Its also worth noting that as of this writing I have managed to acquire most/nearly all of a copy of the RL Capital ship briefing. Transcribing it is slow, but I am persisting in the process and it has filled in some of the holes I've had in analysis (mainly in terms of construction rates and shipbuilding.) I hope to get a chance to throw that in for analysis at some future date.
In the meantime, we'll begin. Enjoy!
This is (I believe) from teh back cover. Presumably the "kilometers in length" refer to the larger cruisers and battleships having "enough weaponry to boil a planet.""TOG Leviathans move through deep space seeking enemies of the empire. Kilometers in length, these colossal warships carry enough weaponry to boil a planet. Their captains carefully maneuver these ships like Dreadnoughts of old to maximize firepower. Their opponents do the same, circling in a slow, sinister dance that covers kilometers. The order to attack is given, and the fate of star systems is decided!"
"Boiling a planet" does imply fairly substantial firepower. Assuming to bo il oceans of an Earrthlike planet it would require somewhere in the e26-e27 joule range of energy input (minimum). boiling the crust would require well over e28 to e29 joules, more towards the higher end if it also involves the upper parts of the mantle (the lithosphere) which can more than double the depth.
Going by the diagrams in the game the map is maybe 30x30 hexes. If a hex is roughly an inch, that means it could be up to 45-50 hexes (or thereabouts), which would suggest the map encompasses thousands of kilometers in diameter. This (vaguely) puts supposed constraints on weapons ranges and speeds, though only in broad (gameplay-based) terms.Leviathan is played on two or more 22x34 inch mapsheets. They show the emptiness of spacee.
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Each hex on the map is roughly 75 kilometers (about 45 miles) Across, and each game turn lasts about 5 minutes.
"cruiser squadron" are mentioned. ITs worth noting that despite havinh only a couple hundred thousand battleship squadrons (100,000 BB groups, 2-5 squadrons per group as per Legionnaire and other sourecs) the TOG has over a billion warships, so obviously they have to have more than just the BB squadrons or groups. (CArrier squadrons, carrier groups, etc. probably all also count)a TOG cruiser squadron consisting of one cruiser, one frigate and four destroyers is raiding a Commonwealth planet defended by a Renegade Legion squadron consisting of two frigates, two destrtoyers, and three fighter groups.
Note on a chart, 3 & 4 hex ships both have 2 thrust (cruiser and battleship) 3 thrust for a 2 hex ship, and 4 thrust for a 1 hex ship. This is quite contrary to how "thrust" is handled in Interceptor, (which is more sensible) and this creates alot of logical problems, especially given how they scale power. The fact that Interceptor and LEviathan are supposed to be interchangable also causes problems.No ship has ever been built with enough power to supply the demands of all the equipment usually installed. This shortfall is especially noticable in capital ships, which mount numerous weapons systems on such a scale that no ship could generate enough energy to power all of the weapons, all the shields to extremely high levels, and the maneuver drives that allow a battleship to move like a fighter.
Shield power levels are fixed during construction, so the player must allocte the ship's non-shield power between its weapons and maneuver drives. Normal allocation is half of the ship's non-shield power to each system. By using the ship's power shunts, a player can divert all of the non-shield power frrom one system to the other, thereby doubling one system and leaving the other temporarily powerless.
The "shortfall" concept can be most easily explained as that they can power one (or maybe two) major system(s) at peak capability (ie weapons at the expense of engines/shields) but not all three. This is similar to problems SW vessesl face, and its quite logical or reasonable.
This gives us a interesting perspective on equivalencies: Broadside firepower is (roughly) equal to spinal mount firepower, but is also equal to engine power (on stnadard settings) and vice versa. It provides an interesting way of "checking" calcs done for those (if/when they can be done) to estimate reliability.The normal allotment of power to the weapon system allows a ship to fire its spinal mount or one broadside. A broadside includes all of the weapons on one side of the ship, plus those facing forward and aft. Turrets are always powered unless power is lost because of damage. Power shunted to the weapon system can be used to fire the spinal mount or an additional broadside.
That said, this should probably be considered only a broad "equivalency", since there are varying ways ships can be designed (lesser spinal mount with a more powerful broadside, for eample) and the aformentioned differences in thrust allocation between interceptor and leviathan causing problems. I'd also note its not neccecsarily a given that power is avialable for only "one" broadisde, as it has been hinted in novels that both broadsides (or both broadsides and the spinal mount, or the mount and one shield) may be rapidly powered, hinting that power surpluses may also differ. Some of this (as with other rules) could be treated as purely agmeplay.
Also, combined turret/point defense firepower is also insignificant relative to the power of the other major systems (which makes sense), giving us an indication that firepower is well above that established for fighters (Gigajoule, terajoule, kiloton, megaton, take your pick as to how conservative you want to be)
this obviously can be considered a gameplay based rule rather than anything that makes sense, since it either violates thermodynamics or common sense ship design (yeah, lets just bleed off energy to no purpose!) And arguing that they aren{t designed to accumulate it makes no sense, as we learn later there are rules that allow for increased engine performance or to power multiple broadsides or the spinal mount.Power is lost if it is not used in the turn it is allocated. Unused power may not be accumulated from turn to turn.
- Note that I deliberately ignored the "manuever rules" based on class as it was fairly silly. Capital ships could use their full thrust for manuvering, but not to change velocity. This means (in other words) the main engines for linear thrust would be less powerful than the manuvering thrusters (an absurd proposition) At most, it should be the same, and at worst, the manuvering should be less thrust-worthy (either becaue it uses manuvering thrusters separate from the main drive, or the main drive has to have its exhaust "swung" to add a turning effect, either of which could be arguably less effective than straight, linear thrust. Another possibility is that there are limits to how quickly the ship can be turned by main thrusters, due to stresses it imposes on the ship.)Capital ships' movement depends on their class. All frigates move alike, ,for instance. Because of the great size of these ships, power/mass ratios vary little within a class, and so movement characteristics do not change from ship to ship as with fighters, gunboats, corvettes, and escorts.
Again this largely stands as another example of how capital ship rules have been "streamlined" or simplified in leviathan as opposed to Interceptor.
A hint at close in weapons and fighter/ship ranges, but also another eaxmple of the abstraction of "reality" for the sake of gameplay in leviathan (moreso than in Interceptor anyhow.) obviously as well, the 3 dimensional nature of space combat is also abstracted.When ship counters overlap, it does not mean that the ships are in the same hex, for all purposes except calculating range, each ship is in the counter's rear hex. Range is always 1 when firing at an overlapped ship, exelt that turret weapons firing at a fighter use range 0.
This (I believe) hints at the ranges of hexes and the believed 1500 km range for weapons (20 hexes) as per the weapons table.Combat range is the distance from the attacker to his target. When ships overlap, Combat range is 1. Weapon range is the maximum distance a particular weapon can fire, as shown on the weapons table on the record sheet. The closer the target, the easier it is to hit.
We're not told how high the flicker rates are, though they are apparently (presumably) high enough that the chances of any shot penetrating (like the 10% of shots penetrating in interceptor) is miniscule. Either that or this is yet another thing they've abstracted in Leviathan for simplicity. Then again, there are the shield rules in Centurion and the "painting" lasers, which only complicate things f urther. And lets not forget that technically, all flicker shields are based on the underside grav drives of grav vehicles, so that does imply in some way that a sustained output could be possible.All captail ships mount massive shield generators. These generators cover the huge expanses of the ship with very high flicker ratings. They are high enough to destroy any fighter carried missile. The shields do not affect a projectile from a spinal mount.
. Average commission of 16/year.
