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What the Baron class DD Should Have Been
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master arminas
Clan Goliath Scorpion
Star Colonel
Star Colonel


Joined: 07-Mar-2007 16:14
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PostPosted: 31-Oct-2008 15:57    Post subject: What the Baron class DD Should Have Been Reply to topic Reply with quote

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today, let's discuss the Baron, an old Terran Hegemony design that served both the Hegemony and the Star League for many years, and was then either scrapped or sold to the other Great Houses. Like all Star League WarShip designs in canon, there are many, many flaws in the design of the Baron, and I am not talking about fluff flaws here, folks.

You see, I see WarShips as much as national pride projects as anything else. You don't deliberately design a multi-billion dollar or c-bill ship as an expendable asset. Sure, there is the risk that it will be destroyed in combat--everything built for combat carries that risk with it. But with so much financial resourses invested in these ships, designing them from the beginning as 'expendable' is quite frankly riduculus. This means always using the maximum armor you can fit on a given designs SI. Armor is cheap people, even Lamellar Ferro-Carbide, when compared to the cost of losing a ship and hundreds of personnel. Give the designs enough heat sinks to let them shoot their weapons; heck, they only weigh one ton each after all! And make the ship be able to accomplish the job traditionally assigned to such units.

So on to the Baron. First of all, I've got some good things to say. Fuel tankage is--for a Star League vessel--very good, with 6,500 tons or 164 burn-days. This is another point that some designers just don't seem to get--1,000 tons ain't enough guys. 24 burn-days is far, far too little. A WarShip should carry at least enough fuel for a six-month deployment (182 days), more likely a full year (364 days). Still, the Baron gets good marks here, but lets increase the fuel to 14,400 tons, enough for 364 burn-days.

She carries six aerospace fighters and six small craft, but no docking collars. Decent enough parasite craft for a light destroyer, but does she really need SIX small craft? Let's cut that to two and increase the fighter bays to three launch doors. Another subject for a rant is the lack of quarters for the bay personnel. Come on, these WarShips are suppossed to be station for months. And you want the pilots and techs to sleep in hammocks strung across the wings of their fighters and shuttles? Lets add 2nd class quarters for the 22 bay personnel. Much better.

Now to the bad. SI for the Baron is 30, which is LESS than that of the Vincent class CORVETTE. Boost it to 50, which I consider the minimum for a destroyer (60 is better, but this is a light destroyer indeed). And to the armor. 256 tons of IFA ain't bad--if you are a corvette. Let's give it the maximum, 478 tons. Now armor protection has improved from [31; 29/29; 29/29; 25] to [53; 53/53; 53/53; 52]. MUCH BETTER.

Safe thrust is 2. Tsk, tsk, tsk. A destroyer is supposed to be a manuverable ship, able to move and fight. Let's double that safe thrust to 4, the same as the Lola I. Uses up a lot of tonnage, but much, much better.

The weapons of the Baron weren't bad, exactly, but they were nothing to write home about either. So rip them suckers out. Replacing the 6 NL-35 in the nose are 2 NL-55 and 2 NL-45, giving the skipper a 180 kilometer increase in range at the expense of 1 point of damage.

We keep the two White Sharks in the fore-quarters, but give them 30 missiles each instead of 10. The NACs we keep as well, but up-gun them to NAC-20s with 50 rounds each.

The broadsides laser mounts are gone (bye, bye bushel of NL-35). We replace them with 14 lasers, 8 NL-45 and 6 NL-55 (4 and 3 per broadside). This not only increases range by 180 kilometers, but keeps the same damage.

The aft-quarters had a pair of light NACs. We upgrade those to NAC-20s with 50 rounds each.

Finally, we come to the aft. We replace the three NL-35 with two NL-55, keeping the same damage, but increasing the range. We keep both the White Shark launchers, but increase the number of missiles to 30 each.

Good mixture of guns now that any destroyer skipper can be proud of. But this new arrangement of weapons generates 2,120 heat, almost twice the number of heat sinks the original mounted. Increase total heat sinks to 2,120 and we are done.

Except for adding some marines (84, a full company) and little bit of passenger space and replacing all of the life boats with escape pods. Why would you want your people in emergency escape vessels that CAN'T enter an atmosphere? I mean, are you just trying to get them all killed? And we give enough to evactuate the entire crew and passengers.

That leaves us with enough tonnage for 360 days worth of food and water and 5% of the ships mass in spare parts--24,000 tons. Cargo space is just over 5%, with 28,670 tons. A drop in the bucket compared to the 137,692 it began with, but more than adequete for a destroyer of this mass. Comes in at 1,882,519,200 for cost and 92,774 for BV, compared to 1,644,052,000 cost and 34,661 BV for the original.

Now, she is a light destroyer that would make any admiral proud. Hope that you enjoy her! This is intended as the first of a series taking the old Star League ships and making them the way they SHOULD have been to start with. Let me know what you think.

Arminas tar Valantil
Grand Master of the Ebon Rose

Code:
                    AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Baron (Destroyer)
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 2520
Vessel Type:       WarShip
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              480,000 tons
K-F Drive System:  (Unknown)
Length:            546 meters
Sail Diameter:     1,150 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       4
Maximum Thrust:    6
Armor Type:        Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament:         
   10 NL45
   10 NL55
    8 NAC/20
    6 White Shark
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Baron (Destroyer)
Mass:              480,000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass 
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                      115,200.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 4
      Maximum Thrust: 6
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive:  Compact (Integrity = 11)               217,200.00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 4)                                              54.00
Structural Integrity: 50                                            24,000.00
Total Heat Sinks:    2,120 Single                                    1,595.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                  14,688.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:              1,200.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Food & Water:  (360 days supply)                                       594.00
Armor Type:  Improved Ferro-aluminum  (317 total armor pts)            478.00
                           Capital Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                 53
   Fore-Left/Right:                   53/53
   Aft-Left/Right:                    53/53
   Aft:                                  52

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Fighters (6) with 3 doors                                   900.00
   Bay 2:  Small Craft (2) with 1 door                                 400.00
   Bay 3:  Cargo (1) with 2 doors                                   28,670.00

Grav Deck #1:  (65-meter diameter)                                      50.00
Escape Pods:  86 (7 tons each)                                         602.00

Crew and Passengers:
     30 Officers (30 minimum)                                          300.00
    111 Crew (111 minimum)                                             777.00
     34 Gunners (34 minimum)                                           238.00
     19 1st Class Passengers                                           190.00
     30 2nd Class Passengers                                           210.00
     84 Marines                                                        420.00
     22 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 NL45                     Nose        20     20     20     20  140  1,800.00
  2 NL55                                                        170  2,200.00
2 NAC/20(100 rounds)       FL/R        40     40     40     --  240 10,080.00
2 White Shark(60 msls)     FL/R         6      6      6      6   60  5,280.00
4 NL45                     L/RBS       35     35     35     35  560  7,200.00
  3 NL55                                                        510  6,600.00
2 NAC/20(100 rounds)       AL/R        40     40     40     --  240 10,080.00
2 NL55                     Aft         11     11     11     11  170  2,200.00
2 White Shark(60 msls)     Aft          6      6      6      6   30  2,640.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (5.00%)                                           24,000.00
1 Bay Personnel Quarters                                               154.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                            Heat: 2,120     480,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        1,882,519,200 C-Bills
Battle Value:      92,774
Cost per BV:       20,291.45
Weapon Value:      31,603 (Ratio = .34)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 2,548;  MRV = 2,548;  LRV = 2,008;  ERV = 786
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 298,875
                   (52,305 Structure, 153,420 Life Support, 93,150 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 202,010  (68% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      Not applicable



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ralgith
Blighted Sun Battalion
1st Company
"Ralgith's Renegades"
Colonel
Colonel


Joined: 18-Aug-2003 00:00
Posts: 2021
Location: United States
PostPosted: 31-Oct-2008 19:46    Post subject: What the Baron class DD Should Have Been Reply to topic Reply with quote

The bay personnel and pilots and such already have quarters created during the creation of a bay. When you add a fighter for instance it is 1+1 (1 crew + 1 fighter) and the crew quarters is part of the tonnage. Which is part of why shuttles weigh so much, besides being big themselves they have 4 crew (4+1)

Just thought I'd point that out. Otherwise great refit.
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Colonel Ralgith t'Mayasara
Blighted Sun Battalion
1st Company 'Ralgith's Renegades'

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