For the DropShip changes we need to layout what the drivers are for these changes and what the Clans would see as being needed to fix the problems they had.
For the Clans, the almost uniform problem (to a greater or lesser degree depending on the Clan) when taking part in REVIVAL was logistics. As they didn't bring any factories forwards or even establish some supply points nearer the Inner Sphere, the Clans were operating on a supply chain roughly a year long and the Clans as a generalized whole seem to have about as good a grasp of Logistics as the Germans did during Operation Barbarossa (IE not much at best).
The problem is that OTL the Clans have a VERY messed up DropShip fleet and is built as follows.
2 x Small raiding craft (Broadsword and Confederate) both of which have small cargo bays, no Elementals, and can only carry a Star of Mechs.
1 x Assault DropShip that is starting to enter production - Noruff.
1 x Dedicated infantry transport - Sassanid
1 x 'Standard' Mech carrier - Union-C but it carries no Elementals and carries a Trinary of Mechs.
1 x ASF carrier - Carrier - But it only carries 1 Star of Fighters (10)
1 x 'Combined arms' transport that can't carry vehicles and carries standard infantry in addition to 2 stars of Mechs - Lion
2 x Heavy carriers - Titan and Miraborg with the Miraborg being far better armed and more useful
1 x Heavy Mech carrier - Overlord-C, but again it lacks Elementals and carries a full Cluster of Mechs
The Clans for the most part do actually operate on a Combined arms aspect, with the close integration of Mechs and Elementals into their battle plans but there's NO combined arms transport for the two. Instead you have to bring another dropper along to carry the Elementals whilst one carries the Mechs. Logistically this causes problems. You're using two dropships, with two crews and twice the fuel consumption to bring your Mechs and Elementals to a battle and whilst the bidding process might well mean you don't 'need' the Elementals or some Mechs and can bring Elementals instead, you've still not got the facilities on 90% of your DropShips for Elementals and going off the rules for what they can carry you HAVE to bring a Sassanid along with you regardless.
Miraborgs are brand new, barely 2 years old at this point and only produced by the Jaguars and they carry as many fighters as a Titan, have the same speed and are far better armed. The only advantage the Titan has is its armour and cargo capacity but the Miraborg is a far superior ship purely in terms of firepower.
We don't know what cargo haulers the Clans use but we can assume they have Mules etc but we can IIC them or make the CargoKhan as was suggested.
But what I feel is needed is a series of true combined arms transports. The Clans have large jumpship fleets but reducing the number of Dropships to have a lesser number of larger and more capable dropships would help because then you don't need to bring 2 - 4 Dropships along to an attack.
because Lets be honest, a world isn't going to be threatened by a Confederate and a Carrier, a better defended world could require multiple Overlord and Union-C's and then you NEED to bring a Titan along otherwise you're going to be taking up precious docking collar space by having to spam Carrier's to match the carrying capacity of a Titan. And who's to say that 30 fighters is enough? It might well not be.
Sarna says ‘an average Cluster is two OmniMech Trinaries, an Elemental Binary, an OmniFighter Binary and either a mixed Trinary or a Supernova Trinary’
So that’s 2 x Union Cs, 1 x Sassanid, 2 x Carriers, and you might in theory need another Union-C for the ‘Supernova Trinary’. This is a lot of ships and fuel, sure you can reduce that to a Overlord-C, 1 x Sassanid and 2 x Carriers but this then places all your Mech’s in a big egg shaped target and even then you’ve got to land them all together, have the Sassanid come down with the Unions or Overlord and this complicates things because there’s no way to ensure this happens. The landing zone could be contested, hostile ASF’s might force one to divert etc and it throws your landing out of whack.
So, what’s needed is to bring the Mech’s and infantry together. And this means going for Nova’s as a standard unit, or at least allowing for their use without having to rely on hauling a 3000 ton dropship around.
So my recommendation is the following
1 – Produce a ‘streched’ Broadsword that carries a Star of Mechs and up to a Star of Elementals
2 – Retire the Confederate and either scrap them or convert them to other roles, you don’t need two dropships the same size with the same small carrying capacity.
3 – Produce a Assault DropShip, the Spheroids have them, the history of the SLDF showed that Assault DropShips are useful (reunification war, Amaris war, Kerensky Cluster civil war, Klondike etc)
4 – Produce a Stretched Union C as your standard Mech carrier, allow it to carry its trinary of Mechs or covert it to a Nova so its got a trinary of Elementals aboard as well.
5 – Get the Jaguars to share the Miragborg design and produce in larger numbers, the Carrier is adequate at best for small unit actions but nothing more.
6 – Produce a true combined arms dropship. This would be a larger vessel but it can bring at least a Trinary of Mechs to the party along with their own Elemental support and at least a Star of Fighters as well.
7- Replace the Lion, she’s really of little use, but could be used as a frame for Augmented Nova carrier (2 stars BA and Mech)
8 – The Overlord C needs to be able to carry Elementals as well as Mechs but it needs to be replaced with…
9 – Design a new large transport, A Colossus IIC that can bring a Clusters worth of Mechs with Elementals and Air support and this is to become your ‘standard’ heavy transport, slowly relegating the Overlord C to secondary roles.
10 – Reduce the Titans engine size to 4/6, modernize her weapons and see if you can cram more fighters onboard, that the Clans lack an equivalent of a Vengeance class is a serious oversight.
By using fewer but larger, more capable transports instead of many reduces fuel consumption, reduces crew requirements and frees up collars for other craft.
As an example of this, lets go back to our ‘typical’ Trinary and assume 3 x Union C, 2 x Carrier 1 x Sassanid. This is 266 crew spread across 6 DropShips, each of which need fuel and supplies and the more small ships you have, the bigger the drain this is going to be as you’d have to supply fuel for more craft, requiring more dropships carrying fuel which requires more dropships and so on.
Whilst the savings in crew and food for them will at best be minimal if you was to use a single large dropship vs multiple smaller ones, the big saving comes in fuel.
But the greatest advantage is that you bring down your forces together in a single space and can deploy them from a single point. There’s no risk of getting separated or forced apart due to hostile action, weather or lack of suitable landing zones. There’s also the advantage of security, a single dropship does not require so large a security perimeter whilst command and control is all there on the single larger vessel rather than spread out and this is the same for repair and resupply facilities.
The TLDR is that the Clans need smaller numbers of larger dropships, that way is more efficient, they need assault dropships as well and with the Spheroids starting to re-introduce WarShips, this means that the Clans can shrug off Edo Bay as an aberration and look forwards to fighting in space against a ‘real’ opponent. And such large ships with their simply gargantuan cargo facilities make useful logistics hubs too.
Sorry for the stream of thought/conciousness!
