QUICK NOTES 14
Hello people! I hope to hear from you guys more often! I didn’t get ANY feedback from the last Quick Notes about the New Technology Section, why is that???? Didn’t you guys like the new tech? Did you feel it was too overpowering? Well, I hope you guys like this Quick Notes. I try and address some of the problems that we have during this game and keep you guys up-to-date on stuff coming down the pipeline as well. Feedback would be GREATLY appreciated!
PS: Which Missile Pod do you guys want to go with? Mine or Souza’s. His needed some work but I think I got everything fixed. Take a look and let me know.
ERRATA
*Tech Level Change: GB0 is TL7, GB1 is TL8, GB2 is TL10, and GB3 is TL12.
*The Skhval-torpedo silos are noted as Ss on the control sheet.
*Fur2 has no effect on the La system.
*I need to refine Missile Satellite Technology people. I don’t have the numbers or type of missiles that these platforms can fire. Any ideas? I EXPECT a response from some of you on this!
*PDM price change: all are half their original price.
*Any ideas for a mini-missile launcher???
*Important Spinal Mount notes: DOUBLE damage for these weapons people. And they have a limited firing arc(fighter firing arc only).
*Question: why haven’t any of you guys built Military SS? Just wondering....
*Needle beams and Primary beams cannot be made small.
*Tech change: Graser is five hull spaces, not six.
Battle Sats(Bsx): Development of planetary defenses occurs at many levels, and defensive satellite has often been overlooked, especially by the Basmoli Commonwealth. While exploring a so-called ‘low tech’ planet, they were rudely fired on by planetary defense missiles, and something new: Battle Satellites.
NAME CODE TL COST CSP DEV COST NOTE
Target Sat BsT Ind2 30MCr 10 1,000 A
Survey Sat BsS Ind2 30MCr 10 2,000 B
Weather Sat BsW Ind2 30MCr 10 2,000 C
Commo Sat BsC Ind2 30MCr 10 2,000 D
Primary Sat BsP TL5 50MCr 20 8,000 E
Needle Sat BsN TL8 50MCr 20 10,000 F
A: 12 gives +1 to planetary combat
B: Can survey planet twice as fast as Xr and beam info back to a ship
C: +3% to GPV for 12 of them.
D: +3% to GPV for 12 of them.
E: Can fire 3 times before needing recharge.
F: Can fire 3 times before needing recharge.
Battle sats cannot be seen until 10 hexes away. They can also be dropped from warships hold.
Landing Bay(LB): The increased need for PCF mobility was highlighted during the Seventh Interregional Conflict. The desperate need to emplace large garrisons on distant worlds stretched the Rishatha Imperial Navy far beyond its capabilities. A paradigm shift in strategic lift was needed, and the Rish Admiralty came up with a radical idea: the Landing Bay. The Landing Bay(LB) is an extremely large area on board a ship in which troops and their equipment are stored. The rapid ability to roll-on and roll-off, coupled with the capability to efficiently store twice as many PCFs as normal, revolutionized troopship design within the Imperial Navy. Rish Landing Bay-equipped vessels can land on the surface of a planet, at nearly any location, giving PCFs tremendous mobility. LBs must be at least 25 hull spaces in size, cost 3 MCr per hull space, and is 4,000 MCr to develop. TL7.
Orbital Beanstalks(OB): One of the most revolutionary engineering devices ever created, Orbital Beanstalks revolutionize planet-to-space colonization and commerce by providing cheap two-way traffic via this orbital elevator. Connected to the ground and linked to a small asteroid in space, cargo and passengers can safely, and cheaply, be lifted into space via OBs. First built by the technically elite Tolat race, OBs improve a planets’ economy by 3%. Each planetary hex must have a Orbital Beanstalk to achieve this bonus. OBs are built by planetary industry(not SY) and are considered 80 hull spaces in size. Ind2, 5,000 dev, 300 MCr each.
Ship Bay(SB): A large engineering system, a Ship Bay allows large space stations, bases, asteroid fortresses, and warships to house smaller ships(and gunboats) inside themselves. This system was invented by the Goog race during their titanic battles with the Three Powers in Garramore Kor Sector. A Ship Bay cannot be more than 75% of a ship/SS/AF/ or bases total volume. A fifty hull-space Ship Bay is noted as (SB50). 3 MCr per hull space, TL3, 5,000 dev.
Underground Bunkers(Bk): Forced with continual surface warfare, many industrial societies also developed the Underground Bunker to protect PCFs from quick destruction. This also prevents orbital bombardment of PCFs, neutralizing some high-tech race’s advantages. Bk defend PCFs, thus targeting them from orbit(or even a general bombardment) is impossible. Bk are .5 hs in size, 5 MCr each, and hold two-combat ready PCFs. Ind1 technology.
Vertical Launch System(VLS) Part 2: The amazing versatility of the Rishatha Vertical Launch System allowed the Rish Warmothers substantial ability in deploying mines, courier drones, recon drones, and various other weapons systems, which proved critical in several battles during the Eighth Interregional Conflict with the vicious Horune race. Rish superdreadnoughts(armed with the VLS system) successfully defended the Rish 8th Fleet when it’s fighter support was decimated in the Battle of System H9. Using defensive missiles and anti-fighter capital missiles, the Rish fleet was able to beat back the huge Horune fleet and it’s fighter defending the warp nexus at H9, dealing the Totality a serious blow from which it never did recover.
Fire every turn
CD 12
AFM 12
AFMc 7
RD1 5
RD2 15
Mines 10 patterns
Total Carried
CD 50
AFM 24
AFMc 14
RD1 10
RD2 30
Mines 25 patterns
Sat Mark I Sat Mark II Pinnace2
Speed 8 Speed 9 Speed 7
8 bbp 10 bbp 6 bbp
3 Q 4 Q 2 Q
No warp Warp Warp
D/Ai Dx/Ai/S0 Dx
6 fXO 8 fXO 10 fXO
50 MCr 100 MCr 60 MCr
TL8 TL10 TL11
THE DREADNOUGHT WAR
Some wars are singularly defined by the technology used in them, and the Dreadnought War was one such war. The Hudlar-Binar War(aka the Dreadnought War, rapidly escalated from a minor territorial dispute into a “hot war”. The Hudlar were a large elephantine-like race native to the Garramore Kor Sector. They were from a high-gee super terrestrial world with a concentrated atmosphere so dense that most other races would be instantly crushed by it’s pressures. The Hudlar were contacted by the aggressive alien Brodinie race, who blundered their first contact attempt. Shooting started on the Brodinie side, and they were quickly pushed out of the Hudlar homesystem in just a few hours. Hudlar battleships, armed with some of the galaxy’s most advanced weaponry, began a long drive to push back Brodinie military forces. Moving quickly by using captured Brodinie system data, the Hudlar forces established themselves in a strong defensive area. They also cautiously began exploring several other warp points in their home system. Contact was made with the alien-looking Gaium race, who signed a mutual defense pact with the Hudlar.
At this time, the Brodinie were pushed almost all the way back into their homesystem. Because of racial pride, the Brodinie didn’t want to call on their Binarian allies at first. But when the Brodinie homeworld was threatened, they quickly called for help! Faced with several crises at the same time, the Binars had little choice but to help their beleaguered allies. The Binar High Command deployed Binarian space assets to prevent the spread of hostilities between the two races by neutralizing the strategic Branner System. Faced with a totally new, and substantial, threat, the Hudlar Security Council meet in emergency session. No one knows for sure what took place in that meeting, but the results became rapidly evident when the first Dreadnought Missile was spotted in the Groalterri System. A nodal system which the Hudlar had captured from the Brodinie, this system was the sight of some of the most serious fighting to date. With nerves raw, the Hudlar Naval Command ordered the deployment of their newest creation: the First Generation Dreadnought Missile. The quick destruction of some of the Binars most elite pocket battleships shocked the Collective, who didn’t realize what was happening as the high-speed gunboat-like missiles closed to ram. Security matters had clearly collapsed in the eyes of the Binars as they watched warship after warship annihilated by these hard to destroy ramming missiles. The Hudlars’ deployed the Missile intending it for more psychological than military effect, but Binar defenses weren’t up to the task of destroying these automated monsters. When one or two Dreadnought Missiles rammed a Binar pocket battleship, that battleship died. For the next few weeks there was continuous fighting in the Groalterri System, especially around the large Groalterri space station. The battles of this war tended to be short, vicious struggles to the death, but they did not usually involve monstrous casualties.
After losing nearly 30 pocket battleships, the Binars began to rethink the war. The Brodinie caught wind of this, which sparked hypernationalism in the Brodinie. The communist government was overthrown and a more hard-line government came into power. The Brodinie, and other neighboring races, in particular the Gaium, worried that the Dreadnought War could spread quickly throughout the region.
Upon examining captured Brodinie data, the Hudlars showed the classified data to several alien races they were in contact with, who promptly formed an anti-Collective alliance. The Binarian Collective, they said, had began to emerge as a genuine major power intent on asserting and pursuing its longer-term political and security goals in the Garramore Kor region. The Collective’s sheer size and scale, its status as the region’s largest economy, and its continuing territorial disputes with neighboring states had generated growing regional concern about the prospects for stable relations between the Collective and its neighbors.
The Groalterri System was also the site of one of the largest disasters of the war. The Binars were involved in a total all-out war, and didn’t discover the fact that the Hudlars used large space stations for civilian habitats until it was too late. The Hudlar Megahab Nostromedes was destroyed by Binarian fighters which were trying to penetrate the systems inner defenses and over 100,000 Hudlar civilians perished. The massive loss of life on the Megahab enraged the normally benign Hudlars, who retaliated with devastating LAC strikes against fortified Binarian positions. Obviously in it for the long-run, the Hudlar began crash developing new tech systems, fielding the Second Generation Dreadnought Missile just a few months after the conflict started. They also rapidly developed the First Generation Gunboat and something new: the Ship Bay, which was put into use during the fighting in the Yggdrasil System.
Location of the largest trees in the known galaxy, Yggdrasil was also a newly terraformed Hudlar colony world. Few worlds in the universe were super terrestroid, but the Hudlar became expert terraformers, rapidly changing a planets environment to a more comfortable Hudlar norm. Several space stations had been constructed in Yggdrasil orbit and when the Binars transited the warp point into the system, they found themselves deep within the stars’ biosphere, and within striking distance of the planet. Seeing no defending warships, the Collective immediately launched a strike against the orbiting facilities, but were shocked when battlecruisers, destroyers, and hundreds of gunboats came pouring out of the space stations super-huge hanger bays. The First Battle of Yggdrasil ended in a total rout of the Binarian forces, and heavy losses among its fighter squadrons. At the height of the fighting, a Binar pocket battleship, crippled and burning, crashed into the planet Yggdrasil’s ionosphere, igniting the volatile layer and burning off the atmosphere. This devastating tradgey killed everyone at the Hudlar colony on Yggdrasil, and horrified both sides.
Several weeks later, the Binarian High Command had authorized Operation Laocoon against the fortified asteroid fortress in the Asterhome System. Desperately clinging to the warp point leading to the Hudlar home system, the Asterhome defenders had valiantly withstood months of concentrated Binarian attacks. Stealthy Hudlar warships supported the fortress, while advanced capitol missile launchers held the attackers at bay. The deadly Second Generation Dreadnought Missile was introduced in the Third Battle for Asterhome, and had immediate results. The new Dreadnought Missile had a stunning ability: a 360 degree modified laser ring. This heavy duty laser, designated as a Pulse Laser was installed with a versatile Collimator Ring, allowing rapid fire to any target within range. The P-Laser Collimator Ring could also moderate it’s fire, shooting down as many as 12 fighters a turn, and installation of dedicated point defense platforms in the Missile’s hull increased it’s defensive ability.
A more capable Light Attack Craft was fielded at this time by the Hudlars, one that could launch from enlarged fighter bays. These LAC proved devastating to the unprepared Binars, who quickly deployed some of their own for good measure. Although the Hudlar did not use fighters, they deployed a substantial amount of LACs and Gunboats. These LAC-carriers proved formidable to the expanding Binar fleet by using massed attacks through the warp point to get at damaged stragglers and vulnerable Binarian carriers. The LAC-carrier HNS Haggai, has it’s own story.
The HNS Haggai, under Fleet Captain Grzoosh was a light carrier which had a phenomenal battle history. Fighting in both Groalterri and Asterhome, the Haggai had nearly twenty capital ship kills and it’s elite LAC crews continued to fight the Binars unto the end. Fleet Captain Grzoosh’s most famous battle was in the Yggdrasil System, where his elite LAC crews defended the planet in the Third Battle of Yggdrasil against the fast-moving Binarian pocket battleships. Equipped with exotic weaponry, including a devastating beam which punched thru shields and armor, the Binars successfully forced their way into the system, only to be rapidly beaten back by the system defenders, and Grzoosh’s elite light assault craft. Three damaged pocket battleships attempting to flee the system were run down by the Grzoosh’s LACs, and destroyed just short of the warp point. Two of his Dreadnought Missiles on detached duty rammed a new Binar superdreadnought, killing everyone on board, including several alien allied observers, and the Tchork ambassador. Grzoosh went on to command the 103rd Strategic Dreadnought Squadron and became a High Admiral before the war ended.
During the height of the war, the Binarian Collective discovered a rare Rocheworld system, with two habitable worlds which orbited each other around their parent star. A rare configuration, the planets’ at first seemed devoid of intelligent life, until the Binars explored the planets more extensively. A rare gelform alien race inhabited the oceans of the primary world. After communications barriers were broken, the Binars were shocked to find these blob-like creatures were highly intelligent. Not only were the Flouwen highly intelligent, they were also expert mathematicians, and to the surprise of all, the galaxy’s foremost tacticians. Recognizing this rare ability, the Binars quickly signed a military alliance with the alien Flouwen. For decades afterwards, Flouwen High Tacticians were always emplaced aboard Binarian capital ships to help strategize and win battles. Special life-support units were built for the individual Flouwen aboard the Binarian warships. These brilliant strategists proved their worth in many battles, and eventually turned the tide in the Binar-Hudlar War.
Throughout their history of space-flight, the Hudlar race was adverse to potential personnel losses due to their low reproduction rates. They consistently used unmanned space vehicles and robotic devices to explore their solar system. When first contacted by an alien race, the Hudlar had a growing ability to build and operate very sophisticated unmanned space vehicles. One of these craft, the Dreadnought Missile, was designed along the same lines as a First Generation Gunboat and used extensively by the Hudlar Navy in place of smaller warships. Even though a Dreadnought Missile was just about as expensive as the average destroyer, the predicted savings of utilizing an automated vehicle came from the massive decrease in flying hours, support, and manpower costs. Additionally, being an autonomous vehicle, the Dreadnought Missile could be used without thought of losing substantial Hudlar lives. These unmanned spacecraft were the logical choice for high-risk, high-payoff missions, particularly early in conflicts. The significant financial savings were touted by the Hudlar Admiralty and the Hudlar government bought the program. When first being developed by the Hudlar military, senior Hudlar admirals gathered at Jerhatten to consider what would be demanded of such a vehicle. Their wish list included:
*A main body that could withstand terminal point defenses of enemy ships. The outer shell of the Dreadnought Missile is made out of a super-dense quantum-mysonian superstructure,
*A space frame capable of enduring high sustained speeds(Dreadnought Missiles are capable of speeds faster than most fighter spacecraft),
*A compact vehicle no larger than a explorer-class warship,
*Internal carriage of weapons and the ability to out-maneuver any warship. Internal carriage would present a smooth surface to warship radar and allow designers to take advantage of the design’s inherent stealth without heavy investments in external stealth treatments or coatings,
*A sophisticated sensor suite capable of detecting inbound enemy missiles and identifying warship targets,
*Automatic target recognition with some on-board reasoning and decision making capability. This demanded massive parallel computer processing, which was the hardest, and most expensive, part the project,
*A datalink requiring a variable bandwidth and the ability to break up a message and send it via several different frequencies. This spread-spectrum transmission ability was one way to overcome battlefield jamming. Transmissions also would be kept to a minimum to avoid detection,
Due to keep production costs low, the Hudlar Navy also agreed that Dreadnought Missiles would carry few sensors and rely heavily on those onboard other warships. For space-to-space battles, the Hudlar military looked at using the concept of “wolf packs” of stealthy Dreadnought Missiles that could close undetected. When finally detected, the wolf pack of Dreadnought Missiles would have already surrounded the enemy warship before it could turn and escape. Dreadnought Missiles would be transported by standard warships and deployed for battle from external docking bays. A guided missile battle cruiser “unmanned space wing” would consist of 6 Dreadnought Missiles and three support Gunboats. With these assets in the Battle Group, the Hudlar nearly tripled their strike sortie capability. The Dreadnought Missile is also valuable for reconnaissance, space defense suppression, and deep strike. The defensive suite of the Dreadnought Missile included point defense, electronic jamming, specialized shields, and composite armor.
The Dreadnought Missile in itself is a devastating platform, with six fighter rockets stored internally, three defensive laser ball turrets, and a very large antimatter warhead in the nose-cone of the Missile. The Dreadought Missile automatically rams when it runs out of rockets or is ordered to automatically ram major warships and cripple the enemy Battleline. One of the most important abilities of the Dreadnought Missile is it cannot be stopped by “opportunity fire” because of it’s high speed it gets too close before it rams. Because of it’s huge antimatter warhead and cutting-edge computer programming, the Dreadnought Missile is very expensive.
The Second Generation Dreandought Missile was a major improvement over it’s predecessor. The antimatter warhead size was decreased, allowing greater internal room for fuel, sensors, and weapons. Important new technologies included composite construction, decreased engine weight, and better fuel consumption. The fundamental change in the Dreadnought design was the addition of the advanced P-Laser Collimator Ring. This expensive system was mounted in the main body of the Missile, giving it a 360 degree field of fire. The ability of the P-Laser Collimator Ring to fire equally on fighters, incoming missiles, and enemy warships was a major improvement over the previous design.
DREADNOUGHT MISSILE(DM1)
Heavily armored(Ai) and Shielded(S0)
Large antimatter warhead(-AAM)
+6 fR
Dx x2
?
La x3(defensive laser system)
Automated
TL10
400 Mcr
10 bbp
SECOND GENERATION DREADNOUGHT MISSILE(DM2)
Dxz x2
@higher TL, add P-Laser collimator ring(360 degree arc)
TL11
600 MCr
12 bbp
DREADNOUGHT RULES
*D cannot stop Dreadnought Missiles(Dc/Dz can),
*No opportunity fire vs Dreadnought Missiles,
*Minefields ignore Dreadnought Missiles,
*Dreadnought Missiles are very fast(speed 12, -5 to be hit),
*Fighter weapons can destroy them,
Parting Thought: “Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel