Absolute-Class Light Cruiser

[macks (OP)]

huh. check that out. thanks!

[Michael Sandy]

There are a number of different beam ship philosophies.

Parasite battleship/destroyer whatever you call it.  Maximum boost engines, perhaps maximum sized for fuel efficiency.  Speed is king.  No turrets needed.  Against some enemies, the enemies will have reduced accuracy if they haven't turreted their main guns.  They can either hope to win by absolutely outranging the enemy if they have a tech advantage, or by having a shielding advantage, they come into range, fire, and withdraw out of range again and let their shield regenerate.

Sluggers, designed to be fast enough to close with the enemy, and tough enough to survive doing so.  A slugger fleet will incur damage and casualties, but they close to a range bracket where they do more damage than the enemy.  Maybe they have a higher dps, or they have a huge burst from reduced sized lasers that they fire at point blank range.  As they have to close within enemy weapon range, they generally do not have the time for shield regeneration, so shields would be minor compared to armor.  Expect your fleet to be in repairs for a while after the battle, but hey, you get crew grade improvement from taking damage!

Swarm, (no longer as practical with the meson changes), philosophy was that the enemy couldn't split its fire and reliably kill all of them before they did damage.

Beams as support.  You have a couple of beams on all of your capital ships, so as to have the ability to finish the enemy after.  They exist to prevent free kills by the enemy and to save ordnance.

Point defense ships.  In ship to ship combat, they deny the enemy the opportunity to do point blank damage with impugnity.

The Absolute is absolutely a cruiser role.  It can reach almost any point in a typical empire without refueling, and possibly without needing refueling to return.  That is a pretty long range, and comes at the expense of top speed.  If you want a fast responder that can shift to any part of the empire quickly, or can check out the frontier, this can do the job.  Whether it can handle the problem once it gets there is a different question.

It can also serve as forward picket for a substantial period of time.  In VB6, I preferred using carriers for long endurance picket, because the parasite craft could have the speed advantage over any enemy, while having the endurance of the carrier.

[macks (OP)]

Since posting this, all Absolutes have been refitted to their Block II versions.

Absolute Block II class Light Cruiser      10 000 tons       281 Crew       3 239.8 BP       TCS 200    TH 2 475    EM 0
12375 km/s      Armour 10-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 74      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 25      PPV 47.96
Maint Life 4.40 Years     MSP 5 232    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 436    5YR 6 539    Max Repair 618.75 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Central Engineworks Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1237.50 (2)    Power 2475.0    Fuel Use 45.51%    Signature 1237.5    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1 001 000 Litres    Range 39.6 billion km (37 days at full power)

Optics Division 300mm C6XR Laser (2)    Range 480 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 70 000 km    ROF 20       
Optics Division 150mm C6FU Laser (2)    Range 300 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Twin Rheinmetall GC Turret Block II (4x10)    Range 50 000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Optics Division LRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 480 000 km   TS: 9 375 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Optics Division SRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 25 000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Central Engineworks MCF Reactor R20 (1)     Total Power Output 20.2    Exp 5%
Black Division MCFR R6-PB30 (1)     Total Power Output 6    Exp 15%

Raytheon AMMS16-R1 Block II (1)     GPS 48     Range 16.6m km    MCR 1.8m km    Resolution 1

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This refit included a reduced armament in return for more armor. The active sensor has been refitted and she sports ECM now. These Absolutes have been the mainstay of the fleet; they've destroyed more tonnage in hostile ships than anything else, and none have been destroyed. I'm pretty happy with them. Soon they will become a legacy fleet as my next engine tech arrives and better shields are researched.

[liveware]

Since posting this, all Absolutes have been refitted to their Block II versions.

Absolute Block II class Light Cruiser      10 000 tons       281 Crew       3 239.8 BP       TCS 200    TH 2 475    EM 0
12375 km/s      Armour 10-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 74      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 25      PPV 47.96
Maint Life 4.40 Years     MSP 5 232    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 436    5YR 6 539    Max Repair 618.75 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Central Engineworks Magnetic Fusion Drive  EP1237.50 (2)    Power 2475.0    Fuel Use 45.51%    Signature 1237.5    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 1 001 000 Litres    Range 39.6 billion km (37 days at full power)

Optics Division 300mm C6XR Laser (2)    Range 480 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 70 000 km    ROF 20       
Optics Division 150mm C6FU Laser (2)    Range 300 000km     TS: 12 375 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Twin Rheinmetall GC Turret Block II (4x10)    Range 50 000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Optics Division LRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 480 000 km   TS: 9 375 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Optics Division SRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 25 000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Central Engineworks MCF Reactor R20 (1)     Total Power Output 20.2    Exp 5%
Black Division MCFR R6-PB30 (1)     Total Power Output 6    Exp 15%

Raytheon AMMS16-R1 Block II (1)     GPS 48     Range 16.6m km    MCR 1.8m km    Resolution 1

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This refit included a reduced armament in return for more armor. The active sensor has been refitted and she sports ECM now. These Absolutes have been the mainstay of the fleet; they've destroyed more tonnage in hostile ships than anything else, and none have been destroyed. I'm pretty happy with them. Soon they will become a legacy fleet as my next engine tech arrives and better shields are researched.

If you are planning on combat refueling/resupplying these things, I would suggest you consider possibly refitting the engines with higher power, lower fuel efficiency engines. I think this will give you a significant tactical advantage and will allow you to close the distance to your targets more rapidly, providing fewer opportunities for the enemy to fire on you.

In my experience, the shooting part of combat typically lasts less than a few hours, so I find that long range combat ships are not as useful as short range ships with more powerful engines.

Also, this may be intentional on your part but I will point it out anyway, you have insufficient reactor power to operate all of your weapons simultaneously at maximum firing rate. Reactors aren't that big and it might be worth trading some MSP for more reactors.
Nevermind I didn't notice the 2nd reactor design. However I do believe it would be more spatially efficient to utilize 3x 8 power reactors.

[macks (OP)]

You're correct about the powerplants. I did not make a ship specific reactor and opted to use the fleet standard one combined with a fighter plant instead. The engines are already at their limits of usable fuel efficiency, since my fast tankers use the same ones. So far, speed has been a non issue as every ship except tankers possess PD and my enemies are around 2-3 times slower than the beam fleet. I may use more engine boost in the next generation in combination with fast commercial ships, which detach from the fleet upon encountering contacts.

My next foray into experimentation will be a 10kt stealth cruiser. I have 99% cloak tech and 2% thermal signature engines, giving me a cross section of 100t and thermal signature of both 1650t engines at around 60. What sort of sensors and weapons will keep this stealth? Ideally it won't have to use heavy PD and armor with stealth and speed as its main defense.