Invincible class Super Heavy Battleship: No I'm not jinxing it!

[Liam's Ghost]

Author note: the mention of replacing the forward PPCs with naval autocannons is a nod to what I was originally going to do for the design, but I didn't because allocating large amounts of ammunition to warships in megameklab is all kinds of obnoxious and almost made me switch back to heavy metal aero, outdated as it is.

Also, does anybody else think naming a warship the Invincible is just asking for trouble?


The Invincible was a hypothetical design developed following the research and development that went into the Greyhound class battlecruiser, with the intention of building a super heavy battleship around the Greyhound's massive and grotesquely overpowered transit drive. The department of procurement and the first lord initially requested a three million ton design, able to use the 67.5 giganewton drive to maneuver at a typical 1.5 gravities of acceleration. However engineers regretfully informed them that such a large design was not even theoretically possible, as the nature of KF drive mechanics indicated a "hard limit" to ship design well below that. Unable to ovecome the laws of physics, the design request was scaled back to a more "modest" mass of over two million tons, which would have still made it the largest and most massive ship to have been constructed at the time, had it been built.

The Invincible's design work consists entirely of preliminary sketches and basic calculations, which paint a fairly complete picture of what its capabilities would have broadly been, if everything functioned properly and to spec. Though massing two and a quarter million tons, the ship's transit drive would have theoretically made it surprisingly swift, able to match or outpace even corvettes and destroyers reliably. The primary weapon array was nineteen turrets using the well regarded Kreuss XX naval PPC, with batteries of naval lasers and missile tubes adding extra firepower. Detractors noted that this wasn't really all that heavier a battery than that used by the McKenna or the Royal Sovereign, and there were talks about replacing the forward PPCs with heavy naval autocannons to boost firepower. Defensively, the ship was to be protected by a thick sheath of lamellor ferro carbide armor, which would have given it better protection than any of its contemporaries or even most of the ships that would appear centuries later, and was the real dividend of the ship's tremendous size. Supporting elements would be mostly typical of the battleships of the day, though there were plans for a total of ten docking collars for additional dropship support.

Even if the Amaris Coup had not intervened, it is not known if the Invincible class would have ever seen service. The trial period of the first Greyhound class battlecruisers barely two months before the coup had already revealed significant problems with the 67.5 giganewton drive that would have to be corrected before any work could proceed on additional ships. Even if those problems could have been corrected, there was considerable debate over whether the Invincible was even worth building, as it offered no real capabilities that the Star League didn't already have covered with its existing fleet of McKennas and with the new Royal Sovereigns being built. The Invincible actually suffered compared to these designs for the all important task of army support due to its relatively small cargo capacity. It is possible, given First Lord Richard Cameron's fondness for self aggrandizement, that at least a few might have been built as prestige projects. Indeed, the Greyhound herself was developed for similar reasons, but it is doubtful that either ship would have become an integral part of the Star League's battle line.

Invincible class Super Heavy Battleship
Mass: 2,250,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced) 
Introduced: 2766
Mass: 2,250,000
Battle Value: 312,901
Tech Rating/Availability: F/F-X-F-F
Cost: 45,184,380,000 C-bills

Fuel: 5,000 tons (12,500)
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Sail Integrity: 9
KF Drive Integrity: 43
Heat Sinks: 9300 (18,600)
Structural Integrity: 100

Armor
    Nose: 909
    Fore Sides: 811/811
    Aft Sides: 722/722
    Aft: 535

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (50)            12 Doors  
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (20)        4 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (99830.0 tons)    10 Doors  

Ammunition:
    120 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (6,000 tons), 
    140 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (4,200 tons), 
    120 rounds of AR10 White Shark ammunition (4,800 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 10
Grav Decks: 2 (250 m, 250 m)
Escape Pods: 100
Life Boats: 100
Crew:  110 officers, 395 enlisted/non-rated, 128 gunners, 200 bay personnel, 400 passengers      

Notes: Equipped with 
    lithium-fusion battery system
    1 Mobile Hyperpulse Generators (Mobile HPG)
   4,450 tons of lamellor ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                        Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                  Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (980 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  80   8(80)   8(80)   8(80)    8(80)   AR10        
    AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
    AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
    AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
FRS/FLS (2,180 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
2 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  40   4(40)   4(40)   4(40)    4(40)   AR10        
    AR10 White Shark Ammo (20 shots)
    AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (20 shots)
    AR10 Barracuda Ammo (20 shots)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
RBS/LBS (3,380 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
ARS/ALS (3,940 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC 
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
Aft (760 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
4 Naval Laser 55                            340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  80   8(80)   8(80)   8(80)    8(80)   AR10        
    AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
    AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
    AR10 Barracuda Ammo (60 shots)

[Daryk]

It's absolutely asking for trouble, especially since it has no point defenses...  ::)

[Wrangler]

Pretty amazingly heavily armed ship capital weapons wise.  :o  :thumbsup:
She reminds me what Lyrans would have built if they had made a Battleship!

At the same time i expect tiny snub (cough) Light fighters taking this thing out through exhaust vent somewhere.  >:D

[Liam's Ghost]

It's absolutely asking for trouble, especially since it has no point defenses...  ::)

What kind of Invincible would it be if it didn't explode due to a penetrating critical hit?  ;D

Somewhere in my files I have a design for a hundred ton small craft equipped entirely with anti-missile systems whose purpose is to sit beside Star League era vessels and protect them from naval missile attacks. Something that could say "see, we weren't retroactively ignoring a critical weakness in our fleet strategy due to changing rulesets, we just retroactively always had these flying alongside!"

I never got around to writing the fluff, but the basic gist was that it was developed in response to the bearing only missile attacks favored by periphery merchant auxiliaries during the reunification war.

[Daryk]

I'd read that thread...  ^-^