"Production quality beam laser barbettes" is a least useful tech as it simply allows us to save 5 ton of space/weight per barbette installed. Which is nice, but underwhelming.
"EWAR Software" either allows us to set the countermeasures agains missiles (basically one more layer of anti-missile defences, before the point defence", or if we already have this ability, improves it. (OR allows the computer to do that automatically without a crewman, which is less cool).
"Production quality military sensors" probably synergies with EWAR, as it is the sensor systems apparently which are used for countermeasures. But if "production military sensors" are simply non-prototype tl10 sensors then it is a bit less cool (though being able to save weight for our EWAR-fighters is nice and can help them out).
Sensor Extension Net and Shallow Penetration Suite - nice, but not sure if they measure up with other options.
Repair Drones is a new ability, but I cannot tell how cool it is without reading up on it.
missile command software and advanced fire control are also probably good, but I also want to read-up on them
Military sensors provide a net +2 to our DM (going from -2 to 0), at the cost of twice the mass and power requirements. This means we might not be able to refit it onto smaller hulls, but it is a good thing to have.
Extension suites extend the limited and full detail range bands by one step, but cannot be used while maneuvering
A shallow penetration suite lets us see if a ship is acting unusually at up to Very Long range.
Beam lasers are lower damage than pulse lasers, but they are better against maneuvering targets (although I don't see this in the mechanics; RAW they're straight-up worse?)
Repair drones allow for repairs under combat conditions.
Missile command software (I assume this is Launch Control?) gives us a net +1 modifier (going from 1 to 2) on our missile and torpedo attacks
Electronic warfare software gives us +1 to electronic warfare checks, which can be used to decoy missiles.
Advanced fire control gives us +1 to all attack rolls by weapons mounted on the ship.
IMO, the best options are, in no particular order, military sensors, repair drones, and missile command software.
Considering our main worry right now is potential missile defense, advanced sensors + EWAR packager might be the best bet.
The beam laser barbettes are an OK secondary weapons (good range, 2d6 damage per hit). Good for hitting smaller vessels especially if the primary armament is torpedoes.
Extension suite would be good for our next Gen of scout craft.
On another note we might be able to reach detente for the time being - although it's up in the air whether we want that to last or just until we feel like we've got up in tech. Alternately it could mran we can secure our southern border and can turn our attention to the northern "neighbors".
Military sensors provide a net +2 to our DM (going from -2 to 0), at the cost of twice the mass and power requirements. This means we might not be able to refit it onto smaller hulls, but it is a good thing to have.
we already have them, as a pprototype version (meaning, at twice the mass, so we have it for 4 tons instead of 2 tons). For most ships it would not be a big deal, but for EWAR fighter it would 2 free tons would be pretty great.
Beam lasers are lower damage than pulse lasers, but they are better against maneuvering targets (although I don't see this in the mechanics; RAW they're straight-up worse?)
we don't have pulse-laser barbettes at all, until QM would rework them. We already have prototype beam laser barbette for 10 tons. Non-prototype would mean 5 tons. Not too much difference in my opinion, 2 ton save on sensors is more significant on fighters.
software is a nice thign on first glance BUT :
COMPUTER TECH LEVELS
Note that the listed Tech Level of a computer is
the minimum at which a given computer model is
available. The operating Tech Level is that of the
starship in which it is installed; therefore, ships can
use software limited to the Tech Level of the ship,
not the computer. For example, a TL12 trader can
use TL12 software even on a Computer/5.
which means thta we can install our operating software to TL10 ships, not that we can put new computers on our TL 8-9 ships and run the new software from it.
Which sharply limits its usefulness, if this rule is in play.
[ ] Concentrate on EWAR fighter:
-[ ] Production quality military sensors
-[ ] EWAR Software
-[ ] Not until we have a diplomatic link.
our fighter WOULD be new thing, which mens it should be able to run the EWAR software (or could any our ship which already has tl10 prototype sensors run this software? Cause if yes, then our ICs would also benefit from it.). 2 tons of free space on 10-ton fighter is GREAT, it's either missile ammo, or more armour, or turreting its missile rack - choose two.
and ewar action is a "second layer" of anti-missile defence (before the PD), and having +1 to it is pretty great - especially if diplomacy with Hermosa won't pan out.
I think since we can run prototype TL10 stuff, we can use the actual stuff. I don't think Section would offer us stuff we couldn't use.
My vote is TL10 military sensors + EWAR or Advanced Fire Control.
The argument for AFC is that it would improve basically all of our weapon targeting and in he case of our bay LMDs help abrogate the penalties for shooting at small targets and for being bays in the first place (although not enough to get it to a net +0). Assuming skill +1 though, it would totally wipe the penalty for bays when shooting them, although the penalty for shooting at sub 2k craft would still be a problem.
well, even in worst case we should be able to use it on carrier and fighters and new frigates.
The question is what are requirements for usage on old ships for different software (prototype TL10 sensors for ewar software look very plausible. But what about the advanced fire control/missile software?)
@4WheelSword
Could you please clarify, regarding thas rule, on which ships in general we could run each proposed software?
My biggest hesitancy against EWAR is that it's only useful (AIUI) as a way of decoying missiles. Against an enemy that isn't using them, or who can fire enough missiles in a single salvo that they can force their way through, it's not as useful?
My biggest hesitancy against EWAR is that it's only useful (AIUI) as a way of decoying missiles. Against an enemy that isn't using them, or who can fire enough missiles in a single salvo that they can force their way through, it's not as useful?
Yeah, it's more useful against "many ships with a few missile bays each, each shooting a separate salvo" rather than "a single larger ship with a boatload of missiles in one salvo"
In fact, they are probably more useful agains torpedoes rather than missiles - torpedoes are harder to destroy via PD, but there are fewer them per bay and I see nothing in books saying that countermeasures should affect them less than missiles.
(and they should affect the torpedoes, it's mentioned in high guard)
no, I am wrong, the countermeasures also affect the torps less. (though in fleet battle rules the +1 from software and/or higher skill number increases countermeasure effect greatly; upd and +1 to advanced fire control would have similar effect to PD effect in those same rules).
Yeah advanced fire control is better
[x] Gun and Sensor:
-[x] Production quality military sensors
-[x] Advanced Fire Control Software
-[x] Not until we have a diplomatic link.
[X] OPLAN: Flycatcher
-[X] Production quality military sensors
-[X] Advanced Fire Control Software
-[X] Not until we have a diplomatic link. Trust, but verify!
--[X] But invite the Broadsword crews to use our anchorage R&R facilities if they want some space to stretch their legs. Supervised discretely by security personnel, of course. In the name of diplomacy (and learning more about them).
I am open to replacing AFC with EWAR still. Just kinda flipping a coin, honestly, since they're both handy.
ok no, I was reading the book with some other bodypart instead of with my eyes - advanced fire control does not affect the PD
and EWAR has again weird rule difference in "adventure level" combat, where it's pertty useful and in "fleet combat" where it is worse (unless you have TONS of ewar operators; though our ewar fighter squadron would be ok)
[X] OPLAN: Flycatcher
-[x] Production quality military sensors
-[x] Advanced Fire Control Software
-[X] Not until we have a diplomatic link. Trust, but verify!
--[X] But invite the Broadsword crews to use our anchorage R&R facilities if they want some space to stretch their legs. Supervised discretely by security personnel, of course. In the name of diplomacy (and learning more about them).
What did you learn from the Glaive? Production quality military sensors, Advanced Fire Control Software Are you standing down the forces at Heimdall and Staging point? Not until we have a diplomatic link. Trust, but verify! But invite the Broadsword crews to use our anchorage R&R facilities if they want some space to stretch their legs.
Available Budget: 288.435MCr Current Dockyard Usage: 18,000Dtons
The Way A Crisis Lingers
The impacts of the crisis in Heimdall, the closest, perhaps, that Home has ever come to a direct interstellar conflict with a near-peer opponent, will likely never be felt on Home. With direct control of the markets assured by the largest companies, and the news only disseminated after the friction has already been resolved, there is no panic, no stressors, no results. After all, by the time a message returns from Heimdall declaring the emergency over and the Glaive and her crew safely returned home, it's been three weeks since they left. It's far too late to short any stocks or bet on the outcomes.
So life goes on and, within a couple of days of the news arriving that the crisis in Heimdall is over, the ships of Task Force Spyglass and the diplomatic ship return from their distant and long duration mission. The scouts return with a wealth of astronomic and stellar data, long range observations of stars that were barely observable from Home proper due to the local clusters sheer density. Evidence of at least three new systems is found, two of which are suspected of being connected to whatever polity Plenty is part of and one which is perfectly placed to threaten Hermosa. It would take a hell of a flight to get to the latter though, requiring at least ten parsecs worth of fuel. An FSS would require at least one additional tanker just to put it in a position that would allow it to support an IS mission.
The HSLS Bá Kim also returns after six weeks on Plenty and with plenty of news. Their long stay - a broadly welcome one on a planet that is regarded as a jewel of the local polities colonisation program - is filled with meetings, talks, diplomacy, conversations and some of the finest fruits that can be grown on a world that can be described principally as tropical. Initial diplomacy doesn't reveal much in the way of functional results, but it does give us a much more clear idea of what is happening in our back yard.
There is a world in the Republic of Noctocole - oddly enough called Noctocole - that is the heart of this democratic star-spanning empire. It currently maintains at least four systems claimed as its own, Noctocole, Duale, Plenty and the new system which is currently being staked out and claimed and which we have previously been warned away from. All of this has been managed on prototype jump drives and immense conveyors, colonisation ships built in Noctocole. One such ship, the Sobrevivência, still orbits Noctocole; at least, her principal frame does. Most of her parts, including her immense fission reactor, have been dropped to the surface in order to provide ready made infrastructure for the colony that is now just reaching a decade old.
Duale apparently received a similar ship, and so will the new system, though one of those colonies is old enough that photographs barely show the last vestiges of ship architecture and the colony ship for the other hasn't been completed, let alone arrived in the system. In the next few years, they tell us, the ship will be readied, filled with a hundred-thousand colonists and make a multi-week journey over to the new system. Then they will name it, settle on it, begin the long work of making another agricultural paradise.
They are, fundamentally, a happy people and a welcoming one. They do not appear to have significant orbital or interplanetary defences on or around Plenty, but it may be that they are hidden or otherwise kept from view. Perhaps we simply did a bad job of looking, distracted by the constant meals, the rich sauces and the plentiful fruits. Perhaps they are simply weak and would willingly submit to the first great power to come along and look at them sternly....
A full map of known space, and the observed polities marked in various colours.
With the return of the Bá Kim, we have the opportunity for additional diplomacy. Select one priority and one secondary target:
[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to Hermosa, for the delicate negotiations required.
[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to the 'Northern' systems, to make proper contact there.
[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to Garda Villis, to finally make contact there.
[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to the Aslan Systems, to negotiate for additional technology transfer.
[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to Xyri, to further push for integration of that system.
[ ] Other - write in
The Question of Command
There are several questions being asked about the quality of our command doctrine, of the officers we have established and our senior command echelons ability to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. in fifteen years we have gone from a warfare branch restricted to a single system, where transmission delay was measured in the hours at the most, to a situation where it can take months to get messages too and from the front lines. In this situation we will require a far greater deal of flexibility in our forces and especially in our senior officers.
Our officer training regimens have not, in the last years, developed much. There is a standard command school, and every officer trains in a speciality field on the ground and in space - however, ships, weapons and the expectations of command have changed dramatically. It is time to update our syllabus, our standards and the demands we make of our officers. The real question, however, is what cost we are willing to pay for it. While we currently maintain what is essentially the bare bones of a staff, command and crew training school, with enough investment we could create something world class.
How much is the HSWS willing to invest - Select all that apply, some are mutually exclusive:
[ ] Leave the command school as it is - we trust the officers we have
[ ] Develop a solid, effective command school - Costs 100Mcr. per annum.
[ ] Develop a ground and space command school with no expense spared - Costs 200Mcr. per annum.
[ ] Leave crew training as it is - they are solid enough.
[ ] Construct a new crew training campus for generalised crew training - Costs 100Mcr. per annum.
[ ] Construct multiple ground schools for various specialities as well as an on-orbit school - Costs 200Mcr. per annum.
[ ] Other - if you think something is missing, write it in.
The second question regards officers and stations. Our previous list of stations is as follows:
- Home Station - a quiet but prestigious posting.
- Cassalon Station - Responsible for the 'Western' approaches to Home.
- Heimdall Station - Responsible for covering Hermosa, as well as the Staging Point Reserve.
- Expeditionary Force - A Rapid Response force that has recently falling under Heimdalls purview due to the length crisis.
- Scout Flotilla - An almost separate force that hogs an FSS at all times for long duration missions.
What is missing from this list? Please note that the more you add, the more stretched out forces will become.
[ ] Xyri Station - Responsible for the 'Eastern' approaches to Home.
[ ] Deep Hope Station - Responsible for the 'Northern' approaches.
[ ] Hexos - We could establish a force far to the 'South'.
[ ] Nova Refugio - We could establish a force on the border of Garda-Villis
[ ] Other - write in.
Please present any votes as a plan. Voting opens at
Eventful turn, feels like we have finally turned the page on this chapter. I would have like to finally see a peer power war but I understand why we chose what we chose.
[ ] Plan the new border:
-[ ] Dispatch the Bá Kim to Hermosa, for the delicate negotiations required.
-[ ] Develop a ground and space command school with no expense spared - Costs 200Mcr. per annum.
-[ ] Construct multiple ground schools for various specialities as well as an on-orbit school - Costs 200Mcr. per annum.
-[ ] Hexos - We could establish a force far to the 'South'.
This plan is structured so that we solidify our 'claims' in the southern end of the cluster as it has become evident the we have reached the maximum extent in that direction in which we can expand without shooting at people. I sent the embassy ship to hermosa to finish negotiations with their government. As to the training program I think that having well trained officers will pay massive dividends down the line when a conflict comes up and our people don't end up sticking their foot in a trap due to lack of training.
One (well, one and a half) additional note before I forget about it again:
- Both Cassalon and Home have 5+kton yards, which means that in these particular systems we can buid bigger combat stations than our current MDS, though we would not be able to transport them anywhere. So in principle we can build big stations with "military hull" and 20 points of armour there.
- half of a point: our MDS would benefit from crystaliron armour too, so newer ones would be better.
- Oh and one more thing - we can refit our vintage System Destroyers in Home in the defence stations (fighter carriers?). And we should review our ex-Interplanetary cruiser defence stations, maybe they should be scrapped?
