One of the outstanding problems facing large military units since the dawn of interstellar warfare is transport. Moving an AFFS RCT is an epic juggling act of infantry transports (rarely able to haul more than a battalion of infantry, and needing to haul 15 battalions for the RCT), vehicle transports (looking at three regiments to haul, plus support vehicles), and mech transports (a full regiment at least: 3 Overlords and more to handle command lances and command companies). Supplying this armada required yet more dropships. A flotilla of rare jumpships was also required.
The Warlord started as an innocuous enough idea: a somewhat enlarged Overlord able to haul not a third of a mech regiment, but a third of an RCT. Infantry were light. Vehicles didn't require those spiffy mech bays, just some tie downs. And, hey, maybe the dropship could also haul some cargo. Some viewed this as a case of putting all the RCT's eggs in a few baskets but, let's face it, the tanks and infantry weren't all that important in comparison to mechs, so putting a third of an RCT in one dropship wasn't really any worse than putting a third of the RCT's mech regiment in one dropship, right?
(The AFFS general overseeing the Warlord project had been too old-school to adapt to combined arms tactics, and thus had been shuffled away from a mech combat command to handle something less dangerous like the Warlord design study. His opinion on the value of infantry and vehicles showed clearly in his willingness to risk a third of the RCT on one dropship.)
However, as the parametric studies commenced, it soon became clear that the bar napkin estimates of the "slight" increases in tonnage necessary to handle a vehicle regiment and 5 infantry battalions (the conventional third of an RCT) were low. Very low. The vehicle bays alone would be heavier than an entire Overlord, with the infantry life support and quarters approaching the Overlord's mass. As quarters for mech and fighter techs and astechs, HQ command groups, logistics personnel, and all the other "baggage" of an RCT were stuffed in there, the Warlord continued to bloat. Federated Boeing engineers (who saw an opportunity to replace many, many competitors' dropship designs with this single dropship) strove valiantly to simplify the Warlord and keep the price down, and in some ways they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Feature bloat was minimized, entirely virtual design and testing virtually (heh) eliminated the changes needed at the shipyard on the prototype, new standardized construction techniques were selected to build the dropships out of mass-produced components...
The Warlord still bloated to 100000 tons before it met the design specs.
Critics would never see the simplicity in construction. The elegance of the cookie cutter crew quarters that were mass produced off-site and slid into waiting frames, with just a few bolts, wires, and pipes to connect. The brilliance of the standardized pipe- and ductwork that eliminated the need for on-site customized pipe and duct forming. The simple, logical layout and labeling of conduits, wires, halls, etc. that made the dropship so easy to navigate a green crewman could figure out their location in minutes, and a green astech could quickly understand and repair.
These points would escape critics, who could only see:
1) 3.5 billion C-bill price tag
2) One third of an RCT on one ship
3) 3.5 billion C-bill price tag
4) Huge, no doubt super complicated dropship that must (because of its expense) be as hard to build as a warship
5) 3.5 billion C-bill price tag
In fact, by eliminating so many dropships and jumpships, the Warlord would approach cost effectiveness. It would free innumerable dropships and jumpships for other duties. It would simplify war planners' lives. It was, in fact, much easier to build than a warship - there was no KF drive core, the core (heh) headache of warship construction.
Despite the price, it could be built nearly as quickly as Overlord due to the internal symmetry of construction (the same structural and mechanical components, and even entire crew quarters, showed up over and over again). The Warlord was not a hand-built wonder of precision and custom craftsmanship like most dropships. No, it was a factory-built, soulless beast, where one part and one corridor were like another. It used its enormous volume and tonnage to achieve this - no system had to compromise its simple, cookie cutter design to wrap around some other vital conduit. Everything could be spaced out, given plenty of access space, and not need to consider the needs of other systems.
The proponents of the Warlord were gathering steam as they painted pictures of entire RCTs hauled on a single Invader-class jumpship, enabling that many more RCTs to be quickly mustered and sent to foreign soils, when production was brutally shut down by the Jihad.
Like the Mammoth, the Warlord settles on a reinforced, cushioned rear. This made FedBoeing engineers' lives easier: they didn't have to design retractable landing gear for a 100,000-ton vehicle.
One of the most impressive things about Warlord construction is that it is made out of separately assembled stacks of decks. Around a central construction pit there were typically five or six active construction areas where 5-6 disks of 10 or so individual decks were assembled. The disks, up to 150m across and 5000 tons, were then moved to the central pit and lowered onto the growing stack of disks with sub-millimeter precision. What got less press was that the disks were in turn made of pre-assembled components. For example, several housing firms were hired to mass produce the many, many crew quarters and ship them (like mobile homes) to the construction site. The Warlord did retain one element of the Overlord: the Overlord's engine. It just uses 12 of those Star League V450's in pods under its waist (similar to the Mammoth, but more conformal to the hull), rather than one in its stern.
CAPABILITIES
As noted, the Warlord moves a lot of troops. The Warlord also has thousands of tons of cargo space, enough to provision and arm its troop complement for an extended period and outclassing a Mule.
Quarters are provided not just for mechwarriors, vehicle crews, fighter pilots, and combatant infantry, but also RCT support personnel, such as technicians, officers, MASH doctors, etc. The cargo tonnage easily accomodates many more light and utility vehicles. Room is provided in the upper crew decks for C3 facilities; the tonnage for this is regularly deducted from the cargo capacity.
With minor modifications to the original armament, the Warlord was designed to be a mobile field base able to defend itself from ground threats (and, of course, flee if its firepower didn't deter the attackers). For ground use, the Warlord is equipped with a Guardian ECM suite and Beagle Active Probe. It is also ringed with TAGs (admittedly of little use to itself, but considered a worthwhile addition for last ditch defenses), which work well with the Warlord's primary deterrent to ground threats: an artillery battery. Four Long Toms in a 2x2 turret and a ring of 8 vertical launching Arrow IVs make the Warlord an appreciated addition to aggressive RCTs. Like the tiny Fortresses before them, an RCT's Warlords can form a chain of mobile field fortifications with heavy, precise artillery firepower. (In all honesty, the Long Toms are the only artillery of use in a mobile battle. The Arrow IVs are considered the primary ground defenses of the Warlord, to be used when attackers get within a mere 2-3km of the Warlord.)
Conventional weaponry on the Warlord is heavy. Every arc is dotted with banks of eighteen ER PPCs and four LRM 20s, which should deter light fighter threats in space and rough up small groups of mechs that get past the artillery. Dense pulse small laser batteries provide excellent anti-missile defenses in space.
DEPLOYMENT
Five Warlords were built between 3068 and 3070. A sixth and seventh were destroyed in their construction pits by WoB orbital bombardment. After a forty year hiatus, the AFFS returned to the Warlords when it realized the simple, big dropships were actually easier (if more expensive) to build than their smaller counterparts, and construction resumed in fits and starts, until a solid order for 12 Warlords was placed in 3115. The Warlords served with distinction during the Jihad, and at least once did exactly what their designers had hoped: delivered an entire RCT on a single jumpship, catching WoB invaders on New Avalon between invaders and the landing reinforcements. In practice, Warlords were delivered by Fox-class corvettes rather than Invaders. They were simply too valuable to waste on undefended standard jumpships.
Code:
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
VALIDATED
Class/Model/Name: Warlord 2
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3067
Vessel Type: Spheroid DropShip
Rules: Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 100,000 tons
Length: 150 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Ferro-aluminum
Armament:
108 ER PPC
24 LRM 20+ArtIV
90 Small Pulse Laser
12 TAG
6 Screen Launcher
4 Long Tom Artillery
8 Arrow IV System
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name: Warlord 2
Mass: 100,000 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 19,500.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 50 10,000.00
Total Heat Sinks: 1,082 Double 718.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 3,060.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 750.00
Fire Control Computers: 444.00
Food & Water: ( days supply) 5.00
Armor Type: Ferro-aluminum (1,410 total armor pts) 180.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 405
Left/Right Sides: 350/350
Aft: 305
Cargo:
Bay 1: BattleMechs (40) with 4 doors 6,000.00
Bay 2: Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (120) with 12 doors 12,000.00
Bay 3: Fighters (24) with 4 doors 3,600.00
Bay 4: Light Vehicles (to 50T) (120) with 12 doors 6,000.00
Bay 5: Cargo (1) with 12 doors 9,043.00
Escape Pods: 500 (7 tons each) 3,500.00
Crew and Passengers:
350 Officers (14 minimum) 3,500.00
50 Gunners (47 minimum) 500.00
350 1st Class Passengers 3,500.00
2,750 Steerage Passengers 13,750.00
1,688 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 ER PPC Nose 18(180)18(180)18(180) -- 270 126.00
4 LRM 20+ArtIV(60 rounds) Nose 6(64) 6(64) 6(64) -- 24 54.00
15 Small Pulse Laser Nose 5(45) -- -- -- 30 15.00
2 TAG Nose -- -- -- -- 0 2.00
1 Screen Launcher(20 scrns)Nose -- -- -- -- 10 240.00
4 Long Tom Artillery(40 rouNose 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 80 128.00
8 Arrow IV System(400 roundNose 16(160)16(160)16(160)16(160) 80 200.00
18 ER PPC FL/R 18(180)18(180)18(180) -- 540 252.00
4 LRM 20+ArtIV(60 rounds) FL/R 6(64) 6(64) 6(64) -- 48 108.00
15 Small Pulse Laser FL/R 5(45) -- -- -- 60 30.00
2 TAG FL/R -- -- -- -- 0 4.00
1 Screen Launcher(20 scrns)FL/R -- -- -- -- 20 480.00
18 ER PPC AL/R 18(180)18(180)18(180) -- 540 252.00
4 LRM 20+ArtIV(60 rounds) AL/R 6(64) 6(64) 6(64) -- 48 108.00
15 Small Pulse Laser AL/R 5(45) -- -- -- 60 30.00
2 TAG AL/R -- -- -- -- 0 4.00
1 Screen Launcher(20 scrns)AL/R -- -- -- -- 20 480.00
18 ER PPC Aft 18(180)18(180)18(180) -- 270 126.00
4 LRM 20+ArtIV(60 rounds) Aft 6(64) 6(64) 6(64) -- 24 54.00
15 Small Pulse Laser Aft 5(45) -- -- -- 30 15.00
2 TAG Aft -- -- -- -- 0 2.00
1 Screen Launcher(20 scrns)Aft -- -- -- -- 10 240.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (1.00%) 1,000.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 2,164 100,000.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 3,554,992,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 33,902
Cost per BV: 104,860.83
Weapon Value: 22,628 (Ratio = .67)
Damage Factors: SRV = 1,752; MRV = 1,197; LRV = 473; ERV = 13
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 1,227,906
(835,370 Structure, 356,900 Life Support, 35,636 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 1,275,000 (104% of MPV)
BattleForce2: MP: 3, Armor/Structure: 24 / 23
Damage PB/M/L: 59/49/49, Overheat: 0
Class: DL; Point Value: 339
Specials: sph, tag
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