Field Reports 2765

[Wrangler]

Well, thing i have problem is the if the Cruiser Class is precruer to the Dreadnought that wasn't built.  Why go ahead and produce them, thing came into service 20 years after the modern warship came into service with DropShip Collars.  Really odd.

Funny thing about the Cruiser, it reminds me of the Earthling (missile) cruiser from Star Control weapons wise.  Slow, main weapons wih missiles.  All it needs lasers instead of the autocannons and image is complete. (except it wasn't a tin-can shape.)

[Liam's Ghost]

I would imagine (having not yet seen the vessel in question) that it was a cheap, quickly built alternative. Darts with them collars (assuming it's not a later refit) would be inherently more expensive to build than a ship without them. Large dropshuttle launch bays give your burgeoning space navy transportation without the added expense of these newfangled toys.

Also I suspect one of the biggest advantages of the docking collar (their much higher mass limit) isn't that big of a deal this early on. Nobody's building the really big dropships yet.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Ever get the feeling that maybe the Hegemony Navy was experimenting wildly during this time period, and was still trying to get a handle on all this new technology, as well as developing a standard doctrine out of it?

[I am Belch II]

The Narukami Block 2 would be even better if they increased the armor with the upgrade in armor, and put some extra heat sinks in the ship too.

[Liam's Ghost]

Ever get the feeling that maybe the Hegemony Navy was experimenting wildly during this time period, and was still trying to get a handle on all this new technology, as well as developing a standard doctrine out of it?

That's something a lot of players have trouble with, I think. For us, the rules are rules and we always know exactly how it's going to work (including any potential downsides). It makes it difficult to get across that in universe folks don't have the same advantage.

[jimdigris]

So, when are we seeing a mini for the "Cruiser"? [notworthy]  Perhaps it could be put back into production as a Mark II. O0

[Weirdo]

Take an Urbanmech and mount it on a flight stand. 8)

[jimdigris]

I think it has already assumed the role as the Urbanmech of the Stars. :P

[Korzon77]

I would imagine (having not yet seen the vessel in question) that it was a cheap, quickly built alternative. Darts with them collars (assuming it's not a later refit) would be inherently more expensive to build than a ship without them. Large dropshuttle launch bays give your burgeoning space navy transportation without the added expense of these newfangled toys.

Also I suspect one of the biggest advantages of the docking collar (their much higher mass limit) isn't that big of a deal this early on. Nobody's building the really big dropships yet.

Yeah, this would be a big thing-- perhaps something like the Hi-Lo mix the United States ?Navy was considering in the 1970s-- you have your mainline ships, but you also have a larger number of less expensive ships for day to day work.

[I am Belch II]

Too bad they couldn't think of a better name for the Cruiser class.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Too bad they couldn't think of a better name for the Cruiser class.

Actually, I think that makes it all the more hilariously awesome.

[cray]

Too bad they couldn't think of a better name for the Cruiser class.

The Cruiser-class cruiser was named Cruiser because Cruiser was given in the Star League SB. Cruiser. Very ob-vi-ous, yes? Cruiser.

The art turned out better than I hoped. Cruiser. I was imagining a bit more of the cover art of "Antares Dawn" and "Antares Passage," but you can't really borrow art from other settings and Plog's art is really growing on me. Cruiser. That is fugly, just like the fluff said. Cruiser.

[cray]

Cray frowns upon traveling back in time in the canon 'verse, ISP2 aside.

I wrote StratOps' discussion of time travel to specifically deny ISP2's claims. :)

[Liam's Ghost]

The Cruiser-class cruiser was named Cruiser because Cruiser was given in the Star League SB. Cruiser. Very ob-vi-ous, yes? Cruiser.

Son of a gun, it does say Cruiser class, don't it?

[cray]

Cruiser: DropShuttle Bay is exactly what Dragon Cat said, its what ships were using prior to Drop Ship collars.  I have problem with it, since there was no need for them to be on Cruiser.

I interpreted "cruiser" in ye olden sense: a ship assigned to long-ranged cruising and independent action. The Cruiser-class cruiser (cruiser cruiser) is able to do just that. The Cruiser has hundreds of steerage-class quarters for troops (e.g., two infantry battalions), almost 100,000 tons of cargo (e.g., lots of vehicles, if you're not in a hurry), and a DropShuttle bay to land the Righteous Fury of the Terran Alliance on Separatist colonies, at least the bits of Separatist colonies that weren't nuked from orbit, just to be sure. Obviously, the first ship in the class would be named Sulaco.

As it happened, McKenna largely copied a late-22nd Century design and used it for an entirely different purpose that didn't need DropShuttle bays and was left a bit silly for lack of nukes, but that's the Navy for you.

DropShip Collars were well in use by 2305, when the larger Dart Light Cruiser appeared, with no less 6 of them.

Which is a continuity issue for the docking collars (which were established to be common first in the 2400s as long ago as DropShips & JumpShips), but partly addressed by the shortage of proper DropShips in the 2300s.

Admittedly, I did anticipate the Cruiser as being introduced in 2300AD alongside the Dreadnought, but I see those words didn't quite make it to print. The HMA file I submitted was left set as 3025AD.  :-[

The ship is light for a Cruiser, it has virtually no point defense weaponry (no machine guns or standard autocannons.)

With capital missiles (no penalty against fighters) and bracket-firing banks of naval autocannons (easy to get -3 to hit with 6 guns in a weapon bay, and get decent to-hit numbers way outside of fighters' weapon ranges) it doesn't need much in the way of standard autocannons. MGs don't do much unless you mount them in large groups, and even then they're only a threat against one weapon bay of missiles per turn per MG bay. A ship like, say, a Cruiser that distributes capital missiles into small weapon bays won't be bothered unless you're carrying ridiculous quantities of MGs.

I mean, something had to inspire the entire SLDF WarShip fleet to skip secondary weapons, right? :)

[DarthRads]

Maybe they'll give us one if we ask? It worked for FR: FWL's WarShip list...

Huh?

[I am Belch II]

A 10,000 ton carry bay for the Cruiser class ship is a good size, all the way up to a Overload or 4 -leopard Dropship sized ships.

[Weirdo]

Huh?

FR: FWLM (The Jihad-era one) originally had no info on the fleets of the former FWL states. They were errataed in about a day later.

[Korzon77]

A 10,000 ton carry bay for the Cruiser class ship is a good size, all the way up to a Overload or 4 -leopard Dropship sized ships.

Of course the question is: can it carry ships while under thrust, and if so, how quickly can they be deployed. That's a biggie-- somethign like an overlord would not be a good thing to have break loose while the ship was under thrust.  But if you have it all nicely webbed up, what happens if it needs to be launched *now*.

(my personal bet is that these cargo based bays can't carry a ship under thrust and the bay designs that can pay a very high mass penalty (they'd be reinforced repair bays), which gives another explination why nobody thought about bringing dropshuttles back).

[I am Belch II]

I could see drop shuttle bays comming back, just becuase it's pretty easy to pick off a Dropship when it's carried on the back of a ship in a battle. Better way to protect the invasion force if you keep it inside away from damage,

[Korzon77]

I could see drop shuttle bays comming back, just becuase it's pretty easy to pick off a Dropship when it's carried on the back of a ship in a battle. Better way to protect the invasion force if you keep it inside away from damage,

If it works while under thrust.

[Korzon77]

Oh also-- the Samarkand carrier? Love the fact that most of them were sold to the SLDF which means you might find some floating about somewhere.

I have four most loved shiops: the Dreadnought, Concordat, New Syrtis and Samarkand.

[Weirdo]

We know little to nothing about DropShuttles. For all we know, they have a low maximum size, and kicking them out might take as much time as offloading bulk cargo through a door.

[cray]

(my personal bet is that these cargo based bays can't carry a ship under thrust

Canon notes that originally DropShuttles were carried into planetary orbit by JumpShips, while JumpShips made the jump point-to-planet transit. It was later that shuttles evolved to be carried externally and make the transit to a planet while JumpShips were streamlined to the bare minimum jump core.

[Giovanni Blasini]

By the way, is it just me, or does the Cruiser remind you of an oversize Fox class?

[Dragon Cat]

By the way, is it just me, or does the Cruiser remind you of an oversize Fox class?

Not nearly just you jumped at me to armament, overall shape

[I am Belch II]

The Cruiser class looks lied a Fox but it also looks like lots of dropships too.

[Korzon77]

I actually like th4e cruiser.  With some changes it'd be a good patrol ship-- not something intended to engage in a line of battle fight, but more along the line of something to shoo off raiders and   provide police assistence.

[Wrangler]

Thanks you for answering the big question on Cruiser, cray.

I thought the machines guns were able shot down missiles if they were launched a ship if they were point defense.  I was just baffeled the lack of ams of any sort since the missile must have been the big guns of the Navies prior to Dreadnought.

Copy of a 22nd Design.....hmmm.  Hope we get a variant of that design!  ^-^ 

[cray]

I thought the machines guns were able shot down missiles if they were launched a ship if they were point defense.

Machine guns can serve as anti-missile point defense, but there's a world of difference between a generic "point defense weapon" (like MGs and small lasers) and a true anti-missile system.

A normal point defense weapons bay can engage missiles from one (1) weapons bay per turn, and only to defend the ship that mounts the point defense bay. If the Cruiser fired its 6 forward capital missile bays at a ship with one MG weapons bay, the target could engage one of the 6 flights of missiles leaving 5 others not bothered. When you face a swarm of fighters or multiple attackers, normal PD bays don't mean much.

An AMS point defense bay (on a large craft) can engage any missile volley in range in one turn, no matter what the target of the missiles is.

I was just baffeled the lack of ams of any sort since the missile must have been the big guns of the Navies prior to Dreadnought.

There was also the point of canon. Despite recent retcons, WarShips weren't really demonstrated as carrying standard weapons until the 31st Century and early Inner Sphere prototype WarShips. The entirety of the SLDF and Clan WarShips made do without point defense until relatively recently.

Copy of a 22nd Design.....hmmm.  Hope we get a variant of that design!  ^-^

Change the munitions to be a little more nuclear. The 22nd Century version never left CAD drawings, though. The Separatists disappeared with a whimper, so the WarShips never got built.