Hell, at the risk of Rule whatever it is, Im watching each of us do various different versions of IRL minor powers faced with the IRL Naval hegemon of their era. Its really cool for a certain very narrow flavor of nerd.
Which sums up this whole thread, really. And I'm not worried about rules of that sort. The game keeps us on topic over the long run, and a thread like this is pretty self-segregating, especially on a quiet board - I don't think we're polluting anyone else's feed, so I doubt the mods mind some amount of RL naval discussion on the side.
No fighters... no AMS unless AC/2s count... good thing it has alot of engine, its going to do alot of running away.
Reckon a Heimdallrr will take it apart (eventually), nevermind the Leagues little beastie.
And unless we're ignoring the 70 point Bay limit, I assume those NAC/30s are in twin turrets, and just listed as one big bay because it was easier?
Fighters eat up a lot of supply mass, and don't do much that this ship needs. It's designed to kill civilian ships or light combatants - one NAC/30 will scramble the eggs of a DropShip (given that they're all <5k tons at this point) or a JumpShip. They're actually four single turrets, just to increase your total chances of landing a hit - I don't bother breaking out the bays on my designs, because it's annoying with the spreadsheet, but that was how I thought of it. Even if you are facing real enemies, a single NAC/30 will be a threshold crit on any WarShip in this era, and the nose mount combined with the giant engines means she can do one heck of a high-speed closing engagement, so keeping them as singles is probably ideal(even if it'll be regretted in a century as defences get stronger).
So yeah, it'll lose badly to a ship designed for pitched battles, but what else would the Capellans do? They can't win those battles even if they optimize their designs for it, so they're just tossing the whole concept over one shoulder. You're seeing this in a lot of nations in the Capellan zone - they're all implementing strategies of desperation in one form or another, because they're small nations sandwiched together in a very dangerous part of the galaxy, and none of them have the resources to stand alone. They'll be merging in less than 20 years, because this is the sort of situation where merging with all your enemies just to make sure you can survive makes sense. The FWL attacked them recently, the FS is going to attack them this turn, and the TH is vomiting out more ships in a year than the whole zone is in a decade - this is full-on "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons" territory. And designs like this are part of the process of them consciously realizing it.
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Marauder has re-considered his previous involvement in this due to personal commitments, and has told me that he's dropping out after all. He'll still be around, just not running a nation.
As such, I'll be drawing up the Taurian budget. It's basically in line with what I suggested to him before - one Independence($9.134B with prototype costs), the support craft to fill it out(one DropShip, 4 small craft, and 12 fighters for a total of $400m), 60 more fighters for system defence($300m), and $166m on research.
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The Duchy of Liao believes that the only plausible solution to an inferior economic position is building the largest, most effective individual units possible, and accepting the resulting numerical inferiority in hopes of having a force that can defeat enemy detachments without suffering attritional losses. Unfortunately for the Duchy of Liao, they do not have shipyards suitable for the construction of such units, nor do they have the staggering sums needed to build such yards or the allies to borrow the yard space. As such their designs like the mighty
Du Shi Wang will remain on the drawing board for the time being.
Instead, the Duchy has decided to invest in the most capable hull that they can build with current technology. The
Quzhujian destroyer is short-legged, cramped, and contains few facilities for long-term occupation by its crew, and constructing it stretched the Duchy's finances and shipyards to their limits. However, it has six of the largest guns of any ship known, speed superior to most of its competitors, a powerful strike fighter force, and possibly the strongest set of active and passive defences of any ship in active service.
Class/Model/Name: Quzhujian
Tech: Inner Sphere
Ship Cost: $5,997,876,000.00
Magazine Cost: $31,720,000.00
BV2: 54,012
Mass: 500,000
K-F Drive System: Compact
Power Plant: Maneuvering Drive
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
6 Naval AC 40
24 Capital Launcher AR-10
16 Naval Laser 55
80 Machine Gun (IS)
32 AC 5
Class/Model/Name: Quzhujian
Mass: 500,000
Equipment: Mass
Drive: 120,000
Thrust
Safe: 4
Maximum: 6
Controls: 1,250
K-F Hyperdrive: Compact (12 Integrity) 226,250
Jump Sail: (4 Integrity) 55
Structural Integrity: 120 60,000
Total Heat Sinks: 1225 Single 691
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 5000 points 2,040
Fire Control Computers: 0
Armor: 480 pts Standard 1,200
Fore: 100
Fore-Left/Right: 100/100
Aft-Left/Right: 90/90
Aft: 72
Dropship Capacity: 0
Grav Decks:
Small: 0
Medium: 0
Large: 0
Escape Pods: 20 140
Life Boats: 20 140
Crew And Passengers:
36 Officers in 2nd Class Quarters 252
109 Crew in Steerage Quarters 545
65 Gunners and Others in Steerage Quarters 325
126 Bay Personnel 0
# Weapons Loc Heat Damage Range Mass
2 Naval AC 40 Nose 270 800 (80-C) Medium-C 9,000
2 Naval AC 40 LBS 270 800 (80-C) Medium-C 9,000
2 Naval AC 40 RBS 270 800 (80-C) Medium-C 9,000
6 Capital Launcher AR-10 FL Extreme-C 1,500
6 Capital Launcher AR-10 FR Extreme-C 1,500
6 Capital Launcher AR-10 AL Extreme-C 1,500
6 Capital Launcher AR-10 AR Extreme-C 1,500
4 Naval Laser 55 Nose 340 220 (22-C) Extreme-C 4,400
4 Naval Laser 55 LBS 340 220 (22-C) Extreme-C 4,400
4 Naval Laser 55 RBS 340 220 (22-C) Extreme-C 4,400
4 Naval Laser 55 Aft 340 220 (22-C) Extreme-C 4,400
10 Machine Gun (IS) Nose 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) LBS 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) RBS 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) Aft 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) FL 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) FR 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) AL 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
10 Machine Gun (IS) AR 20 (2-C) Short-PDS 5
4 AC 5 Nose 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 LBS 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 RBS 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 Aft 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 FL 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 FR 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 AL 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
4 AC 5 AR 4 20 (2-C) Medium 32
Ammo Rounds Mass
Naval AC 40 Ammo 180 216.00
Capital Launcher Barracuda Ammo 120 3,600.00
Capital Launcher Killer Whale Ammo 120 6,000.00
Capital Launcher White Shark Ammo 120 4,800.00
Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 8000 40.00
AC 5 Ammo 3200 160.00
Number Equipment and Bays Mass Doors
13,000 Cargo, Standard 13,000 2
48 Bay Fighter 7,200 8
6 Bay Small Craft 1,200 2
In order to defray the fearsome cost of these ships, and to ensure some funds may be available for shipyard expansion in future, the Duchy has also secured an export agreement with the Sian Commonwealth for the second Quzhujian off their lines at a total cost of $8 billion, payable during the development process. While this rather unusual arrangement has attracted notice, both for the lower price than is typical in the export market and the unusual level of trust that the Commonwealth is placing in Liao designers, spokesmen for both nations assure the public that it is merely a financial arrangement that better suited the needs of the two realms than a typical cash-on-delivery agreement would, and that nothing more should be read into it except a desire for shared peace and prosperity in the Capellan zone.
Budget: $15B
Prototype expense: $5.998B
2x Quzhujian: $11.996B
(Export proceeds: $8B gain)
300 fighter: $1.5B
50 small craft: $500m
Research: $306m
Remaining: $2.7B
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The Sian Commonwealth was struggling with its desire for a navy to defend against the threat of new Heracles construction for over a year with no plausible solutions being found. Discussions of licensing Pratham defence stations, or even of trying to build a new shipyard industry from scratch, foundered upon the impracticality of actually producing a useful defence with the Commonwealth's limited budget. However, upon reading of the extremely ambitious Liao ship-building plans, an emissary was dispatched to discuss the possibility of purchasing a ship from Liao shipyards. The Commonwealth's navy was unhappy with the design in some particulars, as their larger astrographic size makes the cramped quarters distinctly unpleasant for the ship's crews. However, no other navy was willing to offer shipyard space for a price that the Commonwealth could afford, and so a deal was almost inevitable. As a compromise, they have decided to begin building a dedicated fleet supply train, commencing with a single JumpShip carrying a DropShip designed for crew recreation and storage of additional supplies.
Budget: $10B
Quzhujian import: $8B
12 fighter: $600m
30 small craft: $300m
1x JumpShip: $500m
1x DropShip: $300m
Research: $300m