Re: A New Anglian Confederation Interstellar News Network Report

>Oooh, more pirates to add to my listing.
>I take it that it's a ~70 mass Q-ship with 2 PT + 1 class-4 & several
>class-1 batteries with heavy armouring?

I was using the battery designations as the ranges of the weapons. Thus
a Mk 30 cannon is basically a Class-3 weapon with a range of 30 - the
reduced ranges are to reflect a lower level of technology in the weapon
systems at that time compared to the 'current' time of the FleetBook. So
in effect what I was envisioning is that you take the current stats for
beam batteries, reduce their max range by 6, and then divide evenly as
per normal (eg, max range of a Class-2 is 24; in the 'distant past' it
was 18, and the break point damage potential increase was now 9, not the
current 12). The Needle Beams were the PF-9 Starlance (PrimeFocus-9,
where
the Needle Beam being considered was the MT version (range 9), not the
FB version (range 12). I was also abstracting a little for some weapons
(the 'dozen smaller anti-ship cannons' would be represented by 2 or 3
Class-1s and a PDS suite or two).

As for Blackbeard's ship itself, I was envisioning this as a real
honest-to-god medium cruiser of mass 50-60 (the FSE subsidized the
construction of this vessel, which on paper was a merchant ship, but
in reality a glass-chinned warship), a little armor, a couple of needle
beams, a single Class-3 (1-arc), a pair of offset Class-2s, 2-3
Class-1s,
a PDS or two, a couple of FireCons, a little armor, and thrust between
4-6 (need to be fast enough to overhaul merchants, and still give the
local naval units a tough time catching you). An FTL drive, of course,
and a weak or fragile hull to fit everything in. It wasn't necessarily
meant to go head-to-head with a warship, but to pound the snot out of
merchants and freighters. Plus a little bit of room for cargo, although
Blackbeard typically had captured freighters 'just offboard' who would
come in and carry the plunder away. His 'fleet' of combat ships would
consist of the above-mentioned cruiser, a destroyer or two, a couple of
frigates or corvettes, and a few converted merchant ships. And a handful
of freighters for plunder-taking. I aim to write up a scenario detailing
the final battle between Blackbeard's fleet and a NAC naval unit. But
that
won't be done for a few weeks yet, as I'm outta here for a while to drag
my
sorry butt up the side of Rainier. :)

Mk
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Daune: "How can you be asleep and getting ready at the same time?"

Indy: "I'm multi-tasking..."