Re: TBA designs

About Neal Kaplan's TBA ship designs:

A few trouble spots:

* The cost of the Broadsword-class BBM is 450 (not 440); its SML refit
either needs to remove one more Mass somewhere, or it is 131 Mass, cost
454 (not 130/453).

* The Basilisk-class DDH as shown on the web page is Mass 40, cost 131.
With an extra FC (more on this later) it becomes Mass 41, cost 136.

* The Hermes-class FF costs 60, not 61.

There are a couple of things the various TBA design bureaus should take
note of for future designs and refits:

* Thrust-4, Average-hulled FTL-capable ships with a mass ending in "5"
(45, 55, etc) are inherently inefficient. Dropping the hull size by 1
Mass will reduce the hull integrity by 1 box, but it'll give the ship
an extra Mass to use for systems - preferrably armour to
(over-)compensate for the lost hull box. This means that the Typhon,
Revenge, Aegis and Hawk classes could all reduce their Mass by 1, swap
1 hull box for 1 (slightly more efficient) armour box and reduce their
respective costs by 3 points. [This is of course due to artificial
breakpoints in the FB1 construction rules, but the effect is there.]

* Pulse Torpedoes and Needle Beams require FCs separate from those used
by standard beam batteries (FT2 p.18). This means that the Hawk, Gorgon
and Basilisk classes are unable to fire all of their weapons in a
single turn; similarly the Manticore, Black Widow and Hyperion classes
are rather likely to suffer fire control shortages. The Hyperion in
particular, since its PTs cover different arcs and thus may well want
to engage different targets - but doing so would stop its heavy beam
battery from firing. The non-PT armament of the Typhon class is too
light to make this problem serious, but it too is unable to split its
PT fire between two targets if it wants to use its Class-2 as well.

Finally, two comments:

* Is the Hyperion-class really a "cruiser"? I'd call it a BC instead,
especially since the Constellation-class BCs are smaller than the
Hyperions. Yes, I *know* that the B5 Omegas are called "Destroyers",
but... well, that's B5 :-/ 

* It is IMO rather unlikely that a Scimitar-class CG will be around
long enough to launch all of its missiles. 4 turns is a very long time
to survive in range of the enemy, particularly with a fragile
2-component weapon :-/

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry