Traveller, The Rise of Empire: A Naval Design, Procurement and Command Quest
- Thread starter 4WheelSword
- Start date
- Original Art Quest Sci-Fi
We have an R&R segment under construction, so I picked cargo so we have a way to refuel and rearm the visiting spacecraft. Ramscoop tenders are good but they need somewhere to offload the fuel, and this would basically be the on/offloading point for an eventual fuel-and-supply depot of external cargo containers.
I've been thinking we should do more recon ops of Lydian space. If we can reconnoiter the prison world well enough, we might be able to do an autonomous "cruise missile" attack on the defences as the first wave of our raid.
I'd like to pivot to jump tugs more than modular merchants; they're more efficient on shipyard space and let us carry bigger things. I held off on it, though, because I am not sure how much budget the big warships will take up and jump tugs are expensive.
I think we have enough minelayers for the short term, at least until we lay down more monitors.
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- Fort Worth, TX
[X] Plan Double or Nothing
Unless the Lydians get in trouble elsewhere and suddenly need to de-escalate their southern border, we're not getting it back.
Didn't see that, was looking in informational and in-post rather than votes.
Thought we needed one minelayer per system at least, plus something else that can trap the Deep Hopes. Especially if using them offensively.
Do conveyor and jump tug modules need to be built separately or do we get them for free?
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If we need to, we could probably use our frigates as diplomatic vessels for the time being. As we rotate the ICs out of frontline service, we can probably make more diplo vessels out of them.
Yeah, but we also need one monitor or other crewed installation to control said minefield per system, which means that our four minelayers are good for Xyri and Cassalon (which get a monitor each, and two minelayers in Cassalon) and Home (which has our ground infrastructure that can presumably activate a minefield). As soon as we lay down a third monitor, I'd like to build another minelayer, and so on. We should also start building UNREP vessels to manage the monitors at the same time (i.e., moving forward we should be ordering monitor-minelayer-support ship trios).
I don't think conveyors do (it's ambiguous in the rules, I think?), but jump tugs definitely do unless it's just cargo, since we're using them to technically tow other ships around. Thankfully, since those "ships" don't need any drives or crew, and can be built as dispersed zero-G hulls, they're very cheap and can be offloaded to civilian yards to basically be ignored.
- Location
- Here, there, everywhere.
So actually I've been thinking, when we actually do our retaliation strike against Lydia why don't we just build a handful of SDM's and jump them into Menorb (presuming that's our first avenue of attack) after we initially secure the system. As in have a tug with a handful of SDM's attached to it ready in the staging system to jump in behind our fleet the second they get the all clear.
Yeah I think this is the more key part, but it's still a good idea. It takes two weeks for the Lydians to respond to an incursion because that's how slow jump travel is. If we load up a few jump tugs with lots of small minelayers and move fast during the initial attack, that gives us plenty of time to fill the orbitals and then retreat behind the minefields. The Lydians will almost certainly respond to our attack, and there's a good chance they'd stumble into the new minefields (and if not, we have the system). If the government of the system is inclined to cooperate, we can then leave behind a few ICs and a SDM, and then repeat the process at the next system.
Not much we can do at our tech level. We've built the patrol carriers, which might help a bit, but the most reliable way to detect a Lydian spacecraft is to notice it maneuvering to get a shot at us.
We could build a fleet of sensor drones or EWAR spacecraft and scatter them around a system, hoping that one of them rolls high when looking for a Lydian spacecraft. The biggest problem with this is that it limits our ability to do things quickly - sensor drones need to be emplaced, and then extend their extension nets and extended arrays, which prevents them from maeuvering. If we're aggressively burning towards, say, the prison planet to knock out the defences before Lydian reinforcements arrive, we'll leave our sensor drones behind.
Alternatively, the spoken-of large cruisers would use military hulls, letting them get an armour level up to 20. I'm not exactly sure of how it works since we're using a mashup of 1e and 2e rules, but in 2e, 18 points of armour is enough to basically completely reject the fusion guns the Lydians are using (and, in fact, most things that aren't atomics - which is what point defence is for). If a Lydian spacecraft were to try and ambush one of the large cruisers, it'd have very little effect, and then the Lydian vessel would start to have a very bad day.
- Location
- Earth, Milky Way
Oh is this like a "you must be at least TL 11 to detect us" kind of thing? Even if we made a super sensor ship that's basically a massive telescope with a jump drive on the back we still couldn't detect them?
No, we can detect them, but it's difficult. We have access to prototype extended arrays, which increase our ability to detect them, but they force the deploying spacecraft to be stationary, which is difficult in a combat environment. Meanwhile, the way stealth works is that you get a bonus to stealthiness equal to the TL difference, so their TL12 stealth is really hard for us to spot. We can counter this somewhat by having more sensor platforms, since each one rolls independently to detect their spacecraft, but they can't maneuver either and would be easy to pick off as soon as the fleet leaves them behind. If we get TL11 sensors, we can throw prototype TL12 sensors on our spacecraft, which'll have a way better chance of burning through their stealth and let us use distributed arrays (which are extended arrays that allow maneuvering), but we're not there yet unless Garda-Villis is willing to sell to us.
Once again pointing out that if we pull out the particle beams and shoot any suspicious "rocks" full of holes before they approach the Lydians will need a new strategy.
Beyond that, the new EWAR frigates and CFA refits have much better sensor tech.
Another method might be to build sensor drones with reaction drives and operate them from a recon tender for fueling; that would let them maintain a moving screen, though I'm not sure how much fuel it'd take.
How does jamming work?
Signal processing gear is good but makes you very vulnerable to jamming, but the Lydian tactic is to creep up under silent running. If a probe is using signal processing, can a stealth ship jam its sweeps without exposing itself? Does jamming prevent detection or just break targeting locks and make it harder to get hits? For that matter, does the vulnerability of signal processing make them worse than useless when being jammed, or just negate their bonuses? Can't find anything about sensor rules.
Beyond that, the new EWAR frigates and CFA refits have much better sensor tech.
Another method might be to build sensor drones with reaction drives and operate them from a recon tender for fueling; that would let them maintain a moving screen, though I'm not sure how much fuel it'd take.
How does jamming work?
Signal processing gear is good but makes you very vulnerable to jamming, but the Lydian tactic is to creep up under silent running. If a probe is using signal processing, can a stealth ship jam its sweeps without exposing itself? Does jamming prevent detection or just break targeting locks and make it harder to get hits? For that matter, does the vulnerability of signal processing make them worse than useless when being jammed, or just negate their bonuses? Can't find anything about sensor rules.
This is all I could find on jamming outside of the mentioned stuff for signal processing:
@4WheelSword, what does jamming do?
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Idk how it works in the game, but in real life one craft (or a stationary facility) could jam the sensors, necessarily revealing itself, while others stayed quiet.
There's a write-up here about how stealth spacecraft could work in real life. It was very informative for me
Permanent and Perfect Stealth in Space
A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.
toughsf.blogspot.com
If someone's jamming us, though, we can just shoot them, provided they're in range.Idk how it works in the game, but in real life one craft (or a stationary facility) could jam the sensors, necessarily revealing itself, while others stayed quiet.
There's a write-up here about how stealth spacecraft could work in real life. It was very informative for me
Permanent and Perfect Stealth in Space
A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.
Realistic jamming ranges are much greater than realistic shooting ranges.