Where is CS calling for collarless?
I see the post about spreading your navy around to have a "More Numerous" navy v/s a "Big Ship" navy, but I don't see anything about collars. (I might be blind)
I honestly have issues w/ the way C-Bills work in Aerotech, I'm not sure I buy into the Fasanomics of the calculations.
I can fully get behind a "smaller/zerg it" navy that can deploy in many areas v/s a Leviathan navy.
Not sure I buy into collarless unless we are somehow forced to use C-Bills & limited by them. Otherwise I'd think Raw Mass in Materials & size/capacity of the shipyard is by far the bigger factor.
I actually wasn't really thinking about collars/no-collars. I was thinking more in terms of addressing
navies. The first thing to address is addressing what a Navy is actually
for, and that's a strategic, as opposed to tactical, force.
Not so much 'Zerg' as
coverage and flexibility.
When you tott up the manpower requirements for those biggest-scale battleships, you're concentrating a huge portion of your skilled spacers and officers onto a platform that can really only cover one system at a time, and with the limitations at the
start, that means making the most out of the recruitment and training (and the need to build up experience in those officers and crews if you ever WANT to build bigger ships.)
The best 'starter' navy doesn't begin with megacarriers or battleships, it's what some wags in the real world call a 'Frigate Navy'-that is, a navy mostly made of Corvettes and lighter ships, that can pull multiple missions simultaneously without straining your national budget on every single individual deployment.
basically, "Utility" ships with some capital armament, that can fill LOTS of roles without being ships you can't survive losing a few of.
At least, to start with. This also lets you invest in the infrastructure to expand on-such as fueling/charging stations, service stations and ordnance depots, sensor satellite networks, and the rest that are things that make your warships much more effective and eases upkeep.
IMHO, canon vessels like the classic
Tracker,
Zechetinu or similar vessels are ideal for a starting (or re-starting) navy, call it 'phase one'
A 'Phase Two" navy would include armed transports like the
Fox, because your phase ones should show you what you need in terms of escorting/supporting units to keep those armed transports alive and make them more useful as command platforms.
In my opinion, you don't start needing (or having a real use for) Cruisers until the third or fourth phase, after you've got a cadre of senior officers with warship experience to draw from, at least some experience in developing and using doctrine, and enough 'popcorn' units to cover non-offense, training, and utility roles.
Phase three is where you can start looking at highly specialized designs and designs that only make real sense if you're playing offense against high-peer opponents where you actually NEED the huge platform with lots of big guns, and can afford to actually staff and crew it, without gutting your personnel in the infrastructure levels or lower-tier units.
aka you're able to turn out enough junior officers,have enoug middle officers, and enough senior officers that you're not putting 'mechwarriors or Clerks in command positions just to get it out of the shipyard.
