Battletech The Taurian Navy Timeline

Doomsought

Well-known member
This thread is for the story and hombrew I've made for an Alternate timeline where the Taurian Concordat remains independent do to a breakthrough in Naval technology. I originally posted the start of this in the general Battletech thread, but I'm moving it here since I've produced do much content for it.

First the Story content:

Following the collapse of the Wagon Wheel project due to multiple redesigns, one of the major contractors submitted a new design that would revolutionize naval architecture. In order to both make production times faster and make it easier to modify into different roles, the ships broadsides would be constructed separately in drop-ship yards, then attached to the main hull during the last few steps of construction. This would allow every politician who wanted their way with the Wagon Wheel to get what they wanted, and the proposal was accepted.

The contractors responsible for the design faced numerous problems with the step of mating the broadsides of the ship to the primary hull. For each problem they fell back to their experience in manufacturing and refurbishing drop-collars and naval tug adapters. As the final problems with the mating process were dealt with, the connection point between the broadsides and the primary hull was essentially an enlarged and heavily reinforced drop-ship collar. At this point they decided to drop the step of welding the broadsides on and installed K-F booms so that they could make the K-F Jump Drive smaller. Thus, the Taurian Concordat light cruiser Arizona was the first Warship to ever mount Modular Mission Pods. Because the broadsides were mounted on K-F booms, the Arizona could have broad side weapons bays to match any ship of that era. The design was not without its problems, because of its novel superstructure no weapons could be affixed between its Nose or Aft firing bays and its broadsides, however this problem was solved during the design of its successors the Houston class battle-cruiser and the Colt class Destroyer.

The Arizona changed the Concordat's destiny. Because of the Modular Mission Pods, the Arizona class cruisers were able to be quickly upgraded to match even Terran Hegemony warships in naval brawling matches, and the ships could be quickly repaired by swapping out the Pods. The modular design also played merry hell with Star League intelligence as different configurations often were identified as completely different ship classes by sensors systems in that era.

Though revolutionary, the Arizona was a deeply flawed vessel. When first launched in late 2568 its engines were horrifically overbuilt. After an initial shake down cruise with dummy modules filled with gravel on its broadsides, it was brought back into dry-dock to have redundant cooling pumps and several unnecessary struts removed to replace the four auxiliary VMI-430 Fusion Torches with the same VMI-630 Fusion Torches used in its main drives, which also simplified maintenance. Do to their placement and its overbuild structure, none of the redundant equipment could be replaced with cargo space, leaving it with a pitiful cargo space just above half a kiloton. Likewise its overbuild structure prevented weapons from being mounted in several key places for full weapons coverage, however its excessive engines ameliorated that problem to a certain extent.

That is before you take the Modular mission pods into account. Even with pods using half the available K-F boom capacity allotted to them, it would have as much cargo capacity as any other warship and room to spare for weapons. During the height of the Reunification war it was equipped with a pair of mission pods simply labeled the Brawler Configuration. These pods gave each of its broadsides 18 NAC/20s, nearly half as many heavy NPPCs and a White shark missile battery supported by 24 fighters and several Large laser batteries. When combined with a maximum thrust of 4 gravities, this impressive weapons array turned terrifying.

While impressed with their new warship, the Taurian admiralty remained well aware of the Arizona's flaws. With the Star League becoming more aggressive, the Taurian Concordat had suffered multiple border skirmishes that each almost resulted in a declaration of war by early 2574. The Taurian Concordat commissioned a new destroyer to be designed utilizing the same technologies as the Arizona but learning from its flaws. This decision was well timed and the first few of the new Colt class destroyers had were just completed at the start of 2577, and the next wave of Colt class Destroyers had their keels laid down before the first had finished their shakedown cruise.

The Colt was designed with the Starleague's Lola class destroyer in mind as an opponent. Lessens well learned, its engines were smaller proportionally compared to the Arizona, and its weapons could cover every firing arc. Knowing that its greatest strength would by in its broadsides, most of its fore and aft weapons were mounted to be able to combine their fire in those directions. It was mostly armed with NAC/20s and lasers, but also mounted several heavy NPPCs. Its primary cargo hold only had a third of the capacity of the Lola, but this was still a vast improvement on the Arizona, and most Module configurations let it match the Lola in cargo capacity while also having a much heavy broadside.

For most of 2577 the Concordat's most advanced ships were kept in the Taurus home fleet waiting for heavier broadside armaments to be completed in the Taurus drop-ship yards. It was during the massed naval combat of 2581 where the Arizona and Colt were able to show their true strength. While the infamous Brawler configuration had not been created yet, the Arizonas' current MMPs were already far equipped more guns than conventional cruiser could carry. More importantly, because they maneuvered keep broadsides bearing on the enemy most of the damage they sustained during the battle was soaked by their MMPs. When the Taurian navy was forced to retreat, the Arizonas and Colts were able to swap out their mission pods and return to harass the Star League navy. Out of position, the SLDF lost another twenty ships, mostly troop transports, and were rendered incapable of pursuing the invasion as fast as was originally intended.

While the Taurian Concordat often had to rely on asymmetrical tactics on the ground, Arizona and Colt class warships made that necessity short lived and solidified the Concordat as a naval power able to match any of the great houses. The success of the Brawler configuration, first deployed in 2582, and the Colt class destroyer also solidified tripple-20 naval auto-cannon battery the standard armament of the Taurian navy.

Through 2583 the Taurian Navy focused on pushing the Star League Navy out of its space, the action peaking with the assassination of General Kincaid in early January and tapering off over the rest of the year as Star league forces when into general retreat. This period of time also saw the next wave of Arizona class cruisers and Colt Destroyers coming out of Taurian shipyards. However, another wave of Arizonas was not laid down. Experience with constructing Modular Mission pods had by this time improved the Taurian's understanding to the technology to the point where they could develop a new standard of Pods capable of carrying nearly 150 kilotons of equipment. With the possibilities too tempting to ignore, the next ships laid down by Taurian Yard workers were battleships rather than cruisers. However this was a gamble, as it required the recycling of older Taurian warships as well as much of their battle salvage in order to supply the necessary resources.

The Houston and sister ships carried 3 MMPs, a vertically oriented 100 kiloton mission module on its nose and two 150 kiloton mission modules for its broadsides. The froward and aft weapon batteries flanking its broadside mission modules were composed of a quartet of Heavy NPPCs and a pair of tripple-20 naval AC bays. The Mission pods constructed to fill its broadsides were based on the Brawler configuration, though heavier with energy weapons with the hope than NPPCs could reduce the range advantage of Hegemony Naval Gauss weaponry. The Taurian admiralty had also noticed how missile damaged had been a disproportionate cause for damage to critical systems to their advanced warships. Because of this the Houston was the first warship class designed to use point defense weapon batteries specifically for missile defense, though several Colts would be refit with prototype point defense batteries before the Houston was completed.

The Taurian Nary skirmished into Liao and Davian territory in 2584, striking at naval supply bases needed for a Star League offensive rather than taking territory. At the same time General Amos Forlough gathered Star League forces for the next wave of attacks. The Star League could not take the humiliation of an upstart periphery state driving them out, and retaliated harshly against the Taurian rally. Battles with the Star League's focused spearheads were especially brutal, and the last of the Taurians pre-war cruisers were destroyed by 2587. At this point pre-war destroyers we also brought out of the Taurians main battle lines and either recycled to build more Colts or sent on harassment missions against SLN supply lines. However the completion of the Houston and Dallas was pushed ahead to January 2588 and, combined with flanking raids on the Star League supply lines, were able halt the Star league advance.

The end of 2588 through 2589 saw few gains for either side. Both the Taurian Concordat and Star League fielded the most advanced ships of the age for large fleet battles, for no other warships were worthy of the fight. Despite the Taurians having the smaller economy, after twenty years of fighting, moral was dwindling on both sides and it was only a question of who would break first. In May 2590, during the sixth assault on New Vandenberg, the Houston was caught out of formation by two Farragut battleships. Facing two on one odds, yet giving as good as it got, the Houston had the attention of the entire battle at this definitive moment.

She won.

Despite both Farraguts being heavily damaged during the beginning of the battle, while the Houston had been deliberately kept from the heat of the fight by Star League maneuvering, these justifications did not dispel the propaganda victory of a Taurian vessel defeating its Terran Hegemony equivalents two on one. Star League moral was broken, and their forces were pushed back out of Taurian territory by late 2592.

Starting in 2593 the Star League and Taurian Concordat entered an uneasy armistice. Thought there were a few border skirmishes using mercenaries or sponsored pirate raids over the next few years, neither side had the will to continue fighting in earnest. Anti-war sentiments began to rise throughout the civilian population of the Star League as losses continued to mount in policing actions in conquered territories, and by 2601 House Cameron decided to officially make peace with the House Calderon to appease the growing protests. By that time the neighboring great houses had already made secret treaties to resume trade with the Taurian Concordat.
 
Reuificaiton War Taurian Technology

Doomsought

Well-known member
This advanced warship technology serves the same purpose for warships as omni-pods do for mechs. A modular mission pod can be described as dropships with a heavily modified docking collars and no engines, though this undersells the amount of engineering differences between modular mission pods and dropships.

To allow a warship to mount modular mission pods, MMP docking collars need to be installed on the ship and the engine needs to be enlarged for the extra weight of the Modular mission pods it will mount. There are four types of modular mission pods which each are only compatible with the matching modular mission pod docking collar: Compact, Light, Medium and Heavy. Although they are derived from dropship docking collars, MMP docking collars are completely different in structure, being much larger and inset into the ship's hull. Each MMP docking collar has a minimum tonnage requirement for a warship to be able to mount it, listed in the table bellow.

When MMP docking collars are installed on a ship, pick a firing arc. Only one MMP may be installed in any firing arc. Do to their size and the limitations on warship fire control computers, the MMP will prevent any weapons from being installed in that firing arc. Instead, all weapons mounted on any MMP installed there will use that firing arc. If the firing are is required to be mirrored, then MMP docking collars of the same type must be installed in both firing arcs.

When installing engines on a warship ship with MMP docking collars, you must add the maximum MMP size for each docking collar to the warships mass before calculating the size of the warship's maneuvering drive. This only applies to maneuvering drives: Like dropships, MMPs mount K-F Booms, and each MMP carries additional control systems and crew accommodation to take care of its own systems.

Modular Mission Pod Size

MMP Model

Minum Ship Size

MMP Collar Mass

Docking Collar

Slots

MMP Max Size

MMP min SI

MMP max SI

Compact

100,000 tons

1,200 tons

1 Slot

20,000 Tons

3

30

Light

250,000 tons

1,500 tons

1 Slot

50,000 Tons

4

40

Medium

500,000 tons

2,000 tons

2 Slot

100,000 Tons

6

60

Heavy

1,000,000 tons

3,000 tons

3 Slot

150,000 Tons

8

80

Taking Damage
A Modular Mission Pod might take damage if the ship carrying it receives an attack. First determine what facing is receiving the attack, if there is an MMP that can receive damage from that facing then roll 1d6 and review the table bellow. If an MMP is on the rolled firing arc, then the damage is split between the MMP and the warship evenly. If a direct hit is rolled, then all damage is applied to the warship. Critical hits from the same attack are applied to the MMP then to the warship, alternating for additional critical hits.

MMP Hit table

Die Roll

Front

Aft

Side

Above/Bellow

1

Front Left

Aft Left

Front Side

Nose

2

Direct Hit

Direct Hit

Direct Hit

Direct Hit

3

Nose

Aft

Broadside

Direct Hit

4

Nose

Aft

Broadside

Direct Hit

5

Direct Hit

Direct Hit

Direct hit

Direct Hit

6

Front Right

Aft Right

Aft Side

Aft

MMPs use the Dropship side facing table for all critical hits. Thruster critical hits are negated. Critical hits to the engine instead damage the MMP link. The first hit to the MMP link increase heat generated be the MMPs weapon bays by 5%. The third hit disables the MMPs equipment as if powered down.
Step 1: Type and Size

The first step in designing an MMP is deciding which type of MMP collar it will be comparable with and the weight of the MMP. An MMP may weigh any where between 5000 tons and the maximum weight allowed by its MMP Collar listed in the Modular Mission Pod Size table, in 1,000 ton increments.

Step 2: Control System and Structure

An MMP's control system is composed of two parts, the first part is the MMP link which contains the power adapters, coolant line hook ups, and computer network ports that link its systems to those of the Warships it is attached to through the MMP collar. The MMP link weighs half the mass of the MMP collar. The MMP link also contains batteries and back up generators capable of keeping life support active while the MMP is being transported.

The other half of the MMP's control system are the duty stations for its crew and gunners.
The crew stations weigh the MMP's weight x 0.0020
An MMP uses the same rules as a Dropship to determine its minimum crew and gunners.

Determine Structural Integrity
An MMP does not have an engine, but it does have a minimum and maximum amount of Structural integrity based on the size of the MMP collar it is designed to be installed in, listed in the Modular Mission Pod Size chart. The weight of an MMP's structural integrity is (SI x Tonnage / 500)

Step 3: Armor

An MMP can mount (10+SI tonnage / 50) tons of armor, but only has one armor facing. Because the size of an MMP is primarily determined by the MMP collar it is affixed to, ammo per ton for an MMP is determined by its MMP collar rather than tonnage.


MMP Capital Armor per ton (Inner Sphere/Clan)

MMP Type

Standard Armor

Ferro-Aluminum

Ferro Carbide

Lamellar Ferro Carbide

Compact

1.2/1.5

1.5/1.6

1.7/1.9

2.0/2.5

Light

1.0/1.2

1.2/1.5

1.4/1.7

1.7/2.0

Medium

0.8/1.0

1.0/1.2

1.2/1.4

1.4/1.6

Heavy

0.6/0.7

0.8/0.9

1.0/1.1

1.2/1.3

Step 4: Heat sinks

All the equipment carried on an MMP will be considered part of the unit it is installed on for the purposes of heat. MMPs do not get any weight free heat sinks because they lack an engine. While MMPs are not required to install any heat sinks, it is suggested that they do so in case the unit they are installed on does not have enough space heat sinks to fire all of the MMPs weapons.

Step 5: Weapons and Equipment

Crew Quarters: Units that can mount MMPs rarely have passenger space for their MMP crews, thus an MMP must mount crew quarters for their officers, enlisted crew and gunners.

Legal Equipment: MMPs can mount any weapons and equipment that can be installed on dropships. A compact MMP can install any capital weapons that weighs less than 1000 tons, and other MMPs can mount any capital weapons other than mass drivers.

Weapons and Fire control Systems: a MMP has a single firing arc which follows the same rules for space and fire control systems as a warship.

Transport Bays and Doors: MMPs follow the same rules for transport bays and doors as a dropship, except they have only (3+ MMP tonnage / 50000) bay door rounded up.

550 (750) KT
Engine: 5 Safe Thrust 225,000 tons
Fuel (8000 tons) 8,160 tons
Structure: 80 SI 44,000 tons
Jump drive: 248875
Control Systems: 1375
Heat: 1093 single heat sinks 0 tons
(1093 weight free)[816 heat)
Armor: 136 points standard 170 tons

Crew:
35 Officers, 155 Enlisted, 16 gunners 1547 tons
2 Small Grav Decks (40m,40m) 100 tons
34 life boats, 16 escape pods 350 tons
Equipment:
2 Medium MPP (LB/RB) 4000 tons
2 Docking Collars 2000 tons

Weapons
Nose (10982 tons, 628 heat)
4 NL-45, 3600 tons, 280 heat
2 M-NPPC, 3600 tons, 270 heat
4 White Shark, 480 tons, 60 heat
White Shark Ammo (80 missiles), 3200 tons
6 AC-10, 72 tons, 18 heat
AC-10 Ammo (300), 30 tons

Aft (3742 tons, 188 heat)
2 NL-45, 1800 tons, 140 heat
2 White Shark, 240 tons, 30 heat
White Shark Ammo (40 missiles), 1600 tons
6 AC-10, 72 tons, 18 heat
AC-10 Ammo (300), 30 tons

Bays
Bay 1 (2 Small craft) 400 tons
Bay 2 (524 tons Cargo)
100KT Medium MMP
Control Systems: 1020 tons
Structure: 40 SI 8000 tons
Armor: 328 points 410 tons
Heat sinks: Single, 3145 tons
Crew
11 officer, 24 Enlisted, 30 gunners 488 tons
15 Life Boats, 10 Escape Pods 175 tons
6x 3 NAC/20 Bays 45kt, 1080 heat
NAC Ammo (30 shots each) 216 tons
2x 4 HNPPC Bays 24 kt, 1800 heat
6 x 4 Large Laser bay 120 tons, 192 heat
5 x White Shark 600 tons, 75 heat
White Shark ammo (100/20 each) 4000
Bay 1 (12 Fighters) 1800 tons
Bay 2 Cargo 9,824 tons
Bay 3 (12 Fighters) 1800 tons
480 (580) KT Destroyer
Hull and engines: 388661
Engines: 4 Safe Thrust 139200 tons
Fuel: (1600 tons) 1632 tons
Structure: 60 SI 28800 tons
Jump Drive: 11 integrity 217200 tons
Jump sail: 3 intrigrity 54 tons
Control Systems 1200 tons
Armor: 230 points Standard 575 tons

Heat: 2440 single heat sinks 1868 tons
(572 weight free)[2440 heat]

Crew
36 officers, 141 Enlisted Crew, 38 Gunners 1613 tons
3 Grav Decks (2 30m, 1 80m)150 tons
45 life boats, 25 escape pods 490 tons

Equiptment (max colars: 9)
2 Light MMP 3000 tons

Weapons 40870 tons
Nose (5420 tons, 452 heat)
6 NL45, 5400 tons, 420 heat
4 Large Lasers, 20 tons, 32 heat
FL/FR (10130 tons, 255 heat)
3 NAC/20, 7500 tons, 180 heat
NAC Ammo(75) 30 tons
5 White Sharks, 600 tonts, 75 heat
White Shark Ammo(50), 2000 tons
AL/AR (4380 tons, 287 heat)
2 HNPPC, 6000 tons, 550 heat
3 White Sharks, 360 tons, 45 heat
White Shark Ammo (30) 1200 tons
4 Large Lasers, 20 tons, 32 heat
Aft (6430 tons, 224 heat)
2 NAC/20, 5000 tons, 120 heat
NAC Ammo(75) 30 tons
2 NL-35, 1400 tons, 104 heat

Bay 1: (12 fighters) 1800 tons
Bay 2: (4 Small Craft) 800 tons
Bay 3: (cargo) 34348 tons
 
Post War Technology Development (27th Century)

Doomsought

Well-known member
The Taurian Economy was essentially broken by the end of the war, with the Concordat operating more on grit and patriotism than an actual budget. However the Taurian economy had already experienced a major recovery by the point the armistice ended and trade resumed. As soon as the armistice began salvage from Star League wreckage was funneled into creating jumpships to restart civilian trade within the Taurian space. The repatriation of both prisoners and intact corpse found in wreckage opened avenues for limited trade with both the Capellan Confederation and Federated Suns. Once peace was officially declared, this trade rapidly expended turning the post war recovery into post war growth. It helped that the war had changed the reputation of the Taurian Concordat from that of a backwards periphery state to an equal of the Terran Hegemony.

Taurian technology also saw rapid growth after the Reunification War. While its smaller economy guaranteed that it never could be an equal to the Terran Hegemony in all fields, especially miniaturization, the field of naval technology had already become a Taurain specialty. The Naval technology experts the Taurian Concordat had developed during the war were soon joined by upcoming scientists wishing to work on cutting edge naval technology.

Naval Gauss Cannon were one of the most coveted naval technologies of the Terran Hegemony and the Taurian Concordat began attempting to reverse engineer them as soon as the first examples were salvaged in 2581. Though several oversized test prototypes were created earlier, the manufacturing technology for a fully functional Light N-Gauss were only developed in 2613, over a decade after the War's official end.

The Taurian Concordat also continued to do research into novel naval technologies through and after the war. Because of the extreme stress that the use of numerous machine-guns and light lasers for point defense put on fire control computers, proposals for heavier point defense weapons were seen in the Taurian navy as early as 2586. However these proposals did not give way to a research program until 2590 when the Taurain admiralty were both seen the utility of point defense bays proven and became dissatisfied with the current limitations on the technology. The first prototype point defense laser was demonstrated in 2597, the new weapon combined four light lasers with a common tracking system and focusing optics. While the technology was given over to engineers to be made ready for massed production, the scientists responsible for the project were moved Taurian's pulse laser program. The Point Defense Laser, later renamed to the Light Point Defense laser after heavier point defense lasers were developed, was ready for massed production in 2605 and prototype pulse lasers went into production over the course of the 2620s.

The medium point defense laser was developed in 2633 based on the MPL-P. Each medium point defense laser combined four medium pulse lasers to create a weapon capable of reliably fending off a White Shark missile on its own. Attempts to create heavy point defense laser stalled do the the coolant pumps and power feeds being to heavy for the turret to track capital missiles until Taurian pulse laser technology matured to match pulse lasers produced by the Terran Hegemony in 2659, allowing the heavy point defense laser to be deployed in 2673.

Taurian naval development was not limited to weapons. The modular mission pod was not the end of the Taurian adventure into experimental Kearny-Fuchida Drive technology, but rather the beginning. Most of the research during the war was theoretical, as the Taurian Concordat only had the spare budget to gamble on the K-F boom developments needed for the 150 kiloton modular Mission Pod. However the post ware economic boom at the start of the new century gave the House Calderon the budget to spare for further experimentation. This foundation combined with the talent poached from the Star League do to the Taurian Concordat's new reputation lead to a slow revolution in K-F drive technology over the course of the 27th century.

Most of the developments were incremental improvements reducing the cost of constructing a K-F drive within the Taurian Concordat by as much as twelve percent by the end of the century. However two inventions stood out above the rest. First was the Hyper Pulse Generator developed prototype in the Taurian Concordat in 2631, and independently invented by the Terran Hegemony in 2642. The second was the development of Germanium-Carbide Inductors in 2681, Germanium-Carbide Inductors were a complete replacement for standard K-F drive initiators that gave the Taurian Concordat the ability to store multiple jump charges like the Terran Hegemony's Lithium-Fusion Batteries, though at a much reduced cost. However most of the geniuses that started the Taurian jump drive revolution were aging into retirement by that point. Development of new jump drive technologies trickled to a stop, with only minor improvements to cryogenics and other support systems being patented in the 2690s.

With the pre-MMP warships being rendered obsolete, the Taurian Concordat continued to commission warship designs until its Navy was fully modernized. The Chihuahua class fleet tender is a yard-ship designed primarily for swapping out Modular Mission Pods. The Chihuahua was an incredibly unusual warships, it saved weight by using a station keeping drive rather than a maneuver drive, allowing it to carry eight modular mission pods on collars in addition to those carried in its naval repair facility. Despite their name, the Chihuahua class fleet tenders were incredibly large and their construction had to be spread out over multiple decades with one being completed in 2630, 2660 and 2690.

The Chihuahua class allowed the Taurian Concordat to develop and field the Navajo class corvette as a system monitor lacking its own jump drive. The Taurian concordat also replaced Arizona class cruiser production in 2639 with the Baja class cruiser, which had better weapons coverage and was designed to take full advantage of the recently developed Medium Point Defense Lasers. The reduction in jump drive costs in the 2680s by the Germanium-Carbide Inductors lead to the development of the Javelina class frigate. Existing Taurian ship classes also saw numerous improvements over the years, with Colt class being universally refit with light point defense lasers starting in 2604 up through 2625 and the Arizona class cruisers having their anti-fighter auto-cannons replaces with a mix of AMS and M-PDLs starting in late 2631. The Houston class battleships saw a complete overhaul in the 2690s receiving new jump droves, HPGs, several additional Dropship collars, naval Gauss cannon, and layered point defense bays.
 
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Post War Technology

Doomsought

Well-known member
Categories: Point defense, Pulse*
Game Rules: When operating in standard mode, point defense lasers are treated as pulse lasers. Point defense lasers can also operate in point defense mode folloing advanced point defense rules. When operating in point defense mode, these weapons can only be used to defend agaisnt Capital missiles, Arrow-IV and other large artillery missiles. Rather than dealing half damage in point defense mode, point defense lasers use a second damage value listed next to their standard damage value. Point defense lasers to not get a -2 bonuse to hit for beign a pulse weapon while in point defense mode.
Construction Rules: Because of their bulky tracking systems, a point defense laser must be installed on a turret when installed on units under 500 tons. When a point defense laser is installed on a turret, no other weapons including other point defense lasers may be installed on that turret, however its firing arch covers all directions the turret could be aimed without needing to manually adjust its facing.
L-PDL
Heat: 5
Damage: 12/10
Short: 1
Medium: 2
Long: 3
Tons: 3
Crits: 3

M-PDL
Heat: 28
Damage: 24/20
Short: 2
Medium: 4
Long: 6
Tons: 11
Crits: 11

H-PDL
Heat: 40
Damage: 32/30
Short: 1-3
Medium: 4-7
Long: 8-10
Tons: 25
Crits: 25
Improved compact cores do not include K-F Drive Initiators, thus must have at least one intact Germanium-Carbide Inductor installed on them in order to jump.

Game Rules:
When an improved compact core takes damage, roll a 1d6, on a 5+ a Germanium Carbide Inductor will be destroyed instead.
Improved Compact Cores can be charge as quickly as 125 hours without needing a quick charge rolls, and gain a -3 bonus to all quick charge rolls.
The unit suffers only a +1 penalty per point of jump drive damage on the mis-jump roll, rather than a +2 penalty.


Drive Weight: Warship Weight x 0.4215
Drive integrity: 4 + (K-F Drive Wegiht / 22,000)
Germanium-Carbide Inductor: Warship Weight x 0.02

Costs:
The Germanium-Carbide Inductor replaces the Initiator and charging system.
Drive Coil 250,000,000 + (300,000,000 x No. of Docking Collars)
Controller 220,000,000
Tankage 200,000 x K-F Drive Integrity Value
Support Systems 20,000,000 x (40 + Unit Tonnage ÷ 10,000)
Germanium-Carbide Inductor (Each)
100,000,000 + 2,200,000 x (No. of Docking Collars + Unit Tonnage / 50,000)

480 (580) KT Destroyer
Hull and engines: 388661
Engines: 4 Safe Thrust 139200 tons
Fuel: (1600 tons) 1632 tons
Structure: 60 SI 28800 tons
Jump Drive: 11 integrity 217200 tons
Jump sail: 3 integrity 54 tons
Control Systems 1200 tons
Armor: 230 points Standard 575 tons

Heat: 2655 single heat sinks 2083 tons
(572 weight free)[2655 heat]

Crew
36 officers, 141 Enlisted Crew, 38 Gunners 1613 tons
3 Grav Decks (2 30m, 1 80m)150 tons
45 life boats, 25 escape pods 490 tons

Equipment (max colars: 9)
2 Light MMP 3000 tons

Weapons 40870 tons
Nose (5420 tons, 452 heat)
6 NL45, 5400 tons, 420 heat
4 Large Lasers, 20 tons, 32 heat
10 AMS, 15 tons, 10 heat
AMS Ammo (240) 20 tons
FL/FR (10130 tons, 255 heat)
3 NAC/20, 7500 tons, 180 heat
NAC Ammo(75) 30 tons
5 White Sharks, 600 tonts, 75 heat
White Shark Ammo(50), 2000 tons
9 L-PDL, 27 tons, 45 heat
AL/AR (4380 tons, 287 heat)
2 HNPPC, 6000 tons, 550 heat
3 White Sharks, 360 tons, 45 heat
White Shark Ammo (30) 1200 tons
5 L-PDL, 15 tons, 25 heat
10 AMS, 15 tons, 10 heat
AMS Ammo (240) 20 tons
Aft (6430 tons, 224 heat)
2 NAC/20, 5000 tons, 120 heat
NAC Ammo(75) 30 tons
2 NL-35, 1400 tons, 104 heat
9 L-PDL, 27 tons, 45 heat

Bay 1: (12 fighters) 1800 tons
Bay 2: (4 Small Craft) 800 tons
Bay 3: (cargo) 33917 tons
1,600 KT mixed Warship
Engine: Station Keeping 19200 tons
Fuel: (18KT) 18360 tons
Structure: 3 SI 4800 tons
K-F Drive: 31 SI Compact core 724000 tons
Jump Sail: 7 SI, 110 tons
Control Systems: 4000 tons
Armor: 96 tons

Crew:
103 Officers 1030 tons
515 enlisted 3605 tons
6000 Steerage Quarters 30,000 tons
Equipment
10 MASH Core 35 tons
100 Mash Theater 100 tons
400 ICU (Steerage + Paramedic Equipment) 2100 tons
600 Steerage Quarters 3000 tons
4 Grav Decks (250,250,400,400) 500 tons
Industrial Equipment 20,000 tons

4 x Medium MMP collar 8000 tons
4 x Light MMP collar 6000 tons
1000 KT Unpressurized Naval Repair Facility 25000 tons

Total Bay doors 24
Bay 1: Work Equipment Bay (3000 BA Comp. 60 Mechs) 10 doors 12000 tons
Bay 2: Transit Bay (40 Smallcraft) 6 doors, 8000 tons
Bay 3: Cargo 710,064 tons
The Chihuahua is unfortunately a poor design, and after three a total of three were built, the Taurian Concordat decided to just buy Newgrange class Yardships instead.

1800 (2100) kt warship
Hull and engines: 972600 tons
Engines: 1 safe thrust 126000 tons
Fuel: (24000) tons 24480 tons
Structure: 20 SI 36000 tons
Improved Jump Drive: 39 SI 758700 tons
Germanium-Carbide Inductors (6) 216000 tons
Jump-Sail (x5): 600 tons
Control Systems: 4500 tons
Armor: 720 tons

Crew 231013.5 tons
100 officers, 494 enlisted, 6 gunners 4500 tons
Passanger Quarters 226000 tons
2,000 1st rate, 8,000 2nd rate, 30,000 steerage
Grav Deck (250, 250, 500, 500) 500 tons
Mash (10) 13.5 tons

Weapons
6 L-PDL (all but roadsides) 900 tons

Equipment 267000 tons
H-Comms scanner suite 500 tons
Industrial Equipment 30,000 tons
Laboratory Equipment 500 tons
Hydroponics (10,000) 200000 tons

2 Heavy MPP Collar (Broadsides) 6000 tons
30 Docking Collars 30,000 tons

26 bay doors
Bay 1 (120 Smallcraft)12 bay doors, 24000 tons
Bay 2: Cargo 14 Bay Doors 304486 tons
Something of a prestige project, the Panama is the second largest jumpship ever built after the Newgrange. The ship is designed for deep space colonization, and is thus the ship has enough Germanium-Carbide inductors to make six jumps in a row. Additionally the Panama is equipped with a unique multi-charge system allowing it to charge four Germanium-Carbide Inductors from its jump sails and two from its engines at the same time. This allows it to transport its incredible 40000 passengers with incredible speed. It has nearly 300 kilotons of equipment dedicated to supporting colonization efforts including enough hydroponics to keep a quarter of its passenger capacity fed indefinitely. The Panama has a deliberately sparse weapons loadout, composed exclusively of point defense lasers, making it easier for the ship to travel into Star League space to pick up colonists.
Only one was ever made.
20,000 Ton Spheroid Dropship
Engines and Hull: 5602 tons
Engines: 3 Safe Thrust 3900 tons
Fuel: 1100 tons 1122 tons
Structure: 10 SI 400 tons
Control Systems: 150 tons
Armor: 30 tons
Heat Sinks: 78 single 0 tons

Crew
2 officers, 7 enlisted 69 tons
4 Lifeboats, 4 eacape pods 56 tons

Equipment
Lift hoist (10KT) 150 tons
Look Down Radar 5
Hi-es Imager 2.5
Beagle Active Probe 1.5
12 mounted Searchlights 6 tons

Bays
Bay 1 (Prefab) [Open] 10000 tons
Bay 2 (2 Light Vehicles, 2 Smallcraft) 2 doors, 460 tons
Bay 3 (4 Mechs) 2 doors, 600 tons
Bay 4 (Cargo) 2 doors, 3048 tons
The Star-Crane is a very distinct dropship with its A-Frame design and side mounted engines. Its primary cargo bay is entirely open to the elements, allowing it to use its hydraulically mounted magnetic clamps to simply lift up prefabricated structures and drop them off at their intended destinations. The star-crane has been a welcome addition to colonization efforts in both the Taurian Concordat and inner sphere.
 
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The Great Colonization Era

Doomsought

Well-known member
The Taurian Great Colonization era starts in the latter half of the twenty seventh century and runs nearly to the end of the twenty eighth. The slowly dropping costs of jump drives allowed that the Taurian Concordat to enable further colonization with a large fleet of merchant and merchant marine jumpships. The early stage of the Great Colonization is marked by using Colt class destroyers equipped with survey MMPs to scout out numerous star systems for colonization. It was only in the 2680s that new planets actually started being settled.

Germanium-Carbide Inductor technology enabled the Taurian Concordat to economically build jumpships with large numbers of collars to facilitate colonization and trade. This culminated with the construction of the Panama class colony ship in 2696. Constructed as much to showcase Taurian Technology as to support their colonization effort, the Panama was at the time the second most voluminous jump capable space craft ever built, with only the Newgrange class yardship being larger. The Panamas jump drive was the most complicated jump drive ever constructed, able to store as many as six jump charges and charge multiple G-C Inductors from its jump sails at the same time. It was widely claimed at its launch that if a more sophisticated FTL drive was ever constructed, it would not be a K-F Jump drive but whatever comes after. The Taurians have yet to be proved wrong on this claim.

After that the Taurian Colonization effort would hit a period of explosive growth. In 2706 the Chihuahua class fleet tender Little Belle was refit to support colonization efforts by having its Light MMP collars replaced with standard drop-ship collars, and additional industrial equipment was installed in its holds. The Perrita would undergo a similar refit in 2711. However the Chihuahua herself would undergo a full overhaul, her jump drives were modernize so she could do rapid jumps in series to reach more distant colonies, and two medium MMP collars were removed to give her eight drop-ship collars.

In 2724 the Taurain Concordat had a good idea of the extent of the colonization it could sustain for the next few centuries, and divided its territory into provinces to ease administration. The Concordats original territories became the Taurus province. The colonial acquisitions from the central rimward border of the Tarrus province to the Farhome system became the Rio Grande province, with the Oregon province spinward and the Alexandria province anti-spinward. Although great swaths of space were claimed in these provinces, it would take centuries of continued terraforming and colonization to truly settle them.

While the official borders of the Taurian Concordat would not grow much farther from Earth than Farhome during the Great Colonization, several systems farther out were claimed for scientific expeditions. The system of Swan's Eye was claimed in 2679 as a logistic outpost to support deep space exploration but saw subsequent growth with an active scientific community. Beta Salandor was claimed in 2716 as a deep space scientific observatory, but soon became an exclusive and expensive tourist destination do to a combination of its extreme remoteness and dramatic view of the Orion Nebula. The system of Aurigae was claimed in 2734 as a deep space observatory and military research outpost, using its extreme remoteness as a security feature.

After its refit the Chihuahua would become instrumental in the establishment of deep space colonies and outposts. Typically accompanied by four asteroid mining dropships and two VMI Star-Cranes, the Chihuahua could manufacture almost all the industry a new colony needed from on planet housing to space stations. Once the Chihuahua had established a system's infrastructure, the Panama could almost instantly deliver the entire population needed to make a stable industrialized colony.

While the political support for the Great Colonization never wavered within the Taurian Concordat, the motivation behind it did change over time. Initially it was a matter of promoting continued economic growth and a little bit of prestige, but as time went on it became more of a matter of pride. However, as the good years came to the close in the 2730s the motivation turned to a matter of strategic depth. Up to this point, peace had been maintained between the Taurian Concordat and the Star League do to a combination of hard earned respect and the rivalries of the Great houses distracting them with internal conflicts.

However as House Cameron managed to gain increasingly centralized power in the Star League, the suppression of internal conflicts pushed them outward, with the Taurian Concordat and Periphery states being increasingly seen as valid targets in proportion to the great houses becoming off limits. Skirmishing started increasing as early as 2708 by some accounts, but the increase only became noticeable after 2732. While most attacks were designed to be deniable, often using sponsored pirates, several were ill thought out and received international attention.

Most notable was the Foochow incident in 2735. The Panama was recharging in the Foochow system while carrying over 54,000 colonists from Earth. "Pirates" jumped into the system and threatened her with warships. The Panama as a matter of policy only jumped four times in a row while in the Inner Sphere, reserving at least one charge for an emergency jump at all times, and escaped. The Cappellans blamed the Federated Suns, saying it was to steal the trade goods the Panama was scheduled to use to exchange for additional terraforming equipment while in Capellan space. The Federated Suns responded by blaming the Capellan Confederation. While the actual culprit was never discovered, the finger pointing eventually escalated to the point that both great houses were censured by the First Lord and forced to pay for the SLDF to provide an escort the the Panama while in Star League space.

It was clear that the Great Houses had grown tired of peace. In 2736 Protector Hampton Calderon made it official policy to move much of the Concordat's military industry deep into to the colonies where they would be harder to attack. For most of the Taurian Concordat's contractors this move did not involve removing any of their older facilities but rather founding new facilities in the new colonies. VMI went so far as to search out a location with mineral deposits to found their own colony, and eventually founded a colony under the name of Piraeus in a system with germanium deposits in the Alexandria province.
 
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St Louis

Doomsought

Well-known member
St. Lewis was originally given the unglamorous name of TLO-3048. Initial surveys concluded that the system anti-spinward of Celano lacked any habitable worlds. However do to having an Helium rich gas giant with icy asteroids in its ring, the system was chosen as a stopping point for colonization and exploration missions.

After several logistic space stations had been established in the system, further surveying of the system found that under the thin ice sheets of one of the system's gas giants moons was a habitable ocean full of life. Because the system was set to become a shipping hub, and expecting that colonies will need construction equipment, Lee-Humphret Industries set up an industrial mech assembly line on St. Lewis in 2681. This lead to further colonization of the water world with dome colonies either directly under the ice sheets or on the bottom of the ocean.

In 2697, VMI decided that to contract LHI for the full scale production of the Girder-Ape, an industrial mech they had up to then produced in limited batches for use in their naval yards. Sterope-Defense Industries' laser research division established a laboratory on the planet in late 2702 to study how the local flora made the ice sheets more transparent to visible light. The planet was quickly growing despite its inhospitablity and by 2720 it had several major cities that spanned from the base of the ocean to the top of its ice sheets like shining necklaces of pearl and diamond.

Already a logistics hub, with a booming industry, and protected from orbital bombardment, the system made a natural choice for the capital of the Rio Grande province. Now named St. Lewis for how its role in pioneering the Taurian frontier mirrored its namesake. That year also saw the first of the colony's corporations went interstellar, with Shinji's Bulk Grocer purchasing warehouses on Celano for collecting up local grain shipments.

Already having experience working on a water world, Pinard Protectorates Limited chose St. Lewis as a location for several combat vehicle production lines in 2737. This would become the home of their PDT line of air defense truck. When the Tuarian Defense Force noticed how effective the PDT trucks were in the hands of planetary militias, the increased production prompted SDI to expand their local laboratories with PDL production lines, which were expanded again when VMI founded Pireaus.

40 ton Industrial Mech
Structure: 8 tons
Engine: Class 160 Fusion 6 tons
Gyro: Standard 2 tons
Jumpjets: 4 MP 2 tons
Fuel: 2 tons
Cockpit: 3 tons
Environmental Sealing: 4 tons
Heat Sinks: 10 single 0 tons
Armor: industrial 8 tons
Pulsed Cutting Laser, 2 tons, 1 LA, 4+1d6 heat
Spot Welder*, 2 tons, 1 RA, 2 heat
Welder Rotor*, 0.5 tons, 1 RA
Spot Light, 0.5 tons, HD

Quirks:
Improved life support
Foot actuators
Vestigial hands
The gird ape is designed for warship construction, but is a highly capable industrial mesh in all types of orbital construction projects. Rather than standard jump jets, it uses the same type of plasma thrusters used in Land-Air Mechs allowing it to traverse zero-g construction projects without any risk of drifting. Its feet are have four fingers and ball-jointed ankles allowing it to gain a firm footing even in extremely awkward positions. In order to allow it to keep both hand actuators, its spot welder is mounted on a gauntlet that can rotate around its right forearm. Its left arm is equipped with a powerful pulsed cutting laser in order to be able work warship armor plating. In 2740, the TDF ordered a batch of militarized Girder-Apes which replaced the pulsed cutting laser with a standard medium pulse laser, upgraded the armor to standard, and installed a targeting computer.

25 ton wheeled combat vehicle
Structure: 2.5 tons
Engine: Class 80 Fusion 5 tons
Control Systems: 1.5 tons
Heat: 10 heat sinks 0 tons
Armor: 4.5 tons
Turret Equipment: 0.5 tons
L-PDL, T, 3 tons, 5 heat
LRM-10, 5 tons, 4 heat
LRM Ammo (12) 1 ton
55 ton Wheeled
Structure: 5.5 tons
Engine: Class 145 Fusion 7.5 tons
Control Systems: 3 tons
Heat: 28 heat sinks, 18 tons
Armor: 7.5 tons
(max armor: 232)
Turret Equipment: 1.5 tons
Equipment: M-PDL, T, 11 tons. 28 heat
The PDT series of air defense trucks are fairly simple in concept: take a point defense laser, put it on the ground near your encampment. There were several previous attempts at this concept implemented with trailers relying on an external power supply, however the Pinard Protectorates Limited instead went to the extra effort and expense to instead use fusion powered combat vehicles. While relatively expensive, these trucks delivered protection from aerospace fighters and missile artillery as soon they drive out of the cargo bay. Being both smaller and more agile, PDT series trucks quickly replaced trailer based predecessors in TDF command encampments.
 
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Meanwhile in the Inner Sphere

Doomsought

Well-known member
The Inner Sphere did not simply stand by and watch the Taurian Concordat's technological advances. The first concern on the minds of the Inner sphere generals during the early part of the Golden Century was how to respond to the Taurian's anti-missile systems.

SLDF annalists were the first to catch onto the trend, seeing both the effectiveness of Taurian point defense batteries and the Taurians development of their point defense lasers. Not fully understanding the logic behind point defense lasers and wanting a weapon usable by their battlemechs, the SLDF rapidly developed a response by mating small pulse lasers with the tracking system of a machine-gun AMS in 2604. Deeply concerned with the heat generated by laser based anti-missile systems, the Cameron's researchers switched tracks to developing anti-missile missile systems. By 2639 the SLDF began field trials of prototype Point Defense Missile Systems based on the LRM-15. After several improvements and bug fixes, the weapons will deployed to SLDF warships and Royal Battlemechs.

After the Taurian Concordat proudly announced the development of the Medium Point Defense Laser system in 2633, the SLDF quickly enacted a program to develop a superior anti-missile system that boasts the ability to reliably destroy a White Shark in a single blow. After two decades of development, using the Arrow-IV anti-air missile as a starting point, they revealed the Rapier AMM int 2655.

House Steiner decided to throw money at the problem. They bought the LAMS from the Terran Hegemony in the early 2630 at considerable expense. Using the LAMS as a starting point they developed their own proprietary version of Point Defense Lasers. Knowing that the Lyran Commonwealth would eventually catch up, the Taurian Concordat Licensed the designs for Heavy Point Defense Lasers in 2698 in return significant amounts of capital and favorable trade deals.

Not all attempts to develop anti-missile systems were entirely successful. The Free World's league decided to develop a point defense flack cannon. The weight of large auto-cannons and their ammunition feed systems ended up making the system have lackluster effectiveness against missiles. However, the weapon system ended up being far more effective as an anti-fighter weapon during test trials and was deployed by the Free World's League despite being a near failure at its original role.

The Federated Suns being closer to the Taurian Concordat decided to develop a new missile system to defeat points weapons. Fallowing the same logic as the development of LRM and SRM, the Federated suns decided to develop a heavy swarm missile system based on their up to then failed attempts to copy the Arrow-IV missile artillery. Called the Dart Missile Launcher, the weapon fire missiles roughly half the mass of an Arrow-IV missile. The guidance package was based on reverse engineered Artemis missiles. Attempts to copy the Artemis missile by the Federate Suns had failed due to an inability to sufficiently miniaturize components, a problem easily resolved by just having a bigger missile. The Federated Suns were able to filed prototype Dart Missile Launchers in 2654, and later came out with the Callisto Fire Control computer based on the Artemis FCS in 2661.

Missile and anti-missile technologies were not the only weapons developed during the golden century. The Free World's League developed a heavy launch rail for their aerospace fighters in 2670 based on the AR-10 called the AR-F.

House Kurita was the farthest of the great houses from the Concordat, which ironically lead them to having the deepest spies into the Taurian Concordat of the great houses. Late in the 2680's Nekakami agents discovering heavy funding into Electronic Warfare technologies by the Taurian Concordat. In response to this information the Combine decided to invest in improved sensor systems. Though a combination of espionage and in house research, the Combine developed the Itako sensor suit in 2701. The sensor system was labeled the Delphi Imaging Probe by the SLDF and adopted by several scout aircraft.

Capellan Confederation, despite radically different cultures cooperated with the Taurian Concordat both secretly and overtly. The post war economic boon in the Concordat helped the Capellans overcome the difficulty funding research projects, while the Capellans had access to resources as a great house of the Inner Sphere that the Taurian Concordat did not have legal access to. Their intelligence agencies helped the Concordat develop Naval Gauss technology in return for the finished product. At house Liao's insistence they continued cooperation on Gauss technology to develop an Artillery Gauss Riffle as an incremental step towards mech scale Gauss Riffles. However after the completion of that project in 2643, they were unable to convince the Concordat to fund further research into miniaturization. Wanting access to HPG technology, House Liao began attempting to convince the Concordat to join a joint effort to develop extended range HPGs. House Liao claimed they had a method to use a modified NL35 as a signal source. While they were able to send several signals over 120 light-years, the project was ultimately deemed a failure as they were unable to find a way to make the signal modulator last more than one or two uses without burning out. Several working prototypes were kept by both houses for emergency use.
 
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Post War Inner Sphere Techology

Doomsought

Well-known member
Terran Hegemony
The anti-missile missile system is a LRM-15 modified with a special tracking system designed to lock onto incoming capital missiles at long range.
Game Rules: AMMS are point defense weapons that follow a modified version of advanced point defense rules. Unlike other point defense weapons, they may target missiles at a range of 3 aerospace hexes (or 3 maps if used against missile artillery on a ground map), but can only target Arrow IV, cruise and capital missiles. Each AMMS deals 10 points of standard damage to a missile. When not operating in point defense mode, it is treated a an LRM-15 + Artimis.
Damage: 10*
Heat: 6
Mass: 9 tons
Space: 4 Critical slots
Ammo Per Ton: 8

Rapier launcher can fire twice each turn, one on during standard weapons fire and the second time during point defense. Has a -1 bonus to hit missiles. Deals 3 capital damage to missiles or 15 standard damage to fighters. Cannot damage more heavily armored units.
Damage: 30/15
Heat: 15(30)
Short: 6
Medium: 12
Long: 20
Mass: 44 tons
Ammo Per ton: 2

Federated Suns
Game Rules: Dart missile Launchers follow the same rules as LRMs, except point defense and AMS weapons treat them as capital missiles. One dart missile in a volley is destroyed per point of capital damage done by Point defense weapons after the clustered hit roll, or averaging of clustered hit attacks.

Dart Missile Launchers have a minimum range of 10 hexes.

Model​

Heat​

Damage(Aero)​

Short​

Medium​

Long​

Extreme​

Tons​

Crits​

Ammo Per Ton​

Dart-3

7​

5/Msl (10)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

8​

3​

3​

Dart-5

10​

5/Msl (15)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

14​

6​

2​

Dart-10

20​

5/Msl (30)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

30​

12​

1​

Dart-15

30​

5/Msl (45)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

45​

18​

2 / 3​

Dart-20

40​

5/Msl (60)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

60​

24​

1 / 2​

Dart-5 + Callisto

10​

5/Msl (20)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

16*​

-​

2​

Dart-10 + Callisto

20​

5/Msl (40)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

32*​

-​

1​

Dart-15 + Callisto

30​

5/Msl (60)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

47*​

-​

2 / 3​

Dart-20 + Callisto

40​

5/Msl (80)​

12​

28​

42​

56​

62*​

-​

1 / 2​
*see Callisto FCS

Construction Rules:
Callisto FCS can only be installed on Dropships, warships, advanced support vehicles, structures and Mobile Structures.

For each units with weapons bays, the one Callisto Target Acquisition Sensor weighing 3 tons must be installed for each weapons bay mounting Dart Missile Launchers. Additionally 2 tons of Callisto Fire control computers must be installed for each Dart Missile Launcher in the weapons bay.

Advanced support vehicles follow the same rules as above, except per firing arc instead of weapons bay.

Structures and Mobile structures require a single 8 ton Callisto Sensor array in each hex with Dart Missile Launchers installed on it, and must mount 2 tons of Callisto fire control computers power Dart Missile Launcher installed on them.

Because the Dart-3 is intended for use on Mechs, it is not compatible with Callisto FCS.

Game Rules: Dart Missile Launchers gain a +2 bonus to their clustered hit roll when a Callisto FCS is installed. When used on Aerospace units, Dart missile launchers with Callisto FCS use capital rather than standard range bands.

Capellan Confederation
Game Rules: Unlike most artillery weapons, the Artillery Gauss Riffle must use different ammunition types for direct fire and indirect fire. Because of its high muzzle velocity, the AGR cannot be used for artillery attack within 2 maps, however artillery attacks made with the AGR take 1/3 the normal number of turns to reach their target, rounded down. Direct fire attacks using APDS ammunition target a unit and deal 25 standard damage.

Direct Fire / Artillery
Damage: 25 /20A
Heat: 5 / 5
Minimum Range: 3 / 2 maps
Short: 10 / -
Medium: 21 / -
Long: 32 / 24 Maps
Mass: 25 tons
Crits: 15
Ammo Per ton: 5 / 10

Alternate ammunition:
APDS – standard direct fire ammunition
HE – standard indirect fire ammunition, ammunition bins may suffer ammunition detonation on a critical hit.
Flack – direct fire, 20A, +2 to hit against aerospace, 10 per ton, ammunition bins may suffer ammunition detonation on a critical hit.
Cluster – direct fire, 25 slugs, Capellan only
Ares – direct fire (Aero-space), 2 per ton, deals double damage to warships, nuclear munition, does not explode but produces 1 heat per on per turn ton an ammunition "Explosion" Concordat only

Free World's League
Game Rules: +1 penalty to hit in point defense mode but -3 to hit when used against fighters in standard mode.
Construction Rules: When placed in a unit that does not use weapon's bays, PDAC must be placed in a turret.

Model​

Heat​

Damage(Aero)​

Short​

Medium​

Long​

Extreme​

Tons​

Crits​

Ammo Per Ton​

PDAC/2

1​
2 (2)​
8​
16​
24​
-​
9​
2​
45​
PDAC/5

2​

5 (5)​

6​

12​

18​

-​

12​

5​

20​

PDAC/10

4​

10 (10)​

5​

10​

15​

-​

18​

8​

10​

PDAC/20

8​

20 (20)​

3​

6​

9​

-​

22​

11​

5​

An AR-F weapons bay may may launch as many fighters as there are launchers in the bay, but cannot recovery any fighters. The launch proveides initial velocity of 20/10/5 to Light/Medium/Heavy fighters respectively. The initial velocity may be in any direction in the bay's firing arc.
Construction Rules: Each AR-F bay counts as a single bay door against a units maximum number of bay doors.
Heat: 40
Mass: 350 tons

Draconic Combine
Game Rules: When operating on the space map, the Delphi Imaging Probe operates using the same rules as an Active Probe operating in the Medium Range Band (S.O. Pp 111), except using whatever firing arc it is installed in rather than the Nose firing arc.
Provide a -3 bonus to Detection Checks.
When within 30 hexes of a planet surface, it may be switched to operate in imaging mode. While in imaging mode it does not grant the benefits of an active probe as described above. Instead it provides the same benefits as a hyperspectral imager, except with the additional special rules described bellow.
  • When within Medium range of the surface (12 aerospace hexes) the Delphi Imaging probe gains a -1 bonus to detecting hidden units and it also rolls for stealth units (those with an active Null-Signature, Void-Signature, or Stealth Armor System) and detects them on a 10+.
  • When within Short range of the surface (6 hexes) the Delphi Imaging Probe gains a -2 bonus to detecting hidden units and can spot stealth units on a 9+.
  • When operating on the low altitude map (surface map) a unit mounting a Delphi Imaging Probe automatically spots hidden units within 6 hexes (ignoring height) and automatically reveals stealth units within 3 hexes of its movement path. It does not get to make Rolls to spot units farther away at this altitude.
  • When on a landed unit, the Delphi Imaging Probe has no effect.
Construction Rules: Units under 100 tons may only install the Delphi imaging probe in their nose/forward firing arc. Larger units may mount it in any firing arc, but the Delphi Imaging Probe may never be mounted on a turret. The Delphi imaging probe may only be mounted on flying units.
Short Range: 6
Medium Range: 12
Long Range: 30
Tons: 7
 
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Doomsought

Well-known member
Does this mean the Succession Wars are going to be correspondingly worse?
The dependency by design that the Camerons set up OTL were vetoed by the Concordat. All the great houses are if not more technologically advanced, have more infrastructure to manufacture their best technology. Even the Capellans are more wealthy do to access to intact and growing Taurian markets. Billions of people that otherwise would have been impoverished on overpopulated Terran Hegemony worlds OTL are productive due to colonization initiative that the Concordat lead by example.

Many terraforming and related technologies have proliferated to the great houses do to increases in demand; some were released by the Terran hegemony to the great houses in order to maintain high enough of a supply that the Concordat wouldn't develop their own. For example, the Capellans developed significant infrastructure towards producing belter colonies do to a lack of new planets that they could terraform in their territory.

So the miltiary losses will be heavier, but the post war cycles of economic collapse and planetary failure will be prevented.
 
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UltimatePaladin

Well-known member
For example, the Capellans developed significant infrastructure towards producing belter colonies do to a lack of new planets that they could terrorism in their territory.
While I'm sure that the Maskirovka would like to terrorize new planets, did you mean colonize. And, in a similar vein, due?
 

namar13766

Well-known member
That modular design system makes me think about the Canonical Aurora Dropship, which came in Battle Armor, Cargo, CV, Combined Arms, Vehicle, Tanker, and Gunship variants.

Why do I have the feeling the Post-Succession Wars Inner Sphere won't be all but burnt to the ground out of a twisted sentimentality for humanity’s own starting line?
 

SuperHeavy

Well-known member
Because bad writers cannot diversify sources of drama and paint themselves into a corner of always making things worse to move the plot along.
To be fair BattleTech writers had a 400 ton millstone around their necks called "Sell more models". No one wants to buy a miniature of Steve the diplomat after a riveting tale of hashing out border system jump station fees.
 

IceWing_mk1

Well-known member
To be fair BattleTech writers had a 400 ton millstone around their necks called "Sell more models". No one wants to buy a miniature of Steve the diplomat after a riveting tale of hashing out border system jump station fees.
Sorry, but your arguement is invalid.

Miniatures, although nice, were simply not a major thing in the early days of BattleTech. And, I speak as somebody who had Ral Partha in my hometown.

There were never that many minis around. And, when the box sets came with cardboard standups for all of the mechs, well, that's what you used.

Battletech was never Warhammer. You used the hex maps in the boxes, and the cardboard stands... I don't think I even owned any miniatures for probably my first five years of playing. And then, most of them were the unseen. And when Ral Partha folded, well, I don't think I saw any other new figures for probably a decade.

The REAL problem was that FASA had real problems with actually planning shit out and doing basic math.

Which is ironic when you think how the real world is doing it's damnedest to emulate ShadowRun.
 

Culsu

Agent of the Central Plasma
Founder
BTech has the problem that it was created by a bunch of geeks in the late 70ies/early 80ies with the idea of medieval knights meets Mad Max meets giant robots, but without any idea about economics, technological development, military, and scale in general. So they built a universe, and the second generation of writers was left with the mess to try to make some sense of it all. Which you can't if the basis is fudged. I mean,, I love the universe, but damn does it have flaws.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
To be fair BattleTech writers had a 400 ton millstone around their necks called "Sell more models". No one wants to buy a miniature of Steve the diplomat after a riveting tale of hashing out border system jump station fees.
Not minis, I think, but TROs. The Technical Readout books have always been the cash cow for the franchise.

I feel like the millstone comes from this and one other issue. They can't ever errata the design rules, even the really stupid ones, because it would invalidate a TRO and that's unacceptable. Second the game writers tend to arbitrarily change how construction works in order to make units they disliked less desirable, such as the way quad 'mechs are just flat-out worse than bipeds, WarShips somehow need to use the supposedly super-delicate germanium jump core as a structural element, or LAMs are easier to hit than anything else moving at their speed.

When fans continue to like an element despite the rules hosing them the devs will often alter the storyline to make said element unavailable, such as having all the LAM factories destroyed, or later blowing up every shipyard capable of making WarShips.

As far as economics, yeah the jump from Mad Max wasteland to modern BT changed a lot, and they can't fix the FASAnomic issues that created without invalidating a TRO by changing the nonsensical pricing schemes. I re-read the Warrior trilogy recently and it was startling how different BT felt back then compared to now.
 
Techinal Readout 2750

Doomsought

Well-known member
Comanche
Designed in response to the Marauder, the Comanche is the dedicated command mech of the TDF. The mech is build around a medium point defense laser which provides fire power similar to an AC-20 and protection from the use of missile artillery for decapitation attack. The massive laser weapon and its tracking system fills up the entire right torso of the mech, displacing its engine and cockpit towards the left, thus giving it an appearance very similar to the venerable Thunderbolt.
90 ton Battlemech
Structure: 9 tons
Engine: Class 360 Standard Fusion 33 tons
Gyro: Standard 4 tons
Cockpit: Standard + Command Console 6 tons
Heat Sinks: 14 Double 4 tons
[28 heat, 14 crit free]
Armor: 277 Ferro-Fibrous 13.5 tons
[Max AF 279, 15.5-16 tons]
Shoulder Turret, RT, 1.5 tons
M-PDL, RT(T) 11, 11 tons
LRM-10, 2 LA, 5 tons
LRM Ammo (24) 2 tons
Machinegun, LT, 0.5 tons
Machinegun Ammo (100), LT, 0.5 tons
Quirks: Command Mech, Modular Weapons (Arms and MG only)

Baihu BHU-1
One of the four vehicles designed under the program to develop the Artillery Gauss Riffle, the Baihu is an Heliopolis inspired artillery mech. Much of the impetus behind the design is to prove that they too could field mech mounted Gauss weaponry, however the design offers several improvements over the Heliopolis including jump jets and was picked up by the SLDF.
85 ton mech
Structure: 9 tons
Engine: Class 255 fusion 13 tons
Gyro: Standard 3 tons
Jumpjets: 3 CT 3 tons
Cockpit: 3 tons
Heat Sinks: 10 single 0 tons
Armor: 128/263 standard 8 tons
AGR, 11RA/4RT, 25 tons, 5 heat
AGR Ammo (25-50) 5 RT, 5 tons
Large Laser, 2LT, 5 tons, 8 heat
2 Small Laser, 2 LA, 1 ton, 2 heat
Quirks: Reinforced Legs, Stable
Variants:
BHU-2T: Concordat verion has double Heat sinks, FerroFibrous Armor and a large pulse laser
BHU-2H: SLDF Royal version includes double heat sinks, Endo Steel, Ferro Fibrous Armor, CASE and class 300 XL engine, replaces small lasers with an SRM-6.

Tortoise (TRT-PD)
The Tortoise is one of the rare examples of a dedicated air defense mech designed by the Free Worlds League. In order to have enough room for the Point Defense Autocannon's tracking gear, the mech was designed as a quadmech. While the mech is an effective deterent agianst aircraft and aprovides some protection agaisnt missile strikes, many criticise it for a lack of firepower.
75 ton Quad Mech
Structure: 7.5 tons
Engine: Class 225 Fusion 10 tons
Gyro: 3 tons
Jump Jets (3), 3CT, 3 tons
Cockpit 3 tons
Heat Sinks: 10 single 0 tons
Armor: 200/247 Standard, 12.5 tons
Quad Turret, RT, 2 tons
PDAC/10, 8 RT(T), 18 tons, 4 heat
2 Medium Laser, 2 RT(T), 2 tons, 6 heat
LRM-20, 4 LT, 10 tons, 6 heat
LRM Ammo (12) 2 LT, 2 tons
PDAC Ammo (20), 2 LT, 2 tons
Quirks: Easy to Pilot, Fast Reload
Variants:
TRT-DT: Fed suns varient, replaces LRM-20 with a Dart-3 and 2 tons of ammo to produce a well rounded support mech.

Variants of Canonical Mechs:
Long Bow-7D
Replaces both LRM-20s and both LRM-5s with a pair of Dart-3 missile launchers with 6 tons of ammo for each (36/18 volleys) and replaces the center torso ammo bin with a third Medium laser.

Nightstar-6M
Replaces the Gauss Riffles with 2 Dart-5 Missile launchers its 4 tons of ammo each. The center torso Ammo bin is removed for one additional double heat sink.

Atlas-PD
The Atlas uses a PDMS instead of an LRM-20, gaining an extra ton of AC-20 ammunition in the process.

Zhuque
Developed in concert between the Taurian Concordat and the Capellan Confederation, the Zhuque was built around an Artillery Gauss Riffle under the project to develop the same weapon. Most of the heavy fighter's components need to be manufactured in the Taurian Concordat due ot Terran Hegemony technology restrictions.
100 ton ASF
Engine: Class 300 Standard 19 tons
Fuel: 120 points 3 tons
Structure: 10 SI
Cockpit: 3 tons
Armor: 483/800 Ferro-Aluminum 26 tons
Heat Sinks: 12 Double 2 tons
AGR, Nose, 25 tons, 5(4) heat
PPC, LW, 7 ton, 10 heat
Medium Laser, LW, 1 ton, 3 heat
PPC, RW, 7 tons, 10 heat
Medium Laser, RW, 1 ton, 3 heat
AGR Ammo (25) 5 tons
Design Quirks: Improved Cooling Jacket (AGR)

Morigan
A rare case of a dedicated bomber, the Federated Sun's Morigan boasts an extremely large fuel tank for a fighter of its size in order to loiter while waiting on a call for air support.
85 ton Fighter
Engine: Class 255 Standard 13 tons
Fuel: 560 points, 7 tons
Structure: 8 SI
Cockpit 3 tons
Armor: 208/456 Standard 13 tons
Heat Sinks: 20 Standard 10 tons
2 M-Lasers, Aft, 2 tons, 6 heat
Dart-5, LW, 14 tons, 10 heat
Dart-5, RW, 14 tons, 10 heat
4 M-Laser, Nose, 4 tons, 12 heat
Dart Ammo (10) 5 tons
Design Quirks: Improved Life Support, Rumble Seat, Easy to Pilot
MORG-2H: SLDF Royal variant, upgrades to double heat sinks and uses the weight savings to add 2 tons of fuel, 5 tons of ammo and 3 tons of Ferro-Aluminum armor.

Kagura
A scout plane designed by the Kurita to carry the Delphi Imaging Probe. Because the Draconis combine has not yet managed to develop or steal a combat effective ECM suite, the plane has been fitted with a chaff system to break target locks.
35 tons
Engine: Class 175 Standard 7 tons
Fuel: 400 points 5 tons
Structure: 5 SI
Cockpit: 3 tons
Armor: 128/280 standard 8 tons
Heat Sinks: 10 single 0 tons
Delphi Imaging Probe, Nose,7 tons
3 Medium Lasers, Nose, 4 tons, 9 heat
2 VGL (Chaff only), Aft, 1 ton
Quirk: Atmospheric Flyer
KGA-2H: SLDF variant replaces the chaff pods with Guardian ECM, upgrades to a class 245 XL engine and ferro-aluminum armour.

Koryu
The Koryu assault dropship is the last weapons platform developed under the Artillery Gauss Riffle program. This dropship is heavily inspired by the Achilles however it uses fewer but more powerful weapons to build a better warship escort. Many civilian annalists believed that the embarrassment that the Concordat felt when the Koryu came out at the same time as the Hussar played a role in the cooperative Guass technology programs between the Taurians and Cappellans falling apart.
4600 ton Spheroid Dropship
Engines: 7 Safe Thrust 2093 tons
Fuel: (300 tons) 315 tons
Structure: 20 SI 184 tons
Control Systems: 34.5 tons
Armor: 913 points Ferro Aluminum 51 tons
Heat Sinks: 401 Double Heat Sinks 282 tons
(119 weight free)
Crew: 4 officers, 8 enlisted, 12 gunners, 180 tons
3 Escape Pods, 2 life boats 21 tons
Nose: 122 heat
6 AGR, 150 tons, 30 heat
2 L-PDL, 50 tons, 80 heat
2 LRM-20, 20 tons, 12 heat
AGR Ammo (120) 24 tons
LRM Ammo (60) 10 tons
Sides: 162 heat
5 M-PDL, 55 tons, 140 heat
2 LRM-20, 20 tons, 12 heat
LRM Ammo (60) 10 tons
Aft: 32 heat
4 Large Lasers, 20 tons, 32 heat
2 LRM-20, 20 tons, 12 heat
LRM Ammo (60) 10 tons
Bay 1: (2 fighters, 1 Smallcraft) 1 Bay Door 500 tons
Bay 2: (Cargo) 2 Bay Doors, 295.5 tons

Husssar
The development of the Koryu could not be easily hidden, and news of the project leaked to Federated Suns very early into the program. Of the several design proposals that the DMI was able to acquire, what interested them most was the proposition for a dropships scale ground-air support craft. The Hussar is built around the Dart missile system, providing it with an altogether superior attack profile while in space compared to the Koryu, while its ventral cargo bay can be used both to deliver paratroopers or as a massive bombay making it also far more flexible.
4400 ton Aerodyne Dropship
Engines: 8 Safe Thrust 2288 tons
Fuel: (300 tons) 315 tons
Structure: 15 SI 330 tons
Control System: 33 tons
Armor: 1072 Standard 67 tons
Heat Sinks: 288 Single (144 weight free) 144 tons
Crew: 3 officers, 9 enlisted, 6 Gunners 135 tons
4 Escape Pods, 1 life boats 21 tons
Weapons: 650 tons
Nose:
4 PPC, 28 tons, 40 heat
4 PDAC/5, 48 tons, 8 heat
2 Dart-15 + Callisto, 97 tons, 60 heat
PDAC Ammo (200) 10 tons
Dart Ammo (30) 45 tons
LW/RW
2 Dart-15 + Callisto, 97 tons, 60 heat
Dart Ammo (30) 45 tons
PDAC/20, 22 tons, 8 heat
PDAC Ammo (40) 8 tons
4 Medium Lasers, 4 tons, 12 heat
Aft
4 PDAC/5, 48 tons, 8 heat
PDAC Ammo (200) 10 tons
4 Medium Lasers, 4 tons, 12 heat
Bay 1: (Cargo) 297 tons
Bay 2: (Bombay) 120 tons
Design Quirks: Internal Bomb Bay, Improved Targeting (Long)





Essex-1T
The SLDF refit sevel Mothballed Essex I Destroyers to act as testbeds for new technologies developed during the golden century. In addition to the prototype weapons, each ship was fitted with an extensive sensor suite to peform diagnostics on weapon effectiveness during trials. The successes and failures of the Essex-1T destroyers informed the SLDF on how to refit their warships with advanced missile defense technologies and Dart Missile launchers.
Remove nose and broadside NAC to add:
Heavy Naval comms-scanner suite
PDMS – 3 each Side Facing
Rapier AMS 3 nose, 3 aft
PDAC – 4 PDAC/10 Fore side and Aft side, 4 PDAC/20 on the nose.
AR-F – 4 nose, 20 fighters
Dart-Missile-20+Calisto – 4 each fore side

New Sytris (2690 Refit)
With the rapid changes in naval technology, the Federatedd suns modernize their aging New Sytris class carriers in 2680. While they were able to acquire a license for Point Defense Autocannons from the Free World's league quite easily, attempts to acquire AR-F launch rails were rebuffed.
Replace all Barracuda and LRM-20 with Dart-20 and Dart-10 respectively.
Replace all Machineguns with PDAC-20.
 
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