So, is there a tactical counter to SBM pod spam? Because basically 15 destroyers wiped out an entire fleet on their own - if they had a full complement of pods, it would have been a total wipe.

You are correct, but a couple of notes.  Using pod ships like that requires pre-planning and the enemy sticking to your plan.  The pods have to be deployed from drive-field down ships, then activated, at which time they follow their program.  If the Lothari had done something unexpected, it would have resulted in wasting some or all of the pods.  Also, if the Lothari had been able to send in enough fighters to overwhelm the Alliance's fighter force, they could have kept their own fleet out of range of the pods and used their fighters to pick them off, or damage or destroy the Alliance fleet. 

Basically, the Alliance had the perfect setup for the use of the pod ships.  The Lothari weren't expecting them and had never used them themselves, so they weren't watching for them in spite of the fact that they knew what they existed.  The Lothari were coming for the Alliance fleet, allowing the Alliance to sit on the defensive, which gave the pod ships time to deploy their pods and program them.  The Lothari then acted predictably, which the Alliance took advantage of. 

In a more fluid situation, where the enemy is aware of the existence and use of pod-layers, it becomes much more difficult to use them effectively.  If this was a meeting battle in deep space, then the enemy would have seen the pod-laying destroyers drop their drive fields and would have been able to react.  The only plausible reason for this activity in deep space would have been to either arm/rearm gunboats or deploy cargo from a cargo hold.  This would allow the enemy to retreat from the pod-layers, or to vector in fighters to attack the drive-field down ships. 

I generally try to avoid having everything go right for one side, but in this case the Lothari are arrogant and convinced of their superiority, and desperate as well.  They fell right into the trap.

Kurt

1) Kill the destroyers
2) Kill the pods with a small craft strike

The pods also cost a LOT, the fleet did not have full loads for the destroyers. It is likely that the pod strike cost as much as half a dozen battlecruisers. They are also now unavailable to destroy WP defenses. Also in this case the fighters of the Alliance fleet would probably have been enough to win the battle.
From what I recall deployment and activation is somewhat slow so if the enemy don't attack a fixed point you are defending then using them is hard. They also have targeting limitation unless under direct control of the ship launching them, which limits the number you can deploy,

IIRC Kurt, you were going to experiment with a system to deal with these huge small craft battles - how'd it go?

Month 221, Day 8, Disputed Herzberg system, Lothari Front
The Alliance Fleet had been picketing the warp point from Herzberg to Liawak for months, as reinforcements arrived from the inner systems and ships were repaired and refitted.  Skull-Splitter had decided that they could wait no more, and in twelve more days the fleet would advance on the warp point to the Lothari home system, timing it to arrive at the end of the month, at which point the fleet’s newly built, repaired, or refitted ships would have completed their work-ups and would be ready for battle. 

The Lothari were apparently working on the same timeline, because in the early hours of the day a drive field contact appeared on the Alliance picket ship’s scanners at extreme range, headed directly for the warp point.  This contact was unexpected and no notification had been made from the Lothari ambassadorial ship.  Therefore, Skull-Splitter ordered the Lothari ambassadorial liner boarded and seized, and dispatched the 2nd Fleet’s twenty-nine corvette carriers to intercept the incoming contact and determine its makeup.  The seizure of the Lothari ambassadorial ship went off without a hitch, aside from the vigorous complaints from the Lothari ambassador, and the scouts set out to intercept the incoming contact. 

Eighteen hours later the Alliance scouts were within twelve light minutes of the contact and were able to determine that it was composed of forty-nine ships.  This was a substantial force, and more ships that Skull-Splitter had thought that the Lothari would have available, indicating either they had extensive reserves or an ally.  In either case the Alliance scouts pressed forward, trying to get close enough to determine the Lothari fleet’s makeup, but were unable to get within fifteen light seconds to get detailed scans of the enemy fleet.  Before they could close to that range, the Lothari fleet launched hundreds of fighters and gunboats, which all advanced to intercept the Alliance scouts.  The Alliance corvette-carriers didn’t carry enough fighters to deal with the Lothari fighter-gunboat force, so they were forced to turn back towards the warp point and run ahead of the Lothari fleet.  The Lothari small craft were unable to catch the fast Alliance scouts, but they were able to keep them away from their fleet. 

As the Alliance scouts dueled with the Lothari fleet, Skull-Splitter was readying his force for battle. 

While he didn’t know the makeup of the enemy fleet, he had a pretty good idea of Lothari technological capabilities and standard fleet strategies at this point.  The Lothari tended to field battlecruiser-heavy fleets, supported by gunboats and fighters.  The gunboats were interesting, given their ability to transit warp points, but could not stand up to fighters in open space.  Also, the engineers and scientists that had been studying Lothari tech informed him that gunboats were too large to be carried in internal bays.  They had to be carried on external racks, which meant that the ships that carried them could not also carry external ordnance.  Or defensive equipment, like EDM’s.  This would make them vulnerable to missile attacks, and while his fleet didn’t have that many missile ships, it did have something new.  Fifteen destroyers of a new design had recently arrived to bolster his forces.  These destroyers didn’t mount any weapons.  Instead, they had large cargo bays and tractor mounts.  The bays could carry one hundred and twenty strategic bombardment missile pods, and each destroyer mounted five improved tractor mounts, meaning it could deploy ten pods a minute.  If given time, each destroyer could deploy its pods and launch a salvo of three hundred and sixty SBM’s with anti-matter warheads.  Fifteen of them could deploy eighteen hundred pods, creating a massive missile wave that most fleets would have trouble weathering.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have twelve hundred pods available, but he did load the destroyers with every pod he did have, one thousand and fifty in total.  The Lothari were in for a big surprise. 

To suck the Lothari in Skull-Splitter ordered his fleet divided into four divisions.  First, he detached a group of ships, including all of the assault battleships, and stationed them in the Liawak system, at the warp point.  They would remain in position until needed, or, in the worst case, defend the warp point should the Lothari overwhelm his fleet.  Secondly, his carriers were stationed on the warp point on the Herzberg side, and would launch their fighters and retreat through the warp point to safety before the battle began.  The pods destroyers were stationed behind his fleet, where they could launch their pods and then retreat to the warp point once their part in the battle was finished.  Finally, the twenty-four ships of his main fleet were stationed two point five light seconds from the warp point.  The apparent weakness of his fleet would suck the Lothari in, and then his SBM pods and fighters would overwhelm them. 

Month 221, Day 10, Disputed Herzberg system, warp point to Liawak
Swordsman of Stars Weber watched as the plot tank updated as his fleet crossed the invisible fifteen light second barrier around the warp point and his sensors were finally able to see more detail about the enemy fleet.   Twenty-four ships Alliance ships were assembled within three light seconds of the warp point.  He felt hope swell within him, as he had more than twice that number in his fleet.  He turned to the command ship’s sensor officer.  “Report!”

“Sir, twenty-four ships are confirmed, twelve battlecruisers, nine cruisers, and three destroyers.  Numerous indistinct drive fields detected, possibly fighters, numbers unknown.  Fifteen ships without drive fields detected, point five light seconds behind the main enemy force.”

Weber paused.  The fifteen ships without drive fields could be a problem, but they would have to be very big to offset his fleet’s advantage.  “Very well.  Signal all ships to accelerate to combat speed.  Enemy battlecruisers are the priority target, until further notice.”

The Lothari fleet accelerated and closed on the Alliance fleet, which remained motionless.  Both sides held their small craft close to their main fleet.  Two minutes later the Lothari fleet had closed to nine light seconds from the main Alliance fleet, and the tactical plot updated.  Swordsman of Stars Weber paled as he realized the true extent of the Alliance fleet’s power.  His ship’s sensors were now able to determine the number of small, indistinct drive fields around the main Alliance fleet, even if they could not determine the type.  There were almost fourteen hundred small drive fields surrounding the Alliance fleet, almost certainly fighters.  His own fleet, which he had thought so powerful only a moment ago, only boasted five hundred and eighty-one fighters and gunboats.  On the other hand, the drive-field down ships had powered up and revealed themselves as destroyers, meaning that they wouldn’t meaningfully alter the balance of power between the two fleets.  Weber was still trying to deal with the fact that the Alliance’s fighter force outnumbered his nearly three to one when an alert went off.  He turned to the sensor officer.  “Report!”

“Sir, new contact, unknown drive fields in the same location as the enemy destroyer force, numbering one thousand and fifty!”

Weber gaped at the tank, trying to understand what was happening.  This had to be a second fighter force.  “The fleet will turn away until we can determine the true strength of the enemy.  Engage enemy battlecruisers with SBM’s!”

The Lothari fleet had been advancing even as Weber issued orders, so by the time the fleet began turning they had closed to seven point five light seconds from the Alliance fleet.  The presumed fighter contacts had advanced away from the Alliance fleet, towards the Lothari fleet, and by the time the Lothari began turning they were just six point two five light seconds from the Lothari ships.  At that range the Lothari long range sensors could determine with specificity the type and class of the small drive fields, and Weber was shaken to his core.  Indeed, there were almost fourteen hundred Alliance fighters out there, but the second contact numbering one thousand and fifty was instead SBM pods!

Both sides opened fire with long range weapons, targeting each other’s long-range battlecruisers.  The Alliance only had two battlecruisers equipped with long range missiles, while the Lothari had nine.  Even so, the range was long and only one Lothari missile got through to hit an Alliance BC’s shields. 

The pods, escorted by Alliance fighters, raced at the Lothari fleet, which completed its turn and began moving away from the oncoming Alliance swarm.  The missile ships of each fleet continued dueling, to little effect, with only one Lothari missile getting through the Alliance fleet’s defenses to hit a battlecruiser’s shields.  It was then that the SBM pods fired.  Suddenly, three thousand one hundred and fifty missiles were in space, headed towards the Lothari fleet.  The avalanche of missiles was aimed primarily at the Lothari battlecruiser force, with a relative few aimed at the escorting heavy cruisers.  The missiles impacted across the fleet simultaneously, forcing each ship to defend itself, without its data-group’s assistance.   The results were devastating.  A massive wave of explosions engulfed the Lothari fleet, and when they died away most of the battleline was just gone.  Out of thirty-two battlecruisers and heavy cruisers, just five remained.  The four battlecruisers still active were all the long-range variant, and this was due solely to the fact that they carried no gunboats and instead mounted external racks that had been loaded with decoy EDM’s.  The EDM’s had saved the four surviving battlecruisers, two of which still had armor and were intact.  One of the other two battlecruisers had suffered minor internal damage, losing an engine room, while the fourth battlecruiser and the lone heavy cruisers were wrecks, reduced to 16% of their original speed.  The Lothari carrier force hadn’t been targeted, and was still intact.  The Lothari heavy cruiser force, which was its primary anti-fighter force, was devastated by the attack, with only two cruisers remaining and those both crippled. 

Swordsman of Stars Weber, who by some trick of fate had survived aboard the battlecruiser that had lost an engine room, was staggered by the destruction wrought upon his fleet.  His fleet was ruined, and all hope of victory was lost.  Surrender was not an option, as had been made clear by the Great Leader, and by the Internal Security, who had promised the execution of everyone related to any officer that surrendered in the face of the enemy, no matter the reason.  Therefore, there was only one thing to do.  Weber ordered the fleet to come about and charge the enemy.  He ordered his carriers to ram the closest enemy ships, while the gunboats and fighters were to advance on the enemy fighter force which was now racing towards his fleet. 

The Lothari gunboat force launched a salvo of anti-fighter missiles as the two groups of small craft closed on each other, taking out just over one hundred and fifty Alliance fighters, and then the two groups of small craft slammed together in front of the Lothari fleet.  Behind them, the Alliance fleet had accelerated towards the Lothari fleet, closing with the battered enemy fleet as the two groups of small craft slugged it out. 

With the Lothari small craft being so heavily outnumbered, the results were inevitable.  When the furball cleared, all of the Lothari small craft had been destroyed, and four hundred and fifteen Alliance fighters had died, leaving seven hundred and sixty-one Alliance fighters in between the Lothari fleet and the Alliance fleet.  Meanwhile, the two fleets were slugging it out, as they were now in range of their heavy beam weapons.  The Alliance had the advantage here as well.  The Alliance ships concentrated their fire on the two Lothari battlecruisers that had survived the pod attack without losing all of their armor, cutting through the already shredded armor belt and inflicting internal damage. 

With the Lothari small craft gone, the Alliance fighters now turned on the Lothari fleet.  Swordsman of Stars Weber had ordered the fleet to ram Alliance battlecruisers, so instead of trying to avoid the Alliance fighters or modulating their engines to reduce the effectiveness of their weapons, the Lothari fleet headed straight towards the Alliance fleet, which had turned and was moving to maintain the range.  Thus, the Alliance fighters were able to line up a perfect shot from directly behind the Lothari force, protected from their point defense by the blind spot inflicted by their engines. 

The Alliance heavy cruisers and battlecruisers wiped out the remaining Lothari battlecruisers and then began targeting light carriers, damaging four.  Then the fighters swept up behind the Lothari force and, just like that, the battle was over.  The seven hundred remaining fighters completely overwhelmed the remaining Lothari ships and wiped them from space in one firing pass.  No ships were spared, and the fighters hunted down the two remaining crippled ships that had fallen behind and destroyed them without mercy.  None of the Lothari ships attempted to surrender, and no life pods were ejected from Lothari ships. 

The Alliance force expended 1,050 SBM pods and lost five hundred and sixty-eight fighters.  One heavy cruiser suffered minor armor damage.  Skull-Splitter ordered his fifteen pod destroyers to return to Liawak, as they had expended all of the available pods and more wouldn’t be available until next month, along with the twenty carriers of various sizes that had lost their fighter complements.  With his reorganization complete, he ordered the one hundred and six ships of the 2nd Fleet to set course for the warp point to the Lothari home system.  For now, they would ignore the Lothari colony in the inner system. 

Confederated Sentient Races

Total Income: 150,191 MCr’s
Total Upkeep: 47,402 MCr’s (31.6%)

Total Fleet
3xML, 27xBC, 9xCV, 1xCVL, 16xCVS, 9xCL, 33xCVE, 34xDD, 37xCT, 294xF0, 336xF1, 258xF2(L)

Under Construction
9xML, 1xSSSY, 120xAMMF, 345xDSB-Xr, 96xF2(L)

Prefabbing
2xSS(SYx5)

Refitting
6xBC, 2xCV, 1xCVL, 5xCVS, 3xCL, 10xCVE, 2xDD, 4xCT, 3xDDAW, 2xBS4, 2xPDC, 7xBS2V

The CSR has undergone a major reorganization over the last few months.  The informal division between the former Tomsk and Bjering territories has been codified by creating two sectors for administrative purposes, with the capitals for the two sectors being Tomsk and Bjering Prime. 

The Tomsk Sector, centered on the Tomsk system, comprises one hundred systems, forty of which are inhabited.  The sector contains two hundred and sixty-six discrete populations, and comprises 51% of the CSR’s production.  The sector’s total population is 1,500,000,000, and is primarily human.  The Tomsk system is the CSR’s fifth most productive system, with the Petropavlovsk system and the Budapest system being the second and fourth most productive systems. 

The Bjering Sector is centered on the Bjering Home System, and comprises one hundred and six systems, twenty-nine of which are inhabited.  The sector contains two hundred and eight populations, with a total population of 41,400,000,000, almost exclusively Bjering.  The Bjering home system is the CSR’s most productive system, and is twice as productive as the CSR’s second most productive system.  The Sutr system is the third most productive system. 

In month 219, the CSR absorbed the Bedu refugees that fled to Bjering space after the Mintek conquered their empire.  The rulers of the Bedu refugees realized early on that they did not bring enough of their people out to establish an effective state, and so from almost the first were focused on joining the CSR.  The merger brought a few carriers and support ships into the CSR navy, but the Bedu refugee’s most important contribution was their map of Bedu space, including its connections with other races.  This revealed several interesting connections not previously known.  For example, during their explorations, the Bedu had discovered no less than two closed warp points from their frontier systems that led to uninhabited systems in the Tomsk sector.  Another led to an important human Colonial Union colony system.  Plans are being made to fortify both of those systems as the Mintek either know about those access points, or will know at some point.  There is an ongoing debate about whether to tell the humans of the link to their colony. 

Colonization of new systems has slowed over the last six months, largely because the CSR has been focused on building up the populations of the primary Tomsk Sector colony worlds.  Prior to the merger, the Tomsk Union was population starved, with its primary worlds barely capable of supporting out-system colonization and constantly running short of colonists.  Since the merger, the CSR has focused on boosting the populations of those worlds, to extend the reach of the colonization program, and on boosting the populations of benign/rich and benign/very rich worlds in the Tomsk Sector.  This has had the secondary effect of creating several multi-racial worlds.  While the leaders of both races were concerned about the possible difficulties this might create, so far the results have been positive. 

The lull in colonization has given the CSR’s exploration fleet’s a chance to be recalled for refits to the latest technology.  The CSR has decided to discontinue use of the venerable explorer class units, as being too small and too vulnerable for exploration duty.  Instead, the survey fleets will be made up of survey cruisers, supported by survey destroyers and corvette scouts.  The refit of the survey fleets will give the survey cruisers a heavy punch with their gunboat flotillas, meaning that the survey groups will be able to defend themselves from all but a significant enemy force. 

The CSR fleet is currently undergoing a massive refit to HT-10 standards, taking advantage of advanced shielding, improved targeting, and advanced point defense.    Gunboat racks will be added to all carriers, and to survey units, but fleet ships will retain their standard XO racks, largely to carry defensive EDM’s and offensive ADM’s.