Large Warship design problems

I wasn't doing much this weekend so I decided to check out some of
the warship designs that have been submitted on this list. After
Steve Higginbotham's "Sikkinthar" and "Aenoegrr" class ships, I
felt rather humbled and obligated to support his premise. So I
decided to check on whether his assertion had any validity. Steve's
assertion being that 8 of his Sikkinthar class (7ktons) could
destroy a Atlantis class (1 million tons).

What I found was rather amusing. Actually it would take only 5 to
do the job. This got me thinking on whether any of the other
capital ship (20ktons + ) were any good. I found that in general
they were not. It seems that most of these warships were built with
the "bigger is better" mentality with no regard to their actual
effectiveness. Before I go into further details let me point out a
few things that I noted:

1. Most capital ships were heavily overarmored, overpriced and very
vulnerable to meson weapons. Most designs would be LESS vulnerable
to ALL weapons if they were LESS armored.

2. I do not know if anyone has actually done any large scale combat
with these starships( or any other starships tonnage > 20 kt) in
large numbers. I have a feeling that the designs would be a lot
different if they had done even rudimentary tests. If someone has,
it would be of great benefits to the "architects" to know its
results.

3. There were hardly any capital ship designs with PA spinals, yet
there were lots of ships with armor > 60. Similarly there was a lot
of use of the TL 15 50 ton factor 9 missile bay but NOONE used the
more effective 100 t factor A missile bay.

4. It seemed to me that the rider/tender vs battleship controversy
is now decided firmly in favor of the rider/tender. A 100,000 ton
tender brings far more spinal mounts to bear than a 200,000t
battleship. And when both sides have armor 60+ than the battle is
decided by who is nimbler and with more spinal weapons.

5. Steve Higginbotham's designs assume a standard 24/72 cruise
endurance with a 1/3 peak power endurance. For those who may have
played large scale capital ships battles, a question. How realistic
is this figure? It seems very suitable since all my battles were
over in 2-5 rounds (40-100 min).

6. I think the Imperial requirement of warship specs should be
amended as follows.

Imperial warships should be J-4 with a cruise endurance of 21/63+.
Cruise implying constant 2-G accel (1/3rd power) with all noncombat
systems powered and some offensive and defensive systems powered.

All warships should be capable of 6-G, Agility - 6 and all
weapons/screens powered at peak powerplant output. The endurance
for this peak performance being atleast 1/3 days.
I will also recommend that all Imperial warships > 100,000t be
battle tenders. The reasoning for this will become clear soon.

7. As an interesting aside, the requirement for armor becomes lower
as ship size increases. A 100,000t ship has less need of armor than
a 20,000 t ship.

All the following assume standard MT vehicle construction rules:
All die rolls are assume craft at long range for combat purposes.

Atlantis class (1,000,000 t battleship)
vs.
Sikkinthar class SDB(7,000 t)

Atlantis Price MCr903,000          Sikkinthar Price MCr7100
TL15, DefDM=+7,Armor=82G           TL15, DefDM=+15, Armor = 40G
Weapon:
Spinal-T Meson Gun                 Spinal N-Meson gun
To Hit: 10+                        Auto
To Pen Meson Screen: 4+            7+
To Pen Conf: 3+                    Auto
Shots Needed to Get a Hit: 6.7     1.7

Beam Lasers Factor=9
To Hit: 11+                        None
To Pen: Auto
Shots Needed to Get a Hit: 12

Missiles Factor=9
To Hit: 8+                         Auto
To Pen Nuc Damp : 10+              10+
To Pen Beam/sand: Auto             5+
To Pen Repulsor: Auto              Impossible

Particle Accel Factor = 9
To Hit: 10+                        None

After one round of combat Atlantis was destroyed by 5 SDB. 2 SDB
were damaged none was destroyed. The damage was from the spinals
which are guaranteed a hit on the Atlantis.

Note Factor-N spinal is by no means the largest spinal that can be
put on a starship or a SDB of 7-50ktons. Note also the price
differnce betwwen the two craft.

What follows is an off the cuff analysis of other large ships
designs that have been put on the list. All assume that the firing
ship has the best computer for that TL. Shown Spinals are the
SMALLEST ones that have a chance to get through. Also shown are the
larger calibers available at that tech level:

1. Atlantis class battleship. Def DM = +7
2. Osprey class battleship. Def DM = +8
3. Nergal class battleship. Def DM = +8
4. Atlantic class cruiser. Def DM = +10
5. Revenge class SDB/Rider. Def DM = +9
TL-13 Meson - L
To Hit: 3+/4+/4+/6+/4+
To Pen Screen: 10+/10+/10+/9+/10+
To Pen Conf: Auto/5+/7+/Auto/4+
Larger Caliber: P

TL-14 Meson - G
To Hit: Auto/3+/3+/5+/3+
To Pen Screen: 11+/11+/11+/10+/11+
To Pen Conf: Auto/7+/7+/Auto/6+
Larger Caliber: H,M,Q,R

TL-15 Meson - J
To Hit: Auto/Auto/Auto/4+/Aut
To Pen Screen: 9+/9+/9+/8+/9+
To Pen Conf: Auto/6+/6+/Auto/5+
Larger Caliber: N,R,T

All above craft had factor-9 meson screens. As can be seen all are
basically guaranteed hit at long range. The fact that it is hard
for a "run-of-the-mill" spinal mount to penetrate the best possible
screen is small consolation. Their best hope seems to be increased
agility but with the bulk of factor 60+ armor, it is practically
impossible for any of the above to have any agility over 1 and not
even that in most cases.

Which led me to my next question as to why have armour in the first
place? The primary reason seems to be the fear of the spinal PAs
with their "Penetrate-All" attack. Strangely though I have seen
just one ship with a spinal PA. The other reason seems to be
nuclear missiles. The T-PAWS cannot deliver any automatic criticals
to a vessel over 50ktons. So that will rule out protection against
crits as an excuse. To avoid the "Interior Explosion" and
"Critical" hit results on the Surface Explosion or Radiation Damage
chart you only need armor factor 52(-4 to damage die roll). A case
could be made to make a vessel invulnerable to secondary weapons.
However it is a pretty weak case as secondary weapons rarely do
enough damage to seriously effect the firepower of any capital
ship. Actually it seems that the bigger ships have little to fear
from PAs and more to fear from their size and lack of agility.

Even the largest Spinals can be carried on smaller cruiser size
craft and that would render little need for larger vessels. The
only really good reasoning that I can come up for a 100,000t +
craft is as a battle tender or carrier(much like today..). With
factor-9 meson screen, agility 6 and dispersed configuration it
stands a good chance against meson weapons, and if armored to 52 it
can survive PAs too; atleast until help arrives or it can jump.

Ameer


^Z