AFAICT, the River IIs are the original purpose-built design, as modified based on the experinces of Delthak and the others. The current Rivers are the 4 barges that were diverted for conversion when Merlin realised that there was a good chance that these vessels would be needed well before they could be built from scratch. Pushing them through probably delayed the IIs, as well as creating the reason why they are considered to be "II" in the first place. There was only enough material - armour in particular - for the 4 of them on hand, so they are all there is of the first flight. No point in building more, because by the time you had the armour, guns and engines available, you could also have the purpose-designed hulls for their replacements.
anwi wrote:captinjoehenry wrote:Here is the design for the River I and the Delthak II which I think is the River II
Thanks. My take on that is: The River I design we've seen with Delthak. The River II design we've also seen with Delthak - after her refit with new weaponry.
The Delthak II design ("cities") we haven't seen, yet.
Now, between the current rivers and the cities, there are apparently no additional, purpose-built ships.
As to the number of River class ships: Are there really only 4? I seem to recall that those could be rushed to completion, but there were more in the pipeline. Were these scrapped or are they ready to be deployed now?