Hi everyone,
This is my first post on the forums and I know I still have so many things to learn about the game. Basically, I began my first serious campaign since C# 1. 9 was released and I'm really engrossed in this fantastic creation of Steve's.
However, after many hours invested in setting up my first race, initial techs, and feeling really good about the RP side of things, my first campaign got off to a bit of a bumpy start when I bumped into aliens of some sort adjacent to my home system. It has great planets that I want to colonise - but the alien fleet there has ships that go 5500km/s compared to my 3000 km/s battlefleet, and destroyed my unwitting grav survey ship that jumped in within seconds with strength 6 warhead missiles. At this stage, I am guessing they are one of the 'spoiler' races, but because of my custom start (i. e. not Sol), it could just as easily be an NPR, right?
Anyway, I wanted to build my whole fleet without using SM mode or the initial build points for RP purposes and challenge - but I am flying blind here and need some advice about the suitability of these ships to defend my home system from any alien attack until I'm ready to take the fight to them and claim the 'Reaper' system and its rich worlds for my own (map attached below). Oh, and I set the research rate at 20% because I love epic feeling games and wanted each new tech and ship design to feel like a major accomplishment - so that's a big, big, factor in my decision making. I know any mistakes I make at this point might stay with me for hundreds of hours of play.
Design PhilosophyI wanted to create a primarily defensive fleet that could take out as many incoming missiles with my limited tech and still take a good few hits on armour while attempting to land missile hits of my own if they jumped into my home system. I will forward deploy many cheap scout ships / DST stations or heavily armored battlestations to soak up initial missile salvos and make use of my missiles' range.
So, I designed the 'Arleigh Burke' an Area Defense Destroyer with size 1 AAMs and the 'Spruance' Destroyer Escort with three twin gauss turrets for last-ditch fleet point defense. Once I have built up a much larger force of these, I will begin adding in a group of my own Missile Destroyers, the 'Roosevelt' class, in the hope that one day I'll be able to overwhelm the small enemy fleet - even with my own inferior technology - though I must admit, I'd settle for simply avoiding annihilation of my fledgling empire at this point.
I went for a minimum speed of 3000 km/s with efficient and cheap Ion engines (thinking my defensive / jump point ambush strategy would make these less of a priority), 5 layers of armour so all ships can take some strength 6 hits and keep on fighting (due to low hit chance on my AAMs and lack of information about enemy capabilities of weapons), and I wanted to keep the BP to under 1000 and tonnage under 10,000 so that I could build as many as possible in order to overwhelm the enemy with numbers. I am also prototyping some modified versions of the Arleigh Burke and Spruance classes to act as less well-armed jump destroyers which can take two of their more potent cousins through the jump point if we ever decide to go on the offensive.
Please let me know what you think of my designs and don't hold back - I am a complete newb after all.
Arleigh Burke ER class Area Defense DestroyerArleigh Burke ER class Area Defense Destroyer 7,016 tons 150 Crew 729. 3 BP TCS 140 TH 450 EM 0
3207 km/s Armour 5-32 Shields 0-0 HTK 56 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 16
Maint Life 6. 58 Years MSP 724 AFR 79% IFR 1. 1% 1YR 29 5YR 434 Max Repair 83. 72 MSP
Magazine 175
Trierarch Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
SpaceX MiDrive 150-ER (3) Power 450 Fuel Use 13. 80% Signature 150 Explosion 6%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 46. 5 billion km (167 days at full power)
Dart AAM Launcher (16) Missile Size: 1 Rate of Fire 15
Dart Guidance Array Mk1 LR (1) Range 21. 4m km Resolution 1
Dart AMM (175) Speed: 16,400 km/s End: 7. 9m Range: 7. 7m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 54/32/16
Cryodynamics Lidar 1-2500 (1) GPS 600 Range 17. 6m km Resolution 50
Dart Acquisition Lidar Mk1 SR (1) GPS 12 Range 4. 8m km MCR 521. 3k km Resolution 1
Cryodynamics EM Scanner 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
Cryodynamics IR Sensor 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
ECM 10
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
Spruance ER class Destroyer EscortSpruance ER class Destroyer Escort 9,778 tons 177 Crew 1,031. 7 BP TCS 196 TH 600 EM 0
3068 km/s Armour 5-40 Shields 0-0 HTK 67 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 60
Maint Life 3. 31 Years MSP 729 AFR 153% IFR 2. 1% 1YR 101 5YR 1,513 Max Repair 121 MSP
Trierarch Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
SpaceX MiDrive 150-ER (4) Power 600 Fuel Use 13. 80% Signature 150 Explosion 6%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 33. 3 billion km (125 days at full power)
Peltast Twin Gauss Turret (R30k-T18. 5k) (3x6) Range 30,000km TS: 18500 km/s Power 0-0 RM 30,000 km ROF 5
Point Defence Fire Control Mk1 (2) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 16,000 km/s 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cryodynamics Lidar 1-2500 (1) GPS 600 Range 17. 6m km Resolution 50
Cryodynamics EM Scanner 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
Cryodynamics IR Sensor 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Roosevelt class Missile DestroyerRoosevelt class Missile Destroyer 9,995 tons 245 Crew 973. 9 BP TCS 200 TH 600 EM 0
3001 km/s Armour 6-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 68 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 4 PPV 48
Maint Life 3. 63 Years MSP 643 AFR 200% IFR 2. 8% 1YR 75 5YR 1,130 Max Repair 83. 72 MSP
Magazine 207
Trierarch Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
SpaceX MiDrive 150-ER (4) Power 600 Fuel Use 13. 80% Signature 150 Explosion 6%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 32. 6 billion km (125 days at full power)
Spearfish-6 ASM Launcher (
Missile Size: 6 Rate of Fire 40
Spearfish Guidance Array - Small (1) Range 35. 3m km Resolution 50
Cryodynamics Lidar 2-5000 (1) GPS 2400 Range 31. 4m km Resolution 100
Cryodynamics EM Scanner 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
Cryodynamics IR Sensor 1 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19. 4m km
ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Dart AAMSpeed: 16,400 km/s
Range: 7. 7 Mkm
Size: 1
MR: 10
Cost: 0. 66
Spearfish 6-20 ASMSpeed: 20,000 km/s
Range: 20. 9 Mkm
Size: 6
MR: 12
ECM: 10
Cost: 4. 95
THANKS EVERYONE!