Starfighter Surface Features

On the 2300AD facebook group pictures of Starships for Mongoose Traveller:2300 (MGT 2k3) are being produced. This brings me to the subject of the starship artwork. Specifically where are the guns and sensors?

The problem is most acute with starfighters, because the things physically can't carry the systems. Look at the Mistral:

Figure 1: "French" Mistral class fighter (ignore British roundel)

I need to find 20 m2 for the nav array, 30 m2 for the laser (w/ UTES), 30m 2 for a passive array, 8 m2 for the cockpit and 17 m2 for the slung Ritage-2 missile. Total required hull 105 m2, which is more than the entire hull area, ignoring the need for lift surfaces etc. The designer has taken the whole surface (about 100 m2 from the hull hit value) and covered it with stuff (hence the lack of masking). However, this means the main systems must be either pointing "up" or "down" not forward. Great, the sensor (say) points in one direction and the gun it directs points 180 degrees the other way.....

This is essentially the same for all fighters (bar the Donovan, which has the surface features, but as I not the implied size stops it being a "fighter").

Also compare the Riche and Bufer:

Figure 2: French Riche class fighter

Figure 3: French Bufer class fighter

The Riche is clearly a missile carrier, with a Ritage-2 under one wing. If we assume the 6 port thing is a submunition launcher then she has 2 submunitions launchers and 3 slung Ritage-2's in the picture. By way of comparison this probably makes the three pods carried by the Bufer Big Clip equivalents.

Again, the surface area requirement for these ships is huge. Neither have guns or a TTA (how do then target their launched ordnance?), but still need 63 m2 each, exclusive of slung ordnance. The Bufer's size is known (16m long, 10 m wingspan) and hence we can tell the dish for the passive array is wider than the hull.

Lets look at the two remaining French fighters, both well armoured submunitions carriers rather than missile carriers:

Figure 4: French Bonaparte "System Defence Boat" (fighter).

The placement of the weapons is dealt with by the author. The laser is in a jack turret in the belly (meaning its arcs are "down") and the submunition launcher in the roof in a pop-up mount. The 60 m2 of sensors, 30 m2 of guns, 25 m2 of submunition launcher, 24 m2 of masking and 12 m2 of cockpit = 157 m2, exclusive of lift bodies, etc.

The Martel was the subject of an etranger article, but for completeness:

Figure 5: French Martel class fighter

The extremely heavily armed Martel requires no less than 192 m2 of hull. In this case the weapons are obviously on towers, and I have doubts they have 20-40 cm of advanced composite in their hull (NAM typo'd the armour multiplier of advanced composite from x2 to x1, ships with ad comp hull should generally have their hull armour halved).

At least they're better than the German fighters....

 Figure 6: German Gustav class fighter

 Figure 7: "German" Udet class fighter (ignore French tricolor)

Figure 8: German Wespe class fighter

The Gustav had the problem that it was never designed with a fuel tank. That aside, and the fact that it couldn't power both guns and the drive (4 MW MHD turbine, 4 MW gun turret - before the errata all guns used 1 MW regardless of type), and would essentially never fire up the active array the ships surface features consume 153 m2 of area.

The Udet and Wespe suffer from having no armament on the picture, and the Udet has the same choice of move or shoot the Gustav has (German fighter pilots must have very short lives). The Udet requires 118 m2 (the only difference to the Gustav is the lack of the submunitions launcher) and apparently has a superb sensor array whilst German capital ships are carrying crud (well done German ship designers). The true hero though is the Wespe needing 212 m2 of surface area for the tactical systems.

For completeness, the other known fighters, Wellington and FS-17A:

Figure 9: "English" Wellington class fighter

Now, in typical American style the British are now the English. If you're not Scots or Irish though you probably don't care. She needs 122 m2.

The FS-17A picture is online here, but the airplane nature is obvious. The 182 m2 required for the surface fixtures is rather too much.

All these starfighters are carrying far more equipment on their hull than will actually fit, well it fits but the radar dish pointing inside the ship is rather pointless. Plus the idea (obvious in the Gustav) is that the pilots are visually scanning is absurd.

The problem is the ships simply need bigger hulls for the equipment provided, and to actually carry it (which usually spoils lines, any warship entering the atmosphere is unlikely as all those pesky weapons and forests of sensors are difficult to heatproof). Thus I suggest something like this for a space only fighter:

German "Gustav" class Fighter

Streamlining: None

Original Design Date: 2284

First Example Laid Down: 2284

First Example Completed: 2285

Fleets in Service: Federal Republic of Germany ("Bavaria"), Fourth German Empire, Third French Empire 

 

The Gustav is a typical starfighter designed as a near disposable screening/ strike unit. The original design was drawn up during the Central Asian War when the Federal Republic of Germany committed itself to the United Nations against Manchuria. The requirement was for a short ranged craft (12 hours) carrying a nuclear munitions launcher with significant sensor capability. The result is a rather cramped 9 man vessel carrying 4 shaped nuclear warheads.

 

The crew is divided into 3 sections. In the command section the three starship operators sit. The commander also pilots the ship. A navigator/ computer operator controls secondary systems and navigation radar. Finally each ship carries a single communicator operator, without whom the ships would be deaf and dumb. In the combat section each operator uses a different sensor, the active, passive and targeting arrays respectively. The guns and nukes are fired by the targeting operator. In engineering there is a stardrive operator, MHD turbine operator and general systems operator. With such a small crew their quality degrades by 1 for every 12 hours spent onboard. The ship has fuel for 12 hours at full power, but usually cruises at a fraction of this, and can be on mission for several days.

There are typically another 3 members of the crew involved in general maintenance at base or onboard the carrier, making the crew overhead per fighter 12 men. A flotilla of 4 ships (such as is based on a carrier) consists of 60 officers and men. In addition to the 48 ship crew there are 4 staff who man the communications systems on the mothership, 6 stewards and 2 medics.

 

Performance

Warp efficiency: 3.00

Power Plant: 4 MW MHD

Turbine Fuel: 28.8 tons (12 hours full power)

Range: 7.7 ly

Mass: 225.8 tons (full fuel and armament)

Cargo Capacity: none

Crew: 9 (Pilot, Navigator, Communications, Active Operator, Passive Operator, Gunner, 3x Engineers)

Passengers: none

Comfort: 0

Emergency Power: 48 hours

Total Life Support: Upto a week

Cost: MLv6.405 , without ordnance

Ship Status Sheet

Move: 6

Screens: 0

Radiated Signature: 3(4)

Radial Reflected: 4

Lateral Reflected: 4

Target Computer:0

Radial Profile: -3

Lateral Profile: -2

Armour: 1

Hull hits: 4

Power Plant Hits: 8/2

Active: 7

Passive: 3

Other:

 

Weapons x1dbl lasers in external turret with UTES (1238)

Ordnance Load LHH-637 (4 shots, 4x2 Warhead, launch all in single turn)

Sensors and Electronics Phased Active-7Spherical Passive-3Navigation Radar

Bridge Hits: Pilot, Navigator, Communcator 

TAC Hits: Active Operator, Passive Operator, Gunner

Damage Control: 0

For an interface fighter things are trickier. You need a much bigger hull so you have lifting bodies in addition to the tac systems. The fuel tanks will be ridiculously empty on getting to orbit.

Old vehicles: M1A2 tank

In 2300AD terms this is the M1A2 MBT:


M1A2 Tank

Type: Tracked Battle Tank
Nation: America (pre-twilight war)
Crew: 4
Weight: 69.54 tons
Displacement Weight (like 2300 vehicles): 6.5 dTons
Armour: Front: 60 (90 on turret front), Rear: 24, Sides: 36, Top: 6, Bottom: 18
Armament: 120mm M256 crew served tube cannon; Aimed Fire Range: 1900m, Range Finder: +1(?), ROF: 1; Rounds Carried: 40, DPV: 37 (with APFSDSDU, doubled at close range) or EP = 15 tamped explosion (HEAT)
12.7mm machinegun; Aimed Fire Range: 1000m, Area Fire Range: 500m, Rounds carried: 900, DPV: 2.
2x 7.62mm Machineguns; Aimed Fire Range: 400m, Rounds carried: 12,000; DPV: 1
Signature: 7
Evasion: 0
Sensor Range: 3km
Cargo: none
Max Speed: 67kph
Cruise Speed: 48kph
Combat Move: 100 meters per round
Off-Road Mobilty: full
Power Plant: 1.125MW Gas turbine
Fuel Capacity: 1,460kg
Fuel Comsumption: 311kg per hour
Endurance: 4.7 hours
Cruise Range: 265 miles = 427km (Slight error shows on
my fuel consumption here)
Price: 4.3 million 1998 USD, approximately 1 million livre each for the IPM1, M1A2, due to the extra armour and electronics (the M1A2 has 9.5 tons of mostly extra armour worked in). Estimate the cost of a M1A2 is 1.3 Million Livre.

Donovan - what the hell?

Colin Dunn recently asked a question about the Donovan class fighter in SotFA. This deserves a special prize for being possibly the most non-NAM design in any official book.

2300AD starships were written from the illustration. The author got the artwork and made a starship to fit. Liberties were often taken. For example, where the hell are the weapons, target array and sensors on the Wespe? If anything that ship looks like an assault lander, not a starfighter. Same for the Udet (which, oddly for a German starfighter has a French tricolor and has the unfortunate design feature of choosing whether to power the weapons or the engines). This is the picture in SotFA:

Now, we have two sets of surface features we can size the design on. (1) The turrets are 6m in diameter (as all turrets are) and (2) the missile banks are 6m x 4m (Ritage-1 bays are 1x2m each). The overall size of the sphere can be calculated at 24m. Internal volume is ~ 7,238 m3 or in traveller terms 517 dtons (round to 500 dtons). This clearly is not a drawing of a starfighter, but it is in fact a much larger vessel.

What else can we tell about the vessel? In order:

1. It has 4 turrets, each apparently a double turret.
2. It has UTES (no visible TTAs).
3. It does appear to have 24 missiles in something like a space VLS.
4. I would suggest this is the aft of the ship and the major sensor clusters are in the two remaining forward "sections.

The technology level of the ship is way above the level the design date implies. In 2213 the 1st Rio Plata War has just finished and whilst missiles have been introduced they're frankly useless. The Brazilian AAS-2 and the Argentine EM-1 are examples of this early generation of missiles and both are true "unmanned fighters" with a power plant supplying a single laser. The earliest nuke mentioned (with a small 2x2 warhead) is the AAS-4 of the 2230's. The drive is OM. The engine is apparently a NM MHD. The sensors are current generation, making this a 2270's era ship at the earliest.

On another note, the tactical systems (and navigation sensor) take up ~368 m2, with pylons and other bits you physically can't fit the fit onto a hull less than ~ 12 m in diameter (about 65 dtons), which seems to be about the size of the design in SotFA. The profile seems to have had the RCS multiplier used on it, and the surface fixtures.

We're now faced with a series of options when redoing the Donovan, and the most serious is does the picture or the write-up have priority? I'm going to assume the write-up does and write this up as a fighter, because it's the more interesting option.

The next question is what about the 24 missiles? These are such a core feature of the design that I think we have to keep them. However the two man crew is silly, as they can't operate the vast numbers of weapons systems incorporated into the ship. Since the original had cargo space (!) the crew will expand to keep up with the guns etc. As part of this more missile directors will be installed.




Stats
British Donovan Class "Fighter"


The Donovan-class fighter was originally built to police the inner portion of the solar system. Fighters of this type were maintained at stations orbiting Earth and other inner planets; they have no planetary takeoff or landing capabilities. From these orbiting stations, Donovan-class fighters could be scrambled quickly to deal with acts of piracy or smuggling, and they packed enough of a punch to be of use in wartime as well. As the years passed and new types of fighter were built, many of the Donovan-class ships were scrapped. A good number were shipped to British colonies along the French Arm, however, where they served in security forces.

A few unusual features about this fighter are worth noting. First, each carries 24 missiles, in two groups of 12. Rather than provide each group of missiles with one exit port—the standard configuration for missile-carrying fighters—each missile on a Donovan-class fighter has its own, separate bay. This means that any number of the missiles, from one to 24, may be fired at once. Historically, when fighting in the company of larger ships, Donovan-class fighters would rush in close to an enemy, fire off their entire load of missiles, and retreat behind their larger allies.

A second unusual feature is the manoeuvring thrusters on the ends of extensible arms. With the increased leverage provided by the length of these arms, Donovan-class fighters are able to make very precise manoeuvres while travelling at very high speeds. For quicker, less accurate, manoeuvres, thrusters are also built into the main hull.

Another unusual feature is the 14 man crew. Most starfighters have 2 or 3 men, but each man can only do one task at any one time, so in a 2-place fighter like a Martel one officer pilots the ship and the other can either attempt a sensor lock with one of the two installed sensors, or maintain a weapons lock on one target. The decision with the Donovan to have a full crew means no compromise is necessary. In fact the crew of a Donovan can even abandon their combat stations for damage control if necessary (typically 2 teams are available with the usual tactical usage).

Currently the remaining Donovan's are deployed to several British orbital forts and as carrier based heavy strike fighters. Using nuclear conversions of the French Ritage-1 (called Chevaline, with a 7x2 warhead and no sensors - the French equivalent uses a smaller warhead but retained the sensors) they are an exceptionally potent strike arm. British planners major worry is that these ships carry so much heavy ordnance that the loss of one with before weapons launch (and typically all weapons are launched simultaneously with four controlled by the crew, other by other Donovans and the main fleet) is a major loss of combat power. The future of this type of ship in RSN service is either replacement with a better protected vessel for deep penetration into the enemies rear area (the Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance programme - TSR) or complete retirement.

Streamlining: None
Original Design Date: 5th June, 2273
First Example Laid Down: 6th August, 2275
First Example Completed: 29th February, 2276 (a leap year)
Fleets in Service: Britain
Number in Service: Unknown


Performance 
Warp efficiency: 3.26 full engines with missiles, 2.43 all tactical systems powered up with missiles, 3.76 full engines after launching all missiles
Power Plant: 10 MW MHD Turbine Fuel: 14 tons (15 hours)
Range: N/A Mass: 575 tons fuelled, exclusive of 265.68 tons of ordnance commonly carried
Cargo Capacity: none Crew: 14 (Pilot, Commander/Navigator, Communicator,Computer, Active Operator, Passive Operator, 4 Fire Control and 4 Remote Pilots); Passengers: none
Comfort: 0
Emergency Power: -
Total Life Support: N/A
Cost: MLv19.9 without ordnance (4 TCs etc.)


Ship Status Sheet
Move: 5-8
Screens: 0
Radiated Signature: 3
Radial Reflected: 4
Lateral Reflected: 4
Target Computer: +1
Radial Profile: -1
Lateral Profile: -1
Armour: 4
Hull hits: 24/12/6 (standard rules)
Power Plant Hits: 20/4
Active: 10
Passive: 10
Other: Agility 7

Weapons
4x1+1 lasers in masked turrets with UTES (1238, 1278, 4567, 3456)

Ordnance Load
24 Ritage-1 type missiles (launch all in single turn)

Sensors and Electronics
Active-10, Passive-10, Navigation Radar
Crew Hits: Pilot, Commander/Navigator, Communicator,Computer, Active Operator, Passive Operator, 4 Fire Control and 4 Remote Pilots
Damage Control: See below

Colonial Populations (1): Introduction and Neubayern

I have issues with the Colonial Atlas, or rather with a few of the articles in it. Specifically two writeups don't follow what is written elsewhere and make little sense, whilst another two don't fit descriptions but are less problematic. In fact there is also a systematic problem which I'll address, and I'll address that first.




1. No-one dies.




GDW wrote some fairly sensible rules about population growth. The population of a colony naturally inflates at 4% per year for the first 50 years and then 2% per year thereafter. This is reasonable as it starts to assume people start dying of old age (in fact I'd argue that after 100 years this should drop to 1%). However the tables supplied don't follow this rule for light and heavy efforts. The population keeps expanding an no-one dies.




Kevin Clark noticed this a long time back. Kudos to him.




The compound interest effect of this is huge, and is the root cause of our next problem child:




2. Neubayern




85 million people? Frankly I'm gobsmacked and call "bullshit" on that one, especially in light of the nature of the planet (a tidelocked hellworld with a small livable peninsula). It's worth noting that Neubayern in both the DG and CA is mentioned to be a sparsely settled agricultural world supporting some (largely defunct) insystem mining with food. The primary export is textiles from a local wool.




I can see how this figure was reached. The author of the article (Loren K. Wiseman) set up Neubayern as a "heavy effort" colony and kept inflation at 4%, even past 100 years, the end of the table. If we correct the "4%" error the population of Neubayern the population drops to ~ 18 m.




In fact I'd go further. Several times with population the simple mistake of putting adding a zero was made by GDW (Manchuria especially, whose 2.7 billion implies the population has grown 22 times. Nice, but all the fertile livable land is actually in the 2300 nation of Canton). This would make Neubayern a respectable colony of a little over 8 m people. This is a reasonable fix. In fact I posted my notes on the colony to 2300noncanon ten years ago:




Niebelungen: Bavaria’s First National Colony

Niebelungen was the first colony established independently by Bavaria in 2169, only 2 years after
the establishment of their portion of the ESA claim on Tirane. Bavaria took great pride in this world, found
by the AR-I in 2142, it has parts as almost as habitable as Terra. Even better, tantalum was found on
one of the other worlds in the system, and Bavaria made vast sums of money by charging the various
nations and corporations who came to mine the precious metal for services. Today, Niebelungen is a colony of the new Germany, but fiercely independent, pledging alligence but brooking no interference from Berlin.

The world of Niebelungen

Niebelungen is the first world of the Neubayern system, and is tidally locked to Neubayern. His
presents many problems for human colonisation. Physically, Nibelungen is just under 8,000km in
diameter, with a density roughly equal to Earth. The atmosphere is quite thin, roughly 60% of that of
Earth, and the partial pressure of oxygen is only 0.09 atm, making it only bearly breathable for people who haven’t adapted. Non-natives need respirators.

The geography of the planet is strange, consisting of 6 distinct regions: Hotside, Coldside, Westmeer,
Eastmeer and the 2 Icecaps. The two Oceans occupy most of the habitable belt of the planet, where liquid
water can exist freely, while the separated from each other by the icecaps. The hotside is a vast desert,
with an indentation at the equator where the Ostmeer extends into the region. The coldside is covered by a vast icesheet, and rarely reaches temperatures above –40 centigrade. The environment is similar to
Antarctica on Earth.

The colony

The Twilight Zone is where most of the colonists live. There are two separate livable areas, the Ostmeer and Westmeer, and most Terran life lives on the islands in these two seas or on the shores of it. The colony is situated in the Ostmeer area, the Westmeer is essentially uninhabited.

The Ostmeer is a roughly rectangular sea around 1,000 km across and about 6,000 km from North to South, almost cut in half by the Grosshalbsiel, a huge peninsula jutting out of the Hotside creating by far
the largest living area on the planet, where the main colony site is located. The colony is situated in a
vast grassland used to grow Wollgrasse, Niebelungen Cotton which is the colonies main export, growing on the Eastern and Northern shores, while much of the Southern shores and interior are used for grain and cattle.

Minerals, unfortunately, only exist in quantity on the coldside, where Vulcanism forced them to the surface, only to be buried under a kilometre of ice. This has stopped much of the industrial progress made by the colony, which has never had much of a manufacturing base (which has built mainly on Tirane and Hochbaden) beyond textile processing and tantalum extraction on Wiesbaden, a failed core. It is a rich world though.

Local military presence

Niebelungen currently has no major naval bases, and no DSKM squadron is stationed there (Invasion), the
colonists have a very active militia though.

The people

The inhabitants of Niebelungen look quite strange compared to the terrestrial norm. Their average height
is 7 feet and their chests are enormous, a consequence of the low partial presence of oxygen which requires a much larger lung capacity. Their skins are also quite dark, giving them a Mediterranean look.

Currently, of the 8,500,000 population, 11% are white South African Afrikaners.

Old Posts (4): Sachsen

A classic design in SC but one utterly breaking the rules as established. When I took it apart and remade it it was a lot more game balanced.

Oh, and some of the comments about the invasion of Bavaria. I always took canon as clear that the War of German Reunification was a German annexation of Bavaria, which fought back with French assistance. The Germans "mobilised to bring Bavaria into the Union" or somesuch (roughly from memory) means mobilising tanks, not a whist drive.

--- Original Post at

German Sachsen class Point Defence Frigate

The Sachsen was conceived as a fleet defence vessel in the emergency period when German (Hannoverean) special forces were engaged with French forces on Joi, and it was possible that not all the German states would agree to union (as indeed happened, prompting a military invasion of Bavaria).

The ship was designed to be built at Hannovers civilian specification shipyard at Sol, it was based
on salvaged 3MW stutterwarp drives from bulk merchants, and 25MW fission plants salvaged from
longhaulers. These were placed in a hull based on Krupps 1157 class shorthaul insystemer merchant ship,
but constructed of advanced composite materials (the vessels most advanced feature), and armoured to an extremely high level for a vessel of this size.

For the fleet defence mission, it was necessary to install a large array of smaller weapons. No less than
20 lasers are carried, arranged in 10 turrets, all equipped with UTES (which was standard for all smaller
Hannoverean ships, as it allowed twice the number of weapons emplacements to be carried, despite the extra expense, and problems directing missiles). For engagement at longer ranges an external missile pack was installed. During the war itself a wide variety of packs were carried, including the SR-9. Glowworm, Ritage-1, Silka and whatever else the desperate newly formed DSKM could get their hands on. After the war enough captured Bavarian missiles were available for conversion to SR series weapons.

The Sachsen is not designed for long term deployments. The lack of spin habitatation (attempts to spin the
hull were only partially successful, as the radius is just too small) is a major problem, and one shared
with the US Hampton class corvette. Sachsens were generally only boarded by their crews when it was
necessary to fight. In fleet deployments, crews would  often cycle through larger supply ships, which did
have spin.

While the DSKM is developing a general purpose frigate to supplement and eventually replace it (one, DSS
Komet was building in 2301), this mission generally fell to the remaining Aconit class frigates in the
DSKM inventory. Sachsens were held at Earth, while 6 were moved up arm to the Kafer frontier. The remaining frigates on the French arm were Aconits (armed with SR-9).

Ship specifications

Warp efficiency: 1.53, unloaded but fully armed
Power Plant: 25 MW fission
Fuel: none
Range: 7.7 light years
Mass: 2,563 tons (unloaded)
Cargo Capacity: 1,128 cubic meters
Crew: 60 (22 Bridge, 15 TAC, 22 Engineering, 1 Science, 2 Medical)
Passengers: none
Comfort: -2
Total Life Support: 60 for 90 days
Cost: MLv42.43 (without ordnance)


Ship Status Sheet
Move: 3
Screens: 0
Radiated Signature: 5
Radial Reflected: 5
Lateral Reflected: 6
Target Computers: +1
Radial Profile: -1
Lateral Profile: 0
Armour: 4
Hull hits: 42/21/11
Power Plant Hits: 32/7
Active: 7
Passive: 3
Other:


Weapons
12 x1+1dbl lasers in external turrets with UTES (2x 1234, 2x 1678, 1238, 3x 4567)


Ordnance Load
12 SR-9 missiles in an external missile pack, 3 communicators


Sensors and Electronics
Spherical Active-7
Spherical Passive-3
Navigation Radar
DSS
Gravitational


Crew Hits
Bridge: Captain, Navigator, Helm, 2 Communications, 4 Computer
TAC: 10 Fire Control, 3 Remote Pilots, Active Operator, Passive Operator

Damage Control: 11

Notes: This is as close a fit to the book Sachsen as I can get. I got nearly everything bang on, excepting
signatures (all of which have been increased by 1 in the book, apparently), the x2's are x1's (otherwise
the required power plant is massier than the ship) and most importantly, the comfort rating.

The Sachsen appears to fall into the trap of being a travelleresque artifical gravity design. I did get one
with the 0 comfort, but it was much heavier. This is a much better fit.

Oh, and I dropped the 1 point of screens.

Old Posts (3): Hamburg

I could never get the Hamburg quite right in NAM. I assumed with the general crapness of the ship that they basically threw something together as they were at war with France and needed ships *now*.

The submunitions dispenser of course has utterly changed SC design, at least where there is more to use it. The other thing which we never really used but was within the rules was ammunition consuming laser weapons. The Ritage-1 etc. pack five x1 shots into a fairly small package. Roughly per shot a fusion powered ship can have ~ 300 laser shots (turns of laser fire) for the same reactor mass as the 1MW needed to power it. Ergo in reality realistic ship design would have culled the powerplant powered energy weapons idea long ago.

--- Original Post at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/etranger/message/8837 ---

German Hamburg class Light Missile Cruiser (War Emergency Build)

The Hannovereans built 2 Hamburg class vessels as an emergency war measure, managing to construct them in less than 2 years by using the major engineering of 2 battle damaged CESA II class Destroyers

The Hamburgs are slow, but have reasonable protection and are fairly heavily armed. Their 12 particle beams can seriously maul any large vessel in a close range broadsides engagement, but are very inaccurate and have problems defending him* against missile strikes or smaller fighter craft. For this reason Hamburg usually travels with a Sachsen class ship to defend it.

The offensive armament is based around 24 SR-10 missiles, delivered in salvoes of six, a sufficient
number that some will penetrate the defences of a lone cruiser. German ships tend to operate in battlegroups, stacking up their defences and their offensive missile fire to provide mutual support. This has worked very well against the French, who often acted with a great deal of elan and allowed their forces to become separated. The French have learnt from this experience, and made a much better showing during the 2nd invasion.

Both Hamburgs were commited to a strike against French forces at Tirane (Alpha Centauri), in the company of a frigate.Their attack was repulsed with the loss of the Koln, an action which ensured Gartens security, and their transition to the free state of Freihaven.

The remaining vessel, Hamburg, was part of Kampfgruppe Bismarck in 2297, and served well at the Glorious 1st of July. Repaired, he remained on station on the frontier for 4 years until the 2nd invasion. Caught behind Kafer lines, Hamburg became part of Borodins Aurore Fleet, where his heavy particle beam armament was especially useful in broadside actions against Kafer Alpha and Beta class Cruisers.

Hamburg returned to Earth for refit. The drives are being upgraded to warp 2.4, giving superior battle
speed, six TTA's are being replaced with LHH-637 submunitions launchers, the screens upgraded to level
4 and the sensors upgraded to active-16, passive-10.

Ship specifications

Warp efficiency: 2.21, unloaded but fully armed
Power Plant: 50 MW fission
Fuel: none
Range: 7.7 light years
Mass: 7,602 tons (unloaded)
Cargo Capacity: 1,300 cubic meters
Crew: 80 (20 Bridge, 20 TAC, 37 Engineering, 3
Medical)
Passengers: none
Comfort: 0
Total Life Support: 80 for 180 days
Cost: MLv96.934 (without ordnance)

Ship Status Sheet
Move: 4
Screens: 2
Radiated Signature: 6
Radial Reflected: 7
Lateral Reflected: 9
Target Computers: +2
Radial Profile: 0
Lateral Profile: +1
Armour: 3
Hull hits: 61/31/16
Power Plant Hits: 60/12
Active: 13
Passive: 6
Other:


Weapons
12 x3-2 PBWS in masked turrets (2x 1278, 1x 1238, 3x 4567, 2x 3456, 2x 1234, 2x 5678)


Ordnance Load
24 SR-10 missiles in 2 external missile packs, 6 communicators


Sensors and Electronics
Spherical Active-13
Spherical Passive-6
Navigation Radar
DSS
Gravitational
12 Fire Control Radars (TTAs)


Crew Hits
Bridge: Captain, Navigator, Helm, Engineer, 2
Communications, 3 Computer
TAC: 12 Fire Control, 6 Remote Pilots, Active
Operator, Passive Operator

Damage Control: 17

Notes: This is as close a fit to the book Hamburg, except there is no way of getting the mass up to
12,223 tons, unless this is the mass loaded with metal ores. As it is, the Hamburg ends up as a light cruiser
in the Kennedys weight class. The small power plant and drive is the same as the CESAD II uses, hence the
backstory.

* While Britain, France, America etc. have female ships, German and Russian ships are male.

Old Posts (2): Updated Adm Brown

I was fairly interested in making interesting low end warships ca. 10 years back. All these horribly beweaponed behemoths probably never featured much in anyones games. If Suffren or Bismarck turns up your players aren't outfighting it. The low end seemed to offer more interesting possibilities. I was also playing with Attack Vector at the time, and it shows. Must get back to AV....

--- Original Post at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/etranger/message/7960 ---

Admiral Brown V class “fighter”*

The Adm Brown class has been through numerous changes. Indeed its century of service see the Browns being essentially a completely different ship, certainly the current Mk V is so radically different that refitting older ships to it is impossible to refit them to the current standard. Despite this, some older models do continue in Argentine service due to lack of resources to replace them.

The Adm Brown is typical of Argentina’s model of a spaceforce, which draws heavily upon submarine service and airforce traditions. This medium sized vessel is fairly fast, and carries heavy hull weapons, and a large missile complement (sing the extremely small drive EM-5 series missiles which use minimal amounts of tantalum). As usual for Argentina, the weapons systems stress a small number of high damage pulses, and indeed, in combat Brazilian starships often find their armour offers them no effective protection.

Indeed, the main Brazilian response to Argentine tactics of massing fair large “wolf packs” of smaller
but deadly vessels has been to disperse their combat power even more. Starfighters have become more
important in the Brazilian orbat.

Argentina is excellent at concealing ship numbers and locations. Given their strategic disadvantages, they
have acquitted themselves extremely well.

Statistics

Warp Efficiency: 3.17 (unloaded sprint speed), combat speed is still move =6
Mass: 1,950 tons
Life Support: 40 personnel, Comfort: 0,
Price: ~MLv47 for a new build of the current model

Ship Status Sheet
Movement: 6 Radial Reflected: 5 Radial Profile: -2
Screens: 0 Lateral Reflected: 6 Lateral Profile: 0
Radiated signature: 2(5) Targeting Computers: +2
Armour: 4

Hits
Bridge: Captain, Helm, Navigator, 2 x Communications, 2x Computer.
TAC: Active Sensors, Passive Sensors, 2 x Fire
Control, 2 x Remote Operators
Hull Hits: 24/12/6
Power Plant Hits: 20/4
Damage Control: 7 (3 teams)

Armament

2 x1+1 towers (12345, 15678)
1 x4-2 PBWS (nose mount, 1)
2 submunitions launchers (4 shots, 2x5 warhead)
2 EM-5 series missile packs with 8 missiles and 2
datalinks (current EM-5F is move 7, 2x5 warhead)

* current Argentine nomenclature for combat starships
labels these 5000 m3 offensive warships as
“fighters”**

** Shameless ripoff of a good AVT idea.