3 Feb 2001, 01:17:15

In war, it is very often the case that numerous things happen in very short order, sowing confusion and chaos. The opening moments of the Tau’ri-Danakreg war were no exception to this rule.

In the Abydos system, three Apollo-class survey craft were trapped behind the jump point, now invested by nearly 400,000 tons of Danakreg warships with more expected to arrive. While the combined displacement of the Daedalus-class battlecruisers could comfortably outmatch this force, trying to force the jump point would be risky at best, particularly as the Danakreg combat vessels had displayed a fleet speed in excess of 5,800 km/s, suggesting a comfortable technological advantage over the Daedalus and its mere 4,000 km/s top speed. Thus, the survey ships remaining in-system could not expect relief in the very near future, and without communications back to Earth after the Danakreg had destroyed the dial-home buoy at the jump point, the best the survey ships could do would be to hide in the outer system and hope to avoid detection for as long as possible.

At the jump point to Abydos, the USS Odysseus was the only SGC unit within 1.6 billion km and would be forced to hold the jump point until reinforcements could arrive. The Danakreg Soryu-class diplomatic ship was rapidly fleeing the jump point and heading towards the outer system, so would have to be left alone as Odysseus was too slow to catch up and lacked any F-302s to intercept the fleeing alien vessel. As such, Odysseus was ordered to raise shields and hold position for as long as possible, dispatching her remaining survey ships and scouts back to Earth so they might remain intact in the event of her own destruction.

In Saturn orbit, the USS Daedalus raised shields and launched fighters. The Danakreg Hyuga-class survey ship was in Titan orbit, 1,220,000 km distant and would be intercepted immediately. The seven-ship escort squadron had moved off to 10 million km distance and was continuing to retreat out-system from Daedalus, and would probably be able to fight off a mere sixteen interceptors without much difficulty, so Colonel Burt Vandyke elected to remain in Saturn orbit and await the arrival of the USS Odyssey, at which point the 1st Fast Attack Wing would be reformed. The Hyuga-class survey ship was destroyed without incident at 01:20:15, with 52 Danakreg survivors recovered.

In Earth orbit, a flurry of orders were being issued. Odyssey was dispatched towards Saturn to reinforce Daedalus, in case the Danakreg escort squadron decided to attack rather than continue retreating. The 3rd Fast Attack Wing, consisting of the battlecruisers PRCS Sun Tzu and USS George Hammond, was ordered to proceed at full speed to the Abydos jump point to reinforce or relieve Odysseus. The four escort cruisers would remain close to home, but with raised shields and active sensors pulsing in case any Danakreg ships in Sol attempted a sneak attack on Earth. The 1st Patrol Wing, consisting of the HMS Nelson and RFS Kirov, would remain in Earth orbit, while the 2nd Patrol Wing would move to Mars to secure the valuable ruins site, composed of the FNS Napoleon and PRCS Zheng He. On Earth itself, two shipyards totaling six 1,000-ton slipways, presently tooled to construct survey craft, were ordered to retool to produce additional F-302 interceptors, the only spacecraft available to the SGC which could match or exceed the Danakreg fleet speed.

Finally, in deep space near the jump point to the Chulak system, the 2nd Fast Attack Wing was ordered to turn around and make for the Abydos jump point at top speed. As the hostile aliens in Chulak had shown no inclination towards aggression, nor a sufficient presence to seriously threaten the Sol system, they would have to be left alone for the foreseeable future. The HMS Royal Sovereign was authorized to attempt survey efforts at her commander’s discretion, as long as the sixth planet and its moons were given a wide exclusion zone to prevent further losses among her small craft complement.

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At 0143 hours, the USS Daedalus opened fire on the retreating Danakreg escort squadron fleeing Saturn orbit with four waves of sixteen Mark VIII tactical nuclear missiles, based on analysis of recently-acquired tactical data suggesting that the escorts might be vulnerable to missile attack. Even before missile launch, the exercise proved informative, as the Danakreg warships were revealed to have a minimal level of electronic countermeasures (ECM) installed. Out of 64 missiles fired, two scored hits on a Mogami-class escort, one missed, and the remainder were shot down by point defense fire. The marginal results were disappointing at the moment, but indicated that a larger volley from multiple battlecruisers would be able to overwhelm the Danakreg ships, which was a promising finding.

This relative failure of the missile attack did have a rather unfortunate side-effect, as the Danakreg squadron came about and set a course towards the Daedalus. This posed a problem, as USS Odyssey was still 1.2 billion km out from Saturn and the Daedalus lacked the firepower to deal with the Danakreg squadron by herself. Sensor readings indicated that the Danakreg ships used heavy laser weapons, which would comfortably outrange the railguns on the battlecruisers and would inflict heavy losses on the F-302s as they tried to close to combat range. Daedalus was therefore forced to retreat from Saturn, hoping to reunite with her wingmate before being overtaken by Danakreg forces. Fortunately, the Danakreg ships moved off again shortly thereafter, but with nothing in Saturn orbit worth defending Daedalus would proceed to rendezvous with Odyssey before returning rather than risk a losing battle on her own. The Danakreg squadron fell off from active sensors at 0430 hours, and for the moment would remain at large in the solar system.

At 1542 hours, the Soryu-class diplomatic ship approached the jump point to Abydos. While the USS Odysseus was present at the jump point, and could have easily intercepted the enemy vessel before it could escape through the warp point, the SGC still held out slim hopes for a diplomatic resolution and killing diplomats would not be conducive to such a goal. Therefore, the diplomatic ship was allowed to return to Abydos, albeit over loud protests from Colonel Newmann aboard the Odysseus.

The Danakreg escort squadron reappeared on 6 February, on a direct course for the jump point to Abydos and the USS Odysseus. Being even less capable than the Daedalus-class battlecruisers and lacking a fighter wing, Odysseus was forced to move off the jump point and allow the Danakreg squadron to approach. The Danakreg ships fired on the dial-home buoy at the jump point, destroying it, and rather than jumping out of Sol seemed content to remain on the jump point. Curiously, the rest of the Danakreg fleet known to be investing the other side of the jump point did not enter Sol, though certainly not for lack of opportunity. This presented the SGC fleet with an excellent chance to strike a decisive blow.


8 Feb 2001: Investment of the Sol-Abydos Jump Point

In addition to the main Danakreg escort squadron, seven ships displacing some 54,000 tons altogether, a Taiho-class scout was holding position 120 million km from the jump point, opposite the USS Odysseus. As Fast Attack Wing 3 closed within 750 million km of the jump point, the PRCS Sun Tzu and USS George Hammond launched their fighter squadrons totaling 32 F-302 interceptors, intending to ambush and destroy the Taiho before the fast attack wings closed to combat range. The scout was not known to mount any sensors capable of detecting fighter-sized craft at even 1 million km, so an ambush was likely to achieve total surprise.


The tactical situation near the Abydos jump point at 10:46:30 on 8 February 2001, prior to the first attack run of the 121st and 122nd Strike Fighter Wings.

While the Taiho did not react to the approaching fighters, the Danakreg escort squadron apparently had tired of waiting for something to happen, and moved on 9 February at 1030 hours to attack the USS Odysseus stationed 2 million km from the jump point. Odysseus was forced to flee the jump point, and an attempt by the approaching fighters to distract the enemy ships by pulsing their active sensors accomplished nothing. Finally, with little choice and faced with imminent destruction in any case, Odysseus turned to face her pursuers and advanced into enemy fire. Unfortunately, her crew members were mostly trained for survey operations, not desperate last-ditch combat, and took nearly 30 seconds after the order to fire was given to actually compute targeting solutions and open fire. As such, by the time she opened fire, Odysseus had lost her entire shield strength and already began taking internal damage. The railgun crews tried their best, but were only able to savage the armor belts of three Danakreg ships, with no apparent internal damage dealt.

Fortunately, the spirited counterattack was sufficient to scare off the Danakreg squadron for a few moments, buying time to recharge her shields while the enemy ships regrouped. The Danakreg made a second pass, and this time through preparation and clever maneuvering Odysseus was able to close in and deal heavy damage to one of the Mogami-class escorts, reducing its speed by 50% and forcing it to drop out of formation while the rest of the Danakreg ships retreated again. The Mogami class was by now known to be armed with rapid-fire point defense cannons and represented the primary anti-missile capability of the Danakreg escort classes, so this would severely increase the Danakreg vulnerability to missile strikes from SGC battlecruisers. The Danakreg came about once more for a third pass at the feisty survey cruiser, less their damaged comrade, and this time were far more careful not to let the crippled cruiser outmaneuver them. Odysseus went to her grave without firing another shot, with 485 survivors escaping to life pods from her original complement of 2,359.

By this point, the Taiho-class scout had detected the incoming Tau’ri fighters, and was desperately attempting to evade the incoming force. This forced the fighter wings into a stern chase, but with a speed advantage in excess of 2000 km/s against an unarmed scout ship, the outcome was never in doubt. The Taiho only took 26 hits before exploding violently, leaving only 42 survivors to be recovered and taken aboard the battlecruisers of the 3rd Fast Attack Wing for interrogation.

Seven hours later, a second ship of the Taiho class was detected traveling away from the jump point in the direction of the wreckage of the first one. With the destruction of Odysseus, the SGC fleet no longer had sensor coverage of the jump point, raising the concern that any number of ships may have jumped into Sol undetected. As the fighters of the 3rd Fast Attack Wing had not yet been recovered, and would need to refuel, the 1st Fast Attack Wing, consisting of the USS Daedalus and USS Odyssey and by this point only 630 million km from the jump point, were ordered to launch fighters to intercept the new enemy scout ship. Colonel Vandyke aboard the Daedalus elected to launch only half of his fighters, since the Taiho class was now confirmed to be unarmed, holding the 102nd aboard Odyssey in reserve in case further lurking Danakreg vessels were detected.


Tactical situation near the Sol-Abydos jump point at 17:58:30 on 9 February 2001, immediately after the 121st and 122nd Strike Fighter Wings had been recovered by their respective motherships and shortly after the launch of the 101st SFW.

Before the fighters could reach their assigned position, the 3rd Fast Attack Wing came within sensor range of the jump point, detecting the Taiho along with the six remaining ships of the Danakreg escort squadron, noting that the badly-damaged Mogami-class point defense ship had apparently retreated to Abydos for repairs. Seeing this, the fighters were recalled to their carrier, and the Fast Attack Wings were ordered to close to near-extreme missile range of 45 million km and to prepare to receive firing orders. This proved an unnecessary degree of caution, if wise nevertheless, as the Danakreg force set course away from the jump point, towards the outer system, rather than face down half a dozen Daedalus-class battlecruisers outside of their laser range.

A second Danakreg escort squadron jumped into the Sol system at 0343 hours on 11 February, while the 1st Fast Attack Wing was still getting into position. These ships remained in the system for perhaps 15 minutes, wandering about near the jump point, before retreating back to Abydos. While no apparent damage was done, the generals back on Earth began to worry that the Danakreg were preparing for a much larger jump point assault, which the SGC fleet would be hard-pressed to defend against. As such, once all three fast attack wings were in position at 1037 hours, the battlecruisers were ordered to converge on the jump point, hoping to intercept any new squadrons that might be sent through and dissuade the Danakreg from making any offensive movements. By 1345 hours, the jump point to Abydos was fully invested by the SGC fleet, although the Danakreg squadron in the outer system would remain a concern for some time. The last known position of the enemy ships was some 300 million km from the jump point, well beyond the range of the F-302s in a stern chase especially with the current enemy position unknown.

At midnight on 12 February, with no signs of further Danakreg incursions and only intermittent passive sensor contacts with the loose escort squadron in the outer system, the 1st Fast Attack Wing was detailed to recover the survivors from the destruction of Odysseus. In the short term, taking on the survivors would lead to cramped quarters for a while, but in exchange the 1st would be at the front of the line to return to Earth for rotation and overhaul, provided that the Danakreg did not do anything terribly stupid in the next few days, weeks, or months.

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OOC Notes: The war has started, and where proper AAR etiquette demands a majestic pace where every battle takes up at least one update on its own, here we have compressed an incredible nine days of dispersed operations into a few paragraphs. Truly this AAR is an affront to good sense and an abomination to most religions to boot, but then again one could argue that this is only the most lore-accurate approach to take?

The SGC is now faced with two daunting challenges. On one hand, it seems probable that a significant jump point defense must be mounted indefinitely, given the likelihood that assaulting the jump point is a poor tactical decision, which presents long-term logistical difficulties. On the other hand, far more pressing is the fact that running through five-day increments is a likely path to being ambushed by a massive invasion force which immediately moves 5 million km away from the jump point and recovers from jump shock in the space of a single sub-increment. Truly daunting stuff, the question is whether the SGC will be up for the challenge?

Having wrapped up my Starfire campaign, I'm getting back into Aurora in preparation for starting an Aurora campaign, but it is slow going.  But I'm getting there.  I thought I'd post a short message on my progress getting back into Aurora. 

I started with a conventional start, just so I get the hang of researching stuff, particularly the ground unit stuff, from the start.  There have been a lot of changes since the last time I played Aurora, so there were a lot of false starts, dead-ends, and more than a little frustration, but I've mostly got it worked out, I think.  At least the basics.  I successfully converted my civilization to TN, explored the solar system and set up extra-planetary mines, then researched and developed jump tech, and built interstellar survey ships.  I explored several jumps out from Sol and set up interstellar outposts and one colony on a promising site two jumps from Earth. 

During all of this, I built up a smallish navy with six 6,000 ton frigates, two 15,000 ton light cruisers, and two 20,000 ton jump cruisers, all armed with various lasers.  Fleet speed was 2,000 kps as this is an early fleet.  Also, I built some light infantry troops and successfully integrated them into higher level organizations, and then focused on building anti-ship STO units with my best beam weapon, as I thought the whole STO concept is very cool. 

Then an NPR ship appeared in the Solar System, shocking me.  I panicked and sent my fleet out to intercept, but it didn't head for Earth, it just flitted around from system-body to system-body, and I quickly realized two things.  First, it wasn't an immediate threat, and second, it was more than twice as fast as my fleet at 4,400 KPS.  I sent the fleet home and settled for watching it move around. 

At this point I decided I had learned about as much as I was going to from this run-through, but I wanted to get some experience in combat.  So, I designed and built some 1,000 ton missile boats for when the aliens returned.  I had built four by the time they came back, so I sent them out to attack the perfidious aliens.  After much experimentation with the fire control settings, I managed to launch my missiles at the dastardly aliens, and although it took all thirty-two of the attack group's missiles, I did manage to destroy it.  I congratulated myself on my prowess and sent my ships back to reload. 

A few days later another enemy ship showed up, and I sent my interceptors out again.  This time they were destroyed short of the target by a second group of small (>1000 ton) enemy ships that appeared out of nowhere.  This was familiar to me from the old days.  My sensors aren't very good at this early stage, and the enemy ships went from being undetected to within firing range in one too-large time advance.   The short story is - my valiant interceptors were destroyed by the back-stabbing alien aggressors.  So, I sent out my main fleet to teach a lesson to the aliens. 

This is the result:


As you can see, my fleet did not survive.  The alien ships then went on to attack Earth, destroying my shipyards and the civilian ships in orbit.  At that point I remembered that I had STO ground forces, so I figured out how to use them and they opened fire.  They proved to be very effective and destroyed the aliens in short order.  I had a lot of them because I mostly kept my ground construction centers building STO units. 

The aliens obligingly sent a second fleet to their deaths over the Earth, and then a third.  Which I thought was foolish and perhaps a problem with the program.  But they did try to take out my STO's and they did do some damage.  It was only after the death of the third fleet that I realized the sneaky and dastardly aliens had managed to land a ground force on Earth!  So, I figured this was my chance to get some experience with ground combat, so I "Instant Builded" a ground force based on light ground vehicles with crew-served anti-personnel weapons and we were off to the war. 

The fighting taught me a bit about the ground combat system, and more about the aftermath of replacements and series and things like that.  At this point I'm going to move on to a new Aurora campaign with two player races in the same system, with a set up designed to have them battle over control of a third location, perhaps a rich mining site.  This campaign will be focused on ground combat to the exclusion of all else, as this is where I feel I'm the weakest. 

After removing and re-adding the missile loadouts for both the support ship and destroyer and a save and load it started working.  So there is probably some interaction between what order you specify the ordinance in the class design and whether or not it will see the missiles to load them.

15k is pretty fast, though you really gotta design based on your enemy. If they are going 20k then a beam ship is going to have a tough time closing, but if they go 10k you should be good. If they are 5k you could probably slow it down a bit.

I agree about the speed bit but I am in a bit of a weird spot, I am facing Star Swarm ships who still have a speed advantage on me even with this new ship (they make about 18000km/s) but the average NPR is about 8k so I was already faster then them a generation ago. My thought was this will give me a smaller delta V mismatch so if they are in range I can hold them there slightly longer.

4 armor is not a lot. Even with 54 shields. I'd try for at least 6, but naturally it's up to you and the enemy you face.

Ironically the older model has 6 layers and I stripped them down because I thought the shield would offset. I can try for that but that seems like a lot to me. with that said does that mean my 6 layers on the previous generation was woefully inadequate (which scares me because they handled damage fairly well so clearly I was lucky in that case) or do I need a LOT of shields to make the equivalent of 1 layer of armor.

Why did you match the tracking speed of your lasers to your FCS?

Because I am a big dummy and forgot I am using a older model FCS for my previous generation ships (fleet speed 10k) and didn't upgrade it. Saved me a refit there....

I'd add a ECM personally. It takes time to close in a beam ship so any help is good.

I will probably swap out the ECCM for the ECM given how crammed this bad boy is (it had both before but I pulled the ECM out because I figured my accuracy and range being max was better then the range and accuracy penalty the enemy receives which sounds silly saying it aloud), but if the overwhelming feedback is I am going to fast I will for sure have room there.

Good evening all,

I am moving steady along in my game and have decided to try out shields on some of my warships and thought I should come here and see if I can get some feedback. I have never used them before and am honestly not really sure how exactly they work other then they restore after taking damage, charge to full power after being activated slowly and are less space efficient then their equal weight in armor. I decided to take the shell of a proven warship (my 10K destroyer) and throw some shields on it. Additionally this is honestly the farthest along I have ever gotten in aurora before (most of the time I run our of minerals before now or get dominated by a spoiler NPR) so I have never had engines at this tech level before so my assumption about max fleet speed is based on ~40% max tonnage dedicated to engines and fuel but I feel like I am a little slow here (for reference my previous generation was using Internal Confinement Fusion was at 10km/s, moving to Solid Core Anti Matter I feel I should be faster but this is where the math seemed to point was a happy medium)

Bellerophon class Destroyer      10,000 tons       299 Crew       3,592.3 BP       TCS 200    TH 3,000    EM 1,620
15000 km/s      Armour 4-41       Shields 54-216       HTK 98      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 7      PPV 50.67
Maint Life 3.29 Years     MSP 1,743    AFR 107%    IFR 1.5%    1YR 243    5YR 3,651    Max Repair 500.00 MSP
Magazine 5   
Commander    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Morale Check Required   

Babcock Interstellar Frigate Class Mk III SCAM HS 25 P1.25 EP1000.00 (3)    Power 3000.0    Fuel Use 33.15%    Signature 1000.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 763,000 Litres    Range 41.4 billion km (31 days at full power)
Tokamak Deflectors Small Ship Xi Band Military Grade Deflector Generator (3)     Recharge Time 216 seconds (0.2 per second)

Kratos Defence 25.0cm FXR Naval Grade Laser (1)    Range 480,000km     TS: 15,000 km/s     Power 16-8     RM 80,000 km    ROF 10       
Kratos Defence 15.0cm FXR Naval Grade Laser (4)    Range 480,000km     TS: 15,000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 80,000 km    ROF 5       
Quad Thales Nederland "Goal Keeper" GCIWS Turret (4x24)    Range 40,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Kratos Defence "Nova" Fixed Naval Laser BFC Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 480,000 km   TS: 10,000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Thales Nederland "Goal Keeper" GCIWS BFC (1)     Max Range: 60,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s     83 67 50 33 17 0 0 0 0 0
General Electric SCAM P10 (1)     Total Power Output 10    Exp 5%
General Electric SCAM P25 (1)     Total Power Output 25.9    Exp 5%

Sparton Bouy Launcher (1)     Missile Size: 5    Hangar Reload 111 minutes    MF Reload 18 hours
Sparton Bouy Deployment Computer (1)     Range 9.1m km    Resolution 1

Compact ECCM-2 (1)         This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes 

Feedback is appreciated as always. I am particularly interested in your thoughts on the shield to armor radio and the speed however if you feel I have royally gooned something up I am happy to address it.