I think we really need to sit down and think about what our gimmick should be, each faction has their own and so far we've tried to be a general all rounder with a penchant for speed, but it has left us with ships that are a little underwhelming due to the tech level since we can't make really make something without any weaknesses while still being able to duke it out with other established factions. This is what I've been trying to say, if we want our ships to stand a chance, we'll need them to specialize so they can actually be good at something and weak at others instead of just being "meh".
Our Tech Level is great, the problem is that our dudes are absolute garbage at making ships. I'm all for a Carrier based "Modern Naval War" style paradigm myself, where we have light destroyers/frigates that screen for our heavy frigates that exist to project power with. Everyone else in 40K still works on WW2 naval doctrine, and we know the Imperium
specifically has a Doctrinal Problem with Carriers (Namely: That Carriers are for nerds and real men use Big Gun warships).
Honestly, I think I'm going to formalize that.
[X] Plan: Fleet Carrier Doctrine
--[X] Ultimately, we cannot afford to engage in warfare with other significant powers on a ton-to-ton basis, we will never be able to match their capacity to simply pour greater quantities of industry into the forges of war, using whatever means they are--inherited legacies, genetic memory, or sheer industrial mass. As such, our only hope to endure in the long run is to strike in a fashion that our foes cannot easily react to. The success of the Taurus-class despite having only a single vessel has shown that a well-equipped, elite strike wing can punch well above its on-paper weight class, especially with our understanding of the secrets of the machine and the faith of our crews. This is an advantage that should be cultivated whenever possible for the foreseeable future, even if we must make sacrifices in armor strength to achieve this goals. (STRENGTH: Strike Fighter Related Modules and Weapons are discounted. WEAKNESS: Vessels that are equipped for use as Carriers find it difficult to add additional armor, all non-Escort class hulls
must have at least one proper Strike Fighter related Weapon)
--[X] The fleet of the Candle Keepers is a force of Liberation, to bring the Star Child's light to those who toil under the weight of wicked forces and bring them low before they can bring harm to the innocent.
[EXPLORATION/EXPANSION Doctrine, Power Projection in general rather than getting stuck in on the homefront and hoping for the best]
I've examined it and discovered that
nobody in 40K really uses Strike Craft as a mainstay of their doctrine. Eldar have very good Strike Craft but are rarely deployed in great numbers due to how casualty averse they are (Especially when Eldar Doctrine boils down to "Zoom in on the other guy from stealth, hit them with an entire half-hour's worth of firepower in a single salvo, then do a 180 turn on a dime and zoom away before they can orient their guns back towards you, repeat until Total Victory--if the other side manages to spoil you, Just Fucking Die because your ships are made of cardboard and crumple on the slightest amount of actual firepower.) The Imperium can do good Strike Craft but generally downplay it as a major point of doctrine because it's on the losing end of a long running debate among its admiralty, and besides that, strike craft are expensive and the Imperium generally isn't willing to put in more than the bare minimum of training for someone who might just die if anything goes wrong. The Tau are ultimately a small power in the grand scheme of things (And even then, they trend towards having fast moving ships with heavy guns and use strike craft as screens more than anything else, outside the Mantas which are extremely expensive), and the Orks... Well, they can do Strike Craft and do--but as we've seen, they're not great at it and mostly get by in Sheer Numbers.
It's a niche that we can exploit, and as long as we aren't dumb about it, we can probably leverage it well. The Taurus has shown that our Strike Fighters are
serious business after all, and it lets our general tech advantage be more telling simply because we
can give our dudes the equipment they need to excel in that field, without running into the Problems of Scale that our Warships apparently do.
That aside, the general thrust of this is "Escorts as screening elements (Destroyers/Frigates), with our proper Capital Ships all being capable of at least servicing a strike-wing, ranging from a full out Fleet Carrier that does nothing else, to a more Battlestar-type that's willing to pay the added expense to be tough and well armored while still holding a fearsome strike wing.
That this is also--broadly--the paradigm that's used in the Gundam franchise is just a coincidence >_>
Even with that aside, we're still not going to be as frail as the Eldar are if something can pin us down. Our ships are actually made to win rather than assume Bad Things don't happen to us. Taking a few hits is unavoidable even if you can keep your distance. The point is not taking more than you can handle.
