Bay 12 Games Forum

January 1, 2021: To employ the Sparta class more efficiently, a new ship design is developed based on the Lexington class strike carrier.

[IMG]Greece class Assault Transport    15,000 tons     631 Crew     1513 BP      TCS 300  TH 1200  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 4-54     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 10     PPV 0
Maint Life 3.9 Years     MSP 630    AFR 180%    IFR 2.5%    1YR 66    5YR 985    Max Repair 40 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 4000 tons     Troop Capacity: 2 Battalions   

Military Magneto-plasma Drive (15)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 285,000 Litres    Range 57.0 billion km   (164 days at full power)[/IMG]
Capable of carrying 10 Sparta shuttles and their payload of 10 Marine companies, the Greece will make a valuable addition to the fleet. A shipyard is available, so construction begins immediately.

Freighters in the Sol System continue moving automated mines about as mineral deposits peter out or are completly exploited. The only major deposits left in the Sol system are in deep space comets, but there are still small deposits on various asteroids that can be exploited. Hope system is rapidly becoming humanity's best source for minerals.

February 13, 2021: During a temporary lull in shipbuilding, Earth begins scrapping old model gunboats. The minerals and parts will be put to good use building the newer, much more capable ships.

May 14, 2021: The New York finishes construction, and begins ferrying troops and engineers to Alpha Centauri.

August 6, 2021: Exploring the new system of WX Ursae Majoris, the Newton notices the wrecks of several unknown ships on long range scans. Several hours later, a sensor officer notices that one of the wrecks is no longer there.



Captain Teodoro Naik is no coward, but strange occurences have had a way of destroying survey ships in the past, and the Newton possess no weapons or armor. He sets a return course for Earth and suggests the Navy handle this. Before it reaches the jump point the Newton observes a second wreck disappear as well.

Vice Admiral Hannah Avram decides to take the 1st Fleet to investigate. The 2nd Fleet, slower and more vulnerable, will remain behind to protect Earth.

September 1, 2021: 1st Fleet jumps into the WX Ursae Majoris system and immediately detects active sensors of another vessel. The vessel's location corresponds to the last known location of the unknown wrecks, which are no longer present. The fleet deploys gunboats and begins transmitting a first contact package.

The unknown vessel begins moving towards the 1st Fleet, and the Semmes sensor ship detects a new EM emission that appears to be some sort of energy field. The gunboats set out to intercept the contact before it can reach the carriers.

Approximately half way to the contact, the first fleet gunboats detect 67 800 ton ships on an intercept course for the carriers. Due to the difficulty of detecting such small ships the alien contacts are actually closer to the carriers than the gunboats are, though they are only moving at 10,000 km/s compared to the gunboat's 11,500. The gunboats reverse course and attempt to get between the aliens and the carriers, in case they prove hostile. They alien ships change course to intercept the first fleet gunboats at roughly the same moment.

The situation is not looking good, and the debate rages about whether to order the gunboats to open fire. The decision quickly becomes moot. At a distance of 74,000 km, well out of range of even plasma cannon, space between the two groups lights up with unknown weapons fire, and the Brazwell III 035 suddenly explodes.

The situation does not look good. The gunboats are outnumbered and apparently out-teched. Admiral Avram orders them to use their superior speed to attempt to disengage and return to their carriers.

The range slowly begins to open. The aliens open fire at 89,000 km, then again at 104,000 km, each time destroying another Brazwell. Then the enemy guns fall silent, apparently having exceeded their range. The gunboats begin curving around to return to their carriers without entering enemy weapon range.



Several hours later, the gunboats reach their carriers and perform emergency docking mere minutes ahead of the pursuing enemy vessels. The carriers then jump out of the system and their captains can only pray that the enemy ships do not have Jump drives as they set course for Earth. Luckily, no signs of pursuit are detected.

It has been a rather depressing day for humanity. A second alien race encountered, and they too prove hostile and exceptionally dangerous. Worse, the enemy vessels were in range to watch the first fleet jump out of the system, so if they did not know about the Jump Point's existence before they certainly know now. Even if they do not follow, future missions to the system must be prepared for the enemy fleet to be waiting for them at the jump point.

On the positive side, the decision to scrap the older gunboats is vindicated; they would have been substantially slower than the aliens and have no choice but to fight.

It is possible that a sufficiently large force of gunboats could overwhelm the enemy ships, but they would likely suffer heavy losses. Another strategy would be containment; defenses could be established in Hope, possibly around the jump point, to hold back the aliens until Humanity is ready to deal with them.

I read somewhere something about space stations being able to create ships.
if this is true, please, explain.

Well, not exactly. I mean, if you wanted to you could make an orbital habitat and have it tow a shipyard, but it would end up being like 5 million tons.

Currently ships can't build other ships.

Well, they can serve to calm colonists, but not much else. Scrap them if no one need policing.

We should start integrating the Sparta in our fleet doctrine. I take it each Strike Carrier carry one Scipio/Semmes/Rodney, 2 (more) Rodneys and 7 Brazwell? Let's switch 2 of the Rodneys for 4 Sparta. The Rodneys should go in the Second Fleet.

Well, the drop pods aren't long term berths for troops, so my plan was to fill a CVL with Spartas and have it in a fleet with an attached troop transport.

I will admit that I have never tried boarding before, I'm just hoping I can figure it out as I go along.

Edit: A CVL can hold 10 Spartas since they're small, which seems like enough for our purposes. A Troop transport should be able to hold 25 marine companies, but it will be awhile before we can train that many.

Sparta it is.

They all excel in different situations I think. The Sparta will be great at boarding undamaged civilian ships if we find any and decide to go space pirate; The Warrior would have been great for boarding more orbital bases like the ones in Alpha Centauri. The Phalanx could deliver non marine units like assault infantry to planets or asteroid bases. Eventually we might use them all.

As for reducing fuel, non-fighter units are measured in 50 ton "hull spaces". I was just filling up the remaining bits of the last 50 tons with fuel tanks.

Ok, I can see which way the wind is blowing 

So, pick one!

Sparta class Assault Shuttle    400 tons     33 Crew     75 BP      TCS 8  TH 184  EM 0
23000 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.2 Years     MSP 12    AFR 12%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 3    5YR 50    Max Repair 46 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Company   

GB Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 184    Fuel Use 780%    Signature 184    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 5.8 billion km   (69 hours at full power)
Pros: Very fast, so it can board ships still in motion. Most likely to successfully board moving craft.
Cons: No armor, putting the marines at high risk if the enemy has even a PD gun.

Warrior class Assault Shuttle    500 tons     39 Crew     96 BP      TCS 10  TH 184  EM 0
18400 km/s     Armour 4-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.22 Years     MSP 24    AFR 10%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 33    Max Repair 46 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Company   

GB Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 184    Fuel Use 780%    Signature 184    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres    Range 9.2 billion km   (5 days at full power)
Pros: Middle ground; has enough armor to withstand a few hits.
Cons: Slower and less capable against moving ships

Phalanx class Dropship    1,000 tons     41 Crew     162 BP      TCS 20  TH 184  EM 0
9200 km/s     Armour 4-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.32 Years     MSP 61    AFR 13%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 79    Max Repair 60 MSP
Drop Capacity: 1 Battalion   

GB Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 184    Fuel Use 780%    Signature 184    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 30,000 Litres    Range 6.9 billion km   (8 days at full power)
Pros: Can deliver an entire Battalion for more firepower or planetary assaults.
Cons: Unlikely to successfully board anything going above 1,000 km/s.

In my games I'm a big fan of defense bases because they're powerful, easy to build, and maintenance free.

So the readers will probably demand defense satellites. Thousands of them.

March 29, 2018: The archaeology team arrives at Alpha Centauri-A 1 and excitedly sets to work exploring the strange ruins. The Leonidas will remain in orbit to provide support and protection.

April 18, 2018: While surveying the system of Proxima Centauri, the Newton finds a jump point that already has a jump gate of obviously alien manufacture. The gate appears quite old, however, and the system shows no sign of inhabitation.

May 5, 2018: Scientists on Earth develop the technology for Marine Companies specialized in boarding other vessels in space. The scientists involved decide they are much more comfortable working with sensor technology than military grunts, and will work on tier 2 Electronic Countermeasures next.

June 28, 2018: Three Lexington Strike Carriers emerge from their shipyards, enormous and majestic. They then turn around and land back in their shipyards for refits to Magneto-plasma drive technology. Shortly thereafter a Zeus class cruiser does the same.

December 29, 2018: The three Lexington class and one Zeus class complete their refitting. Combined, the ships can transport as many gunboats as 6 Cornwallis class, move at more than twice the speed, and have defenses in case they are attacked.

Once sufficient new model gunboats are available it will be time to enter the Lacaille system once again.

February 11, 2019: Though the news is quiet, Earth's shipyards are working at all hours to expand and update the UHF navy



March 1, 2019: The Archaeology team in Alpha Centauri transmits their report. The ruins appear to have belonged to a race called the Metis Consciousness, and 29 installations remain at least partially intact. Examining and restoring them will requiring transportation of an engineering brigade to the planet. Currently the only shipyard capable of producing a sufficiently large ship is busy building terraformers, but expansion of other yards are underway.

The team boards the Leonidas and sets course back for Earth. As Alpha Centauri has now been fully surveyed, the carriers will begin a detailed survey of Barnards star.

May 1, 2019: Two new civilian space docks finish expansion efforts, and are now capable of constructing Freighter size vessels. They go to work on two new designs

New York class Troop Transport    30,000 tons     340 Crew     959 BP      TCS 600  TH 1200  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 2-25(C)     Armour 3-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 20    Max Repair 64 MSP
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   

JC30K Commercial Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 30000 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2
Civilian Magneto-plasma Drive (6)    Power 200    Fuel Use 6%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 300.0 billion km   (1736 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
The New York is intended to ferry troops to various colonies and the archaeological dig in Alpha Centauri. If the design for a combat drop ship eventually come to fruitition it may also transport marine companies to board enemy ships, so it was designed with a jump drive and enough armor to survive a few hits in combat.

Jones class Salvager    35,000 tons     450 Crew     820 BP      TCS 700  TH 1400  EM 0
2000 km/s     Armour 1-95     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 15    Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 15000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

Civilian Magneto-plasma Drive (7)    Power 200    Fuel Use 6%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 428.6 billion km   (2480 days at full power)
Little is known about about the AC Automaton ships, and this design is intended to fix that. Capable of analyzing wrecked ships and salvaging minerals and intact parts, it may even be able to aid us in recreating their advanced technology.

July 5, 2019: Sufficient new model gunboats are now available to load the three Lexington class, and Vice Admiral Hannah Avram decides it is time to deal with the AC Automaton ships in Lacaille 9352.

July 27, 2019: Within weeks of departing Earth, the flag bridge onboard the Zeus begins reporting that Earth is under attack by the Evil Galactic Empire. Luckily it turns out to be a computer malfunction which is quickly corrected. Admiral Hannah Avram is not amused. Hopefully this is only an isolated incident.



August 9, 2019: The First and Second Fleets arrive in the Lacaille system. The fleet launches gunboats and they head in system.

While previous battles amounted to mostly just each side wailing at the other, Vice Admiral Avram feels that something more complicated is called for here. First of all, she has two gunboat forces with differing speeds; keeping them together would sacrifice the speed of the newer ships.

Second, and perhaps more troubling, is the enemy missile gunboats. The newer ships are faster, but only just, and the small ships are difficult to track on sensors. If the gunboats launch missiles and then retreat, the newer gunboats would have to leave the fleet to pursue, and possibly be lead into firing range of the enemy's medium size craft. Instead, the admiral decides to set a trap.



During the first battle of Lacaille, it was proven that the enemy converges on active sensor emissions. Therefor, the slower gunboats will play the bait by activating their sensors and attracting the enemy vessels, while the new model gunboats wait in stealth. Once the Second GB Squadron detects enemy vessels the first will circle around behind them.

Soon the enemy is detected, but to the surprise of the admiral it is the five enemy capital ships rather than the gunboats. The trap is activated regardless; the smaller ships may still be out there but will only be detected at close range. The First Fleet gunboats begin moving in behind the enemy vessels.

As the 2nd Squadron closes, two salvos of 8 missiles are detected, likely from the two contacts designated Anzone. The gunboats reverse course while openning fire on the incoming missiles.

The gunboats weather 9 sets of 16 missiles. Most are shot down, but enough leak through to destroy a brazwell and damage two others. Then 3 salvos of 9 missiles are detected, implying the Simbwaye contacts have joined the fight. The gunboats have trouble dealing with the larger salvos, and ships begin to explode or fall behind as their engines are damaged.

Finally, the missile bombardment ends, and sensors reveal the contacts are heading back in system. It appears they are out of missiles and returning for reloads. Though the plan was originally formulated to catch the gunboats, the ambush will work just as well against the capital ships.

Several hours later, the First Fleet gunboats activate their sensors from a position directly between the enemy ships and any possibility of reload. It is unknown if the AC automatons feel emotion, but if so they are probably feeling terror and despair. The gunboats open fire and the enemy vessels attempt to evade them rather than ram, but they can only postpone the inevitable.

One of the contacts is crippled and reduced to a speed of 645 km/s. This would be an ideal opportunity to make use of the boarding shuttles if they were finished; Admiral Avram sends a message to Earth urging that development be expedited.



Soon, it's all over. The gunboats destroy the frantically evading enemy ships without ever coming under fire. However, no sign has been seen of the light craft who were the original target of the trap. Both groups shut down their active sensors; The second fleet gunboats collect lifepods and then return to their motherships for repair and refueling.

Within 12 hours, all of the gunboats that were able to dock have their armor patched up and internal systems repaired. They launch again and resume trying to draw out the small craft.

The plan works, but somewhat too well; the Nyryat craft, apparently through pure coincidence, approach the 1st gunboat squadron close enough to detect them with active sensors, and abruptly switch targets. The first fleet gunboats move to engage. Soon enough, 66 incoming missiles are detected from the 6 Nyryat; the point defense capability of the new gunboats is about to be tested.

37 out of 66 missiles are shot down; impressive for a group of only 30 ships. The remaining 28 missiles impact and destroy 3 Brazwell IIIs. The 27 surviving gunboats of the 1st Squadron close to inflict their revenge as the enemy runs, but it does not save them. The faster gunboats eventually chase down and rip apart the fragile craft.

All known enemy forces have been eliminated, so the gunboats return to their carriers. The second fleet carriers move to retrieve those gunboats that are intact but rendered immobile by engine damage.

All told the UHF has lost 13 gunboats and received damage to a dozen more which was repaired by maintenance teams on the carriers at a minimal cost in supplies. In return they have destroyed 5 7,750 ton capital ships and 6 1,000 ton gunboats; a favorable rate of exchange. Even more important is that, if the survey of this system comes up clear, all known forces of the AC Automatons have been eliminated.

After picking up damaged fighters, the carriers move in system to make sure there are no remaining ships or orbital installations.

September 10, 2019: The navy completes an exploration of Lacaille 9352 and pronounces it clear of enemy forces.