I have been playing a Command and Conquer GDI themed game for about 10 months sporadically in 2023 until work put a stop to it. It was a very slow game with 25% research and 10% survey speed that lasted I think 150 years. It was sadly also rather uneventful in comparison to most other games I had. Only 1 ground battle and 1 space encounter, otherwise an economy game.(I also didn't start NOD as an NPR, so there was really no opposition)
Anyway, I am putting it to rest so I can start a new game on new version, inspired by recent Rogue Trader RPG space battles.
For that I am putting up my designs here, so that at least something is left behind from that time.
The final naval organization structure:
Note that the whole fleet was currently stored in 4 of 5 giant hangar orbitals on the moon, who, -no matter what the wrong maintenance life calculation says-, had about 120 years maintenance life, meaning they cost less than 20 MSP per 5 days in comparison to ~300 MSP which their contents would normally cost. They are however themselves costly to develop.
They use the lore Philadelphia station example from GDI lore.
The final army elements:
Kodiak DestroyerNow the real designs, starting with the famous Kodiak destroyer, moved into space. The first is the listing at first conception, the second at the end of the game.
Those were as system defense ships with only 1-2 systems maximum intended deployment range. Focus obviously on SRM density (here imagined as "artillery shells" as I often do) since this is the patented "obliterate all" solution against up to +3TL and much greater attacker fleet masses.
Orca GunshipIn addition, mostly due to RP reasons, Sol system defense was aided by 24 Orcas, which are particle beam FACs that pretty much only find their niche against civil ships and rare, lower tech beam ships.
Magellan Survey FrigateThough initial Sol survey was done by some fighter factory built vessels, the interstellar survey mission followed the absolute opposite philosophy: Large multi-role long range extended deployment frigate ships. The Star Trek adventure ship idea.
Condor Scout PlaneSince Aurora C# sensor mechanics have shifted so that many smaller sensors are better in getting eyes than one big one like in VB6, I now usually run some scout plane designs that can keep locks on enemies or in this case, safely approach suspicious oxygen planets before the costly capital ship comes close.
Phoenix FighterAlso mainly for system defense, but eventually intended for carrier usage, your usual SRM armed strikefighter.
Ampere Frigate + Angström Light FrigateFinally, the actual navy, meant for interstellar deployment. However, at game end only consisted of 8 beam escorts/ jump point siege ships and 2 forward fleet scouts/'no-missile ships tactical punishers'. They only come at highest TL, so there is only one design each.
The real strategy which I had tried in two games to come to fruition now was to have lots of beam defense capacity for escorts and territory defense, and behind that thick wall of pikes, the real cruisers, which should have held large artillery cannons for long range missile/"artillery" strikes. ...I never seem to get there, so, next game, I am starting with large cruisers right away.
Sol also had some quite normal non-thematic orbitals:
The token GDI orbital Ion Cannon was never realized since in Aurora C#, beam defense is so much more efficient from ground up than be left in orbit. However, next game, I am thinking of expanding on the orbital hangar idea and have lots of smaller orbitals stored in there for dispense in case of attack. That would let me expand defense independently of MSP capacity, so ground or orbital does not matter as much.
Eventually I also wanted a GDI super mammoth tank, but it never came to that.
Now of to the first WH40k Aurora game in 10 years.
