Built in Desperation: The First Warships of the Terran Federation

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Hi all. So in my first C# game, I encountered an NPR, the Pune, one jump away from Sol. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for two factors:

1) The Pune were sitting on the only jump-lane that I could use to explore the galaxy, with Sol and one other system being enclosed in a dead end.
2) They REALLY didn't like my civilian ships constantly crossing their space. Eventually they started blowing up my civilian freighters, which resulted in all-out war.

The Pune warships were mostly armed with Particle Beams, although a few classes mounted Gauss Cannon instead. This made the frequent fights at and around the jumpgate very problematic and often very, very bloody. Although the particle beams were slow to recharge, a combined volley from several Pune ships could strip more than half the armor from one of my cruisers. The Pune ships were also faster, generally having a speed of around 3000 km/s. At the start of the war they possessed around 2 dozen such ships, while my only armed ships consisted of a few exploration vessels mounting defensive armament. On the other hand, the Pune were never observed using missiles, which was a weakness I was able to exploit (albeit at great cost).

Fortunately, it took the Pune over a year to transit the jumpgate to Earth, which gave me time to construct the designs here. Please note that these are NOT in any way optimized designs. Aside from the missile corvette these were heavily armored, defensive units designed to use a common pool of components. In this way, my plan was to cause maximum attrition against the Pune fleet over time, picking off individuals and small groups of ships where possible. The lasers and railguns were an absolute necessity, since the Pune ships would always try to close to gun range. Fortunately one of my few technological advantages was in Capacitor Recharge Rate, which I had rushed using free research at game start. As a result, my lasers and railguns were quite effective.  My horribly primitive missiles were my main killing weapon, of course, but there were never quite enough of them to go around. Given the amount of natural PD each Pune ship possessed, it was often necessary to fire hundreds of missiles just to guarantee one or two kills.

Earth survived... barely. Years later, the few battered and bloody survivors of my fleet would be bombarding the Pune homeworld as it was invaded by 8 Divisions of human ground troops. 

Actually, being forced into a fight at TL 3 was probably the most fun I've had in Aurora in a long time. 

On to the ships. Here is the Luna class Destroyer, the core of the fleet with 16 in class (9 of which were destroyed in various skirmishes over the course of the war). To you OCD people - don't worry about the maint life. I generally designed my ships to be able to repair the engines a couple times, and that's it. With the exception of the Pathfinder, the estimated maintenance duration was otherwise irrelevant.

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Luna class Destroyer      10,000 tons       259 Crew       1,413.9 BP       TCS 200    TH 200    EM 0
2000 km/s      Armour 9-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 69      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 4      PPV 43.9
Maint Life 1.86 Years     MSP 353    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 130    5YR 1,946    Max Repair 150 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 125 tons     Magazine 200   
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 20    Morale Check Required   

General Dynamics Nuclear Pulse Engine  EP200.00 (2)    Power 400    Fuel Use 44.27%    Signature 100.0    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 739,000 Litres    Range 30 billion km (173 days at full power)

Twin Martell 12cm C4 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x2)    Range 120,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
Imperator 12cm Railgun V20/C6 (3x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 3,000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 20,000 km    ROF 5       
Raytheon Railgun Fire Control R96-TS3000 (1)     Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 3,000 km/s     67 59 52 44 36 28 20 12 5 0
Raytheon Improved Laser Fire Control R192-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Dubrovnik Pebble Bed Reactor R13 (2)     Total Power Output 26    Exp 5%

Exostar Size 4.0 Missile Launcher (5)     Missile Size: 4    Rate of Fire 20
Raytheon Missile Fire Control FC49-R60 (1)     Range 50m km    Resolution 60
Tiberius Kinetics Shrike Anti-Ship Missile (50)    Speed: 15,900 km/s    End: 31.3m     Range: 29.9m km    WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 63/38/19

Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS35-R60 (1)     GPS 1920     Range 35.3m km    Resolution 60
Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS6-R1 (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Luna's bigger brother was the Terra class cruiser, featuring flagship capability. 6 of this class were built, but only 2 survived the war.

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Terra class Cruiser      20,000 tons       551 Crew       2,928.5 BP       TCS 400    TH 400    EM 0
2000 km/s      Armour 10-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 132      Sensors 0/5/0/0      DCR 12      PPV 87.8
Maint Life 2.19 Years     MSP 1,098    AFR 267%    IFR 3.7%    1YR 307    5YR 4,605    Max Repair 300 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons     Troop Capacity 100 tons     Magazine 400    Cryogenic Berths 200   
Captain    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 20    Morale Check Required   

General Dynamics Nuclear Pulse Engine  EP400.00 (2)    Power 800    Fuel Use 31.30%    Signature 200.0    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,071,000 Litres    Range 30.8 billion km (178 days at full power)

Twin Martell 12cm C4 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x2)    Range 120,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
Imperator 12cm Railgun V20/C6 (6x4)    Range 40,000km     TS: 3,000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 20,000 km    ROF 5       
BAE Systems CIWS-50 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 5,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Raytheon Improved Laser Fire Control R192-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Raytheon Railgun Fire Control R96-TS3000 (1)     Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 3,000 km/s     67 59 52 44 36 28 20 12 5 0
Dubrovnik Pebble Bed Reactor R13 (4)     Total Power Output 52    Exp 5%

Exostar Size 4.0 Missile Launcher (10)     Missile Size: 4    Rate of Fire 20
Raytheon Missile Fire Control FC49-R60 (1)     Range 50m km    Resolution 60
Tiberius Kinetics Shrike Anti-Ship Missile (100)    Speed: 15,900 km/s    End: 31.3m     Range: 29.9m km    WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 63/38/19

Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS6-R1 (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1
Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS35-R60 (1)     GPS 1920     Range 35.3m km    Resolution 60
ELINT Module (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Akizuki class missile boat was designed solely to help the fleet overcome Pune missile defense. Keeping their ammo stocked was always a problem, but they could still contribute to a fight with their lasers when needed. 12 were built, with 2 destroyed.

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Akizuki class Corvette      5,000 tons       99 Crew       619.2 BP       TCS 100    TH 100    EM 0
2000 km/s      Armour 3-26       Shields 0-0       HTK 27      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 3      PPV 40.9
Maint Life 3.83 Years     MSP 267    AFR 58%    IFR 0.8%    1YR 29    5YR 430    Max Repair 150 MSP
Magazine 320   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

General Dynamics Nuclear Pulse Engine  EP200.00 (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 44.27%    Signature 100.0    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 371,000 Litres    Range 30.2 billion km (174 days at full power)

Twin Martell 12cm C4 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x2)    Range 120,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
Raytheon Improved Laser Fire Control R192-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Dubrovnik Pebble Bed Reactor R8 (1)     Total Power Output 8.1    Exp 5%

ExoStar Size 4.0 Box Launcher (80)     Missile Size: 4    Hangar Reload 100 minutes    MF Reload 16 hours
Raytheon Missile Fire Control FC49-R60 (1)     Range 50m km    Resolution 60
Tiberius Kinetics Shrike Anti-Ship Missile (80)    Speed: 15,900 km/s    End: 31.3m     Range: 29.9m km    WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 63/38/19

Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS6-R1 (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Although the Pathfinder-class exploration ships are not true warships, they were designed from the outset to have a secondary military function. They were reasonably durable, and the rapid-firing twin 12cm laser turret, a staple on all combat ships of the time, could significantly damage Pune ships that got too close. Of course, the Pune ALWAYS tried to get too close. As such, 10 of these ships were diverted from exploratory duties to serve in the war, with 5 destroyed.

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Pathfinder class Exploration Ship      10,000 tons       233 Crew       1,528.8 BP       TCS 200    TH 200    EM 0
2000 km/s      Armour 5-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 89      Sensors 40/40/2/2      DCR 10      PPV 8.9
Maint Life 4.27 Years     MSP 955    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 84    5YR 1,262    Max Repair 300 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   SCI   
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months    Morale Check Required   

General Dynamics Nuclear Pulse Engine  EP400.00 (1)    Power 400    Fuel Use 31.30%    Signature 200.0    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,997,000 Litres    Range 114.8 billion km (664 days at full power)

Twin Martell 12cm C4 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x2)    Range 120,000km     TS: 5000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
BAE Systems CIWS-50 (2x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 5,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Raytheon Beam Fire Control R192-TS5000 (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Dubrovnik Pebble Bed Reactor R8 (1)     Total Power Output 8.1    Exp 5%

Raytheon Active Search Sensor AS11-R1 (1)     GPS 48     Range 11.1m km    MCR 995k km    Resolution 1
Raytheon Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  50m km
Raytheon EM Sensor EM5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  50m km
Improved Geological Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Gravitational Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Please also note that I had jumpgates ON, which is why you don't see any jump drive designs here.

[Barkhorn]

What was the enemy's range?  Because those lasers are pretty short-ranged.  I'd guess you would have taken drastically reduced casualties with just one more laser tech.

[Cavgunner (OP)]

That's true. Their particle beams definitely somewhat out-ranged me. Enough to make things difficult if they chose to maintain distance. But even if I'd had better lasers, my fire control tech wouldn't have been good enough to capitalize on that.

Either way, time was a factor, and I had to build with the tech I had.

[StarshipCactus]

Could you show us the ground formations you landed on their homeworld?

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Well, I can show you the templates. Most of the Army units took such high casualties that I had to disband the vast majority of units after the Pune homeworld was pacified. The fact that there isn't auto-replenishment outside of combat is a huge problem.

Most of the Army consisted of Infantry Battalions. 4 Battalions and a Brigade HQ made a Brigade, while 4 Brigades made a Division. Each Brigade also had at least one each of an Armor battalion, Artillery battalion, Supply battalion, and Engineer battalion.

My infantry riflemen were decently armed with Improved Personal Weapons but they otherwise had no upgrades at all. I also had yet to develop Power Armor. As such the infantry took horrifying casualties, with the Pune sometimes inflicting upwards of a 10 to 1 kill ratio in the early days of the ground war. In the end, I basically had to bombard the planet back to the stone age to ensure that I had any army left to invade with. Even then, some of the infantry battalions were reduced to around 20% strength or less by the time the Pune army finally collapsed. One battalion was reduced to 28 riflemen and nothing else.

The stars of the ground war were the handful of heavy armor battalions, their tanks being largely immune to the anti-vehicle guns of Pune medium armor units. Being the newest and last battalions that were constructed in time for the invasion, they were also the only units that had a modification for fighting in extreme temperatures. This became increasingly important as a global winter set in.

One thing that may not be immediately clear is that most of the HQ units also performed a dual function as Forward Fire Direction.

Infantry Battalion
Transport Size: 4,995 tons
Build Cost: 157.6 BP
523x Rifleman
1x Infantry HQ
1x Naval Observer
12x Automatic Weapons Team
12x Anti-Tank Team
8x AA Defense Team
12x 81mm Mortar Team
2x Infantry Supply Team
12x M2500 Razorback (medium autocannon and a crew-served anti-personnel weapon)

Infantry Brigade HQ
Transport Size: 4,995 tons
Build Cost: 220.6 BP
1x M 211 Brigade Command Vehicle
12x M777 105mm Howitzer
12x M1078 6x6 Truck
133x Rifleman
8x AA Defense Team
6x M 1041 Engineering Vehicle
8x M2500 Razorback

Armor Battalion
Transport Size: 4,975 tons
Build Cost: 807.5 BP
1x M 190 Command Vehicle
24x Mauler Heavy Tank (heavy anti-vehicle gun and heavy crew-served anti-personnel weapon)
12x Demolisher Heavy Tank (2x heavy anti-vehicle gun)
11x M2500 Razorback

Artillery Battalion
Transport Size: 4,999 tons
Build Cost: 178.6 BP
72x M777 105mm Howitzer
1x M 190 Command Vehicle
12x AA Defense Team
12x Infantry Supply Team
63x Rifleman

Supply Battalion
Transport Size: 4,997 tons
Build Cost: 202.9 BP
1x M 190 Command Vehicle
80x M1078 6x6 Truck

Engineer Battalion
Transport Size: 4,807 tons
Build Cost: 195.3 BP
1x M 190 Command Vehicle
15x M 1041 Engineering Vehicle

Division HQ
Transport Size: 4,978 tons
Build Cost: 798.5 BP
1x Patton Division Command HQ Vehicle
12x Hydra Flak tank
12x Wyvern medium artillery tank
10x M2500 Razorback
100x Rifleman
6x M1078 6x6 Truck
12x Wolverine Tank Destroyer

In the end, the Pune population of ~600 million was reduced to 90 million by the resulting environmental collapse of a -50 degrees C drop in global temperature. The Pune survived only because I frantically used every freighter I had to ship emergency infrastructure to save them from extinction. Not a single ground facility was left intact by the time the fighting was over, with the scattered Pune survivors freezing to death in the irradiated remains of their once-formidable cities.

[Andrew]

Invading a homeworld is hard! Particularly if it has a different environment.
I have been testing an invasion against a High-GM High atmospheric pressure Jungle,  Rift vally homeworld and with a 2.5 to one advantange in mass, 50% more damaging weapons and 20% better armour for my ground forces and with my forces largely being more heavily armed vehicles  I cannot take thr world without turning the enviroment lethal to the natives in a multi-year ground battle.  Orbital firesupport is alrgely useless it does no real damage to the enemy but increases the enviromental and collateral damage markedly.
Precursor garrisons I can handle , but against several NPR homeworlds even with a tech and numerical advantage I have been unnable to take a world without wrecking it

[StarshipCactus]

Awesome, thanks

Hopefully the Pune are grateful that you chose to save them rather than exterminate them after they attacked you!

Still, at least your military is going to be very experienced and more developed than you might have had at this time in the campaign otherwise. Those officers are going to have a list of recommendations for improvements as long as all their arms put together.