2300AD Changes (1): Introduction and Butterflies

Introduction

Recently we had a new member join the 2300AD facebook group who insisted that everyone must be slavishly obedient to the new Mongoose version of 2300AD. He insisted we must play the "RAW" (Rules As Written), and that anyone who criticised any changes made between the editions was a religious nutjob or an agent of a rival games company.

This prompted me to take a long, hard look at Mongoose's version, or specifically the post-GDW versions, since I found that most of the changes were made in the 3rd edition and simply doubled and tripled down on in later editions. I was aware there were random changes for no reason, and that some very "out-of-universe" elements had been added.

The Various Editions

There have been 5 editions of the main rulebook, thus:

1. GDW Traveller: 2300 (1st edition, 1986)
2. GDW 2300AD (2nd edition, 1988)
3. QLI 2320AD (3rd edition, 2007)
4. Mongoose 2300AD (4th edition, 2012)
5. Mongoose 2300AD (5th edition, 2021)

I own 1-4, but not the new 5th edition. I am acknowledged in the 3rd edition, but had my acknowledgement struck out in the 4th edition. There is an alternative universe where I was less busy in 2003-4, and was the author of the 3rd edition. I can remember that the brief for 3rd edition was that we were not allowed to make any changes in the background. How I'd have done 2320AD is a completely separate issue, and of little import. I certainly wouldn't have tried to write the Kafers out though.

Due to the "no changes" edict, the 3rd edition still follows on from GDW's Twilight War, and the German space navy is still called the Deutches Stern Kreigsmarine for example. There were, however, a number of insertions and changes that crept through. Amongst the changes is, for example, the fact that in the GDW universe Britain mined Antarctica (Ships of the French Arm pg 60 and Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook page 28). In fact Antarctic tantalum was the basis of an independent British merchant fleet, and the reason why Canada had starships at all. By writing out Antarctic tantalum, both Britain and Canada should have been stunted, with butterflies that also stunt America (see appendix 1).

Looking at the preview of 5th edition, I can see that even the Earth map is completely changed. There has been a strangely selective sea-level rise. Looking at the Bristol channel and other points, a > 70 m sea-level rise is needed. Cities which canonically still existed, like London and New York, are gone. Yet, bizarrely, the low countries (Nederland, Vlaanderen, French Flanders etc.) are unchanged, as is the Jutland peninsula and northern Germany. Heel gek.

The Universe as Originally Written

2300AD is an interesting 1980's sci-fi RPG created by GDW. To generate their future history, they ran a grand strategy economic/ strategic game they called "The Game", advancing history in 5-year turns. This history was tweaked for the final game to introduce some conflict. An example of such a tweak was the War of German Reunification - Germany was a unitary nation throughout the whole of the game, and had no need to be unified. This tweak created some inconsistencies as some of the writers followed the original history wherein Germany was always a unitary nation.

Two of the core factors that created the universe were:

1. History proceeds from the Twilight War of the game Twilight:2000 forwards;
2. The rare element Tantalum restricted the production of stardrives (see appendix 2).

In Mongoose Traveller 2300AD (MgT 2k3), both of these factors have been removed by author fiat. In MgT 2k3, there was no Twilight War, but rather a mystery box called "The Twilight Era" which occurs in our future. This may only be a 4th edition issue, as the 5th edition preview suggests the mystery box was opened, which nullifies the whole point of having it in the first place. You will never hit the moving target of the true future history because it is a game.

This, of course, sets up major problems. In the original 2300AD (Core 2k3), the nuclear war largely spared France, who were last man standing. This led to France being the dominant nation throughout the 21st century. The war knocked out current big nations like the USA, Russia and China, who spent a century or more recovering from the deaths of 95%+ of their population from the war, the resulting nuclear winter, civil wars and the widespread collapse of civilisation.

In MgT 2k3, all (or most) the effects of the nuclear war are still there, but the war never happened, or happened very differently. This would have produced an alternative future history.

Further in Core 2k3 history, the French developed a workable stardrive in the early 22nd century, and it needed tantalum. Knowing this, the French, allied with Britain, Germany and perhaps Japan, moved to secure as much of the worlds supply of tantalum as possible. In the process they offered South Africa and Spain deals - join with us as partners and we'll go forward together. South Africa (recast as Azania in 2k3) joined ESA and founded colonies on new worlds. Spain's player released the news that France and allies had invented a stardrive, and that tantalum was the key element. They promptly sold their entire tantalum stock to Argentina (?). This is why Spain has no starships, and why the tantalum poor nation of Argentina was a big player in the early space race. Of course, Argentina got nerfed over time but that's another matter.

The availability of tantalum to a few nations with sufficiently advanced technology meant they get to build starships and go exploring and settling other worlds. Tantalum was so valuable that Britain mined a lode found in Antarctica as humanity scoured the Earth for it. The last remaining unexploited tantalum on Earth was the Turkestan (an area of Kazakhstan) deposit. The Central Asian War, the most significant war in centuries, was fought over the possession of it. Manchuria and Russia both wanted it so they could build starships using it. With French, German, Japanese etc. help, the Russians secured it.

Tantalum was found in the colonies. However, there's a chicken and egg situation - in order to reach that tantalum, one needs tantalum. Hence the history has "The Tantalum War" of 2142-3 wherein Indonesia seized a small tantalum lode from Bengal. As an aside, the Earth/Cybertech SB conflates the Tantalum War with Indonesia's invasion of Indochina in 2264. Indonesia has had some tantalum since 2142, but it didn't convert into colonies etc.

Thus, the nations that secured Earth's tantalum supplies, by various methods (i.e. France, Britain, Germany, Azania, Japan (from Mozambique), Manchuria, Argentina (from Spain), Brazil, and America (from Australia)) became the starfaring nations. Large and powerful nations that lacked tantalum access, such as Russia, were largely shut out of the space race.

The Mongoose Universe

MgT 2k3 has a lot of random changes to the original universe. Some of these are, I believe, author fiat, and some are simply a lack of fact-checking. For example, in Core 2k3 the German Space Navy is called the Deutches Stern Kriegsmarine (DSKM, German Space Navy), but in the recent MgT 2k3 it's called the Raumwaffe, and the old space force of the Federal Republic of Germany was the "Bavarian Space Force", named in English, not German. This is likely just poor fact-checking, especially the English name for the German space navy.

There are two major changes by author fiat that were inserted in 4th edition:

1. The Twilight War of 1996-2000 never happened.
2. Tantalum doesn't matter.

The first I sort of understand, but it creates huge problems. For a small number of people, the idea that they're now playing in an "alternative future", i.e. one whose history has diverged from ours, is problematic. Some other universes, such as Cyberpunk, simply embraced their status as "alternative future". 

The problem with writing out a major element of the history is that the history no longer flows. In core 2k3, the nuclear war was the explanation as to why France was dominant. There has been an unsuccessful attempt to superimpose these two realities in the 5th edition, but it is thin and unconvincing.

The removal of tantalum as a limiting factor in building was explained by the 3rd-5th edition author as due to the fact that he simply didn't understand why drives could be relatively inexpensive to build, and yet tantalum could still be rare. A lot of this was a problem he created himself with his ship design rules, because whilst GDW ship costs were dominated by the stutterwarp drive, in MgT the cost is trivial. Consider that for a GDW Anjou the stutterwarp was 71% of the construction cost, but for a MgT one it's 1%. This will be explored in a later post, as will some of the effects of having a different Twilight War.

The Effect of No Tantalum Limitations

It's worth considering the effect on the games timeline if tantalum was never an issue. Taking events as per the timeline as unaltered up until stutterwarp is discovered, but there being no tantalum requirement.

Immediately, ESA (France, Britain and Germany) would not have had to secure tantalum; thus they would not have approached Spain and Azania, and would not have invested in Africa and Antarctica to secure the tantalum. This means that the news of a working stardrive would not have leaked "early" to the world and the first people would know about the technology was when the ESA warped to Alpha Centauri in 2137. This has two effects; (1) Argentina etc. aren't in any immediate position to challenge ESA and (2) nations can just build starships once they've discovered how to.

Without any immediate challenge to ESA, the First Interstellar War never happens, and ESA are not forced to back down on the Melbourne Accords. Ergo, ESA are in a position to claim whole planets by right. Tirane becomes an exclusively ESA world, meaning France, Britain and Germany.

ESA are not restrained by the initial lack of tantalum in their exploration and colonisation efforts. They expand much, much faster. They've probably got all the nearby planets sewn up before the other nations complete their research programs and get starships. Perhaps they even divvy space up into a French Arm, British Arm and a German Arm.

America has no need of Australian tantalum, and thus the special relationship never forms. Australia never develops into much of a starfaring nation. Similarly, the British-Canadian relationship is not as close, and Canada never develops into much of a starfaring nation. Azania (South Africa) never gets into ESA and never develops into much of a starfaring nation.

On the alt-American (now, say, British) Arm, King is interesting, but never settled. DNAMs are never developed. In fact, the general pattern of early settlement is far more European.

Eventually, other nations will start building their own fleets of starships, and this will bring them into conflict with the Europeans, who hold out against the Melbourne Accords and thus claim basically all the colonisable worlds in reach. This will bring about conflict between Europe and the rest of the world and a very different history will emerge.

Discussion

Clearly, by changing a major part of the universe's background, a whole new future should have been spun out. To be clear, I'd be quite supportive of different "alternative futures". What I find more concerning for the sake of universe building is that the effects of major changes in the history are simply not implemented. This means the universe effectively becomes "Schoedinger's Universe" - it is a superposition of the original GDW universe and a new universe. Changes are made in the history that do not resonate down the timeline are paradoxical, and the universe is not coherent.

To be clear, the GDW universe also has a number in inconsistencies. For example, the author of the GDW book Ranger completely missed in the description of stutterwarp that it explodes when it goes further than 7.7 ly, releasing lethal radiation. Hence he explained the Eber drive going > 7.7 ly by them having greater resistance to radiation. Ignoring the explosion problem, if it were only the case that the drive started emitting gamma rays after 7.7 ly, humanity would simply put a lead shield around the drive and keep on trucking. All changes need to be fully thought out, and checked for unintended consequences to the universe. For their part, GDW planned to retcon this with the Ebers having a real, working > 7.7 ly drive termed "Stutterwarp 2" which would break open the frontiers post-2300, and the PC's being involved in discovering what the Ebers did differently on an expedition to their homeworld.

The question of what to do about the incoherence between GDW and MgT is a vexed one. I personally consider any universe breaking changes to be null and void. I wouldn't mind so much if it was clearly stated this was an alternative timeline, and the changes were fully implemented. This is what, however, brought me into conflict with a newly appointed "canon inspector" who insisted on immediate unconditional surrender to Mongoose fiat, and has cause me to look at MgT with a far more critical eye.

In the next post I intend to examine the mathematics of how ship construction and tantalum scarcity are cogent, and how MgT 2k3 fails in trying to fix the maths.

Appendix 1: British and Canadian Starships, and the Effect of No Antarctic Tantalum on the Timeline

Britain built the ESAS Pathfinder which conducted the initial exploration probe of the near French Arm (Nyotekundu Sourcebook, page 3). However, the lack of tantalum was a major stumbling block for ESA as a whole, and Britain and Germany in particular. The French expanded their influence in Africa, and the British and the Germans got a chunk of South African (Azanian) tantalum in exchange for that nation's ESA membership (NSB, page 3).

The Germans colonised Neubayern, and got lucky in finding an off-world tantalum source on the 4th planet of the system, a cold and uninhabitable world. The entire colony (on the 1st planet) was based around feeding miners on the 4th planet, who sent tantalum to orbit of the 1st planet for use in making German starships. The mines were dry by the 2230's, but Germany had established colonies of their own outside of ESA.

The British, however, did not strike tantalum on Beowulf. At the end of the 22nd century British trade was mostly carried on French vessels. (Ships of the French Arm, page 60) British minerals came from their mines in Greenland and Antarctica, and from Tirane carried aboard French vessels. However, the British gained access to tantalum of their own and started to construct the own merchants. (SotFA, 60) This coincided with the beginning of a renaissance of British power as great (mineral) wealth started flowing from British Tirane in the early 23rd century. (2nd edition Adventurer's Guide, page 17) This tantalum came from Antarctica. (private communication with T. Brown, long ago)

The tantalum that propelled Britain into being a truly independent player came from Antarctica. In the mid-22nd century, Argentina attempted to confront Britain over their exploitation of Antarctica, but Britain had the biggest (wet) navy in the world at the time, and with Canada's help faced the Argentinians off. (Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook, page 28). Britain became the first nation to have 50% of her population offworld, that event happening in 2298. (1st edition Referee's Manual, pages 29-30) However, one should note that this is in the context of 13 or more York class colony ships running colonists to Crater, and later New Cornwall. This would roughly make both multiple "heavy efforts" - at deep load each York could make 12 runs a year, and 13 would deliver 70,000 people per year to Joi.

Canada, for their part, didn't build their first starship until 2290, decades after they founded a colony. (E/CS page 28) They certainly had starships before this, (SotFA, page 52) but it appears they were constructed by a foreign partner, probably Britain.

In a universe where Britain didn't exploit the Antarctic for its tantalum, a whole bunch of butterflies happen, such as:

• Britain not developing a separate space program, and not founding the DeVillebis outpost or settling Crater or Joi.
• Canada not getting into space with British ships in the 2250's, and hence not founding the Canadian finger.
• Without Canada involved, there is no Slaver War. Manchuria starts a trading relationship with the Akcheektoon Sung nation. There is no regime change.
• America doesn't expand as quickly down the American Arm without British aid. The discovery of King is delayed ca. 20 years (with America needing to build the outpost at Clarkes' Star). Without Canadian involvement, there are no DNAMs, and King remains unsettled.
• Without settlement of King, America and Australia never has the tantalum to expand up their fingers. There is no "American Arm".
• Without British investment along the Chinese Arm, colonisation there would be a little slower.
  
• Without British aid, Trilon would at least be delayed settling Kie-Yuma, but, of course, Kie-Yuma would not have been discovered until 10-20 years later as without Britain pushing up the Joian finger, things would be delayed.
• Without a large and effective British space navy (and American one due to no King settlement), the Kafer Invasion would likely reached Earth and been victorious.

One can see how a change in an established timeline, especially one ca. 150 years before the "present" of the universe, can have a huge effect.

Appendix 2: A Handout from "The Game" transcribed by Steven Alexander.

This was given to "Game" players when they researched Theoretical Physics enough to build a stardrive:

This sheet presented when a nation approaches the necessary technology for stardrive.

Congrats!  You now know how to build a star drive.  There is one unusual requrement for construction of them, however -- Tantalum.  This is a very rare element currently mined in only a few locations.  World reserves (currently known) are:

• Chile:                           1
• French Guyana:           1
• Brazil:                          6
• Spain:                          9
• Portugal:                     6
• Nigeria:                       4
• South Africa:               9
• Zambia:                       5
• Namibia:                     1
• Mozambique:              17
• Malaguay Rep:            2
• Australia:                     5
• Turkestan (USSR):       3
• China:                          2
• Kenya:                         4
• Zaire:                           5

 Need the following:

• Probe:                         1 unit
• Frigate/Survey:                       2 units
• Cruiser/Carrier:          3 units
• Transport:                   5 units

The Perpetual Motion Machine in Mongoose 2300AD

Reading the Aerospace Engineers Handbook, I find it very easy to produce a perpetual motion machine from an MHD Turbine plus a Fuel Cracker.

Put simply, the MHD Turbine is already > 100% efficient (119% under certain common assumptions), and the fuel cracker is ca. 800% efficient. 1 MW of input on the fuel cracker produces 2.4 dTons of fuel per day, whereas the MHD turbine consumes 2.5 dTons per MW-week.

So, if I want to build a ca. 1 GW output perpetual motion MHD generator, I use the following components:

1. A 1.2 GW TL-12 MHD Generator (1,000 dTons, MLv550)
2. Say, a days fuel or 428.57 dTons
3. A fuel processor generating 428.57 dTons of fuel per day (17.86 dTons,  MLv35.71)

The upshot is, this system produces 1,021.4 MW whilst regenerating the expended fuel at the same time.

 

Richelieu using Mongoose Traveller 2300AD Aerospace Engineer’s Handbook

Richelieu using Mongoose Traveller 2300AD Aerospace Engineer’s Handbook

 

Preamble

In GDW 2300AD, the Richelieu and successors were the largest, most powerful warships humanity possessed. Unfortunately there was a typo on the Ship Status Sheet that led to their armour value of 10 being written as 0. This is a variant of the classic GDW “missed or added a zero” typo which cropped up occasionally.

The Richelieu was notable for having a 415 MW power plant. In GDW 2k3, power plants consumed much of the mass of a warship, and were the major defining factor in how powerful it was. The Germans and the Americans also wanted “battleships”, but they would only build diminutives with 150 MW and 180 MW plants respectively. The situation was much like the US build Nimitz supercarriers, and the British building Invincible CVS’s – still carriers but much less powerful.

With this in mind, I set out to build the Richelieu using the AEH. There are some points to note:

1.       As a Traveller based system, it is volume that matters rather than mass. The volume of the ship was set at the estimated volume of the GDW ship, or 14,000 dTons. This is technically off the end of the scale, but we are talking about the largest warships in existance.

2.       MgT 2k3 livres are not GDW 2k3 livres. There has apparently been some inflation. I budgeted 10 billion livres for the ship, including her two embarked fighter wings and her missiles.

3.       Colin Dunn has stated that, contrary to GDW 2k3, in MgT 2k3 tantalum is not a limiting factor. Hence I’m free to treat missiles like any ammunition, rather than worrying about the lost opportunity cost (every 2-3 missiles built is a merchant transport not built in GDW 2k3).

4.       Oh, and I thank the author for Mongoose canonising my ideas about Ta-180m.

To be clear, this is the smallest and weakest of France’s battleships, but she’s 3 times the size of a German, American or Manchurian battleship. Only the British battleships match her, perhaps. The follow-ons in French service are even more powerful. The next two (Tallyrand and Sainte Jeanne d’Arc) are basically improved versions of this, and following that the BB’s get even bigger and better. One French BB has been lost prior to 2300AD; the Sainte Jeanne d’Arc narrowly lost a fight against six Kafer BB’s and was destroyed. In 2301 the Tallyrand would again narrowly lose a fight against an entire Kafer battlefleet when the Germans cut and ran.

Hull

The GDW ship is ca. 14,000 dTons. I will keep this value constant. If I try to scale armour to the Beta example (10/7 * 11 = 16), I find I’m beyond the maximum allowed. Ergo I’ll go with the maximum allowed armour, which is either 12 or 13 depending on which page you read. I’ll pick 13. The hull is advanced composite with no modifications, but I think I get tough for free.

The armour consumes 910 dTons, and the hull and armour cost MLv1,239. This is already more than the cost of the ship in GDW livres. It has the traits advanced, heavy and tough.

It was unclear what “radiation shielding” would do that LaFarge shields and a meter thick armoured hull wouldn’t do.

 

Reaction Drives

Not a thing in GDW, because GDW ships could use their drives in the dead zone, just at dramatically reduced efficiency, but combined with slingshot orbits they didn’t need to make orbital burns to discharge etc. For this design, I’ll install a nuclear OMS. I don’t care about power usage, because it’s far below the stutterwarp usage and I’ll never be using both simultaneously. A calculate I need 0.105 dTons of fuel per burn. I suspect this is a typo, and the book is two orders of magnitude out (caused by the % sign). Thus I’ll have 400 burns, knowing this may be reduced to 4. Even at 10.5 dTons per burn, I can have scores of burns in the cargo hold (see later).

The nuclear OMS costs 280 dTons and MLv280. I could almost buy 2 GDW Kennedy’s for the cost of this system alone. There are 42 dTons of reaction mass (400 burns).

 

Stutterwarp and Power Plant

For the size of the power plant, I’m going to take the size of the original as correct. At 16,500 m3, it’s 1,179 dTons, which I’ll round to 1,200 dTons. An advanced fusion reactor of that size is not at the point of being too large and dividing in two. As an advanced fusion reactor, it produces 1.8 GW (1.5 MW per dTon).

If I’d have used mass fraction of the GDW design, I’d have around 5.25 GW or perhaps 10.5 GW depending on interpretation. All I could have done with that power, since I’m hardpoint limited, is install a bigger stutterwarp.

Speaking of stutterwarp, I keep the same fraction of power dedicated to the stutterwarp; 1,800 MW * 300/415 = 1,310 MW (to the nearest ten MW). I can now calculate speed.

The formula is very different. In GDW 2k3, the power to speed relationship was cubic – to double speed 8 times the power was needed. In MgT it is square – to double speed 4 times the power is needed. Given this, very different results can be expected.

I have a 1,310 MW stutterwarp pushing 14,000 dTons. The hull is both heavy and advanced. The drive is TL-12. My final warp efficiency is 5.7.

To be clear, whilst this is much faster than GDW, MgT 2k3 is a very different universe. Ships are simply faster, if well designed. Had the Kennedy kept the same reactor size as GDW, it would be warp efficiency 15.3.

For advanced radiators, I need 900 dTons (18,000 * 0.05) etc. I will add stutterwarp vanes, ignoring the power requirement because they won’t be being used at the same time as the stutterwarp.

The fusion reactor and stutterwarp, with the vanes and radiators, uses 2,479.835 dTons and costs MLv2,217.175.

 

Bridge, Computers etc.

I install two full bridges, with the large, protected and neural linked traits. This take 360 dTons and costs MLv420.

For computers, I have two Core/100 fib units, both linked to share data with the targeting trait added. This costs MLv318.15. For software, I take everything listed at the highest available level at TL-12. This takes 89 bandwidth (so I have a lot of slack) and the software would cost MLv132.6, except the MSIF (“missive” the French Space Navy of the GDW 2k3 universe) would own the software and just install it for free.

 

Sensors

She has very advanced military sensors with the extended range, enhanced signals processing and redundant systems traits. Additionally was has a grav scanner, military countermeasures, DSS, 3 telescopes, advanced survey sensors and 10 long range laser communicators.

This use 80.233 dTons and cost MLv160.9675

 

Weapons, Screens, Hangars and TAC

She has the maximum modern screens system, with 100 reloads.

Her installed weapons are 46 heavy laser barbettes with UTES equipped HLC-72 (or probably a modern improved version) and 48 turrets with PDC-29. There are 8 missile controllers capable of directing 16 missiles.  There are 16 Ritage-2 launchers, each with a magazine of 16 missiles for a total of 256 nuclear weapons.

Here I should note that the Ritage-2 of MgT 2k3 is different to that of GDW 2k3. The GDW missile was the fastest, most advanced missile available to humanity with the largest warhead. It has swapped in MgT for the less powerful SIM-14. The number of missiles is based upon missiles now just being ammunition. I am capable of controlling 16 missiles, thus I’ll have 16 launchers. The GDW Richelieu only carried 16 missiles (controlling 8), and was really a gunship. If tantalum no longer matters, why restrict oneself? There is a maintenance bay for the nukes.

The GDW Richelieu had 21 small craft berths, 9 platoon landers and upto 12 fighters with expansive hangars capable of being doubled up when crowded. Generally she carried fewer fighters, because there weren’t that many fighters around. Herein we keep the 9 landers (LC-10) but the number of fighters was based around the available space and the budget. I found 36 Martels (2 full wings of 18 fighters) to be about right.

The hangar is insanely expensive. At MLv0.3 per ton, the hangar comes out as MLv1,512 (about 10 GDW Kennedy’s). I suspect there is a typo and a full hangar should be MLv0.03 per ton, as an extension of the birth at MLv0.01 per ton. I will place a note on the final price.

The TAC has 119 people, mostly gunners (94 of them).

In total these take 6,206.2 dTons and costs MLv2,101.432. 72% of the price of the tactical systems is the hangar. If there is an “extra zero” typo in the hangars then these cost MLv740.632.

 

Crew etc.

It was estimated that the ships crew, with an embarked power-armour infantry battalion of 100 men, would be around 800 men. Originally I had every man having their own full 4 dTon stateroom, but after I had to add briefing rooms, individual toilets etc., I had to start doubling up. In Traveller, the assumption was that some of the stateroom area went to kitchens, toilets etc., and nobody cared about where the toilets were.

I ended up with 796 men with the infantry embarked. This included enough stewards to treat everyone like an “officer”, and the enlisted men on starships is largely inverse snobbery from former servicemen who weren’t officers. It is assumed that everyone is roughly equal when it comes to food etc. like aboard a submarine. What’s good enough for the captain is good enough for the youngest aspirant manning a gunner post.

I had to add a bunch of stuff that was handily covered by accommodations and by workstations in GDW Star Cruiser. I added:

·         4 Medical bays, each with an operating theatre, 4 man recovery room and 10 automeds

·         80 man galley

·         40 safety lockers

·         1 ships locker

·         10 workshops

·         27 armouries

·         A briefing room for 88 people (176 dTons! Costs the same as a starfighter!)

·         40 extra toilets

With 360 staterooms, all under spin, this all totalled 2,205.7 dTons and cost MLv382.835.

The spin gravity is 1 G.

 

Cargo and Airlocks

The GDW ship had a large cargo bay of 21,728 cubic meters (1,552 dTons). A 1,350 dTon cargo bay was installed with 4 large cargo airlocks. 8 Normal airlocks were also installed.

I have 22.03 dTons of displacement unutilised.

 

Production

The whole ship costs MLv7,120.039 or MLv5,759.239 if there was a mistake in the hangar formula.

The time of production is bizarre. Time doesn’t scale to price – pouring a ton of cheap concrete takes the same time as pouring a ton of expensive concrete. The Richelieu herself in GDW took about 8 years to complete with a commando raid damaging her and working being stopped for several years afterwards.

The MgT rule of thumb is one day per MCr. A GDW Livre is 3 Credits, but a MgT Livre is worth significantly less than a GDW Livre. Still, High Guard rules allow for upto a 90% construction time for large ships if constructed modularly, and follow-ons cost 90% of the first. This could bring the time down to 3 years. Seven are in service in (January) 2300, after losing Ste. Jeanne d’Arc. We’ll say that the early ones were delayed, hence taking 8 years each, but the follow-ons took around 3 years each, thus:

Richelieu: LD 2285, in service 2293

Tallyrand: LD 2286, in service 2294, to be lost in 2301

Ste. Jeanne d’Arc: LD 2287, in service 2295 and destroyed early 2297

Charlemagne: LD 2293, in service 2296

Charles Martel: LD 2294, in service 2297

Clemenceau: LD 2295, in service 2298

Mirabeau: LD 2296, in service 2299

De Gaulle: LD 2297, in service 2300

--- 7 in service, 8 built, one lost ---

(2298 elections, Ruffin re-elected and made elected Emperor by plebiscite, 13^th Republic becomes 3^rd Empire)

Napoleon: LD 2298, in service 2301 (the newest BB as of mid-2301 in GDW Invasion)

Mazarin: LD 2299, in service 2302

Trochu: LD 2300, in service 2303

TBC

 

The length etc. is quite different, but below is the output from AEH.

 

French Battleship Richelieu

·         Nations: France

·         First Example Laid Down: 2284

·         Manufacturer: Initially Rouchard-Ligget Military Yard, Tirane plus two others at Earth/

·         Production Status: Derivatives still in production, 1 at Tirane and 2 at Earth (new construction commenced immediately upon the slip being cleared)

·         Production Time: 3 years each using modular construction, although originals were heavily delayed

·         Service Status: In service

·         Fleets in service: France

·         Number in service: 7 as of 2300 (Richelieu, Tallyrand, Charlemagne, Charles Martel, Clemenceau, Mirabeau and De Gaulle) with one destroyed (Sainte Jeanne d’Arc) and 3 under construction (Napoleon, Mazarin and Trochu). Named for great French statesmen and leaders (not admirals etc.)

·         Length: 80 m

·         Width: 40 m

·         Displacement: 14,000 dTons

·         Power Planet: 1.8 GW advanced fusion

·         Reaction Drive: Nuclear OMS, 400 burns

·         Stutterwarp: 1,310 MW TL-12 stutterwarp

·         Purchase Cost: ca. MLv5,183.315 ongoing (prototype cost more, assumes typo in hangar stats)

·         Maintenance Cost: MLv0.432 per month, exclusive of embarked vessels

By the middle years of the Central Asian War, the French Navy was solidly committed to the so-called "big ship" concept pioneered by the Suffren-class missile cruisers. Having proven themselves time and again as valuable independent units or as the core of a task force, large powerful ships were what the line admirals demanded more than anything else. Considerable war losses also necessitated a renewed building program which mostly concentrated on proven designs. However, a naval requirement was also issued for a truly massive ship capable of carrying out deep raids into enemy territory.

 

The basis of the requirement was for a vessel superior to the Suffren class in its ability to operate for extended periods away from friendly maintenance and able to take on a wider variety of combat missions by itself. The requirement to operate away from friendly repair yards meant that the vessel would either have to be able to absorb and repair considerable amounts of battle damage or avoid suffering damage in the first place. Since its expanded combat capability by necessity required a larger ship, simple speed and stealth characteristics were not considered an adequate solution.

 

Armor and shields fulfilled part of the requirement, but the principal solution adopted was to concentrate much of the ship's offensive power in 36 fighter craft which, while valuable in their own right, could theoretically keep a superior enemy at bay and preserve the mother ship from crippling damage. In addition to its considerable fighter complement, the vessel carried nine small armed troop landers, each capable of transporting two squads of infantry or one armored personnel carrier. For armament the ship included 46 heavy laser barbettes and 48 PDC’s. The missile armament was originally Ritage-1, but Ritage-2 launchers have been installed in place of them.

 

When the Central Asian War ended in 2287 the Richelieu, as it was by then named, remained incomplete in orbit over Tirane, and had been extensively damaged by a successful Manchurian commando-style raid in 2286. During the post-war European recession, work on the Richelieu was repeatedly delayed by budgetary constraints and some of the money appropriated was apparently diverted to other projects by the Rouchard-Ligget Cartel responsible for its construction. When the War of German Reunification broke out in 2292, the French navy was caught poorly prepared and short of serviceable ships, and a panic crash construction program was instituted. As equal priority was given to all ships currently under construction, few new vessels were actually commissioned prior to the cessation of hostilities in mid-2293, and the Richelieu remained incomplete. However, it was now sufficiently close to completion that work continued and the Richelieu joined the fleet shortly before Christmas.

 

For all of the care lavished on the vessel, the design was quickly found to be deficient in a number of areas. The defensive armament of the ship was considered inadequate and the armed landers, designed by the now-defunct Rouchard-Ligget Cartel, had many troublesome teething problems which have never been completely overcome. A second vessel of the Richelieu class had been laid down in 2287, and a third in 2288, but little progress had been made on either. These two vessels were now christened, Ste. Jeanne D'Arc and Tallyrand, but were completed with considerable modifications and are considered a separate class of vessel. The hangar decks have been redesigned to accept six large standard landers, the same type as used by the Suffren-class cruisers,

in place of the nine smaller vessels carried by the Richelieu.

 

Since their completion the two ships of the Ste. Jeanne D'Arc class have seen considerable action against the Kafers (the Ste. Jeanne D'Arc was lost with all hands at the First Battle of Tithonus), but the Richelieu has yet to see action. It is currently stationed at Beta Canum Venaticorum and flies the flag of Vice Admiral Jean Baptiste d'Aumont, commander of the Third French Fleet. It is rumored that it is currently having its drives overhauled and is having additional missile bays installed. In the mean time it is serving as a tender for a variety of fighter craft tasked with defending the Beta Canum system.

 

Power Requirements

·         Reactor Produces 18,000 power (1.8 GW)

·         Basic Ship req.: 140 (14 MW)

·         Reaction drive: nil (14,000 or 1.4 GW when engaged, never engaged with stutterwarp, drone controllers etc.)

·         Stutterwarp: 13,100 (1.31 GW)

·         Vanes: nil (3,275 or 327.5 MW when engaged, never engaged with stutterwarp)

·         Sensors and Long Range Comms: upto 165 (16.5 MW, of which 10 MW is the comms)

·         Drone Controllers: 160 (16 MW)

·         Weapons: 4,110 (411 MW)

·         Sum: 17,675 power typically used (1.6555 GW), leaving 32.5 MW unused.

Richelieu Type TL-12 Battleship, 14,000 dTons

·         Hull: 14,000 dTon advanced composite spaceframe

·         Reaction Drive: Nuclear OMS, 400 burns (or 4)

·         Stutterwarp: 5.7 ly/day, Tac Speed: 6, Insystem Speed: 3.68 AU/day. Has discharge vanes.

·         Power Plant: 18,000 Power (1.8 GW)

·         Radiators: AHDR, 18,000 capacity

·         Bridge: Large, hardened, neural link, laser comms (x10)

·         Computer: Two link core/100 fib

·         Weapons: 46 HLC-76 barbettes w/UTES, 48 PDC-29 turrets, screens-6 with 100 reloads

·         Targeting: +8 (+1 for UTES, +5 for targeting computer and +3 for software)

·         Ordnance: 16 Ritage-2 launchers, each with a magazine of 16 missiles (256 missiles total)

·         Controllers: 8 controllers (can control 16 missiles)

·         TAC: 6 flight controllers (for upto 60 embarked craft), 94 gunners, 16 missiles and 3 sensors

·         Systems: under spin:

o   27 armouries

o   40 automeds

o   88 man briefing room

o   80 man galley

o   4 medbays, each with an additional operating theatre and 4 recovery beds

o   40 safety lockers

o   ships locker

o   40 simple freshers

o   10 workshops, plus nuclear weapons workshop for the > 1,000 nuclear warheads aboard

·         Drones and remotes: various carried in cargo for if needed and launched from the hangar deck

·         Hangar decks: Full hangars for 36 Martel fighters and 10 LC-10 landers

·         Airlocks: 4 large cargo and 8 normal airlocks

·         Accommodations: 360 full sized staterooms, most double occupied, all under spin

·         Artificial gravity: extendible spin capsules, 1 G.

·         Software:

o   Archive

o   Auto Repair/ 2

o   Fire Control/ 3

o   Intellect

o   Maneouvre

o   Stutterwarp

o   Battle/ 2

o   Advanced Robotics

o   Electronic Warfare/2

o   Neural Interface

o   Security/3

·         Life Support Consumables: carried in cargo, typically > 1 years stores

·         Cargo: 1,350 dTons