On my second take, I've set up a proper testing environment. I'm starting with the 18000 search point from the meritocracy start unallocated, using them to research only the tech for the ship, and using the research labs to design up components.
After the single ship design I wanted to take a more modular approach; I wanted missile fighters but their engine and the box launcher both take to much point to research, so I've tried an intermediate approach, using gunboats.
As test enemy, I've set up a NPR one system away, giving it 100k technology point.
Design report
Here are the designed system, with their design considerations; the combat performance report follows; overall, this design look promising while some shortcomings became evident in the after action reports, two possible path of enhancement will be then detailed and investigated.
The GB Carrier
Hindenburg class Light Carrier 15,000 tons 552 Crew 1651.6 BP TCS 300 TH 150 EM 150
500 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 3-54 Shields 5-300 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 29.48
Maint Life 0.62 Years MSP 1069 AFR 1800% IFR 25% 1YR 1711 5YR 25659 Max Repair 525 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 3000 tons Magazine 170
JC15K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 15000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Ion Engine E1 (1) Power 150 Fuel Use 10% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 180.0 billion km (4166 days at full power)
Delta R300/25 Shields (2) Total Fuel Cost 50 Litres per day
Twin Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (2x4) Range 30,000km TS: 12000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S06 24-12000 (2) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 12000 km/s 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cerberus AMM (24) Speed: 14,200 km/s End: 2.6m Range: 3.2m km WH: 0 Size: 4 TH: 47 / 28 / 14
Icarus Two Stage ASM (18) Speed: 7,500 km/s End: 150m Range: 68.2m km WH: 0 Size: 4 TH: 25 / 15 / 7
Active Search Sensor MR262-R100 (1) GPS 52500 Range 262.5m km Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor MR10-R1 (1) GPS 210 Range 10.5m km Resolution 1
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
The carrier design put emphasis on long range sensor as the idea was to keep it far from the operating scenario. That also is the reason for the cheap engine configuration and good ECM capability; it also influenced the decision on putting an active sensor on the gunboats, as those were intended to operate farther than the carrier missile scan range.
Those are the carried gunboats:
Castor AM class Gunboat 1,000 tons 110 Crew 224 BP TCS 20 TH 120 EM 0
6000 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 4
Maint Life 4.5 Years MSP 70 AFR 16% IFR 0.2% 1YR 6 5YR 84 Max Repair 84 MSP
Magazine 21
GB Ion Engine E100 (1) Power 120 Fuel Use 1000% Signature 120 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 9.0 billion km (17 days at full power)
Size 4 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Missile Fire Control FC12-R1 (1) Range 12.6m km Resolution 1
Cerberus AMM (5) Speed: 14,200 km/s End: 2.6m Range: 3.2m km WH: 0 Size: 4 TH: 47 / 28 / 14
Active Search Sensor MR2-R1 (1) GPS 42 Range 2.1m 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
Pollux AS class Gunboat 1,000 tons 110 Crew 224 BP TCS 20 TH 120 EM 0
6000 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 4
Maint Life 4.5 Years MSP 70 AFR 16% IFR 0.2% 1YR 6 5YR 84 Max Repair 84 MSP
Magazine 21
GB Ion Engine E100 (1) Power 120 Fuel Use 1000% Signature 120 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 9.0 billion km (17 days at full power)
Size 4 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Missile Fire Control FC56-R20 (1) Range 56.3m km Resolution 20
Icarus Two Stage ASM (5) Speed: 7,500 km/s End: 150m Range: 68.2m km WH: 0 Size: 4 TH: 25 / 15 / 7
Active Search Sensor MR9-R20 (1) GPS 840 Range 9.4m km Resolution 20
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 gunboat were designed around the FAC Engine, with the 1000t limit in mind to squeeze three of them in the carrier. I’ve done the anti missile and anti ship perfectly identical bar the active sensor and fire control, with the hope of being able of building them both at the same shipyard. Well, it didn’t work, so future design should have dedicated size launchers. They have each a search sensor as were intended of being able of fighting past the carrier range. Still, the small magazine capacity reduces their operations to hit and run tactics. (which is not that bad as they can get in, deliver their load and get out before retaliation from the larger vessels). There was no way to add significant armor to the gunship, but even if I could have a 2 point armor on them it still would be almost useless leaking damage from any anti ship missile design I’ve seen, and without internal armor the damage done would be crippling anyway.
Here are the two missile used: as the missile launcher was sized 4 for both, and due the technological constraints, both missile are multistage design.
The Icarus Anti ship missile:
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 7500 km/s Endurance: 150 minutes Range: 67.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 2.49
Second Stage: Dagger ASM x1
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Overall Endurance: 3 hours Overall Range: 68.4m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 75% 3k km/s 20% 5k km/s 15% 10k km/s 7.5%
Materials Required: 1x Tritanium 0.99x Gallicite Fuel x3750
with his second stage:
Missile Size: 2 MSP (0.1 HS) Warhead: 4 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 29700 km/s Endurance: 0 minutes Range: 0.9m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.99
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 297% 3k km/s 90% 5k km/s 59.4% 10k km/s 29.7%
Materials Required: 1x Tritanium 0.74x Gallicite Fuel x25
This was the only way to get some range from a size 4 strength 4 warhead at almost starting tech, without loosing to much speed in the final approach. The added benefit is that the aliens tend to shoot a salvo of anti missile missile toward the Icarus, letting the Dagger payload passing almost unscathed.
This is the Cerberus anti missile missile:
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 14200 km/s Endurance: 3 minutes Range: 2.2m km
Cost Per Missile: 4.07
Second Stage: Stiletto AMM x3
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Overall Endurance: 4 minutes Overall Range: 4.0m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 142% 3k km/s 40% 5k km/s 28.4% 10k km/s 14.2%
Materials Required: 0.75x Tritanium 2.29x Gallicite Fuel x125
it carries three Stiletto, so only one is to be launched by PD for each target:
Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 20
Speed: 32400 km/s Endurance: 1 minutes Range: 1.8m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.04
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 648% 3k km/s 200% 5k km/s 129.6% 10k km/s 64.8%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.53x Gallicite Fuel x25
This was done mostly to recycle the 4 sized launcher to keep ship differences at minimum. It outreaches the fire control and sensors by far. The Stiletto by itself is quite good as far as starting tech goes, but the size point lost in the first stage means one launch less than a pure non staged configuration.
Combat performances
Given the complexity of the operations available to the fleet as a whole, different tactics were tested and evaluated.
Leaving the carrier far out while the gunboats move back and forth between their target and their colliers was the main intended usage. This highlighted the problem with the anti missile gunboat on-board missile sensor: with that range, it’s essentially useless. Not that it doesn’t permit at least one salvo of anti missile to be shot, but the problem is that the slow recharging size 4 launcher has not time to stop the odd salvos. Couple that with no armor and no point defences, and the hit and run will result in lot of losses if their missiles outrange mine. The not so fast engines and the small magazines mean lot of time is wasted in moving back and forth the operation area, meaning that the enemy have a chance to close by the carrier after three/five missile runs.
When the enemy gets near, the carrier gauss turrets and most importantly the carrier missile search sensor help a lot on keeping those enemy missile at bay. Having the formation near the colliers greatly enhance the damage output per second, and seems a viable strategy if one can keep out the enemy beams. Carrier armor and shield provided to be quite effective together with the other defences and the gauss turrets were exceptionally good at dealing sustained damage to the enemy when ambushed by the jump point. In that occasion, the missile provided ineffective; at close quarters the second stage doesn’t fire, meaning that my missile could not harm them and their missiles could not be intercepted. Detaching all the gunboat as escort resolved the first problem, but left the carriers defenseless from missile onslaught.
Actually, I was so impressed from gauss performance alone in terms of damage output that I want to try a gauss based fighter squadron in one of the future runs, avoiding the cost of missile research to try to increase the gauss range, ditching missiles in favor of bringing gauss cannons to the enemy via fighters (The problem with figthers is that the engine alone uses a good chunk of research points alone, and that's why I should try this way without spending research on missiles and magazines and such)
I think that the overall performance of the fleet could be gratly increased by keeping the gunboat in formation with their carrier, as the jump point ambush had shown. For this to work the carrier speed should be upped to 5000m/s at least, dropping the ecm down a bit and increasing fuel space, with a target size of 20kt. The gunboat could then drop their sensors, get fitted with smaller magazines and be fitted with more armor or a small PD or some ECMs.
I'll try to upgrade to those latter specification, and then have a run with fighters.