Now 80,000 km from the enemy. At this range our Lasers are still almost ineffective, but we are only a few seconds away from reaching effective firing range.
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As we close in past 50,000 km, the enemy fire becomes more intense. Three 15-damage energy weapon hits on the ESN Furious doom this brave ship. Her power reactor explodes and blows ESN Furious apart.
As we pass 25,000 km from the enemy fleet, eight of the enemy finally start to flee. We will continue to focus on the ones with the big nasty Lasers.
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We pull right up to point blank range. NOW we're close enough to do some respectable damage! We've breached the armor of all three of the Big-Laser brutes, and destroyed one of them.
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ESN Hostile is getting a bit chewed up.
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We pull right up to point blank range. NOW we're close enough to do some respectable damage! We've breached the armor of all three of the Big-Laser brutes, and destroyed one of them.
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ESN Hostile is getting a bit chewed up.
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The last of those Big-Laser brutes is down, but the ESN Hostile has seen better days.
Eight of the thirteen enemy ships remained on the planet as our fleet approached. We have now destroyed the five ships that came out to meet us, including the three with really nasty Lasers. Our losses so far are one Battlecruiser (ESN Furious) destroyed plus another (ESN Hostile) so badly damaged that one more good whack will destroy it. The damaged ship has had much of the armor stripped off and has taken 14 internal damage, but every ship's system is still functioning normally.
So we've killed the three enemy Big Gun ships, and then massacred their two Gauss PD Escorts. That was the group of five ships. Taken care of.
That leaves eight more: one 51-missile tube PD vessel, one unknown vessel (AWACS?) and six FACs that fired anti-ship missiles at us earlier.
Since we've been simply ignoring those incoming missiles... Avernite and his crew have that covered... let's take down the FACs first, since they are fast enough to complicate the picture.
So we've killed the three enemy Big Gun ships, and then massacred their two Gauss PD Escorts. That was the group of five ships. Taken care of.
That leaves eight more: one 51-missile tube PD vessel, one unknown vessel (AWACS?) and six FACs that fired anti-ship missiles at us earlier.
Since we've been simply ignoring those incoming missiles... Avernite and his crew have that covered... let's take down the FACs first, since they are fast enough to complicate the picture.
Our ships are still far below 100% Fleet Training, so we get a random firing delay every time we switch to a new target. Four of the six FACs are taken under fire, and two of those four are destroyed by the first salvo.
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ESN Mildly Annoyed scores her first kill, a missile-armed FAC. She has also shot down 107 enemy missiles with her single Gauss PD turret.
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Just two enemy ships left, plus whatever it is that we're detecting on the planet itself (EM 50, TH 60).
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ESN Mildly Annoyed scores her first kill, a missile-armed FAC. She has also shot down 107 enemy missiles with her single Gauss PD turret.
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Just two enemy ships left, plus whatever it is that we're detecting on the planet itself (EM 50, TH 60).
Since our opponent's missiles have been completely ineffective against our PD screen, and since the second remaining ship hasn't yet fired a weapon (AFAIK), we can afford to sit back at 52,000 km (beyond Gauss Cannon range) and chip away at him with 2-damage Laser attacks, to which he can only reply with his utterly ineffective missiles.
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That worked. The last two enemy ships have been destroyed, leaving only the EM and Thermal contact on the planet to be dealt with.
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That worked. The last two enemy ships have been destroyed, leaving only the EM and Thermal contact on the planet to be dealt with.
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As for the last hostile contact... the TH 60 EM 50 "whatever-it-is" on the planet's surface... since we have no military drop-ships built yet, and have no way of knowing whether they could crack a loaded civilian transport, the most straightforward solution would be to just obliterate them with orbital bombardment.
Given that we've closed to under 60k km, the smart thing to do is move into orbit and see if we spot anything on res-1 actives. If not, there's no ground forces and we can just drop a random transport there to collect the loot when we have a chance. Ground forces always have an active sensor signature.
OK, I'll orbit with the Battlecruiser force, and hang back outside gun range with the Carriers.
At this range, our 10 hull square res-1 active sensor should easily spot anything the size of a size-1 missile.
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I just realized that we have no jump-capable civilian ships. So we'll have to wait for the Gate Constructor to finish. He's already at work.
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Since it will take another seven months for a one-way Gate into this system (and more than a year for a two-way Gate) we might as well pick up our life-pod from ESN Furious, check the nearby planets for signs of Jerx presence, and then head home for overhaul and armor repair. The fleet can return with the ground troops once the Gate is operational.
So, how about an after-battle analysis of what went right and what went wrong?
It's clear that we are at least three levels of Laser techs behind the Jerx. Our Lasers do 6 points of damage at point blank range, dropping linearly to 1 point at 120,000 km range. The Jerx have Lasers that do 16 points of damage at point blank range, dropping linearly to 1 point at 290,000 km range. So we are badly our-ranged and out-gunned. On the other hand, our Lasers have a faster firing cycle than the opponent's much heavier Lasers.
On the plus side, our Gauss PD performed excellently. The opponent fired over 3,000 missiles at us, and as far as I could see NONE of them got through.
Our engine tech also measured up to the challenge. While it's true that a higher level of engine tech would have been extremely useful, ours was high enough that our Gunships could catch anything but the enemy Fast Attack Craft. This might have been a result of balancing our Gunships toward speed rather than firepower or armor.
So: a few areas for future tech research -
Bigger, more powerful Lasers.
Better Power Plants to run them (which requires improved Engine techs).
Better Capacitor tech.
Better Beam Weapon Fire Controls.
It's clear that we are at least three levels of Laser techs behind the Jerx. Our Lasers do 6 points of damage at point blank range, dropping linearly to 1 point at 120,000 km range. The Jerx have Lasers that do 16 points of damage at point blank range, dropping linearly to 1 point at 290,000 km range. So we are badly our-ranged and out-gunned. On the other hand, our Lasers have a faster firing cycle than the opponent's much heavier Lasers.
On the plus side, our Gauss PD performed excellently. The opponent fired over 3,000 missiles at us, and as far as I could see NONE of them got through.
Our engine tech also measured up to the challenge. While it's true that a higher level of engine tech would have been extremely useful, ours was high enough that our Gunships could catch anything but the enemy Fast Attack Craft. This might have been a result of balancing our Gunships toward speed rather than firepower or armor.
So: a few areas for future tech research -
Bigger, more powerful Lasers.
Better Power Plants to run them (which requires improved Engine techs).
Better Capacitor tech.
Better Beam Weapon Fire Controls.
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The carriers added a certain degree of class and dignity to what would otherwise have been a vulgar brawl.
Or bringing them along was a complete waste of fuel. Opinions may differ on this.
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They weren't used at all on this mission, agreed.
But this mission was partly intended as a proof-of-concept that our Gunships could smash a medium-sized enemy force that out-teched and out-ranged us.
Next time we won't have anything to prove, so we will be able to use the Carriers. Speaking of which... does the Carriers' role change in a Gunship-dominated Navy?
I am submitting as many grant proposals as humanly possible, and then some, to address this most pressing need of our time.
Although I must be pedantic and point out that we are only two levels behind. 15cm --> 20cm --> 25 cm, we have the former and lack the latter two. Which is fine, the latter two will require plenty of grant money as it is to be worked out.
The biggest impact on the carrier role is always whether or not we can generate a sufficient strike volley from the fighters, and of course what this means varies by what kind of fighters we use. In the case of missile bombers the question is as always whether we can break through the enemy AMM+PD window to actually hit and destroy a ship. If yes, then the carriers are a useful complement to our beam forces by enabling us to eliminate the most threatening enemy squadron before closing with the rest of their battle fleet, usually this will mean their wing of beam cruisers or AMM spammers. If not, then the carriers are useful only for adding dignity to a vulgar brawl.
If we had chosen to use railgun fighters then the question becomes whether we can mass enough of the buggers to close with the enemy through their defensive fire (AMMs, beams, possibly PD depending on relative weapon ranges) and destroy their ships before losing most of our fighters. Usually this means your fleet has to use the carriers as the primary offensive arm to get enough mass. Otherwise, though, railgun fighters can at least serve a useful secondary role as a PD screen which missile bombers cannot, and this can be a useful role to fill if perhaps a dedicated AMM cruiser is still more efficient.
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The Battlecruiser force is headed over to inspect the last planet for traces of Jerx installations, while the Carrier / AWACS force picks up the survivors of the ESN Furious.
Since we'll need to wait for a Gate to be built, the fleet is headed home to patch up the holes in its armor.
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No sign of Jerx on the last planet or its moons. Heading home with the fleet.
Since we'll need to wait for a Gate to be built, the fleet is headed home to patch up the holes in its armor.
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No sign of Jerx on the last planet or its moons. Heading home with the fleet.