Dropship idea - Ordun class dropship.

[marauder648]

Designed with Dragoncat's universe in mind.

Background

The Ordun class started out as a design project when the leaders of Clan Hells Horses acknowledged that for their newly developed Mongol doctrine to work, they needed the capacity to carry Mech's and vehicles of Mongol Cluster's to their targets. And relying on aging Overlord C and other dropships.  These were now very long in the tooth and everyone and anyone knew how to engage them, and in truth compared to modern Inner Sphere vessels, they were growing obsolete. 

Tasking the Scientist Caste to find a solution they scoured historical data from Operation Revival, Operation Klondike, the Amaris Civil War and the Reunification War.  What became apparent was the need for a larger class of dropship that would be able to carry Mongol Clusters in a single craft, instead of using a larger number of lesser craft, which would consume more fuel, take up more space on the ground and require a larger escort group to cover the frontage of their advance.

Using the template of the huge Colossus class as their initial blueprint the Scientists went to work and after a mere eight months presented the design to the Khan.  Whilst a new ship, it is in essence a Colossus IIC.  Massing 20,000 tonnes the dropship is huge, well protected and well armed.  Because of the resources spent on the craft and the threat of anti-ship missiles the Scientists added a heavy layer of anti-missile defences that could cut down all but the most intense barrages, and keep its cargo safe. 

Inside the cavernous holds the Ordun has room for two Vehicle Trinaries (heavy or lighter vehicles) as well as a star of Support craft, often the Sho't heavy transport VSTOL that could be used to ferry the heavier and slower vehicles of the Mongol units to engagement zones. 

Two trinaries of Mech's can also be carried as well as a mix of Elementals, infantry or on a more limited basis in their stead, ProtoMech's.  The Vehicle bays can also be quickly converted into Mech Bays (quick in this case being at least a days work) allowing the Ordun to carry more Mech's if needed, as well as more Proto's or bays for Elementals, although it does not carry organic fighter support nor can it be fitted with fighter bays due to the internal layout of the decks and loading bays. 

Whilst the sheer expense of building a dropship this large is considerable, and the threat to an invasion force should one be lost is immense, the Ordun was approved for production whilst doctrine was established to ensure that the massive craft would get to their landing zones intact.  The 'simple' solution was to pair one with an Outpost Defender class dropship as well as a heavy fighter screen from a Warship or friendly dropship carrier. Whilst this somewhat made a mockery of the idea of a single ship assault craft, as the Ordun needed escorting by at least two other dropships this wasn't seen as too big a drawback.  Especially once the Defender production lines got up to speed and it was felt it would be possible to deploy two such craft with each Ordun for air and ground defence.

Produced far from prying eyes the first two Ordun class droships were attached to the Halcyon class cruiser Race Horse and deployed against House Steiner to great effect.  Whereas previous assaults would require four to six dropships, now you only needed two and the forces they would carry. 

The biggest drawback to the class is their sheer expense, and that the loss of one would be a major strategic blow in an assault.  Also limited by their small Warship Fleet the Horses could to counter the larger navies of the Inner Sphere and could not risk an Ordun against heavy Warship opponents.  This lead to these powerful ships being used somewhat carefully, and production at Star's End was constantly delayed by the sheer amount of resources each ship consumed in their construction.


I can't make dropships, sadly I don't have the program for it, but I got this idea in my head whilst having a bath and had to write it down afterwards.

[Maingunnery]

Here you go:

Code: [Select]

                    AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Ordun (Colosus IIC)
Tech:              Clan / 3132
Vessel Type:       Spheroid DropShip
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              20.000 tons
Length:            125 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       3
Maximum Thrust:    5
Armor Type:        Ferro-aluminum
Armament:         
   30 AMS
   20 ER PPC
   10 ATM 12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Colosus IIC
Mass:              20.000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                        3.660,00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 3
      Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 20                                               800,00
Total Heat Sinks:    205 Double                                         48,00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                     510,00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                150,00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   ,00
Armor Type:  Ferro-aluminum  (1.290 total armor pts)                    72,00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                350
   Left/Right Sides:                 320/320
   Aft:                                 300

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (60) with 2 doors                6.000,00
   Bay 2:  BattleMechs (30) with 5 doors                             4.500,00
   Bay 3:  Battle Armor Points/Squads (30) with 4 doors                300,00
   Bay 4:  Cargo (1) with 1 door                                     3.047,00

Life Boats:  4 (7 tons each)                                            28,00
Escape Pods:  25 (7 tons each)                                         175,00

Crew and Passengers:
     10 Officers (9 minimum)                                           100,00
     35 Crew (0 minimum)                                               245,00
     10 Gunners (10 minimum)                                            70,00
    720 Bay Personnel                                                     ,00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 AMS(120 rounds)          Nose        --     --     --     --    5      7,50
5 ER PPC                   Nose     8(75)  8(75)  8(75)     --   75     30,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        Nose     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   16     26,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          FL/R        --     --     --     --   10     15,00
3 ER PPC                   FL/R     5(45)  5(45)  5(45)     --   90     36,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        FL/R     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   32     52,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          AL/R        --     --     --     --   10     15,00
3 ER PPC                   AL/R     5(45)  5(45)  5(45)     --   90     36,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        AL/R     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   32     52,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          Aft         --     --     --     --    5      7,50
3 ER PPC                   Aft      5(45)  5(45)  5(45)     --   45     18,00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                              Heat: 410      20.000,00
Tons Left:                                                                ,00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        898.800.000 C-Bills
Battle Value:      15.011
Cost per BV:       59.876,09
Weapon Value:      12.033 (Ratio = ,80)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 596;  MRV = 361;  LRV = 83;  ERV = 0
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 158.932
                   (92.102 Structure, 57.050 Life Support, 9.780 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 64.710  (41% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      MP: 3,  Armor/Structure: 22 / 21
                   Damage PB/M/L: 17/17/9,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: DL;  Point Value: 150
                   Specials: sph


Edit: idea-> it might be a good option to replace half the ERPPCs with HAG40s, for better AA and CHH feel.

[Vition2]

What Maingunnery proposes is pretty close to how I would picture it (and using HAGs instead of ER PPCs as he pointed out).  The only changes I might make would be to make 20 of the vehicle bays light (so a vehicle trinary would typically be 2 larger massed stars and 1 smaller massed star), and an additional 10 vehicle bays for the support vehicle star - though he could rightfully point out that they could be stowed as cargo, it depends on how quickly deployment is intended to occur.

[marauder648]

Wow! Thanks for making it Maingunnery!

HAG-40's are absurdly heavy though, perhaps reduce the cargo by say 500 tonnes to account for the extra mass and give them some ammo.  She don't need arrows if she's doctrinally meant to have a Outpost Defender sat a few hundred meters away, they have 5 of them, so concentrating on anti-fighter and anti-missile systems makes sense.

I'm not sure of the rules difference between light and heavy vehicle bays apart from you can't fit anything over 60 tonnes in a light bay right?  By having them all as heavy bays you should be able to fit anything in there you want right? Or are they limited to heavy vehicles and lights can't go in heavy bays?

If so then yeah go for that mix there as you suggested Vition2.

And as this is built for the Mongol doctrine, then you'd probably want to deploy equipment as fast as possible upon landing so things are out in the battle.

 

[Maingunnery]

Light vehicles can be deployed from heavy veh bays, that is why I made so many of them heavy type bays for the sake of flexibility.

I have adjusted the weapon mix and added a veh bays for a light star. A variant option would be to change the light veh bays to Protomech bays.

Code: [Select]

                    AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                               * CUSTOM WEAPONS

Class/Model/Name:  Ordun (Colosus IIC)
Tech:              Clan / 3132
Vessel Type:       Spheroid DropShip
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              20.000 tons
Length:            125 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       3
Maximum Thrust:    5
Armor Type:        Ferro-aluminum
Armament:         
   30 AMS
   10 ER PPC
   10 ATM 12
   12 HAG 40*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Ordun (Colosus IIC)
Mass:              20.000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                        3.660,00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 3
      Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 20                                               800,00
Total Heat Sinks:    178 Double                                         21,00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                     510,00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                150,00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   ,00
Armor Type:  Ferro-aluminum  (1.290 total armor pts)                    72,00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                350
   Left/Right Sides:                 320/320
   Aft:                                 300

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (60) with 2 doors                6.000,00
           Light Vehicles (to 50T) (10) with 1 door                    500,00
   Bay 2:  BattleMechs (30) with 5 doors                             4.500,00
   Bay 3:  Battle Armor Points/Squads (30) with 4 doors                300,00
   Bay 4:  Cargo (1) with 1 door                                     2.315,00

Life Boats:  4 (7 tons each)                                            28,00
Escape Pods:  25 (7 tons each)                                         175,00

Crew and Passengers:
     10 Officers (9 minimum)                                           100,00
     35 Crew (0 minimum)                                               245,00
     11 Gunners (11 minimum)                                            77,00
    770 Bay Personnel                                                     ,00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 AMS(120 rounds)          Nose        --     --     --     --    5      7,50
3 ER PPC                   Nose     5(45)  5(45)  5(45)     --   45     18,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        Nose     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   16     26,00
2 HAG 40*(60 rounds)       Nose     6(64)  6(64)  6(64)     --   16     52,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          FL/R        --     --     --     --   10     15,00
2 ER PPC                   FL/R     3(30)  3(30)  3(30)     --   60     24,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        FL/R     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   32     52,00
2 HAG 40*(60 rounds)       FL/R     6(64)  6(64)  6(64)     --   32    104,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          AL/R        --     --     --     --   10     15,00
1 ER PPC                   AL/R     2(15)  2(15)  2(15)     --   30     12,00
2 ATM 12(60 rounds)        AL/R     6(60)  4(40)  2(20)  2(20)   32     52,00
2 HAG 40*(60 rounds)       AL/R     6(64)  6(64)  6(64)     --   32    104,00
5 AMS(120 rounds)          Aft         --     --     --     --    5      7,50
1 ER PPC                   Aft      2(15)  2(15)  2(15)     --   15      6,00
2 HAG 40*(60 rounds)       Aft      6(64)  6(64)  6(64)     --   16     52,00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                              Heat: 356      20.000,00
Tons Left:                                                                ,00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        1.122.632.000 C-Bills
Battle Value:      21.482
Cost per BV:       52.259,19
Weapon Value:      9.579 (Ratio = ,45)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 832;  MRV = 573;  LRV = 191;  ERV = 0
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 164.345
                   (92.595 Structure, 59.600 Life Support, 12.150 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 124.650  (76% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      MP: 3,  Armor/Structure: 22 / 21
                   Damage PB/M/L: 27/27/19,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: DL;  Point Value: 215
                   Specials: sph


[marauder648]

She's superb :) Thank you Maingunnery.

[Dragon Cat]

And thank you both for the idea behind it and the construction

 the unit is a welcome addition that I hadn't noticed

[marauder648]

And thank you both for the idea behind it and the construction

 the unit is a welcome addition that I hadn't noticed

Well if you want to use her, go ahead, that's what she's there for :)