The Richelieu/ Tallyrand Type Battleship

The Richelieu/ Tallyrand in GDW books is problematic. It looks a lot like there was some bad editing after the design was written. The obvious example is the ships armour value, which appears to be 10 or 20 rather than 0. This is an attempt to square the intent with NAM rules as I interpret them.

BTW: The Richelieu drawing was originally (in 1st edition) the SSV-21  - see 1st edition GM manual p. 31. That's why the darned thing has no weapons mounts in the pictures.

1. Conceptualization

This Richelieu is a battleship. The idea of the 3,200 crew and a whole brigade of infantry carried is written off as a bad edit. My theory is the Richelieu had a crew (inc. troops) of 320, and some editor added a zero. The Richelieu is built around a large hangar bay capable of accommodating 12x 280m3 vessels at three times volume, and the flight control systems for such. This gives the Richelieu six fighters, with the possibility of twelve. In the SC scenarios the Sainte Jeanne d'Arc carried 8 Martels to Tithonus.

In terms of weapons systems the write-up of the Richelieu implies that in her current configuration she has 46 turrets, each with a double mount and UTES. We'll go with 51 to use all power.

For launched weapons she has 8 remote pilots. The number of missiles is an interesting question. Unlike a cruiser or destroyer the Richelieu has a far better way to deliver a nuclear warhead in the shape of her fighters. The numbers of missiles carried is very disparate, but the truth is that a missile is a very poor weapons system against a well defended target. A salvo is missiles may be devastating against a lone cruiser, but a battlegroup will lay down such heavy defensive fire that few if any survive to attack.

Previously, whilst examining the French building program, I concluded that rather than "as well as" cruisers etc., what the Richelieu is is the next development in heavy warship. I wrote that the Ypres was the great leap forward of fusion powered warships. This made all previous warships obsolescent. Eventually as fusion drives became more available the idea of making a much larger vessel with either two fusion plants or one really big one becomes a good one. Hence you get the "big ship" or rather "la grande frégate". Once you've made that plunge, the next one seems like a good one, go to 3x reactors (or two larger ones). This is basically what the Richelieu is. She's the prototype warship with an insane amount of power output, which happens to coincide with the introduction if ultra-lightweight armour etc.

On the foreign responses - IMC I have pre-revolution Germany ordering 2 large 450 MW battleships, but only building one before the revolution, with the engineering for the second one (each a 150 MW fusor) instead parceled out to a pocket battleship to make the Bismarck. The British basically follow the French suit, and have built their first round of 2-3 BB and are in the middle of their second round. America in 3W basically opted for the German route, but this made many players unhappy. I think opting for building a large 450 MW BB might be reasonable, but the other two follow-ups mentioned may be further behind.

2. Power Plant

The oddity of the listed 415 MW plant is that it doesn't exist. The listed PP hits can be used to determine the vessel had a 16,500 ton plant, which equates to a single 500 MW plant. If multiple plants were installed then the extra mass would work and 2x 225 MW would be perfect. However, I opt for a simple 3x 150 MW fusion to save money and give more redundancy at the cost of extra mass.

3 and 4. Fuel and Thrusters

The Richelieu is a nuke ship and needs no fuel. She will never land and so has no thrusters. Fuel for the small craft is carried as cargo rather than in a central tank.

5. Drive

A 300 MW New Military Drive is installed.

In house rules I have the OC tech drive as having a single engine core, the OM/NC as having two and the NM as having three. Each core is a separate item for damage purposes. If you don't have similar rules you might consider having an extra drive. A drive hit is absolutely crippling, and the ability to bring a backup online would be really useful in combat. Even an "eggbeater" type get you home affair might be useful. Even a Ritage missile drive would move the Richelieu at warp 0.25, providing her the possibility of reaching home.

6. Crew and Workstations

I assume the 3,200 crew is a typo for 320.

The Richelieu sheet is spread over two sheets, and I'll rate her as having a backup bridge, and take the crew from the sheets thus:

2x Command, 2x Navigation, 2x Helm, 2x Communications, 9x Engineer and 7x Computer (multi-role)

The Tactical Action Centre is configured for the installed tactical systems. I followed the sheets and gave her 2 full active and passive sensors, both with redundant systems. The power available was all utilised to ultimately give 51 gunners rather than 46.

51x Fire Control, 2x Active Operators, 2x Passive Operators, 8x Remote Pilots and 12x Flight Controllers

The Engineering section calculates at 64 engineers (2x 32 man shifts), which is well short of the implied 192 from the sheet. The hangar staff is 12 maintenance crew for the carried fighters and their 12 crewmen. The Science section remains at 20, the stewards at a mere 5 (very busy people!) and 10 medical staff aboard.

There are now a mere 50 Marines aboard, i.e. 5 sections (platoons) including a command/ sustainment section. They are essentially a half-batallion under a commandant with 2 peletons (companies, the original meaning of a platoon was a tactical body of ca. 100 men) each under a capitaine each of 2 sections (platoons) of 10 walkers under a subaltern. They all have combat walkers.

There are 12 spare slots. I will provide a workstation to each and assume flag staff.

7. Accommodations

I will accommodate 320 people.

The text in NAM is pretty clear that the formula for the mass of a unit of accommodation is 10+(vol/10) tons. The example moved the 10+ from a "unit" to the whole of the accommodations. Backengineering has shown both formulae being inconsistently applied. Even I applied the second version. Here I will apply the proper version, and note mass changes.

As an aside, doing it "properly" adds 990 tons to a Kennedy. Of course, realistically at war loads the Kennedy is ca. 10,000 metric tons and closer to warp 4.0 anyway. There was an argument made in the 1990's that the Kennedy could run away from enemy missiles, but this effectively assumed infinite missile spam.

I will provide retractable spin modules (2%) and oxygen for 320 men for 180 days. More can go in the cargo for longer missions. As a note, "life support" in NAM is just bottled oxygen at the rate a human consumes it (ca. 1 kg per day).

8. Sensors

I'll provide the full range of survey and navigation sensors - navigation radar (i.e. civilian spec active), DSS (i.e. civilian spec passive), gravitational, and advanced life and cartographic sensors.

For tactical sensors I provide a pair of each the best humanity has, with a redundant array.

Two side-notes. Firstly DSS really is just a downrated tactical passive, and has no place on a warship. Secondly, in my house rules a lot of thought was spent on how sensors should actually work. Sadly they really need a GM because it needs truly hidden movement. The passive sensor is basically a sky scanning telescope array, and it makes "black globes". The immediate issue is that having a real detection of an object requires hidden movement. When you've two "hidden" objects moving to contact range neither sides player will know to ping the other to place a black globe - hence the need for a GM.

Conversely the active sensor simply can't scan. What it can do is track and determine range (which the passive can't really do). What an active sensor does is interrogate a black globe and place the model/ counter on the board. Once there it can be fired upon by ships. Each active can only interrogate once per turn. To make things easier on the players I allowed the active to interrogate an area but that's not important.

9. Weapons

9.1. Guns

Simply dividing spare power by 2 I get 51 double mounts powered. The ships form really doesn't allow for many to face fore or aft and so the jack mounts are basically broadside. She's like an old line-of-battle ship.

GDW 2k3 (and Mongoose) don't really allow for much larger arrays. However, I experimented with increasing weapons size.  With such house rules the Richelieu would be a superdreadnought type with 15 m diameter x6 mounts, each replacing 3 conventional double mounts with a single large double mount (since I won't power both sides in a long range laser duel). I will not discuss this further as the system really needs phased movement to have a tactical benefit of increased range, and then how quickly you allow ships to turn makes a huge difference.

That aside, the question is x1 or x2? Now, the core SC rules have no difference in penetration, and a house rule was quickly suggested that maybe x2 weapons get +1 penetration, x3 get +2 etc.. This is nonsense. Twice as much energy equate to twice the penetration - a x2 should simply roll 2d10 for penetration.

If you play with that variant having heavier guns becomes far more advantageous, because x2 or x3 (PBWS or laser) is essentially untroubled by the hull of a Bismarck or Suffren. Whilst said ships have reasonable protection against x1's they are almost naked against x3's.

However, here I stick with 51 x1+1dbl jack turrets with UTES.

As a further aside, in the core rulebook a targeting computer was an add-on per mount. SC was ambiguous, but the Kennedy example simply had one TC. Here I have installed a TC per mount (or rather per targeting array, which is the same as the number of mounts with UTES). Under such a system you'd either put 10 TC's on the Kennedy, or rule that the TC can only deal with one target and the player must nominate.

9.2. Missiles

The Richelieu has 8 remote pilots and is listed as carrying 16 missiles.

Now, in the original starship combat rules before Star Cruiser each communicator could control 2 missiles. In SC this was reduced to one. Yes, the original "Fast Missile Carrier" explicitly fired salvos of 10.

However, I've designed her missiles around 16 "universal" cells. These are R-2 width and R-1 length and can fit either a single Ritage-2 or 4 Ritage-1's (including a nuclear variant, probably with a 5x2). They have a volume/mass of 40 tons/ m3.

As a sneaky git, I'd probably never detonate the Ritage-2 in a fight. I'd keep them in close company with the battleship (so no range penalties if you use house rules like me) and then the enemy I am bringing into turret range is faced with the choice - do at the battleship or the missiles. The majority of the time the enemy will opt for the missiles and the threat is likely so great that I could get several turns blasting away with turret weapons before they're all gone. The Star Cruiser equivalent of having cavalry force infantry into squares and then blowing them away with horse artillery.

10. Screens

Screens-6

11. Hangar

I'll construct the ship around a tight hangar (3 volumes) for 12x 280m3 (20 dTon) small craft and two doors.. This means:

First launch - requires 5 turns and launches 2 vessels
Second launch - still requires 3 turns and launches 2
Third launch - requires 3 turns
Fourth launch - requires 2 turns
Fifth launch - requires 2 turns
Sixth launch - requires 1 turn

Or 16 turns to scramble 12 fighters.

The assumption is a 6 m diameter fighter/lander for a door (lift) size of 144 m2.

12. Hull Masking

The radiated signature is 7, which implies basic hull masking. This I have included.

Why not go to advanced? With the hull I've used there simply isn't enough area.

13. Hull

I took a ruler to the picture and scaled roughly. The hull I'm using is:

Rear section = 2x 30 m diameter cylinders and 5x 24 m diameter cylinders
Central spine connecting rear and fore over which spin habs fold = 5x 12 m diameter cylinders (unarmoured)
Forward = 5x 12 m diameter cylinders
The spin habitats = 4 modules each 40 m long, 15 m wide and 5 m tall


This gives me 60,025 m3 volume, which is more than enough.

Here I will provide endcaps for the cylinders (i.e. 2x 30 m diameter caps). I will build the outer hull of the spin sections as armoured, but the inner surfaces and the cylinder they fold over as unarmoured.

The material value, including endcaps, is 241 for the armoured parts and 63 for the unarmoued.

Now, the effectiveness of advanced composite in SC is a typo. The boxed set calculated to an armour multiplier of x2, not x1. I will provide armour 10 at this value, which is armour 20 and the erroneous value.

The hull is by far the most expensive component.

14. Streamlining and Thruster Fuel

Nil.

15. Cargo Space

SC lists 21,728.3 m3 = ca. 21,950 m3 with bracing. The early versions I made had exactly this, but with multiple reactors this is reduced to ca. 18,000 m3 available.

16. Pylons

Nil.

Evaluation

1. Mass

The sum of components is 39,509.6 tons.

If built as per the Kennedy example the mass would drop to ca. 32,000 tons.

2. Drive Efficiency

Her speed, running light, given the above mass and a 300 MW NM drive is 3.44, and with a reasonable load an small craft remains above 3.25. Hence her tactical speed is 7.

3. Fire Statistics and 11. Firing Aspects of Weapons Mounts

She has 51 double mounts. Each is a x1+1dbl in a jack mount connected to its own target computer and equipped with UTES.

The arcs are set up thus:

One mount is placed in the nose as a chaser with the arcs forward (128)
Eight mounts are placed at the corners of the rear section. They are set up to fire rearwards (back four) or superfire over the accommodations section (front four). They thus resolve as 2x 123, 2x 345, x 567 and 2x 178.
The remaining 42 mounts are 21 per side. I'll place 7 along each side of the forward section and 2 banks of 7 each side of the rear section. Thus the arcs are 21x 234 and 21x 678.

This arrangement has 5 mounts able to engage forward, 4 aft and 25 along each broadside. It fits the basic hull form.

When fighting a heavily armoured target I will direct all the battery power to one side using the overpowering lasers rule. This will allow doing double damage (and penetration if you use such rules) and the cost of a 10% chance of a mount burning out (needing a DC roll to restore to action) and a 10% chance of a burnt out laser exploding (destroyed).

4. Comfort

0 for all quarters.

5. Cost

The total cost is MLv963.99 (964). This is in line with the suggestion she's a billion livre ship. Without one TC per mount, other interpretations of hulls etc. she'd be close to the cost in SotFA.

6. Reflected Signature and 10. Target Profile

The radial profile is that of a 30 m diameter circle, 707 m2 and so the effective reflection points is 141. Visible from the front are the sensors (44 RCS points assuming you pay for the redundant array) and 5 mounts (70 RCS) assuming that only mounts that can bear reflect. This gives her 255 RCS points from the front and a frontal signature of 6. The target profile is 0.

The lateral profile is 3,900 m2 which equals 780 RCS pts. The sensors all bear (44) as do 25 mounts (350) for a total of 1,174 RCS points, which is a signature of 10. The 3,900 m2 area equates to a target profile of +3.

7. Radiated Signature

With basic masking it is 7(8). Of course once screens are engaged the signature is 13.

8. Hull Hits

The volume of hull material is 4,883 m3. If the x2 multiplier is used the hull has 2,442 hits. A minor breach is suffered after 611 hits and a major after 1,121.

That's why we often adopted variant hulls.

9. Power Plant Hits

Each plant masses (with extras) 6,000 tons and so has 120 hits. Each takes 24 hits to knock out.

12. Armour Value

Assuming a x2 multiplier the armour is 10. If the misprinted x1 is retained it's 20 (and double hull hits).

Statistics

Design Date: 2285

First Example Laid Down: 2285

First Example Completed: 2293

Fleets in Service: France

Number in Service: 8 Commissioned before end of 2301, two out of Commission by battle damage (Richelieu, Tallyrand, Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, Charlemagne, DeGaulle, Clemenceau, Metternich and Napoleon). Two approaching completion in 2302 (Mitterrand, and Trochu), One laid down late 2301 (Pompidou) and two on order for laying down 2302 (d'Estaing and Chirac)

Streamlining: None

Performance

Warp efficiency: Approximately 3.44 light, ca. 3.30 with normal loads

Power Plant: 3x 150 MW Fusion

Fuel: nil (carried as cargo)

Range: 7.7 light years

Mass: 39,510 tons unloaded

Cargo Capacity: 1,800 cubic meters

Crew: 308 (48 bridge, 75 TAC, 64 engineering, 36 small craft, 50 security/troops, 5 stewards, 20 science, 20 medical); Passengers: 12

Comfort: 0;

Emergency Power: ?

Total Life Support: 320 for 180 days

Cost: MLv964 without ordnance (including multiple TC and paying for streamlining and workstations etc.)

Ship Status Sheet

Move: 7

Screens: 6

Radiated Signature: 7(8)

Radial Reflected: 6

Lateral Reflected: 10

Target Computers: +2 (all weapons);

Radial Profile: 0

Lateral Profile: +3

Armour:10 (or 20 if wrong value of armour multplier used)

Hull hits: 2,442/1,221/611

Power Plant Hits: 3x 120/24

Active: Two arrays, both 16 and backup

Passive: Two arrays, both 12 and backup

Other: Hangar space for 12 fighters (or landers)

Weapons

51 x1+1dbl lasers in jack turrets with UTES (1x 128, 2x 123, 25x 234, 2x 345, 2x 567, 25x 678)

Ordnance Load

16 Cells, each capable of taking 1x Ritage-2 or quadpacking 4x Ritage-1 (either PB or 5x2 det-warhead variant)

Other Sensors and Electronics:

Navigation Radar
DSS
Gravitational
Advanced Gravitational

Advanced Life

Crew Hits:
Bridge: 2x Captain, 2x Navigator, 2x Helm, 9x Engineering, 2x Communications, 7x Computer
TAC: 51x Fire Control, 8 Remote Pilot, 2x Active Operator, 2x Passive Operator, 12x Flight

 

Damage Control: 32 off shift engineers, plus 24 off-shift bridge and 5 stewards = 61

Cost Analysis

 

Now that's a battleship.

The major costs, even with paying for individual TC's etc., is the hull. The cost break down is:

 

Propulsion: MLv213.7 = 22%

Energy weapons and associated systems (inc. power): MLv238.91 = 25%

Hull and armour: MLv488.3 = 51%

Controls, sensors etc.: MLv23.05 = 2%