Convoy time

[dgibso29 (OP)]

I just launched a class of small, cheap, jump capable colony ships. As I ordered them to begin their journey to a colony 3 jumps out from Sol, I realized I should probably escort them.

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Bund class Colony Ship    12,000 tons     134 Crew     410.4 BP      TCS 240  TH 400  EM 0
1666 km/s    JR 1-25(C)     Armour 1-46     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 21    Max Repair 50 MSP
Colonists 20000   

JC12K Commercial Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 12000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 1
Porsche CMPE1 (2)    Power 200    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 60,000 Litres    Range 90.0 billion km   (625 days at full power)


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Watchdog-J class Jump Destroyer Escort    9,000 tons     787 Crew     1947.4 BP      TCS 180  TH 320  EM 0
1777 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 4-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 40/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 28
Maint Life 6.02 Years     MSP 2420    AFR 61%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 115    5YR 1719    Max Repair 506 MSP
Magazine 60   

J9000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 9000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Meyer Werft MMPDE10 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (651 days at full power)

Triple 12cm C3 NU Laser Turret (1x3)    Range 120,000km     TS: 25225 km/s     Power 12-9     RM 3    ROF 10        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
AMBFC S16 96-12000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
GCFR-22.5 (1)     Total Power Output 22.5    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Standard Missile Box Launcher (10)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
Heavy Missile Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 10    Hangar Reload 75 minutes    MF Reload 12.5 hours
MFC172-R100 (1)     Range 172.8m km    Resolution 100
Kingfisher ASM Mk. 2 (10)  Speed: 18,000 km/s   End: 60.2m    Range: 65m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 108 / 64 / 32
Cardinal Recon Drone Mk. 2 (2)  Speed: 32,000 km/s   End: 181.1m    Range: 347.8m km   WH: 0    Size: 10    TH: 53 / 32 / 16

AM2S MR14-R1 (1)     GPS 180     Range 14.4m km    Resolution 1
A3S MR144-R100 (1)     GPS 18000     Range 144.0m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  40m km


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Watchdog class Destroyer Escort    9,000 tons     686 Crew     1668.4 BP      TCS 180  TH 320  EM 0
1777 km/s     Armour 4-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 40/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 11     PPV 71
Maint Life 11.78 Years     MSP 2332    AFR 56%    IFR 0.8%    1YR 31    5YR 464    Max Repair 180 MSP
Magazine 220   

Meyer Werft MMPDE10 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 560,000 Litres    Range 112.0 billion km   (729 days at full power)

Triple 12cm C3 NU Laser Turret (2x3)    Range 120,000km     TS: 25225 km/s     Power 12-9     RM 3    ROF 10        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
AMBFC S16 96-12000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
GCFR-22.5 (1)     Total Power Output 22.5    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Standard Missile Box Launcher (50)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
Heavy Missile Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 10    Hangar Reload 75 minutes    MF Reload 12.5 hours
MFC172-R100 (1)     Range 172.8m km    Resolution 100
Kingfisher ASM Mk. 2 (50)  Speed: 18,000 km/s   End: 60.2m    Range: 65m km   WH: 6    Size: 4    TH: 108 / 64 / 32
Cardinal Recon Drone Mk. 2 (2)  Speed: 32,000 km/s   End: 181.1m    Range: 347.8m km   WH: 0    Size: 10    TH: 53 / 32 / 16

A3S MR144-R100 (1)     GPS 18000     Range 144.0m km    Resolution 100
AM2S MR14-R1 (1)     GPS 180     Range 14.4m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  40m km
Note: The low speed is as designed.

Thoughts? Did I do anything stupid?

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Well, if you stripped the jump drive off the colony ship, you could almost just operate off the Jump Destroyer's drive instead.

The colony ship will take 10 days to unload and load without Cargo Handling Systems.

It looks like you're using Maintenance Storage on the JDE. Use engineering spaces instead, they have way better bang for the buck for service lifetime. 6 years isnt really enough for a convoy escort, either.

You also probably have too much fuel; unless these are really big hops 100bn km is a little excessive. Convoy escorts will be refueling every trip anyway.

Personally, I would dump the remaining standard armament on the JDE and use it for the recon drones. Dump the recon drones on the regular destroyers.

Bear in mind that unless you have a truely impressive number of these little colony ships it may be cheaper to replace a convoy than to escort it with these brutes. ^^

[dgibso29 (OP)]

Point by point:
Colony ships were designed & built prior to escorts. They also give civ lines a jump-capable vessel.

I noticed that too. Whoops

Didn't notice I did that, thanks. I was more worried about the repair cost of the jump engine than maint life.

Fuel: I purposely matched their range to that of the colony ships. I also am OCD about classes having rounded tonnage numbers (IE 9000 instead of 8950) and I tend to fill the extra slots with engineering and fuel.

But but but, my multirole ships! I suppose I shall do that, though. Number of salvos isn't as important when you are flinging 50+ missiles each...

Last... Well. These brutes (I suppose the word choice means they pack a nice punch) can also escort my other civ vessels - my 20+ terraformers, my freighters, my bulk colony ships, etc. And they can also serve a planetary defense role. Not to mention jump point defense. Honestly, would you want to jump in to find yourself staring at two squadrons of them? (The redesigned escort has 55 launchers.)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

There's only so many roles you can fit on a ship.   

One option you could consider is not using the JDEs with the convoys but having them hold the jump points open. 

*The antimissile sensor is unnecessarily large. You have no anti-missile launchers. You could scale it down safely, unless you're also using it for FAC detection.
*The active sensor is also unnecessarily large.  You don't really need active sensors with longer range than your weapons except for scouting purposes, and you're already lugging around those recon drones.
*By the same token, the fire control sensor is huge. Three times the range of your missiles. The most paranoically huge fire control you should look at is 2x the size of your missiles, as means of countering heavy ECM. 

Consider also that big sensors greatly shorten your maintenance life and are very expensive.

*Your laser turret has crazy high tracking speed. You're losing a lot of tonnage on that. I would drop it down to 12000 (your fire control speed) or 16000 (the next upgrade in fire control speed, for ease of refitting.) You can't use anything over your fire control anyway.

[Beersatron]

A note on Civies, they do not use jump drives, only jump gates so even though they my buy the ship you could probably design another version of the colony ship without the jump drive. The civies will then build more since they cost less.

[dgibso29 (OP)]

@ Beer: Really? I swear I read Steve saying they used jump drives. Well there went that argument.

The AM sensor is just the smallest one I have. Plus I would rather see missiles as early as possible for the cost of a bit more space.

If you think that is big, look at this one:

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Europa-A class Area Defence Cruiser    16,000 tons     1359 Crew     3192.6 BP      TCS 320  TH 1600  EM 0
5000 km/s     Armour 3-56     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 17     PPV 25
Maint Life 3.53 Years     MSP 2120    AFR 120%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 261    5YR 3911    Max Repair 525 MSP
Magazine 1555   

Meyer Werft MMPDE10 (20)    Power 80    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 760,000 Litres    Range 85.5 billion km   (197 days at full power)

Anti-Missile Launcher Mk. 1 (25)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
AMFC33-R1 (5)     Range 33.6m km    Resolution 1
Needle AMM Mk. 2 (1555)  Speed: 46,400 km/s   End: 1.4m    Range: 4m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 340 / 204 / 102

AM2S MR33-R1 (70%) (1)     GPS 420     Range 33.6m km    Resolution 1
The regular active sensor is also the smallest version I have. I like to see Having those large sensors has saved me on a few occasions in this campaign. And finally, the MFC is also the smallest version I have. When I increase in sensor tech, instead of downsizing, I just redesign.


Turret - Again, it's the only design I have. I use it on my main escort ship...

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Seydlitz II class Escort Cruiser    12,000 tons     1199 Crew     2012.4 BP      TCS 240  TH 1200  EM 0
5000 km/s     Armour 4-46     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 15     PPV 76
Maint Life 7.8 Years     MSP 1624    AFR 74%    IFR 1%    1YR 47    5YR 709    Max Repair 180 MSP

Meyer Werft MMPDE10 (15)    Power 80    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 670,000 Litres    Range 100.5 billion km   (232 days at full power)

Triple 12cm C3 NU Laser Turret (4x3)    Range 120,000km     TS: 25225 km/s     Power 12-9     RM 3    ROF 10        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
AMBFC S16 96-12000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
GCFR-22.5 (2)     Total Power Output 45    Armour 0    Exp 5%

AM2S MR14-R1 (1)     GPS 180     Range 14.4m km    Resolution 1The idea is that I will upgrade FC relatively quickly. I would just rather design to the max once then have to keep redesigning and rearranging my ships to fit different size turrets.

[Vanigo]

If you're planning to upgrade your fire control tracking speed quickly, you can probably upgrade your turret gearing quickly, too. With the two at the same level, 40% gear size is always sufficient. Makes for cheaper turrets and more capable ships, and you'll probably be want to upgrade your laser techs anyway, which also necessitates a new turret design.

Also, research fuel efficiency. Magneto-plasma drives with no fuel efficiency techs researched is silly; the first ones are really cheap. Your missiles, in particular, will thank you.

[Girlinhat]

Civvies will not use jump tenders, but they will use jump ships and jump gates.

[dgibso29 (OP)]

If you're planning to upgrade your fire control tracking speed quickly, you can probably upgrade your turret gearing quickly, too. With the two at the same level, 40% gear size is always sufficient. Makes for cheaper turrets and more capable ships, and you'll probably be want to upgrade your laser techs anyway, which also necessitates a new turret design.

Also, research fuel efficiency. Magneto-plasma drives with no fuel efficiency techs researched is silly; the first ones are really cheap. Your missiles, in particular, will thank you.

I will be the first to admit I suck at beams. This is the first campaign where I have actually used them. I suppose I am just stubborn and don't want to fight with the turret design process again


I actually do have fuel efficiency 7 researched, with 6 on the way. My next engine level will all be at the latest efficiency tech.