In my current game, my glorious battle fleets consist of one Falcon jump ship, two Excelsior-D laser destroyers, and two Reliant carriers. I have four of these fleets. Designs are below. They seem to work well under certain conditions. Using the fighters, they have the ability to make a massive first strike (a volley of 160x Sidewinder or Copperhead missiles, depending on the target). They have good range for combat ships (because they have 0.75 power engines) and the lasers are powerful up close. Because the jump ship can squadron jump the whole fleet, they can move and fight pretty elegantly.
Excelsior-D class Destroyer 16,000 tons 446 Crew 3602.2 BP TCS 320 TH 720 EM 0
4500 km/s Armour 10-56 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 78.92
Maint Life 1.93 Years MSP 704 AFR 409% IFR 5.7% 1YR 246 5YR 3694 Max Repair 168 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1
90 EP Internal Fusion Drive (16) Power 90 Fuel Use 27.47% Signature 45 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 800,000 Litres Range 32.8 billion km (84 days at full power)
20cm C5 FUV Laser Cannon (8) Range 320,000km TS: 6250 km/s Power 10-5 RM 5 ROF 10 10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Quad R3/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (2x4) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 12-12 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FUV Cannon Fire Control S05 160-5000 (2) Max Range: 320,000 km TS: 5000 km/s 97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Meson Fire Control S08 48-16000 (1) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 16000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor P-8 (8) Total Power Output 64 Armour 0 Exp 5%
8HS FAC Sensor MR82-R20 (1) GPS 3360 Range 82.6m km Resolution 20
8HS Missile Sensor MR18-R1 (1) GPS 168 Range 18.5m km Resolution 1
8HS Ship Sensor II MR233-R160 (1) GPS 26880 Range 233.8m km Resolution 160
Falcon class Jump Destroyer 16,000 tons 366 Crew 2839.6 BP TCS 320 TH 720 EM 0
4500 km/s JR 5-100 Armour 13-56 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 14 PPV 30.92
Maint Life 2.19 Years MSP 1444 AFR 512% IFR 7.1% 1YR 405 5YR 6079 Max Repair 236 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1
Flag Bridge Troop Capacity: 1 Company Drop Capacity: 1 Company
J18000(5-100) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 18000 tons Distance 100k km Squadron Size 5
90 EP Internal Fusion Drive (16) Power 90 Fuel Use 27.47% Signature 45 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 800,000 Litres Range 32.8 billion km (84 days at full power)
Quad R3/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (2x4) Range 30,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 12-12 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meson Fire Control S08 48-16000 (1) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 16000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Tokamak Fusion Reactor P-8 (3) Total Power Output 24 Armour 0 Exp 5%
8HS Missile Sensor MR18-R1 (1) GPS 168 Range 18.5m km Resolution 1
Reliant class Light Carrier 16,000 tons 233 Crew 2286.8 BP TCS 320 TH 720 EM 0
4500 km/s Armour 2-56 Shields 0-0 Sensors 112/88/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
Maint Life 2.75 Years MSP 1447 AFR 409% IFR 5.7% 1YR 275 5YR 4124 Max Repair 112 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Flight Crew Berths 28
Hangar Deck Capacity 6250 tons Magazine 320
90 EP Internal Fusion Drive (16) Power 90 Fuel Use 27.47% Signature 45 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres Range 41.0 billion km (105 days at full power)
Sidewinder-B (40) Speed: 35,000 km/s End: 72.7m Range: 152.6m km WH: 4 Size: 4 TH: 163/98/49
Copperhead-A (40) Speed: 28,000 km/s End: 70.2m Range: 117.9m km WH: 9 Size: 4 TH: 121/72/36
8HS Thermal Sensor TH8-112 (1) Sensitivity 112 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 112m km
8HS EM Detection Sensor EM8-88 (1) Sensitivity 88 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 88m km
Strike Group
2x Lion Lifeboat Speed: 14285 km/s Size: 4.9
20x Rogue Fighter-bomber Speed: 12500 km/s Size: 5.6
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Rogue class Fighter-bomber 280 tons 1 Crew 83.7 BP TCS 5.6 TH 35 EM 0
12500 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 2.4
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 0 AFR 56% IFR 0.8% 1YR 5 5YR 72 Max Repair 26.25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months Spare Berths 9
Magazine 16
35 EP Internal Fusion Fighter Drive (2) Power 35 Fuel Use 240.65% Signature 17.5 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres Range 1.3 billion km (29 hours at full power)
Size 4 Launch Rail (4) Missile Size 4 Hangar Reload 30 minutes MF Reload 5 hours
Fighter Missile Fire Control FC21-R20 (1) Range 21.7m km Resolution 20
Sidewinder-B (4) Speed: 35,000 km/s End: 72.7m Range: 152.6m km WH: 4 Size: 4 TH: 163/98/49
Lion class Lifeboat 245 tons 4 Crew 80.1 BP TCS 4.9 TH 35 EM 0
14285 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years MSP 0 AFR 49% IFR 0.7% 1YR 5 5YR 82 Max Repair 26.25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 1
Cryogenic Berths 200
J300(1-50) Fighter Jump Drive Max Ship Size 300 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
35 EP Internal Fusion Fighter Drive (2) Power 35 Fuel Use 240.65% Signature 17.5 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 25,000 Litres Range 7.6 billion km (6 days at full power)
The problems with this setup are:
1. The carriers have thin armor, so they wouldn't last long if the enemy was striking first.
2. The carriers can only reload the fighters once, so they lack endurance. In my recent conquest I had to have this fleet constantly attended by colliers (with commercial engine speeds).
3. Adding extra ships like colliers or troopships would take away the squadron jump ability.
4. The big one: although my shipyards can build four carriers at once, I can only build fighters one at a time. I cannot scale this model up without spending decades building fighters. And then I'd have the joy of micromanaging them!
I'm going to keep these four task groups and keep upgrading them, but I think their roles will be to patrol my own space and/or clear systems of spoilers. Meanwhile, I want to come up with a new fleet design that's scalable, so that as many ships as I build, they can all fit together into it. That will be the basis of my war armada, so I can take on my frenemies who have 30-40 ships in a roving fleet. My shipyards and maintenance bases are standardized at 16000T but will be upgraded to 18000T soon, and I have four such shipyards with (soon) four slipways each. I'm thinking of keeping one shipyard in reserve and coming up with three designs: a laser destroyer like the Excelsior but faster, a missile-lobbing ship, and an anti-missile ship.
The anti-missile ship is the one I'm most undecided on. The meson turrets on my existing fleet worked pretty good in combat. I have some new tech though, so I can make faster-tracking fire controls and faster turrets which is good. One other thing I can do is make larger mesons with more range. But would that do me any good? As far as I know, point-blank defenses always get a shot, so why not just go with the shortest-range smaller mesons, and set them to defend at range of 10kkm? Is there a benefit to sizing up?
Also, my recently-defeated enemy gave me some gauss cannon tech, and I now have the ability to make gauss guns that fire 4 times per second with a comparable level of muzzle velocity tech. Are these better than meson turrets for missile defense? What would you do?