Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


1. We can use technological level fourteen engines.

2. Default would be manoeuvre drive factor eight, at two fifths of a tonne, eight hundred kilostarbux, and four power points.

3. An efficient variant would be a quarter of a tonne, factor five, and three quarters of a megastarbux.

4. Though, technically, the highly technologized factor five manoeuvre drive is technological level eight, and might actually be two fifths of a tonne, not a quarter.

5. That would change energy input, cost, and volume.

6. On the other hand, it could be a technological level eleven factor five engine, that's been drastically improved, without altering volume.

7. The other option is to budgetize the technological level fourteen, factor eight engine.

8. Price drops to three fifths of a megastarbux.

9. But, you either increase volume to a tonne, or increase energy requirement to five and one fifth power points.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


A. It probably is best to have maximum acceleration potential for a fighter.

B. Quick reaction would mean interception as far out as possible.

C. Also, slower fighters would get caught up in a dogfight, which might in preference be avoided as long as possible.

D. I consider mini modularization of the manoeuvre drive, possibly one eighth of a tonne each.

E. However, maintenance by semi skilled crew might be easier to just pop out the entire engine and replacing it, than trying to synchronize individual sub modules.

F. Also, you wouldn't need to much around with the innards of the manoeuvre drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


G. Oops, it's half a tonne factor eight manoeuvre drive, at three fifths megastarbux, and requiring four power points.

H. Five tonne gravitated hull is one power point basic systems, minimum half a power point.

I. Non gravitated hull would be half a power point, minimum quarter of a power point.

J. Default early fusion reactor required would require nine twentieths of a tonne, at nine fortieths of a megastarbux.

K. Budgetized enlarged variant would be 0.5625 tonnes, at 168'750.00 starbux.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


L. Basic sensors become available at technological level eight.

M. Pretty much a freebie.

N. I suppose below basic would be periscopes and radar.

O. Probably not much point in having more advanced sensors.

P. At best, military at two tonnes, requires two power points, and costs four and one tenth megastarbux, which doesn't leave much space for anything else

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


Q. you need technological level eight to have access to manoeuvre/zero programme.

R. Evade/one requires a megastarbux, plus computer/ten, at technological level nine.

S. Fire control/one is two megastarbux, though you could use a computer/five, at technological level nine.

T. I guess piloting a spacecraft below technological level eight is basically seat of your pants.

U. Fixed mount bypasses the need for a gunner, and/or fire control programme.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


V. At this point, you have a one and a half tonne single cockpit, hooked up to a half tonne manoeuvre drive, with basic sensors, and nominally, a virtual factor five computer.

W. Energy source could be from solar power coating, batteries, and/or a power plant.

X. At full gallop, neither the batteries will last long, nor will the solar panelling keep up with power output.

Y. And we don't actually have cruise mode, unless we add a separate, energy efficient manoeuvre drive.

Z. Optionally, afterburners with either the default drive, or the energy efficient one.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


1. A cockpit has twenty four hours of life support, per crew member.

2. This may be considerably less for a non resealable hull, if perforated.

3. Or, life support could be channelled directly to the crewmember, via the vacuum suit.

4. It's likely most missions would be capped at eight hours, with or without diapers.

5. Sixteen hours at extremis, and after that, you're probably looking at a stimulant push.

6. So we're probably looking at three periods, transit, loiter, and combat.

7. Normally, you can only fire one shot every six minutes.

8. A tonne of missiles, since my interpretation of current rules set is that you can't shrink them, the launcher itself is shrunk, is enough for one
hour, twelve minutes.

9. So I would guess, with such a load out, interception would be when the enemy is six hours out, with the confirmation given at the seven hour mark.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


A. So it's basically the pilot, his cockpit, the drive, the reactor, the virtual missile launcher, the virtual computer, the virtual sensors, the fuel tank, and a bunch of missiles.

B. We could shrink the reactor by about half, but that would give you maybe three more missile, and more of a maintenance headache.

C. Now that we have prefusion instead of fission reactors, any space engineer will now be able to run and maintain them, at technological level six, without worrying whether his testicles will get fried.

D. That's probably the only advantage a chemical power plant has, it can be run and maintained by mechanics, instead of needing a bachelors in engineering.

E. Though, the same concept as with the manoeuvre drive can be utilized, you pop out the engine and replace it, if it needs maintenance and/or repair.

F. You can't squeeze out enough juice out of the solar coating to have a viable TIE fighter, though assuming the TIE bomber is much slower, maybe that.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


G. Minimum power consumption at full gallop being four and a quarter power points.

H. Standard fusion reactor technological level twelve, three tenths of a tonne, three tenths of a megastarbux, thirty kilogrammes of fuel for twenty eightish days, maybe one kilogramme fuel tank for about twenty four hours.

I. Early fusion reactor technological level eight, nine twentieths of a tonne, nine fortieths of a megastarbux, forty five kilogrammes of fuel for twenty eightish days, maybe one and a half kilogramme fuel tank for about twenty four hours.

J. Prefusion reactor technological level six, 0.5625 tonnes, nine fortieths of a megastarbux, fifty six and a quarter kilogrammes of fuel for twenty eightish days, maybe one and seven eighth kilogramme fuel tank for about twenty four hours.

K. Chemical power plant technological level seven, nine tenths of a tonne, nine fortieths of a megastarbux, eighteenish tonnes of fuel for twenty eightish days, maybe three fifths of a tonne fuel tank for about twenty four hours.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


L. If you increase the respective power plants by seventy five percent, you can squeeze out another three power points.

M. That's enough for a smallcraft laser, though the downside would be you suddenly need gunnery skill and get really snuggily with the opponent.

N. If you're willing to do a bear hug, at technological level fourteen there's a fusion gun at nine power points, basically an additional two hundred and twelve percent to the power plant.

O. The problem is you're now committed to getting into dogfight range, and without armour, that could become existential.

P. You might just need only batteries, since statistically against a near peer opponent, you're not likely to last that long.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


Q. Another aspect to consider, is that power plants only regenerate their energy pool over a six minute period.

R. To put it simply, you only get to use that energy once every six minutes.

S. If you want to shoot more than once every six minutes, like once every six seconds, you're going to need sixty times more power to draw from, whether batteries, or a six thousand percent larger power plant.

T. The other aspect to consider that pumping that much energy in six minutes through that laser or fusion gun, is likely to melt down that weapon system, and likely the rest of the spacecraft.

U. Not a problem if you ripple off missiles every six seconds.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


V. You could also externalize the armament.

W. Torpedo grapples and missile pods (and contents) have a virtual existence, and take up no space.

X. At this point, you're probably regretting that spacecraft hulls have a minimum volume of five tonnes, and you probably could have a microfighter at two tonnes.

Y. Life is full of regrets and impedimentary rules.

Z. On the other hand, you can now install afterburners, and the necessary fuel tank.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


1. Why would we want afterburners?

2. First of all, it gets the ultralite fighter to the deployment area faster.

3. It helps outrunning any missiles fired at it.

4. In the event there is a dogfight, can outmanoeuvre most near peer opponents.

5. Could also avoid dogfights, if not combat, altogether.

6. True, lack of organic inertial compensation will stress out the pilot.

7. I'd say most healthy individuals can tolerate a short time under six gravities, especially if it saves their lives.

8. Since armament would be limited, it would be more shoot and scoot, unless you're unlucky.

9. Basic configuration for an ultrlite torpedo bomber.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


A. Reactionary rockets become available with factor three at technological level seven.

B. At technological level ten, optimum fuel consumption.

C. Technological level fourteen allows this upto acceleration factor fifteen.

D. Gravitational induced loss of consciousness can be avoided upto factor three, averagely.

E. Factor six ramps this upto to difficulty difficult, but is manageable, especially for our crop of recruits.

F. At acceleration factor fourteen, should be able to outrun most locked on missiles.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


G. You could sacrifice a quarter tonne to embed a dirtside weapon system in the ultralite fighter.

H. The obvious choice would be a technological level fourteen fusion gun, man portable.

I. It has quite a kick at two dice of damage, as much as a pulse laser.

J. Even if its twenty times smaller.

K. Downside being radiation clean up, and really short range of four hundred fifty metres default, long nine hundred metres, and extreme one and four fifths klix.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Some Issues

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.


L. Presumably. there's enough fire in the belly for the fusion gun to function for twenty four hours.

M. You might give up a quarter tonne, but in return you have enough ammunition for the next twenty four hours.

N. Also, no energy input required from the spacecraft power pool.

O. You could, in theory, let loose a continuous stream from the fusion hose.

P. Ten combat rounds per minute, six hundred shots per hour, fourteen hundred forty shots for a day, when the pilot light goes out.

 

[Nelphine]

Unfortunately i dont know this threas that well.

Do you know of an explanation for the purpose behind different ship types in the imperium (or solomani navy)?

Meaning, why ships of certain tonnage, why destroyer vs light cruiser vs battle cruiser vs dreadnought (and all the others), why did they choose the tonnage they did for the largest military ships?

 

[Condottiere]

Fighting Ships of the Solomani Confederation sort of gives you an idea antebellum.

Trolling through Mongoose First and Second is rather mixed messaging, postbellum.

There's my interpretation of published material, a looser take on likely doctrine, and what I think are the logical starwarship designs based on the current High Guard edition (plus add ons).

Antebellum, it's pretty obvious that the Confederation Navy started from almost nothing, and had to build up from what it could squeeze from the Confederation budget, and what member navies were willing to contribute, apparently, mostly designs and likely a discount at their local shipyards.

This gave them a rather balanced order of battle, except in battleships, and there they compromised by building battlecruisers.

Eventually, this culminated with the technological level fourteen Prometheus class fast dreadnought, which the Imperium intelligence considered overpriced.

At this point, the Confederation was in an existential fight, so anything that flew was thrown at the Imperium Navy.

Postbellum, initially Mongoose decided that the Confederation Navy was mostly fast dreadnoughts to make up for their lack thereof previously, with few, though not probably none, cruisers, and lots of escort ships.

Currently, some of those holes have started to be filled.

Whether or not I agree with Mongoose current take on that is a different matter - I certainly disagree with their design for the light fighter, being clearly non optimal.

The question of whether it would be worthwhile for the Confederation Navy to build cruisers of any tonnage, currently appears questionable, i even for the peacetime cruiser role.

I'd speculate that the Imperium hasn't changed their doctrine from even before the Rim War, since it appears to be working.

 

[Nelphine]

Thanks - the cruiser question is especially interesting to me, as it seems 'assumed' but i dont understand why you'd bother with 'middle' class ships.

Either build something so big it can absorb whatever is thrown at it and keep going (with the expectation that you can then reuse it from fight to fight) or build the smallest thing that can throw the most powerful* single weapon so that you dont have to spend any money on defense.

* not necessarily the most powerful weapon, like a spinal, but the most powerful thing that can hurt any defense in a cost effecient manner - in todays terms, a guided nuke.

And then, the 'big' end would just keep getting bigger, in an arms war with the other side, until the 'small' end stops having a reduced effect, at which point, the 'big' end becomes pointless, and becomes obsolete.

So all the classes in the middle are increments of the big end, some of which might happen to be well suited for other roles (like the original 'big' ship might turn out to be a good escort for killing the 'small' end to protect the current 'big' end; or an intermediary 'big' step might happen to be very well equipped for long duration exploration missions)



But with that ideal in mind, the Imperium should already be in the 'big' end arms race with all their neighbors. Under current lore, the imperium has the best economy, and has been around for so long, that they should already have peaked this, above what anyone else can economocally sustain (so if zhodani can field 500k ships, the imperium should be working on 2 million dton ships; if the k'kree love giant ships and build a matching 2 million dton flagship, the imperium should build 7 million dton ships, etc)

Solomani should just jump to the biggest they can afford (lets pretend 200k dtons) thats 'comparable' to the imperium. But presumably, they don't have the economy to match the giant ships the imperium is building (as the imperium should be able to escalate into at least the 10s of millions of dtons range) So they shouldn't even try for the big end (except as a PR morale stunt), and should just embrace the 'small' end. (Whether thats actual fighters, 2000 dton ships, or 50000 dton ships is a matter of details of the weapon/armour in the game)

 

[Condottiere]

With weapon systems, you have to figure out what you want to do with them, and if you have limited resources, pick one weapons platform and stick with it.

We could say that the Imperium has an embarrassment of riches, and being so large, it's quite possible that each Domain has a certain autonomy in determining their military requirements, including their starwarship designs.

The Confederation has two primary opponents, so far.

On one hand, they want to liberate their Occupied Territories from the Imperium, and on the other, stop Aslan volkerwanderung.

Since superficially, illegal Aslan immigration tends to be carried out as private enterprises, you could have that border patrolled by obsolete cruisers to deal with the more persistent and more heavily armed interlopers.