I've been working on an alternative game setting recently, specifically a multiracial enclave on the edge of Imperium space.
So among other things I've been thinking about the ships and tactics they might use.
One of the things that I have stumbled over (and I'm sure that many other people have stumbled over before) is the apparent 'ardness of fighter craft.
For example, a meson spinal will nearly always splatter a 500 kdTon dreadnaught. The dreadnaught has around 850 SI, an awful lot for a single vessel, but a meson spinal on a crit does in the order of 3000 damage turning it into so much floating dust.
On the other hand a wing of 1000 10dTon fighters has 75,000 SI, which requires quite some time for the meson spinal to even dent, even with continuous criticals. 55 meson spinal criticals will reduce the wing to dust (on average) and 30 or so are needed to drop the wing to complete innefectiveness.
So I've decided on a Fighter based Navy. The few capital ships are used to ferry the fighters around, basically all of them are closer to Aircraft Carriers then BB's.
The primary attack weapon is a formation of fighters.
So far I have settled on the following Roles for the family of fighter craft that are currently being manufactured.
Interceptor(10dTon): Light and Cheap. 4 day endurance. Normal armament is a triple missile turret with no reloads. Used for swarm attacks, training, and rapid short range response. 2 crew. Computer rating 1.
Heavy Interceptor(30dTon): Able to mount any turret based weapons (8dTon weapon bay). Generally carries either a double fusion turret or a single PA turret. In either case enough spare energy to double fire the weapons. Short endurance (dependant on mounted weapon) of around 3 days. Airframe for rapid launch through atmosphere or to conduct ground attack. 2 crew. Computer rating 2.
Light Fighter(20dTon): Neither a patrol fighter or an interceptor but able to have a go at either. 4dTon weapon bay. Airframe. 28 days endurance. 2 crew. Computer rating 2.
Medium Patrol Fighter(30dTon): Basically a light fighter inflated to go on patrol missions. 4 dTon weapon bay. Additional bridge space and accomodations. 28 days endurance. 4 crew. Computer rating 3.
Heavy Patrol Fighter(50 dTon): Able to go places, find things, and then kill them. 8 dTon weapon bay. 28 days endurance. 4 crew. Computer rating 5.
SWACS Fighter(90dTon): Eye in the sky. Mostly focused around detection and early warning, but able to handle itself as well as a Heavy Patrol Fighter. Very rarely seen in homogeneous groups as it nearly always has escorts. 8 dTon weapons bay. 28 days endurance. 5 crew. Computer rating 9.
ALL FIGHTERS: Maneveur 6, Agility 6, AR 15, AC 32, Meson AC 19. Wedge based hulls.
I quite like the standard weapon bay idea. It is also open to the idea of having alernative utility kit outs that can be changed over quickly. For example the Heavy Interceptor makes a decent marine landing craft (Fast, Airframe, enough space to carry 16 soldiers) before returning to the mothership and being re-armed. Alternatively a small fuel or cargo cannister could be swapped in.
So if you've made it to the end of this rambling post the question I need to ask is "What have I missed?"
So among other things I've been thinking about the ships and tactics they might use.
One of the things that I have stumbled over (and I'm sure that many other people have stumbled over before) is the apparent 'ardness of fighter craft.
For example, a meson spinal will nearly always splatter a 500 kdTon dreadnaught. The dreadnaught has around 850 SI, an awful lot for a single vessel, but a meson spinal on a crit does in the order of 3000 damage turning it into so much floating dust.
On the other hand a wing of 1000 10dTon fighters has 75,000 SI, which requires quite some time for the meson spinal to even dent, even with continuous criticals. 55 meson spinal criticals will reduce the wing to dust (on average) and 30 or so are needed to drop the wing to complete innefectiveness.
So I've decided on a Fighter based Navy. The few capital ships are used to ferry the fighters around, basically all of them are closer to Aircraft Carriers then BB's.
The primary attack weapon is a formation of fighters.
So far I have settled on the following Roles for the family of fighter craft that are currently being manufactured.
Interceptor(10dTon): Light and Cheap. 4 day endurance. Normal armament is a triple missile turret with no reloads. Used for swarm attacks, training, and rapid short range response. 2 crew. Computer rating 1.
Heavy Interceptor(30dTon): Able to mount any turret based weapons (8dTon weapon bay). Generally carries either a double fusion turret or a single PA turret. In either case enough spare energy to double fire the weapons. Short endurance (dependant on mounted weapon) of around 3 days. Airframe for rapid launch through atmosphere or to conduct ground attack. 2 crew. Computer rating 2.
Light Fighter(20dTon): Neither a patrol fighter or an interceptor but able to have a go at either. 4dTon weapon bay. Airframe. 28 days endurance. 2 crew. Computer rating 2.
Medium Patrol Fighter(30dTon): Basically a light fighter inflated to go on patrol missions. 4 dTon weapon bay. Additional bridge space and accomodations. 28 days endurance. 4 crew. Computer rating 3.
Heavy Patrol Fighter(50 dTon): Able to go places, find things, and then kill them. 8 dTon weapon bay. 28 days endurance. 4 crew. Computer rating 5.
SWACS Fighter(90dTon): Eye in the sky. Mostly focused around detection and early warning, but able to handle itself as well as a Heavy Patrol Fighter. Very rarely seen in homogeneous groups as it nearly always has escorts. 8 dTon weapons bay. 28 days endurance. 5 crew. Computer rating 9.
ALL FIGHTERS: Maneveur 6, Agility 6, AR 15, AC 32, Meson AC 19. Wedge based hulls.
I quite like the standard weapon bay idea. It is also open to the idea of having alernative utility kit outs that can be changed over quickly. For example the Heavy Interceptor makes a decent marine landing craft (Fast, Airframe, enough space to carry 16 soldiers) before returning to the mothership and being re-armed. Alternatively a small fuel or cargo cannister could be swapped in.
So if you've made it to the end of this rambling post the question I need to ask is "What have I missed?"