Armada
Design Guide
by dkass
I've been experimenting with the formation of TF (and
fleets) as I play the game. Below is a set of ideas I've developped
on forming effective Armadas. I won't discuss smaller formations
because they're usually limited by the available ships and
not tactical or strategic considerations.
This is not intended to be in any way definitive. It
is merely what I've found to be the most effective. I'm also
very interested in reading what others have found to be effective
formations. Perhaps this is best described as the starting
point for a discussion.
Any TF has to balance several different (and contradictory)
goals. It needs to contribute so that its fleet wins battles.
It needs to generally remain combat effective through multiple
battles (since disbanding and re-constituting TFs takes time).
The TF needs to be as inexpensive as possible to build so
that resources can be devoted to other projects (including
other TF). The empire needs to be able to field as many fleets
as possible (to attack multiple targets/empires simulatneously).
A TF also needs to be built as fast as possible so that at
least one is always available for emergencies without wasting
resources sitting in the reserve.
Before discussing TF composition, I need to briefly describe
the ships I use. This isn't intended to be a primer on ship
design, but enough so that the TF descriptions make sense.
Ship Design Basics
Ship Size:
I use four sizes of ships. I call them capital ships--the
largest ship I can build (but never smaller than battlecruisers
since its rarely possible to form good armadas before that
point); heavy ships--two size classes smaller than the current
capital ships; medium ships--again two size classes smaller
than the current heavy ships; and finally light ships. The
latter start out two size classes smaller than medium ships
(or six classes smaller than captital ships), but never become
larger than frigate sized (to always allow any planet to build
them). To put it all together, if my current largest hull
is a superdreadnought, capital ships will be superdreadnought
sized, heavy ships will be battleships, medium ships will
be crusiers and light ships will be frigate sized.
Note that while it may be difficult to get the empire to
build capital ships, I only need a few of them, so its easy
to do with only two or three planets.
While a ship of a given size is roughly equivalent to two
that are two sizes smaller, there are some important differences
(and thus my spread of sizes). The larger ship will be cheaper
to build (this varies somewhat by ship size), it will also
generally contain more weapons than the two smaller ships
combined. On the other hand, the smaller ships can usually
be built faster (since more planets can effectively build
them, even if they each cost slightly more than half the larger
one). Also, the two ships can generally take more damage than
the single large ship (due to all ships having the same amount
of armor for a given size/type, regardless of ship size).
Thus they will be harder to completely destroy, but are vulnerable
to partial kills. Finally, two ships have the ability to operate
independently and fight in two different systems at once...
Ship Roles:
I class my ships based on their role within the TF, thus
I have three ship types; one for each role: mission, escort,
and picket.
Most of my ships are "pure" ships, each equipped
for only one type of operation. Thus my beam ships never have
fighters. I find that it is better to mix at the TF level
if it is necessary by using a variety of ship types. This
ensures that it is always possible to for a "pure"
TF when desired. Also, I find that many mixtures perform poorly
since fighters and especially missiles rely on overwhelming
an enemy's point defenses and a scattering from a few on beam
ships is rarely sufficient. There are a few exceptions. I'll
fill spare space with a beam weapon (usually a light hard
beam). I also often use the single PD nuke rack fix for PD
ships (especially "fast" ones).
Mission Class Ships
I use both capital and heavy ships on each of the four combat
missions (long range [LR], short range [SR], indirect [IF]
and carrier [CV]). I have not found smaller ships to be useful
in the mission roles. For me, the difference between LR and
SR ships is in the choice of the weapon (ie the phasor is
for LR ships and the Hellfire cannon for SR ships). I tend
to use standard and heavy mounts on both with the occasional
spinal mount on LR ships (primarily to compensate for not
having a good LR weapon). I do sometimes mount a PD nuke rack
on my SR ships to improve their defensive fire, allowing them
to enhance the overall TF defenses.
While I reduce the system speed on both IF and CV ships,
I keep it in the range of 1000 to 1500 (and generally aim
for 1/2 of my enemy's best speed). While some advocate reducing
it to 1, I find that some maneuverability is very useful.
It allows the TF to move to protect transport TF (and/or other
"stand off" TF). It also allows IF TF (and CV ones
to a lesser extent) to close with targets to finish them off
(with point defense weapons, if nothing else) when they're
out of missiles (its incredibly annoying to not quite kill
the last orbital...). And finally, it often allows them to
engage when they intercept something.
I find that the number and type of missile on IF mission
ships heavily depends on the enemy. The larger missiles tend
to be less expensive and more damage/space, but they have
slower firing rates. I find the latter to generally be irrelevant
(except, perhaps, for torpedoes) since an IF force is intentionally
trying to avoid beam combat. This leads to using as few large
missiles as possible to ensure the enemy's PD is saturated
(and I never use PD missiles in this role).
The key for CV mission ships is the number of fighters. The
weapon is less important--at least after finding something
better than the starting laser and mass driver. With the current
patch, there is little reason to use SCFs. For capital CV
ships I want at least 20 fighters and preferably 40 to 50
(70 is about the point I consider it overkill and start adding
missiles or beam weapons instead). Heavy CV mission ships
need at least 10 fighters and ideally have about 20 each (with
25 reachng towards overkill). Once the heavy CV reaches battleship
size, I no longer bother to increase its size (at least not
until I have plasma or disruptor fighters).
Escort Ships
I currently build my escort class ships with the Point Defense
mission, using beam weapons. This was based on an early study
that showed they performed better than SR or LR ships in the
escort ring. I have recently begun to suspect that my original
study was misleading due to the PD bug and it may be more
useful to build them with the SR mission. They function equally
well defensively and are easier to use in independent TF (since
SR is a TF type but PD is not). On the other hand, this would
make putting them in TF require a 2-step process...
Fighters are currently completely useless in a PD role (although
they show the potential to be extremely effective). So far,
I have not managed to make missile based PD work, but there
are hints that it is possible and effective.
I use four escort ship designs. Two are my "fast"
escorts and they have my best system speed and are for DF
TF (direct fire TF; either SR or LR). The other two designs
are my stand-off (or "slow") escorts and have system
speeds that match those of my current stand-off mission ships.
This allows them to carry more weapons. In both cases, I create
light and medium sized escort ships. On rare occasions I will
also create heavy sized escorts (only when at a tech disadvantage
facing a race that has gone fighter or missile happy).
Picket Ships
I generally go with one picket ship. Its a light ship with
the recon mission and stuffed with ECCM and detection systems
(I tend to use both, lacking a good understanding of how ECM/ECCM
function). I generally don't bother with any weapons (and
there really isn't space in frigate sized ships). If an opponent
is using heavily stealthed TF, I sometimes build a medium
sized picket with additional detection gear. If facing a strong
"stand off" opponent I do sometimes build a medium
sized picket that uses half the space for PD weapons, but
I've found that it is often better instead to build heavy
escorts. The problem with larger pickets is that, by their
nature, picket ships are exposed. They often die, regardless
of size, to otherwise weak attacks.
My picket ships all have the same system speed as my DF TF.
While it would be possible to design slow picket ships, I
don't find it to be worthwhile. Stand-off TF don't need pickets
as much and having only one model makes TF formation easier
by reducing the number of ship types that need to be balanced.
I generally don't bother with ECM or cloaking, but this is
more due to personal preference than any evidence that more
weapons are more effective (I have toyed with the idea of
stealthed stand off ships in the late game when they have
spare space).
Armada Designs
I should note that I've made extensive use of
CV and LR TF. I've made some use of SR TF, but only limited
use of IF TF (I find the latter to currently be overwhelming
against CP and bordering on cheating).
Due to the fact that the actual size (and thus effectiveness)
of the individual ships increases over the course of the game
(see the section on ship sizes), the actual composition of
my Armadas tends to remain fairly constant over the course
of a game.
Long Range TF
I use LR TF as a my general purpose TF. They're generally
sufficiently flexible to engage any type of target. Their
mobility and long range helps to keep them out of too much
trouble while also allowing them to engage continuously. I
organize them as follows:
Core: 4 LR capital ships and 2 heavy LR ships
Escorts: 4 fast medium escorts and 4 fast light escorts
Pickets: 4 picket ships
This force has sufficient firepower to effectively engage
any enemy force at range while at the same time retaining
signficant defensive firepower and good detection capabilities.
It operates by closing to a moderate range and firing until
the target is destroyed, staying far enough away to allow
the escorts time to engage missiles and fighters at the same
time. It rarely scores a single decisive killing blow, but
will rapidly wear down all but the most massive enemy forces.
I often do not have LR TF engage immediately to allow them
to rapidly react to undetected enemy TF with their long range.
This also gives them extremely broad defensive fire zones
since they'll engage PD target with their heavy weapons.
I operate LR TF offensively as long as they meet the following
composition restrictions. Obviously even when below these
limits, I'll still use them defensively until they're relieved.
Core: At least the equivalent of 4 capital ships (I
count two heavy ships as one capital equivalent). This insures
the TF has enough of a punch to be effective
Escort: At least six escorts. This guarantees a good
overlapping coverage regardless of the engagement direction.
I'll sometimes operate with five escorts if all four medium
ones are still there. If the enemy is really into missiles
or fighers, I'll often disband a TF that has lost even two
escorts.
Pickets: At three picket ships. This places them at
120 degree intervals, the minimum to insure full visibility
and coverage around the TF. Basically with three of them,
a picket will usually be the closest ship to any enemy TF.
In some cases (multiple TF in the fleet), I'll sometimes operate
with only two pickets. Note that the four pickets in the basic
TF are to make sure the fleet has a spare since my pickets
often seem to die even against overmatched enemies (due to
their exposed position and small size).
Variations: I sometimes use 3 captial and 3 heavy
core ships to make the TF cheaper, but this tends to make
them fragile. Depending on the number of fighters and missiles
I'm facing, I'll increase or decrease the number of medium
escorts in the force. I'll also sometimes replace an escort
(either size) with a third heavy LR ship, mostly when I'm
short on escorts in the reserve. I'll also sometimes replace
a picket with a ninth escort.
Short Range TF
SR TF rely on closing to point blank ranges and then vaporizing
the enemy rapidly. They tend to kill faster than LR TF since
it usually only takes one or two shots (ignoring any long
range harassment fire) to finish off an opposing TF. On the
other hand, they have to get much closer to be effective,
often forcing them to endure enemy fire without any effective
response before the kill. They perform best against fixed
targets that allow them to close rapidly.
Core: 6 SR capital ships and 3 heavy SR ships
Escorts: 3 fast medium escorts and 2 fast light escorts
Pickets: 4 picket ships
This TF is light on escorts, but its core ships are effective
defensively to cover the weakness (thus my tendency to mount
a PD nuke on SR captial ships). This works since the TF really
only needs one offensive shot per target TF, freeing the weapons
for defensive duty most of the time.
Apart from the spare picket and maybe one other ship, I find
that SR TF do not function well if understrength. The need
to close under enemy guns oftne results in significant losses,
and if they're not at full strength intially, too little will
reach firing range and the entire TF is often lost while leaving
weak (but intact) enemy formations. The fact that SR TF regularly
suffer casualties while closing (especially against beam forces)
often means that SR TF are really only good for one major
battle.
If I know I'm sending a SR TF into a major battle where I
expect it to take losses, I'll exchange one picket for another
escort or even a fourth heavy SR ship. Since its only going
to be good for one battle, a spare picket is irrelevant (three
is adequate for one battle, even taking casualties into account).
While this SR TF performs as well as the LR TF above in battle
(if not better against heavily armed targets), I generally
find them to be less effective since they're significantly
more expensive (they're equivalent to 9 capital ships, compared
to 7 for the LR TF) as well as being significantly more fragile.
The SR TF also often has problems engaging faster enemy LR
TF.
Indirect Fire TF
I have relatively little experience with IF TF (primarly
because I find them so powerful as to remove all challenge
from the game). Thus this is my best guess as to an effective
IF TF, based on my experience with CV TF.
Core: 3 IF capital ships and 3 heavy IF ships
Escorts: 4 slow medium escorts and 5 slow light escorts
Pickets: 3 picket ships
The number of capital ships can be increased (or decreased)
to insure that missile volleys will saturate the target and
penetrate and PD fire. Small increases can be accomodated
by replacing heavy core ships, but two more capital ships
could be added at the cost of a light escort and/or the third
picket.
The TF can continue to function as long it has a large enough
missile throw weight to penetrate enemy PD. Based on my limited
experience, this is probably the equivalent of three capital
ships. By witholding its initial salvo, the TF can probably
still protect itself even with only 2 escorts (though I'd
be reluctant to operate with fewer than five without PD support
from other TF).
One major disadvantage of IF TF is that it can engage at
most as many target TF as it has missile volleys. And if volleys
are fired at the wrong target (eg the planet when first sighted)
the missiles can be forced to run a gauntlet of defensive
fire, seriously degrading the volley. Of course, with the
current build and the PD bug the missiles can crush any opponent,
regardless of their defenses.
Carrier TF
I use CV TF as my standard stand-off TF. They basically launch
their fighters and the wait for the fighters to kill all the
enemy forces. They usually wait as far from the enemy as possible
to avoid all retaliation (but since this is rarely possible
they pack enough PD to degrade enemy attacks). With the fact
that bays refill for free, in the largest battles they can
launch a second wave to overwhelm the remaining weakened defenders.
A single well constructed CV TF can take on incredibly large
enemy formations, often without casualties.
Core: 2 CV capital ships and 4 heavy CV ships
Escorts: 5 slow medium escorts and 4 slow light escorts
Pickets: 3 picket ships
It requires the enemy to have an overwhelming defensive fire
capability to hope to degrade the fighter swarm enough to
stop the attack this TF launches. This makes CV TF very effective
in the stand-off role, especially when on the offensive since
the TF can launch at the planet as soon as the battle starts,
without really worrying about enemy defenses. Furthermore,
once the fighters have finished off the planet, they'll keep
on engaging other targets. This avoids the entire problem
of having more enemy TF than missile shots.
Variations The key to the CV TF is the number of fighters.
The TF needs at least 75 fighters to be effective (thus the
minimum numbers on the capital and heavy CV). I find anything
less than about 100 to be weak--less often turns into a race
between the fighters and their target to see who will survive.
If I have the ships, I'll often replace one or maybe even
two heavy CV with capital CV (increasing the force to 90 or
100 fighters). Ideally, the TF wants 150 to 200 fighters to
insure targets die rapidly before they have a chance to seriously
hurt the CV TF. Somewhere around 250 fighters, the effectiveness
of the swarm saturates. Even the toughest target can't kill
enough to make a difference and the only thing that slows
them down is the time to move from target to target. Once
my CV TF have that many fighters, I start to use PD or missiles
to finish filling up the space on my carriers. If I find my
CV TF taking significant damage to enemy missile waves/fighter
attacks (ignoring the PD bug), I'll replace a picket with
a sixth medium escort. I'll also start using heavy escorts
and/or PD armed pickets.
I'll operate a CV TF offensively as long as it has at least
100 fighters (assuming it started with over 100). I'll also
evaluate its defensive fire if the TF has four (or fewer)
escorts. But if the TF is operating as part of a fairly large
fleet, I've been known to send a damaged Armada CV TF with
only a couple of escorts into battle. While one could theoretically
build effective carrier waves or flotillas (given the size
of the carriers, three capital CV could be enough), the full
armada isn't really any more expensive and often fights dozens
of battles with only occasional ship losses, often becomimg
obsolete before becoming combat ineffective.
I find my CV TF to be among the most efficient. They're the
smallest (aka cheapest) of all. And they tend to survive for
the longest in combat.
Reconaissance Flotilla
This is the one TF smaller than an Armada that I regularly
use (once I can build armada on demand). I use it for a number
of missions and generally have three different forms depending
on its planned mission (but will happily use which ever is
available). This is basically just four fast light escorts
and three (light) picket ships. For the independent missions,
I'll replace one of the escorts with a heavy SR or heavy LR
mission ship. For the escort missions, I'll use fast medium
escorts.
There are three independent missions:
- Piracy patrol. I'll reguarly use the TF to control pirates
in new systems (7 FF hulls is lots of counter piracy weight).
- Secondary system blockades. Basically sit in a system
and blockade it to force the enemy to divert their heavy
TF from my primary attack. I'll often pre-position obsolete
Recon TF for this mission.
- Armed Reconaissance. When it becomes too dangerous for
solo scouts to explore, I'll use the recon flotilla. Especially
with a heavy LR ship at the core, it has enough firepower
to defeat just about any set of system/defensive ships short
of an Imperial capital system.
I use the recon flotilla for three major combat missions
(note that these are not necessarily distinct and a given
flotilla might perform two or even all three at the same time).
- Reconaissance. I often send it ahead of the main fleet
to locate targets to engage. This is especially the case
for stand-off fleets/armadas. One classic use is to find
the system ships and/or orbitals so that an IF TF can target
them before engaging the planet itself. This mission often
turns into a "bait" mission...
- Escort role. In this role, it moves into or in front of
another TF to provide additional defensive firepower. I
tend to do this for weakened stand-off TF and transport
TF.
- Bait. In this role, often combined with either other combat
role, the TF is designed to draw enemy fire while my armadas
kill it. I'll send it out in front of everything else. This
is espcially useful against IF heavy and beam forces by
tying the fire up until either the fighters arrive or the
LR TF gets a chance to tenderize the enemy. The frigates
that compose the TF are incredibly cheap to replace, so
eventhough the TF will be wiped out, it allows my heavier
formations to not only survive this battle but often they
will remain combat effective, allowing them to attack the
next target.
Notes
Based on other discussions I've read, I suspect that some
will be surprised by the fact that I tend to use as few mission
ships as possible. With the Armada rules, this is a 2:1 ratio
of "support" to "mission" ships. I should
note that for US Carrier TF, the ratio is at least 6:1 (and
sometimes as high as 10:1). This is one carrier, an attack
sub, a couple of aegis cruisers, 3+ destroyers/frigates (the
two are somewhat interchangeable in the US navy) of various
types, and one or two support ships. The exact formation compositions
do vary from carrier to carrier and deployment to deployment...
Fleet Operations
While the Armada is the basic unit, many operations
require multiple armadas operating together.
I find that the CV TF is the best solo TF when on the offensive.
When operating indendently, I'll try to give each CV TF a
recon flotilla to help spot mobile ships.
LR TF are probably the best general purpose TF. They have
good defenses and the abilty to detect, engage and destroy
just about any other type of TF. I find them especially useful
in the interdiction mission since they engage fast and kill
weak targets almost immediately.
My basic attack fleet is a CV TF paired with an LR TF (and
possible a recon flotilla). They can take and defeat almost
anything short of an imperial seat. The CV TF immediately
launches its fighters at the planet, while the LR TF advances
to engage the system ships and decimate any missile or fighter
attacks (assisted by the recon flotilla if available). I try
to have the LR TF avoid beam range to the planet and orbitals
(the fighters will finish them off plenty fast).
For larger battles, I'll operate a pair of CV TF plus as
many LR/SR TF as necessary. More than two CV TF seem to end
up being ineffective. In this case, the LR/SR TF become glorified
recon/PD forces, although they do engage secondary mobile
targets as needed. When attacking a well defended planet,
I'll often have one CV TF immediately launch at the planet.
I'll wait until I can see the orbitals and have the other
CV TF attack one of them. This kills the fixed defenses the
fastest. I should note that I've never needed more than 6
armadas in all to attack any target (I tend to only attack
Orion very late in the game).
Examples
First Example
Here are some examples. After trying to fight
with Shift-F4 and MOO3, I gave up and I'm doing this on a
more hypothetical, ideal basis. These are built assuming a
specific tech-level (the same across all fields) with all
tech below that level (and no randomness in tech level). Note
that these ships may not be "perfect" and they may
not quite be feasible (since I'm doing them by hand, my rounding
might not be right), but they should give good ideas. These
are based on the tables in the Space Combat Mechanics Guide
by Visage (a big Thank You).
Note that I use a Naval derived nomenclature for my ship
names (this is also partly derived from SFB). I follow with
the warp speed of the ship.
Here is an example of an early game carrier armada. This
is probably about the first armada I'll build. This is at
tech level 11.
BCV133: (Battle Cruiser:Starship:Carrier) -- CV Capital ship
0 Medium Duranium Armor
72 8 Laser Interceptors -- No mods
252 12 Fusion Interceptors -- No mods
11 Bridge (0.02)
29 Crew Quarter (0.05)
12 Life Support (0.02)
134 Sub-Light Drive (0.2325)
64 Hydrogen System Drive at 1000 Gm/s (normally 2100) 0.2325
----
574 Space used (out of a maximum of 575)
The BCV133 has the minimum 20 fighters, but due to the low
tech levels (and small ship) had to use 8 puny laser interceptors
to get there. Fortunately, laser interceptors will still be
somewhat useful.
CVL133: (Light Cruiser:Starship:Carrier) -- Heavy CV ship
0 Medium Duranium Armor
36 4 Laser Interceptors (9 each) -- No mods
126 6 Fusion Interceptors (21 each) -- No mods
6 Bridge (0.02)
14 Crew Quarter (0.05)
6 Life Support (0.02)
66 Sub-Light Drive (0.2325)
32 Hydrogen System Drive at 1000 Gm/s (normally 2100) 0.2325
----
286 Space used (out of a maximum of 285)
I believe this actually fits when correctly rounded (and
if necessary I would drop the system speed slightly to get
it to fit).
FFE133 (Frigate:Starship:Point Defense) -- Slow Medium Escort
0 Medium Duranium Armor (or Light Duranium Armor to save costs)
73 13 Light Hard Beams -- No mods (5.6 each)
3 Bridge (0.02)
7 Crew Quarter (0.05)
3 Life Support (0.02)
33 Sub-Light Drive (0.2325)
16 Hydrogen System Drive at 1000 Gm/s (normally 2100) 0.2325
----
135 Space used (out of a maximum of 140)
The ship might actually fit a 14th hard beam. I like hard
beams, but Rail Guns might be a slightly better choice (with
hard beams filling in). In reality, it would depend on exactly
what techs I had.
CTE133 (Cutter:Starship:Point Defense) -- Slow Light Escort
0 Light Duranium Armor
39 7 Light Hard Beams -- No mods (5.6 each)
1 Bridge (0.02)
4 Crew Quarter (0.05)
2 Life Support (0.02)
16 Sub-Light Drive (0.2325)
8 Hydrogen System Drive at 1000 Gm/s (normally 2100) 0.2325
----
70 Space used (out of a maximum of 70)
CTS133 (Cutter:Starship:Reconaissance) -- Picket Ship (Light)
0 Light Duranium Armor
7 1 Standard Hard Beams -- No mods (5.6 each)
1 Bridge (0.02)
4 Crew Quarter (0.05)
2 Life Support (0.02)
16 Sub-Light Drive (0.2325)
16 Hydrogen System Drive at 2100 Gm/s
20 1 ECCM II
----
66 Space used (out of a maximum of 70)
This is a more general purpose scout thus the high speed
and standard hard beam (although that is also due to the spare
space).
Now for the actual TF:
Carrier Armada TF:
Core: 2 BCV133 and 4 CVL133
Escorts: 5 FFE133 and 4 CTE133
Pickets: 3 CTS133
This TF has 48 fusion interceptors--these are the main strike
force. And 32 laser interceptors to help absorb defensive
fire. A total of 80 fighters, just barely more than the 75
needed to be effective. It has 93 light hard beams and 3 standard
hard beams for defensive fire.
Second Example
Here is a mid or late game carrier armada. This is based
around when Super Dreadnoughts are my largest ship. (I usually
win around when I have Titans or Behemoths, depending on the
game). This is set at Tech level 29.
SDV266: (Super Dreadnought:Starship:Carrier) -- CV Capital ship
0 Heavy Titanium Armor
11 1 Phasor Interceptor (10.5 each)
983 52 Phasor Interceptor with DualPod (18.9 each)
33 Bridge (0.02)
82 Crew Quarter (0.05)
33 Life Support (0.02)
329 Ion Drives (0.201)
164 Dotomite Crystal System Drive at 1500 Gm/s (normally 3000) 0.201
-----
1635 Space used (out of a maximum of 1635)
BBV266 (Battleship:Starship:Carrier) -- Heavy CV ship
0 Heavy Titanium Armor
473 25 Phasor Interceptor with DualPod (18.9 each)
16 Bridge (0.02)
41 Crew Quarter (0.05)
16 Life Support (0.02)
20 Small Class V Shield (0.025)
164 Ion Drives (0.201)
81 Dotomite Crystal System Drive at 1500 Gm/s (normally 3000) 0.201
-----
811 Space used (out of a maximum of 815)
The shield is a luxury, but I have about 24 extra spaces
after reaching fighter overkill, so I went ahead and put it
on. Another option might be a few light phasors. Or I might
upgrade an interceptor to a SCF...
ECA266 (Cruiser:Starship:Point Defense) -- Slow Medium Escort ship
0 Heavy Titanium Armor
246 11 Light Phasor with M1, Cont, and AF (22.4 each)
8 Bridge (0.02)
20 Crew Quarter (0.05)
8 Life Support (0.02)
81 Ion Drives (0.201)
41 Dotomite Crystal System Drive at 1500 Gm/s (normally 3000) 0.201
----
404 Space used (out of a maximum of 405)
Depending on the available mods, I might go with either Ion
Pulse Cannons or Hard Beams instead of the phasors.
FFE266 (Frigate:Starship:Point Defense) -- Slow Light Escort ship
0 Medium Titanium Armor
4 1 Light Hard Beam with M1, M2, and Imp
81 9 Light Hard Beams with M1, M2, Imp, Cont and AF (8.96 each)
3 Bridge (0.02)
7 Crew Quarter (0.05)
3 Life Support (0.02)
28 Ion Drives (0.201)
14 Dotomite Crystal System Drive at 1500 Gm/s (normally 3000) 0.201
----
140 Space used (out of a maximum of 140)
FFS266 (Frigate:Starship:Reconaissance) -- Picket ship (Light)
0 Medium Titanium Armor
3 Bridge (0.02)
7 Crew Quarter (0.05)
3 Life Support (0.02)
28 Ion Drives (0.201)
28 Dotomite Crystal System Drive at 3000 Gm/s 0.201
35 ECCM III
35 X-Ray Detection System
----
139 Space used (out of a maximum of 140)
now for the actual TF:
Carrier Armada TF:
Core: 2 SDV266 and 4 BBV266
Escorts: 5 ECA266 and 4 FFE266
Pickets: 3 FFS266
This TF has 206 phasor interceptors (all but two with dual
pods). This TF is starting to reach the overkill range. The
Orions are about the only thing that can really survive this
fighter swarm (a massively defended Imperial capital might
have a chance); at least at roughly equivalent tech levels
(by level 40 it will start to be showing its age, but then
I'll be building TF based around Behemoths). It has 55 light
AF-Phasors, 36 light super-Hard Beams and 4 light Hard Beams
for defensive fire. While this is about the same number of
mounts as the earlier CV TF, the individual weapons now mostly
have AF and other modifications, greatly increasing their
lethality (not to mention that over half are phasors). On
the other hand, the PD targets are going to be more difficult
to kill...
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