A Different Breed (Warhammer 29K)

[Karugus]

Prices for naval weapons are per-battery, yes, so a Heavy battery is 1.5x the cost of a standard one (and similarly a pair of heavy weapons in a SH slot would be double). Each PD battery is 60 individual weapons (for an Escort anyway) whilst CIWBs are 10 individual weapons (again, for escorts). This might soundlike a lot, but keep in mind even a piddling little destroyer is pushing a full kilometer or more in length---ships in 40k are VERRA LORGE.
(And yes, that is a typo. But in the armory post, not the ship costs.)

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Very interesting, for the sake of others to reference:
Fatecaster CIWB: 40 PS 30 Naval EP
Fatecaster PD: 120 PS 36 EP
Starlance CIWB: 450 SC 35 Naval EP
Starlance PD: 1200 SC 60 Naval EP
Las-Cannon PD: 12 Naval EP
Spike Cannon PD: 15 Naval EP
Spike Cannon CIWB: 12 Naval EP

The obvious takeaway is that PD is substantially more exotic expensive than a CIWB and that FC CIWBs are actually pretty affordable for our capital ships. Even SL CIWB are pretty feasible. I'm not sure how the EP cost is handled because of just how differently that seems to work for naval equipment. I suspect Naval EP determines build times rather than a flat cost.

 

[Mechanis]

... where did my gorram slot lists go---

Rassafrassin'-

Well. I had the slots all nicely listed ORIGINALLY but Google Docs seems to have eaten them, so 17 and I'll fix that when I update the Armory post for 975.

Edit: and if you are wondering about naval costs: divide/multiply by 100, and yes EP directly determines build time. And batch builds when that comes up.

 

[Karugus]

For future reference, this is roughly what I'm looking to build out of the Assault Ketch while being optimistic about exotics use. I see us building some cheap and mundane frigates for things like anti-piracy, patrols, and low intensity conflicts- these are either the frigate leaders or the frigates that show up when our battleships and heavy cruisers are committing to the fray, or an elite raider that demands you send capital ships to fight it.

Stellar Rose-class Fleet Frigate (350 SC, 40 PS, 63+ NEP)
1x Heavy Starlance Battery, 1x Las-Lance Battery (350 SC, 25 NEP)
1x Fatesheer Cannon Close-In Weapons Battery (40 PS, 30 NEP)
1x Plasma Thruster, 1x Aethersail (?)
Holo-Field, Grav-Shield (8 NEP)

The Assault Ketch by comparison costs 870 SC, 50 PS, 60+ NEP (I'm not actually sure where 70 SC is coming from tbh). The alternative is dropping any CIWB to regain a standard battery and either installing basic Las-Cannon PD, a second Aethersail, or a Reinforced Hull. You could keep the Fatetwister battery but I mostly view that as a tool for capital ships to punch down against escorts. A Fatesheer CIWB lets you punish torpedo runs, stop strikecraft, and still hammer enemy escorts up close- I wouldn't be surprised if Fatesheers have enough effective accuracy/range to help intercept attacks on other ships too.

 

[DarkLight140]

[] Hawkship-class Fast Cutter
-[ ] 2x Spike Macrocannon Battery
-[ ] 1x Las-Lance Weapon Battery
-[ ] 2x Æthersail
-[ ] Holofield
-[ ] Point Defense Battery

[] Hawkship-class Defense Cutter
-[ ] 2x Spike Macrocannon Battery
-[ ] 1x Las-Lance Weapon Battery
-[ ] 1x Æthersail
-[ ] Holofield
-[ ] Grav-Shield

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I feel like having two Æthersails is an obvious combo with also having both defensive systems; a ship that has both active defenses naturally wants more Æthersails (to maximize its mobility) while a ship that has multiple Æthersails naturally wants more active defenses (to protect its huge weaknesses). Looking at these designs side to side just makes me want to smash them together into one thing.

The only actual way to do that is to drop a macrocannon battery for an additional system slot, but maybe that would be worth it? Losing one-third of the ship's firepower hurts but fast+durable is a hell of a combo. The question is just if being fast and durable is enough to make up for not being quite as dangerous.

 

[Karugus]

I feel like having two Æthersails is an obvious combo with also having both defensive systems; a ship that has both active defenses naturally wants more Æthersails (to maximize its mobility) while a ship that has multiple Æthersails naturally wants more active defenses (to protect its huge weaknesses). Looking at these designs side to side just makes me want to smash them together into one thing.

The only actual way to do that is to drop a macrocannon battery for an additional system slot, but maybe that would be worth it? Losing one-third of the ship's firepower hurts but fast+durable is a hell of a combo. The question is just if being fast and durable is enough to make up for not being quite as dangerous.

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We have to acknowledge these are destroyers. They are going to make a lot of sacrifices to get those system slots and I'm skeptical it's worth it to heavily compromise firepower for a fundamentally disposable ship class- if these ships are actively drawing fire from/ preventing fire towards a ship carrying exotic weaponry or any capital ship- they're doing their job. The sacrifices a frigate has to make to run that defensive suite are still noteworthy but no back up plasma thruster seems a lot less critical than 33% of your firepower.

We have to acknowledge our defense centric style isn't very well suited to small vehicles or starships (just like it's obviously not good for Light or unpowered infantry)- and that's okay so long as we don't try and put every defense on every platform.

Edit: The Ketch has 7 system slots for a frigate (which is good because it's the one we've invested a ton in already), but both Caravels and Carracks only have 8 system slots so it seems important to internalize we're really going to have a fight on our hands to fit all the systems we want on any ships.

 

[Xavies]

We have to acknowledge our defense centric style isn't very well suited to small vehicles or starships (just like it's obviously not good for Light or unpowered infantry)- and that's okay so long as we don't try and put every defense on every platform.

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Putting Holo Fields on Everything already gets us lots of stuff. Grav Shields are actually quite good at protecting Aethersails, as they Scatter Lances and Broadsides trying to damage them and i don't think we will see an Eldar Ship actually get hit often by Torpedoes. Those things are slow.

Staying as far out of Reach as possible and not getting into a Slugging Match with other Ships can also help. I heard Lances are good at that. Also Also designating whole Ship Crews as disposable Meatshields is kinda worse than sending them in Wraith Trauma Plates onto the Battlefield. We have way less Soldiers on the Ground than Crews in the Void ( i think. Don't have actual WoG to cite here). Putting more Defenses on Ships is also more efficient than putting them on Infantry and we do that already.

EDIT: I have the feeling that the word 'also' is somehow starting to lose its meaning to me. I should start to use other Words too...

 

[Alectai]

I definitely think we're going to be Galleon-derived heavy later on, once we can actually field Battleship scale ships. Sure, the Asuryani might just go "Oh hey but we could just have bigger guns and actually be able to fit some useful other features in", but we're going "Yes but our guns are better anyway so we can diversify"

It's a nice point of divergence that we're mostly avoiding the "Flying gun" paradigm the standard Craftworlders run on in favor of more balanced ships, sure, we might not necessarily be able to down capital ships with our escorts if played right, but we're a lot less prone to just getting stackwiped if the other side ever gets lucky simply because we don't explode if something ever hits us.

 

[Karugus]

Putting Holo Fields on Everything already gets us lots of stuff. Grav Shields are actually quite good at protecting Aethersails, as they Scatter Lances and Broadsides trying to damage them and i don't think we will see an Eldar Ship actually get hit often by Torpedoes. Those things are slow.

Staying as far out of Reach as possible and not getting into a Slugging Match with other Ships can also help. I heard Lances are good at that. Also Also designating whole Ship Crews as disposable Meatshields is kinda worse than sending them in Wraith Trauma Plates onto the Battlefield. We have way less Soldiers on the Ground than Crews in the Void ( i think. Don't have actual WoG to cite here). Putting more Defenses on Ships is also more efficient than putting them on Infantry and we do that already.

EDIT: I have the feeling that the word 'also' is somehow starting to lose its meaning to me. I should start to use other Words too...

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It's not that the defenses cost EP, it's that we run out of systems to fit every system on every vessel. I agree that being a mobile, lance centric navy with an emphasis on quality and durability is ideal but we have to acknowledge there are trade offs there. For instance, an Asuryani ship can slap potentially 2 more Aethersails than we might with similar technology and suddenly we're not the ones dictating range. Most of our ships are probably going to trade weapon mounts for system slots, but it's one thing to trade a 1/3 of a ship's weapon mounts away.

I'm not saying we should send ships to die because numbers can carry the day (there's no meaningful change in ship numbers either way) I'm saying Lancaster's Law is a thing and directly gutting our offense by 33% on a ship has real consequences. Call me the villain but the moral consequences of our fights aren't in that tens of thousands of combatants die- they're in the fate of billions of noncombatants who's lives hinge on winning those fights.

 

[Xavies]

I'm not saying we should send ships to die because numbers can carry the day I'm saying Lancaster's Law is a thing and directly gutting our offense by 33% on a ship has real consequences. Call me the villain but the moral consequences of our fights aren't in that tens of thousands of combatants die- they're in the fate of Billions of noncombatants who hinge on winning those fights.

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I am counting on you being a Villain in you hidden Lair. The Thought of other Aeldari just slapping on more Aethersails to be faster than us is concerning. It is not an idea i have entertained yet.

I also get that more Dakka is more Dakka. We can always use more. So our Destroyers could be Defense Pickets for our Larger Ships, with PD and enough Firepower to put down other Escorts instead of adding to our Line of Fire with other Lances, as far as i understand your idea. That is fair. Our Brigs and Assault Ketches are our real Ship Killers with their Heavy Lances and Megalances. More than we should slap on a Destroyer that is just too fragile.

 

[Karugus]

I definitely think we're going to be Galleon-derived heavy later on, once we can actually field Battleship scale ships. Sure, the Asuryani might just go "Oh hey but we could just have bigger guns and actually be able to fit some useful other features in", but we're going "Yes but our guns are better anyway so we can diversify"

It's a nice point of divergence that we're mostly avoiding the "Flying gun" paradigm the standard Craftworlders run on in favor of more balanced ships, sure, we might not necessarily be able to down capital ships with our escorts if played right, but we're a lot less prone to just getting stackwiped if the other side ever gets lucky simply because we don't explode if something ever hits us.

Click to shrink...

The Galleon and the Dhow are the ships I actually gravitate towards most for completely new designs. Taking the Starlance CIWB+Fatetwisters off the Assault Ketch and adding 2 Las-Lances still gives them an awesome anti ship battery, lets them get more defenses, saves on exotics, and gives us leeway to put singular heavy starlance batteries and CIWBs on almost all of our capital ships supported by slightly fewer conventional weapon batteries to make room for all of our delicious systems

I am counting on you being a Villain in you hidden Lair. The Thought of other Aeldari just slapping on more Aethersails to be faster than us is concerning. It is not an idea i have entertained yet.

I also get that more Dakka is more Dakka. We can always use more. So our Destroyers could be Defense Pickets for our Larger Ships, with PD and enough Firepower to put down other Escorts instead of adding to our Line of Fire with other Lances, as far as i understand your idea. That is fair. Our Brigs and Assault Ketches are our real Ship Killers with their Heavy Lances and Megalances. More than we should slap on a Destroyer that is just too fragile.

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Yeah, we're probably never going to be quite as fast as other Eldar factions, and likewise we're probably not going to ever be quite as carrier heavy (which is probably alright considering exotic fighters get expensive quickly).

That's sort of my thinking, our real killing power is in the ships/batteries that are carrying Exotics- and we don't want the small fry distracting them from the killing of what really matters. I want to partially cutback on the Assault Ketch's Exotic addiction (I'm backtracking on my refit's CIWB for instance) and design a new light cruiser on the Dhow that can serve as an escort leader/raider/fleet combatant while still being pretty spammable for a capital ship.

 

[Skjadir]

So i am going to leave the ship building stuff to others, just looking at trying to cut stuff for more defenses/mobility kind of hurt me.

So instead i am throwing my own designs for the crew into the ring.
[ ] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

Adds 8EP per Jetbike
Should allow them to attack back in melee and flamer weapon in close combat are excellent against a lot of infantry.

[ ] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

Adds 32EP per Mirage Assault Transport
The Light melee weapons + pistol flamers are both cheap, but also a pretty nasty combination against quite a few types of infantry. That should deal with most boarding attempts, considering they also in medium semi power armor.

 

[Karugus]

I hadn't actually considered gearing the Mirage transport crews for melee combat, but it's an open topped vehicle and locking our troops down in melee is a weakness they're vulnerable to even when they're on the transport. Besides, I love the idea of the Vulkhari treating a pistol flamer like a standard sidearm.

[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter
-[X] 3x Spike Macrocannon batteries (9 NEP)
-[X] Reinforced Hull
-[X] Holo-Field (3 NEP)
-[X] 2x Aethersail

I decided to make a bit more aggressive destroyer (arguably less fragile), it doubles up on Aethersails instead of one thruster one sail. This means its faster, but easier to mission kill. It still has redundancy with multiple sails and those sails are protected by a Holo-Field but it does need to be said. The free system point went into a reinforced hull, so that even if something *does* mission kill it they still have to deal with an angry gunboat blasting away at them until we drag it kicking and screaming off the field.

So i am going to leave the ship building stuff to others, just looking at trying to cut stuff for more defenses/mobility kind of hurt me.

Click to shrink...

The moratorium is in fact up, and while I encourage you to come up with better names for your plans they're fundamentally solid for me. Any dismounted crewman should be using their holofield to hide and escape, and if they can't do that they're probably being swarmed- might as well carry a weapon and a flamer geared for close quarters.

 

[Skjadir]

[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[] Bramble-class Escort Cutter
Edit:
[X] Plan: Nettle-class Escort Cutter

Think the PD is going to help not get mobility killed by stuff like fighters.

I decided to make a bit more aggressive destroyer (arguably less fragile), it doubles up on Aethersails instead of one thruster one sail. This means its faster, but easier to mission kill. It still has redundancy with multiple sails and those sails are protected by a Holo-Field but it does need to be said. The free system point went into a reinforced hull, so that even if something *does* mission kill it they still have to deal with an angry gunboat blasting away at them until we drag it kicking and screaming off the field.

Click to shrink...

Point defense system is also only 1 point and being able to shot transports/torpedos for the larger ships might be a lot of value with us spamming these.

Overall I like the design a lot as high mobility + holo fields is a ton of synergy.
Mostly because the high mobility lets the ship rapidly change its position, while the holo-field prevents the enemy from making accurate guesses about the ship trajectory.

The moratorium is in fact up, and while I strongly encourage you to come up with better names for your plans they're fundamentally solid for me. Any dismounted crewman should be using their holofield to hide and escape, and if they can't do that they're probably being swarmed or screwed anyways- might as well carry a weapon and a flamer geared for close quarters.

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One of the main reasons for me to not add rifles and got them more close combat orientated gear.
If they crash at range -> retreat and get off the battlefield
If they crash close to something -> retreat if possible, otherwise get ready to getting charge by something.

And yeah my plans could use better names.

 

[Alectai]

[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter

 

[Karugus]

Point defense system is also only 1 point and being able to shot transports/torpedos for the larger ships might be a lot of value with us spamming these.

Overall I like the design a lot as high mobility + holo fields is a ton of synergy.
Mostly because the high mobility lets the ship rapidly change its position, while the holo-field prevents the enemy from making accurate guesses about the ship trajectory.

Click to shrink...

Part of my thinking is that with the emphasis on macro-cannons and mobility, this thing doesn't actually want to be hanging in the back with all the lance boats and our capitals tend to have a lot of lances (and likely will be lance centered given heavy starlight lances are Pulsars on crack). It wants to be brawling and bullying enemy escorts while our lance boats pick them off with impunity. And part of that means it being an annoying threat that's hard to put down.

Besides, increasing the odds that these ships come home damaged rather than wind up destroyed (because lets be real, an unarmored destroyer dead in the water is probably a really vulnerable target) will probably save us a lot of AP and time in the long run.

 

[meianmaru]

[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter

 

[Karugus]

[X] Plan: Riding Leathers
-[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] Wraithweave Brigantine for armor x4 8 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter
-[X] 3x Spike Macrocannon batteries (9 NEP)
-[X] Reinforced Hull
-[X] Holo-Field (3 NEP)
-[X] 2x Aethersail

Only thing I did was drop the Mirage's crew down to brigantines- saving 16 EP. The vehicle crew is going to be behind a vehicle's Holo-Field and two Grav Shields, the brigantine still helps the pilot drive (arguably better than the VG given the sensors) and they'll still be wearing sealed suits. The driver should probably be the least exposed crew member and ultimately, he's the crew member we need to survive for the sake of his passengers and their effectiveness. It's not a lot of EP but it is going to be a lot of vehicles. 252 vs. 236 is only ~6.4% difference but we are going to be trying to roll out a lot of vehicles now that we know refitting detachments isn't insanely AP expensive. Think of this as roughly another ~80 EP per detachment to use freely elsewhere. This is just a cost-cutting measure that only saves us a little but it doesn't cost us much in terms of survivability or capability.

I'm not going to lose sleep over this, and it's probably tilting at a windmill- but we probably should get in the habit of using the brigantine some and this is actually a pretty good case for it when it comes to the Mirage.

 

[Karnax626]

[X] Plan: Riding Leathers
-[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] Wraithweave Brigantine for armor x4 8 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

Part of me wants to advocate for needler pistols over flamer, but these are still good.

Besides, increasing the odds that these ships come home damaged rather than wind up destroyed (because lets be real, an unarmored destroyer dead in the water is probably a really vulnerable target) will probably save us a lot of AP and time in the long run.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't mind your plan winning, but considering just how many Escorts we have that the only damage they took was getting Mobility killed I'd rather pick the defense that could help even slightly against that.

[X] Plan: Nettle-class Escort Cutter
-[X] 3x Spike Macrocannon batteries (9 NEP)
-[X] Lascannon Point Defense Battery
-[X] Holo-Field (3 NEP)
-[X] 2x Aethersail

 

[Karugus]

I wouldn't mind your plan winning, but considering just how many Escorts we have that the only damage they took was getting Mobility killed I'd rather pick the defense that could help even slightly against that.

Click to shrink...

Fair enough, but that is the trade off for getting survivability for when our escorts actually are mission killed. Your design is perfectly reasonable and probably will see less mission kills- but I'm going to guess it's going to see more total loses. And I don't think we *know* how many ships we've lost from prequest combat so I caution against potential survivor's bias.

Edit: Another concern is that Las-Cannon PD costs 12 NEP. Obviously we know the base hull has a price tag and that Aethersails are pricy (we don't know how much), but that design does effectively double the known price tag for the ship.

 

[Xavies]

[X] Plan: Riding Leathers
[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter
Because the Armor will likely save us some hassle and we like to be the though Eldar with more Armor and Shields. Not sad about the Lack of a Grav Shield, as the Holo-Field already gives a lot of Defensive Abilty, together with the Hull Armor and two Sails for Mobilty.

 

[meianmaru]

[X] Plan: Riding Leathers
-[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] Wraithweave Brigantine for armor x4 8 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

[X] Bramble-class Escort Cutter
-[X] 3x Spike Macrocannon batteries (9 NEP)
-[X] Reinforced Hull
-[X] Holo-Field (3 NEP)
-[X] 2x Aethersail

 

[vsh]

Put almost equipment piece I have found into another spreadsheet so people can do design automation.

 

[DarkLight140]

[X] Mirage Assault Transport, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor x4 24 EP
-[X] 4 Light melee weapon 4 EP
-[X] 4 pistol flamers 4 EP

[X] Razorwind Jetbike, Crew
-[X] VGA for armor 6 EP
-[X] 1 Light melee weapon 1 EP
-[X] 1 pistol flamers 1 EP

I favor medium armor for anyone potentially exposed to the enemy, and that includes both of these vehicle crews. The grav-barge does not, as far as I know, have an enclosed pilot/gunner seat; the image of it in the wargear threadmark makes it look like the crew are entirely exposed to enemy fire (holo-field and grav-shield aside) while operating the mounted weapons. Putting the crew in brigantine is thus likely to ensure that they all die first should the shield be penetrated, even before the troops they're transporting.

[X] Plan: Nettle-class Escort Cutter

This design plays to win more, while the Bramble plays to lose less. I want wins.

 

[Karugus]

I favor medium armor for anyone potentially exposed to the enemy, and that includes both of these vehicle crews. The grav-barge does not, as far as I know, have an enclosed pilot/gunner seat; the image of it in the wargear threadmark makes it look like the crew are entirely exposed to enemy fire (holo-field and grav-shield aside) while operating the mounted weapons. Putting the crew in brigantine is thus likely to ensure that they all die first should the shield be penetrated, even before the troops they're transporting.

Click to shrink...

The same counters to the Mirage's defenses are the exact same counters to our pricey infantry. I'm not going to pretend there's no loss of survivability, but it's still fundamentally vulnerable to the exact same counter regardless. And as for the wargear picture, notably both the primary gun and side guns are shown with gun shields, so the crew would actually have better cover regardless of armor than just being fully exposed defenses aside.

The only thing of value the crew really gets out of VG is medium armor, and they pay 4 EP each for that when the cost difference from light to medium alone is gauged at .5 EP. 1 EP's worth if you factor in the Auto-Targeter. 0.8 EP's worth when you consider the sensors the brigantine has for identifying hostiles/piloting the barge. Point is, it's paying the same amount for proportionately less

This design plays to win more, while the Bramble plays to lose less. I want wins.

Click to shrink...

Our destroyers are born losers, our Exotic ships are our winners. We're just deciding the nature of the losses we pay to set up the dunks. More minor loses and less total loses vs. less minor loses but proportionally more total loses. I'd love to see the price of Aethersails and the base hull so we can properly gauge how much more expensive the Nettle is, but 12 NEP is not nothing either.

Assuming a single Aethersail is roughly the price of a holo-field emitter, that's ~18 NEP for the Bramble vs. ~30 NEP for the Nettle.

 

[Skjadir]

I'm not going to lose sleep over this, and it's probably tilting at a windmill- but we probably should get in the habit of using the brigantine some and this is actually a pretty good case for it when it comes to the Mirage.

Click to shrink...

I don't think we want to use the brigantine at all, to be honest.
Better to just develop light power armor, has better armor due to the boost from being power armor and 3 slots.
Cost can be kept to 3EP if it is mostly intended for vehicle crews

But when they are in an open vehicle like the grav barge it loses shields, I would strongly prefer for the crew to have some survivability.