Tactical Command
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The Elearith
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Author:  Magsu [ Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:31 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
As a warning, I have had little to do in the past few days, so I went a bit overboard on this in terms of raw description and number of different ships. I apologize for the gargantuan post.

The Elearith:
The Elearith are a species new to space, slowly exploring and colonizing their star system. Tensions between the Elearith of Home and the Elearith of Brother have escalated constantly since Brother's colonization. Both constantly refer to prophecies of "Demons from above the sky," using it to refer to their counterpart world. This has resulted in a massive buildup of nuclear armament and militarization of ships from both sides. War has not yet begun, and as the Warp Storms around their system subsides and warp-capable species begin passing through, rapid cooperation has risen in the wake of the true "Demons from above the sky"

The Elearith home star system, Celes, is being constructed by me. However, the Elearith fleet profiles will function for any primative race if you want to include one. Large scale games should not be played with an Elearith fleet, the sheer amount of torpedoes that would be necessary is just terrifying. To include them in a game that takes place outside their stellar system, they would require some method of superluminal conveyance, such as a Grav Hook or equivalent.


Elearith technology is far inferior to that of other spacefaring races. Their technology is explained below:

Ion/Chemical Drives:
Rules: Elearith ships move 2d6cms extra on All Ahead Full instead of the normal 4d6.

Fluff: Compared to the massive plasma drive arrays that adorn Imperium ships, the Gravitic Impellers that brought the Tau to space, even the brute force Detonation Drives used by the Orks, the engines on Elearith ships do not come close. The core Ion Drives, while theoretically having an incredible top speed, can not realistically achieve this speed in a combat environment, requiring years-long acceleration and deceleration times. As such, they creep along slowly. However, their maneuverability does not suffer as much due to the chemical-reaction thruster assemblies that are mounted on these ships. These allow for faster speeds, but their excessive fuel consumption relegates them to maneuvering and on missiles and short-range craft.


Nuclear Missiles:
Rules: Act as torpedoes with a speed of 20cm.

Fluff: A Nuclear Warhead is nothing compared to the sheer destructive force contained in a standard Imperium plasma torpedo. But 12 of them comes close. The Elerith use swarms upon swarms of nuclear missiles as their primary armament, lacking a meaningful direct-fire alternative. The reaction drives propel them to a speed far greater than anything else in the Elerith fleet, though still falling short of other races.


Nuclear Mines:
Rules: Nuclear Mines are placed in play with a given strength represented by a d6. The Mine Cluster moves as an Orbital Mine, but with a speed of 5cm. Against a ship, they act as a Torpedo Salvo of the given strength. All mines are removed after attacking.

Fluff: When a Nuclear Missile is stripped of most of its drive, it is much cheaper and still possesses the same amount of destructive capacity. This fact has resulted in Nuclear Mines being deployed in droves. Though they are unlikely to ever reach a careful opponent, they still fill the battlespace with more hostile objects.


Countermissiles:
Rules: Act as Weapons Batteries that attack ordnance on a 4+. Against a ship, divide the strength by 10 and round as appropriate. It gains a left column shift for all attacks, but normal column shifts for range and blast markers still apply, as will Lock On.

Fluff: Though Nuclear Missile salvoes can be used to destroy enemy missiles, kinetic-kill rockets designed for the purpose are far more efficient. These missiles possess huge accelerations, basically being a column of reaction mass for the drives with a dense metal tip for impacting its target. The forces involved are usually powerful enough to down a missile or fighter, and are quite effective at downing some larger, unarmored vessels like Skiffs. However, an armored starship is practically immune to countermissile fire, though simulations have shown that massed countermissile fire could destroy a ship.


Missile Pods:
Rules: Act as Torpedo Bombers that fire S2 Nuclear Missiles. They have a speed of 5cm. Missile Pods are not subject to ordnance limits.

Fluff: To put the maximum amount of missiles in orbit around Home, the Elearith decided to mount a salvo of missiles in a small, disposable pod with communication links to the defense network. These pods were soon everywhere, a massive amount of fire ready to be aimed at Brother. Brother soon responded in kind, and now pod-equipped ships are considered to be the final word in offensive operations.


Defenders:
Rules: Act as resilient fighters with a speed of 10cm. When used to remove attack craft, the opposing attack craft gets a resilience save.

Fluff: Fighters, as they are in atmosphere, are useless in space. They cannot approach a starship without being shredded by the laser defenses. That area of advancement dead-ended, but the Defender was born out of that struggle. It is basically a small laser emitter and supporting equipment tied to a small reaction drive. In squadrons, they are a potent anti-missile force, though their weapons are not powerful enough to effectively deal with anything larger. Their powerplant and efficient use of fuel allows them to remain in space for a long while, and their armor against missile detonations affords them excellent survivability.


Skiffs:
Rules: Act as Torpedo bombers that can fire either S1 Nuclear Missiles or S2 Nuclear Mines. They have a speed of 10cm. Their loadout must be decided before launch.

Fluff: Skiffs are militarized versions of the larger orbital shuttles. They are equipped with large jamming suites, allowing them to slip through missile barrages to unload at enemy ships at close range. However, they still stand off and fire a salvo of missiles or drop mines. Skiff versions equipped with presicion close-in bombing weapons were tested, but simulations showed that there was no way to make a Skiff survivable enough against the laser defenses of a starship and still be able to deliver meaningful firepower.


Docking Clamps:
Rules: Docking Clamps allow the ship so equipped to launch a Defender squadron or Skiff as the game begins. After that point, they only add to the ordnance limit of the fleet.

Fluff: Defenders and Skiffs, the two primary support craft of the Elearith Navy, are not capable of even interplanetary travel. However, most Elearith ships do not reach the scale required to carry large amounts of these craft. Instead, these ships are attached to the outside of tankers, allowing their deployment away from the large naval bases. As tankers are a requisite part of any fleet away from a permanent base, this ensures the distribution of these support craft.


Laser Defense Grid:
Rules: This is the turret value of an Elearith ship. Elearith ships may initiate boarding actions against any ship, including ones that cannot be boarded, using their turret value as their boarding value. Defending Elearith ships still only use their turret value, not their hits.

Fluff: The Elearith Arms Race was not strictly a war of missile production. Both the worlds of Brother and Home both worked tirelessly to develop weapons that would make obsolete the vast nuclear arsenals in use. Countermissiles were one development of this race, but the main focus was on Laser weaponry. However, an appropriate amount of power and focal length could not be developed for space-combat range lasers. Instead, the focus moved to make them more and more accurate, within about 3000km. These soon resulted in laser arrays for anti-missile use being placed on nearly all ships. These arrays can still focus the power of an anti-starship weapon, though only over a short distance.


Elearith Ships:
Elearith ships have two class names, the first being the Home version, the second is the Brother version. The ships are usually close enough to be the same. Feel free to use the general designation instead

Salvor/Jardin Class Arsenal Ship
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 10cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
Missile Pod Bays: ?S2 ?Missile Pods

Lakiel/Molen Class Laser Frigate
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 15cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 5
Armor: 4+

Kierin/Terst Class Countermissile Frigate
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 10cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
Countermissile Battery: ?S6 ?30cm ?L/F/R Arc

Nokait/Kalar Class Assault Frigate
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 15cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
Nuclear Missiles: ?S2 ?F arc
Countermissile Battery: ?S2 ?30cm ?L/F/R arc

Mirik/Partid Class Tanker
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 10cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
Docking Clamps: ?S4 ?Defenders/Skiffs

Norin/Kalak Class Command Ship
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 10cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
External Docks: ?S1 ?Defenders
Command Net: +1 Ld to all ships within 20cms. Not cumulative with multiple Command Nets.
[Kalak Type b's command net extends to 25cms, but they lose 2 turrets]

Silar/Rakar Class Transport
Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 10cm
Turns: 45*
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 4+


Elearith Stations:

Lamas/Perit Class Defense Station
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Countermissile Battery: ?S6 ?45cm ?All arc

Kovat/Nitkat Class Missile Station
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: -
Armor: 4+
Weapons:
Nuclear Missiles: ?S6 ?All Arc
[These stations are considered obsolete with the development of the Missile Pod and LDG]

Elean/Umoat Class Space Station
Type/Hits: Defense/4
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Launch Bays: ?S2 ?Defenders/Skiffs
Docking Clamps: ?S4 ?Defenders/Skiffs
Ordnance Bays: ?S2 Missile Pods or S6 Nuclear Mines
Countermissile Battery: ?S6 ?45cm ?All arc
Command Net: +1 Ld to all ships within 25cms. Not cumulative with multiple Command Nets.


Elearith Ground Based Defenses:

Missile Silos
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Nuclear Missiles: ?S6 ?Up Arc

Airbase
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Launch Bays ?S4 ?Atmospheric Fighters(20cms)

Surface-to-Space Missile Silo
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 1
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Nuclear Missiles: ?S2 ?Place in contact with planet edge 1 turn after launch.

Countermissile Base
Type/Hits: Defense/1
Speed: -
Turns: -
Shields: -
Turrets: 3
Armor: 5+
Weapons:
Countermissile Battery: ?S12 ?45cms ?All arc

That's it, you survived!
Author:  blackhorizon [ Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:37 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Wow, comment later... you start building... :p
Author:  Xisor [ Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:22 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Ingenious idea IMO!

As for the 'defence' anti-missile batteries, I'd lump it in at a FP3 15cm Bombardment Cannon, saves on new rules.

Really, a great idea. I'm thinking of adapting this 'idea' for conversion to the very first Gal'leath ships that fought against the Nicassar, and then the upgrades and things to go against the Orks, then the Tau'n Campaign.

Xisor
Author:  Cpt.Leoten [ Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:44 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Rather impressive. I'm quite taken with the idea of a race not too far advanced of our own, seeing as they have basic travel in space but rely on obsolete (to other races) weaponry.
Author:  blackhorizon [ Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:12 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Maybe you could look into other ranges for minis instead of GW one. More expensive but faster as scratchbuilding!
Author:  Magsu [ Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:07 am ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
I agree that the Countermissile battery is too complex as it stands. However, I don't want it to become a viable anti-ship weapon, which a Bombardment Cannon is. The original concept had them only able to fire at ordnance, but I thought that was artificial and didn't sit well with me. Perhaps I should go back to that, make them basically this:

Countermissile Systems:
Act as Weapon Batteries. May only fire on ordnance, which they hit on a 4+. They get two left column shifts at all times.

One small note about having these in a battle against a real fleet: No shields means they'll die en masse, and leave blast markers which can kill their own ships. So careful if these are fighting the Orks.

However, I would definately be interested in seeing a battle between two Elearith fleets, see how the Arms Race turned out...
Author:  Raysokuk [ Thu Dec 15, 2005 7:00 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
All in all this is a promising little fleet, (I've got a similar fleet list which I'll post when I get home: an insectoid race mainly using 'Roks' (of a sort) and only discovering warp travel after ALL the resources of it home system are used up (a lot like a virus in certain terms :;): ).

As counter missiles are only ever going to be str 1 or 2 against ships why not just say that they are a direct strength as with lances. Why bother with the gunnery table? So they are a direct strength against armour, where ordnance counts as armour 4+.

Cheers,

RayB
Author:  Xisor [ Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
I still think the simplest way for the countermissiles to work is by using the rules of Bombardment Cannons at 15cm range.

Easiest IMO and doesn't need a new special rule.

Xisor
Author:  Raysokuk [ Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:53 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Yeah, but you don't want them to kill ships! And want them to be exclusivley good at killing ordnance! The gunnery table doesn't help so get rid of that! So a lance that hurts ordy on a 4+ and hits normal ships against thier armour seems to fill that void quite nicely! (or what if they used the gunnery table against ships but not against ordnance?)

Cheers,

RayB
Author:  Magsu [ Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Well, the idea of using the gunnery table with countermissiles is that they would be better at close range, and worse when radioactive debris is everywhere confusing their primative sensors. I am very much so against them being used similarly to bombardment cannon, that would make them superior to the nuclear weapons used by the rest of their fleet.

And Ray, note that if they count as lances, but hit against armor rather than a 4+ when striking ships, it would still kill Elearith ships just as effectively (except for the heavier stations that have 5+ armor). Perhaps as simplification, we can use this:

Countermissile Battery: Acts as a weapons battery. Hits ordnance on a 4+. Gets two left column shifts at all times. Against ships, hits do not do damage, but allow for a normal critical chance.

Since all Elearith ships are Escorts, it means a countermissile die has a 1/12 chance of killing them rather than a 1/2 as would be otherwise. Against an Imperial escort, unless the shields were brought down by other effects they could not damage it, and then they would have a 1/18 chance of killing it per die. They would be effective anti-eldar weapons though.
Author:  Raysokuk [ Sat Dec 17, 2005 1:55 am ]
Post subject:  The Elearith
Well what if counter missles were just like Wb's only they used thier direct strength against Ordnance (and hit ordy as follows: 0-15cm 4+, 15-30cm 5+, 30-45cm 6+. (so low str batteries).

Cheers,

RayB
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