Reunification Can be a Pain... BSG/Battletech crossover. (unofficail) tech talks

[Intermittent_Coherence]

All good points.

Colonial FTL systems are prone to breakdown after repetitive use over an extended period of time (TRS: "33").

While this concern was raised early in the series, bear in mind that by that point, they had been at it for some 130hrs. Even then, once they'd scaled back on the frequency of their jumps, those ships, most of them using civilian spec drives, were still able to soldier on for years.

Colonial FTL systems appear to be a holdover from the Exodus from Kobol, and their current designs have been developed to meet the needs of jumping between the Twelve Colonies, and their outposts in other star systems. Colonial FTL capabilities are generally limited in effective range compared to Cylon FTL.

Yes and no. The two technology bases are obviously related. And it takes very little(not much more than swapping out the nav computers) to improve one to closer to the capability of the other.

Colonial FTL computers are prone to glitches, often jumping ships to the wrong coordinates (TRS: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I").

This was straight up attributed to pilot error. IIRC They never even considered the possibility that the nav computer jumped them to the wrong place. Only that the pilot must have input the coordinates wrong.

Colonial FTL computers can be affected by highly-charged sub-atomic particles, corrupting their calculations and possibly causing a jump beyond the Red Line, as in the case of Raptor 718 (TRS: "The Face of the Enemy", Episode 2).

Good luck trying to discover that weakness, let alone exploit it. >:D

The FTL drive apparently puts significant strain on a ship's structure. Galactica has substantial cracks in its hull adjacent to the FTL drive which Tyrol disabled. (TRS: "Blood on the Scales") While discussing structural repairs with Adm. Adama, Tyrol asks him not to jump the ship for a while, while his crews upgrade the structure. (TRS: "No Exit")

And the Galactica should have been up to handling the strain. Unfortunately, Tyrol points out that they cut corners in building her, so some of the structural frames were substandard. The problem was exacerbated by Adama sending the battlestar into freefall over New Caprica.

FTL jumps can apparently induce nausea or discomfort in some people, such as Cally Henderson (TRS: Miniseries, Night 2, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I").

A lot like BT drives and TDS, actually, a plot point that Hot Point used in his own crossover.

[consequences]

In general panic lasting, one month can set back any strategy.  Sometimes that panic can allow huge mistakes that change the fabric of war. Say like a Raptor being captured.  Now the SL may be able to figure out a way to back engineer their own jump drive.  Tides shift, the SL may pull back or may forge on, but 1-10 years later new 100ton stukas that can jump escorting special forces Mech Jump dropships start appearing around Tauran worlds.....Or maybe even the colonies.

...Seriously? You're well into badly written strawman territory here if you think the Taurians wouldn't notice the build up necessary to launch those campaigns.

Leaving aside the ludicrousness of your extrapolation, the normal reaction to an enemy exhibiting unexpected capabilities would be to increase the care and caution with which you take action. This has its own issues, but doesn't usually increase the odds of the enemy having your tech fall into their lap. And if they do well and truly panic, then say goodbye to all of your known shipyards within  three months.

The Bug eye itself may come about 40 years later or they may now be "rushed" into service.  Also their where other Spyship( Nightwing intro date 2447/tracker 2407) out there.  The Naval Sensor Suite(2200) and and LF battery debuted BEFORE the war, judging by their intro date. I believe the Monsoon receives the refit in 2574, but may be rushed into service, just like others going on during the story.  Black boxes are available and trump the speed of raptors.  and I know that they can only do a page of text at the time, but that may be enough achieve surprise somewhere. 

The bug eye didn't get noticeably accelerated  by the RUW, and even if you halve the needed time with no setbacks, that's still 20 years until deployment. The existing spyships and the ncss as written are a bad joke. LFBs literally did not merit a single mention of their existence in the Historical: Reunification War document, much less have any serious impact, that will certainly change, but the SL will be essentially working from scratch to introduce and utilize them in any real numbers.

The existing BB outperforms a Raptor over distances of greater than 5 light years, or a conventional jump ship tasked as a courier for distances over 30. So by the time your message arrives anywhere where a jumpship courier wouldn't be of use, colonial drives have been able to safely recharge and jump twice over. The main advantage there is not needing to get a jumpship to a valid jump point in order to send a Case Omega signal.

As for the episode 33, immediately after they finished jumping Galactica broadcasted the new Coords as soon as they where calculated.  All 33 jumps where preplanned so the fleet could stay together.  Quickie or blind jumps are when you flatfooted, just like the Pegasus.

And we're again at the point of assuming the Colonials won't have a constantly updating emergency jump out, because you really want this to be the case. Not to mention the general inability of Btech jumpships as written to share nav data.

I want to reiterate about the intellegence gathering spyships being really good at their job.

I will reiterate, ha.

  They look like civilian Jumpships but can boost, are armored well, and some are almost as well armed as the Taurans Winchester Cruiser.

125 total capital firepower compared to 235, but with no anti fighter armament and less than an eighth of the armor.

  Odds are they are probably using Tauran IFF codes or at least Registered under the Taurans as merchants. I also want to point out that the SLN is highly trained. The Davions and Taurans are mere babes in comparison.  As for the colonials, most of crews where raised and trained in peacetime.  Adama has an uphill battle to keep his Commanders and crews in shape.  The SLN is highly trained and has high morale.

Your 'highly trained' SLN in OTL didn't do any better in pitched battle, they just had 400 warships left after trading at effectively one for one over the course of the campaign.

And the possibility where a ship gets left behind and their rendezvous point compromised might also happen to the colonials now because the SL can now follow the colonials.  Remember IS drives can Jump 30 LY, not just 5 at a time. 60 LY in 2 jumps vice the 12 jumps or redlining twice using colonial jump.  And the SL can send an FTL message of approximately 120 page word document or 80 page PDF 10 light years per day in any direction, up to 100 LY away as long as their are other Black boxes nearby.  I'm thinking thats whats in the hold of the SLN flagship, with another black box within a 10-20 light years, with a command circuit ready to relay it to high command and R .and D

Losing coordinates requires the Colonials survive for 33 minutes. Losing coordinates requires the SL survive for a bare minimum of a day if they have the luck of Longshot and the engineering skill of Montgomery Scott on their side. Slight difference in period of vulnerability there.

Is this going to take away all Adama's advantages?  NO! I actually never said that it did.  I'm just saying that its not going to be a curb stomp because of the Colonials Jump Drive.  Any mistake by the colonials has a chance of removing their advantages.  What if the colonial refineries location are discovered or their supply transports, carrying fuel, rout is found.....say by the above Spyships? Jumping attacks just began very limited.  Colonial Jump drives are very Tactically sound, but strategically vulnerable.

I think that was pointed out earlier in the story.

Barring the Colonials going genocidal over the objections of the Taurians, a curb stomp isn't in the cards due to sheer numbers.  And your spyships require the colonials to operate where the SL can find them, as well as being utterly blind. You'd have a much better case arguing for humint getting important information out.

As for the lack of inertial dampeners on mechs........ You know Victors and Phoenix Hawks have Jumpjets, right?  And ther are made to do combat drops.  Once inside a Landing Pod, their is gravity, and the mechs are now within the grav field( Pilot, 33, and Razor).  I dont think mechs have to worry about pancaking. Getting there, absolutely, but not landing(except for that piloting roll, but its exactly like a combat drop). Also the Above 2 mechs also have a free hand for grabbing things to hold on to.

So going from free fall to one g in an instant. That certainly isn't going to result in the mech smashing itself against the hull. Or do you not get that the influence of a planet's gravity is a graduated thing that is specifically trained for in combat drops?

As for live fire exersises for their weapons against BT armor, Lab conditions in 2 months will tell the colonials that they wont be using flak effectively on Heavily armored targets.  Look at the way the AA fire scatters from the big guns. The colonilas will have to concentrate more fire into an area to kill things, reducing their coverage on other places.  Sorry, you might force them to veer off course or tumble, but thats not even a mission kill in BT, just a temporary inconvenience. More armored stuff is going to make it through. Flak is used for thin skinned Targets(Missiles, raiders, and Vipers)  Not flying armored bricks.

Lawndart checks and out of control rolls are still a thing that a single lbx projectile can induce. For normal strafing runs, not so much a concern, for boarding attempts, it's a one way ticket to being a pattern of shrapnel decorating a battlestar's hull armor.

Also here are some possible limitations of the Colonial Jump Drive (These are takrn from the BSG Wiki, but might not be incporated in Korzon story or headcanno)

 Limitations of Colonial FTL

    The effectiveness of a Raptor's FTL is limited to brief, short-distance jumps. Raptors require a sequence of short consecutive FTL "hops" to reach the same destination as a Colonial capital ship with a full-sized FTL drive (TRS: Miniseries, Night 2).
    Colonial FTL systems are prone to breakdown after repetitive use over an extended period of time (TRS: "33").
    Colonial FTL systems appear to be a holdover from the Exodus from Kobol, and their current designs have been developed to meet the needs of jumping between the Twelve Colonies, and their outposts in other star systems. Colonial FTL capabilities are generally limited in effective range compared to Cylon FTL.
    Colonial FTL computers are prone to glitches, often jumping ships to the wrong coordinates (TRS: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I").
    Navigators must be careful to plan FTL jump paths in order to keep a safe distance from planets or other large objects (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I").
    "Spooling up" a Colonial FTL drive takes at least 20 minutes when the drive has been offline (TRS: "Crossroads Part II"). Because of this, when ships enter dangerous situations, they keep their FTL drives "spun up". Drives cannot be kept spun up indefinitely, as system crashes or serious damage to the drive will occur. A "cooldown" time is required after a jump for new jump calculations, so a ship that has jumped into a new location cannot jump to another location for a brief period of time.
    Colonial capital ships (at least older ones of the Galactica type) require the flight pods to retract before a jump, prolonging jump prep time. Should the ship jump with extended pods, serious structural damage can occur.

Colonial FTL performance can be improved, demonstrated when a Raptor is successfully refitted by a team apparently led by Lieutenant Felix Gaeta with the navigational computer from a captured Heavy Raider (presumably the one used by Kara Thrace to return from Caprica in "Home, Part I") and, with the cooperation of a Number Eight, is used to navigate a squadron of Raptors back to Caprica on a rescue mission to retrieve a group of resistance fighters (TRS: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I"). A massive distance that would have taken Galactica 241 jumps one way (~482 jumps total), the Raptor squadron does in only 20 (10 to Caprica, 10 back).

Colonial FTL computers can be affected by highly-charged sub-atomic particles, corrupting their calculations and possibly causing a jump beyond the Red Line, as in the case of Raptor 718 (TRS: "The Face of the Enemy", Episode 2).

The FTL drive apparently puts significant strain on a ship's structure. Galactica has substantial cracks in its hull adjacent to the FTL drive which Tyrol disabled. (TRS: "Blood on the Scales") While discussing structural repairs with Adm. Adama, Tyrol asks him not to jump the ship for a while, while his crews upgrade the structure. (TRS: "No Exit")

FTL jumps can apparently induce nausea or discomfort in some people, such as Cally Henderson (TRS: Miniseries, Night 2, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I").

Yes, and? I could spend days extolling the lack of virtues of battletech jump drives.

[Korzon77]

(Hate work. Hate writing ad copy. Must write ad copy to eat. Sad Face).

Well, on the FTL thing, Colonial drives are superior-- but not so much in the moving faster (thought hat IS a superior point) but in teh fact that the Colonials can fTL jump to places where the Spheroid jump drive can't go.  That menas that if say, Galactica spends a few raptors out, and they don't see anyone the fleet can jump in confident in the fact that they won't be engaged for several hours at least.

Conversely, the League can't be certain they won't be attacked anywhere, which means they have to keep their ships at at least partial alert at all times. And this means that the main advantage of LF batteries is the ability to jump out--but only so long as the ship remains where it can jump out.

On the other hand, the SL has more scientists than the colonies ever had working on this subject and it's important to note one big change here.

This is now a WAR.  Previously, the reunification wars were tremendously important to the periphery, but in terms of hte impact on the Hegonomy?  Minor.  They weren't at risk and they knew it so it was more like a really big colonial war in the 19th century.

Now it's WWII with both sides at risk and both sides realizing that technological change will be vital to who wins. So the SL is currently at a disadvantage--not just FTL but armor and to some respects the fact that the TC now has allies with very big battleships. (though more limited than the SL assumes).  But equally, Terra can throw hundreds of engineers at these problems and they're not motivated so they don't have to say: throw everything at the best chance to counter this--they can say, throw enough people to come up with the best TEN ways to counter this jump drive...and the one that works best is what we'll use.

Conversely, the TDF/Colonials dn't have to win, they just have to not lose.

And as  a bit of a spoiler, remember that the Camerons wanted the Periphery, but at least part of it was to reign in the house govenrments. IF those governments should find their military forces decimated while the "SLDF royal and loyal units" both outgun and outtech them...well that's also solved Cameron's problem, hasn't it?

[consequences]

Canon avenues of advancement for the SLDF:

NC3. Really frikking crucial, since being able to make an immediate coordinated response is pretty much the most important possible thing with the new tactical paradigm. Care needs to be taken to avoid Colonial hacking, since they are entirely familiar with the vulnerabilities of this sort of thing.

HPGs. A coordinated realtime  response is about as critical as it gets strategically.

Improved jump engines. Mostly the booster from the Manassas, since anything that extends the reaction bubble is all to the good. Presuming they can fix the pesky self damaging problem, the Interconnectedness Unlimited superjump would be useful for strategic movement, though a really hideously bad idea to use going directly into battle.

Power Armor(Light). Not so much for combat or boarding counterboarding, but to issue to all naval crews to increase survivability, preferably while fighting with atmosphere evacuated as never seems to be done in canon BT space combat.


Pushing forward till they reach clantech standards. Self explanatory.


Non canon but really should be:

Improved kf recharge times. That this is never officially done makes literally no sense, since all of the elements necessary already exist.

Canon but unlikely:

Harjel. it certainly exists, but the odds of anyone poking around the appropriate system body in Twycross and figuring out what to do with it are incredibly low.


Canon but really incredibly likely to backfire:

Caspar system or any of the Artificial Stupids the SL used. This would be a critical mistake, since the kind of networking needed would leave them vulnerable to the Colonials pulling out every dirty trick the Cylons used on them during the rebellion.


Non canon extrapolations dependent upon author fiat: See any empire building RP thread where power creep isn't murdered in the cradle.

[Intermittent_Coherence]

Harjel. it certainly exists, but the odds of anyone poking around the appropriate system body in Twycross and figuring out what to do with it are incredibly low.

Hehh.. Speaking of Harjel, did anybody notice?

[imperator]

(Hate work. Hate writing ad copy. Must write ad copy to eat. Sad Face).

Well, on the FTL thing, Colonial drives are superior-- but not so much in the moving faster (thought hat IS a superior point) but in teh fact that the Colonials can fTL jump to places where the Spheroid jump drive can't go.  That menas that if say, Galactica spends a few raptors out, and they don't see anyone the fleet can jump in confident in the fact that they won't be engaged for several hours at least.

Conversely, the League can't be certain they won't be attacked anywhere, which means they have to keep their ships at at least partial alert at all times. And this means that the main advantage of LF batteries is the ability to jump out--but only so long as the ship remains where it can jump out.

On the other hand, the SL has more scientists than the colonies ever had working on this subject and it's important to note one big change here.

This is now a WAR.  Previously, the reunification wars were tremendously important to the periphery, but in terms of hte impact on the Hegonomy?  Minor.  They weren't at risk and they knew it so it was more like a really big colonial war in the 19th century.

Now it's WWII with both sides at risk and both sides realizing that technological change will be vital to who wins. So the SL is currently at a disadvantage--not just FTL but armor and to some respects the fact that the TC now has allies with very big battleships. (though more limited than the SL assumes).  But equally, Terra can throw hundreds of engineers at these problems and they're not motivated so they don't have to say: throw everything at the best chance to counter this--they can say, throw enough people to come up with the best TEN ways to counter this jump drive...and the one that works best is what we'll use.

Conversely, the TDF/Colonials dn't have to win, they just have to not lose.

And as  a bit of a spoiler, remember that the Camerons wanted the Periphery, but at least part of it was to reign in the house govenrments. IF those governments should find their military forces decimated while the "SLDF royal and loyal units" both outgun and outtech them...well that's also solved Cameron's problem, hasn't it?

Korzon, I have question for you.  How powerful is the Galactica when compared to an Aegis or Monsoon?  In my mind either of theses vessels could go toe to toe with it at Short Capitol Range and it would be a bad day for each.  I'm picturing the Galacrica with 32 Sub Caps Heavy Cannons and a whole bunch of AMS and MGs, backed up with 12 AR10s MLs.  (Thats how I built her from what I saw of the series.)  I would also give her about about Galactica the Equivalent of 350 Capitol Armor, but using Heavy armor rules and I would say she has about 200-300 SI.  Am I that far off in my interpretation?

To me, because of NLs and NPPCs, the SL would have a range advantage over the Colonials.  What am I missing?

[Korzon77]

Well, the colonial sub-caps have some advantage over canonical subcaps. This gets into one problem of merging the two settings-- the tonnage for the Galactica and other battlestars is far larger than even the largest SL ship yet if you look at it that way they're almost unarmed.  OTH, they're bigger than most SL ships and those turrets are huge.  So the impact is a bit more than 32 given their rate of fire and differing cannon payloads. I may make larger and more modern ships mount turreted NAC-10 cannons but much beyond that and you need the "nuclear bomb propellant" the battletech weapons use.

And yes, the SL outranges the unrefitted battlestars although all that tonnage allows for a lot of refitting with energy weapons though NAC's aren't as doable due to the need for ammunition runs. But equally, a battlestar doesn't have to do that run in-- it can jump into close range with reduces the range advantage of the SL. The biggest advantage a battlestar has is very, very high levels of armor and SI. Galactica could almost certainly kill an Aegis though it would be damaged--however it would still be in fighting condition.  Unfortunately, the Star League can afford to trade two or three Aegis for one Galactica and still come out ahead. 

[imperator]

Well, the colonial sub-caps have some advantage over canonical subcaps. This gets into one problem of merging the two settings-- the tonnage for the Galactica and other battlestars is far larger than even the largest SL ship yet if you look at it that way they're almost unarmed.  OTH, they're bigger than most SL ships and those turrets are huge.  So the impact is a bit more than 32 given their rate of fire and differing cannon payloads. I may make larger and more modern ships mount turreted NAC-10 cannons but much beyond that and you need the "nuclear bomb propellant" the battletech weapons use.

And yes, the SL outranges the unrefitted battlestars although all that tonnage allows for a lot of refitting with energy weapons though NAC's aren't as doable due to the need for ammunition runs. But equally, a battlestar doesn't have to do that run in-- it can jump into close range with reduces the range advantage of the SL. The biggest advantage a battlestar has is very, very high levels of armor and SI. Galactica could almost certainly kill an Aegis though it would be damaged--however it would still be in fighting condition.  Unfortunately, the Star League can afford to trade two or three Aegis for one Galactica and still come out ahead.

Thanks, I appreciate the quick reply!

I have two more question.  The reason I don't think the jumping into close range is that accurate is that in the show cylon base ships and the BSG would still close with each other using sublight drives instead of just jumping into close range.  Also raiders ,using the above acuracy, should all just detach from the base star and jump right into the Colonial fleet, making AA weapons next to useless.  Or even just jump around the vipers in combat.

1)Whats the difficulty level with an exact jump and why didn't the Galactica or the Cylons do that all the time?  I do know about the jumping raptors in the final episode, but I thought they got that accurate using cylon tech.

2) Who has the better tech with computers?  Even though the Colonials had VR, I always assumed that earth had better protocols for hacking because of 500+ years of ECM and cyber warfare experience plus a fairly paranoid upbringing because of our fear of tech turning against  us(Frankestein, Terminator, varius Scifi, and Anime).

[consequences]

An Aegis is 750K tons, with only 325K tons of that being its total potential warload for offense, defense, and various incidental fiddly bits(which means 270k tons to play with after structural integrity). In any right thinking universe it would barely be a speed bump for something  in the vicinity of twice its mass. Granted, this is Battletech(see below).

A Monsoon has a theoretical warload of 550K tons(433K after SI). Of couse it's actual used warload until someone comes up with a comprehensive refit is less than 250K tons because of the magic of unnecessarily large cargo bays. When you look at the actual armaments, the last refit Aegis actually has 50% more firepower than the last known refit of the Monsoon. *headdesk headdesk headdesk headdesk*

[imperator]

An Aegis is 750K tons, with only 325K tons of that being its total potential warload for offense, defense, and various incidental fiddly bits(which means 270k tons to play with after structural integrity). In any right thinking universe it would barely be a speed bump for something  in the vicinity of twice its mass. Granted, this is Battletech(see below).

A Monsoon has a theoretical warload of 550K tons(433K after SI). Of couse it's actual used warload until someone comes up with a comprehensive refit is less than 250K tons because of the magic of unnecessarily large cargo bays. When you look at the actual armaments, the last refit Aegis actually has 50% more firepower than the last known refit of the Monsoon. *headdesk headdesk headdesk headdesk*

I have to take everything with a grain of salt and try to work in my own experience in "real life".  Just to have a good suspension of disbelief and immersion in the Universe. Beware of dead cat girls.......

Do not underestimate the need for large cargo capacities even on Battle Stars.  They need large amounts of water storage as both supplies and heat sinks.  Also large Battlestars like the Galactica where  meant to both line vessels and transport like the Potemkin(minus the DS). There is a large amount of open space/ cargo areas on the Galactica.  Just think of the water storage tanks used during the 3-4 episode and the large cavernous area  along the keel areas. I honestly wouldn't be

Also as for designs....(More dead cat girls!!!!).  No one knows how a designs works until after the design has been deployed for years in RL.  And the paradigm ship from internal carriers to exterior is still basically happening.  Also upgrading a ship takes forever outside a shipyard. Then you have to find out if the "upgade" actually works. It takes years to find all the bugs to perfect it.   Trust me, their is reason that older ships serve beside newer ships and sometimes the older ship outperforms the newer platforms.  Also politics (Buship, senate committees, and Admirals playing favorites, budget infighting) all play a factor.  The War is a Manifest Destiny Dream, resources grab, and keep my allies from degeneration into armageddon( See succession wars) all rolled up into one.

[Intermittent_Coherence]

The reason I don't think the jumping into close range is that accurate is that in the show cylon base ships and the BSG would still close with each other using sublight drives instead of just jumping into close range.

They don't have to jump into close range, just weapons range.

[Korzon77]

One problem is that we never see a real fleet engagement-- we see the cylons jumping in knowing that they can turn off the colonial ships and the colonial survivors engaging in very high risk manuevers because they have nothing to lose. So it's hard to say what a "conventional" colonial/cylon engagement would look like.

[Stargatefan]

In fairness part of that large cargo bay on SLDF warships is because they have to support their drop ships which do not have FTL or large cargo bays. If I was an admiral I would not want to depend on virtually unarmed jump ships to carry supplies. Far easier to have large cargo bays on warships and accept a certain loss in theoretical firepower. Also they have large patrol areas which means they need to be able to support long duration patrols which is only provided by underway replenishing. Colonial ships seem to be similar with internal fighter production bays on Pegasus for example, so the SLDF may not be sacrificing the firepower we often think based on a glance at their massive cargo bays. Either way the SLDF has ships to spare unlike the colonies and Periphery so they can afford it.

[Chris OFarrell]

In fairness part of that large cargo bay on SLDF warships is because they have to support their drop ships which do not have FTL or large cargo bays. If I was an admiral I would not want to depend on virtually unarmed jump ships to carry supplies. Far easier to have large cargo bays on warships and accept a certain loss in theoretical firepower.

I would argue that is exactly the wrong approach. You have warships to fight wars, you have logistics ships to do your logistics. The SLDF could easily have built something like a Potemkin (and SHOULD have built something like a Potemkin!) far earlier than they did to support their fleets. Your warships should have their hulls devoted to the maximum possible combat power first and foremost, with internal cargo space designed around a realistic appraisal of operational requirements rather than the absurdly oversized space some warship designs had.

Also they have large patrol areas which means they need to be able to support long duration patrols which is only provided by underway replenishing.

Exactly - they need a fleet support arm (and there is no shortage of jumpships during the Star League age) for long term support, but they should have an entirely realistic cargo space. SLDF designs often drop far too much firepower for cargo space.

Colonial ships seem to be similar with internal fighter production bays on Pegasus for example, so the SLDF may not be sacrificing the firepower we often think based on a glance at their massive cargo bays. Either way the SLDF has ships to spare unlike the colonies and Periphery so they can afford it.

Its all about timing and placement. Timing and placement.

Its a little too simplistic to say that Galactica is worth X SLDF Battleships though. If Galactica, for example, faces off against a Battleship and blows it away while taking little more than armor damage in return, that armor damage can be repaired with trivial ease in comparison to the SLDF having to build a new ship and train a new crew. A tactic of 'kill the Colonial capital ships at any cost' is logical, but very hard to pull off for the SLDF when its entirely up to the Colonials when they can engage or disengage. Even more so given that the SLDF have absolutely no clue at this time of the size of the Colonial fleet.  A whole butload of the SLDF as was mentioned in earlier chapters, has been tied up trying to defend key worlds, greatly limiting their striking power (and I'm sure there will be deep range raids to keep them honest about this) - all the Periphery alliance has to do is erode the SLDFs mobile striking power to a level where they cannot take ground, then force a peace.

The SLDF may have 'ships to spare' but its also clear that if the Periphery War is still going on after 4-5 years, then the Periphery will have probably lost. They need to win this by decimating the standing fleets able to try to push the will of the Star League on them rapidly - while not taking staggering losses in return. And that means they are going to need to commit their heavy ships, even if they really cannot afford to loose them. Probably after a defensive campaign of receiving SLDF task forces in running engagements that slowly strangle them to death hour by hour over weeks, but preserve their own forces.

[consequences]

If a ton is a ton of mass, then Battletech ships are underarmored overcargoed piles of crap with very few exceptions. Every ton of superfluous cargo is a bare minimum of two tons that could have been shaved off of the final design(also at least nine thousand c-bills needlessly spent). One of the pieces of headcanon I like to play with is a traveleresque system where a 'ton' actually means 'ye old arbitrary measurement of volume'

[Korzon77]

That's exactly what you should do-- note that "a ton" on a ground vehicle can hold 4 battlesuits...or a *platoon* of up to 24 real people which brings battletech clowncars in mind. It's a very generic and abstract unit of measurement, possibly because the designers don't feel like busting out multipage spreadsheets for even the simplest design.