Aerodyne PWS vs Spheroid PWS

[Maingunnery]

The Castrum PWS is the current strongest Spheroid PWS, and in ways a valid threat to light WarShips.

This brings me to the question, what would be the theoretical (equally capable) Aerodyne counterpart?
Or is simply not possible, then how should Aerodyne PWS evolve/compete?

[BritMech]

I had some threads about PWS on here a few years back, the general consensus was that PWS fill only a few roles.

Mass Missile
ASF Carrier
Cargo Transport
Troop Transport
DS Killer
ASF Killer
AMS Screen

So you are really looking at doing any of these. But with the landing and takeoff restrictions of Aerodyne, Spheroid wins in the Cargo and Troop Transport arenas. You need to find the niche in one of the others.

[Cryhavok101]

When you say pocket warship, I think it is either supposed to fill a warship's role, or it is supposed to oppose warships. In either case, in space the spheroid is superior in almost every way over the aerodyne. The only advantage the aerodyne has over a spheroid is the ability to combine the fire from three fire arcs. This is only in the hex row directly ahead of the vessel though, and the blind spots in your fire arcs on the sides are a huge vulnerability. Given that aerodyne max out at 35,000 tons and spheroid max out at nearly three times that (100,000 tons), a single fire arc on a spheroid has the easy potential of exceeding all three fire arcs that can combine fire on a spheroid.

The only place I can think of that an aerodyne would shine over a spheroid is if they can somehow use atmospheric maneuvering to their advantage against a warship, since the DropShip can fly in the atmosphere but the warship can't follow them, and an aerodyne would maneuver better in atmosphere than a spheroid could. I don't think you could make that enough of an advantage to make the aerodyne a better choice or even an equal choice to a 100,000 ton spheroid PWS though.

[Korzon77]

Note that the ability to concentrate fire can be a huge advantage, especially when fighting a warship, where you're going to want to put as much firepower as possible on target.

The size restrictions aren't so serious-- to be blunt, you want more, smaller dropships when attacking cap ships because most large capships can pretty well kill any dropship, no matter its size with a very few volleys. More targets, even if they're individually smaller, is a good idea.

[Cryhavok101]

Note that the ability to concentrate fire can be a huge advantage, especially when fighting a warship, where you're going to want to put as much firepower as possible on target.

The size restrictions aren't so serious-- to be blunt, you want more, smaller dropships when attacking cap ships because most large capships can pretty well kill any dropship, no matter its size with a very few volleys. More targets, even if they're individually smaller, is a good idea.

This true, but not the whole picture. The Castrum for example can do the same thing to the smaller warships, one on one. And it does take several of them a few volleys to destroy a single Castrum back. An aerodyne would struggle to come even close to that capability, where the Castrum is basically a small warship in it's own right.

I think you would have to get all the way past heavy cruisers (Agememnon, Sovetski Soyuz) to run completely out of warships that a Castrum doesn't have better armor than, and it matches or exceeds the fire power of several of the smaller warships by itself.

An aerodyne's structure weighs more, so they have to give up more to get to similar SI levels, however since max armor is based on the weight of the ship's SI, the aerodyne could have more armor than an otherwise identical spheroid, however with the size difference in how big they can go, 100,000 ton spheroids far outstrip what any aerodyne DropShip can manage by a long way.

Spheroid is what you use if you want your DropShips to go toe to toe with warships. Huge amounts of small aerodynes is what you would go with if you want to throw what amounts to disposable DropShips at your enemy. However, if you were going to go the route of disposable firepower, personally, I wouldn't use DropShips at all, I would use aerospace fighters, because they are vastly more effective at it. Ton for ton, you will kill warships faster with aerospace fighters than with small DropShips, and unlikely as it sounds, aerospace fighter pilots are more likely to survive than a DropShip crew. They are also easier to replace than whole crews.