Recharge Stations Discussion

[Colt Ward]

Trade routes and militarily important routes- so I imagine in the Lyran state there is (or was) a string of recharge stations between Tharkad to Hesperus to Skye, Coventry and Tharkad, Alarion and Tharkad . . . But the military routes is one that I scratch my head on, what important interior world are you running a pipeline to the front from?  I cannot think of anything that is the equivalent of the WWI & WWII Atlantic convoys between US ports like NY, Boston & Chesapeake Bay to England.

And the borders have shifted enough since 2700 IMO that a frontier defense plan is either shot up (literally, station go BOOM in 1SW) or the frontiers have moved so the stations are not ideally placed to shuffle troops along that border laterally.

[dgorsman]

Military recharge stations might have another problem: they work in both directions.  That could potentially speed an invading force into a state's interior.

I could see the potential of putting such stations in out-of-the-way systems to keep them safe(r), as well as allow forces to move with less observation.  Because you know other states will be monitoring port and recharge stations for activities.

[Colt Ward]

Later they could, but not initially- see Imminent Crisis where as soon as they get a series of unexpected IR spikes that predicts the invasion fleet, the station CO dumps the battery charges.  He also does other things to sabotage its immediate value to invaders as well as making it a navigational hazard near the station.



What I was suggesting was something akin to the Roman frontier plan, with garrison forces at certain distances and behind them roads built for the quick lateral movement of troops- or in this case a chain of recharge stations behind the border.  I would think they would be more than 30 LY from world on the opposite side of the border but ideally be within 30 LY of every world on my side of the border.  Basically the garrison lifts, jumps from their position to the nearest recharge station to move closer or further from Terra and thus moves 'up & down' the border to respond to incursions.  But such a system would have been blown to dust along important axis of advance- for instance I would expect recharge stations between the Drac or League borders and the Hesperus system to be destroyed.  Either Lyran forces destroying them in 1SW to keep Dracs or Leaguers from using them, or retreating enemies from having those assets.  Which probably means any remains of a border route in any House would be along the Periphery unless those stations were used to replace destroyed stations after 1SW or during 2SW.

[Talen5000]

So, question number one: just how common are recharge stations, and if you have issues with the canon info, how common do you think they really should be?

Fairly common...and they should be non existent.

[skiltao]

What makes you say that, Talen5000?

And then I noticed that almost all of the worlds that have recharge stations, as fluffed in MekHQ, also have stars with a recharge time of 176 hours... So what the heck is the point!? Geez...

If you're using the fast-charge rules from Strategic Operations, recharge stations give you a bonus on the "don't break my ship" roll, and it costs fuel to quick-charge from your fusion plant instead of from a recharge station.

[Colt Ward]

Also if they have a LF battery they can charge both?  But the batt would need the cable IIRC.

[Talen5000]

What makes you say that, Talen5000?

If you're using the fast-charge rules from Strategic Operations, recharge stations give you a bonus on the "don't break my ship" roll, and it costs fuel to quick-charge from your fusion plant instead of from a recharge station.

And under what circumstances would you actually want to do quick charge? The "I'll  get there a couple of days quicker but I might break my multi billion C-Bill JumpShip to do so roll" really doesn't benefit THAT much from the station bonus

[Tai Dai Cultist]

A couple days difference is an entire world of difference in situations like rushing reinforcements to a world under assault.

[Ruger]

A couple days difference is an entire world of difference in situations like rushing reinforcements to a world under assault.

Or escaping from a system under assault...or escaping from incoming forces while conducting a raid...or in the event of a cataclysmic stellar event in the immediate neighborhood...or...

You get the idea...

Ruger

[dgorsman]

Even when not in a rush, charging via cable means not needing to unfurl and furl the sail.  When you're on a 100+ year old JumpShip that's held together with duct tape and prayers to Blake, it's a *very* good thing.

[skiltao]

And under what circumstances would you actually want to do quick charge? The "I'll  get there a couple of days quicker but I might break my multi billion C-Bill JumpShip to do so roll" really doesn't benefit THAT much from the station bonus

Going from 175 hours to 125 hours for a risk-free jump means a 40% increase in the number of fares you can carry. I don't know many businesses who'd turn that down.

[Easy]

cleanup

[Daryk]

One interesting thing I just noticed: on page 87 of StratOps, a roll of 2 always screws up a sail operation (so I imagine JumpShip Captains buy all the Edge they can), but recharging via power plant or station can automatically succeed by getting the target number down to 2 (or lower).  I doubt it was intentional, but it's definitely another factor in favor of recharge stations.

[truetanker]

I find quick rule of thumb, big corporations and major worlds such as Capitals and factory worlds would have two, one Zenith and one Nadir.

Obviously, protecting these are essential, any " common " breadbasket-like world would have one, to quick charge their potential cargo carriers on their way faster... Most worlds wouldn't have the capital to build one, let alone be able to run it.

There are exceptions...

Pirates tend to barely fix theirs, but they have them, most peripheral worlds tend to have at least one, ancient as hell, but serviceable from when the Star League was still around... Most of the other C class stations aka Comstar classification, tend to use natural lighting... If the HPG station is A, then assume 2 minimum of 1, B? then it'll have just 1...

Again exceptions to the rule of thumb... if you want one, you'll put one in...

TT