WW2 inspired heavy beam cruiser (taskforce)

[CharonJr (OP)]

With the Invincible heavy beam cruiser design I tried to follow a WW2 setup with some modifications due to the way Auroria works. It has the expected decent armor and weapons in addition to a "spotter aircraft" and a small cryo berth for prisoners, but has a +30% higher speed than current fleet average since here you have to close the gap to missile armed ships instead of being able to fight at fairly similar ranges like it was the case in WW2 (at least with guns in the 20cm+ range). Due to the needed speed the turrets have a very low rate of fire since some miniaturisation was needed. In addition the AA guns are anti-missile guns here.

Basically this heavy cruiser is supposed to close the gap to missile ships while being protected from their missiles by two quad gauss turrets and once in range use the 3 triple laser 20cm main turrets and the 25cm spinal laser to destroy the enemy. During the approach the main guns can double up as poor anti-missile guns as well. It should have enough armor to deal with the occasional leaked missile, later versions might get some shields as well. The speed of 5200km/sec should be enough to catch most of the alien ships we have encountered so far. In addition it can/will be used as a raider vs. enemy merchant shipping. Jump gate entry/defense are other possible ways to use them.

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Invincible class Heavy Cruiser    20 000 tons     435 Crew     3505.6 BP      TCS 400  TH 2080  EM 0
5200 km/s     Armour 8-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 11     PPV 115.94
Maint Life 2.17 Years     MSP 1205    AFR 290%    IFR 4%    1YR 344    5YR 5164    Max Repair 240 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 15   
Hangar Deck Capacity 500 tons     Cryogenic Berths 200   

Dickinson & Doyle 160 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (13)    Power 160    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 2 535 000 Litres    Range 36.2 billion km   (80 days at full power)

Triple James-Godfrey 20cm C1 Far UV Laser Turret (3x3)    Range 320 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 30-3     RM 5    ROF 50        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Pearce-Harper 25cm C4 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 320 000km     TS: 5200 km/s     Power 16-4     RM 5    ROF 20        16 16 16 16 16 13 11 10 8 8
Quad Doyle Systems GC R2-100 Turret 20k (2x12)    Range 20 000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Newman Electronics Fire Control S04 160-10000 (1)    Max Range: 320 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Johnson Electronics Fire Control S00.5 10-20000 (1)    Max Range: 20 000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Lord-Jackson Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (4)     Total Power Output 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Knight & Palmer Active Search Sensor MR7-R1 (1)     GPS 56     Range 7.8m km    MCR 854k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The 2 heavy cruisers will be supported by 4-6 Broadsword destroyers (not very efficient at the current tech level, but this will get better over time, especially once the next generation of engines is available, currently the engines make up 50% of the total tonnage). And the caliber of the single spinal gun is to large and the rate of fire to low for a real destroyer, but labs are at a premium, so they get the same gun as the heavy cruiser, but less armor and higher speed.

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Broadsword class Destroyer    6 000 tons     133 Crew     1285.6 BP      TCS 120  TH 1120  EM 0
9333 km/s     Armour 4-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 8
Maint Life 2.14 Years     MSP 335    AFR 115%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 98    5YR 1463    Max Repair 240 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0   

Dickinson & Doyle 160 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (7)    Power 160    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 725 000 Litres    Range 34.5 billion km   (42 days at full power)

Pearce-Harper 25cm C4 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 320 000km     TS: 9333 km/s     Power 16-4     RM 5    ROF 20        16 16 16 16 16 13 11 10 8 8
Newman Electronics Fire Control S04 160-10000 (1)    Max Range: 320 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Lord-Jackson Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 4    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Knight & Palmer Active Search Sensor MR7-R1 (1)     GPS 56     Range 7.8m km    MCR 854k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Once the enemy missiles have been depleted the destroyers will try to find out the best range vs. the enemy ships while hopefully their speed and 4 layers or armor will provide some protection vs. enemy beam weapons. Once a "save" range has been determined the heavy cruisers will move in as well and open fire. In some cases they might provide enough distraction for the heavy cruisers to close in for a full close range/high damage broadside.

The boat bays will be used by Crow/Raven fighter-scouts who provide long and medium range sensors while the other ships have short range sensors of their own.

I know that Missile designs are way more efficient, but beam designs are much more fun IMO And I have thought about some fire control backups, but since the guys I am currently playing have not yet lost a fire control systemduring combat they have not yet come around to considering backups.

What do you think - except that beam ships are always too ambitious at this tech Level - any glaring mistakes I missed?

[linkxsc]

They look functional enough as is. I like how the destroyers are armed with a big gun. Have been planning to do a game where I follow similar setups (destroyers get either single large beam weapon, couple size 6-8 launchers, or box launchers, and of course an escort dual or quad GC ship or 2.)

Also the note about fc backups isnt necessarily for losing 1 in combat (though that can happen too) but in the case with anti missile ships. Each firecontrol can track and engage 1 missile salvo at a time. So if you had a lone "Invincible" getting attacked by 3-4 missile destroyers, you can only engage 1 of the incoming salvos, 2-3 salvos will get in, unengaged.

Dunno how it works on point defense, but I know that its important on AMM escorts

[CharonJr (OP)]

Thx, regarding PD I was under the impression that as long as there are weapons left to use that they will retarget, but this might have been simply due to having enough PD ships with fresh fire controls. Does anybody know if a single PD FC will switch targets?

[SteelChicken]

Where are your passive sensors and long range actives?

[CharonJr (OP)]

The 500t hangars house long range active sensor craft - like the ww2 cruisers did with their spotter aircraft. The current sensors are a 255R170 and a 70R15.

And for pure main line combat vessels I always keep the actives on, so there is no use for passives.

Edit: added sensor info

[linkxsc]

Where are your passive sensors and long range actives?

As long as some ship has an active ping on the target, all ships can fire on them. This is why you'll often see "command ships" and such loaded out with large active sensors spotting for the fleet.

Also the "spotter drone" concept isnt new here, several players have used them. Personally I go with 4 250t ones on most ships above 20kt. They are a size 2 engine, with 50t of fuel, and a size 2 active or passive sensor (usually 1 7000t sensor, ans 1 anti missile sensor 1)

[SteelChicken]

The 500t hangars house long range active sensor craft - like the ww2 cruisers did with their spotter aircraft. The current sensors are a 255R170 and a 70R15.

Sure, makes sense.

And for pure main line combat vessels I always keep the actives on, so there is no use for passives.

Edit: added sensor info

A large passive sensor can detect things MUCH further away than a short range active.   Just an opinion.

[CharonJr (OP)]

You are right, but since I need actives anyway to spot baddies for my missile ships I just can't get myself to research usefull/long range passives as well. I can't remember ever having played a game of Aurora where I wasnt in need of more research and thus had to skip on some techs (which is good).

I would really like to build some stealthy submarine type of ships who stealth their way towards an unsuspecting enemy and destroy him. But since a single large sensor equiped torpedo-like missile would most likely just get shot down and many small missiles would take away from the submarine theme I have not done this yet. But this is the kind of game where I would surely invest a lot of research into passives.

Actually how much detection would you need to "see" a 800 thermal signature from 255mkm away?

[Erik L]

You are right, but since I need actives anyway to spot baddies for my missile ships I just can't get myself to research usefull/long range passives as well. I can't remember ever having played a game of Aurora where I wasnt in need of more research and thus had to skip on some techs (which is good).

I would really like to build some stealthy submarine type of ships who stealth their way towards an unsuspecting enemy and destroy him. But since a single large sensor equiped torpedo-like missile would most likely just get shot down and many small missiles would take away from the submarine theme I have not done this yet. But this is the kind of game where I would surely invest a lot of research into passives.

Actually how much detection would you need to "see" a 800 thermal signature from 255mkm away?

Don't forget that active is a beacon saying "Here I am! Shoot me!" to nearly the entire system.

[linkxsc]

Well with the stealthy submarine idea, you can do it at any tech level, just need to keep the throttle on the ship on the low side so you arent detected until you get close (ofcourse thermal sig reduction helps a lot)

But stealth ships like that are never really great against enemy warships, and should be kept to commerce raiding (like real subs were used for) occasionally Ive been successful in hitting enemy warships with a few large hard hitting missiles from a "sub" but if they have any missile defense... yeah.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Don't forget that active is a beacon saying "Here I am! Shoot me!" to nearly the entire system.

With beam ships this is exactly what I want actually

And with the other fleets it is fairly similar as well, essentially the actives say "Here we are and we have come to stay, feel free to try to remove us from here"

[Erik L]

With beam ships this is exactly what I want actually

And with the other fleets it is fairly similar as well, essentially the actives say "Here we are and we have come to stay, feel free to try to remove us from here"

But what happens when they out speed you and have missiles? A beam force will most likely take out a majority of the missiles, but you can't catch them before they run and rearm.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Yup, if they outspeed me I have problems, even more so since this means that they might have fast missiles as well.

But essentially if a beam fleet has lower speed it is out of business till it gets new engines and it is time to call in the missile boys and girls and make this battle more expensive for us resource-wise. So when they run and rearm we run and call friends

BTW, if the Wiki about fire controls is right only one flight of missiles will be targeted by a single PD FC.

[Erik L]

BTW, if the Wiki about fire controls is right only one flight of missiles will be targeted by a single PD FC.

As far as I know, that is still accurate.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Thx, so trading some fuel for an additional PD FC seems like a good idea for a later upgrade.