Unconquered

I was thinking of the phsycological ( I can say it but not spell it ) affect.
This is the only ship commanded by both of Manticore's biggest naval heroes.

Be kind of like bombing the USS Arizona or " OLD IRONSIDES ". Those of you from the UK or Commonwealth countries feel free to substitute " Victory ". IIRC Lord Nelson's flagship.
It's not the physical damage that is really important.

SWM wrote:

exiledtoIA wrote:Thanks, I couldn't find Textev either way but figured I might just have missed it.
I'm of 2 minds as to Unconquered's target value.
1> admittedly she's an old ship with little value in modern warfare so why bother.

2> she is a HIGH value target for the RMN emotionally. Loosing her especially due to a sneak attack would hurt.

Of course this would also REALLY get the RMN upset so it might not be the best idea.

I don't think the emotional value as a target is as high as you think. Certainly not high enough to make it a higher priority target than the many operational ships in orbit around Manticore. None of them were targeted, so I assume that the Unconquered was also not targeted. The only ships which were destroyed were the ones which were actually docked at the stations which were targeted.

Psychological targets? I for one do not think the MA would think like that at that point in time and for that particular Oyster Bay strike. Different goal.

However ... if they really wanted to piss off the Manties, all it would take would be to target, then destroy a few or many easy psychological targets.

Very much like blowing up the USS Constitution sailing frigate berthed in Boston harbor as a museum ship. Still on the USN ship rolls.

Or the Statue Of Liberty in New York Harbor, USA. Or the Mt. Rushmore statues. Or Washington DC USA. No, wait. Would that be an improvement?

HB of CJ (old coot) Cm. Ta Da! I made Junior Captain! Wow! ... they sure promote anybody around here!

exiledtoIA wrote:I was thinking of the phsycological ( I can say it but not spell it ) affect.
This is the only ship commanded by both of Manticore's biggest naval heroes.

Be kind of like bombing the USS Arizona or " OLD IRONSIDES ". Those of you from the UK or Commonwealth countries feel free to substitute " Victory ". IIRC Lord Nelson's flagship.
It's not the physical damage that is really important.

The Alignment was not making a psychological strike against Manticore. They were making a physical strike against Manticore's infrastructure and the python lump of ships that they hoped were still under construction. There was no particular reason for them to target the Unconquered; it would have been much more effective to target actual operating warships. Destroying the Unconquered would not be that big a blow against Manticore. Destroying Old Ironsides would make a few people angry, but it wouldn't damage our ability to respond to the attack. It certainly would not be a big blow to our ego. The blow to Manticore's ego was the complete destruction of the infrastructure without any warning or ability to stop it. After that, there would be little point in destroying Unconquered, and a waste of missiles that could be used against operational ships or stations.

SWM wrote:I don't think the emotional value as a target is as high as you think. Certainly not high enough to make it a higher priority target than the many operational ships in orbit around Manticore. None of them were targeted, so I assume that the Unconquered was also not targeted. The only ships which were destroyed were the ones which were actually docked at the stations which were targeted.

Like it would seem many others, I don't think HMS Unconquered is a particularly high priority target for the Mesan Alignment. However it might have been/might be a worthwhile target for others, so it's my personal belief (not backed up by any TextEv) that HMS Unconquered's sidewall generator has been modified long ago to produce a spherical sidewall!

SWM wrote:I don't think the emotional value as a target is as high as you think. Certainly not high enough to make it a higher priority target than the many operational ships in orbit around Manticore. None of them were targeted, so I assume that the Unconquered was also not targeted. The only ships which were destroyed were the ones which were actually docked at the stations which were targeted.

I think the only time Unconquered would become an MAalign target would be if there were a known "annual event", with lots of "high falutin' Manticoran mucky-mucks and admirals present" like the Queen, Honor & Hamish, etc., and even then, it wouldn't be the ship, it would be the people doing their "ceremonial and therefore predictable whatever" that would be targeted.

The economical and likely weapon of choice for that scenario would be a nano-controlled assassin a la the Torch "Rat Poison" attack, as those are much more difficult to detect even by a number of 'cats until the tech kicks in and something bad happens.