Return Of The Frigate

SharkHunter wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:And it lets Manpower/Jessyk pay for most of the ships they need - bonus points.

Yeah, that is nice, especially with Ganny El's mad marauders having just taken possession of Balcescu Station, which is a major Manpower depot in that neck of the woods. The surrendered crew of which has already recognized that alot of the crews on the Manpower ships were acting weird. Be right neighborly of them Torchese to offer to crew those captured freighters for a while, at least a half a dozen or so. No worries either, we won't be transporting human "cargo" as much, just a few "crew members" like lost little lambs needing to go home.

Of course I might be wrong. Them lambs might be wolves.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:snip
On the other hand... a light cruiser like that may be very attractive following Spindle, for system defense. It can control a load of system defense missile pods nearby, after all, and having something like that for system defense would free up the RTN's frigates to go out and poke Manpower wherever it can be found. It would also be a good platform for training new personnel right there, and getting practice operating larger ships - like those they picked up from the PNE. And the modular freighter that's the basis for a Mayan arsenal ship could be a useful operational support platform, for tending and re-ammunitioning roaming frigates, while at least eligible in a pinch for arsenal ship duty.

Given the success that the RTN had using the Hali Sowle as a frigate carrier, perhaps it is time to consider capturing one of the slavers that call on Parmley Station, gut it of most of the slaver quarters, and turn it into a frigate carrier that didn't require negotiation with Ganny El. Since the drive characteristics of the ship are undoubtedly known to Manpower, they should have no trouble getting in close before dumping the frigates and skedaddling out of range of anything else in the system.

JeffEngel wrote:snip
On the other hand... a light cruiser like that may be very attractive following Spindle, for system defense. It can control a load of system defense missile pods nearby, after all, and having something like that for system defense would free up the RTN's frigates to go out and poke Manpower wherever it can be found. It would also be a good platform for training new personnel right there, and getting practice operating larger ships - like those they picked up from the PNE. And the modular freighter that's the basis for a Mayan arsenal ship could be a useful operational support platform, for tending and re-ammunitioning roaming frigates, while at least eligible in a pinch for arsenal ship duty.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Given the success that the RTN had using the Hali Sowle as a frigate carrier, perhaps it is time to consider capturing one of the slavers that call on Parmley Station, gut it of most of the slaver quarters, and turn it into a frigate carrier that didn't require negotiation with Ganny El. Since the drive characteristics of the ship are undoubtedly known to Manpower, they should have no trouble getting in close before dumping the frigates and skedaddling out of range of anything else in the system.

n7axw wrote:
Ah...negotiating with Ganny El is FUN...don't deny the Torchies the entertainment.

Don

fallsfromtrees wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:snip
On the other hand... a light cruiser like that may be very attractive following Spindle, for system defense. It can control a load of system defense missile pods nearby, after all, and having something like that for system defense would free up the RTN's frigates to go out and poke Manpower wherever it can be found. It would also be a good platform for training new personnel right there, and getting practice operating larger ships - like those they picked up from the PNE. And the modular freighter that's the basis for a Mayan arsenal ship could be a useful operational support platform, for tending and re-ammunitioning roaming frigates, while at least eligible in a pinch for arsenal ship duty.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Given the success that the RTN had using the Hali Sowle as a frigate carrier, perhaps it is time to consider capturing one of the slavers that call on Parmley Station, gut it of most of the slaver quarters, and turn it into a frigate carrier that didn't require negotiation with Ganny El. Since the drive characteristics of the ship are undoubtedly known to Manpower, they should have no trouble getting in close before dumping the frigates and skedaddling out of range of anything else in the system.

n7axw wrote:
Ah...negotiating with Ganny El is FUN...don't deny the Torchies the entertainment.

Don

So is a root canal - without anesthesia

n7axw wrote:"fallsfromtrees"]"JeffEngel"]snip


On the other hand... a light cruiser like that may be very attractive following Spindle, for system defense. It can control a load of system defense missile pods nearby, after all, and having something like that for system defense would free up the RTN's frigates to go out and poke Manpower wherever it can be found. It would also be a good platform for training new personnel right there, and getting practice operating larger ships - like those they picked up from the PNE. And the modular freighter that's the basis for a Mayan arsenal ship could be a useful operational support platform, for tending and re-ammunitioning roaming frigates, while at least eligible in a pinch for arsenal ship duty.

SharkHunter wrote:At the risk of utter heresy in terms of yet another look at the "Return of the Frigate", there's an interesting bit in Cauldron of Ghosts about a BSC ship called the "Brixton Comet" -- used to infiltrate Mesa of all places. Granted, the ship has plenty of history as a NON covert ops ships as it's cover, but I' imagine when the BSC is using it, it gains some really sharp teeth. Which got me thinking...

Size wise, the ship is listed as right on at about twice the tonnage of a new build Manticoran LAC, at 45K tons, which is about the same size listed for a Nat Turner frigate, which -- according to earlier pages -- would eat just about any non GA- destroyer for lunch, and even the Nat Turners are scheduled for some rather nasty upgrades from Haven. According to COG, those upgrades are mainly to assist the RTN with raids, with the surrendered PNE ships left to form a small but respectable SDF for the planet as soon as there are enough spacers trained to fight the bigger ships, by the way.

Given that a frigate is given away by it's warship shape, it's a given that it's not a good system infiltrator. But what about a similar size craft purpose designed like a tiny Q-ship to function as an "in system spy and FSC" (forward space controller) with frigate-like sensors and weapons control capability? Yes / no / maybe, duck the noodles?

stewart wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:At the risk of utter heresy in terms of yet another look at the "Return of the Frigate", there's an interesting bit in Cauldron of Ghosts about a BSC ship called the "Brixton Comet" -- used to infiltrate Mesa of all places. Granted, the ship has plenty of history as a NON covert ops ships as it's cover, but I' imagine when the BSC is using it, it gains some really sharp teeth. Which got me thinking...

Size wise, the ship is listed as right on at about twice the tonnage of a new build Manticoran LAC, at 45K tons, which is about the same size listed for a Nat Turner frigate, which -- according to earlier pages -- would eat just about any non GA- destroyer for lunch, and even the Nat Turners are scheduled for some rather nasty upgrades from Haven. According to COG, those upgrades are mainly to assist the RTN with raids, with the surrendered PNE ships left to form a small but respectable SDF for the planet as soon as there are enough spacers trained to fight the bigger ships, by the way.

Given that a frigate is given away by it's warship shape, it's a given that it's not a good system infiltrator. But what about a similar size craft purpose designed like a tiny Q-ship to function as an "in system spy and FSC" (forward space controller) with frigate-like sensors and weapons control capability? Yes / no / maybe, duck the noodles?

-------------

Shark --
Ask for the noodles to be cooked (or even over-cooked) they're softer.

Brixton Comet is / was a private yacht, similar in size and function to Honor's Tankersley.

DEFINATELY NOT a warship and never pretending to be.

-- Stewart

Mirta Layl wrote:With the proven differences in combat capability between an RMN CA and an SLN SD it seems to me to make sense that at least in the short term an RMN frigate built with the most advanced RMN technology would be able to take on an SLN BS and have a very good chance of surviving plus they would be easily built and manned in large numbers and in a "wolf pack" could take down multiple SLN SDs'

blackjack217 wrote:

Mirta Layl wrote:With the proven differences in combat capability between an RMN CA and an SLN SD it seems to me to make sense that at least in the short term an RMN frigate built with the most advanced RMN technology would be able to take on an SLN BS and have a very good chance of surviving plus they would be easily built and manned in large numbers and in a "wolf pack" could take down multiple SLN SDs'

The RMN defines a destroyer as the smallest effective hyper capable combatant. It defines a frigate as a hyper capable combatant smaller than a destroyer. By definition, there will never be an effective frigate, because if it was effective it would be a destroyer.

blackjack217 wrote:

Mirta Layl wrote:With the proven differences in combat capability between an RMN CA and an SLN SD it seems to me to make sense that at least in the short term an RMN frigate built with the most advanced RMN technology would be able to take on an SLN BS and have a very good chance of surviving plus they would be easily built and manned in large numbers and in a "wolf pack" could take down multiple SLN SDs'

The RMN defines a destroyer as the smallest effective hyper capable combatant. It defines a frigate as a hyper capable combatant smaller than a destroyer. By definition, there will never be an effective frigate, because if it was effective it would be a destroyer.