Magellanic Cloud - Eneen Carriers, Escorts and Fighter Squadrons (Post-Unity)
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Magellanic Cloud - Eneen Carriers, Escorts and Fighter Squadrons (Post-Unity)
Hi.
In module C5, the bulk of the background information provided in the R-section details the logistical and doctrinal issues affecting the featured Magellanic powers, such as the Eneen, Baduvai and Maghadim.
In the case of attrition units, the Eneen are listed as having fighters - the Plasma Attack Shuttle (PAS), modified from Maghadim fighter samples - but unlike the Maghadim, the Eneen are listed as not possessing dedicated carriers.
At the time that the Eneen first developed the PAS, they had lost both their home space in the Protectorates, and the exile-colonies set up in the Core - and thus had no room to spare in their barely-functional logistic train to build a proper carrier, even if they wanted to.
However, after Y202, things changed. With the Andromedan threat reduced by Operation Unity, and the need to assemble forces required to retake the home world, their former colonies and subject race planets within Protectorate space, as well as to hunt down Andromedan holdout forces, the Eneen would have an increased need for attrition units. Plus, with everyone else doing the same thing (possibly even the Jumokians, too - who may well take advantage of the situation to re-form the League) the Eneen also have the breathing space required to rebuild the fleet yards and other assets over Ena required to expand upon such an idea.
To give an example of a race in a similar-ish situation, out in the Iridani Cluster, there was enough of a manufacturing base re-developed after the Grand Quest to facilitate fighter and PF production, even before the main fleet yards were only made fully operational in Y208. Hoever, given that the Eneen did not build the kind of large vessels flown by the Iridani, and thus did not need to build fleet yards capable of constructing SC2 hulls, they might take less time in re-building their fleet yards - plus they had asteroid yards they could tow from the Fringe to the Eneen home system, as an interim measure.
So, I suggest that in the mid-Y200s, the Eneen take the carapaces of one or more of their later hull types (CA, NCL, DW, FF) and the experience of carrier doctrine gained from their co-operative efforts with the Maghadim (as well as that gained through contact with the Unity races) to fly their own dedicated carriers.
Also, the use of carriers would necessitate that of escorts - so perhaps carriers using CA or NCL hulls would have escorts convered from DWs or FFs to support them.
Additionally, the question would arise as to what kind of fighters such Eneen carriers would fly.
Originally, the PAS was designed to all have EM pods attached, since unlike the Maghadim, the Eneen at the time had no squadron doctrine (and thus no need to distinguish between regular and EW fighters).
However, if the Eneen post-Unity develop carriers, would they be as well just simplifying production by sticking with the tried and tested PAS, or would they consider building one or more variants (one with more lasers, one with more plasma, one as a dedicated EW platform) to flesh out their new squadrons?
Or, indeed, would the Eneen take the opportunity to learn from the larger Wasp design flown by this time in Maghadim forces (or maybe even purchase Wasp and Bumblebee samples for reverse-engineering purposes) and build larger, dedicated fighters altogether?
The post-Unity Cloud has yet to be fully explored in SFB terms - but perhaps going with full-on carrier groups could be one means by which the Eneen strive to re-secure their home space.
A further thought on the fighters - if the option was taken to go with new fighter variants based on reverse-engineering the Wasp, perhaps one variant could be outfitted with either Neutron Beams, or even Neutron Guns, in place of plasmas?
Gary - Neutron Beams and Neutron Guns do not exist in fighter variants.
Likewise, one of the things I was aiming for with the Magellanics was a very different spread of attrition unit doctrines, in particular trying to keep their numbers small enough that the game was still fun to play. I've PLAYED games with a fully outfitted Fed SCS plus escorts against a Klingon C8V. They're not fun.
Most GP squadrons at the time C5 was written and under playtest had 10-12 fighters on their major carriers, and the WYN carried a couple of "casual fighters" - with the Hydrans being the notable exception. Oversized squadrons didn't exist (and are something I wish had never been added to the game...)
I was aiming for the Maghadim to use more squadrons of smaller fighters, around a stand-off fighter doctrine: Fly in to range 10 with max ECM, switch over to ECCM provided by the EWF, let fly, turn off and kick in the overdrive to avoid pursuit is the "optimum" Maghadim fighter strike - it's meant to shove as many missiles at a target as is feasable. While the Steves have final say on F&E costs, the F&E costs of Maghadim carriers are hideously expensive, especially the unique CVA, which is DD > DDV, DDV + CV Collar, + 24 fighters. It was something that had to be converted over two F&E turns to be afforded at all, and during those turns, you weren't building much else.
The Baduvai never used fighters at all; they're physically too big for them. They turned the Magellanic Pinnace into an Interceptor instead.
The Eneen were built on the idea of "OK, we don't have dedicated carriers, nor do we have the yard capacity or infrastructure to build one. However, fighters can serve the same role that our plasma armed warships used to."
Towards that aim, they tried to put as many benefits into the fighter as they could while avoiding lengthy refit times for their ships; this is why there are no Eneen "fully capable" carriers, and why the Eneen PAS has an EW pod to compensate; it wasn't cheaper to put the EW pod on the fighter, but it was FASTER to do so given their limited yard capacity.
Change these, and you turn the Eneen into Yet Another Plasma Carrier Race.
Again, SVC and SPP have the final say, but in the interests of preserving racial/national character, I'd prefer that the Eneen did NOT get dedicated carriers, just as I'd prefer the Maghadim to not get 12 fighter squadrons, or the Baduvai to get full on PFs.
They're each different, and yes, they're each suboptimal...but they're suboptimal in ways that work in the context of their own fights and ways that are interesting to play.
Ken - the different nature of a setting compared to Alpha hasn't stopped the Omega Octant from getting large varieties of fighter and gunboat attrition units in the recent release of Omega 5, and in that case, almost all of the boats, PFTs and SCSs flown by Omega powers are done so in the Seventh Cycle, after the Andromedans and Souldra had been defeated...
...and thus, in a time period far enough in the future from the pre-Invasion Omega timeline to not overly burden those who wish to play out Omega scenarios without masses of attrition units.
However, even there, there is enough variety built into the Omega carriers and PFTs to preserve significant racial flavour - more so than in the Alpha Octant - and in this, there is an example of how the Cloud could be expanded upon in the post-Unity era, yet still retain its unique character.
And perhaps the Eneen might one day find a way of building a neutron weapon small enough to fit in a fighter (even a larger fighter, such as a reverse-engineered Wasp) - but that the weapon ends up no more effective than the Neutron Gun?
That would allow for an increased level of flexibility in a post-Unity carrier doctrine - and mirror the variety of weapons that the Omega races flew from their carriers.
Before Operation Unity, and given the economic situation the survivors had up to that point, the choices shown in C5 make sense - but post-Unity, when the Magellanic factions are sedantary powers again (and, as in Omega, have to try and re-establish thesmelves) the needs of the fleets will change, as will the kind of infrastructure available to them - and none of them will soon forget the lessons learned during Operation Unity (and we still don't know what kind of contact with Alpha there is post-Unity, either) - so the drive to innovate and re-organise is there...
...but again, it can be done for each race in a unique manner, as it has been done in Omega.
Gary, the entire LMC has an economy comparable to the Lyrans, divided among three (or four) powers.
Just where are they getting the money to build these things?
And you have not answered my question - how does it add to the fun of playing the LMC to have More Attrition Units?
Have you played battles using the current ships and attrition units and found them lacking?
Most of the Omega powers had been pushed back to their core space - some as far as the immediate space surrounding their home worlds - by the time the Invasions came to an end, and in come cases (Qixa, FRA) their home space was pretty small in the first place (The Qixa stay put in their one-hex Cloud, and the Aurorans only expand to four hexes, rather than just one, in the Seventh Cycle).
Indeed, the Iridani, who had to re-build their fleet infrastructure from scratch after the Grand Quest - and according to Omega 5, only get their full shipyard capacity up and running again in Y208 - are based out of a pretty tiny Cluster themselves.
And yet, all of them were able to build attrition units (in the FRA's case, they just built fighters, since they forewent PFs) - and, indeed, relied on them to a greater extent than they would have otherwise, since it was cheaper to go with fighters and gunboats, and to convert ships into tenders (or build new ones) than it was to start up again by only constructing warships.
Out in a Cloud which had a comparable level of devastation to that seen in Omega or the Iridani Cluster (in Omega, parts of the Octant were worse off as far as colony worlds went, since the Souldra drained the biospheres of entire planets - the Andros could be ruthless occupiers too, but there was a better chance that the Andros wouldn't have left their occupied planets lifeless husks the way the Souldra did) going with attrition units as a means of filling the gap, as well as building or converting the hulls required to field them, makes as much sense as it did for the Iridani, Mæsrons, Qixa and othes.
I will say that I'm looking at this from more of an in-setting point of view, than an in-game one - by looking at what has happened in the Omega Octant with the release of Omega 5, the kind of parallels that could be found in the post-Unity Cloud, and which direction the Powers would take in terms of trying to re-establish themselves.
But when it comes to in-game play, would it be much worse than it already is when, say, a Maghadim player takes a CVA and escorts as part of a battle force? Presumably, the same kind of deployment restrictions would effect an Eneen carrier group that are currently in play for the Maghadim (MS1.311) and if the number of fighters that a converted CA or NCL can take is restricted to, say, 16 or 12 (the same as the carrier collar on a Maghadim CV - which would still make the Maghadim CVA "the single most potent carrier deployed in the LMC", as stated in (MR4.4)) then the number of fighters on the tabletop would be lessened.
(Plus, if a superority fighter was designed, and a fighter could be developed that could fit a miniaturised neutron gun, that would help keep the number of counters down - since it would help reduce the number of plasma-armed fighters an Eneen carrier would ordinarily carry. The likes of the Mæsron SCS does something similar, since only 2 of its 14 fighters carry tachyon missiles, as opposed to 7 superiority fighters, 4 tachyon gun fighters and 1 EW fighter.)
I will re-iterate that the point of this is not by any means to invalidate the ship types and dynamics that are already in C5 - almost all of which are meant to be flown through to Operation Unity - just as the majority of Omega ships currently in print are designed primarily for the Cycles prior to the Invasions.
However, just as Omega 5 gives us some of the buildng blocks required to demonstrate the evolution of the Omega armed forces in the post-Invasions era, the ideas I mention here and elsewhere are intended to demonstrate how the new realities of life in the Cloud after the end of the Andromedan War could be reflected they way they have been in Omega.
And as in Omega, the player would then have the choice of which era he or she wishes to set their battles or camapigns, and thus what kind of squadron or fleet actions such battles or camapigns would entail.
I looked up this thread after getting yet another one of my innumerable screwball ideas and (as with virtually ALL threads I've read) found it very interesting.
However, the idea I had is quite different. 
We all know that the Eneen had a VERY limited fighter deployment and never built carriers. We also all know that a good part of the reasoning behind this was the pressure they were under to just stay alive during the Andromedan attacks.
The screwball thought I had was, "WHAT IF the Eneen did an experiment with a modified cargo pod or pack?"
What might THAT look like?
The hexagonal cargo pods, used on the Civilian Cargo Tug (MR1.9) have 26 boxes, as do the Repair pods, shown on the SSD for the Mobile Repair Dock (MR1.12).
The Magellanic COMPLAT (MR1.13)and Outpost Station (MR1.14) APPEAR to be constructed from modified versions of these pods, but each one consists of only seventeen boxes.
Both for reasonable convenience and it seems a logical place for the Eneen to have done any initial experiments, I'm thinking in terms of a different modification of these pods.
Tentative thoughts are that the Eneen would try initial squadron strengths of six PAS. Yes, I know their Maghadim "Rivals" made use of squadrons of eight fighters, but IMO, the pods are just TOO small for such a deployment.
Anyway, the Carrier Pods consist of six shuttles (the fighter boxes), four APR, two TRAC, three HULL (nominally C Hull) and two LL-360. Total is seventeen boxes, just like the modified pods used for the COMPLAT and Outpost Station.
One other minor thing of note; like Alpha Octant Heavy Fighter Squadrons, all the PAS have a single EW pack, but when deployed together as a squadron, only one is able to use it as the squadron dedicated EW fighter.
Again, this is not meant as a "Regular Deployed Unit," but is merely just one of many desperation units put out under duress.
Jeffrey George Anderson:
I would say that your starting point would have to be a fighter conveyor set up as used by the Hydrans for their expedition. That is to say a pod designed to provide replacement fighters to combat ships so that they do not have to go to the rear to replace lost fighters. The pod then gets pressed into action and perhaps later modified.
I am not saying this is a good idea and that it should be done, just noting a possible development path.
SPP:
Since when have I had a good idea...
Seriously, maybe it's just me, but I pictured the Eneen using regular Pinnace hauled cargo packs as a way of bringing replacement fighters to front line ships.
On the other hand, while I can try to give any one of dozens of reasons for the Eneen to try this idea, if having the Eneen have fighter squadrons runs against the vision Magellanics author Ken Burnside has, then I'm happy to say "Scrap this idea!"
Jeffrey George Anderson:
I am sure they do, but the fighters are packed as cargo (two per cargo box) and some of the boxes do not hold fighters, but other supplies. But transferring cargo (bulk item of 25 cargo spaces) from a ship to a ship in space can be kind of difficult, so the fighters are probably normally prepared on bases or colonies and then picked up. What you may be looking at is an FCR pod set up (so that fighters could be activated and then sent forward) that later evolves into a carrier pod (originally intended to quickly deliver fighters to a squadron of ships that has expended/lost their fighters). It then gets pressed into action as a sort of carrier pod.
Again, I am not saying this is a good idea and that it should be done, just noting a possible development path.
The two angles that I had in my (alleged) mind were for the defense of an Outpost Station (MR1.14, but not likely to have been done) or a Civilian Tug (MR1.9).
The latter seems possible for two reasons. First, it is explained in the Color Text that the barracks refit was introduced to the design as a means of protecting them from Jumokian pirates and Andromedans (although how much benefit the extra Marines would have been against the Invaders, I can't see so well), so it makes sense (to me) that both the Baduvai and Eneen would have been willing to consider additional measures to protect the vulnerable tugs.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Eneen would have most likely have observed a Maghadim Auxiliary Carrier (MR4.33) in operation. Would that have inspired them to try and duplicate the efforts of their insectoid neighbors?
And again, I am saying that if this runs contrary to Ken Burnsides artistic vision, then scrap it