Re: small ships

On Tue, 26 Feb 2002 19:16:13 EST GBailey@aol.com writes:
>>One question. Where's the hull? Each ship uses all the mass points
>>without having 1  hull box. 
>>
>>Jaime
>
>Aw, gee, you had to spoil their fun.  :)
>
>Also, an armor point would do wonders for the survivability of these
>so called escorts.  I don't think I'd feel all that safe as a 
>freighter 
>captain/
>owner when my escorts can be taken out by my piddly PDS that small 
>freighters seem to have for armament, let alone some beam weapon that 
>a larger freighter may have.  Cheap is cheap, but come on, don't be 
>less
>powerful than the ships you are supposed to escort.
>

PDS in an anti-ship role?  Just skimmed FT/MT and did not see that. 
Can't remember it in FB1.  Is that a HR?  I have played in games where
it
was allowed for 6 inches if not allocated versus missiles/fighters but I
find it hokey to be honest.  Like planning to sink a freighter with a
20mm single barrel mount - theoretical but unlikely.  YMMV.

>Glen
>

You don't always have the escorts you need in an ideal world.  Armed
trawlers were not exactly wonderful in early WW2 and
sloops/corvettes/whatever those warships that were barely faster then
the
merchants could not press an attack against a U-boat and stay with the
convoy early in WW2.

Would (non-military) freighters pack any thing bigger then a class 1
beam?  If that?  Most appear to be a single PDs in the examples I see,
especially in the early stages of a war when the ship yards are busy
building/fixing/upgrading warships in a crash program.	 

The bigger ("Real") warships are not always available for convoy escort.

A few 'armed trawler' equivalent (Class 2 3 arc armed; two Class 1's and
a single PDS or armor box)  'escorts' might be just enough to keep the
solo pirate or raider at bay long enough for the Merchies to move out of
range.	Or even succeed in a 'mission kill' attack - drive off the
raider
to lick it's wounds.  Remotely possible for two or three Class 2 3 arc
armed escorts to kill an unlucky pair of frigates or a DD.  Unlikely but
possible.  Not all fights are between SDN's.

Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com

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