Honor Harrington's missile pods

[lastverb (OP)]

Disclaimer: This topic could be also in tactic section, but for now it stays here. Yes, the idea itself comes from Honor Harrington serries, but there are a few changes due to aurora mechanics and micromanagement cutting. [spoiler:i5wpbjt1]They are my new idea for invader repel tactic.[/spoiler:i5wpbjt1] All designs below are strange tech from my test game, so they are to be implemented by yourself in your campaign. THEY WERE TESTED IN CONTROLED COMBAT ENVIRONMENT.

First of all - what we should have:
- box launchers (very small, huge alpha strike possible, very slow to no combat reload)
- fire control (range depends on your missiles and specified target)
- missiles (yay we shoot them not rocks)
- tractor beams STOP not really, maybe if we will get some ideas from To Steve section below done they will be good. Instead of that:
- fighter engines and tiny fuel tank (i was testing lowest possible output fighter engine to cut cost and tiny tank is enough to position them insystem without having to use carrier's hangars, u can use tankers on lower fuel tech)
- ECCM if you really want to shoot at something
- all of it in a design under 500 tons would be good (fighter limit so we dont use alredy overworking shipyards)
- some ship(pod layers anyone?)/PDC/starbase/buoy with active radars which "controls" them
And we get very cheap, enormous alpha strike death trap.

And the first design:

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XEBL mk1 class Launch Complex    400 tons     7 Crew     46.1 BP      TCS 8  TH 11  EM 0
1375 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 6.3
Annual Failure Rate: 80%    IFR: 1.1%    Maint Capacity 0 MSP    Max Repair 18 MSP    Est Time: 0 Years
Magazine 42    

DynoTech Manevouer Drive (1)    Power 11.25    Fuel Use 1250%    Signature 11.25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km   (15 days at full power)

Kongregate B2 Launcher (21)    Missile Size 2    Hangar Reload 15 minutes    MF Reload 2.5 hours
Kongregate SRM Firecon (1)     Range 20.2m km    Resolution 16
SRM-1a (21)  Speed: 36 000 km/s   End: 8.3m    Range: 18m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 216 / 129 / 64Lack of ECCM is a range killer [spoiler:i5wpbjt1]if you would like to use them against invaders[/spoiler:i5wpbjt1]. It is short ranged version anyway. For just less than 50BP we get a 84 strenght alpha strike.

Second, longer ranged version (ECCM included):

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XEBL mk2 class Launch Complex    500 tons     16 Crew     90.7 BP      TCS 10  TH 11  EM 0
1100 km/s     Armour 2-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 6.6
Annual Failure Rate: 100%    IFR: 1.4%    Maint Capacity 0 MSP    Max Repair 28 MSP    Est Time: 0 Years
Magazine 44    

DynoTech Manevouer Drive (1)    Power 11.25    Fuel Use 1250%    Signature 11.25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 Litres    Range 2.9 billion km   (30 days at full power)

Kongregate B2 Launcher (22)    Missile Size 2    Hangar Reload 15 minutes    MF Reload 2.5 hours
Kongregate LRM Firecon (1)     Range 100.8m km    Resolution 16
LRM-1a (22)  Speed: 32 000 km/s   End: 37.5m    Range: 72m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 170 / 102 / 51
Small Craft ECCM-1 (1)Getting high level small craft eccm eat up a lot of research points, otherwise compact version eats space for launchers. Eccm itself is expensive.

And a maintance/radar PDC to deploy forward defence points that can maintance first design and a second one with 16 launchers and tiny instead of small fuel tank:

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Danzig class Outpost    7500 tons     670 Crew     1471.38 BP      TCS 150  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 7-34     Sensors 30/112     Damage Control Rating 30     PPV 22.5
Magazine 930    
Maintenance Modules: 2 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 400 tons

BearPaw AMM Launcher mk I (30)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
Kongregate LRAM Firecon (3)     Range 6.3m km    Resolution 1
LRAM-1 (930)  Speed: 40 000 km/s   End: 3m    Range: 7.2m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 386 / 232 / 116

Kongregate Small Craft Radar (1)     GPS 1344     Range 100.8m km    Resolution 16
BearPaw Particle Search System (1)     GPS 112     Range 8.4m km    Resolution 1
GrayTech TH Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 30     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  30m km
GrayTech EM Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 30     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  30m km
To Steve (suggestions):
- we should be able to transport missiles between colonies in freighter's cargo holds, however should NOT be able to load them on ship in deep space
- same for fighters, but theres a problem with checking if they are in colony orbit
- it would be good to have compact tractors
- a design with tractor should be able to use a tractor on a ship so the targetted ship could tow them (eg. pods with tractor beams not with drive)

[Steve Walmsley]

Interesting idea. You could probably even dispense with the engines on the pods, although a new order type of "Collect Parasite" would probably be needed.

Steve