Warp Point Battles

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

So, what would happen if one of my fleets warped into a new system and was immediately attacked by an alien fleet waiting on the other side? The rules seem to imply that warp point combat happens very quickly. The defender has an advantage since only a limited number of ships can pass through a warp point at the same instant. An attacking fleet may have to form a single file on some of the tighter warp points.

 

My question is this:

As my leading ships suddenly materialized from the warp point would the defending aliens have time to deploy fighters, drones, missiles and torpedoes or would they have to rely on just autocannons and lasers?

[Kurassier]

The answer is going to be - "you'll have to wait and find out"

However, my guess would be that they would have time.

[lugal]

If you have enuff jump engines your ships will come out in larger numbers at one time. I'm basing that on the warp point size and warp bubble size of each ship. A fat warp bubble on your ships and a warp point that only alows one ship at a time to pass thru should mean that your front line ships will take the brunt of the first volleys while your carriers who will be inthe middle of your will pop out with guns blazing. I would have to specualte that ROE would dictate if your fleet has Drones and fighters engaging from the instant of entry into the new system. But as was stated, we will have to try it out to find out.

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

On the old forum someone posted a battle report where fighters and missiles did all the work. The ship's guns did not fire, presumeably because the missiles had greater range and destroyed the enemy ship (a Pathfinder armed only with 1 autocannon) before it got close. I'm curious how much Pete has factored range and timing into battle calculations.

[lugal]

Weapon range would be something nice to have Pete explain. I've been thinking about have long range weapons on my front line ships, however; what are the specific ranges of weapons and the fleeets to the warp point.

[Admiral Breetai]

I am assuming that combat will run something like that in David Weber/Styeve White's books (ala Insurrection, Crusade et.all) which is based on the Starfire game from long ago.

 

Way back in beta I remember starfire being mentioned at least... or I think...

 

 

But in Starfire as ships appear it takes a few moments until the weapon/defense/sensor systems come on line and in that time an alert defender gets a basically free shot.

 

Actuall results may vary.

 

 

 

 

[General Miles Avatar]

The battle report in the rulebook seems to imply that the attacking Glorbton BattleCruisers

where able to defend themselves from the Thallonian weapons fire but could not return fire until thier weapons came online at which point they where just too much for the Thallonians.

[ShadowKitsune]

I'd have to look on the old Board, but I believe the combat goes in rounds and your fleets attempt to close the distance between them (like Victory! Naval Combats). Weapons fire is based on the 'range' of your weapon types and where your ships are in the line of battle (Ships of the Line in 'front', Auxilliaries in the 'back').

 

Fighters, drones and missiles are all 'long' range weapons. Everything else is currently a 'short' range weapon (at least in my pathetic arsenal of technology ).

 

Until we actually have a true 'fleet' engagement, it's all guess work.

[hobknob]

To the original question, I believe your ships would engage as they came through the warp point, one or two at a time with additional ships added to the mix as they came through. There has also been comment that the defender will be at some disadvatage because they just transitioned through a warp point and that the trick will be to survive untile you can actually fire back. Given the size of warships and the size of warp points I don't think we will see many fleets coming through other than 1 or 2 at a time.

[General Miles Avatar]

Id have to disagree with ya there on having only 1 or 2 ships arrive at one time. I designed (just for the fun of it) a 60 million ton + Nova Dreadnought that has a warp bubble of only 1 using lowly Mk1 Nuclear Jump engines. Even D class warp points have a size of about 20

meaning that 20 of these 1 warp bubble size behemoths could all arrive on one pulse.

[ShadowKitsune]

It all depends on how many Jump Drives you want to cram into your ship design. The more Jump Drives, the smaller the Warp Bubble of the vessel.

 

Mk I Nuclear Jump Drives seem to give you a 1000:1 reduction per Drive. So, if you want to put 60,000 Jump Drives on your 60Mton Nova Dreadnaught to get it down to a Warp Bubble of 1, go ahead on with your bad self! :lol: It will only consume 10% of your total wieght.

[General Miles Avatar]

Guess you didnt read my post very well. I did the NUD for the 60 million ton monster for the fun of it. i dont think i would build something that big using MK1 anything. my point was that

you could get the 1 warp bubble size even with MK1 equipment should it float your boat

and to counter Hobnob's thought about ships arriving 1 or 2 at a time. The actual size of the ship doesnt matter its the size of its warp bubble. If you could get a 100 million ton warship down to a warp bubble of 1 then LOTS of them could all come through even the smallest warp point all in one pulse. Kinda makes ya think hard about jump engine research.

 

[Cargus10]

I've seen a class E WP with a size of 1...no way to get anything fast through THAT hole!

[hobknob]

I think I would like to see folks spend 10% of their mass on jump drives. That is just 10% less that can be spent on something useful.

[General Miles Avatar]

'Useful' is all relative. 20 % of a ship used for the most deadly weapons known in the universe may be all it takes to wipe out a whole fleet of enemy ships. Then again it may not. We wont know till we actually engage in Fleet battles.