What's your favourite ship class and why?

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.

MINOR SPOILERS SOV

Per SoV chapter 71, a Taylor Class can pull 635 gravities when pulling no pods at 90% power. So on target with the Nike for a max of ~700G. Most of them were ordered by Janacek Admiralty but text suggests they were half built and finished by the White Haven Admiralty since it was easier to finish them than scrap them and build standard designs.

I get the idea they share a lot of similarities with Nike compensator tech wise, since they were both developed together, and the Nike was considered a test bed for all this stuff.

Considering I've built (and rebuilt from scratch) the thing three or four times now, I have a serious love/hate relationship with the Star Knight. I certainly know the ship better than any other class. She's also our baseline ship, where everything gets developed, then adjusted for larger and smaller classes later. She's our baby and our test subject.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

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.

Very true on that respect. From the number of guns stated on the various ships the ICN is using a combination of what sounds like American 44 gun frigates and British 50 gun frigates. The American 44's actually carried 54 guns while the British 50 carried either 56 or 58 guns. FYI the British 50 was the RN's answer to the American 44 gun heavy frigate and were actually pretty evenly matched. Another FYI the RN feared the American 44's so much that no British ship below 3rd rate was allowed to engage an American frigate alone.

I rather enjoy the Roland class destroyers. Circa Shadow of Freedom with the Mod G warheads they pack enough punch to destroy a super-dreadnought and so long as its target does not possess MDMs it can do so with impunity. It is the ideal ship for fighting the Solarians. Rolands are fast, cheap, and pack enough punch to shred Battle Fleet to shreds. Its major flaw, being low on ammunition and fragile are serious drawbacks. But one need only read SoF Ch 12 and remember Saltash to know how deadly a squad of Rolands can be.

GabrialSagan wrote:I rather enjoy the Roland class destroyers. Circa Shadow of Freedom with the Mod G warheads they pack enough punch to destroy a super-dreadnought and so long as its target does not possess MDMs it can do so with impunity. It is the ideal ship for fighting the Solarians. Rolands are fast, cheap, and pack enough punch to shred Battle Fleet to shreds. Its major flaw, being low on ammunition and fragile are serious drawbacks. But one need only read SoF Ch 12 and remember Saltash to know how deadly a squad of Rolands can be.

I know what you mean. The Rolands remind me of an old saying that is so apropos for them.

I ain't my father, but I'm my father's son.
And I can hold down the fort 'til my father comes.

I like the scientist class super dreadnought´s!

Why?

Because they lead to an endless discussion what we can do with these Museum ships else than wreck them down and make shaving blades out of their metal.

Maldorian wrote:I like the scientist class super dreadnought´s!

Why?

Because they lead to an endless discussion what we can do with these Museum ships else than wreck them down and make shaving blades out of their metal.

Why would they turn them into razor blades. In the Honorverse they could either use genetic engineering to prevent hair growth e.g. Jeremy X or have nanotech shaving cream eat the hair or some kind of sonic razor to remove it.

there will likely always be a market for razors.

why? some people like the idea of using an ancient method, some distrust nanotech and many others i'm sure, take your picks

munroburton wrote: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.

Ok, I'm back home with access to my data so I can now answer this; and I have to say your guesses were quite close.

A pre-war warship with the 3 mton displacement of David Taylor-class FSV would have had an accel of 460.3 gees.
Compare that to a 2.5mton Nike sized 1905 PD warship which could pull 465.2 gees
And the 1905 PD Reliant-class, at 0.87 mtons, could pull 488.7 gees.

If we assume compensator improvements are linear (which seems to be the case; but with too little data to fully verify) then the 3 with the same gen compensators the Nike's were designed with would have acceleration of:
708.4 g Reliant-class
674.3 g Nike-class
667.2 g David Taylor-class


And if they'd all be upgraded to the latest compenator I've seen (used by task force of Invictus-class SD(P)s in SftS) they'd be up to:
756.3 g Reliant-class
719.9 g Nike-class
712.4 g David Taylor-class


(All accelerations given at 100% max military power; 0% safety margin. Multiply by 0.8 to get their normal max)

Jonathan_S wrote:

munroburton wrote: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.

Ok, I'm back home with access to my data so I can now answer this; and I have to say your guesses were quite close.

A pre-war warship with the 3 mton displacement of David Taylor-class FSV would have had an accel of 460.3 gees.
Compare that to a 2.5mton Nike sized 1905 PD warship which could pull 465.2 gees
And the 1905 PD Reliant-class, at 0.87 mtons, could pull 488.7 gees.

If we assume compensator improvements are linear (which seems to be the case; but with too little data to fully verify) then the 3 with the same gen compensators the Nike's were designed with would have acceleration of:
708.4 g Reliant-class
674.3 g Nike-class
667.2 g David Taylor-class


And if they'd all be upgraded to the latest compenator I've seen (used by task force of Invictus-class SD(P)s in SftS) they'd be up to:
756.3 g Reliant-class
719.9 g Nike-class
712.4 g David Taylor-class


(All accelerations given at 100% max military power; 0% safety margin. Multiply by 0.8 to get their normal max)

So roughly consistent with Text evidence of what they are doing in SoV.