HMS Duke of Cromarty

John Prigent wrote:I know it's a bit off-topic, but I always wonder - if Manticore has a district named Cromarty, does it also have Fairisle, Forth and Forties? What about Dogger, Wight and the others?

Cheers
John
PS: scroll down if you don't recognise what I'm talking about


UK Shipping Forecast areas

Would the Andies have German Bight

Nice one, George!

Hey, I just noticed - I've been promoted to the List .

Cheers

John

George J. Smith wrote:

John Prigent wrote:I know it's a bit off-topic, but I always wonder - if Manticore has a district named Cromarty, does it also have Fairisle, Forth and Forties? What about Dogger, Wight and the others?

Cheers
John
PS: scroll down if you don't recognise what I'm talking about


UK Shipping Forecast areas

Would the Andies have German Bight

George J. Smith wrote:

John Prigent wrote:I know it's a bit off-topic, but I always wonder - if Manticore has a district named Cromarty, does it also have Fairisle, Forth and Forties? What about Dogger, Wight and the others?

Cheers
John
PS: scroll down if you don't recognise what I'm talking about


UK Shipping Forecast areas

Would the Andies have German Bight

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Only on their sauerkraut and bratwurst.

-- Stewart

SharkHunter wrote:Been thinking about a question, may be answered elsewhere, but I haven't found it yet, and yes I read the Infodump, which shows that the HMS Duke of Cromarty is about as adequately protected as a single ship can be. That also specifically expresses that the Cromarty's goal is not to stand and fight but to be able to launch sufficient missile salvo(s) to allow it to "run away".

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/entry/Harrington/248/1

Anyway, back to my question: the Aggies have Keyhole, but does Keyhole totally preclude limpeted pods? Given that the pod layers kick their salvos out the back of the wedge, and that's how both the off-bore and "limpeted pod salvo" seem to work, wouldn't an Aggie or any -(p) be able to greatly increase it's salvo capacity with limpeted pods? A Sag C, for example can limpet 40 pods, a Nike 80 pods.

IIRC the Sag C could tow as many as 40 pods, only because the pods themselves came with a tractor. I don't believe that is could limpet that many of them.

fallsfromtrees wrote:"SharkHunter"]Been thinking about a question, may be answered elsewhere, but I haven't found it yet, and yes I read the Infodump, which shows that the HMS Duke of Cromarty is about as adequately protected as a single ship can be. That also specifically expresses that the Cromarty's goal is not to stand and fight but to be able to launch sufficient missile salvo(s) to allow it to "run away".

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/entry/Harrington/248/1

Anyway, back to my question: the Aggies have Keyhole, but does Keyhole totally preclude limpeted pods? Given that the pod layers kick their salvos out the back of the wedge, and that's how both the off-bore and "limpeted pod salvo" seem to work, wouldn't an Aggie or any -(p) be able to greatly increase it's salvo capacity with limpeted pods? A Sag C, for example can limpet 40 pods, a Nike 80 pods.

IIRC the Sag C could tow as many as 40 pods, only because the pods themselves came with a tractor. I don't believe that is could limpet that many of them.[/quote]


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And has been noted in many places, the more you tractor / limpet pods to the hull, the more you block your own sensors.

There ain't no free lunch

-- Stewart

stewart wrote:And has been noted in many places, the more you tractor / limpet pods to the hull, the more you block your own sensors.

There ain't no free lunch

-- Stewart

You know - the Keyhole platforms, once deployed, get you another sensor platform. So do recon drones. They could compensate a lot for sensors obscured by pods covering the integral ones. So if the lunch isn't free, BuShips at least packed you a snack.

JeffEngel wrote:

stewart wrote:And has been noted in many places, the more you tractor / limpet pods to the hull, the more you block your own sensors.

There ain't no free lunch

-- Stewart

You know - the Keyhole platforms, once deployed, get you another sensor platform. So do recon drones. They could compensate a lot for sensors obscured by pods covering the integral ones. So if the lunch isn't free, BuShips at least packed you a snack.

My assumption is that the "limpeted pod count" has to do with "before those pods start interfering with your sensors", as a Sag-C or Roland, for example is presumably ALWAYS carrying those pods AND is configured for independent operations AND needs full sensor and comm links. The command officer can also chose whether or not to use them, also an indicator that the pod count is part of an unimpeding design framework.

Relative to this thread though and the HMS Duke of Cromarty, half the Aggie hull is no longer part of the fighting section of the ship, so my next wondering is whether or not they could add more limpeted pods or potentially have a version of Keyhole "1B" plus perhaps Lorelei decoys if they are small enough. Given that this ship's job is to run away, I'd assume the Lorelei or the RMN's best decoy versions that can be used to generate the same "shell game" strategy that Honor used for HMS Nike (BC-413) at the end of aSVW (a Short Victorious War).

stewart wrote:And has been noted in many places, the more you tractor / limpet pods to the hull, the more you block your own sensors.

There ain't no free lunch

-- Stewart

JeffEngel wrote:You know - the Keyhole platforms, once deployed, get you another sensor platform. So do recon drones. They could compensate a lot for sensors obscured by pods covering the integral ones. So if the lunch isn't free, BuShips at least packed you a snack.

SharkHunter wrote: My assumption is that the "limpeted pod count" has to do with "before those pods start interfering with your sensors", as a Sag-C or Roland, for example is presumably ALWAYS carrying those pods AND is configured for independent operations AND needs full sensor and comm links. The command officer can also chose whether or not to use them, also an indicator that the pod count is part of an unimpeding design framework.

Relative to this thread though and the HMS Duke of Cromarty, half the Aggie hull is no longer part of the fighting section of the ship, so my next wondering is whether or not they could add more limpeted pods or potentially have a version of Keyhole "1B" plus perhaps Lorelei decoys if they are small enough. Given that this ship's job is to run away, I'd assume the Lorelei or the RMN's best decoy versions that can be used to generate the same "shell game" strategy that Honor used for HMS Nike (BC-413) at the end of aSVW (a Short Victorious War).

In Shadow of Saganaimi, HMS Hexapuma did not have any missile pods limpeted to the hull until after arriving in the Monica system, when HMS Volcano rolled pods for Terekhov's scratch-built squadron to pick up.

Now you can argue that with Volcano along, they didn't need to have the other ships limpet them when they could pick them up right before they needed them. But in Shadow of Saganami, Hexapuma did not carry any pods at all on her normal patrol where in the Nuncio system she took out a Desforge class DD and a Mars class CA. Nor did she pickup pods from Volcano on her first visit to Montanna (Volcano was in orbit around Montanna when Hexapuma visited the planet both times).

I would say that judging by what we have seen of missile pods being limpeted to the hulls of starships, that missile pods are carried limpeted to the hull only when:

A) the pods are expected to be used
and
B) no ammunition ship is available to carry and deploy pods immediately prior for the ships that will use them.

This would seem to fit with the RMN tactics used at the Second Battle of New Tuscany (no ammunition ship present, and the missile pods were limpeted to the RMN ships).

SharkHunter wrote: My assumption is that the "limpeted pod count" has to do with "before those pods start interfering with your sensors", as a Sag-C or Roland, for example is presumably ALWAYS carrying those pods AND is configured for independent operations AND needs full sensor and comm links. The command officer can also chose whether or not to use them, also an indicator that the pod count is part of an unimpeding design framework.

Relative to this thread though and the HMS Duke of Cromarty, half the Aggie hull is no longer part of the fighting section of the ship, so my next wondering is whether or not they could add more limpeted pods or potentially have a version of Keyhole "1B" plus perhaps Lorelei decoys if they are small enough. Given that this ship's job is to run away, I'd assume the Lorelei or the RMN's best decoy versions that can be used to generate the same "shell game" strategy that Honor used for HMS Nike (BC-413) at the end of aSVW (a Short Victorious War).

The problem is tractored pods have "a tactical lifespan" while under the internal tractors - the fusion reactor eats through it's fuel in a period of 10's of hours (this period is more than a day, but less than a week - David has been fuzzy on this # calling it the "Tactical Lifespan". Pod Reactors can be refueled and the worn parts repaired by the resources in a ship, but presumably, the ship needs to be stopped and the pod's tractor /reactor shut down during the service.

My point here is ships cannot just Patrol ad-infinitum with a full podload - sometimes the journey in hyper is too long for the pod's lifespan. And if the tractors go, you just lost the 1/4th ship's value in missiles for no purpose.

In reality, the pods a patroling ship can carry is limited by the number of internal tractors the ship has, not the limpeting ability- a capability which can only be used in stationary defensive or planned offensive situations.

The RMN really needs someone to invent some sort of device able to power a pod's tractor from the huge reactor inside the ship. Perhaps some form of flexible power conduit connected to some type of fixed port on both the hull and the pod. We could perhaps call it a "power cord"?