What's Going On In Your Empire: C# Edition

[AlStar]

We met our first Raider ship the other day, and it nearly kicked humanity back into the stone age.

Humanity's combat-capable ships were limited to their exploration ships (which were out-of-system at the time) and a single, brand-new destroyer - 6,000 tons of ion-powered lasers - four 10cm mounts (firing every 5 seconds) and two 12cm mounts (firing every 10 seconds). When the Raider showed up on Terra's deep space network, the destroyer was dispatched to intercept.

By sheer coincidence, the destroyer was marginally faster than the raider - by about 200 km/s - allowing it to close to engagement range. What followed was a bloody point-blank knife fight, as our destroyer's weapons repeatedly punched through the raider's hull - to absolutely no effect. Our ship had three layers of armor protecting it, which were enough to soften the mass driver blows coming in, but all too soon they buckled, and - unlike the raider - when they did, internal systems started failing.

The destroyer exploded, and the raider, despite taking upwards of a dozen penetrating hits, had not been reduced in either speed or rate of fire. It proceeded to waltz over to Terra and blow-up hundreds of thousands of tons of commercial shipping.

When it started taking pot shots at my shipyards, I had enough, and ruled that the second destroyer that was under construction was put into emergency service (read: I SM'd in a ship). That destroyer was able to take out the raider in just a couple volleys, suffering only minor armor damage in the exchange.

Terra now has a full flight of fighters as well as STO units guarding it, so hopefully will not see a repeat performance.

As a final FU from the Raiders, their shenanigans in Sol caused the automatic refueling / resupplying conditionals for all my exploration ships to freak out, so until the danger level clears itself, I need to manually guide them back, while they spam me with "unable to find a route" messages every couple days.

[Ulzgoroth]

Cannot sufficiently emphasize the value of some STO batteries, especially if you don't want to invest heavily in warships. Those things are dumb enough to sail right into the teeth of a mass of ground-based lasers rather than keeping away and picking off your shipping.

[Steve Walmsley]

I just found a twin planet. Two Earth-sized bodies in a close orbit (one is the moon of the other), both with liquid oceans and breathable atmospheres. My joy was somewhat short-lived though when I realised their eccentricity was 0.65, the orbit ranged from 61m to 289m km and they had a 300 degree temperature range! Grrr!

EDIT: Also the moon has 34m tons of accessibility 1.0 Duranium!

Athena-A III Survey Report
Duranium:   7,840,800   0.60
Neutronium:   33,732,864   0.10
Corbomite:   15,681,600   0.10
Tritanium:   41,835,024   0.10
Boronide:   5,963,364   0.10
Mercassium:   627,264   0.10
Vendarite:   7,322,436   0.10
Sorium:   7,322,436   0.10
Uridium:   16,744,464   0.10
Corundium:   5,963,364   0.10
Gallicite:   3,415,104   0.20

Athena-A III - Moon 1 Survey Report
Duranium:   34,249,398   1.00
Neutronium:   6,608,498   0.10
Tritanium:   9,828,225   0.90
Boronide:   34,736,878   0.10
Corundium:   12,772,761   0.10

[BwenGun]

I just found a twin planet. Two Earth-sized bodies in a close orbit (one is the moon of the other), both with liquid oceans and breathable atmospheres. My joy was somewhat short-lived though when I realised their eccentricity was 0.65, the orbit ranged from 61m to 289m km and they had a 300 degree temperature range! Grrr!

The obvious answer is to build a big enough set of engines to slowly change their orbit to a more normal and palatable one. Plus replace the oceans with sorium to power the things for however many decades it takes to complete!

[Kurt]

I just found a twin planet. Two Earth-sized bodies in a close orbit (one is the moon of the other), both with liquid oceans and breathable atmospheres. My joy was somewhat short-lived though when I realised their eccentricity was 0.65, the orbit ranged from 61m to 289m km and they had a 300 degree temperature range! Grrr!

EDIT: Also the moon has 34m tons of accessibility 1.0 Duranium!

That is an amazing find and completely frustrating due to the eccentricity.  I ignored the eccentricity early in my last campaign, much to my later dismay.  Now, I've learned to pay close attention and to think it through before throwing around terraformers. 

[Garfunkel]

Please remember guys that Eric created the Spoiler sub-forum specifically so that any discussion about certain topics can be kept away from the 'regular' sub-forums and threads. Don't be afraid to use it! I know we have the spoiler tags too but if something is going to create back-and-forth discussion, it should be kept to the Spoiler sub-forum. Remember, it might be something ordinary and common to you, but still remain as mysterious and extraordinary for other players.

[kks]

So. I finally finished my first invasion of an enemy home world. I severly underestimated the time and forces needed for that operation. While my ships effortlessly cleared the enemy space forces the ground incasion took eight years to defeat the enemy forces. I think it was one of the new NPCs restriced to one system with a population of >600m. I had quite an edge in tech.

I had some idea that the active senor ground force signature is way lower than the actual weight from previos encounters with spoilers and calculated accordingly. But only when I was well into the campaign did I look into the exact mechanics.

Didn't help that it was an Alpine Grasslands although I did some (total 1000 dmg) missile bombardment after the first two attacking divisions were wiped out. Seems like I accidentaly did drop an reverse "Agent Orange" that way since it changed to Mountains and soon to boreal Mountain forests...

My battleships did destroy circa between 50k and 100k tons of STO in preparation, which showed as 20k. I estimate the enemy 70k ground force signature as somewhat between 500k and 1m tons. Might have been even more. There were some ~50k of Infantry and supporting vehicles.

All in all I commited eight divisons of ~45k tons for the fight, plus two(one of which was mainly STO) which arrived only after the fights and were needed for occupation. About 70k Reinforcement and supply were delivered during the fight, too.

The first two divisions were completly wiped out before the second wave arrived, as I underestimated the travel times of my slow divisional transports. I learned and assembeld the next 4 in system and dropped them de facto simultanously.
Another two division joined the fight after two years when they were finally assembeld.

Only the first two and one of the reinforments were of the new type which featured power armour and terrain capabilities. So the brunt of the work was done by my starting designs of simple infantry and artillery with medium tank support, but all without terrain capabilities.

I however am sure my ample supply with combat engineers helped, as soon after the second wave causalities on both sides plummeted as supply ran out and units dug in. In the end, thanks to that and reinforcement of new and old infantry my divisons managed to stay at 1/2 to 3/4 their full strength while the heavy tanks and arty slowly killed off the enemy, which was largely devoid of AT at that point.

[nuclearslurpee]

That sounds like an absolutely brutal ground campaign and I love it! 

Seems like I accidentaly did drop an reverse "Agent Orange" that way since it changed to Mountains and soon to boreal Mountain forests...

I can't believe I've never thought of using orbital bombardment to change the terrain type... not that I've ever needed to, but that would be a good way to reduce defender fortification advantages in specific cases, e.g. converting Jungle Mountains to ordinary Mountains.

[Steve Walmsley]

In a previous campaign I used about 40k MSP in energy weapon repairs to drop the temperature of a hostile world by about 80 degrees and reduce an enemy Jungle planet to cold desert. I also timed my ground invasion when it was furthest from the star

There were two mutually hostile races on the planet with 2b+ populations when I started. In the end, one was about 300m and the other less than 100m when I finally conquered it.

[Droll]

In a previous campaign I used about 40k MSP in energy weapon repairs to drop the temperature of a hostile world by about 80 degrees and reduce an enemy Jungle planet to cold desert. I also timed my ground invasion when it was furthest from the star

There were two mutually hostile races on the planet with 2b+ populations when I started. In the end, one was about 300m and the other less than 100m when I finally conquered it.

Funny coincidence that you used 40k MSP 

[kks]

In a previous campaign I used about 40k MSP in energy weapon repairs to drop the temperature of a hostile world by about 80 degrees and reduce an enemy Jungle planet to cold desert. I also timed my ground invasion when it was furthest from the star

There were two mutually hostile races on the planet with 2b+ populations when I started. In the end, one was about 300m and the other less than 100m when I finally conquered it.

Ouch. At that point, straight out exterminating nuking the planet might be cheaper. Nothing but minerals to get from there anyway, then.

[nuclearslurpee]

In a previous campaign I used about 40k MSP in energy weapon repairs to drop the temperature of a hostile world by about 80 degrees and reduce an enemy Jungle planet to cold desert. I also timed my ground invasion when it was furthest from the star

There were two mutually hostile races on the planet with 2b+ populations when I started. In the end, one was about 300m and the other less than 100m when I finally conquered it.

Ouch. At that point, straight out exterminating nuking the planet might be cheaper. Nothing but minerals to get from there anyway, then.

I mean, 400m pop is nothing to sneeze at, that's probably a solid 10-20% addition to your race once pacified, and I'm sure some valuable installations survived as well.

[Steve Walmsley]

I am researching a new 'British Empire in 1890' campaign and I was considering some sort of 'assault transport' design, but I don't recall the Royal Navy of the period having anything similar to a space marine strike cruiser. I looked into it anyway and I was surprised to find the following:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_boarding_steamer

This has manifested in my new campaign as the River class armed boarding vessel. This is totally different than my usual 'fast transports mounted on a carrier' approach, but I thought it would be interested to see if I could make it work. This ship will only be able to safely board hostile vessels with a speed of 800 km/s or less, but it does carry 200 Royal Marines with power armour and crew-served weapons and a very light armament (to slow down potential targets). It might also be sufficient to take hostile outposts, especially if two or more ships combine their forces. The River class is extremely vulnerable to damage, but then the historical ships were too. I think the best operational uses might be as a commerce raider, hunting for hostile survey ships, or moving in post-battle to board any cripples. I'll adjust based on combat results.

River class Armed Boarding Vessel      6,000 tons       116 Crew       512.3 BP       TCS 120    TH 480    EM 0
4000 km/s      Armour 1-29       Shields 0-0       HTK 24      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 2-3      PPV 6
Maint Life 0.80 Years     MSP 106    AFR 144%    IFR 2.0%    1YR 133    5YR 1,994    Max Repair 240 MSP
Troop Capacity 2,500 tons     Boarding Capable   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Parsons PN-480 Triple Expansion Gas-Core Drive (1)    Power 480.0    Fuel Use 55.21%    Signature 480.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 289,000 Litres    Range 15.7 billion km (45 days at full power)

4-inch QF Railgun (2x4)    Range 20,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 20,000 km    ROF 5       
Barr and Stroud MK I Railgun Fire Control (1)     Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s    ECCM-1     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
R-6 Gaseous Fission Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 6.3    Exp 5%
Maxwell MX-30 Navigation Sensor   (1)     GPS 1920     Range 31.5m km    Resolution 120

Ground Forces
1x Royal Marine Company

I've taken a different approach to my other combat vessels too. As usual, I have based on them on designs of the time, but this time the battleships and destroyers have only 6 months endurance, the heavy cruisers and light escort cruisers have 12 months while the light patrol cruisers have 24 months. I've also gone for a turreted approach for the primary armament, but only with a tracking speed of 8000 km/s. That allows better targeting of faster alien ships, gives me a flexible anti-missile capability while keeping down turret and fire control size. It might prove to be a bad idea, but it works with the theme and I haven't tried this before. For example:

Surface warship design in the latter half of the 19th century had focused on flexible armaments, able to inflict damage at long range while maintaining sufficient fast-firing secondary weapons that could deal with the threat from smaller, faster combatants. This experience was evident in the early spacecraft designs, with armaments that included several different calibres of energy weapons. The 10-inch, 8-inch and 6-inch lasers were for ship-to-ship engagements and mounted by battleships, heavy cruisers and light cruisers respectively, while 4-inch railguns provided anti-missile defences. The small fast-firing lasers in 4-inch and 5-inch calibres were flexible weapons that could perform both roles.

The Royal Sovereign class Battleship was the embodiment of this philosophy, known as the ‘triple-12’ design. The armament comprised twelve twin 10-inch laser turrets, twelve twin 5-inch laser turrets and twelve 4-inch railguns. The battleship was intended to operate at the heart of the battle fleet, combining with its sister ships to overwhelm any foe with massed energy weapon fire. As the Royal Sovereign would only be deployed for decisive engagements against substantial enemy forces, it had lower endurance than the cruiser classes. A single Avro 500 was embarked for long-range scouting duties.

Royal Sovereign class Battleship      60,000 tons       1,862 Crew       10,116.8 BP       TCS 1,200    TH 4,800    EM 8,520
4000 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 6-136       Shields 284-426       HTK 347      Sensors 18/24/0/0      DCR 31-5      PPV 375.84
Maint Life 1.50 Years     MSP 5,766    AFR 929%    IFR 12.9%    1YR 2,883    5YR 43,248    Max Repair 750 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons     
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 5    Morale Check Required   

Tesla TM-600 Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 60000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Parsons PN-1200 Triple Expansion Gas-Core Drive (4)    Power 4800.0    Fuel Use 34.92%    Signature 1200.00    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 1,775,000 Litres    Range 15.2 billion km (44 days at full power)
Krupp KD-71 Shield Generator (4)     Recharge Time 426 seconds (0.7 per second)

Twin 10-inch Laser Turret (12x2)    Range 256,000km     TS: 8000 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 50,000 km    ROF 20       
Twin 5-inch QF Laser Turret (12x2)    Range 200,000km     TS: 8000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
4-inch QF Railgun (12x4)    Range 20,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 20,000 km    ROF 5       
Barr and Stroud MK I Primary Laser Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 256,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-1     96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Barr and Stroud MK I Railgun Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s    ECCM-1     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
R-48 Gaseous Fission Reactor  (5)     Total Power Output 240.6    Exp 5%

Maxwell MX-110 Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 23040     Range 109.1m km    Resolution 120
Maxwell MX-15S Small Craft Detection Sensor   (1)     GPS 192     Range 15.1m km    Resolution 10
Maxwell MX-6M Missile Detection Sensor   (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1
Rutherford RE-24 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 24.00     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  38.7m km
Rutherford RT-18 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 18.00     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Fire Control 1    Missile 1   

Strike Group
1x Avro 500 Scout   Speed: 4001 km/s    Size: 5

[nuclearslurpee]

I've taken a different approach to my other combat vessels too. As usual, I have based on them on designs of the time, but this time the battleships and destroyers have only 6 months endurance, the heavy cruisers and light escort cruisers have 12 months while the light patrol cruisers have 24 months.

Interesting approach. I've never been brave enough to do something like this, mostly because I expect my ships to have to camp out on a jump point at some time or another so having disparate deployment times (and maintenance lives) would make that complicated to say the least. I have tried setting different fuel ranges for cruisers vs system craft for example.

Let us know how this unusual doctrine works! 

[AlStar]

Made my first engagement against a Rakhas controlled world.

Luckily, initial sensor scans were close enough to true that when we showed up with 64k of ground troops, we weren't instantly overwhelmed. According to Intelligence, it looks like their average infantry carries armor that's roughly on-par with our light vehicles, and weapons that are twice as strong.

Which makes it a good thing that I anticipated that something like this might be the case, and so each of my invasion armies were composed of 300 units of Heavy Anti-Personnel Tanks and 270 Anti-Tank Jeeps. The 2xCAP of the tanks is a little anemic against their armor, but the several thousand shots and several hundred hits usually result in a couple dozen kills. The jeeps are one-shot-one-kill... but they're only hitting a handful of enemies a round.

Losses in our tanks are low. Jeeps are manageable. Averaging roughly 3 or 4 to 1 kills/losses.

Looking promising to clear this world without further forces. Very glad I didn't send powered armor (or gods-forbid) regular infantry; as I can only imagine that casulties would be grim.