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Light Cruisers?


Harry Voyager
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Hello, this is my first post here. The BCM demo, and the documentation therein, has been my only exposure to the Battlecruiser series, and I have found it quite interesting.

Anyways, my question: I've been slowly wading through the manuals and craft references, and it looks like there are no light cruisers. I was just wondering what happened to them? Had they fallen out of use by 3000ad? Were they at an akward weight class, too big and heavy to fill light rolls, but not strong and durable enough to fill heavier rolls?

Just curious.

Harry Voyager

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Sorry, I was posting that at about 4am my time, so I was a bit incoherent.

I did notice tha there are no light cruisers in either BCM or the original BC3K

What I'm trying to ask is, more, do the heavy cruisers actually fill the roll of modern light cruisers, or are there no ships in that category in Battlecruiser?

Harry Voyager

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I don't recall there ever being light crusiers in Battlecrusier. For what it's worth, you could say the supercrusier is like a heavy crusier, and the heavy crusier is like a light crusier.

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It's funny how some sci-fi shows/games throw ship classes around. In Babylon 5, Earthforce Destroyers were huge compared to heavy cruisers, and in Star Wars, a "Star Destroyer" dwarfed everything around, including Cruisers and Carriers. I think people just go with what sounds good.

In our case, the SC has done a pretty good job with the relative sizes. Carriers are bigger than Super Cruisers, which are bigger than Heavy Cruisers. Of course, the BattleCruisers are realy Strike Carriers, but, who knows how much has changed in a thousand years? Carriers are only 60 years old, and Destroyers are only about 90 years old. Cruisers came in with the Dreadnaught around 100 years ago, and frigates came into existance 300-500 years ago, I think. 1000 years ago, I think we're talking about Galleys and Triremes.

I think that the smaller "Heavy Cruisers" will actually fill frigate and destroyer roles in MP, so we may end up calling them that, unofficially.

Hope this answers your question.

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In Star Wars, I believe the reference to the "Star Destroyer" class was more in reference to the fear it causes due to it's size. Referring to it more as a "Destroyer of Stars" rather than the class "Destroyer". No destroyer I've ever heard of has a hangar on board for several squadrons. But aren't you glad they called them Star Destroyers and not Star Carriers? It wouldn't have struck any fear in anyone.

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Destroyer=Ship capable of multiple missions. Jack of All Trades. In Star Wars that pretty much summed up the ISD's and EarthForce DD's. They could do everything.

Frigate: Very fast, thinly armoured (or no armour) with the light firepower.

Cruiser: in-between a Destroyer and a Battleship. Slightly less powerful guns and less armour sacrificed to gain speed. Battlecruisers are actually heavy cruisers with more armour.

Battleships: Heavily armoured and armed with the biggest popguns in the 'hood.

Carriers: Ships primarily designed to carry other vessels inside them, support & service them during operations.

Thats at least in modern times. Dunno how things got twisted in 3000AD+

I would be interested in seeing how a "Destroyer" would be like in the BC universe

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I'm sure Hamblin has something different to say about that...

I think frigates are fast, AA vessels (well in space we are talking about anti-fighter), while Destroyers are fast, well equipped AS vessels. Cruisers would be like Destroyers, but bigger, more armored, and better and more weapons.

Battleships are king-size vessels, slow but not to underestimate, capable of delivering an incredible punch.

If I was to associate what I said with the BC vessel classes, I'd say frigates are heavy-cruisers, destroyers are super-cruisers, cruisers are heavy-carriers and battleships are super-carriers.

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The battlecruiser had similar guns to a battleship, but the speed, armor, and mobility of a cruiser. In this respect the battlecruiser was built to lead and fight cruisers, but have the ability to run from the larger battleships. Unfortunately this idea was lost and they placed heavier armor on the battlecruisers of WWII.

as a result of this their armor was still no match for a battleship, but now they lacked the seaworthyness to run from their larger cousins. Also from this extra armor the population of the time thought that a battlecruiser was a match for a battleship. The result of this was disasterously proven at Jutland, and when the Hood faced off against the Bismarck.

[ 10-21-2001: Message edited by: eric3045 ]

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If you post something and later find out you made an error, you can edit your post by clicking on the button with the pencil above the post. Also, it you wrote something you regret, you can delete it. Just FYI.

Heh, looks like we're learing!

[ 10-21-2001: Message edited by: Urza ]

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Quoting Hamblin on the OF forum:

quote:

Oh, and lastly, yes, there was a type of ship called a Battlecruiser. Back in the early 20th Century, a British Admiral by the name of Sir Jackie Fisher, invented a new type of ship called the Battlecruiser, the first one being launched in 1909 and named HMS Invincible.

The Battlecruiser was one of two major warship concepts that Fisher brought to Naval warfare (the other being the Dreadnought Battleship). It was a ship with the size and armament of a Battleship (in some cases, the armament was superior), but sacrificed armour for speed.

For example, when comparing HMS Invincible, she was armed with eight 12" guns as her main battery, about the equivalent of her contemporaries (such as HMS Dreadnought, armed with ten 12" guns, main battery). However, Dreadnought had 11" armour on her belt, to Invincible's 7".

They were therefore designated "cruiser killers", ships which relied on their speed to be able to keep up, and outdistance an enemy Cruiser, whilst at the same time pounding it with it's superior armament.

It also meant that these ships were virtual death traps when fighting a true Battleship, as their armament and range advantage is nulled when used in a ship-of-the-line fashion against a Battleship, and their weak armour proves to be their undoing.


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Well, Canada did just buy (five?) decommissioned diesel submarines from Britain.

In my opinion, we don't really need a Navy, since our Air Force is what we concentrate upon, anyway. Though in any case, most Canadians and Americans don't realise how truly large our military is. Naturally, the governments of both countries are aware, since otherwise it would constitute as false intelligence and that wouldn't look too good to the U.N.

As far as I know, hiding our numbers to the public isn't a bad idea anyway.

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Yeah, I can't decide if I think the purchase of the oberon boats was a good idea or not...

They are far from obsolete, but canada's need for them is small.

I think the canadian forces are pretty impressive... I think it is fairly "token" in size, but its well trained, and holds its own in UN peacekeeping operations. This, in my opinion, is the only real moral use of a military other than strictly defensive measures.

Anyway, this is off topic. What role do you think the frigat class would have in BC? If there were such a class in BC?

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Hm... Anybody remember Armed Transports? They could probably fill some really light roles. (With it's PTA's, it could sorta be considered like a frigate, give or take.) And then you'd have the cruisers handle some of the other jobs.

The fact is, space battle isn't 100% like sea battle, and the technology has changed. From what I've seen, in 3015, ships are built for multi-role assignments. That's my $0.02.

---

The most recent revisions of Ship specs are in the BCM Appendix. In BCM, there are only Heavy and Super Cruiser class ships. I've got a mirror of the Appendix, here. I'm sure you'll find it pretty informative.

---

When I was looking at the appendix, I saw the Generis Armed Transport, and my reaction was like, huh? To me, that's the most unique design I've seen, for something in the year 3015..... Looks something like a futuristic version of a B-52 or something of the like.

generis.jpg

[ 10-26-2001: Message edited by: Cmdr Nova ]

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