Ultra counterinvasion transport

[Lagrange]

The Ultra is a brigade scale invasion transport using 3025 tech.   Comments/questions/suggestions welcome. 

The Ultra's 7/11 movement makes it capable of evading anything except light enemy ASF.  It's light weaponry (a few AC2s for long range and a number of small lasers) is deadly for such light enemy ASF.  More powerful attacks from assault dropships or smallcraft can be repelled by the large onboard ASF complement and (hopefully) endured by the 500+ point of armor. 

The Ultra also contains quarters for 1800 personnel, enough to support all bay personnel, tech crews, many marines, and other ancillaries.  The cargo storage of 6K ton and fuel reserve of 1K tons provides support for up to a 6 month war zone deployment. 

Relative to the Vengeance for example, the Ultra can carry up to 5x the ASF complement, nearly doubles acceleration, carries more than twice the fuel reserves, and has incomparably larger personnel and cargo complements.  All of this comes at a price ~6x a Vengeance which is further alleviated by more subtle values.  The Ultra can also perform in a land invasion role (unlike the Vengeance) defraying the cost of a land invasion transport using a dyad force structure.  In addition, the Ultra simply gets more out of a jump collar (amortized cost 250M+). 

Code: [Select]

Ultra 3025
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 100,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3025
Mass: 100,000
Battle Value: 6,935
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 2,221,671,200 C-bills

Fuel: 1,600 tons (16,000)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 556
Structural Integrity: 85

Armor
    Nose: 544
    Sides: 544/544
    Aft: 544

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (12)        1 Door   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (108)           8 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (6100.0 tons)     0 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Cargo (649.0 tons)      0 Doors   

Ammunition:
    810 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (3 tons)

Escape Pods: 5
Life Boats: 5
Crew:  8 officers, 16 enlisted/non-rated, 12 gunners, 276 bay personnel, 1800 passengers

Notes: Mounts 306 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:                   Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)             Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (12 Heat)
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
RS/LS Fwd (12 Heat)
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
RS/LS Aft (19 Heat)
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
3 AC/2                  3    1(6)    1(6)    1(6)    1(6)  AC         
    AC/2 Ammo (270 shots)
1 Large Laser           8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
Aft (19 Heat)
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
2 Small Laser           2    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
1 Large Laser           8    1(8)    1(8)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
3 AC/2                  3    1(6)    1(6)    1(6)    1(6)  AC         
    AC/2 Ammo (270 shots)

Capabilities:
The Ultra is designed around ASF+Marine dyads but can also be deployed in several other configurations.

• Dyads consist of 2 ASF, 20 marines with 115 tons of cargo.  54 such units provides 2 regiments of 108 ASF, and a Brigade/regiment of 1080 marines all of which can exit the Ultra in 7 minutes.
• ASF max configurations can put ASF in the smallcraft bays, carry additional ASF in cargo, and swap marines for techs who can rapidly deploy the ASF.  This allows deployment of up to 3 regiments of 100 ton ASF or 2 regiments of 100 ton and 2 regiments of 50 ton ASF.   Using teams with Strongarm exoskeletons a 50 ton ASF can be loaded into an ASF bay in 3 minutes with a constant half g thrust.  With a dedicated tech team and an extra tech team for each ASF loaded from cargo, they can be prepped in 2 minutes implying a near constant stream of ASF can be launched over a period of 13 to 14 minutes.
• Marine max.  The number of marines can easily be doubled to two regiments with 1800 folks in quarters and nigh-unlimited supplies.   Furthermore, these can easily be delivered via smallcraft designed for boarding ops while a large ASF complement screens the deployment.  The number of marines that can be supported for short stays is potentially much larger, controlled only by the life support available in smallcraft.

Tradeoffs here:
Size:  I'm considering deployment by jump circuit to an L1 pirate point as a baseline scenario.  Note here that the last jumpship may easily end up sacrificed given the jump into a warzone.  In that setting, the amortized cost of the jump collars used is ~250M/hop with a plausible minimum of 250M.  To amortize that, we are interested in large transports which maximize the force brought into a situation.   We could imagine going with something half scale like the Warmother which allows delivery of slightly more than half as many units at slightly more than half the price.   But, with 3025 tech, the Ultra scale appears both survivable and desirable given a jump circuit deployment.  As an example, a Voyager jumpship could bring two Ultras into a pirate point generating a Thera+ scale ASF superiority complement for perhaps 1/5th the price.

Versatility: There is a significant tradeoff between the amount of force which can be brought to bear on a specific problem vs a large range of problems (high speed engagement, space combat, open field combat, in-facility combat).  I'll discuss later after more details are filled in, but this design provides an effective way to address each of these at a modest cost relative to a design optimized to address just one of these.

Speed: A 7/11 movement on a transport is controversial.  At a practical level, crews need g support, the cost is increased, and the payload is significantly decreased.  For example, with a 5/8 movement you could add 40% more transport while decreasing the price.  You could even go for a 2/3 transport with twice the capacity.  The advantage of the high speed is that Ultra is super-survivable.  Very little can outrun it in deep space, and the little which can is highly vulnerable to either onboard weapons or onboard ASF.   Thus the extra cost and reduced capacities are effectively the cost of reuse across multiple battles.  As an example, an Ultra might jump in-system, deploy ASF for a high speed engagement (while avoiding that itself), gather the ASF and patch them up while swinging around for a low speed engagement to finish off opposition naval survivors, again gather the ASF and outfit them with bombs for opposition land forces, then land some infantry to mop up opposition survivors.  This battle sequence is expected to be survivable for the Ultra while slower transports could be targeted and killed at the first step.

Variants: A similar design at the battalion scale is the Brood following a suggestion below.

[Daryk]

Like all other DropShips, it's vulnerable to its JumpShip being seized or destroyed, and thus being stranded...  8)

[Lagrange]

Like all other DropShips, it's vulnerable to its JumpShip being seized or destroyed, and thus being stranded...  8)

That's true, of course.

The Ultra can engage in combat, discover that the odds are overwhelming, collect any survivors, take some long burns out system, and connect with a secretly inserted jumpship 6 months later for escape.  It's the best counter I've thought of short of 'win the battle'.  The 7/ll legs make it impossible for a warship to pursue and the endurance required exceeds the specs of all assault smallcraft and most assault dropships.  It's not a fun scenario, but it's at least plausibly possible.

[Daryk]

The trick then becomes (of course) ensuring the secrecy of that insertion, as a WarShip could jump there if it's detected.

[wolfgar]

at 100K tons, it is too heavy to land, the largest available to land on the surface of a planet is the Mammoth at 50ktons

[Daryk]

As a carrier, it shouldn't have to land.

[Hellraiser]

at 100K tons, it is too heavy to land, the largest available to land on the surface of a planet is the Mammoth at 50ktons

You sure about that?

The Behemoth can't take off because it has a 2/3 movement curve.
This vessel is 7/11 so I'm not sure why it couldn't take off again.

The bigger question for me, is a fluff one, which is, where do you get the engines for this thing?   LOL!
Its honestly almost he size of one of the 2 thrusters on an Aegis class Heavy Cruiser.
Which means a limited # of places that can produce this engine.

The design itself comes across as a bit overkill.
You can create something in between the Vengeance & this beast that will still get the job done.  (Like a Tiamat in size w/ less guns)
Less size, cost, materials, etc etc, allowing you to have more of them to cover different areas of a battle or different worlds / sectors if a nation.

[Wolf72]

at 100K tons, it is too heavy to land, the largest available to land on the surface of a planet is the Mammoth at 50ktons

pretty sure that's just fluff in the behemoth description.

[Lagrange]

The trick then becomes (of course) ensuring the secrecy of that insertion, as a WarShip could jump there if it's detected.

If you accelerate at 1g for 2 months you reach about 875AU at 1/6th c.  Slowing down would add a similar distance.   The distances available for jump signature detection are around 10-20 AU, so the odds of discovery are very low. 

A potentially viable counter strategy is having a fast ship with large fuel reserves and a superior sensor suite shadow the Ultra as it goes outsystem.  It's very tricky though to stay in one ship's sensor range but out of another's for months while still being able to achieve intercept in the ~2 hours which might be used for docking before a jump away.

at 100K tons, it is too heavy to land, the largest available to land on the surface of a planet is the Mammoth at 50ktons

The Behemoth seems to have a structural integrity of about 1.5 by fluff (and more according to the literal rules).  That is indeed to little for landing as 1 g will break it.  The Ultra has a sructural integrity of 85, which should certainly work.  Of course, landing it in a war zone is tactically sinful as it creates a half-dozen different ways that it can be easily killed.   Dropships landing in a warzone generally need to be much smaller.

The bigger question for me, is a fluff one, which is, where do you get the engines for this thing?   LOL!

There aren't any defined limits here, but the required thrust is close to what 18 Mammoth drive units provide.   Maybe that's viable?  Or the strategy of having multiple drive units?  If you want just 4 drive units, then something slightly smaller than the Behemoth drive for 4 units would work.

The design itself comes across as a bit overkill.

I guess the question is: how much is enough-kill?  (That's not a rhetorical question: how large are invasions? I lack a proper sense of scale.) In a counterinvasion capacity, this is enough to allow a jump circuit to insert a Thera scale force anywhere within 30 light years of a node within a week.  In my understanding, that's sufficient to counter most invasion forces and to at least substantially complexify the few invasions of a larger scale.

You can create something in between the Vengeance & this beast that will still get the job done.  (Like a Tiamat in size w/ less guns)
Less size, cost, materials, etc etc, allowing you to have more of them to cover different areas of a battle or different worlds / sectors if a nation.

I'm sympathetic to the idea that you want to respond at the right scale to avoid waste of force.  There's a lower bound of ~500M imposed by jumping into an L1 pirate point for a fast response since the risk of losing a jumpship is high.   Given that, perhaps something ~20K tons costing ~600M with 1/4 the force (~28, less than a Vengeance) is a viable "small" transport.  You could double the force by sending 2.  You could double it again by sending a single Ultra and double it yet again by sending 2 Ultras.

[Daryk]

Oh, it's definitely doable, just not easy...  8)

[Hellraiser]

The Behemoth seems to have a structural integrity of about 1.5 by fluff (and more according to the literal rules).  That is indeed to little for landing as 1 g will break it.  The Ultra has a sructural integrity of 85, which should certainly work.  Of course, landing it in a war zone is tactically sinful as it creates a half-dozen different ways that it can be easily killed.   Dropships landing in a warzone generally need to be much smaller.

I don't have my RS book right now, but, the Sarna article lists it as 30.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Behemoth_(DropShip_class)

how much is enough-kill?  (That's not a rhetorical question: how large are invasions? I lack a proper sense of scale.) In a counterinvasion capacity, this is enough to allow a jump circuit to insert a Thera scale force anywhere within 30 light years of a node within a week. 

Honestly, if I'm trying to counter a Thera, I'm going to need multiple WS as it is, the Thera is a WS designed about as close to "optimally" as you can get from canon examples.
Fluff wise, IIRC, to outfit the Theras the FWL was forced to strip fighters away from their ground units & free floating ASF regiments.
I would think you would have the same problem with these DS too.  Worse since they are likely more common than Theras.
Simply put its too many eggs in 1 basket for anyone short of the original SLDF to manage.
I do like the idea of something "bigger" than a Vengeance in both capacity & size/durability, like the Lee variant, but I'd probably cap it at 1 Regiment at most of 54-fighters, a wing of 18-shuttles & keep the size down to Mammoth or smaller & speed into the realm of 5/8 which is still enough to outrun "most" of the stuff that might be able to deal w/ it.

[Lagrange]

I realize I mis-stated the title.  The Ultra is meant as a counterinvasion transport.   As in: someone invades, and you now want to drop a ton of force on their heads yesterday.  For an invasion, you may desire an alternate approach.

Oh, it's definitely doable, just not easy...  8)

I'm... not sure.

Staying out of detection distance means evading Drive Plume Detection at perhaps 30e6 km.  This can't be traversed easily in a 2 hour transit time.

What you could do is have Warship A with a large naval comm scanner suite pursue with a large range and then have it signal Warship B some coordinates for the Ultra's flight path.  Given speed of light delays this would require an onboard HPG (expensive) or a blackbox (much cheaper).   Warship B could then calculate an intercept jump and jump to intercept.  That calculation is on the order of hours though, so a random walk over minor changes in direction every hour or so could easily accumulate to generate a miss.   Also, there are low odds of success for the warship to calculate an intercept jump in the ~2 hours that it takes to dock with a waiting jump ship.

I don't have my RS book right now, but, the Sarna article lists it as 30.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Behemoth_(DropShip_class)

Yeah, I was referring to:

Because of the weak structure, most vessels rarely operate above half their maximum thrust to prevent structural damage.

Which would logically make sense at SI 1.5.  The real SI is a factor of 20 larger as you point out so the limits on thrust don't make sense rules-wise.

Honestly, if I'm trying to counter a Thera, I'm going to need multiple WS as it is, the Thera is a WS designed about as close to "optimally" as you can get from canon examples.

I, disagree here.  A pair of Ultras has some real advantages over a Thera.

• Strategic Maneuverability The Thera can rapidly push 224 ASF and 4 dropships (... presumably not carriers) 60 light years using the LF battery.  A pair of Ultras and a jump circuit of 37 Voyagers with the same cost can rapidly push a pair of Ultras over 1000 light years down the circuit.  That's an amazing degree of strategic maneuverability which allows forces to be rapidly deployed wherever needed.  No more "oops we missed the war in transit across the inner sphere".
• Tactical Maneuverability The superior movement of the Ultras means they can easily avoid the Thera's capital weapons and position the ASF for a high speed engagement which the Ultras themselves can mostly avoid.  That leaves the Ultra's ASFs vs. Thera's remaining ASF, dropships, and Thera itself.  If it takes 7 ASF to kill 1 in a single round and the dropships each add a dead ASF, that leaves 182 ASF able to attack the Thera.   If each ASF has 80 damage potential in a "slow" high speed pass, that's 1456 capital damage potential.  Half of that hitting is plausible and about what's necessary to kill the Thera in expectation.  After that, the Thera's ASF will have difficulty even recovering on surviving dropships and even greater difficulty rapidly launching from those dropships.  Another pass could wipe out the dropships and leave the force broken down to isolated units without support.

Fluff wise, IIRC, to outfit the Theras the FWL was forced to strip fighters away from their ground units & free floating ASF regiments.
I would think you would have the same problem with these DS too.

Absolutely.  In compensation, you can get Thera scale defense on 1 week's call at every world which has been stripped.   It's a good trade.

Worse since they are likely more common than Theras.

Well, it's 2 Ultras = 1 Thera as far as ASF count goes.   Sarna lists 6 Theras.  Maybe more than 12 Ultras would be useful?  Or maybe less?  This depends on some tricky specifics.

Simply put its too many eggs in 1 basket for anyone short of the original SLDF to manage.

To many eggs in 1 basket is a real problem if the basket is easily destroyed.   That's not the case here.  It's also potentially a problem if you need to spread your forces around more to deal with piecemeal attacks more effectively.  The rapid transit possibilities partially remediate this issue.  I do agree however that it's not fully remediated.  If someone launched a 2 dozen piecemeal invasions/attacks simultaneously, you'll only be able to deal with a couple per week, which is less than compelling.

I do like the idea of something "bigger" than a Vengeance in both capacity & size/durability, like the Lee variant, but I'd probably cap it at 1 Regiment at most of 54-fighters, a wing of 18-shuttles & keep the size down to Mammoth or smaller & speed into the realm of 5/8 which is still enough to outrun "most" of the stuff that might be able to deal w/ it.

The Warmother I worked on earlier is in this ballpark except that it is 7/11.

In terms of invasion scale, I looked through some clan invasion record books I have.  It looks like the 'typical' invasion strength varied between a clan cluster (maybe 80 units, of which 30 might be ASF) and a clan galaxy (about 3x to 6x that).  If this is the typical scale of invasions, it seems a pair of Ultras is about the right scale for counterinvasion against the larger ones.  Something smaller around the Vengeance*2 scale could plausibly deal with the low end quite effectively as you suggest.

One thing to note is that with 3025 tech most of the cost is in the transport rather than the ASF.  The cost is about 20M/ASF while the ASF cost ~6M.

[Daryk]

If the Ultra gets to assume a command circuit 37 jumps long, it's only fair for the Thera to assume recharging stations along the same route.

[Lagrange]

If the Ultra gets to assume a command circuit 37 jumps long, it's only fair for the Thera to assume recharging stations along the same route.

Sure.  Recharge stations can be dirt cheap, and you only need one ever 60 light years for a Thera.  That costs ~500M, which is about the cost of one stop on the jump circuit.

The Thera can move at 60 light years/week with the LFB and recharge station support.   It's still very slow compared to 1000 light years/week.

[Daryk]

I thought batteries enabled you to charge faster? ???

[Lagrange]

I thought batteries enabled you to charge faster? ???

There are two issues:

• You can only charge one of the LFB or the KF drive with the battery. The other must be charged by another means which implies you don't charge any faster safely.
• The recharge battery gives you a 2 bonus on the recharge roll which allows you to safely recharge about a day faster than normal.   That's... fine?  But not a game changer.

The real value is that you can reliably charge the LFB and the KF-drive on a once/week schedule (or somewhat faster if you are ready to risk KF drive damage).  That doubles your strategic speed.

[Daryk]

I could have sworn two batteries could be used at the same time to charge both.

[Lagrange]

I could have sworn two batteries could be used at the same time to charge both.

Well, possibly you could deploy the jump sail while docked with a recharge station and have another recharge station (or one with 2 batteries) use a microwave transmitter aimed at the jump sail.  However, this provides no bonus for the recharge time in my understanding of SO.

[Daryk]

It wouldn't be the first thing I've remembered wrong...  :-\

[Hellraiser]

Maybe I'm misremembering this but, I thought it worked like this....

LFB or KF Drive are the same time to charge.

To charge them both at the same time on your own you would need to use the Sail & your own Engines.

Or if your at an Alliance Recharge station you can recharge them both quickly from the station.

I thought the Alliance had something like 6 "charges" it could store at once from the fluff.

[Daryk]

That's what I was thinking too.

[idea weenie]

Strategic Operations (4e) p76.

A unit with an LF battery in addition to its K-F core may use its
jump sail to charge one device, and its power plant (or a direct
cable connection to a recharge station) the other. If using its sail
to charge from the local star, the unit may not use a microwave
link to an energy storage battery at the same time (or vice versa),
nor may it use one power source (sail, power plant, or direct connection
to a station battery) to charge multiple drive systems. The
exception to this is a station battery, where one charge can be
sent via microwaves through the jump sail and a second charge
via a direct cable connection.

So to me it seems like the limitation is on the Jumpship/Warship side, where they only have one direct connection for receiving power from a Recharge station.


This seems like an obvious upgrade/quirk or other future tech.

[Lagrange]

So to me it seems like the limitation is on the Jumpship/Warship side, where they only have one direct connection for receiving power from a Recharge station.

Yeah, it's some sort of "Well duh, you should install two power conduits per docking collar once LFBs are around" type of issue.

For Hellraiser, I wonder what you think of this?

Code: [Select]

Halfultra 3025
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 49,900 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3025
Mass: 49,900
Battle Value: 6,038
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 1,206,415,000 C-bills

Fuel: 1,000 tons (10,000)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 392
Structural Integrity: 50

Armor
    Nose: 500
    Sides: 500/500
    Aft: 500

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (16)        2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (48)            6 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (2900.0 tons)     0 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Cargo (1295.0 tons)     0 Doors   

Ammunition:
None

Escape Pods: 70
Life Boats: 70
Crew:  6 officers, 8 enlisted/non-rated, 12 gunners, 176 bay personnel, 960 passengers

Notes: Mounts 180 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:            Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)      Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (21 Heat)
11 Small Laser  11   3(33)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
1 PPC           10   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
RS/LS Fwd (12 Heat)
12 Small Laser  12   4(36)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
RS/LS Aft (21 Heat)
11 Small Laser  11   3(33)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
1 PPC           10   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
Aft (12 Heat)
12 Small Laser  12   4(36)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Point Defense
It's about 1.5x Vengeance with a 7/11 move, although you could easily store and rapidly launch additional ASF to make it 2x Vengeance if you want to cut into supplies. 

I'm leery about cutting speed below 7/11.  The ASF rules make it so that if you go 7/11 then the heavy ASFs can't catch you and the medium ASFs will suffer structural damage if they try.  That leaves only light ASFs like the Cheetah which have only small scale firepower and armor.  If you instead go 5/8, then some heavy and medium ASFs can catch up with much more significant firepower and armor.

In terms of costs, it seems like we have:

• Jump Circuit is much more expensive in general.  It might be 600M/stop altogether, so 30 stops is 18B.
• The Rider is the next most expensive item.  The Ultra is 2.2B and the Halfultra is 1.2B.  These could be doubled if two are needed.
• The ASF are the least expensive item, at least in 3025.  Heavy ASF are about 6M and smallcraft are about 10M, so loading up an Ultra costs ~700M.

Given the relationship of (2) and (3) it seems we should just imagine every rider built to have a full complement of ASF assigned to it.  Given the relationship of (1) and (2), it seems good to err on the high side w.r.t. Rider capacity.

[Hellraiser]

So to me it seems like the limitation is on the Jumpship/Warship side, where they only have one direct connection for receiving power from a Recharge station.

Agreed, but it can still take too charges from a station, just has to use its Sail & Microwave method.


This is what I'm reading.

A unit with an LF battery in addition to its K-F core may use its jump sail to charge one device, and its power plant (or a direct
cable connection to a recharge station) the other.

So this is basic set up that we know about LFB, Sail does 1, Engine another, or attach to an Olympus Recharge Station

If using its sail to charge from the local star, the unit may not use a microwave
link to an energy storage battery at the same time (or vice versa),

This is saying that the "sail" is the only way to collect through "space".
So if you use a Microwave Link/Transmission from a nearby station v/s Link to it via a Cable, then you can't use the Sail for its normal function since the sail is picking up the microwaves from transmission.
(Honestly this is the first time I've heard of this method, I thought you had to doc w/ the station with a direct connection.

nor may it use one power source (sail, power plant, or direct connection to a station battery) to charge multiple drive systems. 

This is telling you the JS/WS can only accept power 2 ways  (Cable/Sail) and it can't use 2 Cables or Sail+Microwave at the same time.

The exception to this is a station battery, where one charge can be sent via microwaves through the jump sail and a second charge via a direct cable connection.

This clarifies that the Station has 2 methods of getting energy to a JS/WS, it can "beam" it to the sail or attack a cable to the engine/battery directly.


So you cant use a "cable" & your "engine" at the same time since they use the same internal wiring is what I'm seeing, and you can't use the Solar Sale & Microwave Link/Transmission at the same time since again, the Sail is the "collector" for both of those & you can't for 2 chargings at once.

But a Station can still give you 2 charges at once, just has to use both the Cable & the Sail to accept them.

How much faster is an Olympus v/s just using Sail/Engines?
Is the only benefit that your saving some fuel?
I thought the transfer from an Olympus was faster from the fluff.

[idea weenie]

Agreed, but it can still take too charges from a station, just has to use its Sail & Microwave method.

This is what I'm reading.

So this is basic set up that we know about LFB, Sail does 1, Engine another, or attach to an Olympus Recharge Station
 
This is saying that the "sail" is the only way to collect through "space".
So if you use a Microwave Link/Transmission from a nearby station v/s Link to it via a Cable, then you can't use the Sail for its normal function since the sail is picking up the microwaves from transmission.
(Honestly this is the first time I've heard of this method, I thought you had to doc w/ the station with a direct connection.
This is telling you the JS/WS can only accept power 2 ways  (Cable/Sail) and it can't use 2 Cables or Sail+Microwave at the same time.
This clarifies that the Station has 2 methods of getting energy to a JS/WS, it can "beam" it to the sail or attack a cable to the engine/battery directly.


So you cant use a "cable" & your "engine" at the same time since they use the same internal wiring is what I'm seeing, and you can't use the Solar Sale & Microwave Link/Transmission at the same time since again, the Sail is the "collector" for both of those & you can't for 2 chargings at once.

But a Station can still give you 2 charges at once, just has to use both the Cable & the Sail to accept them.

Strategic Operations, p76:

Additionally, a direct
cable connection (available only when docked) shortcuts a number
of the fragile KF drive systems and thus the difficulty of any
quick-charge attempts by such docked units applies a –2 modifier
to the Control Roll, treating a final Modified Target Number of 2 or
less as having no chance of failure. When docked to a space station
the direct connection can only feed the energy from a single
energy storage battery at a time.

Looking at the Quick-charge table on page 75, gives the timeframe of 100-124 hours as having a '+2' modifier.  So recharging via direct connection means instead of charging in 175 hours, you can recharge in as little as 100 if you dock.

Of course if you are recharging both the KF Core and LF Battery, you can have one of them charged in as little as 100 hours, but the other will take 175 hours.  If the star normally takes longer than 175 hours, this is still a time-saver.

I think you save fuel as well, as instead of spending 175 hours at Station-Keeping, the Jumpship is docked to the station.  You definitely save fuel from not needing to recharge via the main engine (which consumes 10 Burn-Days).

The problem is you can't use more than one power source to charge an item.  So assuming the Warship was recharging via both its Sail and direct connection, then after 100 hours when the KF Core is charged the ship cannot change over to use the Docking Connection to charge the LF Battery at 75% higher speed.  The Warship is stuck using the slower 175 hour charge rate.

How much faster is an Olympus v/s just using Sail/Engines?
Is the only benefit that your saving some fuel?
I thought the transfer from an Olympus was faster from the fluff.

To answer your questions:
1) Using an Olympus means you take as little as 58% the time needed to recharge via Engine charging (and potentially less time depending on the time of the local star) (100/175 = 57.143%)
2) It saves fuel and time, tough you do need to dock/undock
3) It is faster and safer than beaming the energy to a sail, using the engine to charge, or absorbing local solar energy

[monbvol]

The main thing to keep in mind for the utility of charging stations is more often than not they are also put in systems where the local star can't provide enough energy at the zenith/nadir to charge in the usual 175 hours.

As a flip side even jumpsails obey the rules about quick charging too.  So even if a star can charge faster it still provokes the same control roll as quick charging from the engines.

So the main thing charging stations offer is always going to be steady predictability.

[Hellraiser]

So the main thing charging stations offer is always going to be steady predictability.

I would imagine they also add a bit to "Command Circuit" routes in that even if your missing a designated JS waiting for you the Olympus can at least get your JS going in 4 days instead of 7, so that is a little something.

[Daryk]

And the Nation thanks you for doing all that math while I was putting in 12+ hours in the five-sided PowerPoint collider!  :D

[Lagrange]

A difficulty with deploying a jumpsail while docked with a space station is that it may foul the station's jump sail.  If this is necessary, the station's jump sail could be retracted which presumably results in not charging the energy batteries.  That's ok for the Thera but implies the station won't be fully charged immediately after the Thera departs.  For this reason, it seems better to have several small recharge stations so that only at most one of them is forced to retract it's sail.

[idea weenie]

A difficulty with deploying a jumpsail while docked with a space station is that it may foul the station's jump sail.  If this is necessary, the station's jump sail could be retracted which presumably results in not charging the energy batteries.  That's ok for the Thera but implies the station won't be fully charged immediately after the Thera departs.  For this reason, it seems better to have several small recharge stations so that only at most one of them is forced to retract it's sail.

I think there was a rule/comment way back in the books where recharging from a station could be done via a really long extension cable.  This would allow the station to keep its sail deployed, and the Jumpship/Warship could deploy its sail as well.

But this sounds like a good question for the main boards, asking how a Jumpship can deploy its sail while docked with a Recharge station, and not resulting in any tangling.

Or put up the Cray signal   ;)