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Situation at the close of the first phase of the battle:
Of course, if this planet, like El Dorado, is protected by foolish amounts of Point Defense, we'll need to go back home for some special ammo. I've sent for the Wreckers, to gobble up the four knocked-out Prix ships.
Of course, if this planet, like El Dorado, is protected by foolish amounts of Point Defense, we'll need to go back home for some special ammo. I've sent for the Wreckers, to gobble up the four knocked-out Prix ships.
thrilling, but could that eldoradoesque amount of pd really withstand the 90 salvoes that the fighters deliver?
edit, I would like to see how efficient our new pd ships are. maybe we could drag them somewhat closer to the rocks so that they can bring some coverage.
edit, I would like to see how efficient our new pd ships are. maybe we could drag them somewhat closer to the rocks so that they can bring some coverage.
The defenses on El Dorado were killing 23 single-missile salvos at a time, five seconds apart, and kept it up for several minutes... thousands of incoming missiles, each in its own separate salvo. They didn't miss any (literally, did not miss a shot) until we started using special ammo with run-in-to-target carefully timed to produce time-on-target salvos, where hundreds of missiles all arrive during the same five-second window.
It would take our Fighter salvos about 40 seconds to pass through his point defense screen. That's enough time for him to fire eight times at them. The El Dorado point defense was firing 30 - 15 - 15 - 15. Eight salvos would be enough to kill 150 missiles.
Problem is, in that situation if they don't work as well as we hoped, we lose them... and quite unnecessarily. I would rather discover that they don't work WITHOUT losing them, so that we can rebuild them along more functional lines.
In any case... they were not designed to function on their own. They were designed to support an integrated point defense screen, with dozens of AAMs tackling the incoming salvos at million-km range, followed by the new Gauss PD Frigates at 10-k to 20-k km, followed by CIWS at point blank range.
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Do we have any ECM? Otherwise, I can see it happening.
Though it's quite clear we're still going to wipe them out. The only unknown right now being what damages we're gonna get.
Logical. Prix apparently are autonomous, they don't share info between systems. So there's no way for them to know what Rocks are. They'll fire 5 to 10 salvos on a ship, will assume it's enough to destroy it, and will shift to another ship.
Considering how the Qara are behaving, they might be beam ships. Possibly just sensor ships. Whatever, they don't seem able to fire at us until closer range, in the order of 40 mio km - possibly far less. Of course, once we salvage their wrecks, we might find clues, like nuclear plant or missile launchers
I'd prefer to test the GPD systems by at first letting one missile through our missile PD, then a couple more, and so on up to our theoretical limit (about 25 PD missiles with 8 Storms). That way we can make sure we know how to use the things, that we know the range they actually fire at, that sort of thing.
Yes, I suspect that they are Beam ships. They are also the ones with 149 m-km active sensors, so sensor ships is a possibility too... but a Prix sensor with that range should only occupy a few Hull Squares. What's the rest of the 7150-ton displacement used for? My bet is Beam weapons.
This.
I'd like to test them as part of a PD screen, not solo.
Having made that rather negative post, I suppose I shouild balance it with a more optimistic one.
We aren't about to give up and go home just because he's fled to the protection of what is probably a PDC-defended planet. We're going to cover the Wrecker operation, and meanwhile close in on the planet and see what's there. If there are a couple of PDCs like last time, we can try to bulldoze a Fighter salvo through his point defense screen, to see how he handles it... possibly supported by a general time-on-target salvo by the whole fleet, if we want to risk getting that close to him, or at least from the Monitor, which can fire from nearly 100 m-km away.
We could even consider doing something insane, like relying on our Gauss PD vessels to stop his incoming salvos, and taking our fleet INSIDE his PD screen and firing at him from there. He won't be able to shoot down all of our missiles if their running time is measured in seconds.
We aren't about to give up and go home just because he's fled to the protection of what is probably a PDC-defended planet. We're going to cover the Wrecker operation, and meanwhile close in on the planet and see what's there. If there are a couple of PDCs like last time, we can try to bulldoze a Fighter salvo through his point defense screen, to see how he handles it... possibly supported by a general time-on-target salvo by the whole fleet, if we want to risk getting that close to him, or at least from the Monitor, which can fire from nearly 100 m-km away.
We could even consider doing something insane, like relying on our Gauss PD vessels to stop his incoming salvos, and taking our fleet INSIDE his PD screen and firing at him from there. He won't be able to shoot down all of our missiles if their running time is measured in seconds.
You should be able to handle one salvo of 25 PD missiles, but the problem is if they're in multiple salvos. In eight seperate salvos, you're only near-certain to hit two per salvo. You can't do anything about incoming missiles at point blank beyond eight salvos.
Yeah... my suggestion about moving the fleet inside his PD screen wasn't entirely serious. He might very well have beam weapons, for one thing, as well as multiple salvos. Overloading PD screens cuts both ways.
We'll have to see what he's got when our Blinks get within a b-km. We're about two-and-a-half days out from the planet, even at 10,000 kps... it's a rather spread-out star system. Our fleet is nearly a week from the planet at 4000 kps.
Our economic advisor informs us that the mining colony of Moria in the Procyon system is now over 500 mines, and is producing nearly 80,000 minerals per year. The ore reserves on the planet are so large that at this rate of extraction, even the rarest of the elements will not run short for another 83 years, and the plentiful ones will last for tens of thousands of years.
Can the fighters/carriers leave the main fleet, and chase the enemy ship down? Destroy it before it returns to safety?
No. Two problems.
It's a stern chase, and our Fighters only have a speed advantage of about +50% (about 15,000 kps vs nearly 10,000 kps). That means that we are looking at an Achilles-and-the-Tortoise type of converging series... D = X + (X/2) + (X/4) + (X/8) + ... and that we would have to cover twice the nominal distance in order to catch up with him. In other words, if we launched Fighters at one billion km, they would require two billion km of chasing in order to bring him within nominal missile range.
Which leads to the second problem: nominal missile range won't be good enough, because he's turned away and is running down-range. Our missiles would run out of fuel before catching up to him, unless we pressed in much closer than nominal range before firing, and our Fighters would need to follow him all that time, in order to keep him within fire control range so that the missiles don't lose their lock and self destruct.
They simply don't carry enough fuel... quite aside from the headache of our slow (4000 kps) Carriers trying to recover ninety-odd stranded, out-of-fuel Fighters more than a billion km out in front of them, if a second enemy force suddenly appears within sensor range.
Current situation:
Our Blink Fast Recon vessels have taken station on both flanks of the fleeing Prix warship, and are "escorting" him towards his base on the planet. Our much slower battle fleet (4000 kps vs the enemy's 9615 kps) is following along in the rear.
Our Blink Fast Recon vessels have taken station on both flanks of the fleeing Prix warship, and are "escorting" him towards his base on the planet. Our much slower battle fleet (4000 kps vs the enemy's 9615 kps) is following along in the rear.
Current research projects:
So I have been fired...? That would explain the desperate state of my bank account and the overwhelmingly large amount of free-time, but still... Really? Why?
Yours,
Dr. Michael Pal, formerly researcher in terraforming technologies
So I have been fired...? That would explain the desperate state of my bank account and the overwhelmingly large amount of free-time, but still... Really? Why?
Yours,
Dr. Michael Pal, formerly researcher in terraforming technologies
Dear Dr. Pal,
After thorough consideration, it is with a heavy heart that the Department of Terraforming and Human Habitation has decided to terminate your employment with the Department effective immediately. As you may have heard, amazing amounts of advanced terraforming technology were recently discovered on the planet of El Dorado, and this technology has rendered much of the Department's own research obsolete. Combined with recent cuts in the research budget, there is no other choice but to release you from your duties here and allow you to seek employment elsewhere. Thank you for your time, service, and dedication.
All Hail The Great Azure Avian Overlord!
Sincerely,
Kruger Terraforming Administrator Bot #00634a
Two or three of our scientists are on temporary vacation so that we can focus research labs on near-term projects. It's a balancing act. Four more labs are currently in transit from El Dorado to Earth, so you`ll be back at work soon.
Situation:
The Prix ship is clearly headed for the tenth planet, as we suspected. Our recon ships are now close enough to scan the seventh planet, and found nothing large enough (7000+ tons) to register on their sensors.
Situation:
The Prix ship is clearly headed for the tenth planet, as we suspected. Our recon ships are now close enough to scan the seventh planet, and found nothing large enough (7000+ tons) to register on their sensors.
We have now scanned all of the inner planets except the eighth, tenth and eleventh, and found nothing. Bear in mind that the sensors on the Blink recon vessels are rather coarse-grained... they would have trouble spotting any ship that`s considerably smaller than 7000 tons, and couldn`t see Fighters or FACs at all. Still, they would have spotted PDCs on the inner worlds, if any existed. We are now edging within sensor range of the suspected Prix base on the tenth planet.
We are now within extreme sensor range of the tenth planet, and no PDC is visible yet. If one exists, it might be below the resolution threshhold of our sensors at this distance. Moving in closer.
