Designing a raider warship

[Korzon77]

Okay, how would you design a warship that is intended for raiding. The plan is that it's supposed to get into the enemies rear areas, raise merry hell, and in general tie down lots of ships.

But, because this is a high-risk mission, you can't expend 90 percent of your budget on a 2.5 Mton "raider."  (sorry).

So, assuming you have 350-500Ktons to work with, what would you include to make it both useful and survivable.

In this case: Raiding means just that. Engaging infrastructure, smashing through guard forces, occasionally deploying ground troops via dropships.

In Most cases, this ship will be operating alone, so it has to bring any escorts with it. While it is supposed to run away from large enemy forces, it should be able to survive and maybe hurt them while doing so.

So what sort of factors would you look for in a raider like this? What things to avoid?

[dgorsman]

Above average acceleration - it will need to chase down various ships, let's call it anything slower than an Achilles.

LF battery - not so much for double-jumps, but jump in and back out, or in and then to another point in system.

Capital missiles - for long range bearings only launches.

Above average marine complement - boarding and seizing vessels.  Can't gather further intel from just shooting at things.

Modest aerospace contingent - carry fighter carriers when more are needed, otherwise put the mass to better uses.

[VhenRa]

Agree with most of above but I would add: Large passenger compliment to carry prize crews to put on captured jumpships.

Above average acceleration - it will need to chase down various ships, let's call it anything slower than an Achilles.

This one I pretty much the most non-viable. The highest viable acceleration for a warship is 5/8, anything bigger and diminishing returns.

[Sharpnel]

If it carries any dropships, they should be pocket warships.

[Tyler Jorgensson]

Lots of lasers: don’t want to have to resupply your capital grade weapons when your 500 LY behind enemy lines.

[Jellico]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Scout_(JumpShip_class)

Think of actual BT naval mechanics.

It is trivial to disappear. It is trivial to arrive undetected.

Targets are rare in space. They concentrate at known locations.  These are occasionally defended. In transit interceptions don't happen.

Everyone moves at the same "speed". Thrust points are mostly tactical.


Really, like pirates, raiding will mostly consist of finding surface targets and annoying them. They are easy to find and plentiful. Their defences are known and they can't run away. Organise your transport accordingly.

[glitterboy2098]

make sure they have plenty of smallcraft and fighters aboard for their size, and not just via docked dropships.

fighters because they are one of the easiest ways to give "stand off" combat ability to the ship, and most BT spacecraft are very vulnerable to fighters. it also gives the opportunity to attack sites on planets or moons without having to rely on orbital bombardment (messy and lots of potential warcrimes hassles.) or landing marines (limited and far more dangerous to the attackers)

smallcraft because they give you more flexibility. smallcraft can handle smaller scale cargo and personnel transfer (good for looting and moving prizecrews and prisoners), as well as boarding actions, and even straight combat. depending on what smallcraft you take. plus since smallcraft have strategic drives, longer term lifesupport, and sensor systems closer to dropships than fighters, they'd make much better recon platforms for finding targets within a system. useful since a raider is probably going to be hiding out in non-standard jumppoints between attacks, but still will want to keep an eye on things.

[Colt Ward]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Scout_(JumpShip_class)

Think of actual BT naval mechanics.

It is trivial to disappear. It is trivial to arrive undetected.

Targets are rare in space. They concentrate at known locations.  These are occasionally defended. In transit interceptions don't happen.

Everyone moves at the same "speed". Thrust points are mostly tactical.


Really, like pirates, raiding will mostly consist of finding surface targets and annoying them. They are easy to find and plentiful. Their defences are known and they can't run away. Organise your transport accordingly.

Except blockades have happened . . . post Tukayyid, the Diamond Sharks prowled the Exodus Road Trial'ing for under escorted supply convoys the Invaders were using to rebuild forces in the IS (IMO it raised a lot of conflict between Sennet/Labov and Hawker) and makes for some interesting inferences.  Adders blockaded York, Hasek blockaded Tikonov late in the FCCW, and of course all the Jihad actions.  Problem is, its a ground based game and AT is the red-headed forgotten stepchild . . . so stories & fluff about jumpship traffic are not really well represented and thus JS trade exists at plot levels.  Heck, I think MWDA does a better job of establishing trade as part of the universe setting.

But to the OP's point . . . yeah, you could build a raider but Jellico has a point about the relative scarcity of JS trade post-Invasion and that to 'raid' due to concentration of the trade routes & shipping you would have to work through defenses to seize shipping.  The real, IMO, question comes down to are you intending to commerce raiding or commerce destroying?

A commerce raider that is out to capture ships & cargos (b/c JS are still rare/precious) would ideally be-
Fast, as mentioned 5/8 is where its at on the curve
Energy armed, give it NLs and NPPCs for the most part with decent ammo bins for capital missiles- the launchers should be AR10s so you can use any that fall into your hands
Bracket fire, allows you to hit better/farther and deal with the common threats (ASF & SC)
Deep cargo bays, you will need to store plenty of spare parts along with missile & AMS ammo as well as the more mundane food & water
Oversized crew & large marine compliments, if you are capturing ships as prizes you will need crews and guards for any specialists you keep on board
Pursuit craft, drop collars to dock marine/assault DS and at least 1 DS tug to IMO, then small craft and ASF
LF battery, as someone said it the options two jumps give you that matters for strategy
Cheap as possible, while its going to still be expensive (its a warship!) your not sending a multi-kton dreadnaught out . . . light cruiser or destroyer would be best.