The reality of the crushing debt payments for the Kutai fleet created a cold war within naval command. The FS hawks instigated the purchase and adamantly defended it as necessary in the face of FS aggression. Those opposing the deal pointed out the unsuitability of a Kutai for a main wall of battle, often leaping to the extreme claim that they were useless in view of the reports coming out of Kentares. The Kutai faction was in control of fleet command at the outset leaving the younger generation barraging their seniors with simulations, proposals, and counterproposals.
As often happens in these cases, the matter was settled by retirement of the old guard and the promotion of admiral Lena Wilhight. In a compromise with the old guard, 2 of the Kutai's were kept for escort, scout, and antipiracy role against minor periphery powers where they remain a formidable force. Lena then conducted a deep review of many year's worth of proposals and simulations settling on some unusual conclusions.
The most essential conclusion is that the Taurian Concordat needed an entirely new and radically more force efficient naval doctrine to effectively compete with major powers operating at an order of magnitude more scale. One proposal fit this---labeled the "Rube Goldberg Warship" by the FS Hawks it was ridiculed widely 5 years before, yet it fit the criteria.
The Rube Goldberg Warship isn't a warship. Instead, it's a space station, a dropship, and a jumpship designed to mimic a warship. The space station is a scaledown of the Marathon defense stations which defended Taurus from the FS aggressors.
Class/Model/Name: Taurus I
Tech: Inner Sphere
Ship Cost: $326,105,000.00
Magazine Cost: $46,000.00
BV2: 13,319
Mass: 100,000
K-F Drive System: None
Power Plant: Station-Keeping Drive
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 1
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
15 Naval Laser 45
305 Machine Gun (IS)
Equipment: Mass
Drive: 1,200
Thrust
Safe: 0.2 .75 with Tick
Maximum: 1 1 with Tick
Controls: 100
Structural Integrity: 1 1,000
Total Heat Sinks: 1050 Single 957
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 40000 points 4,080
Fire Control Computers: 5
Armor: 315 pts Standard 393
Fore: 65
Fore-Left/Right: 60/60
Aft-Left/Right: 45/45
Aft: 40
Dropship Capacity: 0
Grav Decks:
Medium: 1 100
Life Boats: 386 2,702
Crew And Passengers:
22 Officers in 1st Class Quarters 220
43 Crew in 2nd Class Quarters 301
66 Gunners and Others in 2nd Class Quarters 470
504 Bay Personnel 0
2184 Steerage Passengers 10,920
Number Equipment and Bays Mass Doors
24 Bay Small Craft 4,800 1 (Nose) //12 are defensive with 54 MGs each pointed forward. 12 are for boarding operations supporting 5 platoons of marines each
Cargo, Standard 30,262 1 (Aft)
48 Bay Fighter 7,200 2 (FL)
48 Bay Fighter 7,200 2 (FR)
48 Bay Fighter 7,200 2 (AL)
48 Bay Fighter 7,200 2 (AR)
# Weapons Loc Heat Damage Range Mass Ammo Rounds Mass
15 Naval Laser 45 Nose 1050 675 (67.5-C) Extreme-C 13,500
5 Machine Gun (IS) Nose 10 (1-C) Short-PDS 3 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 200 1.00
60 Machine Gun (IS) Aft 120 (12-C) Short-PDS 30 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 1800 9.00
60 Machine Gun (IS) FR 120 (12-C) Short-PDS 30 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 1800 9.00
60 Machine Gun (IS) FL 120 (12-C) Short-PDS 30 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 1800 9.00
60 Machine Gun (IS) AR 120 (12-C) Short-PDS 30 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 1800 9.00
60 Machine Gun (IS) AL 120 (12-C) Short-PDS 30 Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 1800 9.00
The
Taurus I design includes 15 NL45s massed in a single arc to do deeply penetrating damage. A single hit by the focused fire of the NL bay can wipe out minor warships and seriously threaten even the largest warships. The NL bay is nevertheless a secondary weapon compared to 192 aerospace bays for over-the-horizon combat. The tactical doctrine here is simultaneous massed strikes of an enormous number of missiles as observed in many modern combats. The aerospace bays are loaded with ASF carrying twin Barracudas with the cargo bay carrying a reload of both Barracudas and White Sharks. The large fuel reserve can be used to reload the ASF as well.
Rethinking the importance of missile defense after many battles were decided by missile waves, a defense-in-depth strategy was developed. The last line of this defense is 60 machine guns per arc mounted on the Taurus I itself. The first line of defense is provided by an array of 12 Crestbreaker point defense smallcraft designed to coordinate with each other and the Taurus I to provide an order of magnitude more point defense (up to 708 machine guns), breaking missile waves apart.
200 ton Smallcraft: Crestbreaker
Tech Rating: D/D-E-D-D
Weight: 200 tons
BV: 3,111
Cost: 17,778,060 C-bills
Movement: 1/2
Heat Sinks: 4
Fuel Points: 240 (3.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84
Structural Integrity: 19
Armor: 1164
Armor
Nose: 350
Left Side: 291
Right Side: 291
Aft: 232
Crew
Officers 3
Gunners 9
Weapons
54x Machine Gun Nose
4 tons of Machine gun ammo
The last element of the Taurus I include 60 companies of marines based off 12 more Smallcraft designed for naval boarding operations.
200 ton Smallcraft: David
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Tech Rating: D/D-E-D-D
Weight: 200 tons
BV: 2,340
Cost: 17,433,060 C-bills
Movement: 7/11
Heat Sinks: 12
Fuel Points: 240 (3.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84
Structural Integrity: 15
Armor: 924
Armor
Nose 278
Left Side 231
Right Side 231
Aft 184
Carrying Capacity
Infantry Bay (3 doors) - 5.0 Foot platoons
Cargo Space (1 door) - 4 tons
Crew
Officers 1
Enlisted/Non-rated 2
Bay Personnel 140
The David smallcraft doctrine uses aggressive tactics. Often, they will intermingle with an ASF wave and use the confusion of a mass missile strike to board surviving enemy ships. Sometimes they will use a 5.5g burn to slip around enemy ASF formations for an unsupported attack. The doctrine here is on the border of foolhardy, but not completely so---they will flee if there is no plausible path to victory.
The Taurus I space station is designed for long occupancy with a large 250m gravdeck and quarters for all bay personnel giving an endurance of about a half year.
The primary disadvantage of a space station in combat is a lack of maneuverability. After careful study, it was determined that a space station can be built to withstand approximately a half-G of thrust, about 5 times what a station-keeping drive generates. A dropship with a Naval Tug can provide this ability, and thus 'The Tick' was born.
Tick
Tech Rating: D/E-E-E-E
Weight: 5000 tons
BV: 3,553
Cost: 218,898,400 C-bills
Movement: 11/17
Heat Sinks: 20
Fuel Points: 6000/6000 (200.0 tons)
Tons Per Burn Day: 1.84
Structural Integrity: 20
Armor: 1232
Nose: 308
Sides: 308
Aft: 308
Weapons
12x MG (Aft, Aft/Fore Right/Left) with 1 ton of Ammo.
Equipment:
Naval Tug: 600 tons
Cargo Space (1 door) - 141 tons
Crew
Officers 3
Enlisted/Non-rated 2
Gunners 11
The Tick can generate a bone-crushing 8.5Gs of force which it projects through it's massive naval tug to move a Taurus I at about 0.5G making it maneuverable at combat time scales and capable of planetary movement in reasonable-if-sedate timescales. (Side note: it's thrust 0.75/1 according to the rules.) The Taurus I is also designed to carry the Tick as
cargo. The process of loading and unloading the Tick is slow. (Side note: using the cargo rules) The tick also complements the point defense of whatever it's attached to with 12 MG's in each arc.
The other obvious drawback of a space station is a lack of interstellar maneuverability which is addressed via the
Mother jumpyard.
Class/Model/Name: Mother
Tech: Inner Sphere
Ship Cost: $933,477,500.00
Magazine Cost: $0.00
BV2: 840
Mass: 100,000
K-F Drive System: Standard
Power Plant: Station-Keeping Drive
Safe Thrust:
Maximum Thrust: 0
Armor Type: Standard
Armament: None
Equipment: Mass
Drive: 1,200
Thrust
Safe:
Maximum: 0
Controls: 250
K-F Hyperdrive: Standard (3 Integrity) 95,000
Jump Sail: (4 Integrity) 44
Structural Integrity: 1 667
Total Heat Sinks: 93 Single
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 1000 points 102
Fire Control Computers: 0
Armor: 44 pts Standard 55
Fore: 9
Fore-Left/Right: 9/9
Aft-Left/Right: 9/9
Aft: 10
Dropship Capacity: 0 0
Grav Decks:
Small: 1 50
Life Boats: 2 14
Crew And Passengers:
2 Officers in 1st Class Quarters 20
9 Crew in 2nd Class Quarters 63
Number Equipment and Bays Mass Doors
100,000 Naval Repair Unpreassurized 2,500 2
34 Cargo, Standard 34 1
The Mother is hideously vulnerable in any combat situation so the standard policy is to never expose it to combat. Aside from yardspace, it provides a direct mechanism to transport space stations from one stellar system to another. The primary implication of this is that space stations can be built in one system and transported to another rather than built on site. In any combat zone, the Mother jumps deep into the Oort cloud, well beyond detection ranges, unload it's Taurus I space station, and then charges off the fusion drive (with fuel supplements from the Taurus I). The large fuel reserve of the Taurus I allows for about 20 deep black jumps (side note: assuming 10 Mother Burn-days/jump). The Taurus I also carries significant spare parts to keep both it and Mother in running order over a long time period.
While Mother's stay out of range of observation, the primary role of the Taurus I is as carriers both of ASF and boarding marines. Secondarily the NL45's form a potent backup weapon, but hopefully all combat can take place beyond direct engagement range. The Taurus I is ortillery capable in support of ground troops.
There are deep tradeoffs associated with the Rube Goldberg Warship, but it can provide a powerful battle force for a small fraction of the price of a true warship fleet.
Alsadius: we'll need two rulings here.
1) How long does it take to enter or disembark from a Naval Yard? This is unspecified in the rules as far as I know.
2) How do you want to rule that explicitly created yardspace works? According to the rules, a level 1 unpressurized yard costs 6.25B when built into a space station. This obviously doesn't include necessary ancillary factories which have an unspecified cost approximated at 3.75B if we want everything to add up to 10B. Nevertheless, 6.25B is significantly more expensive than the 5B of creating a second yard in the same system. Is the idea that space stations cost half price if the yard creating them is onsite? Anyways, what additional costs need to be paid to use the Mother as a functional 100K-ton yard rather than merely a fancy repair bay?
Edit: added design links