From TRO:3057r
Note: I did not write this article; instead, this was written by an anonymous contributor with a love of Warships and naval combat.OVERVIEWThe
Aegis, despite its seemingly lacklustre stat line, is actually one of the hidden gems of the Star League-era WarShips. There are vessels that are more powerful, there are more flashy vessels, but nothing will punch above its expected weight like an
Aegis, making them ideal for use against the unwary or when those options are not available but you still want a heavy hitter.
MOVEMENT PROFILEOne of the most important things to adapt to in the naval game is how little speed actually matters. In the ground game, it is imperative to get to good position, exploit terrain, and play range bands to your advantage. In space, there is very little in the way of places to hide and if anyone is in range with weapons that do significant damage, odds are good that you are too. As long as you can pivot and keep your two best arcs on an opponent and roll over and present the other, hopefully less damaged, side of your ship to your enemy, you have enough MP.
It is easy to look at the
Aegis’ thrust profile and mentally transpose it to something like an
UrbanMech, which struggles to generate to-hit modifiers and will usually be at a disadvantage for range and firing arcs due to its relatively low speed.
In space, 2/3 thrust allows you to roll and turn as long as your velocity is low - and since travelling at a high velocity avails you little when a capital engagement starts, it is enough to get by. AeroSpace Fighters and DropShips get to move after WarShips, so it’s not as though you can prevent them from exploiting your arcs and range anyway. Long story short: 2/3 is tolerable for a WarShip from a board game perspective, and from an in-character perspective vessels generally try not to accelerate at more than 1g for extended periods to preserve the health and well-being of the crew.
Strategic Operations introduced the Emergency Combat Heading Operation (ECHO) manoeuvre rule, enabling WarShips the ability to partially counter the movement of lighter, nimbler vessels. Conducting an ECHO allows WarShips to change their facing by one hex side, potentially shifting enemies in the Aft arc to the Aft-Sides of the ship. Conducting an ECHO manoeuvre requires 2 unspent thrust in whatever mode the ship moved in prior to using the option. This is the only area where an
Aegis actually suffers for not having a higher Thrust rating, since reserving the ECHO option requires the user to have spent no MP while using Safe Thrust or only one point when under Maximum Thrust.
ARMOUR AND POINT DEFENCEOne of the Star League WarShips that mounts no conventional-scale weapons of any kind, the
Aegis has no innate point defence whatsoever. Any point-defence capability will have to come from its DropShip and ASF complement.
All of the Star League vessels have less armour than their Structural Integrity would permit. Until the Strategic Operations rules revision, this made them very much your prototypical egg with a sledgehammer, with most ships able to cripple or kill each other quickly since movement modifiers work so differently in space. Whilst the
Aegis’ armour is still relatively low in absolute terms, in relative terms it has heavier armour than any other ship of the time below 770,000 tons. Both the
Congress and
Sovetskii Soyuz have less armour despite massing more.
With 91-101 armour over each arc, an
Aegis can take a fair amount of damage for its size. It will be Thresholded by anything that can do 10 or more damage in a single hit, so the good news is that capital missiles will not be scoring Threshold crits by themselves. The bad news, of course, is that virtually everything else will. In practical terms, you will need to hit an
Aegis with approximately 400 damage to kill it through damage alone. It might die earlier due to critical hits or retire from battle to prevent its destruction, but the ship is a lot tougher than it might initially appear with its seemingly low armour values. Armour is biased to the Fore-Sides and Aft-Sides, as those will be more exposed when the
Aegis is using her most powerful weapons to attack the enemy.
Under the best circumstances, most other capital vessels are going to need four or five turns of uninterrupted fire to deliver that much damage, but at the same time, the
Aegis is going to be hitting back.
WEAPONS AND HOW TO USE THEMIn a vacuum, the ideal WarShip mounts as many 60-70-point bays as possible, with each having as many weapons in it as possible for bracketing while staying within acceptable fire control mass. To take best advantage of the High-Speed Engagement rules, the Nose, Fore-Side, and Broadside arcs should be biased towards ballistic weapons that can increase their damage via speed multipliers, while the Aft-Side and Aft arcs should primarily use energy-based weapons so their damage is not decreased after passing the target. Naval Lasers should be scattered across each arc to provide defence against fighters and DropShips. Naval AutoCannon provide the best mix of damage, mass, and range so those are preferred where available. Anti-Missile defences make Capital Missiles nearly pointless, so as few as possible of those should be mounted. Unfortunately, the
Aegis was not optimised for the current rules set, nor could it have been since it pre-dates Strategic Operations by the better part of twenty years.
Even so, how does the Aegis do on those counts? Surprisingly well, actually.
The bulk of the
Aegis’ damage comes from paired bays of NAC/35s. While limited to Medium (Capital) range, that’s still 24 hexes. Since those are mounted in pairs, they can apply a -1 to-hit modifier through Bracketing and still be hitting for 53 damage. With enough firepower to reliably kill anything of a lower mass within three or four turns from those alone, few WarShips will want to close with an
Aegis. If you can hit a DropShip or ASF squadron with one of the NAC/35 bays, it’s unlikely to trouble you after that either.
For Long (Capital) range, the
Aegis’ fire is somewhat more limited, with just 6 bays of 3 NAC/20s. This still provides enough firepower to kill an
Essex or
Lola in three or four turns even if they’re being Bracketed, so again the news is still relatively good even if its firepower is limited in an objective sense.
Anti-fighter defences are acceptable. The Broadsides and Aft-sides each have a bay with three NL-55s, hitting for 17 points of capital damage. The Aft arc is slightly better protected, with four NL-45s delivering 18 Capital damage. As a practical consideration, the relatively low damage of these weapons means they are better used against enemy Fighter squadrons or DropShips rather than other capital targets. 17 points isn’t much against anything heavier than a Corvette, but it will Fatal Threshold mid-weight enemy Squadrons, and no DropShip to date can avoid a Threshold crit even if their armour can hold out the 170+ points of damage the bays inflict.
Finally, the ship carries a few Barracuda and White Shark launchers, which allow it to target smaller threats. In theory, the ship can also fire
Alamo or
Santa Ana-class nukes that can one-shot kill enemy ships either via a lucky nuclear contact roll or through sheer damage. In practice, missiles are likely to run afoul of simple to-hit numbers and, after 3057, AMS. As a result, Capital Missiles are rarely worth using unless the target is already crippled, you have enough ammunition not to care how many get shot down (and with just 10 shots per launcher, that’s not the case for the
Aegis), or you’ve attained orbital superiority and want to start nuking something from orbit.
In practical terms, an
Aegis can expect to kill anything lighter than it in 4-5 turns through damage alone if they stay outside of 24 hexes, or as few as 3 if they make the incomprehensibly poor choice of entering and staying inside its kill zone for that long. For heavier ships, it depends on the period; vessels from the Clans and Star League up to about 3060 all have relatively light armour, and even a
McKenna can probably be taken down in 6-10 turns depending on how lucky the
Aegis is and whether the NAC/35 bays have range or not. Ships like the
Congress or
Sovetskii Soyuz will be doing well to last more than four or five turns at best at Long (Capital) range and what will happen to them inside Medium (Capital) range doesn’t even bear thinking about.
If you have Strategic Operations handy, check the Arc diagram on p. 95. Enemies that are caught in the area where her Fore-Side, Broadside, and Aft-Sides overlap are faced with three bays of two NAC/35s, 4 bays of three NAC/20s, and two bays of NLs that can each hit for 17 damage, along with three White Shark launchers and a pair of Barracudas. With a potential 495 damage if all the weapons are in range and hit, an
Aegis has the ability to kill anything smaller than a
Nightlord in a single turn and inflict significant damage on any heavier vessel.
HIGH-SPEED ENGAGEMENTSThe all-aspects approach of the
Aegis brings it advantages under the abstract High-Speed Engagement Rules most of the time. Not all, because there are advanced rules for Stern Chase engagements that can prevent NACs from being able to hit at all- a punishing blow to a vessel designed around as many NACs as it could cram on. The
Aegis does have its NL batteries, but they are small and weak, unable to turn the tide on their own.
In a Head-On or Crossing engagement, especially with the damage multiplier rules for Naval Autocannon in play, the
Aegis is if anything more dangerous than it is in a normal battle. Her 70-point NAC/35 bays will deliver 105 to 280 damage each, enough to Threshold even a
Leviathan II. The 60-point bays will fall just short with 90 damage at relatively low engagement speeds, but will still Threshold any canon vessel at maximum speed, with each hitting for 240 damage.
Few ships can tangle with an
Aegis in a High-Speed Engagement and survive, but in return the
Aegis becomes significantly more vulnerable as well.
SUPPORT UNITS, CARGO, AND ENDURANCEThe
Aegis has four DropShip docking collars and just over 83 kilotons of cargo in its SLN refit version, slightly less in the Clan refit with HarJel and additional Fighters. This is somewhat lower than what TR 3057R indicates, but there appear to be multiple inaccuracies in that document.
Much-needed errata notwithstanding, this still represents a significant amount of cargo space. A typical arrangement for a year-long cruise would likely feature something along the lines of 1,000 tons of consumables, 15,000 tons of spare parts for the ship, 8,000 tons of additional fuel, and 20,000 tons worth of parts and fuel for the ASF and Small Craft the ship carries. Totalling 44,000 tons, this leaves almost 40 kilotons with which to support its four attached DropShips. This would enable the ship to supply even a full complement of
Vengeance-Class carriers for a year, and have no trouble with anything less.
In the Star League era or for the Clans prior to the Jihad, an
Aegis’ most likely DropShip complement would be some mix of
Achilles,
Titan, or
Vengeance-Class ships. After the Jihad the Jade Falcons, Republic of the Sphere, and Snow Ravens would be wise to operate
Nagasawa-Class ships from their
Aegis', negating the inherent weakness of the vessel to capital missile fire.
The 1,000 kiloton native fuel reserve of the ship is ludicrously low, barely enough to eke out a month at 1g. Any
Aegis expecting to so much as leave dock will need significantly more and must devote cargo tonnage to fuel.
Finally, the SLN
Aegis houses 18 fighters, a full Wing. The Clans increase the count to 20, enabling most Clans to operate a Binary from the ship. The Steel Vipers regarded a single AeroSpace Fighter as a Point on its own, and though they still only had 20 fighters operating from the
Steel Python counted that as two Binaries instead. Whether Clan or Sphere, each
Aegis also carries 10 Small Craft, though with no innate infantry capacity these would either have been cargo haulers or light gunboats used to assist with point defence.
HOW TO USE IT SOLOThe basic tactic for the
Aegis is similar to most other heavily-armed WarShips in a one-on-one fight; boost for the middle of the map, turn broad-side on, and tear the enemy apart. The
Aegis is not a complicated vessel to use, and as such I regard it as an ideal tool for teaching new players the finer points of the naval game. Its speed will prove sufficient despite expectations carried over from the ground-based rule set, its armour is reasonable, and no matter the Arc(s) they have brought to bear on other vessels, they will be able to inflict decent damage on the enemy. Even for more experienced players the
Aegis is an excellent asset.
The all-aspects approach to weapons placement is a boon on the ship, since its light armour means it will face Thresholding crits quite frequently. With the weapons spread out across each arc, bays will be knocked out relatively slowly during a fight. If possible try to catch the enemy in the three-arc overlap area (depicted in green on p. 95 of Strategic Operations), but if not having a Broadside and Aft-Side or Fore-Side arc on the enemy will still suffice.
Heat can be something of a concern and the 2,046 (4,092) Double Heat Sinks of the ship can be overtaxed in heavy combat. It is still capable of firing at least five of its eight arcs per turn, but if the
Aegis has been surrounded some care must be taken in choosing which arcs to make use of.
The hex rows directly ahead of the ship’s Nose and directly behind its Aft represent the
Aegis’ only real weakness. If possible screen them with the ship’s DropShip and ASF complement to prevent the enemy from sitting in those exposed areas where retaliation is difficult.
HOW TO USE IT IN A FLEET ENGAGEMENTThe
Aegis’ name is a strong hint as to its purpose- it is an outstanding protector for other ships. Lacking any real Extreme-range weapons arrays, an
Aegis is best used as coverage for a ship that does. For the Clans, Star League, and Word of Blake this means vessels like the
McKenna,
Texas,
Potemkin, or
Farragut. Place the
Aegis 10-15 hexes ahead of the larger, longer-ranged ship, and you’ve created a region of space where both ships run out of range at a similar point, but anything that attempts to close on the larger ship by necessity exposes itself to the
Aegis’ NAC/35s.
With such a stratagem in place, the longer-ranged ship can rain NL, NPPC, or Naval Gauss fire on the enemy using Bracketing, with the
Aegis following up with lightly Bracketed NAC/20s. Dealing with the fleet puts the enemy between a rock and a hard place; attempting to close on either the
Aegis or the ship it’s protecting in order to kill it exposes the enemy to heavy fire.
Since the
Aegis lacks AMS arrays, you will need to retain its ASF and DropShips to provide point defence against Capital Missiles. Should you be carrying
Titans or
Vengeances, Fighters excess to that need can be employed offensively or to assist in the defence of friendly ships.
HOW TO FIGHT IT SOLOIn a one-on-one fight, the
Aegis has a few flaws to exploit. Most notably, it’s a 2/3 ship where 3/5 is the norm. If you do not want to enter its Medium (Capital) range, there is likely no way for the
Aegis to force the issue. Just drift backwards as it tries to close; anything with 3/5 thrust or greater can stay at Long (Capital) range or, even better, Extreme (Capital) range indefinitely while it wears the
Aegis down.
Good candidates for fighting an
Aegis, aside from the obvious choices like the
Leviathan II/III or
McKenna, are the
Conqueror or
Black Lion classes. Both are close enough to the
Aegis in mass for it to be a reasonable encounter, but feature heavier Long (Capital)-range NAC arrays than the
Aegis in addition to their superior speed and armour. The
Aegis can always get lucky and inflict some sort of decisive Threshold critical with its NAC/20 bays, but probability vastly favours the
Conqueror and
Black Lion in such a battle. Destroyers and Frigates generally lack the required firepower, and while they may get lucky they are far less reliable in a one-on-one fight.
HOW TO FIGHT IT IN A FLEET ENGAGEMENTThe key to beating an enemy fleet with
Aegis support it is to take out the weak link in the chain - i.e., the
Aegis - as quickly as possible. With its relatively thin armour, massing fire on an
Aegis for a few turns should do the trick - but it is vital to not be sidetracked doing anything else. Once the
Aegis is gone your approach on whatever it was defending becomes much easier. Massed Destroyers or single ships like the
Black Lion should do the trick, though some may have to be sacrificed for the greater good in the process.
The
Aegis’ armour and firepower represent significant obstacles for Pocket WarShips. The PWS designs with the most powerful Sub-Capital weapons will be obliged to enter the
Aegis’ NAC/35 arcs to do damage, and all of the
Aegis’ arcs have NAC/35s. 700 damage will Threshold anything, and destroy a number of PWSes outright. An
Aegis can be reasonably expected to kill a squadron per turn, so the key is overwhelming the ship with numbers and then exploiting the lane of hexes that run through a WarShip's Nose and Aft hex facings where only the weapons in that arc can be brought to bear. Thanks to the
Aegis’ limited thrust, it will not likely be executing ECHO manoeuvres, so once burrowed in you can stay there. 12-18
Taihous should be able to get the job done if they move quickly enough.
The
Aegis is also somewhat vulnerable to ASF squadrons due to the limited coverage its Naval Laser bays provide. 50 or so AeroSpace Fighters can usually survive long enough and do enough damage to bring an
Aegis down, as long as they stick to the safe lane as much as possible. Just try to bring 3067+ brick fighters as often as possible to reduce the risk of Fatal Thresholds from the NL batteries, and pray the NACs miss a lot.
THE SECRET TO BEATING AN AEGISThe easiest way to kill an
Aegis is to bring nuclear missiles. With no innate AMS, it has no way of directly defending itself from
Alamo,
Santa Ana, or
Peacemaker warheads, any Point Defence capability will come from the
Aegis’ Fighters or DropShips, so if necessary simply kill those before you start spending missiles. 4
Santa Anas from a White Shark Launcher or a single
Peacemaker from a Killer Whale will kill an
Aegis on damage alone.
OVERALLThe quirks of the space game and the Strategic Operations rules revision are very kind to the
Aegis. Against opposition from its own time, it can kill more classes one-on-one than those that can kill it, though thanks to the wonders of the SLN’s size, there are probably five or six hundred of those compared to the 70
Aegises.
Still, when you take into account the additional mass and time before you get to some of those ships, that’s not a bad effort. I would rate the
Aegis at 7/10 for a canon vessel. It could have been better, but it is surprisingly solid.
~ ~ ~
Master Unit List:
http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/3671/aegis-heavy-cruiser-2582CamoSpecs (2750):
https://camospecs.com/Miniature/Details/6796CamoSpecs (3057):
http://www.camospecs.com/IWM/Details/480?Area=/aegis-heavy-cruiserIron Wind Metals (2750):
http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4109Iron Wind Metals (3057):
http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2085