Testing a new doctrine for my new League of Earth game

[Texashawk (OP)]

Hello all,

Starting a new game/AAR (a little Turtledove in this starts in 1955). Anyhoo, I have 3 main task groups within Task Force Sol - representing the 3 main factions on Earth. TG Americas uses the following doctrine:

Heavy missile saturation. Slightly slower ships for the size. Larger sized ships per class. Lighter, but more advanced armor. High-tech missiles and launchers. Cutting-edge radar and fire control. Shields. Cloaking. No kinetic weapons. Laser technology and particle beam tech for CIWS systems. Fighter/carrier doctrine.

So essentially, this is the 'death of a thousand cuts' doctrine I am attempting to employ. With this in mind, I am starting to design my (low tech; this is 1955!) local system frigates that will form the initial punch in-system. These are designed to work as a task squadron; as an example here is Task Group LightFrigRon A.1 - it has 2 Stephen F. Austin class ships, 1 Sentry class (SWACS) and 4 Sam Houston class ships. For local defense of a system, what do you think?

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Stephen F. Austin class Local System Frigate    4,000 tons     344 Crew     419.5 BP      TCS 80  TH 320  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 3-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 8
Maint Life 1.88 Years     MSP 66    AFR 128%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 24    5YR 359    Max Repair 30 MSP
Magazine 128    

Chrysler NPE MilDrive (8)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 22.5 billion km   (65 days at full power)

Piranha Missile Launcher (8)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 30
Piranha Missile Fire Control Radar (2)     Range 34.1m km    Resolution 40
Piranha-B Anti-Ship Missile (128)  Speed: 18,800 km/s   End: 12.8m    Range: 14.4m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 125 / 75 / 37

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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Sam Houston class Local System Frigate    3,000 tons     254 Crew     333 BP      TCS 60  TH 240  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 2-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 4
Maint Life 2.63 Years     MSP 69    AFR 72%    IFR 1%    1YR 14    5YR 211    Max Repair 30 MSP
Magazine 124    

Chrysler NPE MilDrive (6)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 30.0 billion km   (86 days at full power)

Piranha Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 30
Piranha Missile Fire Control Radar (2)     Range 34.1m km    Resolution 40
Piranha-A Anti-Ship Missile (120)  Speed: 14,000 km/s   End: 42.8m    Range: 36m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 93 / 56 / 28

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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Sentry class Early Warning Craft    4,500 tons     428 Crew     614.5 BP      TCS 90  TH 360  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 1-24     Shields 0-0     Sensors 50/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 0.69 Years     MSP 85    AFR 162%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 124    5YR 1858    Max Repair 240 MSP

Chrysler NPE MilDrive (9)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 20.0 billion km   (57 days at full power)

Honeywell SPY-60 High Resolution Threat Detection Array (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    Resolution 1
Honeywell SPY-240 Wide Array Active Search Radar (1)     GPS 7200     Range 78.9m km    Resolution 30
Siemens Thermal-50 Deep Sensor Array (1)     Sensitivity 50     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  50m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Note: I wanted to keep the tonnage at or under 4500 due to roleplaying concerns (mainly the size of starting spaceyards). Also note that the Piranha system can work in an ASM or AMM capacity, though I acknowledge the fire control radar resolution for AMM operations is dicey at best.

Thoughts?

[dgibso29]

Although I really don't know what I am talking about yet, where are your anti-missile sensors?

In addition, your Sentry doesn't have nearly enough MSP. Max repair is 240, MSP is 85.

[Texashawk (OP)]

Oops. I knew something was missing from the blueprint.  New design for Sentry:

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Sentry class Early Warning Craft    4,500 tons     428 Crew     614.5 BP      TCS 90  TH 360  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 1-24     Shields 0-0     Sensors 50/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 0.69 Years     MSP 85    AFR 162%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 124    5YR 1858    Max Repair 240 MSP

Chrysler NPE MilDrive (9)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 20.0 billion km   (57 days at full power)

Honeywell SPY-60 High Resolution Threat Detection Array (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    Resolution 1
Honeywell SPY-240 Wide Array Active Search Radar (1)     GPS 7200     Range 78.9m km    Resolution 30
Siemens Thermal-50 Deep Sensor Array (1)     Sensitivity 50     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  50m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
I'm not too concerned about maintenance since these ships are designed for local system patrol. Jump-capable and jump-tendered ships will carry more fuel, supplies, and magazines.

Thanks!

Although I really don't know what I am talking about yet, where are your anti-missile sensors?

In addition, your Sentry doesn't have nearly enough MSP. Max repair is 240, MSP is 83.

[Sleepymoon]

A lot depends on what your opponents are going to be using and how much each faction knows about the others capability.

I would assume one faction will be using larger missiles.  Even with the most basic tech a size 4 missile with strength 4 warhead can be fired from beyond your fire control range and have a decent chance of penetrating your defences and hitting your ships.  They're likely going to try and take out your sensor ship first since it's the largest and brightest.

With this in mind I'd want to put more armour on the sensor ship and redesign the Austin with a dedicated AM fire control, cut the Phirana B's range to a few 100k kms and put the extra mass into engines/agility.

The ships are pretty fast for the level of tech you have so I'd probably drop a few engines, put in some more maintenance supplies/engineering spaces and the rest into armour on your sensor ship.  You want more supplies than your max repair otherwise you could lose your ship sensor at an unfortunate time and have to return to Earth for repairs where your ships will be sitting ducks for hostile PDCs.

Drop some engines and armour on your other ships and put in more missile launchers.  You have to sanpaper your opponents armour and the only way to do that in a reasonable time is with lots and lots of missiles per salvo.

Another thing is that your active sensor has a different resolution than your fire controls.  It's not much good being able to scan a ship that's too small for your missiles to lock onto.

I've only fought 1 battle and with much higher tech than you have available so I don't really know what I'm tallking about either.