lacking something, though. I will have to upgrade the ships to their next mark soon, as the ships no longer correspond with my current levels of technology, which are slightly farther than they. There are currently three task forces in service, each of them containing four Tribal Missile Frigates, one Vanguard Escort Frigate and one Illustrious Jump Frigate.

I have also designed a minelayer, although it has only rarely seen use, as my enemies do not seem to venture far beyond their known space. (In fact, I have severely handicapped them by destroying their fleet and then destroying their shipyards in what I presume is their main system.)

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Cerberus MK III class Minelayer    7,950 tons     555 Crew     935.9 BP      TCS 159  TH 200  EM 0
1257 km/s     Armour 3-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 26     PPV 60
Annual Failure Rate: 84%    IFR: 1.2%    Maint Capacity 441 MSP    Max Repair 50 MSP    Est Time: 4.09 Years
Magazine 1080   

Newton ICF Military Drive E5 (2)    Power 100    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 67.9 billion km   (625 days at full power)

Size 15 Minelayer (8)    Missile Size 15    Rate of Fire 2250
Cerberus Seeker Mine FC MK I (1)     Range 870k km    Resolution 1
Seeker Mine MK II (72)  Speed: 0 km/s   End: 360d    Range: 0.1m km   WH: 0    Size: 15    TH: 0 / 0 / 0

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
The Cerberus can do double function as an orbital bombardment ship to deliver the Geoglyph class Orbital Bomb to enemy populations. I had two in service, but they were recently taken down when I forgot to turn on the active sensors of the Resolution of their escorting combat task force, thus not detecting the PDC's the enemy had constructed.


What advice would you have? I have thought of improving the sensors and increasing the passive sensors size on the Resolution, but there must be more I could do.

[jRides]

Increase the Paladin Warhead to size 4 (its often mentioned around the forums about the warhead size verses penetration, but basically for maximum efficiency you want to be looking at sizes 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 etc, where a single hit will penetrate 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc layers of armour, as it is right now, your WH3 missile will only sandpaper a single layer of armour per hit. Take a look at this OpenOffice/Excel spreadsheet for easy missile design. post by Paul, for help with missile designs, its excellent - I don't leave Sol without it!

I also note that you have a 9k jump ship, this will allow you to jump 9k sized ships, perhaps a rethink in designs of your warships and PDs will allow you to build bigger ships, and less of them overall, as it is all those resources gone into producing that Jumpship is not being utilised. You can reduce the size (and cost) by limiting max squadron jump to 3 unless of course you intend it to be used for Jump point assaults, and if that is so try and up the armour a little on it.

Your Resolution is designated a Recon Frigate, so assuming it will operate independently from the fleet: While it would be nice to shove a huge array on there (say a S120 to S200 at huge range) the aim of the scout is to see and not be seen, do it if you can tho as the passive ranges will still be impressive against larger ships like the motherships and so on. I would reduce everything possible to minimise its size and signature, increase the fuel a bit (it will be out in the field for a while), save a little size by reducing that S1-AM array to smallest possible (detecting inbound missiles at 26m miles or 6m miles will make no difference to the ships survivability when those missiles hit), I would suggest removing it completely as your S50 array will pick them up just before they hit. If you want to add survivability then maybe a CIWS or two might help here, but I wouldnt bother, keep that TCS as low as possible, size down and creep around at minimal speeds to reduce your TH when in the field.

If the Resolution is also intended to act as the fleets main sensor platform, then a second array (S120 to S180) would be worth it, keep the armour high (or add more!) and be prepared for it to become the enemies number one target in every engagement, large arrays in active mode are tremendous missile magnets as often that will be the first ship an enemy can see. Your jump ship as mentioned above can jump a ship up to 9kton (or I think - I'm not entirely sure here, but I think it might actually only be - in the Resolutions case - 8,800 tons - can anyone confirm?), so thats up to 9kton you can utilise. You could feasably increase the thermal and passive array sizes as well as adding a large surveillance array. Perhaps adding a gauss turret or two, or some AMMs, I prefer gauss myself, and while it will never be as good as a dedicated PD ship, it will beef up the fleets defences. A huge array, maybe about 500tons or 1000tons in size for the component will be tremendously expensive but will provide excellent coverage, you'll only need the one ship per fleet, and if you standardise the design now it can be in service for a long time as your tech increases.

In my last game these are the Scout Frigate (independently operated) and the latest build of Fleet Scouts at destroyer and cruiser sizes, admittedly it was a very late game but the Ulysses in particular, had been refitted throughout the entire game, the first built way back before I had even left Sol, its CIWS systems are a legacy from when its primary role was independent operation which continued as larger fleet dedicated detection ships such as the Aries were built, again the Aries is a refitted version, individual components have been replaced like for like, just upgraded tech (which is why power output to requirement for the laser weapons don't quite match) and they are all still in active service.

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BFR Farseer class Scout Frigate    3,000 tons     287 Crew     1596.8 BP      TCS 6  TH 48  EM 0
10000 km/s    JR 3-500     Armour 2-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 96/96/3/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 48%    IFR: 0.7%    Maint Capacity 499 MSP    Max Repair 275 MSP    Est Time: 2.26 Years

Westinghouse WE-M01/3K Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 3200 tons    Distance 500k km     Squadron Size 3
Northrop-Aventine SCAM Drive (3)    Power 200    Fuel Use 30%    Signature 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 260,000 Litres    Range 520.0 billion km   (601 days at full power)

TN/AS-14 Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 19200     Range 460.8m km    Resolution 100
TN/TH-13 Thermal Array (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km
TN/EM-13 Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km
Advanced Gravitational Sensors (1)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 10% of normal

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BF6 Ulysses-E class Fleet Scout    5,000 tons     388 Crew     3154 BP      TCS 100  TH 80  EM 0
10000 km/s     Armour 9-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 96/96/0/0     Damage Control Rating 33     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 66%    IFR: 0.9%    Maint Capacity 1183 MSP    Max Repair 480 MSP    Est Time: 2.23 Years

Northrop-Aventine SCAM Drive (5)    Power 200    Fuel Use 30%    Signature 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 360.0 billion km   (416 days at full power)

3rd Generation CIWS (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
TN/AMS-11 Missile Detection Array  (1)     GPS 10     Range 2.3m km    Resolution 1
TN/SA-21 Area Surveillance Array (1)     GPS 57600     Range 1,262.0m km    Resolution 120
TN/SA-23 Small Target Surveillance Array (1)     GPS 9600     Range 515.2m km    Resolution 20
TN/TH-13 Thermal Array (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km
TN/EM-13 Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km

ECM 40

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BF5 Aries-D class Scout Cruiser    8,000 tons     750 Crew     5633 BP      TCS 160  TH 128  EM 0
10000 km/s     Armour 7-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 96/96/0/0     Damage Control Rating 6     PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 78%    IFR: 1.1%    Maint Capacity 2861 MSP    Max Repair 960 MSP    Est Time: 2.26 Years

Northrop-Aventine SCAM Drive (8)    Power 200    Fuel Use 30%    Signature 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 750,000 Litres    Range 562.5 billion km   (651 days at full power)

C310-3 PD Laser Cluster (1x3)    Range 120,000km     TS: 33300 km/s     Power 9-9     RM 6    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
R060 Beam Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 120,000 km   TS: 32000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
SCAM-16 Fusion Bottle (1)     Total Power Output 16    Armour 2    Exp 5%

TN/SA-24 Small Target Surveillance Array (1)     GPS 19200     Range 1,030.4m km    Resolution 20
TN/SA-22 Area Surveillance Array (1)     GPS 115200     Range 2,523.9m km    Resolution 120
TN/AMS-12 Missile Detection Array (1)     GPS 240     Range 57.6m km    Resolution 1
TN/TH-13 Thermal Array (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km
TN/EM-13 Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 96     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  96m km

ECCM-4 (1)         ECM 40

[jseah]

Take a look at this OpenOffice/Excel spreadsheet for easy missile design. post by Paul, for help with missile designs, its excellent - I don't leave Sol without it!

I can't download it.  The site appears to be non-existent (they got bought out by facebook).

[jRides]

Thats a shame, maybe someone can upload the original version somewhere, I incorporated a copy into my own excel sheet - with a ton of other pages, ive extracted it and posted it on google docs here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjI_7txsaYq4dHNXLXRfaGZhck5SRzJrTzkxTEtfVlE&hl=en&authkey=CImjy-8G#gid=2

Use the file/download menu option and save it as needed, it should hopefully all work. I gave anyone who accesses the link permission to edit it so careful if you fool around with it online.

[jseah]

Thanks, that looks great!

A minor bug is that it gives missiles that are 0.0001 larger than the desired size.  However, reducing engine power by that amount does not affect speed. 

Great tool!  Although I have to scroll up for my anti-ship missile to find the highest speed I can get away with while maintaining a 100% hit rate. 


On the other hand, my missiles come very very close to the designs that get spat out (apart from AMMs which the program recommends I exchange speed for 5 more agility, for a 0.1% increase in hit rate... =P)
So I don't foresee myself using the new designs until I increase a tech level somewhere. 

[Caesar (OP)]

I took your advice on the Paladin and increased my research tech another level to reach Warhead/MSP strength 8, effectively allowing me to design the Paladin MK III with a warhead of strength four.

The Resolution was actually meant to be part of the fleet's operations, and be able to coordinate efforts. The class was badly chosen, and I now classed it as a Scout Frigate, adding a flag bridge and increasing the strength (and diversity) of the sensors it will be equipped with. You were right to point out that the Illustrious was in fact not being put to use as effective as possible and I will increase the size of the other ships to make up for this. (The Vanguard MK III, for one, will receive not only increased magazines, but also a few gauss turrets, and the rest of the ships will receive more armor along with engines.)

I have one more point left: I have tried using the Geoglyph Orbital Bomb to bombard and irradiate the homeworld of my enemies, but for some reason they never actually impact the planet. Should I target the planet or the population? I have gone with the advice on the missile design screen, foregoing engines and fuel capacity to create orbital bombs with an endurance of one second, but it did not seem to work.

I am thankful for your advice, and I hope that for the gladness I feel, the aliens will curse you.