What's your favourite ship class and why?

HB of CJ wrote:Very large fast fleet replenishment ships. That way one would be assured of personally not running out of all the luxury goodies like beer, booze, wine, ice cream, good steaks, etc, etc. Yumm yumm, glug, glug.

As a former Quartermaster Corps officer, I second this one. Logistics have won more battles than any amount of John Waynery.

19chickens wrote:My favourite would probably be the Invictuses, given that they're the most powerful ship in service of any navy. What about you?

The Ship Class That Shall Not Be Named.

Mostly because it's useless for anything except for stirring the pot on forums. As a spoon (metaphorically speaking, of course), it has few equals.

For added effect, suggest arming it with The Weapon That Shall Not Be Named.

Nat Turner.Every ancestor or relative I know of who ever served in a navy served on at least one frigate during their career so I have a soft spot for the type in general. And Nat Turners are the only ones to appear in an Honerverse story and have any solid details on them at all so far.

Which kind of makes me liking RFC's works ironic because I strongly suspect he hates frigates on some level. They were mentioned in one Dahak book that I recall. They weren't not mentioned at all in the Fury stories. None appeared in the Starfire novels he worked on, or any other Starfire novels for that matter. In the main Honorverse era they are outdated and only used by riders or minor powers except for the Nat Turners and John Browns which are more modern but were originally intended for raiding slavers and became Torch's initial navy. And none have appeared in any of the few Honorverse stories set before frigates became outdated in general either. I just started reading In Hell's Foundations Quiver, the first Safehold novel I've read, but so far despite Safehold's tech level being at a point where frigates were playing a key role in the navies of Earth there is no mention of them.

Roguevictory wrote:(snip)

Which kind of makes me liking RFC's works ironic because I strongly suspect he hates frigates on some level.
(snip)
I just started reading In Hell's Foundations Quiver, the first Safehold novel I've read, but so far despite Safehold's tech level being at a point where frigates were playing a key role in the navies of Earth there is no mention of them.

There are quite a few frigates sailing on Safehold's oceans in _Hell's Foundations Quiver_; just because they are called galleons does not mean that they are not frigates. They are 3 masted square-rigs with one main gun deck and a spar deck. That is an early 19th century big frigate.

I also like the SD(P) concept. The idea of ships running around pregnant with missiles is a delight.

One should be named in honor of the Tiger Snake which gives birth to ~ 109 babies.

TBH, I initially had doubts about this class of ships, thinking that their hollowed out design would be at the cost of structural rigidity. And that they'd begin to show their weakness in battles, blowing up at the mere release of a particularly gassy fart.

19chickens wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:it will become the Taylor class ships we first see in Ashes of Victory

Did you mean Shadow of Victory? Searching my copy of AoV revealed no references to anything "Taylor".

On the lighter unit side, the Mars-class CAs from Haven are pretty good. IIRC they have more brute impeller strength than comparable ships, letting them tow more pods before their accel drops.

He meant Taylor Class from SOV
EDIT

SPOILER WARNING

I love em, as they fulfill what I always thought was needed for the TC and SC, an escort carrier equivalent. 3 million tons, so just bigger than a battlecruiser, and well below an SD or CLAC. Designed to endure deployment and keep up with battlecruisers, its modular. Cargo can be kept in the modular sections or in external pods. Repair and refit ability as well as the ability to haul LACs between systems and act as a tender. 8 LAC launch bays standard as well as a forward section with a light cruiser's weapons load, including offbore firing. Can be used as an escort carrier for LACs, an arsenal ship, or collier. Other options including swapping out the modules for shipping personnel and troops.

They are a Frankenstein monster in many ways, but the ability to swap roles means they can go from moving cargo between smaller stations (like individual planets in the TC), to supporting offensive actions, including repair work and their LAC bay. For traditional Manticorian actions against pirates and small tasks forces, they are wonderful. More endurance on station, more combat platforms in the LACs, and it can keep up without having to run for protection.

Probably the Janacek Admiralty was wrong to spend as much space as they did on missiles for this ship, as it shouldn't be seeking combat. Otoh, if it can keep up with BC's, being able to launch LACs is a nasty surprise and gives a BC squad much useful support.

19chickens wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:it will become the Taylor class ships we first see in Ashes of Victory

Did you mean Shadow of Victory? Searching my copy of AoV revealed no references to anything "Taylor".

On the lighter unit side, the Mars-class CAs from Haven are pretty good. IIRC they have more brute impeller strength than comparable ships, letting them tow more pods before their accel drops.

feyhunde wrote:He meant Taylor Class.

I love em, as they fulfill what I always thought was needed for the TC and SC, an escort carrier equivalent. 3 million tons, so just bigger than a battlecruiser, and well below an SD or CLAC. Designed to endure deployment and keep up with battlecruisers, its modular. Cargo can be kept in the modular sections or in external pods. Repair and refit ability as well as the ability to haul LACs between systems and act as a tender. 8 LAC launch bays standard as well as a forward section with a light cruiser's weapons load, including offbore firing. Can be used as an escort carrier for LACs, an arsenal ship, or collier. Other options including swapping out the modules for shipping personnel and troops.

They are a Frankenstein monster in many ways, but the ability to swap roles means they can go from moving cargo between smaller stations (like individual planets in the TC), to supporting offensive actions, including repair work and their LAC bay. For traditional Manticorian actions against pirates and small tasks forces, they are wonderful. More endurance on station, more combat platforms in the LACs, and it can keep up without having to run for protection.

Probably the Janacek Admiralty was wrong to spend as much space as they did on missiles for this ship, as it shouldn't be seeking combat. Otoh, if it can keep up with BC's, being able to launch LACs is a nasty surprise and gives a BC squad much useful support.

If this ship is in the new book or the E-Arc, where exactly was your spoiler warning

regarding the stats given for this class--you said it was put out by the Janacek Admiralty, so the compensator efficiency ought to be somewhat reduced from the Reliant III/IV. The ships produced in 1919 and later are a new gen (and the White Haven Admiralty).

During Janacek's tenure, 3 million tons was 3 times the size of a battlecruiser (Reliant III) and almost double a pod-BC. So, it is unlikely to "keep up with" _Alliance_ BC's. It will give Sollies fits, though, even if it is based on the Sag-B era compensator.

YMMV. Regards,

Rob

RobThompson wrote:
If this ship is in the new book or the E-Arc, where exactly was your spoiler warning

regarding the stats given for this class--you said it was put out by the Janacek Admiralty, so the compensator efficiency ought to be somewhat reduced from the Reliant III/IV. The ships produced in 1919 and later are a new gen (and the White Haven Admiralty).

During Janacek's tenure, 3 million tons was 3 times the size of a battlecruiser (Reliant III) and almost double a pod-BC. So, it is unlikely to "keep up with" _Alliance_ BC's. It will give Sollies fits, though, even if it is based on the Sag-B era compensator.

YMMV. Regards,

Rob

Edited in a warning. It's from SoV, although I don't think its a big spoiler.

The Nike was 2.5 million tons under Janacek (although they didn't like it), so I think that's the comparison. The Nike was also much bigger than the Reliant, about 3 times. I need to dig for it's compensator efficiency/max speed.

They were designed under Janacek, with most of them in well in the pipeline when the war broke out.

feyhunde wrote:

RobThompson wrote:
If this ship is in the new book or the E-Arc, where exactly was your spoiler warning

regarding the stats given for this class--you said it was put out by the Janacek Admiralty, so the compensator efficiency ought to be somewhat reduced from the Reliant III/IV. The ships produced in 1919 and later are a new gen (and the White Haven Admiralty).

During Janacek's tenure, 3 million tons was 3 times the size of a battlecruiser (Reliant III) and almost double a pod-BC. So, it is unlikely to "keep up with" _Alliance_ BC's. It will give Sollies fits, though, even if it is based on the Sag-B era compensator.

YMMV. Regards,

Rob

Edited in a warning. It's from SoV, although I don't think its a big spoiler.

The Nike was 2.5 million tons under Janacek (although they didn't like it), so I think that's the comparison. The Nike was also much bigger than the Reliant, about 3 times. I need to dig for it's compensator efficiency/max speed.

They were designed under Janacek, with most of them in well in the pipeline when the war broke out.

Maximum speed is determined by the efficiency of a ship's anti-radiation and anti-particle shielding. Maximum acceleration for the Nike-class as listed in:

Storm From the Shadows, Chapter 13 wrote:There were undoubtedly other reasons for the White Haven Admiralty's new thinking, as well, but in combination, they explained why the 106th Battlecruiser Squadron consisted of eight units, not six. And, to be perfectly frank, Michelle didn't really care what other reasons there might have been. She was too busy gloating over the possession of those two additional battlecruisers.
Not that most other navies would consider them "battlecruisers," I suppose, she told herself. At two and a half million tons, the new Nike-class ships were closing in on the size of the old battleships no one had built for the last fifty or sixty T-years, and some navies—like the Sollies, she thought sourly—still defined ship types by tonnage brackets which had become obsolete even before the First Havenite War. But even though the Nikes were the next best thing to half again the size of her dead Ajax, Artemis was capable of almost seven hundred gravities' acceleration at maximum military power. And her magazines were crammed with over six thousand Mark 16 dual-drive missiles.

Italics are the author's, boldface is my emphasis.

And the Nike-class acceleration is listed more specifically in:

Mission of Honor, Chapter 21 wrote:Michelle shared that opinion, but she also stood by her observation about Crandall’s alternatives. Her superdreadnoughts were holding their acceleration to just over three hundred and thirty-seven gravities, in strict accordance with the “eighty percent of maximum power” which was the galactic naval standard inertial compensator safety margin. At maximum military power, they could have managed almost four hundred and twenty-two gravities, but that was it. At eighty percent power, Michelle’s trio of four million-ton milspec ammunition ships—HMS Mauna Loa, New Popocatépetl, and Nova Kilimanjaro—could manage a hundred gravities more than the Solly SDs’ maximum military acceleration; running flat out they could manage over six hundred and fifty gravities, while her Nikes could top six hundred and seventy.

Italics are the author's, boldface is my emphasis.

Vince wrote:And the Nike-class acceleration is listed more specifically in:

Mission of Honor, Chapter 21 wrote:Michelle shared that opinion, but she also stood by her observation about Crandall’s alternatives. Her superdreadnoughts were holding their acceleration to just over three hundred and thirty-seven gravities, in strict accordance with the “eighty percent of maximum power” which was the galactic naval standard inertial compensator safety margin. At maximum military power, they could have managed almost four hundred and twenty-two gravities, but that was it. At eighty percent power, Michelle’s trio of four million-ton milspec ammunition ships—HMS Mauna Loa, New Popocatépetl, and Nova Kilimanjaro—could manage a hundred gravities more than the Solly SDs’ maximum military acceleration; running flat out they could manage over six hundred and fifty gravities, while her Nikes could top six hundred and seventy.

Italics are the author's, boldface is my emphasis.

Just had to move the bolding - it answers the query of how much accel the Taylor FSVs should have. Somewhere between 650-670g.

I'm sure Jonathan_S can tell us the exact accel the Reliant III/IVs should be able to pull were its compensators upgraded to 1920ish standards. My guess is 700 plus or give 10.

As for my favourite ship class... tough call. I guess it's the Star Knight. Close second is the Valiant. Both fight well against heavier opponents.