Transport Talk

[Borealis4x (OP)]

What are some designs you've come up with for transporting troops?

I like to keep mine commercial where possible and to have a good amount of 'overflow' space. Every transport has at least 5000 tons of capacity to carry 1 battalion, but that battalion is less than 5000 tons, usually 4000-4500. This is to account for the weight of the Battalion HQ (the Battalion is made up of 4 independent 1000 ton companies) and a logistics company or something. This is the cheap 'civilian' model I make that is just used to casually ferry around troops and survey teams.

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Rhea B class Transport      9,551 tons       69 Crew       348.1 BP       TCS 191    TH 480    EM 0
2512 km/s      Armour 1-40       Shields 0-0       HTK 25      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 22    Max Repair 120 MSP
Troop Capacity 5,000 tons     Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 3   
Lieutenant    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

CASTC 480/3k 'Type 48' Magneto-Plasma Drive (1)    Power 480    Fuel Use 3.61%    Signature 480    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 261.1 billion km (1202 days at full power)

Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The 'milspec' transport is still a civilian model and only carries slightly more than the civilian transport, but is heavily armored and defended with a large amount CIWS.


I went down this path since I couldn't fit another Large Troop Drop Bay within the 20k ton budget I set for myself, and so decided to make sure my troops were heavily defended instead.

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Phobos class Troop Transport      19,969 tons       196 Crew       1,306.3 BP       TCS 399    TH 960    EM 0
2403 km/s      Armour 4-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 57      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 11      PPV 0
MSP 40    Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 6,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Lieutenant    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

CASTC 480/3k 'Type 48' Magneto-Plasma Drive (2)    Power 960    Fuel Use 3.61%    Signature 480    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 249.7 billion km (1202 days at full power)

Misriah Armory 'Testudo' Close-In Weapons System (8x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 20,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

My next design is very experimental and still on the design board, but the basic idea is that it mixes ground transport abilities with ground support abilities into one package. It would have enough transport capabilities to carry an entire Regiment (4 battalions) plus any supporting elements (logistics, Ranger battalions, etc) and enough hangar space to carry Ground Support Fighter squadrons to support every battalion to the fullest. The CIWIS will be replaced with proper Gauss Cannons.

I know people will tell me to use a sperate carrier to carry Ground Fighters and that Ground Fighters aren't even working correctly and are a pain in the ass to use compared to orbital bombardment, but I think its a cool concept to explore. I'd like to focus my Ground Fighters on taking down heavily armored units so my ground templates can be more geared towards mopping up infantry which I understand the AI uses a lot more.

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Deimos class Assault Transport (P)      61,343 tons       729 Crew       4,545.3 BP       TCS 1,227    TH 3,200    EM 0
2608 km/s      Armour 6-138       Shields 0-0       HTK 208      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 60      PPV 0
Maint Life 2.87 Years     MSP 9,852    AFR 753%    IFR 10.5%    1YR 1,754    5YR 26,305    Max Repair 400 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 4,000 tons     Troop Capacity 20,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Captain    Control Rating 5   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   PFC   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 80    Morale Check Required   

Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP1600.0 (2)    Power 3200    Fuel Use 1.98%    Signature 1600    Explosion 5%

Misriah Armory 'Testudo' Close-In Weapons System (8x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 20,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
Boglin Fields 'Sentry' Civilian Series Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes



[Droll]

The PFC on the deimos is useless unless its there for RP.
CAS fighters don't use fuel when providing CAS around a planet (even if they did refuel would be much less than 8 hrs) and you don't have a magazine on board to swap out fighter pods anyways so you could save some space there.

Your fighting units are clearly smaller than mine, my regiments are 50k tons so I have a 50k transport to move troops around the empire, 200k drop ships that can drop entire brigades and 10k drop pod military assault ships which transport single battalions and are shielded as well as armed with gauss.

[Zap0]

Normal troop transports for ferrying them around and transporting geo/xeno teams etc. are just regular old freighters with troop transport modules instead of cargo bays or cryo pods for me.

It gets interesting with the dropships that are expected to drop troops onto a hostile planet, often under fire. Large troop transports have an advantage in armor in that they have a lot of armor columns, hopefully necessitating less thick a protection.

Here are some current Magneto-Plasma era dropship designs from my current game:
This one is basically a military warship with troop transports instead of guns. It has the advantage of being fast (meaning you are both harder to hit and get hit for less time while on approach to a planet), but especially for such an expensive ship (in my context) the drop capacity is really small. Any point defense or guns would be expected to be provided by escorting warships.

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Meiya class Dropship      20 000 tons       276 Crew       2 287.7 BP       TCS 400    TH 2 720    EM 2 130
6800 km/s      Armour 5-65       Shields 71-532       HTK 93      Sensors 6/0/0/0      DCR 3      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.58 Years     MSP 330    AFR 914%    IFR 12.7%    1YR 572    5YR 8 577    Max Repair 111 MSP
Troop Capacity 6 000 tons     Drop Capable   
Kaigun-Ch?sa    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

MP Plasma Drive (17)    Power 2720    Fuel Use 70.0%    Signature 160    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 849 000 Litres    Range 10.9 billion km (18 days at full power)
Rutherford Field Generator Delta71 A (1)     Recharge Time 532 seconds (0.1 per second)

Hiraseli Short-Range Sensor (1)     GPS 40     Range 5.4m km    Resolution 10
Matsuhita Electric Thermic Detector B (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  19.4m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


This one is a commercial dropship, basically a pimped-out freighter. It has engines as fast as commercial ones can be made at that tech level and a high proportion of propulsion tonnage (50%) to get the most speed out of the vessel. 4 layers of armor aren't really enough, especially against heavy spinal STO lasers, but shields aren't an option for a commercial vessel. Instead of trying to put on however many armor layers it takes to stop a laser from penetrating I'm banking on the lasers hitting different spots on the (wide) armor every time, minimizing their damage. The CIWS is basically an afterthought.

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Ludanaeus I class Dropship      68 202 tons       535 Crew       3 212.8 BP       TCS 1 364    TH 4 800    EM 0
3518 km/s      Armour 4-148       Shields 0-0       HTK 163      Sensors 11/11/0/0      DCR 11      PPV 0
MSP 429    Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 25 000 tons     Drop Capable    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 5   
Shao Xiao    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Qín C-MP 6050 (10)    Power 4800    Fuel Use 5.05%    Signature 480    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres    Range 52.2 billion km (171 days at full power)

Lunar Integrated PD Particle Dome (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16 000 km/s     ROF 5       
Navigation Sensor (1)     GPS 1680     Range 36.9m km    Resolution 80
Ying Thermic Receptor III (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km
Target Lock Detector (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes