Battle of the Dreadnoughts
Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 6:46 am
I should really be going to bed, but instead I wanted to run through a quick, simple slugging match between two matched squadrons of dreadnoughts using the sample stat block I just posted to one of murtalianconfederacy's campaign diaries. Here's the ship class:
Royal Sovereign-class Superdreadnought
TL 10 Starship - Construction Cost 50: - Maintenance Cost: 10 - Command Cost: 5
DV 25, AS 18, PD 12, CR 16, BC 3, FTL 2
I'm going to pit a squadron of four dreadnoughts against its identical member and see what happens. This is an arbitrary space combat scenario, but let's say it has a length of 6 rounds and both task forces start at normal (+-0) Readiness. Since there aren't any fighters or missiles present, either, our Point Defense (PD) is going to concentrate entirely on boosting formations. That keeps things simple this game.
Round 1
Task Force One has a total of 4 x 16 CR + 4 x 12 PD, for a raw total of 112 for its formations roll. We roll D6 x 112 / 10 and round to nearest to see how many formation points we have to spend. We roll a '1' (ouch), giving us all of 11 formation points. The cost to buy a unit +1 formation level is equal to their command cost, so Task Force One can only buy +2 formation levels for itself.
HMS Edward (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Elizabeth (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Victoria (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
HMS George (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
Task Force Two meanwhile rolls a '2', only slightly better, which gives it 22 formation points. I could put all four of my dreadnoughts in FL 2, or I would split up the bonuses and shift them around. Generally speaking you are better off increasing everyone's formation level that you can. Defender's still score damage like in 1E unless the attackers opt to score some as directed damage.
HMS Henry (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS William (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Richard (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Anne (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
Next we conduct anti-ship fire. TF1 has 4 x 18 AS = 72. It rolls a '6' on a D6, so it scores 6 x 72 / 10 = 43 hits against TF2. TF2 ships are all in FL 2, so all of them take damage equally. Being in FL 2 means that it takes 2 hits to score 1 damage against the ships. TF2 splits the damage equally as follows:
HMS Henry (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 5 DAMAGE
HMS William (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 5 DAMAGE
HMS Richard (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 6 DAMAGE
HMS Anne (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 6 DAMAGE
That was a pretty substantial volley that left the ships in very bad condition. However, it was also an extremely lucky roll, and definitely far from average. In return, TF2 does 5 [D6] x 72 / 10 = 36 hits. Here is where things get dicey. Two of the dreadnoughts in TF1 are in FL 1, which means that it only takes 1 hit to score 1 damage against them. TF1's player has to decide whether to completely plaster those two exposed dreadnoughts or else take the damage to its two protected ones, one of which (Edward) is serving as the squadron's command element. As painful as it is, TF1 takes all of the damage to Elizabeth. That doesn't cripple her, but it does leave her vulnerable to future attack. The alternative is to damage Edward, but we don't want to lose our command element if we can't help it as losing Edward will put the squadron out of command until it can reorganize, halving its combat factors.
HMS Edward (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Elizabeth (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 18 DAMAGE
HMS Victoria (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
HMS George (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
That's round 1 of combat, and I have to head off to bed from there. Tomorrow, along with doing another Human Republic turn, I'll come back and finish this combat to see how things turn out. Right now after one round of extremely good attack rolls and lousy formation rolls the forces are battered but not at a terrible disadvantage. In fact, if the same amount of damage was scored on each of the remaining five rounds of combat, both squadrons could emerge from the fight without any combat losses. Their ships would be crippled and heavily damaged, but they would still be alive and capable of fighting another day.
As another quick aside, consider that HMS Elizabeth is damaged but not crippled. The cost to repair a damaged unit is 25% of its construction cost. It would cost 13 EP to repair the dreadnought, and the completion time would be 13 / 5 = 3 turns. The 13 EP has to be paid in a single chunk, too, so it would have to return to a colony with at least 13 EP of shipyard capacity to effect the repairs. An alternative would be to use ships with the Repair ability to conduct these repairs in the field, but it would require 13 Repair rating for those 3 turns instead. That's doable, but is going to tie up a lot of assets to repair the one dreadnought.
Royal Sovereign-class Superdreadnought
TL 10 Starship - Construction Cost 50: - Maintenance Cost: 10 - Command Cost: 5
DV 25, AS 18, PD 12, CR 16, BC 3, FTL 2
I'm going to pit a squadron of four dreadnoughts against its identical member and see what happens. This is an arbitrary space combat scenario, but let's say it has a length of 6 rounds and both task forces start at normal (+-0) Readiness. Since there aren't any fighters or missiles present, either, our Point Defense (PD) is going to concentrate entirely on boosting formations. That keeps things simple this game.
Round 1
Task Force One has a total of 4 x 16 CR + 4 x 12 PD, for a raw total of 112 for its formations roll. We roll D6 x 112 / 10 and round to nearest to see how many formation points we have to spend. We roll a '1' (ouch), giving us all of 11 formation points. The cost to buy a unit +1 formation level is equal to their command cost, so Task Force One can only buy +2 formation levels for itself.
HMS Edward (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Elizabeth (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Victoria (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
HMS George (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
Task Force Two meanwhile rolls a '2', only slightly better, which gives it 22 formation points. I could put all four of my dreadnoughts in FL 2, or I would split up the bonuses and shift them around. Generally speaking you are better off increasing everyone's formation level that you can. Defender's still score damage like in 1E unless the attackers opt to score some as directed damage.
HMS Henry (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS William (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Richard (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Anne (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
Next we conduct anti-ship fire. TF1 has 4 x 18 AS = 72. It rolls a '6' on a D6, so it scores 6 x 72 / 10 = 43 hits against TF2. TF2 ships are all in FL 2, so all of them take damage equally. Being in FL 2 means that it takes 2 hits to score 1 damage against the ships. TF2 splits the damage equally as follows:
HMS Henry (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 5 DAMAGE
HMS William (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 5 DAMAGE
HMS Richard (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 6 DAMAGE
HMS Anne (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 6 DAMAGE
That was a pretty substantial volley that left the ships in very bad condition. However, it was also an extremely lucky roll, and definitely far from average. In return, TF2 does 5 [D6] x 72 / 10 = 36 hits. Here is where things get dicey. Two of the dreadnoughts in TF1 are in FL 1, which means that it only takes 1 hit to score 1 damage against them. TF1's player has to decide whether to completely plaster those two exposed dreadnoughts or else take the damage to its two protected ones, one of which (Edward) is serving as the squadron's command element. As painful as it is, TF1 takes all of the damage to Elizabeth. That doesn't cripple her, but it does leave her vulnerable to future attack. The alternative is to damage Edward, but we don't want to lose our command element if we can't help it as losing Edward will put the squadron out of command until it can reorganize, halving its combat factors.
HMS Edward (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level
HMS Elizabeth (Royal Sovereign) - 2 Formation Level - 18 DAMAGE
HMS Victoria (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
HMS George (Royal Sovereign) - 1 Formation Level
That's round 1 of combat, and I have to head off to bed from there. Tomorrow, along with doing another Human Republic turn, I'll come back and finish this combat to see how things turn out. Right now after one round of extremely good attack rolls and lousy formation rolls the forces are battered but not at a terrible disadvantage. In fact, if the same amount of damage was scored on each of the remaining five rounds of combat, both squadrons could emerge from the fight without any combat losses. Their ships would be crippled and heavily damaged, but they would still be alive and capable of fighting another day.
As another quick aside, consider that HMS Elizabeth is damaged but not crippled. The cost to repair a damaged unit is 25% of its construction cost. It would cost 13 EP to repair the dreadnought, and the completion time would be 13 / 5 = 3 turns. The 13 EP has to be paid in a single chunk, too, so it would have to return to a colony with at least 13 EP of shipyard capacity to effect the repairs. An alternative would be to use ships with the Repair ability to conduct these repairs in the field, but it would require 13 Repair rating for those 3 turns instead. That's doable, but is going to tie up a lot of assets to repair the one dreadnought.