Ad Astra! ... an Aurora Forum Game, run by blue emu

[Nabobalis]

The missile load-outs will be specifically tailored for planetary bombardment or space combat... but the ships themselves can be used for either, depending on the ammo-load we've given them.

Those puppies won't be ready by next year, though... nor the year after. I don't want to delay round 2 against the Prix for so long that some other bastard steals those wrecks. Unless anyone talks me out of it, I intend to go in with what we've got now, plus a couple of Spy-class recce ships, plus new Fighters, plus new missiles for planetary bombardment (but fired, for now, by those old minelayers).

That is all we should need to do, we've seen that even now we can handle the threat of the Prix and I say we deal them the final blow as soon as we can.

[blue emu]

What are the specs of your size 4 missles? I'd kill for to-hit percentages that good.

Ion engine tech, Fusion-boosted Fission warhead for x5 damage multiplier (we found that tech in a Precursor ruin), and distribute the points:

Warhead : 1
Engine : 1.7
Fuel : 0.3
Agility : 1

Total size : 4

[Lord Martin]

The missile load-outs will be specifically tailored for planetary bombardment or space combat... but the ships themselves can be used for either, depending on the ammo-load we've given them.

Those puppies won't be ready by next year, though... nor the year after. I don't want to delay round 2 against the Prix for so long that some other bastard steals those wrecks. Unless anyone talks me out of it, I intend to go in with what we've got now, plus a couple of Spy-class recce ships, plus new Fighters, plus new missiles for planetary bombardment (but fired, for now, by those old minelayers).

That would probably be enough.
I´d be surprised if the Prix could throw more ships on us then they already done (even if they probably didn´t have 100 % ammo).
It´s a risk that seems acceptable.

[TheLoneGunman]

The missile load-outs will be specifically tailored for planetary bombardment or space combat... but the ships themselves can be used for either, depending on the ammo-load we've given them.

Those puppies won't be ready by next year, though... nor the year after. I don't want to delay round 2 against the Prix for so long that some other bastard steals those wrecks. Unless anyone talks me out of it, I intend to go in with what we've got now, plus a couple of Spy-class recce ships, plus new Fighters, plus new missiles for planetary bombardment (but fired, for now, by those old minelayers).

What do we have to tow those wrecks?

And are we going to bring enough of them to get as many as we can in one shot?

[blue emu]

What do we have to tow those wrecks?

And are we going to bring enough of them to get as many as we can in one shot?

I'm not sure you can tow a wreck... I was planning to send both of our Wreckers in to dismantle them on the spot.

Vice-Admiral Edzako is awarded the Fleet Command Sunburst, gained by commanding a battle-fleet in a victorious engagement against the enemies of Humanity.



For the second battle in the Wolf 294 system, Vice-Admirals Edzako and Autonomous will trade places, so that Autonomous can have his chance to earn the same glory.

[Guillaume HJ]

Did we ever actually get around to building mines for the minelayers?

Because if so, it occurs to me that they might work for setting up an ambush battle should Khan 001 refuse engagement (again).

(EG, move the fleet forward a bit, lay mines and a few buoys, then try and bait Khan into the minefield.)

[blue emu]

Did we ever actually get around to building mines for the minelayers?

No. Not yet. I'm waiting for a better Power Plant Tech so that they'll last longer than a year or two before going dead on me.

Because if so, it occurs to me that they might work for setting up an ambush battle should Khan 001 refuse engagement (again).

(EG, move the fleet forward a bit, lay mines and a few buoys, then try and bait Khan into the minefield.)

There are problems with deploying the slow mine-layers that far forward... we could no longer fight a running battle without sacrificing them.

[Guillaume HJ]

True. But then again unless they have a whole other fleet in Wolf-294, we shouldn't have to fight a running battle.

Having them lay mines would be a secondary strategy - a "we do this IF there are no other enemies than khan and khan spends his time avoiding us", while keeping them back in other situations. But a bit pointless as we don't have the mines ready.

[blue emu]

True. But then again unless they have a whole other fleet in Wolf-294, we shouldn't have to fight a running battle.

After the MAJOR scare that they gave me last time... I was convinced that we were going to lose our entire fleet... I would like to keep all my options open. Flexibility is one of the things that helped us to win round 1.

[Guillaume HJ]

Point well made.

Though we could have kept the minelayers in a reserve squadron one system over (or just generally in the back as they were this time), bringing them forward only if it proved necessary.

But again, without mines, not much point to that strategy.

[blue emu]

We have completed construction of some size-1 decoy missiles, some size-1 Homing decoy missiles, some size-36 Cluster-Bomb Homing Missiles, and some size-36 MIRV Homing missiles. All with a 100 m-km range. I just built enough for us to test them out. Once the Mine-Layers are out of overhaul and the Fleet has finished its current practice exercise, I will load them all up, take them out to the Ross 248 system, and try a few tests on bombarding uninhabited planets, to see if we can use this new tactic of mine to take out that Prix planetary defense complex from 100 m-km away.

[blue emu]

Hmmm... checking our production schedule, I discover that it will take more than two years to build 120 Gnat Strike Fighters and 6 Gnat Strike Leaders.

So... do we wait that long? The good points of waiting are that we will have the Fighter mix that we agreed was best, and two more Battle class Heavy Cruisers will be ready to join the Fleet.

The bad point of waiting is that someone else might scavenge those wrecks in the mean-time.

Option #1 is to wait. Option #2 is to wait only long enough to fill our Carriers with whatever mix of Fighters is available, including "obsolete" types, and then launch a limited mission to recover the wrecks, without going near the planet and its PDC defenses.

Discuss.

[Mattabesta]

Get the wrecks far away from the planet now with your fleet go back and get new fighters and anything new you might discover and pummel the PDC.

[joebthegreat]

Any upgrade to the speed of your mine layers yet?

I'd like to just chime in here and say that I completely agree with the direction you're taking with your fighters, but there's still one thing that needs to be brought up.

Your rocks need to have the capability to shield all the other ships in your fleet more easily. While the distraction technique has proven partially successful, the number of missiles that went past your rocks and into the battle fleet was unacceptable. Moving your rocks farther forward will not prevent this problem, only reduce it in the short term. I think upgrading your PD anti-missile missiles should be a priority. It will prevent your battle fleet from receiving such a beating and you won't rely on using fighters to soak up a ridiculously large number of missiles. More fighters also means a larger alpha strike than just 33 missiles.

---

As to your current option. I say you go back asap. We know that something else fought the prix in that system before you, and they might very well be coming back to face a prix force that you've already weakened. While you should be working towards your optimal fleet, you can not delay scavenging that system. If some other potentially hostile race gets the advantages of prix technology you'll be in a much worse position.

[Boris ze Spider]

I like option two. I don't think anything else can harm us more.

[joebthegreat]

Also, if you're so concerned with that planet, how about you try sending a lone fighter or launching a small missile at it and seeing what the response is? No use running away from a planet if it isn't a confirmed threat.

[blue emu]

Your rocks need to have the capability to shield all the other ships in your fleet more easily. While the distraction technique has proven partially successful, the number of missiles that went past your rocks and into the battle fleet was unacceptable. Moving your rocks farther forward will not prevent this problem, only reduce it in the short term. I think upgrading your PD anti-missile missiles should be a priority.

Good plan in theory, but two practical problems:

1) Our Point Defense did a wonderful job of shooting down the incoming size-4 missiles. Only a few salvos got through our interlocking PD defense, and none of them scored any internal hits. It was the deluge of size-1 missiles, in salvos of 19 missiles each, coming five seconds apart, that we couldn't cope with... in fact, I even turned our PD defenses OFF at that point, because it would just have been a waste of our PD missiles to even try and stop them. Reality check: those enemy size-1 missiles were coming in at over 68,000 kps... 23% of light-speed. There is no possible way we could intercept them at our tech level, no matter how many PD launchers we used. That's why I simply turned them off. Ask again in a few hundred years. You cannot blame our "failure" to intercept them on a lack of adequate PD defenses... our PD defenses were fine, it was the three-hundred-year tech gap that was responsible.

2) The Rocks are Civilian ships, not Military. I cannot mount PD defenses on Civilian ships. The game doesn't allow it. We can build Military Rocks instead, but that will take a long time... it will take decades (quite literally) to expand the Military shipyards to that size, for one thing.

Any upgrade to the speed of your mine layers yet?

Not yet, no. That will take years. I have a purpose-built Bombarment Vessel designed, which moves at fleet speed (same as the rest of our Battle Fleet), but no opportunity to build any yet. Naval construction requires years... typically, three to five years if you include the time required to wait for free slipways, retool the shipyards, and build the ships.

[stamasd]

We need to make do with what we have now.

[OrangeYoshi]

Option #2. We can take the planet later, but we need those wrecks now.

[blue emu]

We need to make do with what we have now.

Option #2. We can take the planet later, but we need those wrecks now.

Agreed. Unless someone talks me out of it, I intend to take the Fleet back into Wolf 294 as soon as we have enough missiles and (mixed type) Fighters to fill our holds, and our two Spy class recce vessels are ready. That should be early next year.