Draugr Combat Doctrine

This is a page for the old "Ship design" segment. Includes info on Draugr tactical doctrine and ship design.

 Design Trends

Draugrii ship designs actually have very simple origins: as were were creating the race, Arik said to the effect of “We’re doing Homeworld 2 ships,” , to which I essentially replied “k”― and so the matter was decided. In particular, Draugr ships generally resemble vessels of the Vaygr and Hiigaran capital ships (particularly the former).

If that isn’t enough, Arik basically spelled it out for us in a short monologue, reproduced here:

* Boxy/Rectangular: They're fairly utilitarian. They're not going to have exotic bug mandibles, super-curvy hull sections, and stuff like that. It's too much work to fit it into the design. And on the note of utilitarian, think lots about what stuff they'd put on it. Do they need cargo containers for holding trade goods or supplies? How would they put on the weaponry to make it the most effective (or making it able to function at all)? How would they get the modularity they need to attach either a captured warp nacelle or that ion engine they scavenged onto the same base chassis/frame?

* Scavenged look: This should be obvious. They get almost all their building materials from half-exploded enemy ships. They don't have time to individually pull off every wire, screw, console display, armor bulkhead, pipe, and fluffy captain's chair from the big hunk of command bridge they just blasted off, so they slap it onto a ship, do some welding or whatever, and send that newly-built ship into battle.

* Armor: They need armor, of course. Probably what this would consist of taking big sections of armor plating off ships (or maybe making their own) and attaching it around a ship. Personally, I love the look of greebles exposed between gaps in the armor plating, so I'm gonna play that for all it's worth. Everyone else do whatever they like.

* Alien Tech: I assume that most of their tech would be stolen from the Masters, or else taken from people groups they've attacked and scavenged from. So their tech would be a mix of super-advanced Master tech, some bits of tech from other galaxies they've visited during their travels, and stuff they've stolen from factions in our galaxy. I figure the Masters' tech would be clean/simplistic-looking and super-advanced, maybe like Halo's Forerunners, then we could have fun with making other galaxies' tech.

* Paintjob: Something to keep in mind everyone. This was once a race who, though servants, were probably very proud of their work and service to the Masters. Chances are they had a strong sense of nobility and grace before they were simply discarded. And now more than ever I think they would take every chance to try and mimic their former glory.
* (In other words, don't totally toss out the idea of adding nice paintjobs, decorative or sentimental details, etc. as being too impractical for such a utilitarian species.)

...so you should probably thank him for that, if you get the chance. =P

A few more things of note: by and large, Draugr combat ships do more than just fight. They also act as freighters, transports, or whatever auxiliary role the Phantom Fleet needs when not engaged in raiding (see “FTL and the Phantom Fleet”, below). As a result, they often mount large, external hardpoints than can be configured with a multitude of different modules, as seen on my Acacia class; their ship designs should reflect their utilitarian, multirole nature.

The insides of Draugr military ships are also markedly different from those of their civilian vessels. Instead of small hallways and rooms, civilian vessels have massive, open corridors. These vessels harvest a bacterium that naturally aggregates on the hull during FTL travel to feed an internal ecosystem― respite with small animals and birds, plant life, moss and other lifeforms which flourish in the relatively confined shipboard spaces. Food-producing crops are harvested in a much more controlled fashion, aboard special industrial farming vessels designed for this.

On military vessels, however, such internal design would be a major structural liability. Because their unique methods of raiding allows them to strike out, loot, and return home within the space of a week, Draugr vessels are able to greatly minimize any nonessential systems― often even forgoing crew quarters, as individual Draugar are capable of going without rest for days at a time. After returning, the crews of these vessels often rest on their Clan’s civilian vessels as maintenance and repair teams prepare their ships for yet another incursion into civilized space.

## Shadow Drive and the Phantom Fleet

I want to move onto tactics, but it’s difficult to properly discuss them without delving a bit more deeply into Draugr technology and fleet composition― so please indulge me for a bit.

The Draugr FTL drive is interchangeably referred to as the Naglfar drive or Shadow drive― and it is almost certainly the primary reason for their success. The Naglfar drive works by slipping a vessel or group of vessels into a dimension that mirrors our own― albeit with distances massively compressed. Using this technology, a Draugr fleet can cross the gulf between galaxies in a month at most, and cross the galaxy in days― effectively putting the entire Milky Way within striking range. What makes this drive truly terrifying, however, is its inherent stealth: it’s utterly impossible to see them coming short of any deus-ex-machina plot devices we may need.

However, the Naglfar drive has several huge weaknesses. Every Clan has at least one vessel, known as the *Pret Toba Khor-bak* (roughly “Hyperdrive Forge Ship”), purely dedicated to the manufacture of Shadow drives cores, and yet still they are always in short supply― the Draugr (understandably) lack the production capacity of their sedentary counterparts, making the construction process comparatively slow and difficult. Furthermore, the drive’s massive bulk and energy drain means that it can only be mounted on elite capital vessels or dedicated “Motherships” (more on them later; specifically, “Ship Conventions”, below), making these ships somewhat of an Achilles’ heel of a raiding flotilla. In addition, it takes hours to recharge for the long-range jump back to the Phantom Fleet; even a quick flit back to a designated safe zone can take over twenty minutes of charging and jump calculations― meaning that once committed, it’s effectively do-or-die for all vessels involved.

With the Shadow drive fully established, we can now discuss the Draugr “Phantom Fleet”. Being a nomadic race, around 90% of Draugar spend all or almost all of their entire life on the Fleet― a massive flotilla consisting of almost every ship in a Clan’s civilian fleet. The core of this fleet, the *Gacho Toba So* (roughly “Hearth vessel”), is a massive construct (more akin to a semimobile station than a proper ship) which acts as the Clan's capital― its military, administrative, and industrial heart all rolled into one. Most *Gacho Toba So's* are Masters capital ships captured before the Draugr began their great crusade― though most have been heavily modified, often possessing entire new sections or even other vessels grafted on as the Clan deemed necessary. Each of these flagships has a modified Masters Long Jump Naglfar drive, allowing them and their entourage to stay “submerged” in compressed space for eons if necessary― though the fleet will occasionally re-enter realspace for various reasons.

Although the Draugr do create temporary terrestrial colonies for various reasons (mainly because it’s cooler that way), the vast majority of the of most Clan’s operations take place aboard these ships― everything from salvaging new weapons to the construction of new vessels to the growing of necessary foodstuffs to adjudication of inter-Tribe disputes. The Phantom Fleet is the soul of the diaspora, its engine, the one reason the Draugr still exist to terrorize wayward merchants and fringe colonies like the stuff of so many ancient legends.

## Ship Conventions

Although we discussed ship design earlier, we failed to really cover the general trends Draugr military vessels follow. Combat ships can be broken up into three types ―warships, support ships, and Motherships― and each of these must be tackled individually.

Motherships are the heart of every Draugr raiding squadron. They’re mainly built around Shadow Drives, albeit almost universally packing additional support subsystems. As mentioned earlier, only a few vessels can carry these drives, due to size, power, and manufacturing restrictions; carrying and activating them is the Mothership’s primary purpose. Motherships range from simple cruiser-sized “drive tugs” to full on supercapital-scale mobile battlestations respite with advanced CnC equipment, cavernous hangar bays, extensive EW systems, repair facilities, etc. As they’re generally the only source of FTL propulsion, Motherships are jealously guarded and well protected: even the aforementioned drive tugs are equipped with several feet of armor and banks of PD weapons. It’s very difficult to simply “snipe” a Mothership; it generally requires breaking through the thickest part of the fighting and hammering it down with heavy anticapital weaponry for several minutes while holding off the reinforcing ships.

Warships are, unsurprisingly enough, wildly different. Compared to the fleets of most Alpha/Beta-quadrant races, the Draugr emphasize large amounts of extremely fast glass cannons: minimal survivability and short range, but also quick, highly maneuverable, low cost, and with plenty of teeth. As discussed earlier, most Draugr combat ships are able to get by with only the bare minimum in noncombat-related systems― allowing room for even more guns and ammo (see “Ship Design”, above). Their warships also tend to have large, modular sections, allowing different components to be swapped out as necessary. Mass-based are favored, followed by energy weapons; missiles are relatively rare.

And last, yet not least, are the support ships. Support ships provide functionality similar to those of better-equipped motherships― albeit on a smaller, specialized and more cost-effective platform. These vessels range from corvette-size jamming corvette to capital-sized carriers to just about every role in between. Outside of their replacement of weaponry with noncombat systems, however, they largely follow the same outline as warships.

## Tactics

Lemme preface this with the following: I would’ve put earlier on, but I can’t really talk Draugr tactics without getting everything in the last four spoilers out of the way first. This isn't because their tactics are particularly complicated or anything; they’re just inextricably bound to the previous topics. Arik and myself developed the Draugr to suite our vision of them (psychopathic, merciless raiders― space pirates turned up to eleven with vengeance-driven blood oaths, if you will) and so designed almost every aspect of them towards that idea.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to business. The Draugr primarily emphasize “Shock-jump” tactics to seize the initiative: reemerging from their pocket dimension right on top of the enemy fleet, eliminating the need to close the range while blinding the sensors and jamming communication of any ships remotely nearby for several minutes due to the resulting tachyon cascade. These few minutes present a window for the Draugr fleet to quickly form up, reposition, and commence their attack well before the enemy can even begin to calculate a targeting solution.

Once the raid is underway, strategies diverge depending on the scale of the engagement. In smaller skirmishes, vessels will often break up into two or three prongs and attack from multiple directions; medium-sized battles will often feature a central thrust powered by squadrons of lighter ships backing up cruiser and occasional capital assets, while other lighter forces attempt flanking attacks; and in larger engagements, corvette, frigate, and destroyer formations will engage hostiles in a close-range melee, while heavier elements coordinate with bomber and ranged support to methodically engage and destroy priority targets.

Although these may seem overly strict or predictable, keep in mind that the Draugr have been living as nomadic raiders for forty generations now; you don’t get that far living like they do without learning how to think on your feet. This is doubly so in their case, as attacks tend to be less well-organized that that of local races; outside of individual strike groups or strictly-disciplined combined-arms groups, there’s virtually no overall unit cohesion. Necessity has trained their entire race to be master improvisers, capable of quickly adapting to the situation as required.

### Naming conventions

Draugr classes generally possess two names- a standardized code assigned by the Draugr themselves, and a codename issued by a unified network of intelligence agents charged with tracking and correlating the nomad's movements. The former takes the pattern:

**W** Type **X Y**-Pattern Mk. **Z**

where **W** is the ship's size class (Destroyer, cruiser, frigate, etc.), **X** is a random number, **Y** is the operating Clan's name, and **Z** is the mark number. Take the Acacia's: "Destroyer Type 42 Acraenos-Pattern Mk.XIV

Codenames, however, tend to be more flavorful. These names are chosen so that they start with the same letter as the operating Clan's name― hence, Clan *A*craenos operates **A**cacia- and **A**rquebus-class vessels, for example. With the exception of larger capital ships and flagships, which are often individually named, these codenames generally tend to be more mild or unusual― in other words, only give cap ships those awesome, cool names. Standard ships get random codenamey-sounding names ―ideally, words that wouldn't usually come up in conversation or military transmissions― resulting in ships named after plants and such.

## Strike Craft

Though not vital, Draugrii strike craft do bear mentioning. The Draugr rarely employ the lithe specks we typically envision with the term, but instead "gunships", more akin to WWII-era medium bombers: Large, well armored, with several large, almost tank-like turrets placed strategically around the craft- almost the antithesis of their ships. In addition to this is a special type of heavy gunship known as the Shatterer. These craft are large enough to require their own, specialized berths, and act as both heavy bombers/gunships and boarding craft- they're bigger versions of normal strike craft with Marines, essentially.

## Notes and Sources

### Notes

1. ↑ As I said, we put in a lot of effort. =P
2. ↑ A single small Naglfar drive can transport an entire squadron of ships; several large ones working in conjunction can bring a Clan’s entire navy to the fray.
3. ↑ The Draugr can neither easily collect nor manufacture the delicate circuitry required for a missile’s guidance systems, and what little they do have is generally needed for onboard ship systems. Although they have been known to use heavy cruise missiles, large banks of unguided rockets, or even the occasional salvaged/jury-rigged ordnance, these are very uncommon outside of larger assaults― the kind involving multiple capital assets and dozens of dozens of ships on both sides. What we would consider standard, fleet-wide torpedo-esque guided ordnance are virtually unheard-of.

## See Also

* Original forum post
* Draugr category
* Faction Page