Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

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Connor MacLeod
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Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Basically this is the thread where I toss out all the supplements. rather than do them all piecemeal since they're all so fucking tiny, I'm going to do them all in one big package. I'm also going to throw in the "battle of Jacob's Star" manual because a.) it has interesting info b.) I bought the game long ago and hwile the game sucked I love the manual and it was my first real exposure to the universe, and c.) Because its my thread and I can.

This also represents probably the last "game material" related thread I create for RL, since I'm almost done with the materials. At some point I'll go back over the novels, although those are mostly involved with Centurion and such, they do flesh out the ground combat aspects in some ways more incely (calcs for lasers, etc.) Its a pity the RL novels never took off.. I would have lked more of them.

So first off we'll start with the Interceptor TOG fighter briefing. Small upate, so I may do more these faster than usual. enjoy in any case!
Fighters are classified in the following manner, as per QSTAG 255:
Light: Poiwer plants rated at 0-1500
Medium: Power plant rated at 1501-2000
Heavy: Power plant rated at 2001-2500
Variation in fighter powerplants. Rather narrow as a variation methinks. Light fighters have a much wider variance in power output than mediumor heavy do (a mere difference of 500 or so.)
Funda Class Light fighter:
Mass: 74
Engines: Left/Right 750 (1500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 10
STreamlining/Antigrav Yes/No
Weapons: 1.5/5 laser, EPC 14 (bow) Wing hard points.
Funda stats.
The [funda] Craft's design makes no provision for high-thrust modifications, and so its maximum acceleration is 10 Gs. When confronting fundas, it is recommended that pilots keep the engagement range at 60+ kilometers
Stated accelerations and engagement ranges.
Ludicrum Secundus class light fighter

Mass: 86
Engines: Center 1400
Thrust (high thrust): 8(9)
STreamlining/Antigrav No/Yes
Weapons 5/2 laser, hard point (bow) 2 wing mounted 1.5/5 lasers
Ludicrum stats

The training version [of the Ludicrum Secundus, the Ludocrum primus) has no shields or offensive armament, and can achieve accelerations in excess of 13 Gs

...

Within a range of 45 kilometers, the Secundus is able to project as much firepower as a Spiculum. Beyond 45 kilometers, the ship's wing mounted lasers have no effect.

..

Recommended engagement ranges against both the Primus and Secundus are 60+ kilometers
If we take thrust as 1 thrust = g this means that the non shielded version puts out enough thrust to drive an 86 ton ship at 13 gees, while a shielded one can pull 8-9 gees This means 4-5 gees worth of power (about 1/3 its powerplant) is devoted to guns and shields. This should easily be in the high gigawatt/low terawatt range.

Also we see the fighter has very short ranged guns.
Manubalista class light fighter:
Mass: 80
Engines: Left/Right 500 Center 450 (1450 total)
Thrust (high thrust-lasers removed): 9(10)
STreamlining/Antigrav Yes/No
Weapons: 2 5/2 lasers (wingS) 1 TPP-9 (bow) 3 Hard points (2 wing 1 bow)
Manubalista stats.
Engagement at long range (105+ kilometers) is the preferred from of attack [against a Manubalista)
100+ km seems to define long range in fighter duels.
Saxum light fighter
Mass: 75
Engines: Left/Right/Center 450 (1350t toal)
Thrust (high thrust): 9 (none)
STreamlining/Antigrav Yes/No
Weapons: 2 wing mounted 3/1 lasers, 1 NPC 9 (bow)
3 hard points (2 wing, 1 bow)
Saxum stats
Later he was instrumental in developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategic level simulation model for optimizing TOG attack plans against the KessRith empire. This model was unique in addressing the normal military and economic aspects of the campaign as well as racial and sociological characteritics of the KessRith. Through the use of this program, TOG strategists were able to correctly predict the KessRith's use of suicide tactics, and thus allowed TOG to plan and implment proper defensive measures before the actual start of the campagin.
Mention of AIs and modelling of battles for predictive purposes, with seemingly effective results (against the Kessrith at least)
When he submitted his findings to the Procurement Board, it was not the 100-page report they had expected, but a detailed plan for the fighter, plus a flight manual, a complete disseration on its proper tactical use, and the programming needed to recode three existing robotic manufacutring facilities to begin immediate production.
The RL Universe has robotic manufacturing, at least for fighters, but it makes sense they do for other things too.
Telum class light fighter
Mass: 121
Engines: Left/Right 750 (1500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (none)
STreamlining/Antigrav Yes/No
Weapons:
1 bow MDC-G, 2 TPP-16 (wing mount) 3 hard points (wing and bow)

Telum stats.
Cuspis-class medium fighter

Mass: 141
Engines: Left/Right 1000 (2000 total)
Thrust (high thrust - lasers replaced): 7 (8)
STreamlining/Antigrav: no/Yes
Weapons 2 wing 5/4 lasers, 1 NPC 16, 1 EPC 14 (bow) 3 hard points (wings and bow)
Cuspis stats.
Engagement ranges for this class [Cuspis] shoudl be at 90+ kilometers
90+ km engagement range.
CWTP-class Medium fighter:
Mass: 153
Engines: Center: 1800
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (7)
STreamlining/Antigrav: No/No
Weapons: 2 wing 5/4 lasers, Bow cone laser, 4 wing hard points.
CWTP stats
Defensor-class medium fighter:
Mass: 182
Engines: Left/Right 900 (1800 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 5 (none)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 7.5/2 lasers, 1 EPC 9 (bow), 2 NPC 16 (wings), 1 MDC-G (bow) 2 hard points (bow)
Defensor stats.
Fulman-class medium fighter:
Mass: 132
Engines: Left/Right 900 (1800 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 7 (87\)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 5/4 lasers, 1 MDC-G (bow) 3 hard points (wings and bow)
Fulman stats.
A cheaper fighter can carry out such missions just as effectively, a philosohpy that has recently led TOG to adopt a high-low procurement policy. This policy calls for units scheduled exclusively for garrison duty to be issued less expensive equipment, while units detined for active combat zones would receive the more expensive, more effective high-tech equipment.
A process which applies to the LEgions as well (Strike Legions getting the best stuff, Garrison legions the less expensive gear.) Not neccesarily a good or bad policy, but it has obvious drawbacks as far as morale and camaraderie go (then again this is TOG, such things really don't matter.)
Idis class medium fighter
Mass: 114
Engines: Left/Right 850 (1700 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 7(8)
STreamlining/Antigrav no/yes
Weapons 2 wing 5/3 lasers, 2 bow EPC 18, 3 hard points (wings and bow)

Idis stats.
Recommended engagement ranges against the IDis are 105+ kilometers
j

105 km engagement range again
Onagri class medium fighter:
Mass: 140
Engines: Center: 1900
Thrust (high thrust): 7
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 4 wing 3/4 lasers, 6 hard points (wings nad bow)
Onagri stats.
Sica-class medium fighter
Mass: 112
Engines: Center: 1600
Thrust (high thrust): 7 (8)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 7.5/1 lasers, 1 EPC 18 (bow), 1 hard point (bow)
Sica stats.
Once the ships were flying again, she reprogrammed a robotic spot welder to inadequately weld one joint along a high-stress strut, and then reprogrammed the inspection robot to ignore the faulty weld.
Welding and inspection robots, again indicating robotics used in manufacturing.
Tormenta-class medium fighter:
Mass: 159
Engines: Left/Right 1000 (2000 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (none)
STreamlining/Antigrav no/no
Weapons 2 wing 7.5/2 lasers, 2 wing mounted 7.5/1 lasers 1 NPC 20 (bow), 1 hard point (bow)
Tormenta stats.
Arcubalista class heavy fighter:
Mass: 96
Engines: Left/Right 850 Center: 800 (2500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 13 (14)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 5/2 lasers, 2 hard points (bow)
ARcubalista stats.
With 13 Gs of acceleration, the Arcubalista is a potentially unstoppable opponent.
Another 13-gee fighter. And a heavy fighter no less. And given the stats, the high thrust option can pull 14 gees

Note however the performance comes at the expense of mass - the thing must not be very heavily armored and is nearly 1/3 the mass of a normal heavy fighter. And it is not very heavily armed.
Basically its the equivalent of sticking heavy fighter engines on a light fighter.
Arcus-class heavy fighter:
Mass: 231
Engines: Left/Right 1200 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 5 (none)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 7.5/5 lasers, 1 EPC 9 (turret), 1 NPC 9 (turret), 2 MDC-8 (bow), 3/4 laser (turret) 3 hard points ( turret and bow)
Arcus stats.

Ictus-class heavy fighter
Mass: 181
Engines: Left/Right 1100 (2200 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (7)
STreamlining/Antigrav yes/no
Weapons 2 wing 7.5/6 lasers 2 bow 7.5/5 lasers 1 hard point (bow)
Ictus stats.
LEgati-class heavy fighter
Mass: 230
Engines: Center/Left/Right 800 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 5
STreamlining/Antigrav no/yes
Weapons 2 turreted 7.5/3 lasers 1 bow 7.5/4 laser, 2 NPC 16 (turret), 1 turret hard point, 2 wing mounted 5/4 lasers, 2 EPC 14 (wings)
Legati stats.
Sercuris-class heavy fighter
Mass: 140
Engines: Center 650 Left/Right 700 (2050 total)
Thrust (high thrust with 7.5/2 lasers removed): 7 (8)
STreamlining/Antigrav no/yes
Weapons 2 turreted 7.5/2 lasers.1 EPC 18 (bow), 2 wing mounted 7.5/2 lasers, 2 bow hard points
Sercuris stats.
Spatha class heavy fighter
Mass: 228
Engines: Center/Left/Right 800 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 5
STreamlining/Antigrav no/yes
Weapons 4 turreted 5/2 lasers 2 wing 7.5/5 lasers, 1 5/4 laser (turret) 1 bow mounted MDC 12, 2 hard points (wings)
Spatha stats.
Lighter fighters should use their superior speed to maintain a distance eof at least 165 kilometers (from a Spatha heavy fighter
165 km range against heavy fighter. One thing I keep thinking is that engagement range may affect the ability to harm fighters or ships (weapons power vs range, vs shielding, perhaps.)
Pharetra class corvette
Mass: 2143
Engine: Center: 9500
Thrust 2 (allocatable power 415)
Streamlining/Grav: No/Yes
Crew: 5 PAssengers 12 (6 pilots, 6 techs),
Fighter bay 6 FTL capable Yes
Weapons 3 5/6 laser (turret), ,automatic hard point
Pharetra corvette stats.
The ship [carrier corvette] would also need enoguh extra ordnance to allow the fighters to launch at least three fully-armed sorties.[
Requirements of a fighter carrying corvette.
Promi was lightly reprimanded for unethical behaviour, then promoted to project coordinator for the Zeus-class battlecruiser project.
Zeus-class battlecruiser, something we've never seen.
Missiles are devastating weapons whoose one real limitation is that only a small number can be externally mounted. The autoloading hard point is designed to overcome this problem, at least in larger, patrol-class craft and installations. Rather than having each missile mounted on an individual hard point, this weapon uses the same launcher for all the missiles. The missiles are stored in an internal ammo bay and are invidiually fed up to the hard point through a complex loading mechanism. Once the launcher is clear, the next missile takes its place.
..

One missile may be launched from the auto hard poitn per turn, up to a total of ten missiles.
Autoloading hard point ewapons technology. I suppose this might qualify as an internal weapons bay. One wonders why they just don't build a bay into the ship for this purpose.
Instead of the mini-laser system used by TOG ground froecs, the MDCG uses a multiple-barrel mass driver with a damage profile similar to that of a conventional MDC-8. When engaging a missile, the MDCG throws out a cloud of high velocity slugs into the missiel's path.

The mDC-G has a restricted firing arc, and does not scan a full 360 degree arc. The pilot is expected to maneuver his ship into a position that allows the MDC G fire control equipment to acquire the missile.
I wonder why they ues a gatling mass driver rather than a laser for point defense against missiles?
Recent experiments in EPC technologies have resulted in the development of the Thorium Plasma Projector (TPP) The new weapon superheats thorium to a plasma and then accelerates the plasma to high speeds before firing it at a target. Like an EPC bolt, the plasma boils off armour in large sections. Unlike an EPC, the Thorium plasma penetrates the armor before dispersing, causing conical cavities inside the armor plating. Because the plasma disperses and cools over a relatively s hort distance, the TPP is exclusively a short range weapon.

...
Its energy consumption is quite high, however, restricting its use to larger, better-powered craft
RL invents its own magic plasma weapons technology, which naturally does damage based on heat. Really all RL energy weapons are extremely bizaree acting, especially the pbws.
Power
TPP 9 8
TPP 16 15
TPP 20 23
Power stats for the Thorium plasma projector.
Cone laser: Power: 35

The Cone Laser i s a 7.5/6 laser that fires a beam modulated on a frequency differing from the standard. This modulation increases the beam's short range penetrating power, but accelerates beam attenuation over longer ranges. The modulation also creates a unique damage profile. When the beam strikes armor plating, the armor starts to vaporize. The vaporized armor then refracts the beam into a conical shape. The Cone laser is a superb weapon for undercutting armor, but it is also a massive and power hungry system.
Remember what I said about weird lasers? I'm pretty sure real lasers wouldn't do this.
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

This time I'm going to do three updates: CW figher briefing, Golden Medusas and Fire Eagles. The Latter two are missions/campaign stories following both a Commonwealth and TOG figther squadron, respectively.

First the fighter briefing
Bumblebee class light fighter
Mass: 69
Engines: Left/Right 700 (1400 total)
Thrust (high thrust w/o lasers): 10 (11)
STreamlinging/Grav no/yes

Weapons 2 5/1 laser (wing), 1 EPC 9 (bow), 1 hard point (bow
Bublebee fighter. Note the high thrust option. Lasers correpsond to 1 gee of thrust :P - GW to TW lasers certainly.
Falcon-class light fighter
Mass: 83
Engines: Left/Right 750 (1500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 9
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No

Weapons: 2 wing NPC-9, 1 bow hardpoint
Falcon stats.
The stronger than average forwar dshielding of this light fighter allows it to accelerate directly toward a target, to fire its NPCs at 60 to 90 kilometers, and then to execute a 180 degree turn that presents its strong rear shields to any return fire.
...

Tactically, the Falcons and Penetrators may engage a target at 90 and 105 kilometers, ,respectively. After weakening the target, the Penetrators will close to 15 kilometers while the Falcons provide a fighter screen to delay any TOG reinforcements.
Engagement ranges of the mentioned fighters. note Penetrators closing to 15 kms or less, which is noted as the likely engagement range for using targeting lasers to "read" shield flicker rates.
Shield-class light fighter
Mass: 71
Engines: Left/Right 700 (1400 total)
Thrust (high thrust-laser removed): 10 (11)
STreamlinging/Grav: Yes/no

Weapons 1 bow 7.5/2 laser, 3 hard points (1 bow 2 wing)
Shield fighter state.s note the high thrust option again.
Ventura-class light fighter
Mass: 101
Engines: Center 1200
Thrust (high thrust): 6
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No

Weapons 2 5/1 lasers (wing), MDC 8 (bow) 2 wing hardpoints.
Ventura class stats.
Corsair medium fighter
Mass: 123
Engines: Left Right 1000 (2000 total)
Thrust (high thrust - lasers replacedt): 8 (9)
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No
Weapons 7.5/2 laser (wings), EPC 18 (Wings) hard point (Bow)
Corsair stats.
Devil medium fighter
Mass: 142
Engines: Left/Right 1000 (2000 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 7
STreamlinging/Grav no/Yes

Weapons 5/1 laser (wings), EPC 14 and MDC 10 (bow) Safeguard-1 (bow), Hard point (bow)
Devil fighter stats.
Hawk-class medium fighter
Mass: 203
Engines: Center 1550
Thrust (high thrust): 4
STreamlinging/Grav yes/no

Weapons 2 5/2 laser, 2 MDC 10 (wing mounts), Safeguard 2 (bow), 2 hard points (bow)
Hawk class fighter stats.
Despite the Hawk's improvments, it does not rectify the Guardians' primary flaw, which is poor acceleration. Pulling only 4 G's, the Hawk is a difficult, sometimes impossible, fighter to deploy tactically, and so should be easy prey for any Imperial Navy ship.
4 Gs and a thrust of four. You do the math.
Kata Cator (Hand that strikes) medium fighter
Mass: 120
Engines: Left Right 900 (1800)
Thrust (high thrust): 7 (8)
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No

Weapons 2 7.5/2 laser (wing mount), 2 TPP 16 (bow mount) 1 bow hard point.[
Kata Cator fighter stats (with high thrust option)
Kenderson class medium fighter
Mass: 145
Engines: Left Right 900 (1800 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (7)
STreamlinging/Grav no/Yes

Weapons 2 5/4 lasers (wings) 2 3/5 lasers (Wings), 1 MDC 8 (bow), 2 hard points (wings)
Kenderson class medium fighter stats.
Peacekeeper medium fighter
Mass: 140
Engines: Left Right 1000 (2000 toital)
Thrust (high thrust): 7 (8)
STreamlinging/Grav no/yes

Weapons: 2 7.5/3 laserS (wings), 2 5/4 laser (wings) 2 hard points (wings)
Peacekeeper stats.
Ramrod medium fighter
Mass: 112
Engines: Center 2000
Thrust (high thrust): 9
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/no

Weapons 3/5 laser, EPC 14, Hard point (all bow)
Ramrod stats.
This fighter [Ramrod medium] went from the design stages to actual demployment in the remarkable record time of 36 weeks. The speed was achieved at a heavy cost however. The quality of workmanship on the orignal ramrods was poor, at best.
36 weeks to design and build a fighter, although with quality drawbacks. Upper limit on design/build speed of a fighter/
STinger Medium fighter:
Mass: 143
Engines: Left Right (none given)
Thrust (high thrust): (not given)
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No

Weapons 2 wing 7.5/2 lasers, 2 EPC 14 (wings), Safeguard 2 (bow), ,3 hard points (1 bow, 2 wing)
Stinger class medium fighter.
In response, remaining local arms manufactuers began the Stinger program in an attempt to produce a medium fighter using non-strategic materials such as plastics, ceramics, and nickel/iron steel.
...

Eighty-five percent of the Stinger's airframe is constructed of these common materials, while the electronic and computer components utilize silicon chips instead of bio-molecular procecssors whenever possible. The EPC barrel is plated with chromium rather than stress-aligned titanium.

These substitute mateirals have caused operational and logistical problems for stinger units. The EPC barrels, for example, are pitted and burntout after 50 firings and so must be constantly replaced. The ship is also bulky in comparison to its tonnage, with some reprots indicating that it is unable to fit into a standard 150 ton fighter bay. Finally, technicians for the stinger must be retrained in obsolescent silicon chip technology. Though the cost of the substitute raw materials for the craft is lower, the manufacturing process is more complex, whcih makes the stinger as costly as a craft built from more conventional materials.
A bit of interetsing commentary on fighter materials and computer tech.

First the computer tech - RL univese computers use "bio molecular processors" whatever that means, but they re still electrical. Silicon is outdated, which implies that they've matched or exceeded whatever performance we can get from computers.

Secondly, they use a number of real life materials suchas nickel/iron steel in composition and chromium rather than "stress aligned titanium" - whatever the fuck that is. IT is chepaer for the fighter, but I gather the use of less sophisticated materials/tech makes them harder to build as they re not used to using them. That the ships are bulkier (lager volume) for the same tonnage suggest smodern materials for RL ships are denser than nickel/iron/chromium (which is interesting given the ultralight ship masses.) IT also implies that the magic titanium is considerably more durable/heat resistant than mere chromium (orders of magnitude more, perhaps?)

Still performance wise the ship is not VASTLY less impressive than the magitech materials they normally do (although what kinds of plastics/cermaics are used aren't specified - they oculd be fairly magical and we odnt know where all the steel is used) so it does suggest RL materials for fighters are not many orders of magnitude vastly better. (EG nothing like neutronium in the hulls or anything. ;) )
Defender heavy fighter
Mass: 199
Engines: Left Right 1200 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6
STreamlinging/Grav yes/no

Weapons 2 5/2 laser (wings), 2 MDC 12 (bow), 1 hard point (bow)
Defender heavy fighter stats.
Defiant class heavy fighter
Mass: 174
Engines: Left/Right 800 Center 900 (2500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 7 (8)
STreamlinging/Grav YEs/no

Weapons 2 7.5/5 laser (wings), Safeguard 3 (bow) 2 EPC 18 (bow), Hard point (bow
Defiant heavy fighter stats.
Gladius squadrons are now ordered to launch four or five missiles at one Defiant [to overload its safeguard point defenes system) Martiobarbulus squadrons are to engage Defiant targets at 105+ kilometers with laser and MDC fire.
Engaging a Defiant with its uber point defense.
Gaul-class heavy fighter
Mass: 215
Engines: Left/Right 1250 (2500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6
STreamlinging/Grav no/yes

Weapons 3/6 laser and NPC 16 (turret), 2 MDC 10 (wings) 1 bow hard point.
Gaul class fighters.
Perforator class heavy fighter
Mass: 148
Engines: Left Right 1200 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 8 (9)
STreamlinging/Grav no/yes

Weapons 2 7.5/5 laser (wings), 2 5/4 laser (bow)
Perforator Heavy fighter.
In 6820 it took approximately three minutes for Commonwealth fighters to score appreciable internal damage on the TOG fighters. By 6827, this time limit had risen to five minutes. They supposed th tthe reason for this degradation was not that the Imperial Navy had upgraded the defensive systems of its fighters, or that the Imperial pilots were better, but rather that with the introduction of the Spiculum[/i[ overall manueverability of TOG fighters had increased..


Manuverability seems to have an impact on the ability to score hits/internal damag ethrough shields and armor of figghters. Probably with terms of concentration off ire through defenses. Also the implication that defensive systems of fighters can be upgraded.


Punisher class heavy fighter
Mass: 186
Engines: Left/Right 1200 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 6 (7)
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/No

Weapons: 2 7.5/6 laser (wings) 2 EPC 18 (wings), 1 hard point (bow) one LEPC 18 (bow)


Punisher heavy fighter. Note the high thrust option. With the increase in mass relative to accel almost certainly in single digit TW range. for lasers.


The LEPC is a merger of the 5/1 light laser and an EPC heavy weapons system. The LEPC fires intermixed laser and EPC pulses out of a common barrel. The laser pulse penetrates into the target's armor and then the EPC bolt enters the cavity just created by the laser, blowing out large segments of the arnor. While the design is fine in theory, often the timing between the laser and EPC pulses is off and the EPC bolt i stopped by the flickering shields, resulting in a very inefficient weapons system.


RL hybrid laser/particle beam weapon. Implies EPC can have similar diameter to lasers (before spreading out to boil off armor of course.) although it has limts. Curious that the timing can be off, given that EPCs move at near-c and lasers do as well. Is the timing that significant given the relatively slow flicker rates, or what?


Slingshot heavy fighter
Mass: 156
Engines: Left Right 1200 (2400 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 7
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/no

Weapons: 2 7.5/6 lasers (Wing) 8 hard points (all wing)


Slingshot fighter stats


Warspite heavy fighter
Mass: 153
Engines: Left/Right 1250 (2500 total)
Thrust (high thrust): 8
STreamlinging/Grav Yes/no

Weapons bow 1.5/6 laser. 2 wing mounted EPC 9, 1 turret mounted 7.5/5 laser. 3 hard points (2 bow, one turret)



Warspite stats.


Solstice class corvette
Mass: 2877
Engines: Left/Right/Center: 4500 (13,500)
Thrust (high thrust): 2 (allocatable power 940)
STreamlinging/Grav no/yes
Crew 6 Fighter bays 6 Passengers 12 (6 pilots, 6 techs) FTL capable yes

Weapons 2 MDC 10 in turrets, 1 automatic hard point (turret), Sageguard 3 (bow)


Solstice corvette stats.


The Solstice carries up to six 175 ton fighters and provides limited maintenance and replenishment facilities. These facilities allow the squadron to fly up to three full sorties before returning to a supply depot or ship.


Capabilities as a fighter carrier.


Two Solstice class corvettes and one Assault escort came jumping out of T space only two standard diameters away from the planet.


Interesting.. 25K km emergence point, which isn't too far off what SW ships can safely do.



Based on a ground point-defense systme, the Safeguard is an autonomous weapon system that continously scans the immediate area around the ship or fighter. IF a missile is detected, a mini-laser is automatically brought to bear and engages the incoming threat. Because the system is totally under computer guidance, it can engage multiple targets with varying degrees of success.

..

The Safeguard ties directly into the ship's own fire control computer and overrides the normal wepaon targeting proceess, thus for every missile that the system engages, the pilot is unable to activate a like number of offensive systems. Secondly, the Safeguard system cannot operate in an active ECM enviroment, so more traditional ECM measures cannot be used in conjunction with an active system, nor can multiple systems be used because of signal interference. Finally, the laser is so low powered it can only puncture the thin skin of a missile not the massive armor of a fighter.



Safeguard point defense for fighters - related to the gatling lasers on grav tanks, I imagine.


Most weapons do not possess sufficient power to penetrate armor with one shot. Multiple weapon hits tear away patches of armor and finally explose the delicate inner structure of the spacecraft ot attack. If a pilot is very lucky, all of his follow-up shots will hit the same area and penetration is quickly achieved. Unlucky pilots have their shots scatter all over the surface of the target.

A Laser/EPC combo attempts to combine the high penetrating abilites of the laser with the lateral damage profiels of an EPC. The mechanism is quite simple in concept. The laser bolt is fired first and immediately behind it an ECP beam is projected. The laser drives a passage through the armor, which the EPC beam enters. The EPC then strieks the bottom of the column and undercuts all of the armor above it. In this manner, large chunks of a ship's armor are detached and float off into space.

There are probelms with the LAser/EPC. The first is that in the face of active shields the EPC bolt might be blocked even though the laser gets through. Secondly the targeting and synchronization mechanisms are complex and require a great deal of power, so the system weighs more and consumes more power than the two systems seprately. Finally, because of engineering constraints, designers have only been able to meld the three stnadard EPCs with a 5/1 laser.


he Laser/EPc hybrid weapon once again - note the oddity of being blocked by shields, suggesting the delay between laser and particle pulse is fairly slow (tenths or hundreths of a second, rather than milli or micro second delays which would make more sense in light of combat ranges, starship velocities, and weapon velocities.) The complexity of engineering for a hybrid weapon makes sense, however.


********

Then: Fire Eagles (TOG Fighter Squad)


The 3021st was quickly tossed into the fray, assigned to protect the planet Tandar from KessRith raids. In late 6688, the unit received its baptism under fire. However, rather than a KessRith raiding party, the foe was an entire planetary invasion force. Severely outnumbered, the 3021st set course for their transport carriers, on the far side of the Tandar sun. Pursued by the majority of the KessRith naval forces, the Commanding OFficer of the 3021st thought of a daring plan. Using the sun's gravitational pull, he managed to "slingshot" the wing back toward the unprotected KessRith transports. Outdistancing the enemy, the 3021st engaged the transports, destroying over 75 percent of them. Lalcking adequate troops to conquer the planet, the KessRith withdrew to a nearby base.


fighter/starship velocities were not so great that they couldn't use a star to slingshot back on the target. Probably not more than a few thousand km/s at best if that, more likely tens/hundreds of km/s (say between 70 and 600 km/s)

The fighters also managed to travel between planet and sun, slingshot back around towards teh invasion fleet, at least a 2 AU distance for an EArth-sun distance plus however many millions of km expended to slingshot around the planet and such. They had to do this within far less than 10 days, and probably more like 5 days at most. Average velocity is some 350 km/s over that minimum distance. but probably is faster.


The Commonwealth threw a formation of missile cruisers into the battle, hoping one or more would reach the TOG transport fleet.

..

After completing several runs on the cruiser, the IFS-1253 regrouped, dispirted because most of their shots bounced harmlessly off the cruiser. Suddenly, Oliver spied an open missile bay in the cruiser. He quickly formualted a plan and led the squadron on a run, ordering the crew to target the exposed missile bay. As they flew past, the TOG commanders were astonished to see the Commonwealth missile cruiser erupt in a huge ball of fire.


I guess they have missile armed cruiser ships. The missiles they are armed with are also extremely volatile, given that fighters cna set them off and destroy the cruiser. Otherwise (We note) the IFS-1523 couldn't do dick to the attack force.



Devising a plan using the 3021st and a Battleship group, the techno-wizards of TOG amplified the sensor image of the two groups. Commonwealth monitoring stations suddenly reported the appearance of a huge invasion fleet massing to strike at the planet Thapsus. The Commwealth redeployed its forces to meet this apparent threat, and when TOG launched its real offenseive, the Commonwealth was caught by surprise.


Possible implication of FTL detection of some manner, since they use sensor trickery of the moniotoring stations to divert the commonwealth into defending the wrong target. Possibly this could be done with T-doppler, but fighters aren't FTL capable.


Jen Hillunder laid a beauty of a shot through the screens, destroying their sublight drive.


The vessel is a transport of some type, presumably military. May be at least corvette sized, but probably not vastly larger. Either way they manage to get a shot through the flicker screens, and that requires either the pilot having reflexes at LEAST many times greater than a normal human, or that fighters can (to a extent) do the same "flicker matching" trick Tanks do, albeit probably with more limited success.




I got on the comm circuit and told the passengers that if I encountered any resistancec, scott would cast off and vaporize the ship and any lifepod trying to escape.


Fighter can vaporize a transport and whatnot. Literal or figureative, the target isnt exactly inert. Oh well.


I settled for an oblique approach, and at 225 klicks, I fired my lasers. Within seconds, we closed to 15 km and Jen, my WSO, began fscoring hits. Just superficial at this point. Just before we passed each other, I unloaded one of my sharks (SSS missiles). I launched so close the pilot would worry about the missile and forget me. This usually works, but this REnegade gunner was good. He blew that missile into next year! I performed a half-roll snap-turn, attempting to get on his tail. Unforttunately, he did an inverse dive and cuaght my port side.


225 km range for lasers, and covering 200 km in "seconds" (both ships doing it) implies a velocity somewhere between several km/sec and upwards of 100 km/s. Thy manage to dogfight successfully at these velocities, I might add.


Bandear was home to the fighters of the TOG 272nd fighter group, the group that included the Fire Eagles. The base, along with several sensor gunboats, served the function of scanning the system for hostile intruders. A squadron of fighters remained on BARCAP at all times, while another was stationed on the warm-up deck. The station's sensors, although far more powerful than those of the fighters, were not 100 percent reliable. Therefore, when the sensor operators discovered a qustionable contact, part of the BARCAP would check it out. Except for those special missions, BARCAP forces are restrricted to a ditance of .2 light years from the base.


sensor gunboats, and base sensors are implied to have a potential detection range up to .2 light years out. Again may be T-drive detection or might not, but probably not since as noted before, fighters are not FTL capable and they could only observe/check on objects in realspace.

Another possibility is that the LY thing is an error, and they really meant AU. .2 AU would make more sense.


Interviewer: How long did it take you to get to them?
Felix: well it should have taken only five minutes, but it took longer because they were out of position....
Interviewer: Out of position?

Felix: Yeah, they were only supposed to be .2 light years out. by the time we reached them, they were almost .5 light years out.


.5 light years? Maybe more like light seconds would be better. Or light minutes, although that throws closing velociies into thousands of km/sand would require thousands of gees acceleration. A fifth of an AU out would be even worse (100,000 km/s for example)

Another possibility is the transport carriers are travelling at FTL. average velocity is some 20,000c at least. I'm betting on this as "makes most sense"



[Felix] ...Tiberius said he had this "feeling" and we'd escort our wounded boys back to the base.

Interviewer: A "feeling?"

Felix: "Yeah, it's uncanny. But when the CO has one, we all listen,. He's saved our butts many a time with his sixth sense. And you know something? He was right. An entire Commonwealth squadron was hiding in the shadow of a moon so that our long-range sensors failed to pick them up.


Implied psychic activity and precog .


Salus: Apparently not. Either they've developed a new sensor or one of those TOG pilots had ESP or something. IT was uncanny! One moment they were sitting ducks and the next they were roasting the pants off of us!"


Again psy phenomenon implied.


The Junction asteroid belt is situated .3 light years from Novuta II It is a strategic location for the Commonwealth as most of their outbound convoys are routed to Novuta before being sent elsewhere. Due to the mechanics of T-space travel, the convoys emerge near the asteroid belt and ocntinue their journey to Novuta II at sublight speeds. TOG pilots love to secrete themselves in the asteroid field and bushwhack convoys as they exit T-space. Needless to say, Commonwealth high command runs daily patrols through the belt to discourage this practice. Patrols are instructed to raido for assistancee to deal with the meance. On this particular day, the Fire Eagles were assigned the asteroid field The Commonwealth assigned an undermanned squadron to patrol and discourage any intruders. Unfortunately, the squadron commander decided to disobey orders and attack the TOG fighters without any backup.


This tends to suggest typo - .3 light years out is... a bit too far for a system. Light hour or light minute seems likelier. Or even more likely .3 AU Note the practice of "daily patrosl" as well

If the belt were 2 AU out and 2 AU back (limit of range on fighter drives according to other sources, but also approximate distance of solar system asteroid belt from Earth) Acceleration would be a constant 16 gees, but velocity would be close to something like 2.3% of lightspeed - 12 hours toward sand 12 hours back. At .3 AU it would take around 1,000 km/s and could eaisly be in the single/double digit gee range - overlal this interpretation would fit better.




We were told to prepare to move out by 1000 hours.

...

By 1100 hours, the squadron was .1 light year out of Bandear. I was sorry I'd eaten, because that donad was sitting on my stomach like a black hole. Anyway, it took us all of three houres to reach the Dened system. When we arrived, Tiberius read us our patrol vectors. I got inward bound again, which I hate because it means moving directly into the sun!

..

The hours seemed to pass like days, when at 1500 hours it happened. I don't know if hte scouts failed to do a thorough job or what, but the sound of battle suddenly came over the comm system.

...

Tiberius called us to return and support the Express. Everyone responded except Evander and Neiquist, who were on the back leg of their patrol, and the system primary blocked our signals to them. About three-fourths of the way back, we heard the Express driving off the rest of the REnegade forces, though at a loss of tow of their pilots.

..

When we were less than ten minutes from their position, they radioed to warn us that their sensors picked up a squadron of incoming Renegade Fighters.

...

Less than ten minutes later, enemy fighters arrived, apparently concentrating on the holoship.

...

AFter a few minutes of combat, the Renegade forces lost a corsair, and with the arrival of Scott and Jyon imminent, the remaining Renegade forcees fled.

...

We hung around until a rescue ship arrived to tow it home and then headed out. We didn't arrive home until almost 2100 hours.


11 hour mission, including maybe six hours back and forth via FTL. .1 LY/hr implied at least, although travelling to another system was 3 hours. 5 hour patrol. No idea of distances covered, though.



Felix, my WSO, managed to lock onto a Corsair and pounded through it starboard armor. Within seconds of penetration, that Renegade fighter was reduced to slag.


Melting a Commonwelath fighter in "seconds" assuming iron and several seconds and a mass between 70 and 250 tons is between 80 and 300 gigajoules over several seconds.



Situation: August 26, 6829, .7 light years from Dened III.


Sets the time and date. .6 LY from base, the enemy was .1 LY away.. but thees clearly aren't light years. Something else (minutes, hours, eh.) AU instead of LY again, possibly.


Interviwer: Please describe the events leading to the encounter on September 2.

...
Neiquist: Ah well, we were about .2 of a light year out when De'Gritz thought he saw something on his scanner...

...

Neiquist: ... Once we reached about .6 light years out, I saw something on my scanners. It looked like two fighters with a larger vessel of some sort. They were way out in the fringes of our departure zone.

Interviewer: Departure Zone?

Neiquist: Yeah. Our carriers need some space to accelerate up to speed to make the transition to T-space. The Departure zone is the area where we actually make the jump. The ships were about 300,000 kilometers from their normal departure spot, so I checked the duty roster.

...

Neiquist: ...when we reached 1000 kilometers, our sensors identified the enemy. There were two Kenderson Class fighters and what appeared to be a modified Reliance Class gunboat.


...

Neiquist: Well, our scanners showed that the gunboat was virrtually stripped of weapons but was cruising along and dropping metal spheres out of a hole in the hull.

..

Neiquist... We tangled with the Kendersons for a few minutes before destroying them.

...

Neiquist.. After that, we were ordered to stay in the area. An hour later, a salvage vessel arrived and we were rodered to proceed home.


Implied sensor range of at least 1 LS or so, implied to cover that distance in minutes, to an hour. Doulbe digit gees, high hundreds/low thousands velocity. AU would make more sense in this case.


Situation: September 2, 6829, .7 light years from Bandear fighter station.


More light year errors.


At that point, a young Commonwealth technical wizard by the name of Joe Rochefort provided a solution. He proposed a series of remote sensors placed in all TOG systems containing major forces. When the TOG forces moved, the sensors would determine the size and approximate destination sof the force, ,relaying the information to the Commonwealth.

This idea had been tried before, and failed because previous sensors had alerted all the TOG sensor units. Young Rochefort discovered a solution to the problem. A damper would "mute" the signature so it could not be detected unless the sensor unit was within .3 light years. If the sensors were positioned far enough out, they would be safe. The Commonwealth high command bought the idea, ,and within a year, most of the major TOG bases were "bugged". The TOG knew nothing of this plan, until two fighters from the Fire Eagles found the modified Reliant Class gunboat and its fighter escorts laying sensors in the Carthage X system.


Both sides seem to make use of FTL-telemetry drones to scout out/observer systems, although the limitations of such devices are their detectability to enemy sensors (which this new "damper" is meant to fix - some sort of stealth system I guess?)


Over the next two weeks, we engaged in a harrowing chase. The Imperial Standard[ came out of T-space to dissipate shimmer heat, enabling my crew to close within striking distance.


The Fire Eagles squadron chase a corvette for two weeks. This implies both groups had at least one resupply of some kind, since Prefect (IIRC) mentions most fighters aren't good for more than 10 days time at most.


Every year, an estimated 1,000,000 people defected [to the commonwealth], causing TOG a grerat deal of concern. Their answer was to capture as many defectors as possible and execute them in horrible ways. The Lictors also arrested defectors' families, executing them or sending them to the laser crystal mines as slaves.


The concern over defectors must be a purely symbolic one, since a million defectors annually is a drop in the bucket compared to the populations of TOG and the Commonwealth both.


Jen: .. Anyway, we proceeded to the Scets system to take a look around. We didn't find anything other than an asteroid belt orbiting its sun at about .2 light years out.


Again, I wonder if they're confusing AU and Light year. They do use AUs in Wake of the Kraken, for example.


Situation: September 29, 6829, .5 light years from Scets System Primary.


Yet again.. possible confusion.


We finished those six feeble fighters about .3 light years from their base, and Tiberius decided to call in our position.


More confusion.


Situation: September 29, 6829.

.2 light years from SCetis primary.


Still yet more confusion.

********


Last: Golden Medusas (CW fighter squad)


The new laws had a grave effect on the economy. Many women were immediately forced out of the workplace by men greedy for their jobs, while many others decided that there was no longer any point to working if any man could simply seize what they had earned. By the end of the first year of the Patria Potestas, the mass exodus of women from their jobs resulted in a 20 percent drop in the realm's productivity. This, coupled with military losses to the KessRith empire, sent the TOG economy into a depression that was to last for ten years.


Adverse effects of making women property had on TOG.


The Potsda, Grand Dukedom fell in 6730, Caverlil in 6752, Somm Trau in 6778, Alesia in 6783, The Mission Stars in 6791, Medina in 6792, Nisus and the Grenbenr Grand Dukedoms were lost in 6811 and 6823, respectively.


Progress of the war and Commonwealth losses.


The TOG was particularily anxious to take Ju Jasos, which they intended to use as a supply center for future offensives. Wanting to avoid turning too many million square kilometres into a smouldering wasteland, they took care where they created damage.

...

The war for Ju Jasos soon resembled the way wars had been fought millenia before. After the two contesting navies ad fought each other to a standstill above Ju Jasos, it became the planetside legions and fighter wings who would decide the planet's fate. These legions fought and manuvered, each reluctant to use its most destructive weaponry. The 672 and the Blood Eagles adopted the tactics of their ancient ancestors, and took to fighting totally within the planet's atmosphere. Because of the restrictions placed on them by their superiors and the atmosphere, combat between the two wings became very ritualized. As they battled one another in the skies over Ju Jasos, the units seemed to develop a set of rules forbidding the use of certain weapons systems deemed too destructive.


Implication about the devastating nature of warfare in the RL universe in and around planets - orbital bombardment seems to be one thing ruled out (because it would turn "too many" million+ sq km into wasteland) It is also implied both fighters and perhaps even the Legions had weaponry that could achieve similar effects (although presumably over longer periods of time.)

For the record a million square km is something like 1000x1000 km, which is roughly on the order of continent-sized effects.

The long and short of it is, its very easy for RL forces to fuck up a planet with their weapons unless they are careful, which tells us a great deal about the kinds of weaponry they may have access to.



As a native of a small agricultural colony in the distant Small Magellanic Cloud, he spent much of his early life in the out-of-doors.

...

Hevush Opat is one of a growing number of men and women from colonies in the Magellanic Clouds who are venturing to the Milky Way Galaxy to fight for the Commonwealth. While he was growing up, Opat became fascinated by the conflict and devoured every bit of news about the immense struggle occuring up in the night sky.

In 6819, on his 17th Birthday, he left his home to join the Commonwealth military.

...

In a war where a fighter pilot's average life expectancy is just two years, Hevush Opat's 19 years in the squadron makes him a vast storehouse of information and experience.


The Small Magellanic Clouds are some 200,000 LY away.The interesting thing about this is that apparently 200,000 LY isn't too far away for at least some culture/settlements to trade fairly recent information and such about the war (EG its not years or decades out of date, for example) suggesting fairly regular, if limited, contact. The implication is he made that travel within the same year he left home, although the math is a bit f'ed up (6831 was "current" era IIRC, while leaving at 17 and joining would suggest an age of 36 with 19 years in the squadron) In any event we're talking some 17,000 LY/month at least.


Once in T-space, the liner purposely detonated its drive, transforming itself into an immense flower of multicoloured tachyons that bloomed and then vanished,


T-space explosion. Note the ship turns itself into tachyons.


Tesselavala was originally assigned to warships as a gunner and then as a WSO officer. She served with great distinction aboard the CPS Hood, earning a medal for managing to keep her laser turret firing against an approaching TOG cruiser, even after the Hood suffered a power failure.

...

She is used to the relative anonymity of life aboard a large warship...


Laser turrets on warship. Also the turrets can keep firing even after power is lost, suggesting significant capacitor systems or some sort of redundancy.


He [KessRith] received an experimental artificial eye implant that restored some of his lost vision. WEaring the eye is painful, however...


It allows him to keep piloting. Whether it is painful for all prostehtics or just KessRith isn't specific.



Trajan's reaction to this bold threat was just as blunt. He ordered two complete carrier groups to maneuver directly above the Death Express and ever so slowly to descend on top of them. Trapped between the atmosphere and the ever-lowering bulks of the two carriers and their escorts...


Carrier Groups defined as being two carriers, plus their escorts. Escorts my include cruisers and battleships, however. That might be a carrier squadron though :) Sometimes "group" and "squadron" are confused.


The squadron's most spectacular success in this battle was the destruction of the SS Sanctuary. A huge cruiser-sized ship, it had broken away...

...

The Red Cross on the enemy ship's hull and the many bodies still wrapped in bandages and trailing medical equipment proved that the Sanctuary had been a hospital ship, but the fact seemed to disturb very few among the show's vast audience.
\

cruiser-sized hospital ship, and TOG viewers are assholes.



Because of the urgency of the situation, our taxi carrier, the Gorgon's Mother, was going out under maximum thrust to reach the velocity needed to enter T-space. We had to sit in our fighters and use the acceleration compensators to keep from being crushed into puddles of protoplasm.

Four and a half hours at high Gs, three in T-space, and another hour to decelerate, I was already tired and irritable by the time I gave the deck officer a snarly salute and followed Cassandra's fighter out of the Gorgon's Mother.

...

The idea of spending hours nervously avoiding asteorids while trying ot look for the ship was depressing.

..

.3 LIGHT YEARS OUT FROM DEFIANCE.


Assuming .3 LY is actually .3 AU might get you several thousand km/s average velocity and some 18-20 gees constant accel.

"maximum thrust" might be between 5 and 10 gees usually. at 4.5 hours that is a velocity of 810 km/s. How fucking fast would they be travelling to pull that, considering 10,000 LY/month is a mere 188 km/s? It still does show that the 10,000 LY/month is not an absolute.


The reversion controls began to show a steadily growing inaccuracy in interpreting the spatial coordinates needed to safely transfer the ship back into normal space. The Winston's Captain had no nchoice but to drop out of T-space before the inaccuracies in the resolution controls grew too great.

As it was, the Winston's entry into normal space was almost fatal. Due to the mechanical problems, the resolution controls believed that the ship was three centimeters longer than it actually was and attmepted to translate it that way back into real space. This stretched several bulkheads in the ship beyond safety limits, and two sections of the ship lost their atmosphere. The transition back into real space also disabled the ship's sublight drive, leaving the liner virtually helpless.


The importance of good calculations in T-space jumps - it can severely fuck with your ship's structure. This implies there might bea certain amount of durability needed for good travel.


The Fort Oasis System is a major commonwealth effort to provide protection to convoys traveling from the besieged worlds of Caralis and Messana to safer worlds like Defiance and Ku Crassus. To do this, the Commonwealth has scattered some 50 small fortresses into TOG controlled space between the systems.

..

Once in place, the fort broadcasts its position to approaching convoys by coding messages into micro-second long communication bursts to avoid detection. If a convoy needs to drop from T-space to dissipate Shimmer Heat, it makes the next installation its exit point...


Implications about FTL detectio and comms I suppose. They have to be able to identify convoys too. The implication is that the fort could be detected at a distance if it didn't mask its comms bursts like that. (How it would be detected and tracked by those comm signals isn't specified.)


When a faulty reactor containment vessel exploded there, it decreased power to the fort while at the same time broadcasting the location with bursts of high-energy tachyons that nearby TOG sensors easily picked up.


Exploding reactor manages to (for some reason) spray out tachyons from an explosion that is highly detectable by tachyonic sensors. I guess they don't need just T-dopplers to pick up ships at FTL, they can pick up any source of tachyonic emissions. Which in turn strongly suggests they should be able to create some form of active tachyonic detection (either through deliberately creating tau shimmer, or by the neutron cannon-masking method)

Also the fact some reactor uses tachyons is a rather interesting hint at some sort of exotic power generation.


Cassandra was a hundred kilometers down range of me and the TOG pilot, and heading away. I was taking my time picking up the TOG pilot to make sure I didn't bump him aorund too much. Without any warning, my tracking compute started pinging at me real urgently, showing me that Cassy had whipped her fighter around and was on a collison course with me. Hevush began yelling in my ear to pull out.


100 km away and in immediate risk of collision (like in seconds) suggests velocities of tens of km/s.


Archikeleustes Robert Z Hotz was in the last hour of a long and boring three-hour reconnaissance sweep.


3 hour recon sweep. Again hours, not days.


Out of an expected 20 trillion vieewers, we were falling short some 200,000 viewers.


20 trillion viewers in TOG of a certain tV program - implied population of at least tens if not hundreds of trillions.


Scanning the alternate dimensions of T-space, TOG sensors are capable of seeing Commonwealth ships forming into orderly convoys around the two planets. The sensors observe their departure and their slow progress through T-space. As travel in that alternate set of dimensions does not allow for changes in direction, it is a simple matter for the TOG to predict where and when a convoy will exitT space to rest and make changes in course.


Another interesting bit of data - they can by scanning the "dimensions of T-space" observe commonwealth ships forming up into convoys aorund planets and their departuer into T-space. Yet again FTL sensors are strongly indicated.


That meant Hanrahan and I would have to spend the next 48 hours sitting in our fighters, sucking stale air and doing unspeakable things in our flight suits. The best Keystone could do was to float over some food and beverages. The food was stale and the drinks nowhere near strong enough.

Thirty hours into our watch, the chatter coming over our wing's communications channels suddenly picked up.

...

But if the sensor boys were aware that an enemy squadron carrier would exit T-space a few hundred kilometers above us, they sure as hell didn't inform us. Our first hint that we were under attack was the sudden salvo of laser fire from the seven turrets on Keystone.


Note that 2 days in a fighter is not considered enjoyable or typical, despite thef act they hint that up to 10 days in a fighter is possible. enemy squadron and turrets engage "a few hundred kilometers" away from the respective targets.


To crew the new facility, a contingent of Imperial Reservists were chosen. Old men long past their fighting days and young men still in the awkwardness of puberty make up most of the Imperial Reserves. They are hailed by Caesar as noble volunteers who have given up the best parts of their lives for the realm. The truth of the matter is that most Reservists were either forced into service because of poverty or because recruiters "encouraged" them with methods that included fear and blunt instruments

As a result, Reservist units are seldom well trained or highly motivated soldiers. When confronted with a real fighting situation, their usual reaction is to crumble in panic.


"Imperial Reserves" - another branch of soldiers in addition to the LEgions and Auxilia. They may be a form of Auxilia themselves, like the penal legions, but are little more than militia for all intents and purposes. It is possible they are a pool of recruits from which the Legions can be expanded if need be.


Even though the idstances separating two enemies is often measured in light years, it is usually easy to listen in to the communications of the other side. In dark rooms, mena nd women of all races listen intently to the flow of the enemy's communications while computers attempt ot crack the enemy's code. A code's effectiveness is often measured in mere days, and so to accidentally send a message in outdated code is an open invitation for the enemy to decode it.


Communications surveillance of enemies, as well as code cracking and the need for changing them frequently.
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

More small updates: 2nd Armoured Cav, Harbingers of Death and Distant Fire. The first two are Centurion supplements, and the third I bleieve is for Prefect mainly, but is close enough to be included here. I'm also going to append a second post with Wake of the Kraken and Tessdrake run, because that's Leviathan and I want to round out the small stuff I have posted.

First, 2nd Armoured Cav (Centurion for the Commonwealth side) its pretty small though:
Augustus heavy grav tank

Mass: 382

Engine 2500

Thrust: 4

WEapons Turret: 2 7.5/6 laser, Vulcan IV, 200mm gauss

Hull: 100mm Gauss, 2 TVLG (4) and 1 SMLM (2)
Augustus grav tank stats.
Often called a monster or giant, the Augustus carries 57 tons of Tri-Exoly armor, the best available.) The grav-tank's weakest shield is a 70 flicker-rate, and that is on the bottom. The rest of the vehicles is protected with 80 and 90-flicker shields. The Augustus can accelerate by as much as 50 KPH every minute
"Tri-Exoly"a rmor, whatever that is, is the best available for tanks, and the heavy tank carries nearly 60 tons of it.

50 kph per minute is about .83 km per minute squared, or 13 m/s per every minute, or .2 meters per second squared (20 milligees) That's pretty slow as far as RL tanks go (the M1 Abrams can make about 1 m/s^2 per here but this is a heavy tank massing over 6 times what an Abrams does.

Labienus-class Medium Armored Grav APC

mass: 225

Engine 1600

Thrust 6

Weapons: Turret 100mm gauss, 1 TVLG (4), 1 AP laser, 1 Vulcan III

Hull: 5/6 Laser, ,1 TVLG (4), 1 SMLM (2)
LAbienus APC stats.

Pedden Grav artielly piece

Mass : 357

Engine: 1800

Thrust 4

Armament: GPA5 Cannon, Vulcan 4 (turrets on both), Hull mounted AP laser.
Pedden stats.
Seeker-class light Grav Vechiles

Mass 137 Engine: 1500 Thurst 10

weapons: Turret: MDC-12, 25mm Gauss

hull: TVLG (2)
Seeker stats.
The instant transmission of data [personal holovid] and the ability to inform millions of people in one broadcast make it the perfect tool for both information and propoganda. A successufl Media strategy is as important as a military campaign.

To this end, both warring parties attempt to win the hearts and minds of the people with Military news lfashse on the personal viewer.

Camera crews are a common sight in the rear areas of all combat units, and troops with a knack for winning battles quickly draw media attention./
Propoganda use in the warfare. WE saw mention of this in some of the Interceptor supplements.

Wearing Ranger Electronic Sneak Suits, the infantry squads of the platoon disembarked far frrom the command center. Though the suits were sometimes found in Special Fores regiments, they were not issued to line units. How the Second ACR obtained them is anyone's guess.
Ranger stealth suits (mentioned in Legionnaire) were unusual in line regiments.
Captain Erika Calburtan grimaced and involuntarily ducked as the 200 mm shell overpowered the rear shields and slammed into the rear deck, causing her craft to skip slightly forward
Labienus class vechicle The impact knocks the Labieunus forward noticably from the impact, but how "noticable" we dont know. Also note it had to "overpower" the shields, implying it had some sort of interaction affecting it.

*****

Now Harbingers of death: the Tog Centurion supplement.

The [harbingers of Death unit]] pays a high price for their fame and their elite mission, for their casualty rate is one of the highest in the Imperial Military. Indeed, the unit's roster changes on the average of once every 4 years beacuse of its phenomenlaly high losses of personnel.
Indication of the causalty rates in the HArbingers of Death.
An entirely new command structure was created within the Imperial Military, with senior leaders replaced and several of the new Overlords in control of large portions of the military force.
REstructuring of the military to accomodate the Overlords.
For ten years, the Harbingers raced from one hot spot to another, always with a swarm of combat reporters and documentary producers in their wake.
As mentioend elsewhere, the sci fi TVs dictate the use of news and cameras on site for propoganda purposes.
While testing a new gravitic suppressor field that grounds any grav vheicle within its radius, the Harbingers found the weapon to be a remarkable success. Unfortunately, the field nullifiers mounted on the Harbinger's gravitic vehciles to avoid the grav suppressor's effects failed to work.
Gravitici suppressor field, as well as counter devices to protect the Harbinger's own vehicles.
Because of this service, they claim title to fighting more varied opponents than any other unit and to have circled the galaxy at least ten times since their formation. With a casualty rate that is one of the highest in the Imperial Military, the unit pays a high price for their success. In fact, the roster of the Harbingers of Death changes almost completely on an average of every four years because of battle deaths and injuries.
circling the galaxy ten times (assuming a 314,000 circumference for the galaxy) implies a distance travleled of 3 million LY
With over eight million legions in TOG service, the task pf maintaining orderly individual Legion designations is a formidable one. Though a method has been developed over the centuries, its not foolproof, but does create less confusion than would continuous seven-digit unit designations. By naming each legion after their present armg group or front commander, the system keeps the legion designations to a command name plus four or five numbers in the largest operational areas. smaller and/or independent unit designations generally remain at five digits or less.
7 digit unit designations, and naming conventions and keepin track of legions. Also "over eight million legions" which suggests the number is approximate and not fixed (although probably not drastically greater - eg we aren't talking tens of millions of legions)

The Legion's mass offensive power rests in its ten assault Cohorts. The First Cohort consists of a reinforced gravitic armored infantry unit, with three centuries each of heavy grav armor, medium grav armor and armored grav infatnry, plus headquarters for nine support vehciles. The other nine groups consist of six armored infantry and three medium grav armor/recon cohorts. Instead of the standard six Centuries per line, each Cohort commands nine line Centuries. This gives the 13379th the hitting ower of a STrike Legion, while making it far more versatile because its deployment capabilities are suited to so many different combat situations.

...

Two military police cohorts, assigned to Legion Headquarters, serve directly under the Prefect's contorl. Each Cohort consists of eight Centuries whose job is to maintain tight secrutiy around any prototype equipment and to provide rear-area defense when neccesary. The Military police are responsiblew for Military disciplie, though this is rarely a problem for the 13379th.

The Artillery Manus of the Legion consists of four Cohorts of armored grav artillery, one Space and Air defense cohort, and one Orbital rocket cohort in additon to the artillery headquarters company. This increased support firepower, combined with an attached fighter wing, somewhat alleviates the limited grav armour complement of the Legion.

..

Charged with transporting these supplies from area depots to their units, teh supply Manus consists of six Cohorts of grav transport vehicles and one Cohort of space assault transports.

Unlike many other legion organziations, the 13379th boasts its own Medical and Maintenance Cohorts that are independent of the Supply Manus. Thi sis primarily becuase of its unique mission of equipment evaluation. The Maintenacec Cohorts prepare status reports and evaluations of the various materilas tested, as well as keeping the Legion's equipment maintained. The assignment of tow Medical Cohorts reflects the unit's high casualties.

The Signal Cohort is responsible for all communication within the Legion and to ofworld forces. They operate various forms of equipment and satellite systems, and occasionally test new types. This Cohort also controls communications intelligence and security, electronic counter measures, and signal equipment maintenance and repair.

The engineer Cohorrt works closely with the maintenance cohort in regard to prototype equipment. In addition, they perform regular duties such as construction of Legionary compounds, close assaults, and the defensive works and fortifications. The Engineer Cohort consists of three Centuries each of Combat Bounce Engineers, Armored Engineers, and Construction engineers.

Organization of the Harbingers, including the variations such as the medical and maintenance forces. Note the mention of "Combat bounce engineers"

Depending on the combat situation, the 13379th receives various Auxilia composed of four to six Cohorts of specialized troops such as Special Forcecs, Marine Infantry, Anti-Insurgency Forces, WEt Navy, Orbital Transport, and others.
Interesting commentary on the various kinds of "Auxilia" available. This means there are more troops available than the formalized "Legions" suggest.

At twice the normal platoon strenght, the unit is unusually large. The Centuries of the First Cohort are assigned 15 vehicles instead of the usual 12, but the rest of the Legion adheres to strict TOG organizational doctrine.
Harbinger platoons are slightly larger.
The fourth Century of the Fifth Grav Infantry Cohort is typical of the infantry units within the Legion. As with the other five Infantry Cohorts, the Fifth is assigned three Medium Grav Armor Centruies and six Grav Armored Infantry Centruies.
organisation of "typical infantry units" in this particular legion
Hypaspis class medium Grav armored PErsonnel CArrier

Mass: 191

Engine: 1750

Thrust 6

Can carry inf antry squad

Weapons: 7.5/6 laser (Turret), Vulcan 4 (Turret) TVLG 6 (Turret), SMLM 2 (turret), 2 ap laser (hull mounted)
Hypaspis APC stats
Hydarnis Medium recon grav tank:

Mass: 197 Engine 1750 Thrust 6

Weapons: 100mm (Turret), Vulcan 3 (turret)
AP laser (turret), 2 SMLM 1 (hull), 1 TVLG 4 (hull)
Hydarmis recon tank stats.
Octavian Heavy Grav Fighting Vehcile:

Mass: 357

Engine: 2500

thrust: 3

WEapons: MDC 10, Vulcan 4, 150MM gauss, 5/6 laser all turret mounted. SMLM 2, 2 TVLG 6, and a 1.5/6 laser hull mounted.
Octavian stats.
Designed to replace the Gauss Cannon, the Gravitic Cannon uses phased gravity pulses rather than an intense magnetic field to accelerate its projectiles. This system expends less energy for the same velocity, but is somewhat more expensive to maintain than older artillery pieces. Instead of being the herald of a new generation of artillery pieces, the GPE-1a graivitc cannon will probably become merely a technological improvement over current artillery.
difference between Gauss and graviitc cannons, and the advantages. It seems that the greater effiicency isn't worth the increased cost, at least not to TOG.

Pompey class Artillery piece:

Mass 370 Engine 1900 thrust 4

Weapons: 1 GPE-1a Gravitic cannon, Vulcan 3, 2 antipersonnel laser.[
Pompey artillery cannon.
The BSU-12 is a boxlike device tha tcan be fitted to any Legionnaire's equipment pack. Currently being tested by the troopers of the three Grav Infantry Cohorts, the sustenance unit can draw basic elements from the planet's atmosphere and strata to produce an edible substitute for food in the form of a small black wafer. Though the wafer is not particularily pleasing to the eye, it provides the human body's daily food requirements and offers a practical replacement for rear-ehelon food supply when necessary
an interesting device that can sythesize food from atmosphere.
Intelligence gathering and warfare have always walked hand in hand, and the struggle for the Shannendam County area is no exception. Despite the wide range of sensors, probes and surveillance systems many units operate out of hidden locations and installations.
Implication that probes, sensors and a variety of surveillnace systmes are utilized in all aspects of warfare.

*****

Lastly, Distant Fire, a campaign of sorts:
Many of the 5012th's fighters escaped from Frying Pan unscathed, but were unable to rendezvous with their transport for a micro-jump to Gustaviv's Regret. They had to travel the intervening distance in normal space, a four day trip that exacted a heavy toll on pilots cooped up in tiny cockpits on minimal life support. The group was out of action, recuperating, for an additional two weeks.
While it is possible other factors played a role (an extremely long battle that lasted days, or perhaps needing to run on minimal power to hide from enemy sensors) this passage does tend to suggest that operating beyond 4-5 days in a fighter is unusual.

As the TOG battle cruiser closed with the Connor, the Commonwelath ship poured broadside after broadside into the onrushing ship.

...

An Ajax class destrroyer, the N'Cath Co M'mn (Shining Fury) came hurtling across the Connor's upper huull. At full thrust, the little destroyer smashed into the Temerarius' bridge. Theshattering impact broke the flagship's back, kililng Commodore Kurodos outright and fatally wounding Admiral Longinius.
Ajax class destroyer smashes into a battleship's bridge and cripples it, although the Connor's firepower certainly can contribute to its loss.

Incidentally The Temerarius is a Mars class Battleship.
Planets (in System data)
(Zone 2,1) Frying Pan

4 Zone 4 (Asteroid belt)

Zone 6, 60 (Gustaviv's regret)
Going by the "Zone map" in my Legionnaire book we might figure on the fighters mentioned in the first quote covering 7 AU in four days. This is an average velocity of some 3,000 km/s, which is high on the velocity side of things (for RL universe ships, especially fighters) but not particularily excessive as far as acceleration goes (a couple of gees easily could handle this over 4 days)
With the advent of huge and powerful warships used by the "blackwater navies" naval tactics have returned to those used during the age of sail. Ships are commonly deployed in one of a number of standard battle formations, and remain in that formation until the battle is concluded. These formations are designed to allow ships to s upport one another, while bringing the maximum amount of firepower to bear on the fleet's objective.
RL space combat is, like the honorverse, quite Age of Sail, relying on formation and broadside, which suggests manuverability is less important. An interesting contrast to how ground combat goes, really.
This formation is well suited to TOG military doctrine, because most tank crews are unaware of the overall plan of battle. Such details are generally given only to the officers of a century. It then becomes their responsibility to direct the unit according to that plan. The reasoning for such a doctrine is quite simple. The majority of TOG tank crews are drawn from the plebian population. Tank commanders are usually citizens. Century and Cohort officers are usually lesser nobles and other high ranking citizen. This segregation of the command structure reflects the structure of TOG in general.
TOG Tactics are driven heavily by their recruiting practices, and one riven by bias (unsurprisingly)
The Commonwealth takes a more flexible attitude towards the command and control process. Information is disseminated throughout the officer corps as a unit, who pass it along to the men under their command. This allows the next-ranking man in a unit to assume command, should his immediate superior be killed or put out of action. Of course, the finer details of the battle plan are not revealed toe very man in the unit. Only that information which directly affects a unit's role in the plan is given out.
Commonwealth approach to command and control. This is of course counterbalanced by their multi-species organization and the dual command roles (Commonwealth/REnegade Legion) aspect, but eh.

quote]
Most of the ammunition [first model Horatius tank] was to be stored in the after portion of the hul, with only six 150mm and eight 50mm rounds stored in the turret. Once these rounds had been expended, the storage bin would be automatically replenished by an automated feed device.

..

The automated feed devicee only worked if the turret ws facing directly forward, and often took as long as three minutes to fill the turret ammo bins.[/quote]

Automated feed devices and lower limits on ammo storage.
In action off Lorup in Keserdal county, he was given command of a Cruiser Battle Group.
A "cruiser battle group" - or presumably a cruiser group - a cruiser version of a battleship or carrier group, In other words,
She has a cybernetic implant replacing her left arm and shoulder, the result of a massive injury sustained in battle.
cybernetic arm/shoulder implant.
One of the massive anti-armour shells penetrated the tank's turret through the commander's hatch, severing her left arm at the shoulder.

...

The severity of her wounds made budding impossible, foricng the doctors to replace her left arm and most of her shoulder with a cybernetic implant.
mention of budding (From Legionnaire) and a cybernetic implant after the arm was destroyed by an anti-armour shell.
Prototype Horatius medium grav tank
Mass: 276
Engine: 2000
Thrust: 6

Digging cannon (yes)

weapons: turret: 50mm, 150mm gauss, AP laser, ,Vulcan 2

Hull: 3/6 laser, SMLM (2)
Horatious prototype stats.
Situation: 10 OCtober 6818, T-Doppler Tracking STation SC-C-344, 53 Light years from Gustaviv's Regret
Distance of a T doppler station from Gustaviv's regret.

We were still at about 700 kilometers when the enemy opened fire. A couple of spinal-mount rounds hit our shields, but most missed us clean.
700 km range between ships. Note that spinal mount rounds hitting shields, rather than ignoring them, which is.. interesting given what Leviathan (and Centurion) say about shields.
Opening fire at extreme range, the Commonwealth fleet managed to goad Joseph Kuroda into abandoning the usual doctrine of screening transports with warships. In the initial exchange of fire, three heavy spinal-mount rounds slammed into the Exeter-class destroyer Seawitch, breaking her back. For a few brief moments all firing ceased as awestruck sailors wathced the five-hundred-thousand ton ship crumple and die.
3 extreme-range spinal mount rounds to kill an Exet-erclass Destroyer.
For over three hours the fleet slugged it out in a running battle from which no ship escaped undamaged.


3 hour running battle between fleets.
You'd think that a 280-ton tank would have little to fear from a 125 ton fighter, but you'd be wrong. You see, a tank is larger, slower, and has shorter ranged wepaons than any fighter. Those ships have to get real close before there's a prayer of hitting them, and they're usually too smart for that. And even if you do damage them, it doesn't matter. They're going back to a nice safe carrier or base - you're going to hell.
This suggests the main difference between a fighter and a tank is speed and range - it does suggest a fighter's weapons are powerful enough to damage said tank despite the tank supposedly being more heavily armed, although it does suggest that a tank's guns won't instakill a fighter either
Tri-Dee gives a lot of people the wrong idea about what a space battle is like. Most of th etime, you can't even see the enemy ships. You just stare into a Heads-Up Dispaly and fire when the computer tells you to. The IFF does draw little fighter icons on the HUd, but those are sometimes more of a distraction than a help. Sincec I'm the gunner, I usually have the best HUD on the ship, even better than the captain's.
Tri-Dee is the RL version of television of course, but the real interesting bit is the description of how space battles occur - its mostly driven by computer, which tells the gunners when to fire and they all occur BVR. The interesting thing is, that given capital ships can be kilometers long, they shouldn't be BVR at hundreds of km, or even at 1500 km. That implies that longer ranges are technically POSSIBLE or even happen sometimes, but perhaps are not decisive due to shielding, EW, etc.
When the Comms got 400 klicks away from the Callas, I let the missile go, more for my own comfort than in hope of hitting anything. Imagine my surprise when the HUD recorded a hit.
400 km range for missiles (in a fighter) seems unusual, but is still possible (if remotely so).
In the early morning hours of 8 November, the TOG fleet took up a geostationary orbit above Lichen Plains, and started hammering at the last known positions of the 2/64th Commonwealth Legion.
"geostationary" orbit, unless artifically done, is going to be around 30-35 thousand km for an Earthlike planet, which implies their guns do have longer ranges than hundreds of km.
Our Team was balled up to run a raid on a Commonwealth base located on Frying Pan, the second planet in the Gustaviv system. Legatus Drake said that some of the Commonwealth fighters harassing the fleet were operating out of a base hidden in a craggy mountains near the south polar region.
The frying pan is the second planet of the system.

The absence of an atmosphere isnt that much of a problem, given the high-tech combat suits we use. Only a solid hit from a big weapon, like a laser or an assault rifle, will breach the suit badly enough to cause trouble.
commentary on the combat suits and ease of breaching (Eg only weapons fire will do it.)
Bounce packs can be adjusted to low-G, but it takes a great deal of training to operate one under these conditions. One wrong move, and a man can land badly, overshoot his bounce, or escape the planet's low gravity.
Bounce packs in a low-gee enviroment require "special training" - again suggesting you can use them beyond the normal limits, but requiring care or training to do it (indeed escaping even a weak gravity suggests that!)
Optio Lewisson got burned down by a laser during the first few minutes of the fighting, and Sergeant Kline took over, but he caught a heavy slug in the shoulder that breached his suit.
Casualties during a fight - we aren't clear what kinds of weapons they were though (EG personal arms or vehicle)

Angel-class transport corvette
mass: 3417 tons
Engines: center/left right: 5000 (15000 total)
Thrust: 2 (Allocatable power 859)
Streamlining/Grav : Yes/No
Tank bay 6 Crew 6 Passengers 18 (6 3 man tank crews) FTL capable (Yes)

WEapons 1 triple MDC-10 turret, 1 autoloading hard point (turret),. one safegurard 3 (bow)
Angel corvette stats.

When A TOG Bantha-class frigate swung across our bows, we treated it to a spinal-mount round. The hit showed up on the tactical as a brief red pulse, but what we saw on vismag was more impressive. The nickel-iron projectile hit the Bantha just abaft tthe bridge, shattering the armor plates where her name "Precussor" was painted.

..

That hit seemed to make the TOG captain a littl angry. He swung around and charged us like an angry KessRith. We pumped two more spinal rounds into him before we were forced to manueuver or be rammed.

..

We hammered at each other for twenty minutes before the Pride of Orion came to our assistance.
A renegade legion Ajax-class destroyer fired on the ship, a twenty minute battle, and spinal mounts firing "nickel-iron" projectiles. I shoudl say it would shatter armour plates, since a nickel-iron round moving at hyper-velocities (nevermind anything at or near relativistic speeds) will result in an explosive impact.
I realize that a thin piece of polypropylene isn't much of a barrier to firing a 45 kilo Gauss slug or a megajoule laser pulse, but it simply didn't feel right to tie plastic over our guns like that.
"megajoule" laser pulse - I dont know if that means that the lasers are rapidly pulsed lasers (EG a gigawatt laser firing in multiple megajoule-range pulses) but that's a possible implication. We dont know what calibre of Gauss slug is 45 kg either, but its an interesting benchmark nonetheless. A 45 kg slug at hypervelocitiies (2-3 km/s) is going to be between 90 and 200 Megajoules of KE, which is many times greater than the KE of modern tank rounds (of course considering the mass of the tanks in question, that's not surprising.) Recoil for a 45 kg projectile at those velocities is 90,000-135,000 kg*m/s, which probably suits this tank to a medium or heavy gravtank frame primarily (depends on how grav drives affect recoil issues, I suppose.)
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

First wake of the Kraken (LEviathan on the TOG side. I dont think CW ever got their version.)

Some battleship squadrons never get the chance for such fame. The Terran Overlord Government,. ever fearful of mutiny among its naval officers, has often grouped officers who are suspected of crimes against Caesar into special battleship squadrons. Ther first assignment of such a hastily formed squadron is usually its last, because it is deliberately sent into the teeth of the enemy without adequate training or support. the Imperial Navy usually sends along a group of assassins and at least one fantically loyal ship's captain to prevent defections and to deliver Caesar's judgement, should the enemy fail tot do it for them. The death of so manyy men and ships goes unnoticed outside the Imperial Navy and the families of the dead.
The Naval equivalent of penal legions, I suppose. It is interesting that TOG feels they have warships/resources enough to devote to this sort of wasteful behaviour, even if you get outdated battleships.

As commander of a carrier group (two battleship squadrons protecting a large fighter carrier), Admiral Skogen was perpeutlaly at odds with the orders of his superiors.
A carrier group defined as two battleship squadrons tied to a carrier, or 21 ships. Not neccesarily an upper limit or perventing them from being larger.
The spine of the Kraken was laid at the immense orbiting shipyards above Zacinthus in 6646, and it took a decade to complete. The Kraken was the 41st of the Ultor class battleships, then the most powerful battleships in the galaxy. Very similar in appearnace to today's Renegade Navy's REpulse class battleship, the Kraken mounted the largest spinal weapon available, and a strong away of bay weapons and missiles, and carried tow flights of fighters.

Admiral Skogen was there to commission his new flagship in 6657.
Kraken battleship, at the time of its construction, took 10 years to build. Giving us a rough idea of how long to build battleships. (LEviathan's capital ship briefing isn't dramatically different as far as duration goes.)

Eveyone soon realized that Admiral Skogen was trying to force the Drashok (KessRith battleship) into the planet's atmosphere, where friction and gravity would send it plummeting to a fiery death, but the maneuver was equally dangerous for the Kraken.


..

As the ships approached to withiin kilometers of each other, gunners on the Kraken reported that they could count the rivets on the KessRith battleship as they traded salvo after salvo. Despite the pleas of his officers, Admiral Skogen refused to relent when the hull temperatures of both ships began to climb alarmingly as they entered the upper fringes of the atmosphere. even when the withering KessRith broadsides began rippign armor form his ship's side, Admiral Skogen refused to eas eup.

...

Instead of spearing the Kraken, the Drashok rose helplessly in front of the KRaken's spinal weapon. A flash from the Kraken's prow ripped the Drashok in two within an expanding sphere of explosions, haze of escaping atmosphere, and debris.

There was precious little time to celebrate aboard the Kraken. Slowing down saved it from the KessRith ship, but it was falling deeper into the planet's atmosphere. The Kraken's engines fired, and its prow pointed upward. Despite the tremendous thrust, it barely rose. The ship, still being harassed by the Kessrith cruisers and destroyers, had to orbit the planet three times, its hull literally glowing with the heat, before it finally broke free of the atmosphere.
RL starships, at least centuries old ones, were vulnerable to gravity and prolonged friction. And also apparently had rivets. :D

Also rather interesting that it took awhile to overcome gravity. Fighters, corvettes and other patrol craft, and even destroyers can do that pretty easily, and they dont suffer problems from atmospheric friction. Go figure.


The Kraken spent th next two years at the Zacinthus shipyards being repaired.
Two years laid up in repairs.

Reenactments showed there was no way the survivors could have handled the myriad tasks needed to get the crippled ship into and out of T-space.

...

Clearly, the story is impossible. The technology for some sort of computer program that could assume control of the ship did not, and has never, existed.
Total automation of a starship is not possible in RL, and seems to be considered an impossibility. This leads to tales of the Kraken being a ghost ship, which is one of the few times we get supernaturla activity hinted at in this universe.

One of the immediate reactions to the fall of the Republic was the defection to the Commonwealth of more than 300,000 legions and almost 4,000 battleship groups led by Grand General Douglas Constantin and his sister, Admiral Sefra Constantin. Not only was their departure a serious blow to the TOG military, but their sudden absence form the KessRith border gave that alien empire reason enough to launch a major offensive.

Suddenly in desperate need of ships and men, Caesar Ivanolo Buntari mobilized all reserve legions and ships, no matter what their condition or history. The Kraken was recommissioned after a year of intensive work by the Zacinthus shipyards.
The loss of the Renegade Legions was considered a serious blow to the military, and apparently left the REpublic (TOG) open to assault from the Kessrith.

also mention of "REserve Legions and ships" in serious emergencies, suggesting that there are other military forces than the "active" ones mentioned, albeit of lesser qualitiy.
Instead of being scrapped, as was the standard procedure for ships at that time [ancient ones], the Kraken was sent to Sargussum V, where it was to join the vast array of obsolete ships of the Imperial Reserve Fleet.
Again a "reserve fleet" of outdated starships.
Luther Catalus was given the command of the aging light cruiser Bainbridge.
a light cruiser.
Their efforts, though not totally succecssful, did force TOG forces back and required reserve legions and ships, including the INS Bainbridge, into front-line action.
Again mention of reserve ships and reserve legions.
Afterward, a grateful Imperial Navy promoted Luther Cantalus to the rank of Rear Admiral and gave him, with considerable public pomp, command of the INS Caronikal and the 10197th Battleship Squadron.

The Caronikal, named for a conquered KessRith world, was one of the new Shiva class battleships.
at least 10K battleship squadrons.
When he was a young officer, the Admiral lost several ribs and a vertebra when a cargo grappler pinned him against a bulkhead. He was able to continue his career in the navy due to the skills of surgeons, who replaced the damaged bone with artificial implants of an experimental design. However, the Admiral has been plagued by severe backaches for the past year that doctors blame on the artificial bones.
rib and vertebrae implants were considered "experimental" at least at the time it was done.
He lost his right leg below the knee when he tried to pit his Onagri fighter against three Commonwealth Defenders. For missions, Carlson wears a highly sophisticiated prosthetic that plugs into his fighter's computer. Off duty, Carlson chooses not to wear the leg, preferring to spend most of his time in the gravity-free section of the ship.
some cybernetic prosthetics can (for wahtever reason) plug into computers.

In his five years as commander, it destroyed 21 enemy freighters and five enemy warships.

The Imperial navy promoted him to command the new Zeta Herculis.
Syracuse class cruiser.. this may or may not imply a 5 year build time.
During a routine visit to Seward's Star, ,the 19009th fell into a Commonwealth Carrier Group's ambush. The only survivor of the six-hour battle that followed was the Dragon Gerhart.
Six hour ship battle, mention of a Carrier group again, and mention of there being at least 19,000 battleship squadrons
Twice during the campaign, the Kraken will rendezvous with supply and repair ships. They carry supplies and work crews that will allow the ships to repair most, but not all, of their damaged systems.
Space based repair and supply ships.
Ultor class battleship

Mass: 2,495,040 tons

Power: Left/right/center engine 45000 (135000 total)

Weapons: class D spinal mount 4 100-gun 37.5/25 gun bays, 6 25-gun 37.5/5 bays, 2 10-gun 37.5/5 bays, Type D missile system

FighterS: 48 Small craft: 12 Crew 2137 PAssengers 250 Marines 200
Ultor class battleship stats. This is a centuries old "outdated" ship design, remember.
What makes this world, and the hundreds of worlds like it scattered throughout the galaxy, seem even more like the promised land to businessmen is that it is owned by the enigmatic Merchant Races and not the Terran Overlord Government.
Implied that the Merchant Races own hundreds of planets throughout the galaxy.
Shortly after we entered the system of Gustaviv's Regret, we picked up the images of a Renegade squadron in orbit around the planet. Recognizing the danger the Renegade ships posed to our troops on the planet below, Admiral Catalus ordered our destroyers and our frigate to engage as many of the enemy vessels as possible while the larger ships would attempt to take on the huge enemy battleships.

It wasn't long before the enemy's two destroyers and one of its cruisrs moved to meet us. The waiting for the battle to begin is the worst for me, father, watching the enemy grow larger and larger in the screens and knowing that the enemy captain is counting down the range just like I am. It's almost beyond bearing.

Just as Navarchos Ingenuus ordered us hard to starboard, the enemy cruiser spit a crowbar at us that made contact with the port aft of the Sopra Crassus. The ship shuddered like a wounded animal.
Description of a ship to ship battle described below.
Situation, April 8.

209,000 kilometers from Gustaviv's Regret
The effectivve range spearating the battle as described above.
Hovix: We exited T-space close to Gustaviv and immtediately picked up the tracings of an enemy squadron, one battleship, two cruisers, and two destroyers, apparently getting ready to conduct a bombardment run against our ground forces. Admiral Catalus ordered our ships to the attack. The enemy broke orbit and moved to meet our attack. The Admiral then ordered our destroyers and our frigate ahead to emet the vanguard of the Renegade force, its destroyers and one cruiser.
Emergence from T-space within 200,000 km or so of a planet. This might imply an immediate battle occuring at longer than 1500 km range, given that they had to act fast to stop the enemy from bombarding the planet taking a half hour to close with the fleet would simply not do - they'd have to engage within a matter of minutes or seconds to pull it off, which ought to suggest an extreme range of tens of thousands of km.
situation: April 8, 209,000 kilometers from Gustaviv's regret.
Still the same date, and same ranges, which suggests the two opposing sides have not greatly closed the distance.
The Admiral's plan for facing the RLS Iracundus and its attendent cruiser with the Kraken and his two cruisers worked for a few moments and then quickly went wrong. The Sicarius Brutus and the Zeta Herculis were fooled or purposely decided ot pursue the Renegade cruiser when it suddenly accelerated away from the fight, despite the Admiral's orders that they stay and cocnentrate on the enemy battleship. The cruisers sudden departure left the Kraken facing the RLS Iracundus, a ship almost three times its size, all alone.
Description of the battle - an outdated battleship and two cruisers could have taken a Republic clas battleship possibly.

RLS Iracundus

Class: Republic-class battleship

Mass: 8,339,011 tons

engfines: Right/left 55,000 center: 50,000 (160,000 power total)

Weaponry:
Type E spinal mount 2 100 gun 37.5/15 laser bays, 2 100 gun 30/20 laser bays, 2 100 gun 22.5/25 laser bays, 2 25 gun 30/30 laser bays, 2 25 gun 37.5/10 laser bays, 2 50 gun 37.5/15 laser bays

Type E missile system

Fighters: 144 Small crafT: 24 Crew: 4,615 Passengers: 75 Marines: 300


Republic class stats.

During the briefing, the Admiral told us that most of the fighter squadrons would launch long before we even entered the Tubanos system. He told us that he expected us to float in our fighters, our systems turned off with the exception of life support, for a whole day while the warships would accelerate ahead and draw the enmy's attention. We would get the glory of the kill by blindsiding the VLCA from its unguarded side.

...

At first, his complaints were mainly about the mission and mostly centered on the fact that wew would have to spend 24 hours sitting in our birds praying that our ship systems, particularily the engines, would turn on when we got into battle.
Again we get an indication that spending many days (envermind ten days) in a starship is not usual for RL pilots. They spent 24 hours crossing a system to get to the planet. Assuming 8 AU or so (about a billion km) the closing velocity would be in excess of 11,000 km/s, and would require at least 12-13 gees to pull off, if not several tens of gees. It would be less range the closer they get (and they could get closer) but even if off by an OoM it wouldn't change velocity greatly (But would make acceleration fit within the established values, at least)

The mission went pretty much as planned, though the less said about the day of floating in dark, the better. We were well within visual of the VLCA when we powered up and pushed the thorttles foward. The huge net of pencil-thin transceiver wiring and solar paneling looked pretty enough, but what caught our eye were the balls of light and flashes beyond the VLCA that told us that a major battle was occuring on the other side.

Then things went seriously wrong. We dove for the VLCA's communication core and ran right into Commonwealth fighters leaving the core to meet us.

...

The surprise ws the Commonwealth destrroyer that swung out from behind the planet at our rear.

We were in deep trouble, out-gunned and far from the rest of the squadron. The VLCA ws so vast that it required making maneuvers that made us easy targets for the gunners on the array and the destroyer.

Again a day spent approaching the VLCA, although the engagement times and ranges make the implied velocities problematic at best (they were shut down on approach after all and can't just dump thousands of km/s worth of velocity/KE in a short period of time.)

Implication as well that gunners could possibly hit fighters some thousands of km away (Destroyer wings out from behind a planet into LOS of fighters.

Also note that VLCA's have solar panels.
All VLCAs require tremendous power to transmit mesages through huge, net-like arrays that take up manyn square kilometers of space.
size of VLCA arrays
After the repair ships did what they could, and shimmer heat had dissipated, Kraken squadron headed for Rilus V. It is an importtant center of industry, with many factories and shipyards orbiting its pleasant green surface.
mention of repair ships again, as well as orbital factories and shipyards mentioned.
Grandeur of Potsdam
Raptor-class carrier
Mass: 653,649 tons

Engines: Right/left engine rating: 25,000 (50,000 total)

weapons: 2 50 gun 15/30 bay, 3 10 gun 37.5/30 bay, 1 25 gun 37.5/20 bay

fighters: 144 Small craft: 12 Crew: 1,129 Passengers 50 Marines 150


Anti grav, streamlining for atmosphere use.)
Raptor carrier stats.
Despite the warnings, we were astonished when the in-system sensors picked up the Kraken and her escorts heading toward our position. One recon drone intercepted the squadron and showed us the Kraken in all her glory.
Recon drone and in system sensors.
When a ship is moving fast, many small asteroids slip through its shields, causing hundreds of small collisions with a capital ship. This makes travel through an asteroid field extremely slow. fighters and corvettes do not face such restrictions, captializing on their advantage in mobility to harass larger ships.
Travelling too fast through an asteroid field seems to allow the asteroids to pass through shields, suggesting a velocity as well as a mass component to flicker shields. This would help to explain why large, slow projectiles do better at penetrating than small-fast ones (EG Gauss cannons vs Mass Drivers)

Officer X: That instead of the enemy coming straight in to attack us, they chose instead ot lurk around the edges of the star systme, looking for our weaknesses.
"lurking on the edge of the system" - important to establish that now as we will have it defined shortly.
If we left our defensive positions to engage TOG with sufficient force, it would have been easy for Admiral Cantalus to make a short burn behind us and lay waste to Ope'Diar.
Implies that Cantalus' force could possibly devastate a planet within short period of time if the fleet tried to engage.

The ship dropped out of T-space far beyond any of the defense sectors and promptly began blaring to anyone listening that Duke Nicolas Massus,, the son of the Grand Duke of Shannedam County, was arriving.
Obviously FTL comms, probably p-comm. We dont know how close the ship is to the planet, although it is "well outside defense sectors" and is apparently close enough to the RL forces to allow pursuit and allow them to engage first.
Capturing or killing the Grand Duke's son would be just as devastating as destroying Ope'Diar's indsutries.

...

..as we sent our swiftest vessels, two frigates and three destroyers, to rescue the Duke.

..

Admiral Catalus couldn't pass up the opportunity. When we arrived, we found the Duke's ship being chased by the TOG Frigate Peregrine and the TOG destroyers, Fulgur and Dragon Gerhart
The ships are already in pursuit. Apparently the CW forces intercept the TOG forces chasing the Duke's ship within a day, implying a combined closing speed of ~33,000 km/s. It could have been longer than a day, but not more than 3, given the next mission is August 19 and this one is August 16, meaning that the combined closing speed could not be less than 11,000 km/s.

This also implies that the two forces engaged at far longer than 1500 km or so, since they would have passed out of range of each other within an eighth of a second, far beyond human reflexes (and we know at least some human factor is involved in ship gunnery.)

It also implies a constant acceleration on both sides of at least 4 gees, although that assumes each side has a comparable distance to cross over 3 days and no braking is done. Acceleration over a single day is some 35-40 gees.
Situation: Auguest 16, 19 Astronomical Units from Ope'Diar
defines "edge of the system" as mentioned above.
Navarchos Ingennuus knew that time was of the essence; the Commonwealth would not let the Duke's ship remain so vulnerable for long. She ordered the ships to maximum acceleration and exhorted her gunners to make every shot count because there might not be a chance for a second pass.
Implies they were travelling at maximum acceleration and they made one attack pass on the Duke's ship.
The trip toward Ope'Diar was uneventful because we didn't encounter the enemy, but I certainly got an earful from Commodore Ganturn.

As we separated from our frigate and destroyers and aimed ourselves for what the Admiral hoped would be a bald spot in the Commonwealth's coverage of the planet, I received a weak message with a secure coding. Acknowledging, I was surprised to hear Ganturn's voice.

..

Considering Commodore Ganturn's obvious connection with the Overlords, I felt it prudent to remain noncommittal and accept whatever happened during the coming battle.

It was about that time we reached our target.
They again crossed the distance from the edge of the system to the planet in less than 3 days, closing to within 500,000 km of the planet.
We bombarded a collection of industries on the planet's southern continent before the first Commonwealth ships even showed itself. By the time the two Commonwealth cruisers approached to within combat range, we were well away from the planet.
They bombarded the planet from an unspecified range.
August 19, 500,000 kilometers from Ope'Diar
The "range" from the planet at the time of the mission. Whether or not this is the bombardment range we dont know.
A carrier group, lead by the carrier Glory of Da'Valk and the Renegade Battleships Moon wolf and True Republic, was to seek out and destroy the Kraken and the rest of its squadron
Carrier group again, two battlehips (and likely thus two squadrons) hunting the Kraken and her squadron.

the trouble was that of the 13 ships of our carrier group, ten had left.
13 ships in a carrier group. A rather small carrier group - possibly due to damage or some similar reason that leaves it understrength.
My position abourd the Halsey is as the Weapons Alignment control officer for the ship's forward weapons. I work in the Forward Observation Compartment, a small room perched at the extreme tip fo the ship's prow, where I act as system troubleshooter for the Combat Information Center and as an observer. I sit strapped in a lage couch and gaze through a bubble port. I watch the alignment symbols for the ship's various forward turrets and bays as they seek otu and lock onto their targets. If a weapon system is hit and its aim is skewed, I and my computers instantly realign the weapon.
Computer adjustment of gunnery. Oddly it has an open, visible viewport for the mark-1 eyeball for whatever reason. Mention of turrets as well as bays firing on ships.


*****

Then Tessdrake run, which is both sides (and is the only Legionnaire RPG supplement I know of.)
Vienna-class freighter:

Class: Merchant Corvette

Mass: 1,721

Engine: Center engine

Carto: 1,000 (1,100 without pssengers)

Crew 4: Passengers 10
Note that the diagram accompanying the stats gives a hex as two meter,s so the ship is at least 60 meters long and 60 wide. Probably longer than 60 meters in length, although the width could be wingspan as well.

The TOG Navy is constructing a massive orbital ship-repair facility around Ciria. Dubbed "Tessdrake Command", this base will be capable of repairing battleship-class ships. Ciria's slave population hs been working on the base for the past eight years, and the TOG Navy xpects it to be in operation soon.
8 years to build a major orbital ship repair facility capable of handling battleship-class vessels, and it is as well armed or massive as several such.
Ciria: Population: 300 million

Legions: 1 Strike Legion, 1 Infantry Legion. 12 Garrison legions, 8 Auxilia
The planet's popultion and the Garrison force. Rather few legions for the number of people involved, I guess that was an "in theory, not in practice" sort of thing.


Sonic beams are used to shatter the ore and separate it from the tailings of the surroudnign rock, which is of no value.

...

It also holds the Vibro-chisels and other equipment the slaves use to work the mine.
Mining gear, all seems to be based on sound or vibration.
This building houses the central commerical warhouse management system. From this location, goods coming into port can be stored, off-loaded, and transshipped automatically. These processes are controlled by a computer with a level 2 expert Logistics system.

..

The computer can reroute any goods in teh warheouse to any destination.
computer-controlled warehousing and shipping.

This hanger currently houses a Lancea squadron and one Cingulum. It can house a full flight of fighters and three PAtrol Class ships.
On the map on the preceding page, the Navy Hangar is roughly 11-12 hexes wide/tall, which, (at the scale of 1 hex = 10 meters) means it is roughly 110-120 meters in both dimensions. This puts limits on the length/width of the patrol ships (and fighters) that can occupy the facility. Broadly sepaking, you can probably expect the fighters to be 1/3 to 1/6 the length of the Corvette, and half to 1/4 the width, depending on fighters or arrangement. Alternately, one might conjecture that the fighters are one row and 1/6 the width (And say 1/4 the length)

This could lead to fighters about 10-30 meter slong and 10-20 meters wide, while the patrols ships would be up to 100 meters or so long and maybe 30-50 wide.

These structures are two stories tall, built of construction foam, and have access to the landing pad. Fully automated, they use robotic fork lifts and cargo handling platforms to move goods between warheouses, and to and from the landing pad. The automated sytstem can also modify bills of lading and transship materials.

...

..though automatic cargo lifters move materials into and out of the warehouse, each item of cargo is still checked for anomalies, such as crates marked food that actually contain weapons, and so on. During automatic operations, an expert system at each warehouse door scares incoming crates.
More automation used in the shipping/cargo handling things, both directly in loading the ships as well as handling the 'paperwork'.

Also note the mention of "construction foam" for building stuff. I guess that's the same stuff as the plastic bullets :P
In high orbit over Ciria, this facility is in the final stages of construction. It is desgined to service up to three Battleship class ships at one time.

..

TOG expects Tessdrake station begin servicing warships within the next two months.
More on the role and construction status of TessDrake station.
Tesdrake Station:

Class: Battleship/station

Thrust 0

WEapons:

8 100-gun 37.5/30 bays, type D missile system

Fighters: 72, small craft: 6, Crew: 2717 Passengers 200 Marines: 1 cohort.
Tessdrake's stats.
Each of these areas contains a vertically mounted fusion reactor.
By the map, there is maybe between 2-4 reactors total. It is battleship scale and at least as well armed, so we cna probably assume that starships run on fusion reactors as well. Wheter nuclear fusion, or some other type (like some of the more magical sorts of SW fusion) is up for debate.
This array of generator equipment allows Tessdrake station to generate a flicker rate superior to that of many frigates in service.
But not neccesarily cruisers or battleships ? That seems odd.

[quiuote]
CArgo bay - Overhead ceiling cranes and robotic sensors retrieve or place cargo in these bays[/quote]

More automation in cargo handling.

The main bay of the Tessdrake repair facility is large enough to hold several capital ships in berth. It is little more than an immense open box, two and a half kilometers long and a kilometer wide and high. The door at the far end of the station can be sealed, and the entire bay filled with a breathable atmosphere for repair of heavy damage to a ship. However, the main bay is usually left in vaccuum.
The repair bay for ships. This tends to suggest limits on how big typical battleships are as well as width (can handle up to 3 battleships, remember.)

The two player characters with the highest Luck are given small transmitter/receivers. THey have a range of 75 metres and can only be used for voice transmission. Each is the size of a large coin and thus is easily concealable.
Minaturization of comms techonlogy.
The new slaves have been brought aboard to complete the armor placement on the station. They will be wleding some of the lagert sections of armor plating to the TEssdrake. Most of the sections are welded by robotic drones under the guidance of an engineer. However, some of the more complex armor plating requires human judgement for proper attachment, thus the need for semi-skilled labor. The station is a month behind schedule and everyone will be working long hours to get it ready on time.
Robots used in construction of the station as well as the slave labor. It seems like the slaves are used for specialized role.

This tends to suggest alot of robots in the RL universe are not designed to be at human level intelligence, but below it. Whether this is a technical limitation or a deliberate one (given they can make AIs and expert systems) is up for dbate.

Also welding the armor in place, although the welding method isn't exactly specified :P
Though the slaves sent up to the Tessdrake are supposed to be skilled space-construction laborers, the Tessdrake crew knows that a well-palced bribe can result in an unskilled slave being assigned to the station.
This suggests that despite being called "slaves" their purpose is more as skilled technical crews (in theory) rather than being manual labor or muscle (which presumably they can use robots for.) In practice, this isnt always the case.
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Ahriman238
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Ahriman238 »

*sniff* After all this time of Renegade Legion analysis, we finally get to the grav tanks. I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

Seriously, Connor, well done. Your analysis and a little sniffing around the internet is all I know of what seems like a good game with a solid story.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

RL has a fond place in my heart. It's not wholly consistent, and there are some crazy game-play based assumptiosn here (which it seem sto share with battletech) but its alot more intelligent than some others I've known (*coughcouhg STar Wars** which I like, but which has historically involveda lot more bending over backwards to make sense of.) I'm not backing off on how silly some of the mass stuff is though. :P

At some point I'll touch on leviathan and the novels.. but afte rI get some of tehse supplements out of the way I'm back on 40K.
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Now I'll post Shannadem county sourcebook, the renegade Legion: Battle for Jacob's Star manual, and RL reinforcements.

First Shannadem County Sourcebook.
In each case, O means that the installation is orbital, while G means that it is ground-based. F indicates an industrial facility, N indicates a Naval base, and l indicates a legion base.
Various kinds of facilities and their designations.
For the most part, orbital manufacturing facilities are the only place where critical war materiel, such as refined laser crystals and armor plating, can be manufactured economically in quantity.
Armor is made in orbital facitilies, for whatever reason. Laser crystals we know why because they're essentially magic lasers.
OF1: Small robotic industrial facilitly

An OF1 facility manufacutres specialized indistruail products, such as one-of-a-kind machine parts or small batches of pharmaceuticals. Automatic shuttles transport raw materials and finished goods to and from the factory. Unless the manufacturing proces requires, there are no habitable areas on the facilities.

Size: 1 hex (intercecptor stats)
weapons: 2 lasers, power available: 1,100
Interesting look at RL manufacturing capabilitiy - like is implicated in Tessdrake run, it incorporates tremendous degrees of automation., One wonders how humans fit into this in the RL - how they make a living and such. We know humans are used in specific or unusual applications (mining G-A crystals for example, specialized construction purposes, R&D and design and programming, and warfare) but whether it extends to other areas or such (or why for example you don't see automated war droids) we dont know. One possibility is that this was somethign resulting from the Snow Plague and the decline in human populations - industry had to become more automated to compensate. (If so this would suggest a very high standard of living. I hate terms like "post scarcity" societies but it does suggest many necessities for life could be provided for unless deliberatley withheld - eg for control or punishment.)

The code also indicates it is space based manufacturing
OF2: Large Robotic industrial facility

Like a small robotic facility, this grade of orbital facility receives, processes, and delivers raw materials without the need for living personnel. A large robotic facilitie normally specailizes in large scale mineral refining operations or industrial processes that require mass production and a Zero-G enviroment. Examples include degassing masses of titanium armor for use on military vehicles.

Therefore, an OF2 industrial facility normally does not produce finished goods. Its output is usually shipped to other industrial facilities for final production. A small habitat for maintenance crews is stnadard on these faiclities, but the rest of the installiation is not habitable.

Size 7 hexes (interceptor statS)
Weapons: 2 7.5/6 lasers, 1 7.5/1 laser Available power: 5,000
Upscaled version of OF1, still orbital.. Still (mostly) automated, but just handles bigger stuff (and doesn't handle finished goods.. its just a part of the process.) Not quite sure why titanium needs "degassing"

OF3: Small manned factory

An OF3 is a low-output factory, similar in size ot a large robotic factory. An OF3 is used for manufacture or processing of unique goods that require Human skills and a Zero-G enviroment. Work crews rotate, typically spending one month in three on duty in orbit.

Size: 7 hexes (interceptor stats)
Weapons: 2 7.5/6 lasers, 3 7.5/1 lasers
Power available: 5000 Crew: 50 Gunners 7 Marines 1 platoon
As conjectured above and hinted in other sources, human input into manufacturing/construction seems to be reserved for specialized/unusual reasons - which can suggest certain limitations for automation in the RL universe (for whatever reason logical or illogical.)

Like its automated counterpart, it's orbital.
OF4: Medium manned factory

An OF4 is well-staffed, maintains its own shuttles and transports, adn has permanant crew facilities. Tyhpical OF4 exampls include crystal farms for processing G-A gemstones and smaller VLCAs. In systems where attacks are likely, such stations are heavily armed. Armaments include a squadron of fighters as well as at least a century of marines for security purposes

Size (Leviathan statS) 1 hex (treat as destrroyer)

Weapons 4 50-gun 37.5/5 laser bays
Fighters: 6, small craft: 2 Crew: 427 Marines: 1 Century

Intermediate "manned" orbital factories, like for G-A production and (apparnetly) VLCA production (I guess you need zero-g for that.) Also note all the manned platforms have increased security.
OF5: large manned factory

An OF5 is the largest of the orbital facilities. It is usually heavily populated with a full time staff of workers and their dependents, and is a fully functioning community. These facilities are realtively rare and have extensive armaments, including berths for up to 48 fighters.

Leviathan stats;

Size 1 hex (treat as frigate)

Weapons: 4 100-gun 37.5/30 bays,

fighter: 48 Small crafT: 4 Crew 1200 Marines: 1 cohort.[
Your typical sci fi "space station" in other worrds.
Though grav-equipped cargo vehicles can provide supply and maintenance operations free of most terrain restrictions, stationary depots and repair facilities are still neccesary. When constrructed near population and industrial centers, these installations serve double-duty, protecting civilian targets from space bombardments while securing a logistical base for military ground operations.

..

Four classes of ground Legion bases are listed here. Leviathan statistics are given throughout, because the majority of these installations are directly analogous to Captial ships Note,however, that these facilities are usually a cluster of smaller defensive installations rather than one massive structure.

..

The larger laser bays, missiles and spinal mount weapon systems of a ground installation are too massive to be turned against grav vehiclse operating at normal or treetop flight levels.
The interesting thing about this passage is that a.) grav equipped cargo vehicles exist for supply and maintenance purposes (presumably in support of the grav/strike Legions) b.) the stationary depots and facilities that house/support those elements are all shielded (and can in turn provide shielding to population centers against orbital bombardment - which in turn probably limits the destructiveness of usch bombardments) and c.) Legion bases (which presumably are also shielded) can be analgous to capital ships, including having groudn based versions of all the starship weapons (although they aren't a single vessel but a mass off smaller installations.) It still suggests planets (base don their sher surface area and such) can pack in an incredible amount of firepower

The hilarious part is that unless they always engage targets at extreme range, weapons ranges have to be far longer than 1500 km since orbits can extend beyond that quite easily (even low orbit.) Then again it could be quite liekly they always stay only in low orbit/high altitudes to fight or conduct bombardments, like in 40K.

A cohort-sized grav unit engaged in heavy combat operations normalyl consumes 1000 tons of supplies and parts per month of operation.
Grav unit supply requirements - what kinds of "supplies" this amounts to we dont know, but presumably food and munitions as well as parts.
GL1: Cohort support base

A Cohort support tbase is designed ot provide maintenance support to a cohort-sized unit as well as provide a limited level of protection to surrounding industrial facilities and populaton centers. It is capable of storing a year's worth of combat supplies for a cohort-sized grav unit. It can also house that unit, plus an additional century of s upport troops and attendant base personnel. A Cohort support base has only limited spacecraft faiclities. It can only offload cargo from a Corvette sized transport or smaller, and has no facilities to house or re-arm space fighters.

WEapons: 1 50-gun 37.5/10 laser, 1 50-gun 37.5/5 laser, Type G missile system

Base personnel: 600, Securit yforce: 1 cohort On hand supplies: 12000 tons.
Capability of a cohort sized support base, and its (approximate) starship analogue

GL2: Manus supporrt base

A Manus Support base is a moderate-sized facility used to hous eand provide logistical support to a unit of up to seven cohorts in size. Its maintenance facilities can totally rebuild any vehicles assigned to the legion. Its security force is able to provide a strong and aggressive local area-defense when neccessary. A Manus support bnase can handle cargo offloaded from Escort-sized craft or smaller, and it can rearm, though not house, a squadron of interceptors:

WEapons: 100 gun 37.5/10 lasers, 100-gun 37.5/5 lasers, Type D missile system.

Personnel: 1000 Security Force: 4 cohorts On hand supplies: 36,000 tons
The next scale up of support base. Note that "Escort" sized vessels apparently can land. It also has the ability to repair/rebuild vehicles (organic workshop facilities, I'd guess, but not full fledged factories/manufacturing..)
GL3 Legion supporrt base
A Legion support base is designed to fully support and maintain a full-strength grav legion plus any attached troops and up to a full auxilia of heavy armor. In addition, the base can fully service and maintain fighter craft, and house up to a wing of attached fighters. The defensive systems of a Legion Supportt Base are impressive, easily able to fend off most orbital attacks. A GL3's offloading facilities can quickly handle cargo delivered by Destroyer-sized transports.


WEapons: 100-gun 37.5/25 lasers, 100-gun 37.5/10 lasers, type E missile system.

Personnel: 2000 Security Force: 12 cohorts (garrison legion) on hand supplies: 144,000 tons
Legion scale support base - can also maintain fighters, handle destroyer-sized transports (whicn in turn suggests these facilities are damn big.) and presumably also include their own workshop facilities.
GL4 Planetary support base

A planetary support base is designed to fully support up to four grav legions and four auxilia, as well as provide limited manufacturing and assembly facilities. These manufacturing facilities greatly increase the efficiency of any off-planet resupply effort, because only components need to be shipped to the Base for final assembly. Shipping components rather than finished products allows more useful material to be shipped per ton of transported mass.

The offloading facilities of a Legion support Base can handle simultaensouly cargo delivered by three Destroyer class transports. It can house and maintan a full wing of fighters.

Weapons: 4 100-gun 37.5 laser bays, Type E missile system

Personnel: 4000 Security force 48 cohorts (2 garrison legions) on hand supplies 144,000 tons*

*Each Ton of supplies delivered to such a base is increased by 25 percent, to reflect the facilities manufacturing capabilities.
The next step up - begins introducing organic manfucaturing capabilities which provide redundant support functions in war tim. Even bigger than Legion bases (3 destroyers as opposed to 1)

Note that the interesting thing bout all these bases is they have their own built in security forces (which apparently are equal to Garrison legions or parts of them) which serve on planet in addition to whatever Legion forces and such occur on planet. These must represent the tpyical "planetary defence" forces, that supplement the offensive arms of the militaires (The Legions) in attacks and suchnot.
Naval bases maintain and support naval military operations. These facilities usually orbit a planet or moon, but most habitable planets also have one or two ground naval bases.

Ground bases increase their shield rating by 1 (to a maximum of 5) THe right and lef turret factors are added together to form asingle fire factor. All forward and aft weapons are removed. Only the right and left broadside weapons and missiles may fire, though both broadsides may be used, per the rules on p. 32 of Leviathan
The Navy keeps ground and orbital bases, and like Legion bases (And support facilities) they all have shielding and capital scale armaments, which reinforrces the idea planetary defenses are truly formidable.
ON1/GN1: Fort Oasis class Post

Fort OAsis class posts are used primarily by the Royal Navy, but TOG have their counterpart. Both versions are small, unpropelled facilities usually established in orbit to provide a logistical base for a single squadron of fighter.s They are equipped with Variable Shield generators and 200 points of armor for all seven hexes (interceptor play) and two to six fighters.

Interceptor stats:
Size: 1 hex

WEapons: 3 MDC12s and 2 7.5/6 lasers Power available: 1200 Marines: 1 squad

LEviathan Stats: Size 1 hex (treat as fighter squadron)

Fighters: 6 Cargo, 1000 tons.
Naval bases are different in that they can have ground or space analogues with similar capabilities.

ON2/GN2 Small ship portt

A small ship port can provide support for up to six patrol class (or smaller) ships. It usually has a squadron of Interceptors assigned to it for defensive support and contains a platoon of Marines as security personnel. Most small Ship Posts are actually seven Fort Oasis Class posts bolted together. Because of its modular nature, a Small Ship Post can easily support a full flight of four squadrons and three Patrol class Carriers

Interceptor stats:
Size: 7 hexes

Weapons: 3 MDC 12s and 2 7.5/6 lasers Power available: 1200
Crew: 245 (including pilots and crew) Marines: 1 platoon

LEviathan stats

Size: 1 hex (Treat as fighter flight)

Fighters: 6 Small craft: 6 Cargo: 7000 tons
Next step up... apparently the ports are modular.
ON3/GN3: Medium Fighter Base

A Medium Fighter Base has strong defenses and at least a century of Marines for security. It can provide berths for a group of Interceptors plus eight Patrol class ships. Its logistical capabilities allow it to support the long-term operations of two naval squadrons, including limited repair facilities for ships of Cruiser class or smaller.

LEviathan stats:
Class/Size: Destroyer

WEapons: 3 25-gun 22.5/5 laser bays, Type C missile system
Fighters: 72 Small craft: 8 Cargo 50,000 tons Crew: 717 Passengers: 30 Marines: 1 Century
Next step up... we get to see logistical and repair support ofr starships.

ON4/GN4: Medium Ship Base
A Medium Ship Base can provdie logistical support for up to six naval squadrons, overall ships as large as Frgiate Class, and provide limited repairs for larger ships. It can service and repair up to five Frigates at any one time. Though Battleships and Cruisers may moor at Medium Ship bases, extensive repair of such vessels is generally not possible or feasible.

Ground based versions of Medium Ship Bases usually consist of large Dry Docks, bunkers, landing and cargo facilities and housing for personnel.

Class: Cruiser

Weapons - 4 50-gun 37.5/5 laser bays

Fightrs: 24 Small craft: 2 Cargo: 100,000 tons Crew: 2,500 Marines: 1 Century
Next step up again.
ON5/GN5: Fighter Wing Command

Similar in size to a Medium Ship Base, a Fighter Wing command is designed to support fighter rather than ship operations. An ON5/GN5 can completely support and house a f ull fighter wing and has strong defensive capabilities. It can also provide logistical s upport and limited repair facilities for up to two squadrons of warships.

A MOBASTAT (Mobile Battle Station) is a TOG variation of a Fighter Wing Command. Towed by a Legion Class transport, a MOBASTAT can be quickly deployed in a star system to provide permanant fighter support for invasion forces, or to rapidly esablish large garriosn fighter forces in remote areas.

Class: Frigate
Weapons: 4 50-gun 37.5/5 laser bays

FighterS: 360 Small craft: 12 Cargo 100,000 tons Crew: 2500 MArines: 1 Cohort.
"Battle stations" and immobile carrier type vehciles. Probably supplement local defenses where needed. Can be towed.

ON6 Large ship base

A large ship base can overhaul BAttleship Class vessels and can support the operations of multiple Battleship groups. It can also fully support up to a grgoup of fighters for self defense. Large Ship Bases are found as orbital facilities only in Shannadam County. Deep within TOG, several such large ground facilities exist on airless moons, but the Commonwealth has only a handful, all of them far form the front lines.

Class: Battleship

WEapons 8 100 gun 37.5/30 laser bays, Type D missile system

Fighters: 72 Small craft: 6 CArgo 200,000 tons Crew: 2,717 Passnegers: 200 Marines: 1 Cohort.
Not unlike Tessdrake station. They are the largest and least common, for obvious reasons. Groudn facilities only eixst on airless moons. For obvious reasons they are also furtherst from teh front line. Which is good and bad as it exacerbates repair times for the big ships obviously.
Orbital Track Data:

Track zone AUs from Star
1 .25
2 .5
3 1
4 2
5 4
6 8
7 16
8 32
9 64
10 128
11 256
12 512
13 1,024
14 2,048
15 4,096
16 8,192
REemmeber the map from Legionnaire, this is like it again.
Unit designations are only given for ground forces of Legion size that are equipped with grav vehicles, or units of special interest such as Marine or Penal infantry auxilia. All other military units that have an active combat mission are tallied together under the Garrison heading. These garrison units include locally mustered forces such as Commonwealth militia, Independent Regiments, TOG Garrison Legions, and TOG auxilia. These forces normally man support bases, or garrison population and industrial centers. Such units rarely operate far from their bases because they cannot match the vastly superior mobility and firepower inherent with grav technology. Other units with paramilitary missiones such as population control are not listed because their combat-effectiveness is minimal.

..

Most large navy squadrons are named after the lead ship.
We see now non Legion" (or at least non Strike/Infantry Legion) forces are handled on both Tog and RL sides, which helps to explain the 8 million legion limit (and seems to reinforce the idea that is the offensive striking arm, rather than the defenisve one.) Does not include paramiliary forces (eg police and such.) Either way it suggests that standing militaries are much larger than stated.

Naval squadron naming conventions are also useful details.
Naval Squadrons
The usual composition of naval squadrons is as follows:

Pursuit Squadron:
3-5 Destroyers, 3-5 patrol ships

Patrol/Defense squadron:
1-2 Frigates, 2-5 Destroyers, 1-5 Patrol ships

Long Range Patrol/Harasser Squadron
1 Cruiser, 1-2 Frigates, 2-6 Destroyers, 2-6 Patrol ships

Aggressor/Battleship Squadron
1 Battleship 1-3 Cruisers, 2-4 Frigates, 4-8 Destroyers,4-10 PAtrol ships

Light Carrier Squadron:
1 Destroyer-class Carrier, 2-4 Destroyers, 1-6 Patrol ships

Carrier Patrol Squadron:
1 Frigate or Cruiser class Carrier
1-2 Frigates, 2-6 Destroyers, 2-8 Patrol ships

Carrier Strike/Raiding squadron
1-2 Cruiser class Carriers
1-2 cruisers, 2-4 Frigates, 2-8 destroyers 2-10 patrol ships

Heavy Carrier Strike Squadron
2 cruiser class carriers or 1 battleship class carrier, 1 Battleship 2 cruisers, 2-4 Frigates, 2-8 Destroyers, 2-10 PAtrol ships
"typical" kinds of squadrons and their variations. The Carrier squadrons are interesting especially.
Entering the system, the KessRith ships targeted one of the large orbitla factories. Just before they fired, the factory came to life, loosing a thousand ship-to-ship missiles. The KessRith command ship vaporized, while moon-based fighters surrounded the surviving enemy vessels Only one KessRith batltecruiser escaped to warn the empire of the danger that awaited any force foolish enough to attack Business Mission.
Size of Capital ship missile volleys - 1000 missiles to take out one battleship.

TheMerchant Races consider 100 AU from Carbuncle (in the middle of the tenth orbital track), to be the limit of their territory. Both TOG and Commonwealth fleets routinely patrol the outer edges of the system, but neither side has made overt intrusions into Business Mission's territory or against its sovereignty (as TOG has on Trader's Paradise.)
100 AU is well otuside the "system range" of an Earth type system, it should be noted - we're talking tens of billions of kilometers, or nearly 14 light hours. That might give us an idea on detection ranges for sensors, though. Why TOG and RL forces patrol the region, god knows.

Heavily armed religious fanatics overran the CAF garrison and excuted most of its troops, then took to the streets to kill "The infidels"

When word of the upheaval finally leaked ot the Commonwealth, it sent a Carrier Flotilla and three legions. In response, the Minions of Gog opted for mass suicide. By the time the legions landed, there were only a few hundred frightend survivors out of the mllions who once lived on Syriph XX.

The disaster was one of the most brutal in recorded history, exceeded only by TOG's total destruction of Durmella and Trothas.
Carrier "flotilla", a planet with millions (upper limit on the CAF garrison too..) Mention of Durmella (KEssRith World Destroyed by Ivanolo Buntari) and Trothas (planet from Renegade's Honor destroyed by a 1000 strong TOG fleet.) Apparently the devastation on the planet wreaked by the fanatics (or perhaps the death toll) is close in comparison to those two. Its interesting that "millions" dying is so horrific to them.
In the middle of the Nestle Landing, a sudden raid by the 90887th Renegade Battle Squadron lured away both the TOG carrier and the 816th's attached fighter wing.
almost 91,000 RL Battle squadrons. Close to a million warships implied, anyhow.
The assault plan was to drop three cohorts onto the capital (balyo), while the 3241st struck from the nearby bay. It was hoped tha tthe 300th would draw the fire of the island's space defenses stem, allowing the TOG marines to land with little or no resistance...

..

On May 1 Spartivalcus ordered that the Balyo Islnads be destroyed from space. The 3241st was withdrawn to the surrounding seas while a TOG battleship squadron went into low orbit and began bombardment. Within minutes, the islands were a radioactive wasteland.
Going by the map in teh book, the Baylo islands are large (they have at least one city and planetary defense system) is about 1000-1500 km long, and about 400-500 km wide (the "map" is composed of 20 boxes forming an entire map of the world. The diameter of the planet is given as 19,000 km, so each "box" is slightly less than 1000 km.

That is conservative, mind, ,since that should not be diameter but probably circumference, and thus you could triple the estimate (~3000 km)

Thus we're talking about a battle squadron demolishing a contiental sized area in "minutes". Assuming no overlap and 100 kiloton explosions to demolish the area we could be talking about a gigaton's worth of devastation in a minute. Call it at least single/double digit megatons. In a two minute time period that is 10 1-10 MT/s per "ship" at least. If we go with "teraton" level continental destruction, this could easily be orders of magnitude greater (GT/s).

It really can be argued either way - dumping gigatons or teratons of energy is pretty nasty to the enviroment, and it would make sense they might want to limit the devastation and opt for lesser bombardment (It would still be a lower limit on capital ship firepower anyhow, and its an avreage so bigger shps owuld be more impressive as well.) On the other hand, we've had lots of mentionis of how capital ship weapons have incredibly destructive effects on the enviroment (Battle of Jacob's STar manual, VEhicle tech briefing for Centurion, Golden Medusas, various other sources.) so its not unresonable that they might devastate the area.

The Naram discovery of large deposits of uranium and other radioactive elemnts triggered an influx of Baufrin aid and investment.

..

Because the mining of heavy metlas and other ores was important to the war effort...
Heavy metals and fissionables and other radioactive elemnts are important to the war effort, for whatever reason (weapons, powerplants, etc.)

The TOG Navy is constructing a massive orbital ship-repair facility around Ciria. Dubbed "Tessdrake Command", this base will be capable of repairing Battleship Class ships. Ciria's slave population has been working on the base for the past eight years, and the TOG Navy expects it to be in operation soon.
'

Obviously a reference to Tessdrake station.. teh 8 year minimum construction time also mentioned.

Hover "bullet" trains that travel at supersonic speeds link all the major cities, crossing the oceans between continents through three major subway systems constructed more than a century ago.
Example of RL public transit capabilities on the planet Defiance.
The Royal Navy shipyard at Daytona proved to be a mixed belssing. It supported a work force of several hunderd thousand and borught a new level of prosperity to Delop's economy, bu tit also brought the Snow Plague in 5001 and attraacted a Kessrith attack in 5010.

KessRith intelligence indicated that the shipyards on Delop were vital to the Royal Navy. Delop was fighting the Snow Plague, and the KessRith took advnatage of the weakness by jumping into the system and bombarding the shipyard with nuclear and biological warheads. The yard, and hundreds of kilometers surrounding, became a deadly desert of radiation and biological horror.

Even today, no one dares travel what is known as the Daytona desert.
Nuclear/bioweapon bombardment reduced an area "hundreds of km" in radius (plus the yard however big it was - kilometers at least?) into a radioactive/biological desert. Bombardment wasnt nasty enough to sterilize it - probably atomic "dirty' bombs. Not impressive so much for the volume (although a nation/continent size area devastated IS impressive) but rather that it's remained this way for close to two millenia and hasn't spread.
Two TOG Carrier groups imediately moved in and destroyed the now defenseless Tacker Command.
CArrier groups again.
As TOG pushed into Shannedam, the CAF garrissoned Gustaviv's Regreat even more heavily, knowing that its trocobalt and laser-crystal deposits woudl be vital to the war effort.
"Trocobalt and laser-crystal deposits." Or maybe it was tricobalt. I forget and I've often made typos in this stuff.
the fourth source (of income for the world) is trocobalt, a precious metal mined in significant quantites near the more volatile volcanic areas.
i guess it is trocobalt. What it does I have no idea.
Setting on the island of Lone Man Out, the KessRith began using the rest of Kukulak as a weapons testeing ground, with slaves as the targets. Many of the weapons were standard infantry issue, while others were biological agents that left their victims brain dead. Still others were nuclear or anti-matter devices tat destroyed entire islands.
more Kessrith biowarfare examples. The more interesting aspect are nukes and antimatter weapons that destroy whole islands.

The antimatter example is particularily interesting as it suggests the technology exists, at least for certain kinds of weapons (and can supplement fusion power, at least ins ome limited way.) How big an island they "destroy" I dont know, but it also depends on what you mean by destroy (blow apart, or what?) If they made a crater, it could easily be megaton range for example.

In 6567 the KessRith decided to pull their troops and equipment off Kukulak after eliminating all sentient life on the planet. Not wanting to leave evidence of their weapons testing, the KessRith sought to destroy all traces by bombarding the world into barrenness in less than 30 minutes.
Several thousand people survived this furious bombardment, though many were diseased and near death when CAF relief forces arrived eight months later. The Commonwealth wanted the survivors to abandon Kukulak, but they refused to leave.

..

Several persistant viruses created during the KessRith occupation continue to plague its people.
30 minute bombardment to wipe out all traces of life as well as bombardment. This would mean eliminating traces of bombing (craters and such, which probably suggests either massive craterinr or melting the surface to some depth)), elimiantion of the human population and corpses, as well as viruses (sterilization and cremation) which suggests the yields should be well in excess of the billion megaton figure (in theory) - tens of billions probably.

That "several thousand" survived tends to argue against that however, but we dont really know how/why they survived (was it inside a facilitiy, which may or may not have been shielded, or what?)

Sadly we don't know how many ships there were either.

Assuming 100 teratons, 1000 shps and a 30 min timeframe? - 56 Megatons/second on average. 100 ships would be 560 TT, and a single battleship squadorn 1 Gt/s on average. Obviously a 1 petaton yield increases that by a factor of 10, and a 10+ petaton yield increases it by a further OoM or so (or a factor of 20 if there are 20 billion MT, etc.)

The ship number is still arbitrary, although to be fair 1000 ships is the most we've ever seen amassed in one place. More often than not you only see squadrons or "groups" which are scores or at most hundreds of ships, rather than thousands, and that would argue my nubmers are conservative. Since its an OoM figure in any case, this fits in well with my estimate.

In general it is definite proof that RL firepower can reach into the MT/GT range at the minimum if not Gt/TT possibly.
By 6350 the planet had a populatio of more than 20 million on Mala, living in small, hidden communities.

With the passing years, the Malans began to produce armaments in underground factories. They even constructed a fleet of warships, based on technology now centuries old. In 6550, Mala was fully armed and ready to face the KessRith, should they dare to return.

That same year, the KessRith fleet rendezvoused in the supposedly empty Darlene Alpha system, where they suddenly encountered more than 35 ancient cruisers.
200 years to build 35 "ancient" cruisers, constructed in secret (undeground) by a population no more than 20 million, which is 1 cruiser every 6 years or so.
The Royal Navy constructed a shipyard orbiting Mala. When TOG invaded Shannedam IV, this shipyard became cruical to interceptor support of the Dukedom Capital. Realizing this, TOG destrtoyed the facility in 6829, losign two of its prized battleships in the process.

Since that time, the Royal Navy has built a smaller shipyard over Mala.

..

The newly formed 49008th Battleship Squadron gives the Royal Navy a strong presencee in the system.
Navy Shipyard facility.

49000 Navy Battleship squadrons for the Commonwealth.
The unit seized and razed the Mashoona orbital shopyards that it had been assigned to protect.

..

Millions were killed or left homeless by the stunning and devastating raid that culminated in the destruction of the vital shipyard facilities.

..

The loss of the Mashoona shipyard hit the Royal Navy hard. Though production was increased in other facilities the Navy's overall output declined for several years.
Orbital shipyards destroyed, causing death/desloation for "millions." and lead to a decrease in output for "several years" - although of what we dont know (it was an important facility, so it suggetss warships and probably big ones.)
All the raids concentrated on the Interceptor defenses of Mashoona or on the 489021st Royal Navy Heavy Carrier Strike Squadron. With this Carrier group constantly harssing the TOG efforts at Rolunitru, it has become a prime target for TOG attacks.
That would imply 490,000 carrier squadrons (or at least heavy carrier squadrons) if numbers are linear. Curiously note that carrier squadorn and "carrier group" are used interchangably.

Mavinav's moon is currently being mined by TOG. Its ore is launched by mass drivers into orbit around Mavinav, and from there robotic factories refine the ore into useful metals.
Mass drivers to transport ores, and robotic factories to process the mateiral. Are the mines robotic as well?

To help maintain Mavinav's peace, the Commonwealth funded a massive military complex to the north of the current site of New Bagdad. AT the time, this site was the largest spaceport and construction facility in Shannedam County, having taken more than 20 years to complete.
This was some time between 3512 and the outbreak of the Snow Plague (5000). 20 years to build a spaceport.


The arrival of a KessRith stirke fleet in oribt over the world made matters worse.

...

Finally the KessRith opted for the simple solution. In a huge orbital bombardment of the main continent, they destroyed the spaceport, three large Baufrin cities, and 75 percent of the planet's surviving population. When radiation levels had died down a thousand years later, Mavinav's rolling hills had become a massive desert, devoid of life.
A "striek fleet" (dozens or hundreds of ships) appear, bombard the whole continent, wipe out cities, a spaceport, and nealry all of the planet. 1000 years later it is lifeless. 1e8-1e9 Mt range maybe?
The most precious of these (metals) are the rare molybdenum-titanium alloys found deep in its crust.
Wait- what? Naturally occuring alloys ? Maybe they mean a mix of mateirals. It shows that molybdenum is important as well as titanium, I suppose.
New Janos is rich in molybdenum-titanium alloy deposits.
Nope. Naturally occuring alloy deposits. :P

In response to these raids, the Royal Navy redeployed the 39098th Battleship Group in the system, led by the Iron-Duke class REpulse, in November 683.
..

And the Royal Navy decided to form the new 29092nd Battleship Group around the rebuilt battleship Amberst/i].


tens of thousands of battleship groups for the Commonwelath Navy.


[quote[]
The battle for Olispio was viscous. TOG grav armour would often perform erratically or not at all in the bitter cold.[/quote]

TOG grav vehicles seem not to work well in extreme cold.



TOG rebuilt several of the damaged cities, and even completed an underwater subway linking Trent and york.


Undergwater/underground public transit.



Ope'Diar's rich deposits of gennium-arsenic crystal and other vital war materials are what make it a crucial world to the Commonwealth and Shannedam County.

..

Ope'Diar's sole redeeming feature is mineral deposits, which have been producing an abundant supply of Gennium-Arsenic, molybdenum-titanium, Trocobolt, and other precious ores and metals for centuries.


More of the aforementioned magic mateerials in this source. I wonder if the Molybdenum/titanium stuff is in alloy form here :D


The 3241st and the 40811th Strike Legions lay siege to the sprawling mountain fortress of Baker's deep. Sixty days of continuous bombardment could not pry the 479th Renegade Legion loose. Despairing of frontal attacks, the TOG forces finally opted for concentrated naval bombardment with HELL munitions.

The attack was made on 15 September by an entire battleship group. Despite heavy shielding and the mountain's own mass, Baker's Deep became a river of molten stone. Nothing was left of the fortress or the 479th Renegade Legion.


Naval bombardment vai hell Munitions via an entire battleship group. REduced an entire mountain (Despite shielding) to molten stone. Assuming a 1 km tall, 2 km diameter mountain, it would take ~1500 megatons to melt. Call it 3000 MT for omnidrectional blasts. Assuming 1000 munitions fired that would be 3 MT at least per munition. If shields deflected 90% of that (as stated in Interceptor) it would rise to maybe 30 MT. Not impossible for capital ship hell munitions.

Again this isnt a precise figure and its very rough, but it does hint at megaton and (possibly) gigaton level firepower.


Rilus V soon became one of the key industrial worlds in Shannedam county.


Multiple industrial worlds in Shannadem County. Thousands at least in the commonwealth, orders of magnitude more for TOG (probably.)


The first step of the 40 year [terraforming] plan was to set off a series of underwater volcanic eruptions to form new island chains.

..

Thermonuclear blasts touched off the desired volcanoes, but the eruptions coudl not be stopped. When the undersea volcanoes broke through the surface, they began to release millions of tons of ash into the air, cutting off most of the sunlight. The volacnos eventually died away, but Saguntum III only began to warm after 20 years of freezing temperatueres. Unofrtunatley, its warming conitnued as the increased carbon dioxide triggered a greenhouse effect.

...

To better manage the tides, the KessRith destroyed the planet's fourth moon. Debris from the shattered moon rained down as metoeirtes torms or asteroid strikes, further damaging the planet.


rather violent "terraforming" techniques... no idea how big the fourth moon is, but the debris war lasrrge enough and probably caused at least megaton range strikes. I imagine triggeirng volacanoes requires megaton level power as well.


Ships from the Terran Repulic trapped the KEssrith fleet in orbit around Candlestick and its three moons.

The battle for Candlestick lasted three days and destroyed the KEssRith navy in the Revenaugh system. The damaged ships were sent itno hacker and can be seen there today.


3 day battle.



The 149th struck with blistering firepower, bosltered by orbital HELL bombardments, but the tanks and troops in the Pasgin Ithsmus held firm.


More orbital Hell munition bombardment.



Lictor command is within a southern mountain that is virtually invulnerable to space bombardment. Similarily, TOG military command is located nearly a kilometer below the surface of Nova Londinium


Depth of military command to be "immune" to bombardment, and within a mountain. I imagine it is invulenrable to "practicla" bombardment (Eg the "I wnat the planet to survive intact" type.)


Abos; the smaller continent, is less productive because of poorer soil, but terraforming efforts in the last 30 years are beginning to yield promising results.


More terraforming.


In 4038, he began the controlled terraforming of Tontrinas.

..

The Terraforming of Tontrinas took almost five hundred years. Its atmosphere slowly developed, and the biosphere began to stabilize.


Yet more terraforming.


TOG vessels may not conduct military operations or searches within 5 AU s of the planet. THis helps protect the world's sovereignty, and allows it, though still at great risk, to conduct business with the Renegade legion and the Commonwealth.


A slightly less insane exclusion zone. That it is considered risky is interesting. Is it because they can bombard from that range somehow, or is it that T-space drives can sneak attack effectively over that distance?


The KessRith were intensely interested in the planet's radioactive ores. Ignoring the Plague survivors, they began extensive automation and modernization of the mines.


An indication (at least) of automated mining capability, at least on planet.


Ve'Fros proved relatively fortunate during the Snow Plague and subsequent KessRith occupation. The KessRith used slaves in their oribtal factories to construct Destroyer-class Warships, but otherwise they hadl ittle use for the people of Ve'Fros.

..

The orbital factories had been dismantled and removed because the KessRith believed that Ve'Fros ws not even worth defending.


mobile/modular orbital facilities for building destroyers (using slave labor)


The battle lasted for a full day before the last Renegade vessel, the Battleship Class Vampire, rammed the Xerxes class Carrier Tarantula, destroying both ships.


Day long battle.


In 6822 Jankowski Armaments, manufacturers of spinal-mount weaponry for the TOG Navy, completed a large orbital factory over Ve'Fros.


Orbital factory.


Unknown to the TOG forces, the last three Potemkin] class Destrroyers, ARbucker, Preeback's Sword, and Hollister, were powered down in the deep waters of the Bolt Isles. The crews had been living on their ships for ten months, waiting for the right moment to spring their final trap against TOG.


10 month operational time for destroyer crews.. under water no less!
Last edited by Connor MacLeod on 2011-11-21 04:41pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

And Renegade Legion: Reinforcements. This one is interesting because it isn't done directly by FASa. AS I gather they sold off the license to the universe or something and someone else picked it up. They released one book and then everyting pretty much died. WEll this is it, and I'm pretty sure its canonical. enjoy.
One of the biggest failings of the massive TOG military machine was in the area of procurement. The standard TOG policy was to have a minimum number of different vehicles deployed in its units. There were several reasons behind this policy. First, there was the ease of keeping spare parts in stock for large numbers of the same vehicle as compared to small numbers of different vehicles. Second, it was supposed to ease training problems. A recruit could be trained anywhere and immediately be able to fill his assigned roll when he reached his assigned unit, even if it was hundreds of light years away. Finally, combat units could be mixed together in any number of combinations.
..

If everyone had the same vehicle, everyone would have more or less the same capabilities.

...

By 6830 TOG High Command had come to realize that there were drawbacks to their doctirne of equipping all their troops with exactly the same vehicles. After a few disastrous battles where local conditions had seriously hampered the standard, approved models, the High Command released a new policy. The policy directed TOG Strategy and Operations Group (TOGSOG) to reivew any variant designs presented to it for the standard vhehicles. If the new design passed the necessary tests, they were to be approved for procurement for commanders in areas where the variant would have an advantage over the standard design.

..

Field commanders had been griping for years about the failings of having one vehicle design that had to serve in all conditions. It was obvious that you needed slightly different equipment in a jungle evnrioment than you needed in an acrtic one.

..

The other obvious failing of the old "Standard Model" poicly, was tht it made it hard to effectively utilize new technologies. Once a new technology had reached the stage where it was ready to see field servicee, it would often have to wait while someone designed a new vehicle using it before it was seen by front-line units. The new policy promises to get new technologies and weapons into service much more quickly.
the reasoning and drawback of "old" TOG military policites explained (which made sense in light of how their military operated and where it drew recruits and such from) as well as simplifying logistics, even though it had significant drawbacks. Also we see that TOG is bright enought o change the policy if it doesn't work anymore (like where technology is concerned.)

It is easy to think in terms of "good/bad" with this kind of thing, but there are always tradeoffs in any sort of policy. Sometimes standaridzation and simplified logistics are desirable, and the drawbacks (holding back technology, lack of specialization, etc.) won't be too detrimental. It's when circumstances change and those policies start to hurt more than help when change is desirable, and the willingness/ability to change is a sign of flexibility (at least, if you adopt the right policies it is!)

The [fighter] duel that followed was one of the thousands of unlamented battles throughout the year
"Thousands" of unimportant battles throughout the year. Unsure if this means just fighter scale or includes other kinds.
Still, Archikeleustes Neryth still wished he could be with the main body of the 920th Naram Heavy Carrier Group as it proceeded to gut the Renegade raiding force.
...

Spotting a converted destroyer-hull transport ship and no capital ship escorts, the unit attacked. Unfortunatley for them, the transport was a replenishment vessel for the 920th Naram Heavy Carrier Group and was escorted by several of TOG's new fighter variants.
A TOG-allied Naram "heavy carrier group". What kind of Carrier? What distinguishes "heavy" carrier groups from other kinds? Are there "heavy" cruiser and Battleship groups too?

Molkte-C Combat Transport: (Destroyer-size hull)

Thrust 4

Turret 1 : TPP 20x2, NPC 20, AL Hardpoint, MDC-G

Turret 2: 2x7.5/6 laser, 5/4 laser, EPC 14

These [turrets] are a representation of the "turret factors" listed in the Leviathan rules.
Self explanatory. Explains perhaps what comprises turrets on a capital ship in more detail.
The physicians in the sickbay of the IWS Naveria Regnus finished operating on the critically injured Neryth Likal. The Archikeleustes would live, but would require major organ budding before he could return to duty.
Mention of "organ budding" to repair damage.
Early in 6831, TOG found itself beset by a series of raids launched by the Renegade Hunt-Kill group based around 3 Venatrix Class Battleships. The Renegade ships destroyed 2 Shivas, 1 Mars, , 4 Colossusses, and one Illustris; 3 Shivas and a Regnum were heavily damaged. The rampage of the Hunt-kill group ended when they detected a TOG battleship group on T-Doppler and moved to attack, confident in their ships and skills and expecting to find victory.

...

Expecting to face standard TOG battleships, the 28th Hunt-Kill group was surprised by the Shiva-N's. In the bloody battle that followed, the 28th ws almost completely annihilated.

..

The IWS Executioner was crippled in the battle, but was towed ot Admiral Maximus' shipyards for repair.
Battle between TOG and RL Battleships, including the Venatrix's mentioned in the Leviathan Capital Ship briefing, and the utterly lopsided killr atio they inflicted (8 bttleships tdesotryed and 4 damaged vs 3 RL battleships.) The detection in T-doppler may or may not be interesting as they expected easy kills - could they detect the kind of ships they were facing.
During earliy 6832, a TOG cruiser squadron was conducting a series of raids against Commonwelath shipping near Defiance. The Commonwealth Royal Navy sent a light carrier squadron out to deal with the TOG force.
Cruiser squadron and light carrier squadron.

Also this is 6832, and the Venatrix's faced the problem in 6831. I dont remember if they built the Shiva-N's completely from scratch or just rebuilt Shivas, but it took them a year or two to do it, which may have implications for shipbuilding speed.
2871st Cruiser Squadron: ["Imposers"]
IWS Imposer [Syracuse II class Cruiser] [Flagship}
IWS Eradicator [Octil Class Frigate]
ITWS Vengeance [Hipper class Frigate]
IWS Tormentor and Caesar's Fury [Moltke class Destroyer]
Cruiser squadron - cruiser, 2 frigates, and 2 destroyers.
1407th Carrier Patrol Squadron:

CWS Resurgence [County-X class Frigate Carrier]
CWS Antagonist [Valiant II class Frgiate]
CWS Retaliation and Vigilance [Exeter class destroyers]
1 Carrier, 1 frigate, 2 destroyers.
Propaganda had lead the people to believe that TOG was all-powerful and could crush all opponents. In fact, this was to a great deal true. So why, people asked, did the Commonwealth and KessRith still exist? Why had they not fallen to the legions and fleets of the Empire?

...

Each arrest or execution however merely served to vindicate the viewpoint that TOG either coudl not or would not take the steps needed to win the war.
More interesting commentary on why the Commonwealth/TOG war continues, as outlined in Legionnaire. When taken in context with Legionnaire and its analysis, "can't win" seems highly unlikely evne with the limited resources (relative to its size and potential) TOG throws into the battle - "won't win" (Because of political reasons or suchnot) seems a more plausible reason.


The nature of VLCA and P-comm systems make the identification and tracking of the source transmitter nearly impossible.
This implies detection methods that could in theory track them, but for whatever reason they in practice cannot be tracked.
A government brought into being by the use of tactical nuclear assasination is not one that is conductive to an easy change of supreme executive power.
I just love the "tactical nuclear assassination" bit as asn assessment of TOG government.
The Terran District has one of the largest allocations of TOG miltiary assets of all the empire's distrcits.
Military power allocation is not uniform, obviously.
The destruction of a Cruiser-sized civilian merchant vessel in 6831 by TOG's 920th Naram Heavy Carrier Group is an example of this.
Again the 920th Naram Heavy Carrier group. Also a cruiser sized merchant vessel. Do battleship sized vessels exist too?
This district [Mompono] contains some of the largest industrial centers in TOG.
Industrial potential, like naval assets, varies throughout TOG.
A fighter production factory on the planet Jameson was vaporized by a titanic HELL explosion. The factory, which was built into a mountain, was eradicated, as were several installations in the immediate vicinity. Casualties ranged into the tens of thousands, not counting guards and factory workers. Volcanic eruptions triggered by the blast caused even more casualties and property damage. Jameson City, the planetary capital, was b uried under a lava flow. Fortunately the vast majortiy of the populaton was evacuated before the disaster struck.
HELL detonation implied to take out an entire mountain (the factory was built into) as well as wiping out the immediate vicinity. Well into the megaton range, if not low gigatons possibly. That it touched off severe volcanic eruptions only reinforces the idea this was a hefty detonation.
It is far more liekly that a deranged group of terrorists or possibly even an accident was responsible [for the HELL destruction of the aforementioned factory.
It's rather frightening that "terrorists" can get hold of such munitions!
Recently however, a "rogue" TOG squadron entered a system held by the Free Traders. Ignoring warnings, the squadron destroyed the defending naval vessels and then boiled the atmosphere off of the small planet by orbital bombardment.

...

The most damning thing about the whole event was that the pirate VLCA operators showed scenes of the orbital assault.

...

In any case, the blatant obliteration of a planet, shown to billions of people all across the empire, has only served to further infalme the smoldering feelings of dissatisfaction with TOG and its policies.
A "TOG" squadron boils off the atmosphere of a planet in a relatively short time (short enough that it is observed and caught on camera) which implies it cannot take very long to achieve (hours at most, and more probably minutes.) "Squadron" isnt specific, but a cruiser or battelship squadron is likely, and it implies considerable firepower - easily gigaton/TT per second range on average, even allowing for innacuracy, hyperbole or even an insanely long duration (like weeks as Renegade's Honor suggests.)

Despite the rising tide of political discontent, the fact of the matter is that TOG is still in power, and has every reason to expect to stay as it is far into the foreseeable future. The billions of warships and millions of legions stand as pillars of power supporting the authority of TOG.
"billions of warships" and "millions of Legions" in TOG.
Lupis MK 12 Light Grav APC

Mass: 92 Engine: 850 Thrust 8
Carries infantry and has digging cannons.

weapons: SMLM (2), 3/6 laser (both turret.)
Lupis grav APC stats.
Aeneas Mk 7 Light Grav tank
Mass 159
Engine: 1300
Thrust 7
Digging cannons
weapons: 100mm gauss (turret) TVLG (4) (turret), GMDC-5 (turret) 2x1.5/5 lasers (hull)
Light grav tank stats

Horatius Mk 3 Med. Grav tank

Mass: 279
Engine: 2000
Thrust 6
Digging cannons

Weapon: Vulcan -3, 3/6 laser, GMDC-18, TVLG (6) in turret. TVLG (6) and 150mm in hull.
Horatius mark 3 stats.
Romulus Mk 5 Medium Grav APC

Mass: 178, Engine: 1500, Thrust 6
Digging Cannons, Infantry squad carried.

Weapons: Vulcan 3, 5/6 laser, ,GMDC-8, 2 TVLG (4), AP laser, all in turret.
Romulus Mk 5 stats.
Trajan MK 4 heavy grav tank
Mass: 411, engine 2500 thrust 4
Has digging cannons

Weapons: Vulcan-4, TVLG (6), 2x 7.5/6 lasers, GMDC-18, AP laser, all in turret. 200mm Gauss and TVLG (6) in hull mount.
Trajan Mk 4 stats/
Lancea-X light fighter

Mass: 65 Engines (700 left and right, 1400 total)
Thrust 10
Streamlining Yes Antigrav No
Weapons: TPP 9 and Hardpoint in bow, 2 wing hardpoints.
Lancea-x figther
Verutum Mk1A medium fighter:

Mass 106 Engines: left/right 600 (1200 total)
Thrust 5
Streamlining/antigrav: Yes/No
Weapons:
NPC20, TPP9 in bow 2x 5/1 laser (wing mounts) 1 bow hard point.
Verutum variantstats

Pilum 2 Heavy fighter
Mass: 181
Engines Right/Left 600, Center 800 (2000 total)
Thrust: 7
Streamlining/Antigrav: Yes/No

WEapons: 2 7.5/3 lasers (Wing), ,2 bow MDC-G, 1 hardpoint.
[

Pilum 2
The MDC-G is the same weight and has the same power requirements as the standard MDC-8, which makes the modification quick and simple. The firepower of the fighter is reduced in the 60-90 kilometer range, the anti-missile capability more then compensates.
MDC-G has a 60-90 km range in space, but only a fraction of that on the gorund (3-4 KM range IIRC) Go figure. Equivalent to MDC-8 in firepower.
Acheron class heavy fighter:

Mass: 293
Engines: LEft/Right 1100 (2200 total)
Thrust 4
Streamlining/antigrav yes/no

WEapons: 7.5/4 laser, autoload missile hardpoint (wings)
ACheron stats.
The fighter's real strength is in the two Terracorp Autoload hardpoints. These massive missile launchers, until now mounted only on patrol ships and installations, bring new life to the age-old concept of the strike bomber. Carrying a total of twenty missiles, the Acheron is often used for attacks on installations or ships.
Autoloading hardpoints normally are Corvette/installation mountings. Odd that capital ships don't bother with them, though.
Gladius Novae Heavy fighter:

Mass: 189
engines: Right/Left: 850, Center: 800 (2450 total)
Thrust: 5
Streamlining/Antigrav: No/Yes

Weapons: 1 NPC 20, 1 5/4 Laser, 2 wing mounted TPP 20, 5 hardpoints.
Gladius Novae.
Cingulum Magnae class corvette

Mass: 905

Engines: 5,000 Right/left engine (10,000 total)
Thrust: 5 (allocatable power: 1,272)
Streamlining/antigrav: No/Yes
Crew: 7 PAssengers 2 FTL capable

Weapons: Bow: NPC 20, 2xTPP20, 4x 7.5/5 laser,
aft: 5/6 laser x 2
other: MDC-G, Autoload HP, 2x TPP 16, 5x4 laser
Cingulum Magnae Corvette
Shiva Class Battleship (Nova configuration)
Mass: 3,721,786
Left/Right Center engine rating: 50,000 (150,000 total)
thrust: 2

WEapons:
2 100 gun 37.5/25 bays, 6 100-gun 37.5/20 bays, 2 100-gun 37.5/5 bays, 2 25-gun 37.5/5 bays, Type E missile system.

FighterS: 144 Small craft: 12, Crew: 3,502 Passengers: 200 Marines: 500
Also known as the Shiva-N.
Only Illustrus or Regnum class Battleships could hope to defeat a Venatrix in combat, and these classes were both rare and incredibly expensive.
The onyl classes (mentioned in the LEviathan Cap ship briefing) could match a Venatrix.
Soon after the ships were completed, ,Naval Intelligence received word from a Commonwealth defector that a Hunt-Kill squadron was planning a raid to take out Admiral Maximus' flagship. The Grand Admiral transferred his flag to the Nova and led the 3 modified Shivas out to set a trap.
...
Naval operations was impressed enough by the new design to allow further conversions of damaged ships. When tehse too proved their worth in battle, shipyards began producing the new configuration. It is now believed that 3 out of 12 Shivas built by TOG are of this type.

..
Recently in 6832, at least 4 Nova Configuration battleshp squadrons were operating in Shannedam County.
Note that the Shiva-N started out being modified from damanged hulls. Now its said that new Shivas are built to the Nova configuration. The Hunt-Kill squadron, as I noted previously, took place in 6831 or so, and it is now in 6832. This suggests a year or two build time on such Shivas.
Syracuse II class cruiser

Mass: 919,686
Left/Right engines: 28,000 Center engine 27,000 (83,000 power)
Thrust: 2

WEapons: Class A spinal mount, 4 100-gun 37.5/5 bays, 2 25-gun 15/30 laser bays., Type E missile system.

Fighters 121 Small craft: 6 Crew: 837 Passengers 200 Marines 200
Syracuse mk 2 cruiser/
An upgraded version of the Syracuse cruiser, the Syracuse II was first produced in 6830 by Ry'thyll Shipyards in the Dalvik Disctrict.
...

The Syracuse II is mostly deployed in the Dalvik District. But as word of the new design spreads, so will deploymen tof the ship. It would not be surprising if all existing and new-construction Syracues were converted to thsi version.
Maybe an implied 2 year upper limit timeframe.. not easy to say, really. It isn't certain that new ships have been built.
Xerxes Maximums Class Frigate Carrier:

Mass: 203,908 (error?)
Right/Left engine rating: 17,000 Center: 16,000 (50,000 total)
Thrust: 4

Weapons: 4 25-gun 22.5/15 laser bays, 2 10-gun 15/30 laser bays, type E missile system.

Fighters: 360 Small craft: 4 Crew: 1986 Passengers 90 Marines 200
Xerxes MAximums frigate carrier.
The origin of the so-called Xerxes Maximus is unclear. It is rumored to be a result of complaints by Navarchos Tiberius Mannius after the Fire Eagles served on a Xerxes class carrier for a series of raids. The story goes that Mannius complained for hours about the cramped quarters on the small carrier, and when the mission was over told his father that he wanted a new version of the ship. Overlord Mannius gave his son what he desired, as always.

..

Originally mounted on the hermes class, this [missile] system has the power of units mounted on battleships.
Frigate carrier with battleship scale missiles, but the ship is largely the result of nepotism, one of the serious flaws of TOG yet.
Nah Tikal Mkia [Rattlesnak Configuration)
light grav APC

Mass: 144 Engine 950 Thrust 5
Carries infantry, Digging cannons

Weapons: 50mm, 3/6 laser (turret) TVLG (4) Hull mount
I dont want to evne pronounce that name.
Bata Revo (hammerhead variant)
Light grav tank

Mass: 150 Engine: 1250 Thrust 7

Weapons: 100mm gauss, 5/6 Laser (both turret), TVLG (6) in hull
Or this one.
Liberator Mk IIc

Class: Medium Grav tank
Mass: 246
Engine: 2000
Thrust: 7

WEapons: Turret: 150mm, 2 x 5/6 laser, Vulcan IV,
hull: SMLM (2), TVLG (6)
Stats of the new Liberator upgrade.
Spartius MK 1 A Medium Grav APC
Mass: 180
Engine: 1500
Thrust: 6
Carries infantry and digging cannon
weapons
2 5/6 laser (turret), 1.5/3 laser (turret), 25mm (turret), SMLM (2) (turret), 25mm (hull)
Spartius stats.
Deliverer Mk 1 heavy grav tank
Mass: 355 Engine: 2500 Thrust 5

weapons: 7.5/6 laser, 100mm SMLM (2), vulcan IV (turret)
3./6 laser, 200mm, TVLG (6) (hull)
Deliverer stats.
Cheetah II light fighter:

Mass 73
Engines: LEft/right 450 Center 600 (1500 total)
Thrust(high thrust) 10(11)
STreamlinging/antigrav Yes/No
Weapons: 2 wing mounted 7.5/2 laser, 2 bow hardpoint
Cheetah upgrade stats.. blah blah high thrust option
silver Guardian medium fighter

Mass; 107
Engines: Center 900
Thrust(high thrust) 4
STreamlinging/antigrav Yes/No
Weapons: 1 7.53 laser, 1 EPC 18, Safeguard 2 (anti missile system), Hard point/
Silver Guardian stats. note the slow thrust.
Space Gull II Medium fighter

Mass102
Engines: LEft/right 750 (1500 total)
Thrust(high thrust) 7
STreamlinging/antigrav: No/No
Weapons: 2 7.5/2 laser (wings), 2 EPC 14 (bow), ,Hard point.
New Space Gull. Really this update is mostly about old Interceptor/Leviathan/centurion ships being updated with new stats.
Penetrator + Medium fighter
Mass 131
Engines: LEft/right 1000 (2000 total)
Thrust(high thrust) 7
STreamlinging/antigrav: Yes/no
Weapons 2 7.5/2 laser (wings), 2 TPP 16 (wings)
Hard point in bow
Penetrator - plus stats.
Fluttering Petal heavy fighter (original configuration)
Mass 243
Engines: LEft/right 800 Center: 900 (2500 total)
Thrust(high thrust) 4
STreamlinging/antigrav No/Yes
Weapons 2 Wing mounted 7.5/6 laser, 2 wing mounted 7.5/5 laser, 2 turret mounted 5/5 laser, 2 turret 5/4 laser (same turret), 1 turret mounted 1.5/1 laser, 1 bow 1.5/1 laser.
The original Pfluttering petal with the huge ass laser configuration.
Golden PEgasus class Corvette

Mass 1030
Engines: LEft/right 5,000 (10,000 total)
Thrust: 4 (allocatable power 1,406)
STreamlinging/antigrav: No/Yes
Crew: 7 passengers 3 , FTL cappable
Weapons: 4 bow 7.5/6 laser, 2 aft 7.5/6 laser, 2 bow MDC 12, Turret with EPC 14, EPC 18, NPC 20, NPC 16, Safeguard 1 (anti-misile system.)
Ugrpaded covrette.
Bantha class Frigate (original configuration)

Mass 552,015
Engines: LEft/right 25,000 Center: 20,000 (70,000 total)
Thrust: 3
Weapons: Class A spinal mount, 4 50-gun 22.5/5 laser bays, 4 50-gun 15/30 laser bays, type B missile system

Fightrs: 48 Small craft: 4 Crew: 751 Pasengers: 121 Marines 200
Upgraded frigate.
REpulse-2 class Battleship
Mass: 1,457,441
Engines: Left/right 40,000 Center: 40,000 (120,000 total)
Thrust: 2
Weapons: Class D spinal mount, 8 100-gun 37.5/5 laser bay, 2 25-gun 22.5/15 laser bay, type E missile system

Fightrs: 144 Small craft: 10 Crew: 2368 Pasengers: 50 Marines 300
Upgraded Battleship.
Carthage 2 class cruiser
Mass 1,125,582
Engines: LEft/right 33,000 Center: 12,000 (78,000 total)
Thrust: 3
Weapons: Class A spinal mount, 2 100-gun 37.5/20 laser bays, 2 100-gun 37.5/5 laser bays, 2 10-gun 37.5/10 bays, type A missile system

Fightrs: 72 Small craft: 10 Crew: 1552 Pasengers: 100 Marines 100
Upgraded cruiser.
County-X class frigate carrier:

Mass 900,650
Engines: LEft/right/Center: 18,000 (54,000 total)
Thrust: 4
Weapons: 2 50-gun 37.5/5 laser bays, 2 25-gun 7.5/30 laser bays, 3 10-gun 7.5/30 lasre bays, Type D missile system

Fightrs: 360 Small craft: 10 Crew: 2058 Pasengers: 100 Marines 250
upgraded carrier.
Valiant-2 frigate

Mass 304,685
Engines: LEft/right 19,000 Center: 20,000 (58,000 total)
Thrust: 3
Weapons: 2 50-gun 37.5/5 lasers, 4 100-gun 15/10 lasers, 2 100-gun 7.5/30 lasers, type G missile system

Fightrs: 48 Small craft: 5 Crew: 715 Pasengers: 100 Marines 100
[/quote]


Upgraded frigate.
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

And Last.. Battle for Jacob's Star.. the space fighter combat game in the vein of TIE fighter and Wing commander. With this I shall be taking a break from R before I do Leviathan, becuase unlike most supplements that one had a shit-ton of data.. about as much as this one update combined. And then I'll probably take a break, as the novels will be info dense and take a shit-ton of time to transcribe.. i'll probably do it bit by bit parallel to my 40K stuff.. but I want to really clear the decks on 40K (esp some of the novels) before I get into that.
The Commonwealth, an alliance of Human and Baufrin, is located in the far end of the Orion ARm of the galaxy and comprises forty thousand stars stretched out across almost forty-five thousand light years. The Commonwealth is comprised of twenty one Grand Dukedoms, eight of which are currenlty in TOG hands.
Scope, locale, and territory of the Commonwealth.

When the Renegades were accepted into the Commonwealth, they were three times as large as the Commonwealth Armed Forces (CAF). Although time has closed that ratio, the REnegade legion is still the largest military force in the Commonwealth, but they remain dawrfed by the size of the TOG military. Nevertheless, they make up the bulk of the fighting force.
RL force ratios.

The Imperial military of the Terran Overlord Government is the most powerful ever seen in the galaxy. Only the vast size of the TOG and the distance between the TOG and the Commonwealth make it possible for the Commonwealth to resist the TOG at all. With nearly eight million legions of over fifty thousand men each, the number of soldiers are staggering. This military might is combined with the Imperial Navy, which boasts over one hundred thousand battleship groups and countless smaller warhsips and transport ships.

The Imperial Legion, or the Legion, is the main force of the TOG. These troops fight on all contested worlds and compose the majority of the fighting forces. Although the Imperial Navy is perfectly capable of bombarding a planet from space, the resulting destruction would be too great to salvage any resources from a planet attacked this way. Bombardment from space causes the seas to boil and the mountains to crumble away. Eventually the atmosphere burns away, leaving a dead husk of a planet. Therefore, if TOG wants a planet, the Legion has to capture it.

To transport and protect the Legion as it travels through space, the TOG has amassed the largest navy in existence. The Imperial Navy consists of over one billion warships and three billion transporrts. These mighty fleets of warships provide protection and initial strike capability for the Legions.
Context of TOG military forces in brief - 8 million legions, a billion warships (100,000 Battleship groups as well) and 3 billion transports.

The only interesting and different tidbit is that it implies orbital bombardment (as a means of conquering or suppressing a world) would effectively demolish it or redner it useless - seas boil, atmosphere torn away, mountains crumble. This suggests a total potential bombardment of the e26-e27 joule range at least, although nothign stops a lower power bombardment obviously (Say by interceptor-scale guns.) Hell we know "Tactical" bombardments are possible (Albeit still destructive.)

One possible interpretation is that planetary defenses (shields, armaments, etc.) rquire such suppression that the planet is virtually sterilized as a result. (maybe oceans are used as heat sinks for shields? Or they may boil and the air bleed off purely as a side effect of the bombardment.)
The standard organizational unit of the TOG navy, as well as the Renegade Legion navy, is the battleship squadron. This basic unit consists of ten capital-class ships and a host of smaller ships as well as several squadrosn fo interceptors. A typical squadron has a single battleship (which acts as the squadron flagship), a single cruiser, two frigates, two destroyers and four patrol class ships. All captail ships are capable of Tachyon Space flight and can therefore move from system to system independently.. If additional capital ships ar required due to the nature or location of the battleship squadron, an additional frigate or cruiser, or both, may be added. Capital ships are normally assigned to a squadron when built and serve with the same squadron for their entire servicee life. It is rare for a ship to be reassigned.

A battleship squadron normally goes on a mission once or twice per year for one or two months at a time. These missions are normally to patrol a sector of space or conduct active operations against the enemy. As battleship squadronds require a huge maintenancee effort, they are rarely capable of maintaining a prolonged engagement with the ene,y As a result, it is often better to wait out a battleship squadron or strike the enemy at a different location, ,rather than risk their awesome firepower.

Battleship squadrons defined and operational paramters.
The smallest capital ship is the destroyer, with an average length of just over a half kilometer. These ships have the smallest power rating of all captial ships at between 30,000 and 50,000 power units. Typically small and fast, these ships are frrequently assigned courier or escort duties while the remainder of the squadron is at dock. Because they are fast and come in a wide variety of configurations, these ships are often viewd as the workhorses of the squadron.
Destroyers shown and their roles.
Frigates are slightly larger than destroyers and rate between 50,000 and 75,000 power units and are tpyically between 1 and 1/2 kilometers in length. Although they are rarely as fast as a destrroyer, these ships pack considerably more firepower and are often armed with extensive missile batteries, which make them dangerous to engage, even by battleships. Frigates are most often seen working alone or in pairs when not attached to the rest of the squadron. Their combination of speed and firepower gives them an excellent survival chance should they be attacked by an enemy fleet.
Frigates defined. The interesting thing about this I always thought is that they portrayed frigates as typically missile ships.
Cruisers are larger than frigates but have a power rating of less than 100,000 power units. Cruisers are often two kilometers in length or slightly longer. They often serve as a secondary flagship for the squadron, and, in some cases, can form the basis of an entire capital-class squadron, or cruiser squadron. In such case, the squadron usually has two cruisers. A standard configuration is to have one cruiser serve as the flagship and the second act as an Interceeptor carrier. Cruisers are costly ships to maintain and repair, therefore, they rarely travel without a full escort of smaller ships in attendance.
Cruisers. Note the mention of cruiser squadrons discussed.
Any ship with a power rating over 100,000 is called a battleship. Like the seafaring vessels of old, battleships are huge and many are over 2 1/2 kilometers in length. Many of these ships are over one hundred years old and have long and distinguished careers. As a result, these ships are only captained by the best and brightest officers available. The firepower of a battleship can destroy a smaller ship with a single salvo and several battleships working togehter can lay waste to an entire planet. Since these ships are seen as the heart and soul of the navy, most battleships will disengage and return to fight again rather than risk capture or destrruction. Consequently, the destruction of an enemy battleship is the cause of great celebration.
And the battleships Several battleships can "lay waste" to a planet - I'm not sure what this means, but if we take it in conjunction with the planetary bombardment quote earlier that is pretty devastating (EG a couple battleships can wipe out all life on a planet, in an unspeicified timeframe.)
Carriers are a special type of capital ship and are rated according to their power units. A destroyer carrier si roughly the same size and power rating as a stnadard destroyer, however , most of the weaponry has been sacrificed to make room for additional interceptors. Frigate carriers have more power and cruiser carriers have more power still. A single cruiser carrier can carry several fighter wings, each consisting of three hundred and sixty interceptors. (the actual number of interceptors carried on a ship varies by individual ship type.) IF a large interceptor force is required, however, a carrier may be temporarily assigned to a battleship squadron. Note that this breaks the nromal rules for ship assignment as carriers can be assigned to several different battleship squadrons over the years.
Carriers.
There are several classes of small ships, which are normally capable of limited T-space travel. The largest of these smaller designs is the escort. These small ships are normally called upon to provide protection for freighters and tgransports. Because of their size and limited range, escorts are rarely included as part of a battleship squadron. The corvette is slightly smaller than the escort, having between 7500 and 15,000 power units. These ships are often used as couriers and Interceeptor carriers and are the largest ships commonly carried aboard a capital ship. Some corvettes are capable of carrying a single Interceptor squadron fo six fighters while others are configured to carry passengers or perform rescue missions. Corvettes are fast and carry a variety of weapons with a powerful shield that makes them especially dangerous to interceptors. The final small ship is the gunboat. situated between the Interceptor and corvette in terms of power, ,gunboats are normally deployed for base defense. As they lack the speed of an itnerceptor and the firepower of a corvette, these ships are rarely deployed as part of a battleship suqadron; they are, however, very effective at planetary and base defense because their sheer numbers can overwhelm any attacker.
Smallc raft/patrol ships.
Interceptor squadrons consisting of six interceptors are carried on almost all capital ships. An interceptor is the smallest ship in the fleet and has a power rating of less than 2500 power units. These ships are never capable of T-space flight, and must be transported from system to system in teh hulls of larger ships. Interceptors provide the speed and precision lacking in captial ships and are called up on to provide the first line of defense against an enemy attack. They also serve as the eyes and ears of the navy by performing souting and reconnaissance flights in enemy space. Although individually they are not a threat to a capital ship, history has proven that swarms of interceptors can bring down even the mightiest of battleships.
Interceptors role and use.
Although there are hundreds of interceptor designs in use throughout the Imperial Navy, most designs are only used in limited areas or under special circumstancees. Given the long supply lines, the TOG has found it much easier to standardize a limited number of dizens and provide them with better supporrt. Because of this, there are six primary interceeptors in use against the Commonwealth and one standard corvette.

TOG interceptors are all designed around the basic doctrines of the Imperial Navy. Interceptors should be fast; therefore, TOG Interceptors alwayhs possess average to above average speed in their class. An interceptor's priamry weapons are their lasers and the missile, in that order. Pilots are taught to fire with their lasers and follow up any damage with a missile strike. LArger targets should be engaged with repeated missile attacks using the Interceptor's speed to the best advantange.

This tactical doctrine has reuslted in victories against the KessRith and the Ssora, who prefer short, bloody confrontations. It has not been as successful against the Commonwealth because CAF pilots are more willing to maintain the engagement. Once a TOG interceptor has launched the last of its missiles, it is vastly outgunned against a comparable CAF fighter. TOG pilots have perfected the "shoot and scoot" method of combat, firing their missiles at long range and fleeting for home before the CAF can close the range. In most cases, the longer the combat lasts, the poorer the performance of TOG interceptors.
TOG interceptor design, doctrine, and tactics.
Like all corvettes, the Cingulum does not allocate a fixed amoutn of power to its shields or weapons. The crewmen controlling the shields and weapons can allocate a variable amount of power to the shields protecting different portions of the ship, making it virtually impregnable when full power is applied to a single shield. They can also decrease the amount of protection for an all out attack. As a result, Cingulums, and all corvettes, must be attacked on several sides at once if an attacking squadron is to overcome their shields and firepower.
Corvettes have variable power outputs. note the detail that the only way to overcome their shields is to engage from multiple isdes (forcing protection to be dispersed all around basically, diluting it.) Apaprently you can't "bypass" corvette shields :P
Although there are three hundred thousand REnegade Legions and two hundred thousand Commonwealth units, the Renegade legions actually outnumbers the Commonwelath military by three to one.

...

Through the years, the soldiers and civilians of the Renegade Legion have begun to put down roots in the Commonwealth. The line dividing the two forces may, in time, fade, but for now they are very much tow separate aremies fighting a common foe.

..

Each army, however, decides how to best carry out the orders of the supreme commanders. Although it is common for Renegade Legionnaires to fight on the same planet with Commonwealth soldiers, the two groups will likely have vastly differne objectives and theaters of operation.
The first paragraph implies that there are actually 3x as many troops in the RL vs the commonwealth forces, as opposed to only having 50% more "units." Likely this is because RL units are generally human and more uniform, whilst the Commonwealth combines alien and human forces in disparate sizes/numbers, etc.)

Also we get discussion of the "dual command" hierarchy which I've commented on before, as well as its drawbacks ( lack of cohesion, possible competition/friction, potential for argument, complicating logistics and resource allocation, etc.)
Rather than call upon the ancient Romans for their military model, the Commonwealth called upon the ancient British for their military structure. In most cases, Commonwealth units are slightly smaller than their Legion counterparts. In addition, the CAF has tried to keep the ratial heritage of their members intact, allowing uints to organize themselves into stnadard units of their home race. A KessRith unit, therfeore, is modeled upon the KessRith structure. It is likely to be better armed and armored than an equivalent Legion unit, but it will also be slower and smaller. In the same manner, Baufrin, Naram, and Vauvusar can maintain their racial identities in their military units.

..

The Royal Army of the CAF usually concentrate son grround actions. The Royal Navy is responsible for all action in space and coordinates the actions of the Royal Aerospace Force, which primarily involves plante-based interceptors. The Royal Navy, therefore, is repsonsible for keeping s upply lines open to contested worlds and supporrting the planet-side operations of the Royal Army. In addition, the Royal Navy coordinates its operations with the Renegade fleets to provide the best protection of all planets.
Commonwealth force organization.
As the Royal Navy fights a defensive campaign, they make much more prominent use of static defenses and bases than either the Renegade Legion or the TOG. In addition to defending a system with capital ship squadrons, the Royal Navy builds and supports independent command centers in a system. THese bases are often constructed near population centers, where they can provide swift and efficient protection

Royal Naval bases are rated according to their size. In most cases, the significant factors are the largest ship the base can service and the size of the base's defenisve system. In all cases these bases house a military force, usually several flights or an entire wing of interceptors. Given the long-range capabilities of Intercecptors, these bases make perfect staging areas to launch raids against TOG invaders entering the systme, or supporrt a counterattack by CAF capital ships.

Royal Navy Squadrons are organized much the same way as are the Renegade Legion and the TOG, except thae Royal Navy is much more flexible. Where a TOG squadroin is almost universally ten ships, the CAF squadron can have as few as eight or as many as twelve. A light squadron may have no cruisers or battleships while an attack squadron could have two or three cruisers and a pair of battleships. Whereas TOG squadrons are almost always Human, with predomminately Human officers and commanders, the Royal Navy could have a mixed squadron, or athe entire squadron could be crewed entierly by members of a singel race fighting in s hips they designed.
Commonwealth Royal Navy defensive doctrine and base construction. Also Commonwealth squadron organization.
The fleets and legions of the Renegades are organized along the same model used by the TOG. although they wear slightly different uniforms, the Renegade Legions still cling to the military model orginally outlined by Alexander Trajan years ago. The key difference between the Renegade Legion and the TOG is not their structure, its their equipment.

When the Renegades left TOG space, ,the ylost access to the equipment they had been trained to use. Over the course of years, combat losses have been replaced by the industrial might of the Commonwealth and their allies. As a result, the Renegades fight with a mixture of old and new. Capital Class ships ar rearely retired and serve out their lives in active duty. Interceptors have been completely replaced by models flown in the Commonwealth. Likewise, personal equipment is all from a Commonwealth manufactuerer.
Renegade Legions described.
As with TOG, ,the Renegade Legion and the CAF have a wide variety of interceptors in service along the border. For a vareity of reasons, including cost, manufacturing capability, support issues, combat performance and pilot preference, the Commmonwealth defenders rely primarily on six Interceptor designs. The Renegade Legion also uses captured TOG equipment, something the CAF would never do, but this is always a question of acquiring the ships and the components neccessary to keep them flying.

CAF intercecptors are built around a different tactical doctrine from their TOG counterparts. Although they are not generally as fast, CAF interceeptors are better armored and more heavily armed. Whereas the TOG interceptors are designed to do s everal jobs wlel, CAF interceptors are desigend around a specific purpose. To that end, they carry a wider vareity of weapons and fewer hard points. When engaged in missions within their design profile, such as reconnaissance, system defnse, or rescue, they perform very well. When called upon to perform outside these parameters, they do not fare as well.
CW/RL fighter design/doctrine described.
The actual speed required to enter T-space varies, which means the faster a ship enters T-space, the faster it travels through T-space. The actual T-space speed of a ship could vary from one light year per mont to one hundred thousand light years per month, meaning that a small change in entry velocity provided a huge change in T-space velocity.

...

Evenetually scientists learned that to travel through T-space toward a planet, a ship must be aimed exactly at the target, and the actual time required for travel must be precisely computed. The longer the trip, the longer the ship must travel before it enters T-space. This type of calculation requires new and faster computers to figure entry speed based on destination, T-space speed, mass, and gravity.

..

The military soon learned that although ships were not actually in normal space, they could still be tracked as they travelled through T-space. All ships travelling through T-space leave a trail, or a wake, that can be registered in normal space by a doppler radar set called a T-Doppler. The larger the wake, the larger the ship. Destroyers and escorts are the hardest to track, while battleships and cruisers are the easiest. Fleets leave such a large wake they are easy to detect, and actually announce their presence in a system long befor ethe ships actually reenter normal space.

..

Travel in T-space is also dangerous. Scientists discovered that normal matter is slightly out of synch with T-space. As a result, T-space firction, or shimmer heat, builds up on ships, cargo, and people the longer they are in T-space. Once a vessel has reentered normal space, it usually spends an equal amount of time there dissipating shimmer heat before reentering T-space.

..

Vessels and people can remain in T-space for roughly thirty days.
T-space stuff described. More or less same to previous stuff, although it obviously borrows from Interecptor.

The principle of phase polarization uses a polarized electromagnetic wave passed through a tachyon field to produce a faster-than-light message. Initial systems were limited to speeds of twenty thousand light years per month, but with the development of Very Large Communication Arays, ,or VLCAs, this limit was shattered. For the first time, mankind could communicate instantly with any planet in the galaxy.
P-com and VLCA.
Lasers are coherent beams of focused light produced by passing energy through gennium-arsenic crystals athen through an optical lens or electromagnetic aiming device. Lasers have a limited range, however, as the light loses coherency with distance. Excellent for fighting in close proximity, lasers ar eless useful in a long range battle. Where most weapons spread damage across the surface of armor, lasers cut straight through, making a narrower, but deeper hole.

Military lasers are identified by the length and diameter of the gennium-arsenic crystal used to generate the beam. The first number is teh length of the crystal in meters, the second is the diameter in centimeters. A 30/20 laser, therefore, ,contains a crystal thirty meters long and 20 centimeters in diameter.

,,,

Gennium arsneic crystals are grown in complex zero-G factories called "Crystal Gardens" gennium Arsenic ore is extracted from worlds where the violent geological forces combine precisely, to provide enough pressure and energy to create the rare ore.
Magic crystal technology for lasers. I like the "electromagnetic aiming device" for a photon, unless its referring to some odd FEL type setup.

Electron and Neutron particle cannons use atomic charges as projectiles. The principle behind the two weapons is the same, but the components are vastly different and requuire the two wepaons occupy separate firing chambers.

The electron particle cannon, or EPC, ,strips electroms from hydrogen or helium atoms. Superconductors speed the electron particles toward the target at nearly the speed of light. Although the components of the EPC are small, the amount of power required to strip away the electorn and hurl it toward the target is massive. As a result, the EPC is primarily a short range weapon.

The EPC discharge is visible as a faint blue light which dissipates rapidly with distance. When the EPC strikes a target's armor the damage is spread across the surface, rather than penetrating through the armor plates. EPCS actually boil off larrge plates of armor a layer at a time.

Neutron partilce cannons, or NPC, works on the same principle as the EPC, but fires neutrons. Since neutrons are neutrally charged, the NPC masks the neutrons with tachyons to decrease the mass and provide a charge. As the charged neutrons are fired toward the target the tachyon mask rapidly falls away, causing the neutrons to rever to their normal state. As a result, the NPC actually does more damage the further away it is from the target. An NPC carves a conical section out of an eenmy ship's armor when a hit is scored, similar to a mass drive cannon, but NPC damage is easily identifiable as the conic section is perfectly formed and smooth.

The damage and range of the NPC is defined by the power requirements of the gun. After a certain distance, the neutrons are moving too slowly to damage the target. Higher velocity, which reuiqres more power, provides more damage at equal ranges.
Magic particle beam weaponry

A Mass Driver Cannon, or MDC fires a projectile at a target. Like the ancient cannon that was its forefather, the MDC relies on the speed and mass of the projectile to damage the target. MDCs come in a wide vareity of styles, ,but all are rated by the mass of their projectile. Muzzle speed of MDCs remains roughly constant, so greater damage can only be provided by larger projectiles Unfortunately, the alrger the projectile the larger the power required to hurl the projectile towards the enemy
The interesting tthing about this is that it implies that MDCs only differ by projectile size, but velocities are all the same. This makes calcing them relatively easier, once the velocity is known of course.

This also implies MDCs are built to the limits of their accelerator technology.

[quotes]
Missiles are a vital part of space combat. TOG tactics are, to a large extent, based on the capabilities of missiles and their ability to damage a small area of a target's armor. Excellent at softening up a target, missiles can also be used to deliver a final strike to a wounded ship.

missiles provide strategic flexibility as differnet types can be loaded for different missions. Missiles are always mounted on hard points, where links to the ship's targeting computers are located. Depending on the type and length of a particular mission, missile loads can be altered or mixed. The main drawbacks to missiles are their single-strike capability and the vast array of countermeasures.[[/quote]

Missiles are useful for their power and their "shaped-charge" effect. And are linked to the targeitng computers and vulnerable to countermeasures.,

Missiles are identified by their internal guidance systems. In most cases the size of the guidance system determines the explosive power of the missile, as missiles tend to be the same size. The larger the guidance system, the less room for explosive. If a guidance system loses its target or lacks the propellant to reach the target, it typically self destrructs, thereby not endangering friendly ships.
Tradeoff in payload and guidance system - engine performance and missile size are supposedly fixed.
The Radiation intensity seeking missile, or RIS, tracks by following the radiation signature of a target. Although modern ships are protected, the engine ports of all ships remain "hot" target for RIS missiles. Of all missiles, RIS missiles have the smallest guidancee system and the most room for explosives. Fortunately, RIS missiles can be evaded fairly easily by swinging the stern of the ship away from th incoming missile.

..

The Scanner Silhouette seeking missile, or SSS, scans the target vessel before launch and builds a three dimensional model, or silhouette, of the target. AS the missile approaches the target it constantly scans every object in the area nd compares them to the silhouette. Course corrections are made as necessary until the missile reaches the targget. Current versions of the SSS are good eough to tell the differencee between different variations of the same ship, making them very difficult to evade.

..

The Transponder Guided missile, or TGM, locks onto the transponder signal of a target ship. The transponder signal is used by firendly vessels to determine whether the ship is a friend or foe and is normally set prior to the start of a mission. TGMs are unique as they do no tnormally have a target prior to launch. TGMs are dorpped first, then look for a target that does not broadcast a friendly transponder signal. If the first signal is lost, a TGM will continue to look for another signal until it runs out of fuel. TGMs are the hardest missiles to shake, however, because of their large guidance systems, they pack the smallest warheads.
Our standard missile types.
Shields work on the principle of pressure-gravity. anti-gravity feilds surround the ship within two ro three centimeters of the hull. This field deflects incoming projectiles or causes them to detonate prematurely. Unfortunately, a shield draws increasingly large amounts of power the longer the shield remains on. To counter the exessive demand for power, scientists developed flicker shields, which turn on and off at a high rat eof speed. With the flicker shield, the power requirements are low enough to mount the device on an Intercecptor or Grav Tank.

When a flicker shield is on, only the largest caliber weapons can penetrate it. Projectiles with sufficient mass, or a beam with sufficient energy, can overpower the flicker shield and strike the armor beneath. Unfortunately, when the flicker shield is on, nothing can fire out. Because of this, Interceptor weapons must be calibrated to fire when the flicker is off.

Flicker shields are rated by the number of cycles per minute. In combat, a flicker rate of 70 is considered 50% effective at stopping all incoming fire, ,although there is no limit to the maximum flicker rate, there are two important practical limits. First, the larger the flicker rate the larger the power requirements; the power plant required to power a flicker rate over 100 could not be mounted on a small ship like an interceptor. Secondly, no matter what the flicker rate, scientists discovered around 10% of all shots get past teh shield. This makes larger flicker shields impractical.
Flicker shields described. Standard lfuff.
Alaric (March Grand Dukedom) is made up of fifteen counties.

..

Eight planets of the county are currently being contested. Sixteen major systems and a host of minor systems have already fallen.
Makeup of the currently contested Grand Dukedom.

The heart of the system's defense is Crucible Command. This military base is built into one of the three planetoids floating in the system's asteroid belt. Crucible Command can supportt an entire interceptor wing, three hundred and sixty ships, ,twelve patrol class ships, and all their crews. In addition, the base is well defended with two hundred 37.5/5 lasers - among the most powerufl and far-reaching lasers currently in production.
Commonwealth command base inside a system.
The TOG arrives at the system with what they think is a vastly superior forcec. The Commonwealth and Renegades counter with whatever forcecs they have available and attempt to push the invaders out of the system before they can set up a supply route and gain a toehold. If TOG intelligence is correct, tehy arrive with a three to one or four to one advantage in capital ships. If the system is vital, or the Commonwealth can send more troops to battle quickly, they counter and engage the attackers. If the TOG presence is too powerful, the Commonwealth attempts to evacuate as manyn civilians as possible and lead the military away, saving their strength to fight another day.
Space combat doctrine.

Since TOG commanders are required to adhere to a strict battle plan, the Commonwealth can be fairly certain how the assault will be handled.

A TOG Battleship squadron emerges from T-space on the edge of the system. IF it is a major system several squadrons may arrive toghter. all ships are fully refitted and equipped. In most cases the squadron is expanded with thea ddition of a carrier ship whose class depends on the size of the system. Interceptors are launched immediately and move away from the fleet looking for the commonwelath capital ships. This stage of the confrontation is marked by reconnaissance missions and careful searching to discover the locaiton and strength of the enemy. Any listening posts, manned or automated, that can be discovered are destroyed to deprive the Commonwealth of information. If the Commonwealth indicates they are willing to fight for their system, the TOG moves to stage two.

In stage two, the TOG fleet moves toward the first base or planet. First the Intercecptors, then the capital ships engage the base or planet in an effort to overwhelm the defenders with sheer firepower. IF Commonwealth warships appear, the TOG responds with only as many ships as necessary to counter them. The Primary mission remains the capture or destruction of the base or planet. Strike troops are brought into the system if a strong grround force is required. Once the base or planet is suppressed, the remaining TOG capital ships turn their attention to the next objective.

If the Commonwealth has a strong capital fleet in the system, TOG interceptors are dispatched to hunt it down. Once ithe individual ships of the Commonwealth fleet are located, the TOG attempts to isolate one or two ships and destroy them with overwhelming firepower. Sending a frigate to battle a destrroyer is common practice. Given the size of a planetary system, individual ships of the squadron are often required to operate in small units or alone, but both sides are always careful to keep their smaller ships out from under the guns fo the cruisers or battleships.

Once the TOG has established a toehold in the systme, they move to stage three. Additional supplies and equipment are carried into the system by large freighters carrying ground troops. The initial attack is always supported by freighters assigned to replcae batle losses or damaged equipment.

Despite the stellar battlefield, TOG system advances appear much like the advancement of a ground force when viewed on a systme map. As a result, there is a true front with battle lines and a rear area. The circular nature of a planetary system can lead to wildly curving battle lines, but TOG doctrine calls for the use and maintenance of these procedures and plans of attack.
TOG space invasion doctrine outlined. Note mention of "capture or destruction of base or planet.", also note of "manned and automated" listening posts spread througout the system.

Just as the TOG invaders have developed assault tactics, the Commonwealth has further refined defense tactics through long years of war. The appraoaches to battle are very different.

Where TOG units stick to doctrine, Commonwealth units improvise and adapt their plans to the current situation. Commonwealth units fight with two goals: protect civilians, and conserve forces until they can be best used to crush the enemy. As a result, Commonwealth and Renegade units often disengage from a fight if losses are too hig. On the other hand, they may fight to the last man to protect civilians, holding the line when TOG forces would have long ago quit the field.

When defending a system, the Commonwealth looks for weaknesses in the TOG attack. Destroying TOG interceptors is of primary importance, especially in the early stages of the battle when the TOG attempts to acquire information about the Commonwealth military. Listening posts are on guard and may be shut down for a short period of time so thy may avoid detection in the early part of the battle. Capital ships and interceptor squadrons are then lured into ambushes to chip away at TOG strength until the Commonwealth feels they have a chance in open battle. Interceptor squadrons are sent on long raids against freighters and lightly armed patrol ships. When the TOG appears to be weakening the Commonwealth and Renegade fleets strike swiftly at TOG capital ships. Destruction is not as important as driving the invaders away or preventing them from continuing with the assault.

In such battles interceptors always lead the way. Their primary targets are TOG interceptors. The fighters attack as capital ships move into position to fire their laser broadsides or spinal mounts. Surviving interceptors move on to the enemy fleet, striking capital ships with missiese and concentrated small weapons fire. In these cases, precise strikes are often of vital importance, especially if the interceptors can destroy a communications array or damage a spinal mount weapon without having to blast trhough thousands of tons of armor.
Commonwealth defensive doctrines. Very much based on mobility, guerilla type attacks, etc. The priorities are the interesting ones, as they create differnet criteria which can be of help (or be exploited, such as in protecting civilians.)

Also of note is how fighters may be used against warships, heavily implied to be most effective at "precise" attacks - using missiles or hitting exposed targets (like comms or weapons).
Missions normally last between four and six hours, only a fraction of which may be combat.
[/quote]

Implies general/typical flight times of Interceptors. Whether or not this covers the limits of their operational range we dont know. :)
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Or not. I still have two Centurion sources.. vehicle briefing and tech update. LOL. Oh well.. next time.
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Well since I'm updating, and despite the fact I already covered RL.. gonna throw out the last two sources because I want done with this to focus on DH stuff.

So.. enjoy it will probably be the last anyone gets for awhile! :P

Clodius class light ground APC

Mass 36
Engine 300
Movement 8
Infantry Yes
Digging cannon No
Weapons 1.5/5 laser, AP laser (turret)]
At this point I could say "Clodius stats" but I'm just going to list the stats and not comment, other than naming the vehicle. No point doing more than that.
The specifications of the Clodisu reflect its intended mission. It can maintain speeds of more than 90 kph, although this is at the expense of wepaons and armor.
Ground vehicle speed. One thing we notice si that they are VERY agile even for ground vehicles.
It carries 14 tons of armor, four tons on the turret, three tons on the front, two tons on the sides and rear, and one ton on the bottom
Clodius armor coverage and distribution. Were we inclined to do calcs based on armour this might be useful.
Hasta class light ground tank
Mass 36
Engine 300
Movement 8
Infantry No
Digging cannon no
Weapons 1.5/5 laser, TVLG (4) - turret
The Hasta.
The Hasta has a top speed of 96 kph
Faster than the light APC by a bit.
Reports from the field indicate that certian crews have modified the tank's interior to make it more comfortable, as well mounting additional armor and weapons to make it a more formidable fighter. TOG regulations strictly forbid such modifications, but the soliders prefer the possibility of a stay in the brig to death on the battlefield.
Like in 40K, TOG crewers will modifiy vehicles in the field if they need.

The Hasta's armor is slight, weighign only 13 tons.
13 tons of tank armour is "light". Note that given the Hasta's stated mass, over 1/3 the tank's mass is armour.
Jupiter-class light ground tank

Mass 38
Engine 300
Movement 8
Infantry No
Digging cannon no
Weapons 1.5/5 laser (turret), SMLM (2) (hull)
The Jupiter.
because of the Scout's high power-to-weight ratio, the Jupiter is able to reach speeds of about 96 KPH. Noramlly, only wheeled vechiles and hovercraft can go this fast. The Jupiter's four tracks are idependently driven, and a unique on-board computer system operates the hyper suspension system to give the driver control of the jupiter at almost any speed.
Another "fast" "light" tank. Note that it seems even the ground vehicles are quite sophisticated, and use all sorts of fancy computer shit.
Since the primary role of the recon vehicle is to relay information, the jupiter's communications equipment is centrally mounted for maximum protection.

...

The vehicle is designed to operate independently for several weeks without resupply and thus provides extra storage for food, fuel and everyday convenience items. The cockpit can be extended for sleeping, and the vehicle carries automatic sensor arrays for nighttime security.
Additional properties of the Jupiter tank. Take note of the extended operations functions and the data transmission funciton.

Cyclone light ground tank

Mass 38
Engine 300
Movement 8
Infantry/Digging cannon: no/no
Weapons 1.5/6 laser, SMLM (2) (turret)

Whirlwind Variantt: replaces weapons with TVLG (4) in turret.
Yet another light tank.
A six-wheeled suspension was mated to a boat-shaped hull design to ease river crossings. The vehicle uses the powerful Vulcan 300 engine, which gives the Cyclone a top speed of 96 kph.

...

All six wheels are pwoered for increased traction over difficult terrain.
Anothr fast ground vehicle, wheeled instead of tracked this time.

As the vehciles's design emphasizes mechanical reliability and easy repair, all components except for weapons, fire-control systems, and communications may be manufactured locally. Use of strategic materials is kept to a minimum, with most systems designed to be accessible and easily replaced.

..

To further speed repairs, all cyclones were fitted with a new diagnostic maintenance computer in 6825. This device can detect most faults and recommend maintenance solutions before there is a breakdown. This diagnostic computer is now a standard feature in all Warrick & Lucci combat vehicles.
An indicator of the level of technical sophistication and design/building priorities in RL vehicles - this tank is designed for "easy local repair" but still incorporates components and equipment that is pretty damn sophisticated by other universe standards (well, at least by 40K standards :P)

It shows how the RL universe will stress the importance of different capabilities depending on priority (not just "RAR BE POWERFUL" - some need to be versatile, independent, etc.)
Defenses are light, with onl 13 tons of armor protection. This gives protection frrom small arms fire and shell fragments, but a solid hit form almost any other battlefield weapon will penetrate to the Cyclone's interior.

Smoke Dischargeres and a modest ECM suite complete the Cyclone's defensive systems.
13 tons of RL armour provides small arms/shrapnel protection but anything stronger will breach it. Probably says something about the capabilities of the armor, even by modern standards. Pity I have no clue how much modern tank armour (or past tank armour) weighs.

Note that all preceding vehicles are roughly as well protected armor-wise as the Cyclone. The Whirlwind variant adds 4 tons of armor, so its somewhat better protected. Of course they're "light" tanks and scout tanks so they're not really designed to stand up to vehicles. And its quite possible thatn even the lightest RL tank can still stand up to modern weaponry (given implications in Centurion, especially given that RL weapons are typically hypervelocity 6 to 8 inch shell analogues and tanks can mass hundreds of tons.)
A carlisle mark VII Long Range communications system is installed to give it continentlal communications range. With an optional satellite dish and uplink/downlink systems, the cyclone can talk to friendly units anywhere on the planet. The communications system is the one component that requires frequent maintenance, and so thae tnak's operators must be well trained to realize the system's full poetntial.
"Continental" implies hundreds if not thousands of km range.
Scamp-class light ground tank

Mass 37
Engine 300
Movement 8
Infantry/Digging cannon No/No
Weapons 1.5/5 laser, TVLG (4)
Yet another light tank.
The Scamp is a small, light evhicle, weighing 37 tons and carrying just 14 tons of armor.

..

The Scamp's main claim to fame, as it were, is its speed, more than 95 kph over open ground.

...

The Scamp has power in all eight wheels, and a central system regulates tire pressure.

IT is fully amphibious, capable of 20 kph in the water. Top speed is 98 kph in open country.

..

The Scamp mounts four tons of armor on the turret, three tons on the front, two tons on each side and rear, and one ton on the underside.
VArious Scamp stats. note a slightly higher top road "off road" speed. Although its a tire equipped vehicle it seems.
The Scamp carries a small but powerful terrain-mapping and communications system. As the Scamp probes for possible gaps in enemy lines, the TMX-9A automatically maps the surrounding terrain and attempts to determine the quickest route through the area. When the vehicle is ready to make a report, it raises its antenna and beams the message via a narrow-band microwave that is almost impossible to intercept. A benefciial side effect is the fact that it is also difficutl to pinpoint the origin of th transmission. The range of the equipment is approximately 250 kilometers.

The Scamp also boasts a powerful and effective concealment systme. The Hide and Seek (HS) system as it is known, is so effective that, given a few minutes of preparation, it can mask the vehicle's electornic signal from TOG units that are within 250 meters. The Scamp also has a throw-over camouflage screen that has concealed the vehicle from observes as close as 50 meters away.
Range of the Scamp's radio (echoes the "continental" range earlier, as well as the equipment related to its scouting capabilities, including the stealth/camouflage options.



Aclys Medium Ground APC

Mass 57
Engine 350
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon Yes/No
Weapons 2 turret SMLM (2), 1 1.5/1 laser (turret) 2 1.5/1 laser (hull)
Medium ground based APC.
Kershaw medium ground tank

Mass 96
Engine 450
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon No/no
Weapons Vulcan 1, 150mm (Turret)
And a medium tank. "Medium" of course is heavier than a RL tank, with a bigger turret.
Vindicta Medium ground APC

Mass 52
Engine 350
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon Yes/No
Weapons AP laser x2 (turret), SMLM (2) hull-mount
Medium APC again.
The vehicle's boat shaped hull provides a spacious interior as well as superiro handlign while in water. Water propulsion units are fitted on the rear of the Vindicta to help it cross rivers. all six wheels turn, giving the Vindicta exceptional mobility in tight areas such as city streets. The Vindicta's speed is considered good for a ground vehicle, and field reprots indicate it handles well over most terrain. all six wheels are powered, and all three axles have lockable differentials to enhance tractions on various surface.s The tires have a variable pressure system to increse tire contact with the ground and to further increase traction. The wheeled suspension does have some difficulty coping with rough or muddy ground, sas compared to tracked vehicles, but it functions well in built-up areas
Tire based propulsion for the Vindicta, and it seems to emphasize a great deal of redundancy at that.
The vehicle is also fitted with a positive overpressure system and filters to protect the APC's occupants from chemical contaminants.
NBC protection. I believe modern tanks have such too.
Agitator medium ground tank

Mass 71
Engine 450
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon no/no
Weapons 5/6 laser, 2 1.5/4 laser (turrets), 1.5/3 laser (hull)
Yet another medium ground tank.
With five tons of armor on the turret and the front, one ton on the bottom, and four tons on the sides, the Agitator is well-protected.
Over twenty tons, probably again about 1/3 the mass is armour.
Fauchard Medium ground APC

Mass 75
Engine 500
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon yes/no
Weapons 2 Hull mounted TVLG(6), 1 AP laser and 1 1.5/6 laser (turret)
Yet another ground APC.
The 1.5/6 RO-crush-OR laser system is the APC's morst powerful energy weapon. tTs Rotation Optics (RO system has full overloading energy redundancy (OR). Thus, the system can fire a longer, ,more concetnrated beam without damaging either the optic's sensors, which track its firing, or the power coil system, which directs the energy flow from the power plant to the laser.
Interesting aspects of the laser armament for the above-mentioned APC.

[quopte]
Harasser-class Medium Ground APC
Mass 71
Engine 450
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon Yes/No
Weapons 3/6 laser, TVLG (2) - turret
2 1.5/3 laser, 2 SMLM (2), hull[/quote]

And another ground APC.
Jaguar Medum ground APC
Mass 68
Engine 450
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon yes/no
Weapons 2 1.5/4 laser, (turret), ,1 TVLG (4) hull, 1 SMLM (2) hull.
Another medium APC.
The Churchill 450 engine gives the jaguar excellent mobility for a ground vheicle. It can move up to 72 kph and has excellent acceleeration for a tracked vehicle.
72 kph for a ground vehicle, presumably over "open terrain". Stryker has a faster range "on road" but it is also lighter. I imagine its off road is maybe 1/3 to 1/2 its on road capability, so the Jaguar matches up despite being heavier (more heavily protected) and more heavily equipped,
Several assemblies can be manufactured on most worlds in the Commonwealth and require minimal stategic materials.
Another vehicle where "ease of building" is favored over power or capability.
The jagnuar's defense consists of 25 tons of armor, standard ECM systems and smoke dichages, and its mobility.
Probably can be considered "typical" medium ground APC defense. Again arour seems to be a little over 1/3 the mas.s. (although significantly more than 1/3 in this case... like 37%)
'
The door is designed for rapid entry and exit, permitting the entire squad to disembark within ten seconds. Like the rest of the vehicle, the infantry compbartment is fitted with passive and active NBC protective measures.
Deployment time and mention of NBC protection for the crew.
Pilus/activator class medium ground APC

Mass 78
Engine 500
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon yes/no
Weapons
Turert: AP laser, Vulcan 1, 25mm
hull: SMLM (1)
Another medium APC.

pquote]
Cestus Heavy Ground tank
Mass 96
Engine 750
Movement 8
Infantry/Digging cannon No/no
Weapons 2 1.5/3 laser (hull)
2 TVLG (2) (hull), 1 1.5/4 laser (turret)[/quote]

Heavy tank.
The main advantage of the Cestus is not the weaponry, ,but its speed. Extremely fast for a heavy tank, the Cestus can easily keep up with lighter ground vehicles. Its unique three track design gives it control at high speeds and excellent ground-holding ability.
This implies it might have speeds on par with medium tanks/ground vehicles, which in turn means it might be as fast as an Abrams (or faster.) Of course it has a purely laser-based armment...
Crassus class Heavy ground tank/Riot suppression

Mass 100
Engine 450
Movement 4
Infantry/Digging cannon No/No
Weapons
7.5/6 laser, AP laser (turret)
TVLG (4), AP laser (hull)
25mm gauss (turret)
Seems optimized for antipersonnel mainly.

[quotwe]
The Crassus is a prime example of rapid assmebly-line manufacturing. As all components for the vehicles are produced in the same factories as the finished product, TOG Interstellar is able to meet the astounding production rate of 50,000 vehicles a year.

...

Its speed is roughly equal to other heavy ground vehicles.[/quote]

An indictor of TOG tank production rates. I'm not sure if this is just at one plant, or for the corporation as a whole across the entire TOG.. I'm betting its just for one plant/planet as that impleis fewer than 1 tank per several hundred systems annually.

It isn't neccesarily a sophisticated tank, probably not a high end, but its also a heavy tank, so it probably applies for lighter and meidum tanks as well.
Though thousands, if not millions, of Crassus class vehciels exist on multipel thousands of planets, the vehicle has not seen extensive combat.
Commonality. Probably literally millions/billions if we scale up to million or more systems... trillions if we go by "billions" of worlds mentioned in other sources. It also reinforces the idea that the 50K per year is just "one planet.
Reginus heavy ground tank
Mass 100
Engine 450
Movement 4
Infantry/Digging cannon No/No
Weapons
100mm, ,AP laser (turret)
TVLG (4) turret,
1.5/2 laser, SMLM (2) (hull)
Anothr heavy tank.
Its speeds of more than 70 kph make it a formidable ground vehicle, indeeed.
That IS damn fast even if it is only on road speed. This tank weighs nearly twice that of an Abrams after all.
Of the millions of garrison legions in service to TOG, fewer than 10 percent are fully equipped with the Reginus.
"Millions" of Garrison legions, and hundreds of thousands of which have this tank.
Stratos Air Defense vehicle
Mass 84
Engine 500
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon No/unspecified
Weapons Vulcan IV, SMLM (2), TVLG (6) - turret
MDC-8 (hull)
Designed for anti-aircraft.. eG their version of the Hydra. Note the extensive use of missiles as well as the MDC and vulcan defense system.
Halberd heavy APC
Mass 90
Engine 600
Movement 6
Infantry/Digging cannon Yes/No
Weapons
2 hull 1.5/6 laser, 2 SMLM (2), 1 TVLG (2) in turret.
A "heavy" APC.
The molded armor is both visually appealing and a way of reducing the tank's profile to make it almost invisble to long range sensors.
Halberd APC's stealth measures. They seem to employ the same sort of measures modern vehicles are employing (land, sea or air) to reduce sensor profiles and such.
The Targeting and TRacking systme (T&T) is a slightly modified Laysoon mdoel 14 computer and display, a version that uses satellite and ground communications to project a three-dimesional layer of the terrain and enemy units.

..

It operates in two modes independently, normal sensors and the full 3d projections,which gives the driver and gunner a choice of profiles.
As we know, and if we needed further confirmation, RL ground combat relies on a great deal of coordination and communication by various info-providing mechanisms and sources.
Procurator class heavy ground tank
Mass 96
Engine 500
Movement 5
Infantry/Digging cannon No/No
Weapons 6 1.5/1laser in hull, 1 1,5/6 laser in turret.
Another heavy ground tank.
Using readily available components, including tractor chassis and civilian rated power plants, Caveat producd a prototype Procurator in less than a month.

...

When the procurator was approved for deployment, factories in several counties tooled up to produce 12,500 units per year.
Another indicator of production times fo rtanks. This may provide a rough benchmark for fighters too, but it provides another idea of tank production to complment the previous one, although whether it is per "county" or per "factory" or collectively for "several counties" we dont know. Conseratively assuming its combined for "several" counties - a county is between 40-50 worlds, - equal to a TOG province. There are 50 counties per dukedom, and 21 dukedoms (half of which are in TOG control currently) 4-6 thousand per country roughly, should be 4-6 million tanks for all the dukedoms (half that for those currenlty existing) - and that is just for heavy tanks of this particular type. It's not an exact figure by any means, but as a rough, order of magnitude estimate it is itneretsing. IIRC there are at least 1000 prefectures (as per Interceptor) and that means at least 10-30K provinces, so TOG production could be at least an Order of magnitude better on territory alone, possibly several OoM better.
Sterling heavy ground tank
Mass 100
Engine 450
Movement 4
Infantry/Digging cannon No/No
Weapons
7.5/6 laser (turret), AP laser (turret)
SMLM (2) (turret)
TVLG (4) and 3/6 laser (hull)
Another heavy ground tank. One thing we should note commonly is all ground vehicles seem to emphasize heavy laser armmanets rather than projectile. Rather interesting really.
In 6799 the Commonwealth had called for bids for a new heavy ground tank, one with above-average armor, good weaponry, ,and a top speed of 36 kph or better.

...
...Sterling met or surpassed all the requirements and had produced a prototype within six months.
Another prototyping for a heavy tank, as well as movement speed 36 kph "or better" provides a lower limit for a heavy tank.

To top it off, the Sterling obtained speeds of 48 kph...

..

During trials, the vehicle had reached speeds of up to 50 kph. With regular use, speeds dropped ot 35 kph because of an inadequate filter system and an engine too small to provide maximum performance fo rextended periods. Sterling Enterprises remedied this problem by lengthening the hull to make room for a larger and more powerful Foundation 450 engine.
More on tank engine performance.. slower than an Abrams, but again vastly heavier.

To speed up roduction, Sterling Enterprises decided to manufacture components for the tank on several different planets and then ship them to the home factory for assembly.
Multi-system manufacturing. Has drawbacks, but allows for greater specialization.
Aeneas Light grav tank
Mass 139
Engine 1300
Thrust 8
Infantry/Digging cannon no/Yes
Weapons
1.5/4, 100mm, TVLG (4) all in turret
now we're getting into the grav tnaks. The funny thing is - the lightest grav tank is still heavier and generally better than the heaviest ground tank.
Thios weapon (100mm gauss in Aeneas) has a maximum effective range of 2 kilometers and can fire most modern rounds, including the laser tipped Hammer HEad round. The 1.5/4 laser system, designed by Globetech, is standard for its type, with a range of four kilometers. Set on the right side of the turret is a Hollister TVLG four tube missiel rack mouhtned in holister's stnadrd rectangular missiel platform. These missiles are effective at ranges up to 1,200 meters.
Weapons ranges on the grav tank. Despite being better than everything else the ranges are laughably inferior compared to modern weapons for the most part, despite being hypervelocity and despie the fact fighters (which are comparable to grav tanks) and even artillery have vastly superior ranges to their RL counterparts for the most part.
The aeneas is amply protected, with 29 tons of armor and an average shield flicker rate fo 52.
Defenses.
Alcibiades class light grav tank
Mass 106
Engine 1100
Thrust 9
Infantry/Digging cannon No/Yes
Weapons 2 turret 1.5/5 laser, 1 Turreet 25mm, ,2 Hull SMLM (1)
Another light grav tank.
By removing the 25mm, the two lasers and the digging cannons, Globetech was able to fit a 50mm cannon in the turret and barely maintain the high accelration value,
Design compromises on a light grav tank.

[
The hull armor is made of a honeycombed-aligned crystalline-titanium alloy.
Magic material technobabble.
The vehicle's primary weapon is the Globetech armaments 25mm Gauss Cannon, with an effective range of 1200 meters. On each side of the cannon in the turret is a Globetech Laser technologies 1.5/5 laser, ,which has an effective range of 4 kilometers.
More laughably short-ranged hypervelocity weapons tech.
Kupis Light Grav APC
Mass 90
Engine 850
Thrust 8
Infantry/Digging cannon YEs/Yes
Weapons 25mm Gauss, SMLM (2) (both turret
Grav APCs
Nisus class light grav vehicle
Mass 129
Engine 1300
Thrust 9
Infantry/Digging cannon No/Yes
Weapons
50mm Gauss, 1.5/5 laser (turret)
2 TVLG (2) in hull
generic light grav vehicle.
The first testing vehicle was born in four months...
4 month design/production phase for a light grav vhiecle.
These weapons are slaved ot the Llewellan Fire Control computer, which is linked in with the old but powerful visual, heat and neutrino sensors. This system can track ten targets at once ten kilometers way. The Nisus, however, never had the firepower to take full advnatage of this fantastic targeting device, and current countermeasures can now all but eliminate the sensor advantage.
Sensor and computer systems on the Nisus - note that the sensors are able to "track targets ten km away" and apparently firepower exists to take "full advantage" of this. One possibility WHY ranges are so short is given in the answer of countermeasures technology - which may be reducing possible sensor advantages to a fraction of what they could normally be. If so, and if we assume the laser has the typical 4 km range given for other vehicles, we might figure Countermeasures reduce weapons ranges to roughly 2/5 their actual values.(a 1.2 km gauss cannon can have a 3 km range in other words, whilst a 4 km range MDC or gauss cannon might have a 10 km range.)
Vespasian Light Grav Tank
Mass 153
Engine 1300
Thrust 7
Infantry/Digging cannon No/Yes
Weapons 150mm gauss, TVLG (4) (both turret), AP laser (hull)
Another light grav tank.
The Vespasians' main armament is the Vestonian Guass Company's 150mm Gauss Cannon, which has an effective range of 3 kilometers and can fire HEAP or Discarding Sabot rounds, as well as the standard 150mm antipersonnel and smoek rounds. Paired with this in the turret is the Hesparus Missile's TVLG (4) rack, armed with modified Hammer HEad munitions.
Vespasian's armament and range and the ammo.
Bata Revo class light grav tank (wolverine)
Mass: 137
Engine 1250
Thrust 8
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons 100mm Gauss, AP laser, 1 TVLG (4) in turret
2 TVLG (2) in hull
Another light grav tank.
The Wovlerine's primary weapon is the Lucifer munitions 100mm Gauss Cannon, one of the best of its kind, with an effective range of two kilometers.

..

These vertically launched missiles have a range of 1200 meters, with a modified Hammer Head round.
More ridiculously short weapons ranges.
Chktal Nor (graceful Death) light grav tank
Mass: 167
Engine1250
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
TVLG (4) in turret, Hull mounted 150mm gauss, 2 1.5/5 lasers.
Kess'rith light grav tank. Or possibly Naram. Hard to say and I'm too lazy to look it up.
Nah Tikal (viper) class light APC
Mass: 90
Engine 850
Thrust 8
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons Yes/Yes
Weapons
1 25mm Gauss, 1 SMLM (2) in turret
2 TVLG (2) in hull
Another Naram or Kessirth design. Again too lazy.
The Naram Design uses a system now standard on most combat vehicles. A pair of data-linked fire control computers select the optimum missile mix and firing seequence. The computers run some of the finest combat prediction programs in the common wealth.
"Standard" fire control for (RL/CW) vehicles.
Seeker-class Light Grav Vehicle
Mass: 137
Engine1500
Thrust 10
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
MDC-12, 25mm gauss, (turret both)
TVLG (2) in hull
Light "grav vehicle"
Several variants were tried at this time, including the most successful, which exchanged the MDC with a 100mm Gauss Cannon.

..
The original Seeker's primary weapon, the Mifflin MDC-12 Mass Driver cannon, allows the vehicle to engage targts with a powerful weapon at a range of four kilometers.

..

Beside the MDC in the turret is the Lucifer 25mm Gauss Cannon. Though rather short ranged at 1200 meters, this weapon can hit even heavily shielded targets
Intresting weapons mix and again laughably short ranges.
Vindicator class light grav tank
Mass: 142
Engine 1300
Thrust 8
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
100mm cannon, 1.5/6 laser (both turret)
1 SMLM (2) (in hull)
Another light grav tank.
Horatius medium grav tank
Mass: 273
Engine 2000
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons no/yes
Weapons
3/6 laser, SMLM (2), 50MM gauss, AP{ laser, Vulcan 2 (all in turret_)
150mm gauss (hull)
And we get to the meidum grav tanks.
With more than 35 tons of Tri-Oxyline composite armor, the Horatius is one of the best protected medium grav tanks in service.
More magic technobabble materials.
The horatius claims the distinction of being the TOG vehicle that moved fastst from drawing board to production, in a span of less than nine months.
TOG has slower design and production speeds than RL/CW, at least for Grav vehicles.
Hypaspis Medium grav APC
Mass: 191
Engine 1750
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons Yes/Yes
Weapons
7.5/6 laser, Vulcan IV, TVLG (6), SMLM (2) all in turret

2 AP laser in hull
Grav APC.
Hydarnis medium grav tank
Mass: 197
Engine 1750
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
100mm gauss, AP laser, ,Vulcan 3 (turret)
2 SMLM (1) in hull, TVLG (4) in hull
Another medium grav tank.
LAbienus Medum armored grav APC
Mass: 225
Engine 1600
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons Yes/Yes
Weapons 100mm gauss, TVLG(4), AP laser, Vulcan III (all turret)
5/6 laser, TVLG (4), SMLM (2) in hull

More grav APCs
The Labienus carries 45 tons of armor plating, only one ton less than the armor carried on the Romulus. Nine tons are mounted on the turret, four tons on the underside, ,and eight tons on all other facings.
In other words it has a shit ton of armor. Note that the armor/tonnage ratio is much lower for grav vehicles than ground vehicles (45/225 is 20%)
Pallas Class Medium Grav tank
Mass: 235
Engine 2000
Thrust 7
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons 150mm, oin hull
2 1.5/5 lkasers, 2 25mm in turret
Medium grav tank.
The Pallas' main weapon is the FitzWarren Munitions 150mm Gauss Cannon, with a maximum effective range of slightly more than three kilometers. The weapon has its own independent, terrain following computer, whcih automatically adjusts the elevation of the barrel during grounding.
Computer-compensated Gauss cannon with ridiculously short range.
Romulus Medium grav APC
Mass: 169
Engine 1500
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons yes/yes
Weapons; 5/6 laser, SMLM (2), 2 TVLG (4), Vulcan III, AP laser (all turret mounted)
Another medium grav APC.
The Romulus does its job well. It is well armored, ,with nine tons on the front and the turret, eight tons on the side and rear, and four tons on the bottom. The shielding is also impressive, with an 80 flicker rate on the front and stern, a 70 flicker rate on the sides, and a 50 flicker rate on the underside.
46 tons of armour if I did the math right.
Bit'Nak val (Catapult) class Medium grav tank)

Mass: 269
Engine 1600
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons 200mm (turret), ,AP laser (turreT), ,2 SMLM (2) (turret)

2 TVLG (6) - hull mount
another Kessrith/Naram vehicle design.
The TVLG has an effective range of 1200 meters, and the SMLM has a range of just over two kilometers.
Dig those fearsome missile ranges.
The Catapult's armor, on the other hand, weighs in at 38 tons, which is substnatial compared to most meidums. Its average shield flicker rate is 65, excepf rot the bottom shields, giving the Catapult more staying power.
Armour tonnage for a medium grav tank
Liberator Medium grav tank
Mass: 273
Engine 2000
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons: 5/6 laser, 150mm, 50mm, Vulcan III (all turret)

2 TVLG (4) (hull)
The Liberator, the common RL/Commonwelath ground combat vehicle.
Scorpion medium grav tank
Mass: 204
Engine 2000
Thrust 8
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons (turret): 7.5/6 laser, ,2 SMLM (2), Vulcan III
(Hull): TVLG (12) x 2
Another medium grav tank,
The Scorpion uses the Naram Double-hull design, easing maintenance and providing a protected external area for additional ECM equipment. The designers included extra systems to increase the Scorpion's ambush capabilities. The extra systems increase maintenance time but give the Scorpion enough extra stealth to make them worthwhile. The Scorpion can even hide from direct orbital observation under certain circumstances.
The "double hull" bit is interesting - does it act as spaced armour as well? Also the capabilities of the stealth system are even more impressive if they hamper orbital detection even slightly (which as we know from other sources is a big concern in RL universe combat.)
Spartius medium Grav APC
Mass: 189
Engine: 1500
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons Yes/Yes
Weapons; Turret: 2 5/6 laser, Vulcan III, SMLM (2), TVLG (6)

Hull: 2x TVLG (4)
Medium grav apc
Trojan-Horse class Medium grav APC
Mass: 206
Engine 1600
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: Yes (3)/Yes
Weapons:
TurreT: 25mm gauss, TVLG (6), Vulcan III
Hull: 2x TVLG (4), 2 SMLM (2)
Yet another med GAPC
The armor protection of the CSV-25 is amazing; ten tons on the turret, ,front, and rear, nine tons on each side, and seven tons on the bottom. The shielding is also good, ,with 70 flicker-rate shields mounted on all facings, except for the 50 flicker rate shield on the bottom. Acceleration is on the scale of 72 kph every minute, which is impressive for a medium vehicle.
55 tons of armour (slightly more than 25% of the mass). And if I get the math right it accelerates at 1/3 of a meter per second squared, or 30 milligees. Whether that is impressive or not I dont know.
The most impressive and unique feature of the CSV-25, however, is its ability to carry three combat-ready infantry squads, or 24 men.
Medium APC carries 3 8-man squads.
Augustus Heavy grav tank:
Mass: 382
Engine 2500
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/No
Weapons
Turret: 2 7.5/6 lasers, Vulcan IV, 200mm gauss
Hull: 100mm gauss, 2 TVLG (4), SMLM (2)
Now the heavy grav tanks.
Often called a monster or giant, the Augustus carries 57 tons of Tri-Exoly armor, the best available. The grav tank's weakest shield is a 70 flicker-rate, and that is on the bottom. The rest of the vehicle is protected with 80 and 90 flicker-shields. The Augustus can accelerate by as much as 50 kph every minute.
Armour makes up about 14% of the total mass of the tank. Acceleration .23 M/s^2 if I did the math right or 23 miligees
Ferox Rex Heavy Grav Tank
Mass: 441
Engine 2500
Thrust 3
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons Yes/Yes
Weapons
Turret: MDC-12, 50Mm gauss, AP laser, Vulcan IV
Hull: 7.5/6 laser, TVLG (6), 200mm Gauss.
Another heavy grav tank.

The Ferox Rex carries numerous offensive weapons. Turret-mounted systems consist of a MDC-12 and a 50mm Gauss cannon. A heavy 7.5/6 laser, a 200mm Gauss Cannon, and a TVLG (6) are mounted in the hull. This weapons mix gives the Ferox Rex an excellent offensive capability at all ranges up to 4000 meters.
Which makes it about equal range wise to a RL tank, at best.
Defensive systems on the Ferox Rex are outstanding. The vehicle carries some of hte heaviest shields ever fitted on a combat vehicle. Armor weights in at a staggering 56 tons.

..

State of the artt ECM and NBC systems complete the Ferox Rex's defenses.

The Ferox REx is the only TOG heavy tank that contains an infantry compartment.
ECM and NBC systems, and a tank that carriest roops. Armour is less than 13% of the mass of the tank.
Octavian class heavy grav tank
Mass: 357
Engine 2500
Thrust 3
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons:
Turret: MDC-10, Vulcan IV, 150mm gauss, 5/6 laser
Hull: SMLM (2), TVLG (6)x2, 1.5/6 Laser
Another heavy grav tank.
With redundant damage-controls ystems and unique armament placement, the Octavian seems better able to withstand attack than other grav tanks.

The Octavian carries standard TOG shield generators and molecularly aligned crystalline titanium armor.
More technobabble armour and extreme redundancy for damage resistance.

Halabad Industries has already geared its factory worlds for Octavian production. As soon as it gets approval, Halabad can start producing 10,000 units per year.
Implied heavy grav tank production.. seems to be spread across multiple worlds, so hard to guess at rates. still even 10 K for a single industry (when there are bound to be multiple) is impressive
Trajan class heavy grav tank
Mass: 377
Engine 2500
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: 2 7.5/6 laser, SMLM (2), Vulcan IV, 2x AP laser

Hull 200mm gauss, TVLG (12)
Another heavy grav tank.
Crusader heavy grav tank
Mass: 431
Engine 2500
Thrust 3
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: MDC-12, SMLM (2), 100mm gauss, 2x1.5/6 lasers
Hull: 200mm Gauss, 2xTVLG(6)
And another.
Crusader HGT, Bak'H Matha variant
(Identical save for following)
Mass: 419
Thrust 3
WEapons
turret: 7.5/6 laser, 2x 5/6 laser, AP laser, Vulcan IV,
Hull: 2x 7.5/6 laser
and another.
The Crusader's design has been proven by decades of battle. Its weapons mix makes it a threat to enemy vehicles at all ranges from 4,000 meters on in, and its heavy armor and shielding make it one of hte toughest targets on the battlefield.

..

Defensive systems are outstanding, with some of the heaviest shields and armor ever mounted on a combat vehicle.

..

The Crusader mounts a good ECM suite, making it one of the most difficult heavy vehicles to acquire as a target.
Crusader capabilities.
Deliverer class Heavy Grav Tank
Mass: 404
Engine 2500
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: 7.5/6 laser, 50mm gauss, SMLM (2), Vulcan IV
Hull: 2x1.5/6 laser, 200mm gauss, TVLG (6)
another heavy tank.
The roar from the 200mm cannon was unexpected after TOG battlefield sensors scanning the tanks in profile did not detect the gun, which was concealed by the outer hull. Then they found the Deliverer could cripple an opponent in seconds.
Self explanatory. Not really sure what to say honestly :P
Dominator heavy Grav tank
Mass: 267
Engine: 2500
Thrust: 7
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: 100mm Gauss cannon, Vulcan III, AP laser.
Hull: 2x1.5/6 laser, 2xTVLG(4), SMLM (4)
Another tank.
Eliminator/Cincinanatus Heavy Grav Tank
Mass: 368
Engine 2500
Thrust 2
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/no
Weapons
Turret: 200mm gauss, MDC-12, Vulcan IV, AP laser
Hull: 2 SMLM (2), 2 TVLG (12)
More tanks.
The two vehicles are nearly identical, with the Renegade's Cinncinatus mdoel lacking some crew comforts, such as field-integrated battle couchs and acceleration dampers in the fighting comparttment, but with more storage space for supplies and spare parts.
Some grav vehicles seem to have some measure of built in AG for various purposes.
The tank has experienced engine burnout, but only because many commanders attmept to compensate for sluggish acceleration and end up abusing the system by repeeated use of overdrive power.
It is possible to "overdrive" teh engines, although shortening the lifespan and risking burnout./
Stades class Grav Scout Vechile:
Mass: 85
Engine 1150
Thrust 12
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: Vulcan 1, ,AP Laser
Hull: SMLM(1), TVLG (2)
Grav scout.
Scipio class Grav Antiaircraft vehicle
Mass: 145
Engine 1300
Thrust 7
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons:
turret: 25mm Gauss, Vulcan II, 3 Hardpoints
Air defense ystem (hull)
Grav AAA vehicel.
Scipios usually carry Scanner Silhouette Seeking (SSS) missiles. Though it does less damage than other types of missiles, the SSS is excellent at hitting head-on targets.
This implies fighter missile are less destructive than tank missiles, although "other missiles" may refer to fighter missiles. I wonder what sort of range it has :P
Eradicator Grav Antiaircraft vehicle:
Mass: 143
Engine 1250
Thrust 7
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons Turret: 25mm gauss, 2 hard points
Hull: 2 hard points, PIR Defense syste,
More Grav AAA.
Pompey Grav Artillery Vehicle
Mass: 370
Engine 1900
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons
GPE-1A Gravitic cannon, Vulcan III
2 Hull mounted AP laser
Grav artillery.
The Pompey boasts a medium grav tank's protection, plus the firepower of a heavier ground-artillery piece. Armaments vary but usually contain a version of the Mass Driver Cannon Type 8, 10, or 12, plus defensive armaments. other versions of the Pompey have been equipped with direct-fire Gauss cannons for the vehicle's anti-tank role. This assortment of weapons eliminates any concept of a stnadard Pompey.
Grav aritllery capabilities.
Pedden class Grav Artillery Piece
Mass: 357
Engine 1800
Thrust 4
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons No/Yes
Weapons
GPA5 cannon (turret), Vulcan IV (tuirret)
AP laser (hull)
Another grav artillery vehicle.
The cannon has a 360 degree field of fire and can eleveate to 80 degrees. Since modern artillery weapons are essentially recoilless, large recoil-absoring mechanisms are not needed. The weapons do require complex stabilization and cooling systmes to keep them accurate.
Interesting that grav artillery is "recoilless" - wonder why this is - does the force field mechanisms spread it out in some way? Or is there some exotic mean of transferring the unit.
The haart of the Pedden is the massive GPA5 Artillery piece. This 212 ton unit is the fifth version of an artillery weapon that first appeared in 6781. Since its introduction, the GPA has undergone several improvements, incorporating technology, better fire control, and a quicker more dependable loading system. The Pedden can engage multiple targets while on the move with exceptional accuracy and effect. It can fire every type of munition found in the CommonWealth and Renegade Legion inventry, from simple high-explosive cratering rounds to the massively destructive HELL round. Using its autoloader for sustained bombardments, the PEdden can deliver a devastating barrage in seconds. This rate can be sustained only from stationary firing position because target acquisition takes longe rwhen the vhicle is in motion.
Grav artillery capabilities.
Remus Medium Grav Armored engineergng vehicle:
Mass: 165
Engine 1500
Thrust 6
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: 1.5/4 laser, SMLM (2), 2xTVLG (4), AP laser
Hull: 2 Engineering attachments
Grav engineering vehicles.
Constructor Medium Grav Armored engineergin vehicle
Mass: 307
Engine 2000
Thrust 5
Infantry Squd/Digging cannons: No/Yes
Weapons
Turret: 5/6 laser, 150mm gauss, 50mm gauss
Mass: 2x TVLG (4), 2 Engineerign attachment
More of that stuff.
[Back cover]
APCS- These vechiels move the infantry to the field of battle, and no army in history could advance without infantry to lead it. If you want to conquer a world without having to bomb it into a nuclear winter, you need flesh and blood men of iron conviction.

Anti-Aerospace: Surface-to-Air missile platforms with high-powered laser targeting systems to protect the ground units from HELL bombs and strafing attacks that Interceptors are making in the atmosphere.

Artillery units- these vehicles deliver all manner of indirect fire munitions, support combat units by prepping the objective, fire against point target designated by the forward units, and place special signal scattering rounds to mask troop movements.
Various nteresting descriptions of vehicles. Note that troops to hold territory "without bombing it into a nuclear winter", which has implication for firepower, as well as fighters dropping "Hell" bombs. Which I take to mean HELL munitions of some kind.
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Connor MacLeod
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Re: Renegade Legion Grand Supplements analysis thread

Post by Connor MacLeod »

andddd.. the Centurion technical updates. Last glimpses of interesting tech and ground tactics tidbits for a long while. It really makes me feel bad this never got off the ground the way Battletech did. I would have liked this universe alot.
Because they provide vital antivehicle and painting operations, use of infantry as strictly anti-personnel forces was obviously impractical, and the currently available AP laser suffers a 600-meter range restriction.
Interesting bit of commentary on the purported uses of infantry - they are not primarily used against other infantry, but rather used for targeting and anti-armour work (with their TVLGs and such) Infantry still engages infantry in combat, but it seems more of a secondary role (Vehicles are the bigger priority, obviously.)

Of course this does beg the question - they have robotics and satellites and shit - why not use recon drones or stuff for that role?

Spencer developed a Fuel Air explosive (FAE) demolition charge, a highly pressurized cannisster of explosive gas designed to vent its contents into the target structure and ignite several minutes later, destroying the building.

..Company engineers kept the FAE approach, but added an oxidizer and a small missile-delivery system that spread the gas much more rapidly and evenly in the target vicinity. A miniature expert system monitors and controls the cloud formation, critical to the weapon's effectiveness. As the round nears its impact location, the expert system monitors the current climatic conditions and modifies release rates, mist volatility, cloud composition and other factors to ensure optimal cl oud formation. Though the critical terrain-hight sensing circuits sometimes prove unreliable, the missiels racked up excellent results against exposed, unshielded targets and retained limited effectiveness against buildings.

...

Their anti-personnel missile's (APM) external design matched that of the standard TVLG missile,a llowing the APM to launch from an TVLG tube with no hardware modifications.

..

An APM releases a cloud of combustible gas and oxidizer directly over the target. The two gases mix within a fraction of a second, then the spent warhead ignites the mixture. The resulting explosion kills unprotected infantry, an has limited effect against buildings and vehicles.

...

An APM warhead requires more room than a stock TVLG payload, and so the designers took the needed space form the missile's propellant section, giving the APM a range of 5 (rather than the TVLG's 6) an APM must An APM round must be fired at a painted target hex because the missile's detonator requires altitude data to determine the release/ignition sequence.

...

Against vehicles and buildings, treat an APM as a 10-point HELL round. However, APMs cause no gravitic effects and so will not cause grav vehicles to ground.

..

An APM generally affects only one target within a hex.
I take this to mean they always had FAEs, but probably not in this application or possibly this compact. Although IIRC FAe/Thermobaric weapons can get alot more compact IRL so.. go figure. Maybe it has somethign to do with the kind of fuel or magnitude of the explosion, given that it is "treated" as a Hell round for intents and purposes (That tells you either somethinga bout HELL warhead yields, or about the yield of this thing.)

Although it says that only unprotected infantry is killed, we aren't sure what "unprotected" is (unarmored?)
The advent of homing missiles, targeting expert systems and battlefield sensors allows the force able to disrupt enemy electronic/neutrionic guidance systems and tactical communications to achieve swift, decisive victories.

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As you can see form the holo before you, the EJ Series artillery round consists of a high-gain, broad spectrum jammer powered by a high-output, short-life energy cell with proven power-time characteristics. Continuing th etradition of excellence in dartillery deployed ammunition, Tristat aerospace included cutting edge terminal-flight guidance and omnispectrum ECM suppression circuitry in this model..."
The importance of EW and ECM on a RL battlefield, as well as all the other associated stuff (guidance systems, computerized warfare, sensors, etc.) Any enemy expecting to face them on th battlefield naturally has to contend with this somehow.
The first countermeasure causes the inernal guidance mechanisms of missiles passing through a ADECM area of effect to malfunction.

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As the second countermeasure, an ADECM's area of effect blocks the LOS of any ABS or RPRV systems attmepting to paint vehicles moving through the zone. Passive ABS located within the ADECM area of effect immediately becomes active.
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The ADECM's third effects scrambles communications of any vehicle, squad, or construct within its area of effect during the Combat Phase.

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An effected unit cannot paint targets for other units or artillery missions, nor can it take advantege of succeessful paints by other units.

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The fourrth ADECM countermeasure jams the expert systems of any vehicle, emplacement or installation within the area of effect.

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The ADECM round's effect lasts for one turn..

For context ABS and RPRVs are discussed later but basically static sensor emplacements and unmanned aerial recon vehicles (I guess I'd forgotten those. Ha hah.) The really interesting thing is how it messes with computers (Expert systems) and painting - it can actually disrupt lasers as well as disrupting computers (Hacking them? messing with their systems somehow?) A rather interesting avility for an arty round.
Ceramic armor is a brittle, ,reflective ceramic compound with high heat-dissipation properties that make it extremely resistant to laser energy. Initially used in such everyday applications as low-grade laser optics and high-temperature furnaces, ceramic armor's low tensile strength prevented appplication to vehicles. In tests, even relatively survivable 25mm Gauss round shattered tons of armor, pulverzing it into dust. Military metallurgical researchers spent decdes trying to combine ceramic armor's heat reisstance with greater resilience.

In 6829, scientists discovered an innovative method for applying ceramic armor and developed a workable armor compound for vehicles. The procedure, called forced plasma deposition, injects high-temperature, ceramic armor plasma over semi-fluid armor in a patial vaccuum. A magnetic field energizes the plasma and drives it itno the sruface of the armor. The magnetic field strength and duration of exposure determine the depth of ceramic armor penetration. Rapid cooling solidifies the new armor compound. The resulting armor rtains most of its tensile strength and inhnerits some ablative characteristics.

Dubbed CPFD armor, this new material still suffers several disadvantages. IT occasionally cracks away from its frame under heavy weapons fire, allowing entire slabs of armor to fall off the vehicle, and the energy intensive fabrication process costs considerably. Though manufactueres claim an average expense hike of 15 percent to equip a vehicle with CFPD rather than standard armor, some quote a staggering 50 percent retrofit cost for certain vehicles.
I believe something similar exists in real life, and its an interesting insight into how they can fabricate armour, although it is clearly flawed against certain kinds of attacks (nevermind cost.) With continued use and research it may improve though.

When centering a damage profile from a nonlaser weapon, taking damage from a HELL round, or grorunding, players treat partially destroyed armor boxes as full boxes.
Basically hell impacts and "non laser' weapons (which I take to mean mass drivers and gauss weapons in this context) are analogus to physical impactors - not just KE but force and momentum.
Intrigued by the succeess of the light MDC-G carried by Fulman medium interceptors, the consortium started work on a new vehicular, multi-barrel MDC system. To contend for TOG government contracts, the new system had to be lighter, cheaper and more power efficient than its predecessors. Its 4-kilometr range gave it an advantage over Gauss weapons. Compared to lasers, the new MDC lacked penetrating power, but held the advantage of power consumption and cost.

The GMDC fires a heavier slug than the standard MDC, allowing GMDC rounds to punch through shields. The Gatling's lower muzzle velocity makes it unsuitable for long-range, spaced-based weapon systems, but its high-capacitor charge-time and cyclic rate of fire make the Gatling lighter than a standard MDC because the Gatling requires less structural support and simpler recoil mechanisms.
It fires faster than a Gauss weapon, but slower than space based MDCs (tens of km/s maybe as opposed to hundreds/thousands of km/s) and is heavier than 100 grams (but by how much we don't know, except its much lighter than a gauss round)

Assuming a velocity somewhat 3 x that projected for a gauss weapon (10 km/s) and a 200 gram projectile a single shot would contain "only" 10 MJ, which should work asn an OoM estimate. Its a "gatling" eapon, so I assume it has a high rate of fire (15-30 rounds per second at least?), putting the sustained output in the hundreds of megawatts range, at least. That fits broadly with what we know of other guns (10 GW lasers for example.) as far as ground weapons go.
Interceptors have lower shield strength and armor distributions than equivalent grav vehicles, making them more susceptible to ground fire than their grav tank cousins. In addition, both TOG and Commonwealth units consider interceptors valuable tactical targets, making ground-attack missions hazardous.

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Without sufficient combat aeropsace patrol and ground supporrt, a legion can suffer devastating breaks in supply and combat losses.


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In response, interceptor designers from both forces developed an aerospace standoff capability using modified Scanner Silhouette Seeking (SSS) missiles.

Planners also descided that interceptors executing ground attacks should do more dmage in battle. PResently, interceptors loop back and forth over the battlefield, making pass after pass at enemy formations. multiple attack runs rapidly expose internal componetns to damage and increase the risk of talta anti-grav drive or atmospheric hit.

As a temporary solution, ship designers added firepower by equipping interceptors with anti-vehicular (ground attack) missiles. Straightforward modifications to existing TVLG and SMLM thrust motors and the design of a weapons rack for itneceptor hard points gave ground attack interceptors greater offensive capabilities.
This is interesting in light of earlier assessments giving interceptors the range advantage over tanks. So it comes down to range and possible firepower vs durability, but the fact they needa standoff attack missile implies that its not an absolute either way.

fighters apparently lose some of their speed and range advantage in the atmosphere though. The obivious question is, given that grav tanks and fighters are virtually similar vehicles in terms of mass and such, why don't grav tanks have the range of fighters (or even much greater range than they actually do.)
Ground attack missiles (GAM) fired from an interceptor extend the range of TVLGs and SMLMs. Instead of using standard interceptor grround-attack ordnance, a plaer may load three TVLGs or two SMLMs on a hardpoint. GAMs do not include anti-perosnnel missiles, ,because APM range is too low and dead-fire missile clusters (DFM) do more damage. And because its fast launch speed prevents them from turning effectively, an interceptor may not use homing missiles.

Players may only fire GAMs at the start of a fighter's strafing or dive-bombing run. Double the range of TVLGs and SMLMs fired as ground-attack missiles.
Interesting commentary on missiles and such. Again I have to wonder if they somehow picutred Interceptor missiles being outdone by RL missile performance. It is nice to know that tank missiles could be extended range, somehow, though...

CDI Incorporated, an artillery munitions manufactuerr, won the design contract by proposing a few simple modifcations to the HAFE-I artillery round, naming its new product the HEAF.

By reducing the size of the round and flechettes, and elimingating the guidance hardware, CDI constructed an antipersonnel flechette round for use with existing Gauss cannons. Further study determined the optimal caliber to be 25mm and 50mm rounds; larger calibers with higher muzlie velocities created poor flechette dispersion patterns limiting the round's usefulness.

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Like the HAFE- aritllery round, the ariburst flechette warhed explodes in the air, but jut 20 meters above the target, so most of the round's momentum transferrs to the released flechettes.
Basically turning the Gauss cannon into an antipersonnel shotgun, although designed for the lighter guns rather than the big ass cannon.
Grav field theory stated from its inception that though the intenisty of a gravitic field produced by an engine varied according to engine power, the field itself remained uniform and regular

In 6810, a little-known scientific journal publisehd an article dealign with an obscure branch of grravitic field theory. The author, a Baufrin named Cke`Threl, postulated that gravitons are unique to their source. Using complicated manipulations of quantum field equations, Cke'Thral demonstrated tha tht eunique nature of gravitons could be proved from their interaction with normal space-time. Physicists already knew that this interaction produced the gravitic field gradient surrounding any functioning grav engine, but did not recognize that each field exhibited unique properties.


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Scholarship in this little known field lay dormant until 6828, when Naram researchers developed instruments sensitive enough to detect the subtle differences in gravitic emissions. THE commonwelath military immediately used the new technology to develop the homing missile.

Homers, as these missiles became known, are large, poweful, free-flight missiles designed to lock onto a target's gravitic emissions. A small, highly modified grav drive propels the missile, enabling it to carry the powerful warhead and complex guidance mechanisms. The grav drive also makes the missile slower than sMLMS and TVLGs.

Defensive installations, emplacements, and vehicles may mount homing missiles. Infantry squads cannot use homers because the weapon is too massive for shoulder-fired version or remotes. Because the guidance mechanism tracks the emissions of its target's grav drive or shield generator, homing missiles may target only grav vehicles or shielded installations.

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Ground vehicles, fighters, and other targets not using grav drives or gravitically produced shields cannot be targetd by a homing missile. Though a homer cna technically lock-on to a fighter's shields, the fighter's acceleration makes it impossible to catch, and so the homing missile's expert systems will not accept a fighter as a target.

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ADECM fields affect homing missiles flying through them

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Because the guidance mechanism seeks the emissions of a specific grav drive, the warhead tends to explode underneath the arget vehicle.

As a countermeasure, a target vehcile or instlalation can shut its grav drive and shield generator down for a turn in order to break the missile's lock.

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Grav vehicles can also go LAF to attempt to break the lock.
Interesting commentary on grav-guided homing missiles and a bit on the nature and such of grav engines. Also note tue use of grav drives as a missile propulsion, they can (at least within limits) produce such devices. The missiles cannot catch fighters, so that puts limits on their performance (acceleration and such.. so probably less than 4-5 gees which is silly since modern missiles can pull tens of gees easily, nevermind the fighters..) but TLVGs and SMLMs are faster. The artillery ECM round can also disrupt the missiles, implying som emeans of fuckign with gravitic guidance (either the guidance computer or fucking with the sensors)

To counter this imrpoved design strength, R&D teams at Advanced Laser Photonics devised a small, high-power, consumable laser ideally suited to function as a mine against heavilly shielded targets.

ALFs scientists were attempting ot increase the penetrating power of their vehicular laser by imrpoving the alignment of the gennium arsneic crystal strucutre in the laser's exciter core. Completely by accident, impurities were introduced into one test crystal during fabrication. When scientists installed and energized the damaged crystal, the laser overloaded. The resulting energy pulse destroyed the taget sensor and punched a 30-cm wide hole in the laboratory wall, but left an adjacent building untouched. The crystal core melted, irradiating most of the lab equipment.

Within a few months, development teams at ALP created a prototype X-ray laser. Unable to reduce the radiation hazard or eliminate teh self-destructive nature of the crystal, they attempted to use it in ballistics in order to sperate the huhman user from teh crystal's dangerous properties. Attempts to use the crsystal in an improved version of a Hammer Head round failed, ,because the crystal could not survive the round's firing acceleration.

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The short barrel and shorter lifespan fo the laser forced ALP engineers to look for alternate methods of focusing the crystal's beam. Taking advantage of gav vehicle's bottom shiedl generator, the engineers devised a scheme to use the target vehicle's own shield against it. The gravity pressure wave crated by the tank's generator focused and tageted the laser, and ALP had createda new and effective deterrent to heavy grav tanks.

The strong local radiation by-product and the fragility of the crystal makes consumable lasers suitable only for use in minefields. By using the target vehicle's shields to focus the laser, these improved mine screate sufficient energy to punch through 100 tons of standard armor.
This suggests that regular GA lasers are not x-ray lasers, but it is possible to design them (although they still aren't "lasers" in the real sense.) except in a "bomb pumped laser" fashion without the bomb. Basically its a compact hellfire round.

This does give an interesting idea of what kinds of warheads RL ships might mount, especially given their interesting ability to convert KE into photons./ Also note blasting a 30 cm wide hole in the wall with short range.

I believe tVLGs also carry a variant of this warhead type. I would bet that Interceptor missiles do too as a rule, because they tend to create highly directed, localized damage profiles against armor as I remember.
Unfortunately, long-range ground and space based sensors easily detect and acquire incoming artillery rounds. simple ballistics programs can accruately pinpoint the target and source of these rounds, and so forming a hidden minefield defense perimieter using artillery-delivered rounds is both difficult and inhereltnyl dangerous for the artillery battery.
Performance of ground and space sensors in RL universe. This kind of makes you wonder how artillery can be dangerous to begin with, since they rely alot on comms and sensors and mobility, but.. *shrugs*
Without well positioned infatnry support, isolated grav vehicles and installations can be easily overcome by precision attacks from combined arms formations. Unfortunately, dismounted infantry possess little protection except the ability to hide from attackers.

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They presented a series of simulations to the Royal Army in late 6829 that proved that suqads operating heavy weapons remotely from concealed locations reduced their casualties by more than 30 percent. The first prototype of a Remotely Operated Target Engagement system, or REMOTE, tested six months alter to an enthusiastic crowd of CAF representatives.
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Technological improvements in launchers and battlefield telemetry have crated a firing platform that bounce infantry squads can dissasmble and carry. A squad may erect one of these platforms, called REMOTEs, anywhere on the battlefield and may fire its weapons by remote control.


Basically infantry gets some sort of remote controlled missile launching platform, which allows them to take cover while retaining their ability to attack targets and not take so many casualties. This creates some interesting scenarios for ambush or trapping, especially in conjunction with other squads.

Of course this is mainly a CW/RL weapon. Not sure if Tog would adopt it (or even care to)
modern expert system modules incorporate the most important principles of tactical doctrine. These expert systems, installed in command vehicles and operation centers, permit indepth analysis of battlefield situations. The software and hardware in a modern combat expert system idetnify and recognize threats, providing planning tools, and analyze counteractions for the local commander. A Tacticla Battlefield Expert System (TBES) includes tactics, gunnery, and target acquisition exper systems with a sophisticated data sidplsay.

Farr to complex and costly to install in every vehicle, an expert system is a highly classified piece of military equipment containing so much sensitive data, electronics and software that enemy acquisition of a complete module would seariously undermine local operations. Centurions and company commanders must destrtoy their TBES modules if forced to abandon their vehicles.

Legion intelligence and auhtorized maintenance personnel constantly update the information contained in a vehicle's TBES. As tactical and strategic situatiosn tchange, the modules must receive the latest battle plans, communications codes, call signs, and enemy intelligence. Feeds from special programming computers attached directly to the TBES provide up-to-the-minute information too sensitive for transmission over normal channels. OFten, even the technicians performing the updates have no idea what they are uploading.


An interesting look into how computers play into command and control operations and what they may or may not do. Especially on the high end side of things (what they can really do if they spend the money) althought he intell risk is a valid limitation.
All combat vehicles use sophistcated ballistic computer systems that predict the flight path of a fired round, missile or laser beam. Receiving input from atmsohpere sensors, target acquisition systems, and interial guidance packages, these computers constantly update the firing solution for all enemy vehicles registereding on the combat display. Improvements and variations in vehiclular onboard computer systems make possible the use of targeting expert systems during combat. Programmable expert systems permit headquarters, intelligence, and maintenance sections to update a vehicles detection and recognition software as required.

Some companies in this multi-billion talent industry invest so much of their capital designing and testing their computer systems that they occasionally incorporate known software and hardware errors in their components. Others deliberately build systems exactly to specifications, even if those specs are deficient or obsolte. This usually assures the same manufactuerer will be awarded upgrade and replacement orders, thoguh occasionally the ploy provokes an inquiry by the Lictor or the Commonwealth Special Investigation Services (CSIS).
A bit on RL targeting computers, and on the industry itself. One of the things I always liked about RL is they pay attention both to "on the field" and "off teh field" stuff. The interesting thing is how it highlights how depenednent upon sensors and relayed/telemetry data ofr accurate fighting. It's a clear advantage, but a force without those systems would also suffer some hefty drawbacks.

Information is a fighting force's most valuable asset. If a command receives information on the enemy's location early enoug, it can deploy friendly forces to counteract or reduce a potential threat. In defensive situations, the ability to find the enemy first can make the difference between an operation's success or failure.

Engineering units deploy the small, electromechanical autonomous battlefield sensors in areas best observed by remote monitoring. Because ABS cannot carry the sophisticated communications and detection gear mounted by vehicles, normal terrain limits an ABS's ensor range to line of sight (LOS) Using electromagnetic and sonic detectors, a laser range-finder, and radar mapper, an ABS system sweeps the terrain within its range, buidling a three-dimensional map of an are. The system then compares this new map to a standard map stored in its memory, and notes any ddiscrepancies. An onboard expert systme evaluates these discrepancies, attempting to match them to known enemy vehicle or other threat profiles.

Standard ABS deployments ocver tow concentric arcs separated by a 2 kilometer gap. Units defending the sensor array place themselves 3 to 4 kilometers form the center of the arc. Passive ABS make up the outer ring, active ABS complete the bulk of the inner ring. enemy units penetrating the sensor field pass through the outer, passive arc without activating it. When enemy troops reach the active, inner array, defenders engage the approaching vehicles with artillery, hidden mines, and long range laser and MDC fire. Intense defensive fire backs attacking units into the inactive sensors, setting them off. Few assaults can withstand the sustained laser fire the ABS system delivers by painting key targets for the defender.

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An active ABS array transmits continuously in the electromagnetic spectrum, scanning its search range for enemy activity.

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Passive ABS networks listen for distortion in the thermal, gravitic, ,and electromagnetic spectrums immedaitely around them, transmitting actively only when detecting such distortions.
ABS systems finally defined, and their importance relative to providing battlefield intel. The first thing occuring to me is - are these expendable or reusable? I can understand these units being cheaper, more limited, and more expendable relative to say, a scout vehicle or a tank, but I was never a big fan of the sort of resource wastage you see in sci fi like the Honor Harrington series (at least in the later bits of it.)


In any case, this fits in with the style of ground warfare in the RL universe, and would be quite a bit of an advantage (if it can be deployed and the enemy doesn't wipe it out)

"Since the earliest days of space travel, military forces have used reconnaissancee satellites. Known by such varied names as spy sats, recon sats, and peepers, these satellites provide intelligence gathering organizations with near realtime assessments of enemy formations, movements and capabilities.

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A naval vessel stationed in orbit above the battlefield provides the simplest, most effective form of orbital surveillance. Naval commanders, howver, balk at placing valuable ships of the line in such av ulnerable position without absolute space superiority.

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Reconnaissance satellites and REmotely Piloted REconnaissance vehicles (RPRVs) provide battlefield reconnaissance. The Legion's Rocket Century maintains and launches both these intelligence-gathring devices, though naval vessels also place recon satellites in orbit.

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The Rocket Century can launch the satellite into a geostationary or variable orbit. The geostationary orbit keeps the satellite in a permanant position above the battiefield...

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An RPRV - a grav-drive equipped, remotely operated sensor platform - flies over the battlfield and directs fire against enemy units.

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Rocket centuries may deplyo RPRVs from deep behidn the front lines. an RPRV fitted to an expendable booster rocket arrives on the battlefield within minutes of being called, entering at a velocity of 20 at either NF or TTF.
The various forms of recon and spy vehicles used both in ground and space. In space they use satellites, drones, and the like. This can also include orbital battelships, but this is cosnidered wasteful of them.

The really interesting bit is the remotely piloted vehicles, given it establishes such tech existing and its uses (although why they don't use it for added offensive operations, I dont know. They have Thor satellites after all.)
In the 69th Century, mobiity and stealth are critical, even for defending forces. The massive firepower avaialble form naval vessels in orbit and the icnredible speed of modern grav vehicles makes defensive mobility not only desirable, but neccessary. Legions must be ablet o esablish effective defensive perimeters with a few hours notice.

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Defense installations offer two additional disadvnatanges, they re immobile structures requireing months of concentrated construciton work, and naval units can easily detec thtem from robit. Though naval assets alone cannot neutralize properly configured DI complexes, isolated installations do not pose a significant stumbling block to a combined arms assault.

The emplacement fills the gaps betwene mobile grav forces and expensive defneisve isntallations. Mounting weaponry and defenses equivalent to a stnadard grav vehicles, emplacements serve to protect and conceal vehicels and infantry form the enemy's sensors. Friendly engineering units can position emplacements within hours fo receiving orders. Because empalcements do not require their own grav drive, they are less expensive than a similarily equipped vehicle. Like their larger cousins, emplacements provide static defense, but can be placed in relative secrecy.

emplacements are small versons of standard defense installations that engineering vehicles can transport and prepare for combat.

The emphasis of mobility even for defenders due to the availability and capabilities of orbital warships is a valid and interesting one, given that other universes like Star Wars seem to favor a more "static" approach (theatre shielding) to counter such threats. We know of course RL can deploy its own version of theatre shielding (at least for defense installations and surrounding eareas) but as noted above, they have some disadvantages and they're limited in what they can protect.

Emplacements seem to be a compromise of sorts - they offer some sort of mobile "shield" protection to those without shields (especially against detection) but they aren't so large or cumbersome (or indeed, protective?) as out right installations. This points at a sliding scale between mobility and offense/defense (the stronger the defense or offense, the more static it is.)

We also get a rather blatant indication that no ground tanke could ever survive a ground bombardment.

An emplacement uses only one armor facing, which is the turret. The emplaement may use any size shield generator, subject to the standard power and weight limitations.

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An emplacement may not mount more than two AP lasers and may not carry a total of more than four weapons systems.
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An emplacment cannot carry an engine rated higher than 150, and cannot weigh more than 150 tons. An emplacement does not require a grav drive. Players may instal TES and TBES components in an emplacememt.

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Emplacemnets provide a hiding place for vehicles and squads from enemy artillery. They also provide a secure location in which to rest squads and conduct limited repairs on vehicles without either being exposed to the elemetns or enemy. Hidden emplacements also provide an excellent base from which to launch ambushes, ,attacks, and counteroffensives.
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Each emplacement carries a digging cannon supplied with one digging charge powerful enough to create the crater for the emplacement. Generally, emplacements surrounding fixed installations are permamant structures thesmelves.
Design and limits on an "emplacement", as well as their primary uses and reinforcing the fact it's an upscaled vehicle designed to act as a sort o fmobile base/fort (trading speed for protection.)

Also note that they can create craters (to settle in) as big as themselves :P
The AAE is normally constructed from a standard emplacement shell with a turert-mounted advanced air defense system (ADS capable of tracking an artillery round at the horizon. THe ADs is paired with a weapon installation consisting of a special high-frequency laser emitter and sensitive collimating and focusing arrays.

Because electronic subsystems are so sensitive to electromagnetic disturbance,s the AAE cannot possess any defensive shielding. And, because the detection equipment covers mot of the extenral surface of the emplacement, only two tons of armor can be placed on the internal strtucture.

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The combination of the laser adn the flight-path predictor provides a two kilometer defensive hemisphere surrounding the AAE.
Anti aircraft emplacement, basically. Note the lack of shielding and the range.

Loren combat sled:

Mass: 22 Thurst 1

WEapons: 3/6 laser (hull)
Loren stats
forger GEV Medium Grav engineering vehicle

Mass: 279 Engine 1750 Thrust 5

carries infantry squad adn didgging cannon

WEapons:
2 engineering attach ement (hull), Mine laying attachment (hull) Vulcan III, 150mm gauss, GMDC-15 and TVLG (4) (all turret)
Forger stats.
The fixed ejectors provide a dispersemnt pattern s up to 100 meters. The Forger's mine load capacity allows it to lay a belt of mines almost half a kilometr long and 20 meters wide.
Scope of minelayer capabilities.
Hercules GEV Medium grav enginering vehicle

Mass: 267 Engine 2150 Thrust 6

Digging cannons

WEapons 2 engineering attachment, 1 mine laying attachment (hull)
Vulcan 3, 1.5/6 laser, 100mm gauss, TVLG (4) SMLM (2) - in turret.
Hercules.
Sykmaster Heavy grav tank

Mass: 354 engine: 2500 Thrust 3 Infantry squad (yes)

Weapons
Turret: GMDC-18, 200mm Gauss, Vulcan III, SMLM (2) TVLG (6)
Hull: HM-3, HM-2

Targeting expert system
Skymaster stats
Beginning at extended ranges, the Skymaster provides an impressive battery of grav-field-seeking homing missiles. THe HM-3 packs provide long range and high manvuerability, an the HM-2 array gives imroved hitting power agianst heavy opponents. These five missiles can decimate two platoons of light or meidum vehciels or stall a larger assault. At a range of more than 4 kilometers the Skymastr begins direct fire attacks using Yeo Industries' innovatve GMDC-18 design, a weapon offering more sheer damage potential than a 7.5/6 laser. REcords show this rapid-firing mass driver putting a burst of kinetic energy rounds into the same section of armor at approximately 3,800 meters. The resuulting damage effect can penetrate six tons of the best armor available.

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If targets survive the continued onslaught of hypervelocity mass-driver and explosive gauss rounds to approach to closer than 2,000 meters, the Skymaster adds insult to injury with sustained fire from two SMLM (2) installations and a TVLG (6) pack.

Skymaster performance. Note the "hypervelocity" Gauss and MD velocities. Also the laughably short missile ranges.

tthe vast majority of vehicles considered destroyed on the battlefield are actually only severely damaged. Recovering these vehicles and their crews is important to sustained combat operations. Legion maintenancee personnel and combat crews can repair most of these vehicles, sometimes faster than depots can replace them
A testament to the durability of Grav tanks, methinks.
An APC can carry up to four extra TVLGs per infantry squad inside the vehicle's infantry compartment.

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Any vehicle may also carry up to four extra TVLGs on extneral-stores bustle racks.
Like any good APC,a grav APC provides extra stowage for the troops it caries.
A century rarely operates in isolation. Most Legions carry units that exist outside the regular combat Cohort structure and serve as combat support.

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Task forcecs, composed of several Legions and vairous Naval units operating together to accomplish a specific mission, possess considerable resources not integral to the Legions.
[/quote]

It seems very routine for even disparate forces (interceptors, cap sips and ground forces) to work in conjunction rather than apart.
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