I was toying with the idea of producing a large number of small displacement (~2kton) pinnacles, each armed with a single large caliber reduced size spinal laser. It would make for an incredible beam alpha-strike capability, particularly if you ran them off a carrier and they could fly into range, shoot, and fly back out of range to recharge.
Right now with one level of reduced size laser tech I could mount the following (I included the high and low extreme of cap tech to see what the impact on cost is, since part of the strategy may be accepting some level of ship loss and you'd want to keep them cheap)
45cm (53 damage) lasers for 550 tons with a recharge of 180s (and a cost of 164) or
45cm (53 damage) lasers for 550 tons with a recharge of 1060s (and a cost of 27)
With the 2nd and final level of reduced size laser tech I could mount:
45cm (53 damage) lasers for 350 tons with a recharge of 885s (and a cost of 109.2) or
45cm (53 damage) lasers for 350 tons with a recharge of 5300s (and a cost of 18.2)
I was thinking something like this:
Lancer - Copy class Fast Attack Craft (P) 1,000 tons 48 Crew 437.9 BP TCS 20 TH 360 EM 0
18010 km/s Armour 4-8 Shields 0-0 HTK 7 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 7
Maint Life 0.36 Years MSP 27 AFR 80% IFR 1.1% 1YR 75 5YR 1,118 Max Repair 180.00 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months Morale Check Required
Internal Fusion Drive EP360.00 (1) Power 360.0 Fuel Use 804.98% Signature 360.00 Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 25,000 Litres Range 0.56 billion km (8 hours at full power)
45.0cm C0.3 Far Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 384,000km TS: 18,010 km/s Power 53-0.3 RM 50,000 km ROF 885
Beam Fire Control R384-TS10000 (SW) (1) Max Range: 384,000 km TS: 10,000 km/s 97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Tokamak Fusion Reactor R0 (1) Total Power Output 0.3 Exp 5%
The damage per BP ratio is about 3x better with the pinnacle design vs one of my larger (30kton) frigates, which mount an equivalent 45cm spinal laser and 10x 30cm lasers. However, those have a much higher DPS and higher survivability due to additional shielding and armor, AND don't require a carrier to deliver them.
Having a large alpha-strike sounds fun in principle, but my concern is that this may not be particularly useful, tactically. If you outrange and outspeed the enemy, you'd get better DPS with full sized lasers. If you don't outspeed them, you can't get away to recharge or control the range. If you haven't exhausted their AMMs (and their ASMs), those'll shred you before you get into beam range.
I really WANT the idea to work because it seems cool, but I can't see how it would be better than other, more conventional options. Thoughts?