TL15/16 Dreadnought - What Weapons and Systems?

[Solomani666]

The whole crew wears power armour?.... knife drones... failing that, small robots, all of which are an armoured shell built around a pocket nuke. As soon as they get close to enemy crew, they blow up. There wouldn't be much ship left to seize, but there wouldn't be any crew left :twisted:

Won't work.
Read previous comments carefully.

 

[barnest2]

Ah, internal damper field. Ok, i revert to knife missile/drone...
and again, failing that, a small armoured shell wrapped around a large quantity of RDX or some other powerful but non-nuclear explosive

 

[Solomani666]

The whole crew wears power armour?.... knife drones... failing that, small robots, all of which are an armoured shell built around a pocket nuke. As soon as they get close to enemy crew, they blow up. There wouldn't be much ship left to seize, but there wouldn't be any crew left :twisted:

First suit of power armor (usually second hand) at 14-16 years old and a new suit between 18-20 years when they stop growing.

 

[Solomani666]

Ah, internal damper field. Ok, i revert to knife missile/drone...
and again, failing that, a small armoured shell wrapped around a large quantity of RDX or some other powerful but non-nuclear explosive

And the question still remains. How do you survive the trip to the airlock?
Have you taken out the triple beam turrets guarding it?
How long do you think it will take to cut through the 16 armour with reflec blast door that covers the airlock?
How do you survive the 12 marines in power armour with fusion guns guarding the airlock?
If they considered you a real threat they probably already mined the airlock themselves.
This is all assuming that they didn't launch a fighter and smear the boarding party across the hull with its particle weapon (set on low power of course.)

 

[hector]

Breaching tubes; 10 armour versus lasers (beams only do 1d6 as of High Guard), don't need to attach to your airlocks and will take 9 minutes (assuming 16 armour) to cut their own airlock into your hull.

Edit Whoops, sorry, 9 turns (or 54 minutes).

 

[rust]

And the question still remains. How do you survive the trip to the airlock?

By sending in a drone with a nuclear warhead to vaporize the airlock and
the waiting marines, and a second one at a different location to create a
hole for the real boarding attempt.

 

[Solomani666]

Ah, internal damper field. Ok, i revert to knife missile/drone...
and again, failing that, a small armoured shell wrapped around a large quantity of RDX or some other powerful but non-nuclear explosive

RDX does not work as intended in space or outside of a gravity field.
Knife drones are terror weapons for use against scare civilian populations, they are worthless against power armour.
No one who has carried a sword from the age of 10 is going to be afraid of a knife.

 

[rust]

What kind of armour and weapons the ship's crew and marines have is
irrelevant, once the ship is no longer able to function as a warship or to
escape, they could just as well be naked. Frankly, once the ship is ripe
for boarding, the remaining crew has only three options left: Surrender,
commit suicide or be killed. If they put up any serious resistance, some
nearby warship will put a few nukes into the ship and mark the remains
as a navigation hazard.

 

[AndrewW]

Actually, probably not so bad. With the distinct emphasis on big guns rather than secondary defenses, she's not well suited to fending off flocks of smaller craft. The S&P 84 64 dTon Boarding Shuttle comes in at under 42 MCr, meaning you could have a flock of 11,000 of the little buggers for the price of the systems listed above. And there's no garuantee that the borders have orders to capture her.

That should be 60 dTon Boarding Shuttle...

 

[AndrewW]

What kind of armour and weapons the ship's crew and marines have is
irrelevant, once the ship is no longer able to function as a warship or to
escape, they could just as well be naked. Frankly, once the ship is ripe
for boarding, the remaining crew has only three options left: Surrender,
commit suicide or be killed. If they put up any serious resistance, some
nearby warship will put a few nukes into the ship and mark the remains
as a navigation hazard.

Not always. They could be expecting reinforcements which could save them. Or there could be something the attackers want intact.

 

[smiths121]

What kind of armour and weapons the ship's crew and marines have is
irrelevant, once the ship is no longer able to function as a warship or to
escape, they could just as well be naked. Frankly, once the ship is ripe
for boarding, the remaining crew has only three options left: Surrender,
commit suicide or be killed. If they put up any serious resistance, some
nearby warship will put a few nukes into the ship and mark the remains
as a navigation hazard.

Not always. They could be expecting reinforcements which could save them. Or there could be something the attackers want intact.

Docking if you have initiative, and higher thrust is an opposed check with a -2 to the docker. There is no downside (other than being very close). I do not think you have to pummel the opposition to the point of making hostile boarding irrelevent.

 

[barnest2]

RDX does not work as intended in space or outside of a gravity field.
Knife drones are terror weapons for use against scare civilian populations, they are worthless against power armour.
No one who has carried a sword from the age of 10 is going to be afraid of a knife.

Why not?

Also, I mean a knife drone from Ian M. Banks... I.e. the sort that is a mass produced incredibly powerful weapon that laughs at your power armour.... and the drone that launched it probably laughs at your ship. It wasn't a serious suggestion, but it would work

 

[Solomani666]

Designing a 1MT dreadnought at TL15/16:

Undecided if I should use the Darrian TL16 fuel consumption at 50% rule or not.

Here's what I have so far...


Ragnarok Class Dreadnought

Wedged shaped hull streamlined (Can make planetary landings.)
16 armor + 3 reflec (Rad and Psi shielded)

Jump 3-4 (6 if I use the Darrian rule)
M-Drive 6
PP 6 (x2)

2x Meson D spinal mounts rapid fire TL16 [12320 tons - 125 hp's]
3000 large meson bays
2000 large particle bays
10 launch tubes for drones (20t missles) (might delete these)
2000 triple beam lasers
2000 particle turrets

6 x 2 meson screens
6 x 2 nuclear dampers
4 x 2 black globe generators

No missles, torps or sandcasters.

Reduce a Tigress to ashes in 18 minutes.

Any suggestions?

 

[barnest2]

Just out of interest.... why 16 minutes? don't you mean 18?

 

[AndrewW]

2x Meson D spinal mounts rapid fire TL16 [18480 tons - 185 hp's]

Should only be: 12,320 tons.

Easy to do, that table is backwards from the other weapon TL tables. Rather then being 60% of listed for TL +3 it's -60% listed for 40%.

 

[Solomani666]

Just out of interest.... why 16 minutes? don't you mean 18?

Yes I did mean 18.
After all we do have to give them 2 miutes to abandon ship!

 

[Solomani666]

2x Meson D spinal mounts rapid fire TL16 [18480 tons - 185 hp's]

Should only be: 12,320 tons.

Easy to do, that table is backwards from the other weapon TL tables. Rather then being 60% of listed for TL +3 it's -60% listed for 40%.

Thanks

I was using the table from page 53 and did not realize that spinals have a sepperate table.

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[locarno24]

Ragnarock Class Dreadnought
If you're trying for the Norse apocalypse it's Ragnarok. Nice name, though.

Wedged shaped hull streamlined (Can make planetary landings.)

And can also put the maximum of 80% of its bays into a single barrage, which is good.

16 armor + 3 reflec (Rad and Psi shielded)

As tough as it can get - at least until it takes a few armour hits. Weren't you thinking of armoured bulkheads at one point?

Jump 3-4 (6 if I use the Darrian rule)
M-Drive 6
PP 6 (x2)

2x Meson D spinal mounts rapid fire TL16 [12320 tons - 125 hp's]
3000 large meson bays
2000 large particle bays
10 launch tubes for drones (20t missles) (might delete these)
2000 triple beam lasers
2000 particle turrets

Meets all limitation rules. Was going to say that triple beam lasers for point defense don't help (since any hit on a missile is death) but then remembered that against barrages they do; barrage defence just works off the number of lasers, regardless of how they're mounted. Might recommend some TL upgrades to the bays, by the way - at TL16 you could stack Resiliant and High Yield, or High Yield and Accurate, or whatever.

6 x 2 meson screens
6 x 2 nuclear dampers
4 x 2 black globe generators

Fair enough.

One thing I will tell you is that at the moment the ship can neither move nore fight. Unglamourous though it may be, one or more Core/9 computers are the real heart of the ship. More than anything else, that lets you run up to 4 Fire Control/5 programmes simultaneously, which will help figure out how you want to set up barrages and gunners; the lasers don't need it as they'll only be firing defensively against barrage fire. The spinal mounts demand a Fire Control/5 each because if you're going to miss with those things then you might as well go home.

Some remote operations software might be useful, too - you could consider a halo of escort drones rather than needing to put turrets on the ship if you prefer that option. Also, sufficient computer power lets you run stuff like Expert Tactics (Naval)/3

Equally, no matter how awesome the ship is, it is not invulnerable. A spinal-mount meson cannon (admittedly a small one) can pack into 2000 dTons and is available at TL14, which is standard issue for the Imperial Navy and it's peer organisations, and against such a weapon the sum total of your protection is your screens (which admittedly aren't bad). Equally, barrage-fired, High Yield capital weapons with decent fire control can take armour 16 and beat it.

As a result, the ship will take damage and it pays to be prepared. Armoured bulkheads on important stuff and a decent stock of repair drones are a good start.

Why not?

Also, I mean a knife drone from Ian M. Banks... I.e. the sort that is a mass produced incredibly powerful weapon that laughs at your power armour.... and the drone that launched it probably laughs at your ship. It wasn't a serious suggestion, but it would work

Arc-Field technology from Central Supply Catalogue would work if you want a Culture Knife Missile. Kind of off topic, but there you go.

 

[Solomani666]

Ragnarock Class Dreadnought
If you're trying for the Norse apocalypse it's Ragnarok. Nice name, though.

Wedged shaped hull streamlined (Can make planetary landings.)

And can also put the maximum of 80% of its bays into a single barrage, which is good.

16 armor + 3 reflec (Rad and Psi shielded)

As tough as it can get - at least until it takes a few armour hits. Weren't you thinking of armoured bulkheads at one point?

Jump 3-4 (6 if I use the Darrian rule)
M-Drive 6
PP 6 (x2)

2x Meson D spinal mounts rapid fire TL16 [12320 tons - 125 hp's]
3000 large meson bays
2000 large particle bays
10 launch tubes for drones (20t missles) (might delete these)
2000 triple beam lasers
2000 particle turrets

Meets all limitation rules. Was going to say that triple beam lasers for point defense don't help (since any hit on a missile is death) but then remembered that against barrages they do; barrage defence just works off the number of lasers, regardless of how they're mounted. Might recommend some TL upgrades to the bays, by the way - at TL16 you could stack Resiliant and High Yield, or High Yield and Accurate, or whatever.

6 x 2 meson screens
6 x 2 nuclear dampers
4 x 2 black globe generators

Fair enough.

One thing I will tell you is that at the moment the ship can neither move nore fight. Unglamourous though it may be, one or more Core/9 computers are the real heart of the ship. More than anything else, that lets you run up to 4 Fire Control/5 programmes simultaneously, which will help figure out how you want to set up barrages and gunners; the lasers don't need it as they'll only be firing defensively against barrage fire. The spinal mounts demand a Fire Control/5 each because if you're going to miss with those things then you might as well go home.

Some remote operations software might be useful, too - you could consider a halo of escort drones rather than needing to put turrets on the ship if you prefer that option. Also, sufficient computer power lets you run stuff like Expert Tactics (Naval)/3

Equally, no matter how awesome the ship is, it is not invulnerable. A spinal-mount meson cannon (admittedly a small one) can pack into 2000 dTons and is available at TL14, which is standard issue for the Imperial Navy and it's peer organisations, and against such a weapon the sum total of your protection is your screens (which admittedly aren't bad). Equally, barrage-fired, High Yield capital weapons with decent fire control can take armour 16 and beat it.

As a result, the ship will take damage and it pays to be prepared. Armoured bulkheads on important stuff and a decent stock of repair drones are a good start.

Why not?

Also, I mean a knife drone from Ian M. Banks... I.e. the sort that is a mass produced incredibly powerful weapon that laughs at your power armour.... and the drone that launched it probably laughs at your ship. It wasn't a serious suggestion, but it would work

Arc-Field technology from Central Supply Catalogue would work if you want a Culture Knife Missile. Kind of off topic, but there you go.

Thank you very much for all of your corrections and suggestions. I will be adding them as I start to fill in the details and add up tonnage and cost. I'll post the rough draft with the anticipation of your insightful input.


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[Solomani666]

P.S.

I don't mind off topic comments as long as the original comment is supported somewhere along the thread. When a thread gets so helplessly off topic and the main comment has not been addressed (or read with comprehension) I delete the thread and start anew. Otherwise the questions I asked gets lost and never gets answered. Since I started the thread in the first place, I feel I have the right to delete it when it becomes hijacked to a different topic entirely. (Much to irk of several forum members.) Personally I try to stay on topic and provide helpful answers when I answer posts and if another person decided to delete their thread, it would not bother me in the slightest and I can not understand why it would bother someone else. If someone objects to a thread being deleted then they can simply start your own. Some members have claimed that it is bad etiquette to delete a thread. Personally I think that it is bad etiquette to post to a thread before fully reading at least the origional comment. I also think it is bad etiquette when the first 5 comments to a thread are off topic and the threads author specifically asked that off topic not be posted.


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