I have a dream.
A dream of a perfect time on target missile and fighter strike, where in one tick my foes scope goes from showing approaching fighters just outside their AMM/PD range to suddenly showing a wave of missiles just ahead of the fighters as the fighters enter PD range.
I have a sneaking suspicion this dream is a fantasy which would require more micromanagement than I can be arsed to do, but - I'd like to entertain it for a bit.
Apologies in advance - I'm actually a noob so I'm kind of using you guys to bounce ideas off of, haha. I don't add any specific ship examples here because I don't even have all of my shipyards built for this yet.
I'm imagining a defense in depth combination of fighter carriers, missile destroyers/cruisers, and strong sensors (AWACS frigate? DSTS listening post?) and/or fighter scouting to ensure that foes are detected well outside of weapon range to allow for fighter & missile launch coordination. Basic doctrine would be one decisive missile/fighter exchange while keeping the range open, and if the foe doesn't die - retreat and re-arm in the next system to try again if possible.
Or die in a fire if the foe is faster than you and can see you once your magazines are dry- or they saw your capitals and launched something at you before you launched at all
.
Keeping both the carriers and the missile launch platforms dark and outside of enemy sensor range (possibly near an exfil JP, maybe not in the same spot) would be ideal - maybe even going so far as to use 2 stage guided missiles launched from beyond MFC range. Fighters would be somewhat disposable if things go tits up, with spares banked in fall back systems. Capital ships might utilize thermal masked drives and run slow & silent without shields/active sensors - since in theory other sensor assets would be keeping the foe locked up.
This sounds great in theory - but I suspect against a higher tech foe or just one with a different doctrine than expected (FACs? Super heavy PD? Cloak?) this will fall apart pretty quickly, haha. Please poke holes in it.
In such a doctrine - would one weapon system be the primary damage dealer and the other chaff? Or could both fighters and missiles be credible threats?
Strategy Idea #1
Fighters with PD weapons (gauss/rails?) arriving at the same time as a large barrage of expensive, high damage missiles (size >=10? with ECM/seekers?). Fighters intended to draw fire and shoot down AMMs to improve the success rate of the missile barrage. Fighters would presumably try to stay out of effective beam PD range and run the heck away between volleys to return for the next one -if they could survive the AMM fire themselves. Sporadic engagements over a few hours as big low ROF volleys roll in from extreme range. If the fighters live to the last volley and the foe still isn't dead they might try to close to shooting range as the last volley goes in or ram for great justice - or fall back to carriers if there is time and the carriers aren't under threat.
In what I consider 'traditional' missile warfare (I've read too much Honor Harrington), volley weight is king. With this idea, I play into this doctrine and tried to work in fighters sort of how the RMN uses Ghost Rider jamming missiles to get more shots through- but I am not sure if they are really adding to the strategy or just distracting resources better spent on more throw weight and better missile tech.
Strategy Idea #2
Fighters with anti-ship beam weapons arriving under the cover of a sleet of small (size <=6?), high ROF missiles intended to overwhelm PD, draw fire from the fighters, and sandpaper away armor. Basically the missiles size needs to allow for fast ROF to keep missiles in PD range at all times. I'm not picking size 6 specifically for the detection range - just want to keep the ROF up and the launcher size down so the volley weight can still be semi-decent compared to the previous massed volley of slow launchers case, while allowing more range than AMM spam.
Not quite sure what beam weapon would be ideal on the fighter, maybe it depends on tech level. Probably not mesons - I want to capitalize on the missiles ripping off hunks of armor, hopefully leaving some thin spots for the fighters to throw lucky punches into. Gauss DPS is tempting at high tech even with no pen, maybe rails at low? Or carronades for maximum boom.
A reduced size laser might allow for a lucky armor pen through roughed up armor, and potentially allow a standoff beyond the foe's effective beam PD range (?), but the ROF/DPS would be poor without a high recharge tech.
This strategy is sort of the opposite of the first one- we are trying to use missiles to extend the lifetime of the fighter.
This strategy of maximum mayhem deciding the battle in a mad minute magazine dump really appeals to me, both personally and as a potential RP doctrine for a race. I like the excuse to use the max ROF launchers instead of minimum size/box launchers.
QOL Idea) Roughly speed match fighters and missiles to make the timing less of a PITA might be helpful, assuming the fighters start their attack run near the launcher fleet or between them and the foe. If the magazines are deep enough your fighters can be a bit slower and still arrive before the last volley enters PD range. Say 15 volleys over 150s with a 1000s flight time, your fighters could be ~10% slower and still have 50s to pew pew before they are out of cover. If you find fighters actually live that entire time, you could stagger your launches in the next engagement to get more cover time at a cost of some cover weight - a ragged salvo might actually be advantageous here.
If your fighters are noticeably slower you
could start delaying the launch to give the fighters a head start - but then you have to start doing MATHS, booo. Not that a few seconds of relative closure distance crunching is that big an issue in a game where you have to micromanage every missile launch I suppose. It does add a safety factor if your target does an abrupt about face and messes up your maths tho, that could be a major issue with a big speed differential.
Also - slower missile = bigger warhead, woooo - no maths and big boom!
This might also allow you to use this missile + fighter combo more offensively as it is less scouting and timing finesse dependent to get the arrival times just so - armor up some big fat carriers and missile cruisers and squadron jump right into a hot zone, start burping missiles and fighters at whoever is closest as jump shock wears off, don't worry about synchronous arrivals it's baked in. I suppose you could load up an initial salvo of missiles with on-board sensors for belching out just after transition as well.
I'm trying to think of ways to make this work if at a tech disadvantage - specifically for a conventional start.
If you are outranged, I suppose you could make this work with silly slow long range missiles, but the missiles would start to become a joke, and against ECM you might not even be able to lock without an overbuilt sensor. Still could work if fighters are your main DPS... assuming the foe bothers to put any PD on your missiles, and the missiles are still faster than their ships.
You could also look at 2 stage missiles, but then the ROF would drop a lot with the bigger size - might work for idea #1.
You could potentially sneak small ships inside the foes max range to launch your own missiles first, maybe small FACs or 3-4K ton Missile Frigates would be viable. At some point this stops being missiles + fighters and just devolves to fighters with missiles which I would argue is a different thing.
If you do a conventional start and your foes ships of the line are faster than your fighters I think you are just hosed?
Thoughts?
A few questions:
Q1) I assume people have done some variations on this previously? Any threads I should look at for ideas?
Q2) Are there any quirks of NPR behavior (e.g. AI PD always prioritizes fighters or missiles) which would make such a tactic broken (nonviable or exploit-y) in some way against AI?
Q3) MFC's don't create a signature, right? Or will they light up the threat board, so to speak? I assume if I want to avoid self-guiding missile mishaps (entire volleys launched into the void) I can put a really honking large MFC on my cruisers and active sensors on fighter or a fast frigate/FAC for initial lock without giving away the cruiser's position?
Q4) Would there be some important tech level threshold which would be required to make this viable, or a tech differential that puts the kibosh on it? Does this only really work with tech parity?
Q5) Are there some other major limitations to this strategy I'm totally forgetting in my broad strokes theory crafting?
Q6) Is this just a boondoggle of micro, expensive (and maybe suboptimal) missiles and fighters, dual tech trees, dual ordinance and fighter factories, shipyards, etc. which could break down tragically if I make a silly error, and I would be better served by just throwing more missiles, more fighters, and/or putting missiles on my fighters?
