Missile Cruiser

[scoopdjm]

Holy smeg Andy one to two years!? I'm surprised your ships don't just spontaneously combust during combat! 8.4 is fIne bro unless u want to repair your ships every IRL hour or two

[HaliRyan]

Holy smeg Andy one to two years!? I'm surprised your ships don't just spontaneously combust during combat! 8.4 is fIne bro unless u want to repair your ships every IRL hour or two

I usually aim for 2 years or so with mine as well. The clock won't be ticking as long as they're stationed at one of my fleet bases anyway.

[sloanjh]

I usually aim for 2 years or so with mine as well. The clock won't be ticking as long as they're stationed at one of my fleet bases anyway.

Yep, 2-3 years for me.  I also go lower on warships' fuel endurance than for survey ships or freighters - even when deployed, they typically spend a lot of time sitting in one place....

John

[Girlinhat]

Seems many people put their warships at a point and then call on them as needed.  I tend to use my warships as active patrols and long deep space jobs, so my ships get 10 or even 20 year maint.  It suffers a bit in other areas, but I'm never afraid to move my ships somewhere and slug it out for the long haul, I know they'll trench in and keep fighting until their armor gets melted.

[scoopdjm]

agreed girlinhat my ships are at 10 years maint life. since my military follows a doctrine of have a small taskgroups designed to be operating in large areas (5-10 systems) I have them out for a while then call them back to earth or one of my outposts for overhauling.

[Charlie Beeler]

Comment on maintenance supply for warships.

I tend to not look at the estimated time at all.  Instead I take the max repair value and have my on board supplies a minimum of twice that and sometimes three times.  This allows for enough onboard capacity for combat repairs though damage control which will be at twice the component repair value.  Set a conditional order to return to a colony or supplyship when the onboard supplies reach 30%.  My extra solar patrol task groups have a military jump/command ship that doubles as a tanker and supplyship.  Maintain an overhaul schedule of no greater than 3-4 years and your good to go.

[Andrew]

I have never lost a warship to maintenance problems, never even had one become combat ineffective due to failed systems, they suffer system failures if deployed away from base for several years but then repair them from their maintenance stockpiles, I often get ship deployed for 4-5 years without serious problem with a maintenance average of 1or 2 years. On occasion if a big system (jump drives or large sensors) fails I have had to transfer maintenance supplies from other ships in order to enable them to keep repairing further problems. I have never even needed to build dedicated resupply ships.
Survey ships and any other ships intended for really long term operations may have longer maintenance clocks but not warships.

[Hawkeye]

Not sure I should post this here, as it does have nothing to do with those cruiser designs, but as the discussion has sort of moved towards maintenance life and fleet doctrins, I thought "why not"

I am a firm beliver in "he who tries to defend everything, defends nothing" doctrin.

Repeat after me:

There is no overkill, only "Open fire!" and "I have to reload!"

I will not invite defeat in detail!


Each populated colony will get a few PDCs ASAP.
Each sector capital will have a strong battlefleet on station, ready to come down on any hostile alien like a ton of bricks.

[scoopdjm]

No but you just brought it away. Refocus: this thread is Only commenting on this guys ships and furthering the discussion of maintenance supplies

[blue emu]

The escort cruiser looks ok-ish.
The range of the res-1 active against size-6 and smaller missile should be around 1 mkm which is rather short, but it is in-line with the range of your AMMs. Personally, I like to engage hostile missiles somewhat farther out.

The missile cruiser looks good.
Given the size, 8 x size-5 launchers is quite good. Don´t let yourself being talked into bigger ones
Yes, large missiles pack a bigger punch, but each missile shot down by PD is a lot less damage dealt. Personally, I am in the "missile spam" camp. Size-4 and lots of ´em  -- blot out the sun kind of lots.
I also avoid using several different missiles of the same size on one ship - or at all - simply for logistics reasons. It is a PITA to keep the battlefleets supplied with missiles as it is, no need to further complicate things. Also, if I have a long-range shipkiller, I intend to use it and stay out of the range of counterfire. Yes, there will be times, a short-ranged, heavy hitting missile might come in handy, but is it realy worth the trouble?

I agree with a lot of this... but in my own games, the size-6 missiles that I mount on my Fighters (in Box Launchers) are shorter-range and heavier-hitting than the size-6 missiles used by my warships. This doesn't cause much logistical confusion (since I don't mix missile types on the same ship... Carriers load one type, Cruisers the other), and it exploits the Fighter's high speed and small target size which allow it to close to optimum range while the missile Cruisers stand off at longer range.

Size-6 missiles are the largest ones that still show a minimal sensor signature... anything larger than that is easier to spot, as well as slower to load. I agree that smaller missiles tend to work better than larger ones... they offer more chance of overloading the enemy's PD as well as faster reload rates. Only my Minelayers carry really large missile tubes.

[ZimRathbone]

Regarding missile sizes, my shipboard missiles tend to fall into two categories, siz1 AMMs and Siz4 or Siz5 ASMs,  however I do also tend have a very large missile design (siz 24) which is carried by PDCs, minelayers (who have siz 24 tubes for mines anyway) & a Fighter or  FAC which carries a pair of siz24 box launchers.

These have scored quite a bit of sucess as the small salvo size makes it difficult for defences to engage - particularly with some of the larger enemies - my first victory over the invaders was achieved through these bigger missiles.

[jRides]

I generally use size 4 missiles on all fleet/fighters up to the Battlecruiser size who use size 6, i've never built bigger missiles - but then I've never actually built anything bigger than a battlecruiser - which in my game is 24kton. Maintenance is 2-3 years (aiming for two minimum in the design) - fleets spend much of their time at places with adequate maintenance bays - be it colonies, outposts or shipping, it will be a nodal point covering a sector of systems usually no more than 4 jump ponts away, altho as always it depends on the game/map/xeno activity etc. Recon and patrols is usually conducted by specialist ships with hefty sensor suites and a decent speed (usually fastest in the fleet) but again with 2-3 years maintenance, each of my fleets will have easily half a dozen recon ships with a couple attached, a couple out on patrol and perhaps a couple in overhaul

Sizewize - and this is just my take on it:

Corvette/Sloop [1-3kton]
Frigate [2-5kton]
Destroyer [5-8kton]
Light cruiser [8-12kton]
Cruiser [12-15kton]
Heavy Cruiser [15-20kton]
Battlecruiser [20+kton]
I have never built anything bigger in a warship than 24 or 25kton, but if I did next classes would be:
Battleship (historically just a slower more heavily armed battlecruiser - i take this the same way)
Dreadnaught (light, standard and heavy versions depending on tonnage)
Monitor (this is the Starfire designation, which i like)

As always as size markers are not reliant on your actual size its always fluid, a more heavily armed and armoured 3kton ship may be classed a light destroyer whereas a speedier lighter 5kton ship next to it is classed a frigate. I'd go with what sounds cool to you.

[Atlantia (OP)]

Welp, I need to give these guys a try in action against my neighbours sometime soon. Seeing no major flaws, I'm gonna put these guys into production. (First gotta get my PDCs constructed)

Thanks for all of your feedback, folks!

[Atlantia (OP)]

Here we go, I've revised the designs!

AMM Cruiser:

Code: [Select]

Baranda-A class Missile Cruiser    5,050 tons     328 Crew     961.72 BP      TCS 101  TH 300  EM 0
2970 km/s     Armour 10-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 22/22/0/0     Damage Control Rating 5     PPV 8
Maint Life 8.24 Years     MSP 595    AFR 40%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 16    5YR 234    Max Repair 84 MSP
Magazine 519   

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E5M (3)    Power 100    Fuel Use 50%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 71.3 billion km   (277 days at full power)

AMM Missile Launcher Mk I (8)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 10
MFC AM FC13-R1 (2)     Range 13.9m km    Resolution 1
1-Mosquito Mk III (519)  Speed: 39,800 km/s   End: 0.4m    Range: 1.1m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 451 / 270 / 135

Active Search Sensor MR9-R1 (1)     GPS 84     Range 9.2m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2-22 (1)     Sensitivity 22     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-22 (1)     Sensitivity 22     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22m km


Oh man, I just realised. I should probably have more MFCs on this AMM ship, eh? Gah. Well, whatever, I'll include that in the next generation.

[Din182]

3-4 missile tubes per MFC is good, I think.