Print Page - L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR

Fiction => Aurora => Topic started by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 22, 2019, 03:10:56 PM

Title: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 22, 2019, 03:10:56 PM

I'm always very short on time, so the entries will be super brief. Also, I'm not English native, so beware. I've been playing this campaign for a while, and it starts to get interesting, so I've decided it's worth an AAR.

Start parameters (default if not mentioned):
Year: 0
Difficulty: 100%
Max number of systems: 150
Starting NPRs: 2
NPR generation: Disabled
Precursors & Star Swarm: Enabled

Racial Data:
Name: United Systems
Government type: Representative Democracy
Location: Earth/Sol
Training Level: 5

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 22, 2019, 03:40:08 PM

September 11, Year 54.
MAP & Diplo data:

Off-Topic: show

It's been almost 35 years since I've met the Union of Gun (GUN or Gun Union for short). Scary looking robots (are they?) with actual guns instead of hands, that were given a chance for friendship. Well, one sided kind of friendship, because I don't trust them.

I get their research data occasionally. In return, I allow them to keep buzzing around Sol in their slow (1.4K km/s) ships. It was hard to find them, but I managed.

I wanted to attack them, many times. But ultimately decided that peace, even though boring, is much more profitable to me. My resource situation is not particularly great (I'll get to that later), so making it any worse before it'll stabilize will not be wise.

Another thing that came into my head was that if I met another empire, and there will be some kind of 3 way conflict, it'll be hard to process turns. But that's a silly excuse, I guess. Or is it?

Things changed in Y54. I did find ruins and wrecks previously. But no additional alien activity. Today, I've found two Jump Gates, which I do not believe were built by GUN. Somebody else built them. They lead to nowhere on one side (EG 45, an empty system), and to almost nothing on the other (EG 290 no habitable planets or any additional Jump Gates).

I'll go into more detail about my current fleets later, but I do not feel that I'm ready for a serious conflict yet.

I have two combat fleets (1x CVL 10x DDG and 1x CV 12x DDG) and some support ships (4x AKE, 4x AO). My plans for a cruiser were postponed previously, because I feel the need for a better (at least 250+K km) gunnery FCS (I want an area defense capability on it). Current engine tech is magneto-plasma, but I feel like I'll be able to produce new generation of ships in just a couple of years. Most tech has already been done.

I'm yet to produce a minelayer (or mines) to place sensors buoys, among other things I'm yet to do. Not sure if the makers of those Jump Gates are still around, but if I'm about to meet them, I don't think this new "first contact" will be as friendly as the first one. I need to prepare more.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 23, 2019, 12:00:13 AM

Economy

Due to automation difficulties, I went with centralized approach. Everything of importance is located on Earth. Other colonies are made as close as possible, and first of all are treated as a source of minerals. Including Sorium, because I figured it takes too much micromanagement effort to control gas giant fuel harvesting ops. It's easier to just mine it with all other minerals, ship it back to Earth and refine there.

Civilian sector plays a very important role. Everything that civilians can do themselves - I allow and encourage it. Therefore in every system there's a main hub that gathers all the minerals mined by the civilian mining complexes.

Colonial hubs outside of Sol have small industrial complexes to allow small scale construction and PDC assembly.

Earth industries:
DSTS lvl 17 (9350)
Spaceport lvl 1
Shipyards 764k naval, 1.12m civilian
Maintenance facilities 500 (100k tons)
Construction factories 674
Ordnance factories 222
Fighter factories 250
Fuel refineries 200
Mines 431 (some are converted to auto to be shipped away)
Mass drivers 6 (30k tons)
Research labs 70

Population

Sol:
Earth 1.5b
Luna 126m
Mars 75m
Mercury 0.26m
Venus 0 (automated mining colony)

Bernards Star:
Bortus (no mustache) 13.87m

Luyten 726-8:
Feb 1.42m

WISE 0410+1502:
Socrates 0.52m

Listening posts in systems:
Altair (2x DSTS)
Proxima Centauri (2x DSTS)

United Systems ~~CIA station~~ embassy on GUN homeworld:
Luyten 1305-10A II M 4 -- no population

Minerals situation

Earth is almost out of ore, but has 30-190K of each mineral type stored. Luna (2.7m), Mars (7.6m), Mercury (3m) and Venus (42m) have decent mineral deposits, with the biggest being on Venus, but their accessibility is medium to low. Closest colonies of Bortus (51m), Feb (74m) and Socrates (167m) all have huge deposits, but most of them are either 0.1 or ~0.4. So Auto/Mines are being created on Earth now to increase extraction volume, which is currently pretty low and not enough to fulfill Earth's industrial needs (even under ideal circumstances, like no freighters being blown up by aliens).

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 23, 2019, 01:47:59 PM

I dug up some info around and it may be that these Jump Gates I found are not a telltale sign of an active alien Empire. So I may have jumped the gun with this AAR, he-he. But let's continue anyway, who knows what might happen...

Current state of the United Systems Navy:

TG 1.1 "Ranger" (2nd Gen ships)
1x Ranger class CVL (10x Strike Fighters, 5x Beam Fighters, 1x Early Warning scout)
10x Mahan class DDG

TG 2.1 "Enterprise" (3rd Gen ships)
1x Enterprise class CV (36x Strike Fighters, 24x Beam Fighters, 7x Early Warning scouts)
12x Cole class DDG

Rescue and Recovery Div 1
4x Rama class ARS (Rescue and Salvage Ships)

Supply Squadron 1
4x Pyro class AKE
4x Saturn class AO

TG 2.1 is the main strike force. Some (2-4) destroyers from TG 1.1 would be detached to escort Supply Squadron ships as needed. The rest of 1.1 would be in reserve. Earth and Bortus colony have various PDCs, including some hangars for reserve fighters.

Designs:

Carriers:

Off-Topic: show

Destroyers:

Off-Topic: show

Fighters:

Off-Topic: show

Auxiliaries:

Off-Topic: show

These are 2nd and 3rd Generation of ships, and I'm just several years away from designing 4th Generation.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 24, 2019, 02:47:58 PM

October 17, Year 55

FLASH

Exploration Ship Simon Newcomb encountered six unknown alien ships while grav-surveying system NN 3517, one jump away from recently found Jump Gates (also 5 jumps away from Sol).

Unknown ships are of two classes (three each). All estimated 8600 tons, thermal signature 900, observed speed 5232 km/s. Both are using active sensors.

Another Jump Gate was found in a nearby system to the previous gates.

The most experienced diplomatic team, the one that was working with GUN all this time, was reassigned to deal with this new alien race.

No response yet. No shots fired. Yet...

FLASH

17th October 55 13:42:46, NN 3517, Simon Newcomb suffers complete structural failure due to the amount of damage it has received. The ship is destroyed.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 25, 2019, 01:42:23 PM

October 23, Year 55

23rd October 55 04:02:56, Unknown, Commander Anthony Morley has been captured by the NN 3517 Aliens #161

Union diplomats are still unable to make contact with the Nails. That's how I call them for now.

TG 2.1 Enterprise is readied and sent towards NN 3517. Other exploration ships remain in the area to keep watch. Supply Division 1 (Prov.) - TG 2.9 (2x AKE, 2x AO, 3x DDG) and Rescue and Recovery Div 1 are trailing behind the Enterprise group.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 25, 2019, 02:49:29 PM

November 27, Year 55

Still can't make contact with the Nails. Diplomatic team is not sure if that's even possible. Enterprise group has entered NN 3517 system. Current task - locate and destroy any Nails ships in NN 3517.

In other news...

New alien race found! Just three jumps away from our Nails encounter. Ross 594 appears to be their home world. Nine ships, thermal signature 275, were sitting on a Ross 594 - HIP 29332 (JG) Jump Point, on the Ross 594 side. They did not attack my exploration ships, but did detach a couple of vessels to investigate the hastily retreating explorers.

This spices things up even more. Did not expect to find two alien races so quickly after one another and so close to each other. I'm still a few (well, decent amount) months away from being ready to build new generation of combat ships. Gotta wait some more to find out the exact ETA.

Alright, wish the Enterprise group a good luck!

Map update:

Off-Topic: show

PS: Google Images seem to have trouble loading for unauthorized users (or so it seems in incognito mode when I test), so I'm adding the images as attachments.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 25, 2019, 04:24:04 PM

November 28, Year 55

Combat Report

TG 2.1 assumed EMCON 1 (radio silence) before entering NN 3517. One Seer class EW fighter and two Interrogator class EW fighters were launched. Seer turned on active radar and took station near TG 2.1 which started moving in the direction of the wreckage. Interrogators were vectored to the most probable enemy locations. At 10:25 EW-2F Interrogator 003 detected six enemy vessels, near the wreck. The same ones that were responsible for the destruction of Simon Newcomb.

24 strike fighters, accompanied by 12 beam fighters were launched.

Bandits started approaching EW-2F 003, but it kept them at distance of 120M km. When the strike package came within 42M km of the targets, it turned out that they are using ECM 40. Strikers had to close in to 31M km.

6 targets, 96 missiles (WH 9), 16 missiles per target. Decent accuracy of ASM-41 Falling Star and outstanding (15-22%) crew grade bonuses allowed to score surprising 95 hits in total (timestamp 15:51).

The bad news is, only two enemy ships slowed down (1161 and 4086 km/s), while one secondary magazine explosion was detected. No ships were destroyed. All keep coming towards TG 2.1, which is just 150M km away. Enemy vessels have at least 3 levels of armor.

Strike package is ordered to RTB. Reserve strikers will be launched for reattack.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 27, 2019, 12:04:36 AM

Continued

Short mid combat update.

My WH 9 missiles seem to be pretty weak for what I'm dealing with. It's still Nov 28, and I've managed to destroy four enemy ships and damage two others, but ammo expenditure is greater than expected. Some enemy ships were capable of withstanding >35 missile hits. This is where I realized that using Laser or Meson/HPM armed fighters in swarm tactics could be a great help.

Speaking of swarm tactics. I tried sending a railgun-equipped fighter squadron to deal with the most damaged enemy ship (where I thought the ammo storage blew up). Oh man, it was a reaaaly slow action. The struggler was still relatively close to his mates, and upon closing, the fighter squadron became the target for countless ASM strikes. I've lost track of how much missiles were sent at them. I felt as if the enemy had 30 second reload launchers, and they were sending 3-8 missile volleys. For hours! Missile size 4, speed is hard to figure out, I saw 40000 km/s at some point.

Result - 2 of my fighters destroyed. But they managed to kill the damaged ship, which, thankfully, had no guns. The surviving squadron retreats to the carrier, using a rather long range (but safer) route.

Strike fighter squadrons were rearmed and now are coming after two surviving enemy ships. Should be finished with them on the next day. Rescue and Recovery ships are already en route.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on August 27, 2019, 04:01:25 AM

Just a quick note, if you keep building DSTS on Earth, as well as improving their tech line, Aurora will start giving you errors at some point due to the sensor range becoming too large. I can't remember the exact distance where it happens.

Good luck with the battle!

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 27, 2019, 11:58:33 PM

March 28, Year 56

Post-battle

The remaining two enemy vessels were dealt with quickly and without problems. 100 EP Magneto-plasma engine was found in one of the wreckages. Other remains weren't that interesting.

System NN 3517 was swept head to toe. 5 Jump points and 2 small Nails colonies (thermal signatures 5 and 10) were found. Nothing else. All Navy task groups are returning back to Sol.

I can't make contact with the Ross 594 aliens, despite them not being overly aggressive. Their presumed homeworld is just 6 jumps away from Earth, but I'm not worried. Yet. New engine tech (Internal Confinement Fusion Drive) will be ready in August 57. Not sure if I should continue building combat ships with the old tech or wait. Unfortunately, I don't have any dropships built. Assaulting Nails colonies will have to wait.

Quote from: Garfunkel on August 27, 2019, 04:01:25 AM

Just a quick note, if you keep building DSTS on Earth, as well as improving their tech line, Aurora will start giving you errors at some point due to the sensor range becoming too large. I can't remember the exact distance where it happens.

Good luck with the battle!

Thanks for the tip!
I did have some errors with the game initially, but then I figured the most out. New ones appeared recently, during combat (like final PD fire error), but nothing majorly problematic it seems.
Excess DSTS are planned to be shipped off world, of course. I'm just being lazy, as always ;D

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 31, 2019, 01:23:39 PM

July 27, Year 57

I managed to make full contact with the Ross 594 system aliens. They call themselves the Commonwealth of Majlesi. I call them MAJ for short now. Not sure if there was a bug or that's just due to diplomatic system's simplicity, but they allowed me to do trade with them even before I got comms with them. This got me thinking...

Nothing stops me from gaining infinite amounts of positive diplo score with MAJ. Just like it happened with GUN. I can make them my new friends, get their tech and such. But do I want that? Frankly, I don't need anything from them, not their planets, nor their stuff. But having two whole alien races, the both ones that I started the game with, as allies, would be pretty... anticlimactic. I was hoping for a conflict.. But for a true one. Don't want to instigate one just because it will be pretty boring otherwise.

United Systems isn't at its best yet anyway. I think I'll keep peacefully expanding and improving my colonies. Need to stabilize mineral excavation and expand the Navy. I am withdrawing my diplomats from MAJ, however. And I'm not even sure if I want to let their ships close to Sol. Letting them know where I live might not be the best idea, if there will ever be a conflict. This paranoid stance can become my new policy, but I need to think about it more. I'm not the most Role Playing guy ever, and being super paranoid or aggressive isn't in my character, but I can, say, establish some sort of parliamentary government body that could advise or even dictate national policies, stances and laws. Wink wink.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 05, 2019, 02:10:10 PM

July 21, Year 58

Feature creep...

It's been a while since I researched new generation engines. But my gunnery tech is still not advanced enough, so I keep postponing new ship designs. Refits, even the "free" ones, are looking kinda costly to me, and mineral situation isn't great yet anyway. Gunnery FCS Speed Rating 5K and Turret Tracking Speed Gear 10K are just around the corner, but Gunnery FCS Range 60K, which should allow me to design 240k km reaching gunnery FCS, is at least several years away.

Yet I'm not even sure I need such long range guns. I was aiming for ~250km 12cm laser turret (@10-20km/s tracking for Dual Purpose use). But now I can't really see their usefulness. I don't think it's a good idea to fight with big ships at close range in the first place. Fighters are much better suited for knife-fighting. I plan on always having enough scouts not to get into close range combat. New gun may be my "OHSHI~" button, a plan B, an insurance... I guess...

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 07, 2019, 01:33:00 PM

December 1, Year 58

Before making new generation of ships, I thought it would be wise to gather more intelligence from MAJ home system. A survey ship with active sensors was sent to Ross 594.

MAJ got themselves a big fleet. I did not bother to count yet, but I suspect at least 70 combat ships just below 10000 tons. But I haven't seen anything faster than 1500 km/s. Apparently, they did not like the way I was snooping around and revoked my trading access to their empire. Diplo score is showing 366 on my end and it stays the same while my ship is in their system, so I have no idea how exactly this "worsening of relations" works.

In other news, I've made some preliminary designs for my new destroyer. Biggest problem with mounting a new laser gun on them is that a good, long range and fast tracking (240k km range, 20k km/s tracking, for dual purpose use) FCS costs A LOT. A single unit would cost me 720 BP and the same amount of Uridium. That's almost 1/3 of the ship's BP cost and half of Uridium cost. That's totally unacceptable.

Lowering tracking on this FCS would make it almost useless against missiles and fighters, making DP capability worthless. 5000-10000 km/s is a stone age. The only alternative I see is to use dedicated gun battery equipped ships, to warrant the FCS costs (per amount of guns). I'm still to envision a cruiser for United Systems Navy, so that's one more aspect to consider.

Also, I'm still torn between particle beams and lasers. Beams seem to be great dedicated anti-ship weapons, but lasers allow more flexibility due to turreting capability. As I've already said, I value multirole/dual purpose capabilities for everything possible. So I'm mostly leaning for lasers, but beams show great DPS potential one should not disregard.

Oh yeah, if you haven't noticed by now, it's hard for me to make up my mind about anything. I'm a somewhat hesitant person. Not even sure about how much hesitant! Case in point, I guess....

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: DIT_grue on September 08, 2019, 12:43:12 AM

Quote from: L0ckAndL0ad on September 07, 2019, 01:33:00 PM

I have no idea how exactly this "worsening of relations" works.

Under the hood, there are two figures - your opinion of them, and their opinion of you. You only get to see your opinion of them, the only way you can guess what they think about you is by the treaties they grant and revoke (there are exact thresholds for each, you can check them on the wiki (http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Diplomacy)).

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 08, 2019, 01:21:10 PM

Quote from: DIT_grue on September 08, 2019, 12:43:12 AM

Quote from: L0ckAndL0ad on September 07, 2019, 01:33:00 PM
I have no idea how exactly this "worsening of relations" works.

Under the hood, there are two figures - your opinion of them, and their opinion of you. You only get to see your opinion of them, the only way you can guess what they think about you is by the treaties they grant and revoke (there are exact thresholds for each, you can check them on the wiki (http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Diplomacy)).

Yeah.... Now I know that for sure. Strange, why I thought the diplo score is a sum of both. I totally must have read about it before and still managed to fail at it. I guess that's a side effect of me working without a day off for several weeks.

Well, it turned out more or less the way I anticipated... I wanted a conflict, and I got one...

August 19, Year 59

FLASH

MAJ ships destroyed six United Systems' exploration vessels (the entire 1st Grav Survey Squadron) in Ross 594. New diplomatic team is trying to contain the incident, but for now, we're in a state of WAR.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Michael Sandy on September 09, 2019, 03:01:51 PM

Not all minerals are equally in short supply. Normally, my economy is limited by Duranium. I haven't seen a game where a Uridium shortage drove things, but it takes a while before Uridium starts dominating build costs, and in that time you are building up large stockpiles.

So if you have a massive supply of Uridium, the fire control cost affects the build time and maintenance, but that is about it.

A bigger concern would be losing that expensive system to damage or maintenance failures, as that results in long repair time. And the cost also affects refits. It is difficult to upgrade a fire control that costs 1/3 of the total ship cost.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 09, 2019, 11:09:53 PM

Quote from: Michael Sandy on September 09, 2019, 03:01:51 PM

Not all minerals are equally in short supply. Normally, my economy is limited by Duranium. I haven't seen a game where a Uridium shortage drove things, but it takes a while before Uridium starts dominating build costs, and in that time you are building up large stockpiles.

So if you have a massive supply of Uridium, the fire control cost affects the build time and maintenance, but that is about it.

A bigger concern would be losing that expensive system to damage or maintenance failures, as that results in long repair time. And the cost also affects refits. It is difficult to upgrade a fire control that costs 1/3 of the total ship cost.

Uridium is currently in very short supply in Sol. Earth's reserve is just 29 thousand, while Sol's total extraction of Uridium is just 150 per year. Colonies provide additional 1100 annually at current rates. I'm trying to improve the situation, but it might get desperate soon enough.

I did figure out a simple solution to the problem of costly FCS, however. It was rather simple - increasing the amount of guns, to improve the hit chance. This is how the current template of the new generation of destroyers looks like. I purposely degraded some elements (like main radar) to fine tune the costs, keeping in mind my new cruisers that will have some better equipment to supplement the capabilities of smaller ships (I'm most likely going to design a cheaper and lighter frigate as well, for patrol duties).

(also note my new gen missiles are here!)

Off-Topic: show

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 10, 2019, 02:24:11 PM

Not sure if I should have a whole dedicated thread for this, but here's the long pained cruiser design I came up with. Basically, it is an improved Kidd with double the weapons, better sensors, improved anti-fighter capability, and what's most important - an ability to lead smaller combat ships, both as a task force flag ship and as a jump ship. And it can carry two fighter craft! I've already designed a jump capable scout for it.

30.000 tons feels somehow wrong for such a small increase in firepower, but I feel like all the other capabilities are really worth it. I need a good lead ship/jump ship for heavy vanguard duty and to offer better protection to carriers.

I'd welcome any suggestions/comments, if there are any.

Off-Topic: show

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on September 12, 2019, 11:09:03 PM

The problem with both ships is that they are not as efficient as they could be. This is due to your design philosophy of multirole capability. I'm impressed how much you managed to cram into them but they are certainly weaker at any role when compared to a purpose built ship. Don't worry about the size, early-to-mid game multirole ships have to be big. Personally I would at least have two smaller classes, one for offense and one for defence.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 15, 2019, 01:26:09 PM

Quote from: Garfunkel on September 12, 2019, 11:09:03 PM

The problem with both ships is that they are not as efficient as they could be. This is due to your design philosophy of multirole capability. I'm impressed how much you managed to cram into them but they are certainly weaker at any role when compared to a purpose built ship. Don't worry about the size, early-to-mid game multirole ships have to be big. Personally I would at least have two smaller classes, one for offense and one for defence.

Thanks!
Yeah, I agree that it is cool to be able to cram stuff into warships, but it takes SO MUCH time to fiddle with and finetune the designs... I've just spent several days worth of game sessions simply dealing with the new generation ships. Actually, it is one of the reasons why I go for multirole - the less ship types to manage the better. By now I'm not even sure I actually want to have a dedicated frigate for aux escort and patrol duties. A single Nashville class CG may work in that role instead of a division of 2-3 Shepards, but the costs/capabilities aren't in CG favor...

All my ships are defensive/long range in nature, to support carrier warfare doctrine. Carrier based fighters are my main offensive craft. Fastest, hardest to target, easy to produce and maintain.

I'm still to create any troopships/dropships/LPD. I guess I'll have to deal with Uridium shortage first... Ugh... I just need to return to playing turns instead of being stuck in the ship designer.

Here's the list of 4th generation ship designs that I just pushed into production:

Shepard class FFG

Off-Topic: show

Kidd class DDG

Off-Topic: show

Nashville class CG

Off-Topic: show

Essex class CV

Off-Topic: show

Fighter-sized craft

Off-Topic: show

Auxiliaries

Off-Topic: show

ps: Started reading Honor Harrington series (audiobooks, currently at HH2). Not the best military sci-fi that I've read, but so far quite good.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 17, 2019, 01:52:45 AM

February 21, Year 60

Political and strategic considerations

Due to Commonwealth of Majlesi's attack on unarmed Union exploration ships, I've decided to blockade all known MAJ systems, preventing them from finding and reaching United Systems space. Unlike GUN, I do not think MAJ know where Union systems and planets are located. I want to keep it that way.

MAJ have much larger navy than the Union, but there's no indication of their technological superiority. United Systems may soon start suffering from mineral shortages, and, unfortunately, it may last for quite a while. This means that a full-scale war is out of the question. I don't think I'd be able to invade their home system (Ross 594) and get away with it easily. Any sort of assault on their Capital is viewed as suicidal. Such an undertaking would require serious amount of prior intelligence gathering.

Travel distance from Sol to Ross 594 is 16 billion km, or ~58 days @ 3200 km/s. 4th generation ships, which are several years away from being complete, would be able to travel this distance in 35.6 days @ 5200 km/s.

John Adams fighter base on Earth is set to expand its hangar capacity to allow storing 35Kt worth of fighters (equivalent of a single full fleet carrier wing) to allow simpler and smoother fighter replacement process in the future. CV Enterprise is currently undergoing Y59 refit and is also waiting for new gen fighters to come on-line. Then it'll have to facilitate their TF training.

Meanwhile, TG 1.1 Ranger, comprised of 2nd Gen warships (~2500 km/s) - CVL Ranger (8Kt hangar) and 4x Mahan class destroyers are sent to MAJ's borders. Ranger carries old but combat tested 8x F/A-3 Banshee and 5x F-4R Ray and also newest scout ships - 2x JS-1 'DingerCat 2x EW-3 Beholder. Their capabilities should be enough to fulfill the following mission:

Prevent MAJ ships from finding and reaching Union space.
Gather as much intelligence as possible.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 19, 2019, 02:24:55 PM

February 6, Year 61

Mineral shortages

Due to 4th Generation Warship construction program, as predicted, United Systems started running out of some types of minerals. Gallicite is almost at 0, Uridium is at 15k, and Tritanium is at 33k units. There are no better sources of these anywhere close by, so the existing ones are being improved. Construction schedule will be seriously affected.

Meanwhile, TG 1.1 Ranger keeps sitting in EG 290 system with idle engines but active sensors turned on and waits for the enemy. No contacts so far. However, I'm almost sure MAJ's ships are present in the next system, HIP 21932.

MAJ's diplomats are trying to improve Union's diplo rating, but I have recalled our own diplomatic team. We are still at war, but if these mineral shortages will continue, I may have to smooth it out with MAJ. Still, for now, no diplomacy.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 20, 2019, 02:41:50 PM

August 1, Year 61

Ranger's incursion into enemy territory: HIP 21932

As there was no sign of MAJ activity in EG 290 (beside the existence of the EG 45 gate), TG 1.1 was ordered to probe HIP 21932. 'DingerCat (guess why it is called that way!) jump scout went in and out without a problem. CVL Ranger and its escorts turned off all active sensors and jumped into HIP 21932.

HIP 21932 is a relatively small system. One star, six planets (outer most is 470m km away from local star) and only two known JPs - EG 290 and Ross 594 (MAJ home world). Distance between JPs - 3660m km.

As TG 1.1 went in at EMCON 1 (radio silence), scout fighters (2x Beholder class in total on Ranger) were sent out forwards several times (due to their limited range), to improve the security of the task group. TG 1.1 was directed to Ross 594 JP on an indirect course, masking the approach vector.

As Ranger came within ~1600m km of Ross 594 JP, one of the scouts was already sniffing around the JP itself (50m away). Scouts had also their active sensors turned off, meaning only str 28 passive EM sensor can be used. And there was nobody at JP. As time passed, JP stayed clean.

Lack of targets made me somewhat desperate. Scout's actives (5Kt res/150M km max range) were turned on temporarily. Still nothing. Couple of hours later - still nothing around JP. Sensors were turned back off and scout was ordered to return to the carrier. But on the return leg, passive sensors finally detected an enemy ship, ~180m km out. One Poolser class ship (out of two known). My old intel records suggest 9600 tonnage, observed speed 1432.

Two notes to myself. First, non-JD scouts need even more range. Existing 4b km range is very decent, but the more the better. Speed is always a tradeoff, but it's something to really think about in the future. Second, lack of thermal sensors on my scouts prevents me from passively figuring out how many ships accompany the ones I can find with passive EM sensors. I know I removed them because their effective range is too small for comfort (when limited by 500t fighter size), it may be worth while to think about a dedicated thermal scout, or a bigger sensor scout - FAC sized instead of fighter sized. I stopped using Early Warning FACs a while ago, but maybe I should reconsider.

TBC...

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 21, 2019, 12:19:17 PM

August 1, Year 61

Continued...

18:05

Poolser 001's movement is worrying me. Located ~610m km from Ross 594 JP, it is traveling on 296 deg course. It leads to.. nowhere. Not to the other JP, not to TG 1.1's location, not to any system body. It is seriously off course, if it was going from JP to JP. But the course looks much similar to interception of TG 1.1 than going to JP or system body.

TG 1.1 is 950m km away from Poolser 001. It must have str 555 thermal sensor to be able to detect 1800 signature of the light carrier at such distance. Which, obviously, can't be happening here. The only sane answer would be MAJ's Deep Space Tracking Stations that could be hidden on some planet or moon. There are no asteroids or comets here.

Well, or it could be just patrolling. Looking for my scout that revealed its position hours earlier. But even then, it is a bit too far from its last location... Hmmm...

Anyway.. EW-3 Beholder 002 is 123.5m km away from Poolser 001. Within range of the radar. But I think I should track it for a bit longer before going active.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 21, 2019, 01:40:18 PM

18:41

Radar on. Nine bandits in single group, on screen. 2x Poolsers, 4x Zwaadvis', 3x Tromps. All ships estimated 9600 tons, group's speed 1432 km/s.

Intel indicates Poolsers and Zwaadvis have medium range (67m km) resolution 112 (5600t) radars. Tromps are known to have primitive (0.9m max range) AMM-rated (res 1) radars and at least 5x lasers each (damage 3, ROF 2). If I had to guess, I'd say Poolsers and Zwaadvis carry medium range ASMs. But lets not allow them to reveal if it's true.

Enemy group changed course to 359, but it's not trying to intercept the scout. Regardless, they're too slow for that. EW-3 Beholder 002 ordered to shadow the group @ 105m km. Meanwhile, CVL Ranger launched all available combat fighters: 8x Banshees and 5x Rays. Banshees carry weak WH 9 size 4 ASMs (4 each), but that's all there is available to them. Newer strikers have size 6 launchers to be able to fire USN's standard ASMs, of all generations. But Ranger is stuck with Banshees for a while. Five F-4R Rays escort the strikers, leading them just 10k km ahead, with AMM radars turned off for now. Another Beholder (001) will trail 100k km behind the strike package and will monitor the surroundings in passive mode.

Tromps are priority targets, due to their suspected AMM capability. Previous combat experience with Nails tells me I should focus fire on one ship at a time. I don't want to break up their group into smaller ones yet, because I only have two 150m km reaching EW ships to cover the battlefield.

Strike package is launched from almost max range (950m km), so it's going to take Banshees at least 25 hours to reach their target at their max speed of 10k km. This would put endurance of all the fighter craft to the test, especially Beholder 002 that has to shadow the enemy. I should try doing that in passive mode, if possible.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 21, 2019, 03:32:33 PM

August 2, Year 61

13:46

New bandits on screen! Nine Beastjuggler class vessels, speed is just 395 km/s! Cross section 630, last known thermal signature 250, estimated 31500 tons each. Suspected to be civilian ships, with at least 28 vessels of this class marked in intel records.

Beastjugglers were spotted by Beholder 002 277m km away from Ross 594 JP, moving in the direction of the first enemy group. Also in the direction of the planetary system.

Meanwhile, enemy warship group stopped emitting and is trying to follow the scout at 1432 km/s. Strike package is still 300m km out, ETA 8 to 10 hours.

August 3, Year 61

00:26

Banshees closed within 45m km range of the enemy warship group and opened fire, focusing Tromp 001 with 32 ASM-41 Falling Star (WH 9, speed 20.8k km/s). These ASMs have tiny heat seekers and should potentially be able to retarget other ships if Tromp 001 goes down too early. But I don't think it will.

01:01:46

Enemy warship group turned on its medium range sensors! Just as the missiles approached them, 217k km out. I guess I just couldn't detect Tromp's short range AMM emissions (GPS 90), and they switched the Poolser's and Zwaadvis' sensors on upon detecting the incoming missiles. Neat trick that I can't replicate with my multi-role warships.

NOTE TO SELF: low speed high-endurance fleet escort PD fighters for such a role, maybe?

01:01:51

New active sensor contact! Horsejuggler class, suspected medium range ASM ship (exactly the same intel data as Poolser and Zwaadvis). 78m km west of strike package.... That's gotta be another enemy warship group, popped up BETWEEN the strikers and the carrier. Damn... Fighters have already expended all the ammo, and their fuel reserve is limited. Beholder 001, that is part of the package, will have to temporarily turn on active sensors to see how big the second enemy group is. Damn...

01:01:56

Splash! 10x ASM-41 hit the enemy ship and it explodes! 20 missiles are still maneuvering. Secondary explosion and life pod ejection detected. Beholder 001's active sensors indicate that Horsejuggler 001 is a loner. It moves at 1432 km/s in the direction of the strike package. Sensor data reveals that Tromp class has an armor of at least 2. That's better than I expected! And no ECM!

01:02:06

7x energy weapon impacts detected. 12 missiles are still in flight. I guess that's enemy PD fires at work. Range between them is 15k km. I'm not sure if heat seekers will allow successful re-targeting.

01:02:16

No re-targeting. The remaining missiles gone wasted. CVL Ranger launches rescue shuttle to try and snatch the enemy crews from the life pods first. RV-1 Willie is relatively small and stealthy (cross section 2.94, thermal sig 14.4), and fast (20.4k km/s), so it should be fine on its own.

To be continued...

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 22, 2019, 03:20:11 PM

02:34

As MAJ's lone Horsejuggler class warship was getting right in the way of returning strike package, a somewhat risky plan of attack came up. All Banshees and Beholder 2 changed course to avoid possible ASM range of the bandit, while five good old railgun-equipped F-4R Rays vectored right onto the Horsejuggler.

What the enemy vessel could be armed with? I was betting on missiles, due to corresponding active radar signature. Defeating a missile salvo from a single 9600 ton ship should be easy for five R-fighters. Chance of encountering beam weaponry was small. So the risk was negligible. Reward? Getting intel on an enemy ship type. Allowing trigger-happy fighter pilots to horse around. He-he.

Horsejuggler did not fire a shot. No missiles. No other weaponry. VF-51 "Angry Horsemen" approached the target galloping at 12k km/s and whipped it to death in under two minutes. So... was it just a sensor ship? A mustang? Is this the reason why it traveled alone? Or was it just out of ammo? Why would it be? This encounter raised more questions than it gave answers to. But it's still an intel data. And that's what the Ranger's TG was here for.

Meanwhile, as VF-51 dealt with a lone MAJ vessel, enemy warship group split into two. Both Poolser class ships detached from the formation, flew in the opposite direction for a minute, and then came around to follow the other ships. Why? Hmm.

Now that the Horsejuggler was destroyed, all fighters were ordered back to the carrier, except for the Beholder 1 that had to remain in the area to keep tracking enemy movement.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 24, 2019, 02:16:28 PM

August 4, Year 61

17:48

Big slow Beastjuggler ships were buzzed and somewhat scratched by VF-51 Squadron. They emit no active sensors, fire no weapons (I did risk my fighters by going point blank range, hoping these are not monitors/slow battleships). They move from the gate to the inner planetary system. Verdict: civilian ships. Even though I did ahem... a test firing on their armor, I did not destroy any civilian ships.

By now, VA-51 Madhatters destroyed two more ships and severely damaged third one. R-fighters of VF-51 finished the straggler. I was afraid it would fire back with beam weapons (it was Tromp class, known to have lasers), but it did not do anything but blew up in 5 seconds after meeting our Angry Horsemen.

Rescue Shuttle got ~100 surviving MAJ crews from the pods. After landing on CVL Ranger, I was unable to move the survivors. Now that there are additional life pods out there, I'm not sure what to do with all of them. For now, I'll keep sending the shuttle to pick up the rest, but I'm not sure it's not going to bite me with life support failures on the shuttle (unless I figure a way to transfer the survivors).

There are 4 Zwaadvis and 1 Poolser left on the battlefield. Ranger's got enough ammo for Banshees to finish them all off. But.. should I? I start feeling sorry for these poor bastards.

Oh, yeah, actually, the presence of the civilian ships means there's a colony in this system that I've failed to detect previously. I should definitely find it. Don't have any strong thermal sensor-equipped fighters on Ranger to do so. Will either have to use one of the escorting destroyers, or send fighters to point blank range to all the possible locations.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 25, 2019, 02:15:42 PM

August 6, Year 61

01:09

Several hours ago I've sent VA-51 to yet another strike mission. But suddenly, TG 1.1's passive sensors picked up radar emissions from a new enemy contact. 280m km away from the CVL Ranger, in the direction of the inner planetary system. Temporary nickname Echo 4. Headhater class ship, estimated 9600 tons, known to be able to fly at 2734 km/s, was emitting str 90 res 112 (5600t) signature, corresponding to 100.8m km detection range. The best MAJ ship we've seen so far. TG 1.1's max speed is 2556 km/s. Oooops!

Another problem is, both my Beholders were out of action due to flight crew exhaustion. Jump scouts were also showing some strange crew rest stats, probably because I did not put any engineering modules on them. Strikers were too far away and in the opposite direction to be able to contribute their radars. So I had no idea how many enemy ships were out there in group Echo 4. Fighter ammo on Ranger was getting to 50% so I immediately recalled VA-51 back to the carrier.

Ranger attracted too much attention. It was time to go home.

Couple of hours later strikers returned and I sent out somewhat rested Beholders to investigate Echo 4 contact. As per EMCON 1, Beholders weren't allowed to turn on their radars until they've moved at least 100m km away from the carrier.

Well.. That was a mistake. Sort of. Now I know how many ships were in group Echo 4. Seven. Bad news is, they've managed to sneak up within 88m km from TG 1.1. As soon as they turn on their radar again, they'll spot Ranger and its escorts. And I can't outrun them.

What am I going to do? I do not want to turn on actives on my destroyers. No need to reveal TG 1.1's position before it's actually necessary. I will deploy R-fighters to watch out for missiles, covering Ranger. Their radars should not be detected this far out. In the mean time, I can make at least one strike against Echo 4 before.... Wait a minute.. If Headhater is not a multirole ship... They won't be able to detect or intercept my missiles. Unless they have CIWS. Hmm..

I need to think about what weapons to use against Echo 4. In total, I have 96x ASM-41 Falling Star (WH 9) for fighters, and 136x ASM-64 Sledgehammer (WH 16) on four DDGs. That's it. Closest supply ships are 7.2 billion km away, in adjacent system. I need to think... And get some sleep..

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on September 26, 2019, 01:44:58 PM

August 24, Year 61

TG 1.1 Ranger heading home

I decided to use older ASM-41s against Echo 4. Newer missiles are more precious.

1st salvo of VA-51... failed to connect with the target. Being launched from 45m km away, it ran out of fuel before reaching the enemy. 50m km max range + target moves in the opposite direction = wasted missile salvo. Ughh....

Next salvo destroyed two ships immediately. Successful re-targeting allowed ASMs to blow up a third vessel.

Third and the last salvo... Mmm... Well, let's say it went better than expected. Remaining 4 ships of Echo 4 group had only 1 layer of armor and no AMM capability. I came up with an idea to spread the damage around (8 missiles per target), to be able to finish any remaining stragglers with R-fighters. Third salvo destroyed two ships and heavily damaged the last two. Both survivors stopped emitting active sensors and slowed down to 700-1000 km/s. VF-51 closed in and finished them off quickly and efficiently.

After that, CVL Ranger and its escorts set course to JP, heading home.

Results of TG 1.1 raid: 12 enemy ships destroyed (9600t each), 298 POWs captured. No friendly casualties.

I got a bit of useful intel out of this sortie. HIP 21932 must have some sort of colony that civilians travel to. I'm yet to find it though. Overall, I'm not sure if this whole conflict is worth anything to me other than combat experience and entertainment. Maybe I should allow diplomats to try and smooth it all out....

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on October 01, 2019, 11:53:58 AM

Nice going.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on October 05, 2019, 03:22:25 PM

As I was busy, I had time to think...

Political statements

United Systems recognizes MAJ's right to defend its borders and colonies, even in such an uncivilized way.
United Systems should not resort to any sorts of blockages against neutral or friendly nations, even if this policy is enacted and enforced unilaterally.
Military options, both offensive and defensive, should only be used against nations/entities that show hostile intent or act aggressively against United Systems, its allies or neutral third parties, as deemed necessary, according to the scale of the threat.
United Systems will cease offensive acts in MAJ space and will assume defensive posture to allow diplomats resolve the conflict.
United Systems reserves the right to monitor activities in MAJ space and around MAJ borders in a civilized manner, even under threat of violence, to ensure safety of its citizens.
United Systems would not, under any circumstances, seek to harm civilian population and shipping of MAJ or any other nation/entity and will make its best effort to identify them as such.

Therefore:

United Systems diplomats should seek making peace with MAJ.
As long as the relations between our nations remains hostile, USN should back away from MAJ's borders and not attack any ships unless fired upon (or shown intent to do so), to allow peaceful resolution of the conflict, but still continue monitoring the activities on the border to prevent any offensive action that can be undertaken by MAJ.
"The red line" of the defensive blockade should be moved away from MAJ's borders as far as USN would consider comfortable while ensuring safety of United Systems ships and colonies.
If this conflict can be resolved peacefully, trade treaties between nations (and construction of jump gate networks) will be considered.

ps: If only I could trade minerals....

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on October 13, 2019, 01:50:34 PM

June 17, Year 62

Not much to write about. Enterprise received its last batch of new generation fighters and began TF training. However, due to mineral shortage none of the 4th Gen warships are complete yet. All stuck between 49-79% completion. Gallicite supply starts growing into positive numbers, but it's gonna take years for the ships to finish construction, let alone building a decent mineral reserve.

In other news, 2nd Grav Survey Squadron found a new entry into MAJ system HIP 21932 (the one I recently visited with CVL Ranger). Fortunately, the jump point leads into the same system I came from, so it changes little in strategic sense. Well, not exactly... It can be used for a quick assault on HIP 21932 planetary system, because it comes out @ 182m km away from HIP 21932's sun. I'll keep looking for other ways MAJ can get into Union space, but it's now trickier due to unfortunate demise of the entire 1st Grav Survey Squadron.

Oh, also, a great thing happened. First civilian Union colony outside of Sol was established on Bernards Star A-III. Total mineral count there is 357 mil, but only Duranium and Boronide are decently accessible (1 and 0.4 acc respectively). I love civilian colonies! I will gladly keep paying civilians to mine. Capitalism at its finest.

ADDED:

Right... I conveniently forgot to report you that I accidentally spaced 30 MAJ POWs, while trying to relocate their hibernation capsules. It is totally not a war crime. Well, I do have ample supply of study material for autopsies now... :(

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on November 06, 2019, 01:36:01 PM

August 27, Year 64

Gallicite is at 2000 units on Earth, and slowly growing. Uridium and Tritanium are at 15 and 30 thousand respectively, and doing somewhat better. All the construction of new generation of ships was stopped and still never continued due to this shortage. There's not that much I can do about it for a while.

CV Enterprise stopped training its fighter group and is pretty much ready to sortie out at moment's notice.

Our spies have stolen two MAJ ship blueprints. Both ship classes I already encountered. Tromp (now called Gathis) was a Jump Destroyer Escort, of which I destroyed 3 ships. Beastjuggler (Milamber now) is indeed a civilian freighter.

Gathis looks really underwhelming.

Off-Topic: show

Current diplo rating with MAJ on my side: -716. There's been no contacts with them. They still don't know where the Earth is. And that's good.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: misanthropope on November 07, 2019, 10:19:45 AM

at the speeds you've specced, you can shave about 25% off your gallicite expenditure (at the same aggregate "mission tonnage") by going with commercial engines. there are lots of secondary trade-offs, though i regard them as on balance favoring low-power engines.

maybe i've eyeballed your ships wrong (not so much time for aurora these days) but i think they're 25% (by volume) made of 1.0 power engines?

for sheer gallicite minimization (ignoring all the secondary effects) your optimal power ratio is a nice simple 2F, where F is (speed spec)/(engine tech "nominal" speed); 5000 kkps using internal fusion (nominal speed = 20000 kkps) gets you a target power of .5. you can improve with a little twiddling but i personally don't find the extra tinkering to be fun or very profitable, so "50% of weight= engine DONE". nb my formula breaks down if F isn't below .4 or so; for fast but not extravagantly fast ships usually there is another local max around mult 1.25.

gallicite crunch is just about the easiest crisis to inflict on yourself, and they LINGER, are existential threats, and worst of all are *boring* because you just sit there for years unable to build your ships (ahem). after about the second time a campaign died that way i got really obsessive about gallicite as the end-all be-all of fleet management.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on November 07, 2019, 11:50:03 AM

Uhm, yeah, I'm going to need to watch out for mineral spending better now. Thank you for optimization the tips.

The biggest problem right now for me is figuring out the mineral balance for all the sources. The way Aurora tracks and displays minerals separately for each colony makes me simply ignore it for the most part and keep an eye on the overall balance on Earth, where the maintenance bases and shipyards are. Well, this is how I got into this situation really. And that's considering that I only have a few mining colonies, compared to what I've seen others manage...

Another thing to think about is what ships I keep in active fleet. They also require minerals to maintain, and that may not be the most cost effective things due to change in technologies.

Actually, I find the tech jumps to be so significant between the tech levels that all the older stuff becomes obsolete every 5-10 years. Obviously, the further I advance the slower it gets, but still, the difference between tech levels is just too big to ignore it.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on November 15, 2019, 01:41:06 PM

May 27, Year 65

As time goes by and new tech gets researched, ships under construction that were put on hold get outdated. Moreover, the cost of new engines makes me think if I should go with some sort of standard fleet speed for all my ships and not go any further. Like, 3300? Something akin to 33 knots RL standard.

I seem to be far beyond both GUN and MAJ in terms of research. But they have so many ships that I cannot afford to counter. They seem to be producing them endlessly (and why wouldn't they, if they don't have to deal with maintenance and fuel). So making more ships that are good enough to counter possible enemy seems like a smart move.

At the same time, I don't feel like it's fair in the first place. I can barely sustain a small Navy. NPRs have hundreds of ships. Ugh..

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on January 06, 2020, 08:28:17 AM

August 17, Year 70

Kinda big news. The war with MAJ is over. It's been nine years since I took all USN warships away from the front-line and allowed the diplomats to slowly build up our relationships with Commonwealth of Majlesi, and the long awaited official letter confirming the cessation of hostilities just came in.

I think it's great that MAJ did not find out where my colonies are, which allowed the cease fire to take effect. USN, however advanced tech it has, is still VERY small compared to MAJ numbers. And our mineral shortage crisis did not help either. It is also good that I now know that having small amount of super duper ships may not be the smartest way of building a navy. Future ship designs should be more cost effective.

At this point I have met both starting NPRs that are present in this Campaign. I do not plan to have war with any of them in the future. Actually, I'd rather build up Jump Gates between us to allow proper trading commence.

Precursors & Star Swarm are enabled, however. Of 150 star systems in the Campaign, I found only 62, exploring just 46. So in the future I may either keep exploring to try and find some more SPOILERs. Or try and spawn another NPR. Not sure which is better. Or both?

ps: Ha-ha! My intelligence services still work behind the lines. Here's a blueprint they've just revealed to me. A tiny little fighter. Cute. Haven't seen them around at all. Slow, yeah. But 1 reloadable launcher, really?

Off-Topic: show

pps: Ha-ha-ha! Even managed to steal MAJ's PDC plans! That's quite pathetic.

Off-Topic: show

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on January 06, 2020, 10:15:00 AM

Are you using Real Stars? If you are, then the number of systems doesn't matter as Real Stars overrides it. Also, if your NPR spawn chance is higher than 0%, you can't be sure that you've met the initial NPRs unless you're using Designer Mode to monitor the DB.

Don't think I've ever seen someone achieve a diplomatic peace like you've done here so that's one for the records :D

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on January 06, 2020, 11:30:40 AM

Quote from: Garfunkel on January 06, 2020, 10:15:00 AM

Are you using Real Stars? If you are, then the number of systems doesn't matter as Real Stars overrides it. Also, if your NPR spawn chance is higher than 0%, you can't be sure that you've met the initial NPRs unless you're using Designer Mode to monitor the DB.

Don't think I've ever seen someone achieve a diplomatic peace like you've done here so that's one for the records :D

Yeah, I used Real Stars, I guess. And 0% NPR spawn. So there won't be any new ones unless I change the settings again or spawn a new NPR. You can do that, can't you?

My intel boys are hitting it hard. Another blueprint sent to me. And it's that damn 0cm laser bug again. Ugh.. I dunno, maybe I should just wait till the C# Aurora...

Off-Topic: show

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 03, 2020, 01:03:17 PM

May, Y73

As C Sharp hype intensifies, I keep thinking about optimizing my fleet builds. I was hoping I could get away with making less expensive engines by making them less fuel efficient. But unfortunately, they cost as much as they produce power, unless the power modifier goes below x1.0, which makes the engines even heavier than I used before. And that's not acceptable to me, I want the engines to be of no more than 20% of the ship's mass.

Also, there's a problem of the unknown enemy. Defending against an ordinary NPR is one thing, my current neighbors have warships with 1-2k km/s speeds. The Nails (spoilers) I've encountered were much faster. Unlike in real life, there's no water resistance to keep most big warships at 30-33 knot practical limit. So, there's always a chance I'll encounter some enemy that is faster than me.

The answer is better tactics. Screening High Value Units (like carriers) of the fleet with spaced layers of radar pickets is a way to get a warning earlier, allowing big ships to stay undetected for longer and thus have more chance to evade. That's a job for destroyers. The usual scout searches by smaller craft only reinforce situational awareness, and don't cure the problem completely.

Another part of the solution is to have some heavier ships within the formation that could be detached to keep the enemy busy while HVU retreats. That would be cruiser's job.

Overall, I estimate needing 8-12 destroyers and 2-3 cruisers per Carrier Group. As my first carrier is rated for 3200 km/s speed, I think I'll stick with ~3300 km/s speed for a fleet standard for a while. Kinda similar to the real ocean navy's 33 knots. Destroyers will be faster though.

Here's a new generation destroyer I came up with. No name yet.

Off-Topic: show

It needs to fulfill the following duties:
- radar picket destroyer, going alone or in small groups with other destroyers to screen the formation of bigger ships, 20-100 m km away;
- escort that provides anti-missile, anti-fighter and anti-ship capability (in that order of priority);
- picking up life pods.

I've stopped using shields in favor of relying on active defenses instead. Level 4 armor and CIWS are very cheap and provide good bonus to survivability. 4 engines are cheap to maintain and also allow to take more hits and still be able to move. The cost in minerals is very good for capabilities present, and compared to my previous generation of ships (especially the last generation that was never actually built).

Also, I selected two planets, both within 3 jumps away from Sol, with great 0.9 deposits of Uridium and Gallicite. They'd require some auto mines, but should help with mineral shortage extensively. I should've done that long ago. I thought that mining very close and very big but lower accessibility deposits would be cheaper (because mines cover more deposits on a single planet). But this strategy obviously failed me somewhat.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 04, 2020, 12:41:18 PM

Here's the updated YDDG-73.

I got rid of thermal sensor (it was kinda pointless) and downgraded AMM capability to 2m km to save on minerals, but I made the missile FCS assignment much more straightforward and permanent: 2x AMM FCS per 2x4 size 1 launchers and 1x general purpose ASM FCS for 8 size 6 tubes to target 250t sized targets up to 30m km and everything bigger up to 100m km plus. Not sure about the 200t target range, though, I guess it should be decent as well.

Earlier I used the setup where AMM-rated FCS had to be reassigned to ASM launchers to be able to engage small targets. Now, general purpose ASM FCS deals with everything from 200t size fighter to full size enemy warships.

I started looking into cruiser designs, but got stuck on specifics. With layered screening tactics, do I actually need to have cruisers? Can I get by using multiple destroyers instead? Well, I already did, cuz there are only destroyers and carriers in my current fleet. Do I need gunnery-heavy medium sized warships? I feel like sending ships into gun range would potentially cost me more in minerals compared to supplying them with more missiles. If you need a ship to save HVU from being overrun by a faster and heavier force, a couple of gun armed cruisers are not likely to make much difference, probably.

Having a ship with better radars/FCS and weapons that sits near HVU seems like a waste, because the outer circle of screening vessels will most likely be targeted first and would negate the performance of more far reaching radar/FCS (which also should be even less effective in C Sharp Aurora with new active sensor model where the effectiveness goes down with range). On the other hand, it could permit stationing radar picket ships further out for a smaller cost in number of escorting ships. That could be an advantage.

Hmm....

Off-Topic: show

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on March 04, 2020, 01:24:47 PM

When things are teetering on the edge, that single cruiser might make all the difference. Plenty of such cases in the AARs over here.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 10, 2020, 04:46:58 AM

Here are the production blueprints. No new generation of missiles or fighters yet though. Budgetary constraints.

Kinkaid class DDG

Off-Topic: show

California class CG

Off-Topic: show

Okinawa class APA

Off-Topic: show

Only Okinawa class attack transports are currently being built. Why? It is finally time to paid a visit to Nails. I'd rather stockpile the minerals for a bit.

January 14, Y74

Four old DDGs of Mahan class were converted to fast transports (APD). Each lost four of its SM6 launchers, but gained new Dual Gauss Canon turret and FCS for Orbital Fire Support. Each APD can carry and combat drop a Marine Company.

Four Marine Companies of 1st Marine Raider Battalion were trained. As soon as Mahan APDs were ready, 1st Marine Raider Bn have made a series of thirty eight combat drops, simulated, and one actual combat drop on Luna.

Task Force Ranger was reformed into an ad hoc Amphibious Force Recon force:

1x CVL Ranger (5 fighters, 8 strike fighters, 4 scouts, 1 rescue shuttle)
6x DDG
4x APD (4x Marine Companies)
2x AO
1x AKE

Their task:
- travel to NIN 3517 system;
- scan it for anything we might have missed previously;
- land Marines where Nails are present;
- asses enemy strength.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on March 10, 2020, 07:05:28 AM

Quote from: L0ckAndL0ad on March 10, 2020, 04:46:58 AM

thirty eight combat drops, simulated, and one actual combat drop

(https://media1.tenor.com/images/68346f9c48f185f6605dd122f8551f98/tenor.gif)

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 10, 2020, 08:19:53 AM

Quote from: Garfunkel on March 10, 2020, 07:05:28 AM

-snip-

One of my favorite movies of all times! Glad to see someone gets the reference!

March 12, Y74
NN 3517, Nails system

01:00
Rear Admiral Morgan Hall, 54 year old cheerful and courteous former fighter pilot with 30+ years of Navy service experience, commands Task Force 1 from the Flag Plot on CVL Ranger. Hall is a motivated person with strong faith in others, and he believes that everything will go smooth and by the numbers.

TG 1.1.2 - Scout Detachment with two destroyers reached the first Nails colony. Only population (thermal signature 5) detected. Two APDs with Alpha and Charlie Marine Companies on board detach from the main body to make a combat drop on alien world - Planet IV of the NN 3517-A star system. ETA 16 hours.

17:02
A Coy & C Coy of the 1st Marine Raider Bn combat dropped on Planet IV, unopposed. Bravo and Delta Companies are to arrive in 6 hours.

21:02
DDG Mahan, another scout detached from the group, have reached the Moon 12 of the Planet V, the second Nails colony. Thermal signature 10 population detected. Nothing else.

23:07
All units of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion linked up on Planet IV. They're ordered to make a reconnaissance in force.

March 19

01:37
Colonel James Nash of Marine Alpha Company, acting commander of the Raiders on Planet IV reports having secured the colony without losses. Only one installation was found - Deep Space Tracking Station. Nothing else. No actual population. Nothing. Without additional geological survey, PIV is known to have the following deposits: 700k/1.0 Neutronium, 1.7M/0.9 Sorium and 3.1M/0.3 Uridium. Great, but not particularly needed right now.

Admiral Hall, cautiously excited, orders Task Force 1 to redeploy its units to Planet V, Moon 12. What is there with this str 10 thermal signature, he thought. Two DSTS?! We'll find out soon.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 10, 2020, 09:04:18 AM

March 19, Y74

20:03
Marine Raiders land on P5-M12. Colonel Nash is ordered to secure the colony, slowly and carefully. The entire TF Ranger minus scout detachment holds position in orbit, not expecting any resistance. This place looks abandoned.

March 24

Two tracking stations. As expected. Nothing else, not even the minerals. Oh well.. That was mildly entertaining. We're not pulling out yet, until the scouts scan the outer parts of the system, but it appears to be the last great unknown of NN 3517. Well, except for the anomalous Alien Installation on Planet III that needs to be studied by someone from the Engineer Corps, which isn't happening till at least the end of next year, when additional expeditionary forces will be ready.

May 19

Scouts have reached the outer system. 10 billion kilometers from the local sun. There's nothing there. Admiral Hall orders the scouts to rejoin the main group.
After that, the TF Ranger is going to return to Sol.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 10, 2020, 04:26:12 PM

December 9, Y75

F-12G Small Gauss cannon fighter prototype testing

Off-Topic: show

Union Navy experiments with cheap fighters. Small size Gauss canon is being tested, using OPFOR vs BLUFOR field test. 8 fighters of the F-12G design, with ~50-60% TF training and 12-14% grade bonus, against 8x anti-fighter missiles (35200m/s).

Results are VERY good! All 8 missiles were hit and destroyed, despite being twice as fast as the fighters, and fighters having 33% accuracy guns! Each fighter had 4 shots to hit. I'm not sure how to read all the bonuses/modifiers properly, but the results are good enough for me.

I think such fighters can certainly be used against ordinary aliens that don't have any particular tech advantage over us. They need trained crews and pilots though. And will be worse at fighting higher tech races.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: Garfunkel on March 11, 2020, 01:38:41 PM

Quote

12-14% grade bonus

That's a pretty significant grade bonus. I've never done GC fighters myself so I can't say for sure but the concept does intrigue me.

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on March 11, 2020, 02:04:21 PM

December 29, Y76

I Marine Expeditionary Force lands on NN 3517-A P3 via five Okinawa class attack transports. It consists of 3 Marine Regiments (12 battalions), 2 Heavy Assault Battalions, 1st Marine Combat Engineer Battalion and 1st Naval Construction Brigade. Seabees are joining four Xenologist teams on site of alien ruins.

I MEF is led by Marine Lieutenant General Daniel Robertson, who can be described as dispassionate and conservative by his peers. His main priority is to keep the scientists and Seabees safe while their study the ruins.

Let's see what they can dig up there.

Quote from: Garfunkel on March 11, 2020, 01:38:41 PM

Quote
12-14% grade bonus
That's a pretty significant grade bonus. I've never done GC fighters myself so I can't say for sure but the concept does intrigue me.

That's only half of my normal grade bonus for fighters. I just got tired of waiting for them to train to the maximum. Every other fighter in the USN has 34% grade bonus.

But that's not that important, as GC's modifier is applied last. My base to hit (with grade bonus applied?) was 100%+, then modified by superior speed of the attacking missile to ~50%, and then by GC's modifier to ~18-19% final chance. 4 shots with 18% chance was good enough, but very close for comfort.

Overall, yeah, the size and the cost of such fighters is very tempting, at the combat potential they offer. Imagine a swarm of hundreds of these. My CV Enterprise alone can potentially hold 144 of such fighters.

I'm also considering reduced size laser fighters. Should give plenty of penetration. But not that good at defending against missiles. That's okay for a striker, though (need escorts by design).

Title: Re: L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR
Post by: L0ckAndL0ad on April 12, 2020, 06:37:18 AM

January 7, Y80

Final report of the United Systems campaign log. First Administrator reporting.

None of the xenologist teams on NN-3517-A P3 found anything. The arrival of I MEF was most likely unnecessary.

JGC Canopus (produced in Y14) managed to construct the entire network of Jump Gates between Sol and Gun Union's homeworld, that's 8 jumps in total. This should help our trade agreement to take an actual effect, allowing commercial shipping a way to transport goods back and forth. It's been a while, actually, but I have no clue how to measure the effects of our trade agreement.

There is a number of suspected GUN commercial ships in Sol (big and slow moving), but national wealth/trade statistics indicates only 2.6% (3095) of all annual income to come from "Tax on Exports". Is that it?

The best news is that United Systems is no longer suffering from mineral shortages. Strategic stockpile on Earth is nice to look at, finally, having more than 50-90k units of each mineral, with the largest supply of Duranium being at almost 600k mark. With mining technologies research and construction being given top priority, Union is once again fully capable to produce anything that may be required.

Off-Topic: show

We've managed to get peace with both of our neighbors, GUN Union and Commonwealth of Majlesi. We've defeated all hostile Nails forces that we've encountered. We've made it through the mineral crisis. Fought some fights in space and made planetary assaults. Built some great ships. Explored the stars.

This is L0ckAndL0ad, last narrator of the United Systems story, signing off.

Aurora 4x

Fiction => Aurora => Topic started by: L0ckAndL0ad on August 22, 2019, 03:10:56 PM