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

With regard to tactics:

I suggest that we try various things, starting with the low-risk options and working toward higher-risk options as the safer ones don't pan out.

First we set up the fleet somewhere between 90 m-km and 100 m-km from the target world. That puts our new Battle Management vessel close enough to paint all the targets, and brings the enemy within range of our purpose-built 102 m-km range bombardment ammo.

Then we fire in a few hundred more size-1 decoy rounds to try and use up his PD ammo. If this works, just close in and let him have it.

If it doesn't seem to be working, then before we run out of decoy rounds, we should try full fleet salvos (104 tubes in 15 ship-salvos) of long-range missiles, fired while he is still under decoy bombardment to distract his PD.

If that doesn't work, we can try a Fighter strike.

If that fails... close in and fight a regular engagement.

Thoughts?

Our tactics change as our goal changes. In Phase 1, our goal is to try and use up their PD missiles, leaving them defenseless against long-range bombardment. If that seems unlikely to work (after we've tried it by expending about half of our decoys), we move on to Phase 2, in which our goal is to try and overload their PD defenses, firing so many missiles simultaneously that they cannot engage all of the incoming salvos, and some slip through. If that fails, Phase 3 is a Fighter strike, and Phase 4 is the brute force approach.

The tactic that I had in mind for the decoys was... in Phase 1, when we are just trying to use up their PD missiles... to send the decoys in in a long train of single missiles, spaced five seconds apart. We don't WANT to overload their PD capability at this "probing" stage, because the decoys only do one point of damage each, so any decoys that do manage to slip through their PD (because the Prix lack the number of launchers, number of fire controls, or time to engage them all) are effectively wasted. We WANT the Prix to shoot them all down, since they tend to fire three PD missiles at each incoming salvo, so firing our decoys in salvos of one missile each, spaced far enough apart to allow them to reload between shots, should guarantee using up as many Prix PD missiles as possible... three for each decoy.

When we move on to Phase 2, we will want to fire as many small salvos as possible, one missile each if we can arrange it, all timed to arrive in the target area at nearly the same time. The object there is to prevent the Prix from being able to engage all of the salvos, and some slip through because they don't have enough launchers or enough separate fire controls to engage them all simultaneously.

What would we fight a closer engagement with?

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We have slow, easy-to-intercept homing missiles with a 102 m-km effective range, and we also have faster, harder-to-intercept direct-fire missiles which are limited to about 12.5 m-km range by the enemy ECM. We need to get eight times closer in order to direct-fire on them.

TheLoneGunman said:

What ships are capable of launching our long-range missiles? Minelayers and our bombardment vessel?

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All of them.

The Culverin class Monitor can fire regular (ie: non-homing) long-range size-8 ammo in salvos of 40, since it is carrying that captured long-range Prix fire control system. All of the other Missile-armed ships (Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers) have been provided with a special long-range homing size-4 round, which they can fire in fleet salvos of 64. The non-Missile-armed support ships (Command Cruisers, Light Carriers, Ammunition Tender) can fire size-1 long-range homing decoys from their PD launchers.

Mattabesta said:

it would be nice if people read the thread and stopped busying him with questions he has already answered, and I'm not meaning you in particular.

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Jeeze... even I can't keep track of everything, and I've got the game open in front of me. I don't blame other people for asking for clarification.

Yet another Prix ambush in a system previously considered safe. Four of the Prix-held or "suspected Prix" systems are within three jumps of The Nexus. This nest of enemies needs to be cleaned out.

Commander Demanvanwezel in the Astronomer class Grav-scout ESN Hugin is under attack by Prix warships in the SFT 1321 system.

TheExecuter said:

Perhaps these need to be cleaned out before we attempt to take out the Prix planet?

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They may have planets, too. Personally, I'd like to finish cleaning out Wolf 294 before opening a new front. I'm willing to discuss it, though.

TheLoneGunman said:

Exploration is getting dangerous.

Any chance we could develop a survey ship capable of outrunning the Prix yet?

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At our tech level? Not a chance. Give us a couple more engine techs and a couple of sensor techs, and yes, possibly.

We've already done nearly all the exploring that we can profitably use, anyway... except for Geo-Surveys.

The Prix in SFT 1321 now number at least four... two Manchus and two Jamukas. Curiously, the Manchus are only moving at about 4070 kps, instead of the usual 9416 kps. ESN Hugin is still eight hours from the exit of the system. Looks very bad.

EDIT:

ESN Hugin destroyed. Commander Demanvanwezel killed.