Plasma Carronades.

[Silverkeeper (OP)]

What would be the best possible use for plasma carronades.

Here`s the design

Nebula class Defence Monitor      9 997 tons       254 Crew       1 452.2 BP       TCS 200    TH 300    EM 0
3000 km/s      Armour 6-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 67      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 4      PPV 54
Maint Life 2.16 Years     MSP 763    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 220    5YR 3 293    Max Repair 225 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   

Eurojet M-300 Nuclear Pulse Engine (2)    Power 600    Fuel Use 70.60%    Signature 150.0    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 660 000 Litres    Range 16.8 billion km (64 days at full power)

30 cm C3 Plasma Carronade (6)    Range 192 000km     TS: 3 000 km/s     Power 24-3     RM 10 000 km    ROF 40       
Beam Fire Control R192-TS3000 (2)     Max Range: 192 000 km   TS: 3 000 km/s     71 67 63 59 55 52 48 44 40 36
Improved Pebble Bed Reactor R74 (2)     Total Power Output 148.2    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[SevenOfCarina]

I suspect that plasma carronades are going to be exceedingly useful in allowing STO units to punch far above their weights. They have utterly horrible range, so on pure DPS terms they quickly get overwhelmed by railguns and lasers as the range increases. There are only two situations that are likely to result in a point-blank engagement of any type - jump point assaults and planetary invasions.

Plasma carronades have questionable utility in the former situation, since the range tends to open up quickly and maximum jump radius is a thing, so regular beam warships or box-launcher platforms are likely to be a superior option. However, in any kind of near-planetary brawl at short ranges, STO units can rely on the planet itself to remain protected from hostile fire and thus can afford to wait till the range closes. They'll likely only get off one or two shots before being killed, so weapons that front-load their damage are excellent choices, and the plasma carronade actually becomes viable.

Of course that may result in the enemy choosing to simply glass your colonies instead of invading them, but eh.

[clement]

Plans carronades are show firing and hard hitting. The two ways I have commonly seen them used is for guarding a jump point with the goal of winning the right before jump shock has worn off or fast small ships to run down enemy ships in swarms.

I agree that with the new STO and orbital support mechanics they may get more usage there.

[Father Tim]

What would be the best possible use for plasma carronades.

Drop them from orbit onto enemy troop concentrations?  Toss them overboard to lighten the ship?  Trick enemy empires into building them?

- - - - -

Okay, seriously they are very niche weapons and STO units is probably the best they'll ever do outside of a dedicated 'cleanup' cruiser that closes on crippled enemies and vapourises them at close range.  Or, of course, a fiction background that demands having them, or that glamourises them for some reason (see the history of 'ram bows' on pre-dreadnought battleships).

I'd love to see a spoiler race that was designed from the ground up to maximise plasma carronades -- maybe even with the fabled plasma torpedo tech.

[Ri0Rdian]

Jump point defence satellite / platform / base, at least that is how I used them (though it was out of desperation - but it worked exceedingly well!) - incoming.  On the other side they would be pretty much useless.  But enemy fleet jumping in only to be blasted be OP plasma fire works (well, worked) better than expected and was also quite cheap.  Sucks they are so niche (still), cause Aurora always had a missile fetish and plasma carronade is exactly the worst thing to tackle missile armed enemy with.

[Pedroig]

Fighter Spinal Mount Plasma Carronade would be akin to Weber's LAC's with SD Grasers...   Run them with a matched missile salvo for greater effectiveness of both...

[Neophyte]

Also see the IRL possible, though theoretical, Casaba Howitzer!  Shorter ranged than lasers, but absolutely devastating up close.

[spazomatic]

I think if they were allowed to use the spinal mounts then they would become much more usable and seems very appropriate to the flavor of the cannonades.   Also, you could do the plasma torpedo as a missile warhead like the laser warheads (which I have never really used)

[Desdinova]

Plasma carronades might be the best early beam weapon for conventional starts.

If you look at it in terms of research point investment, a base 10cm infrared laser is equal in cost to a 20 cm plasma carronade. They have the same DPS and armour penetration, but the carronade has longer range and much higher chance of inflicting shock damage.

Lasers pull away considerably in practicality once you start investing in wavelength tech, but I'd say a for a conventional start, you probably can't beat 15 cm carronades as a starting beam weapon. 20 cm carronades are superior to 10 cm lasers, but I'd say any further research is probably wasted points unless you really want to tailor your fleet to point-blank engagements.

[liveware]

I was thinking that these might be useful in groups on a fighter/bomber sized ship (<500 tons). Has anyone tried this approach? It's on my list for testing as part of a fighter-centric carrier strike group.

[Jorgen_CAB]

You can easily combine Carronades with Particle Beams for a good combination of weapons as role-play option... would seem quite fun in my opinion.

Do you want to stay at range and eat the particle beams/lances or close in and eat the carronades... 

[kenlon]

Other possible things that could be done with Plasma Carronades to give them a niche would be say, something like giving them the ability to do damage like missiles when fired from orbital support, since they are also large-blast, indiscriminate weapons.

Personally, I'd also love a tech that lets you mount carronades that are of an older generation than your current tech (say one-half your current caliber and lower, maybe two-thirds?) on dedicated PD turrets that would get a pretty hefty to-hit bonus because, again, it's a wide blast, indiscriminate weapon. Maybe one that is tuned to be better at area defense than final protective fire, so you have, effectively, ranged energy weapon flak.

Of course, for something like this to work well, we'd need formations back, and as far as I can tell, those are AWOL without any posts from Steve on the topic, at least any that are collected up with the rest.

[liveware]

You can easily combine Carronades with Particle Beams for a good combination of weapons as role-play option... would seem quite fun in my opinion.

That's actually what I was planning on doing, possibly also with some missile bombers mixed in for some extra long range bombardment capability.

[Jorgen_CAB]

You can easily combine Carronades with Particle Beams for a good combination of weapons as role-play option... would seem quite fun in my opinion.

That's actually what I was planning on doing, possibly also with some missile bombers mixed in for some extra long range bombardment capability.

You probably would have to rely on AMM and strong shields for anti-missile work though as neither of these beams are good to fight missiles in any way.

[misanthropope]

rails and carronade?  not exactly what you call tactically flexible, but it's a coherent scheme, and is considerably likelier to get across the missile envelope.