BRITISH FLEET ANALYSIS


VICTORY Class Battleship

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: words for winning a battle, I guess

Known ships of this class: Triumph, Victory

Analysis: In SotFA, it says the Brits lag behind in ship construction technology and design. So I designed all the Brit ships to be old. Why do they build their own ships, instead of buying them from the French or licensing other designs? Well, they have a lot of colonies, and they have a strong colonial and sea-faring tradition (and that sea-faring tradition carries over to space faring). In addition, do you think British pride would allow them to buy/build ships from the Frogs? No way! Remember..."Wogs begin at Calais." Anway, I also decided that the Brits were a bit strapped for cash due to the construction of the BC Prince of Wales, the CV Nelson, and the production of the Harrier and Wellington fighters. So they have all these aging ships...what do they do? They do a fleetwide upgrade. They replace all those old Ritage-1 missiles with Silkas (maybe they are Russian, maybe they are just a design amazingly like the Silkas...doesn't matter), making their ships have more punch. They add communicators. They upgrade the sensors and the computers. Now they have added many more years of life to their ships. Star Cruiser experience with the Victory shows she can get in and take it as well as she dishes it out. See the web page for more details.

 

NELSON Class Carrier

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: If they build another, it'll be after another famous British Admiral.

Known ships of this class: Nelson

Analysis: Building this one was fun. I figured that if the Brits were savvy enough to build the Donovan, which launches all its missiles at once, they'd try building a carrier that could launch all its fighters at once. The Nelson carries 15 Harrier fighters, 15 Wellington fighters, and 3 Donovan fighters, all of which are attached to the hull...meaning they can all launch at once (what I call a hedgehog launch). This plays hell on her reflected profile, and a lot of internal space is dedicated to carrying fuel for the fighters, but that's what a carrier is for. Nelson doesn't have as many fighters as the French CV Marian, but the Nelson can fight, too. She has four communicators, and a nice load of missiles. Once she dumps her fighters, she's fast, too. Basically, the Brits built this one right...goes in, drops off all the fighters at once, dances back out of range and throws missiles until it is time to recover the fighters. See the web page for more details.

 

PRINCE OF WALES Class Battlecruiser

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: Royal titles

Known ships of this class: Prince of Wales

Analysis: Moderately fast, heavily armored, and thoroughly modern. The PoW goes one up on the Bismark, basically. The Brits looked at the Kennedy, looked at the Bismark, and decided to combine the two. Five communicators for fifty Silkas makes a nice punch. Carries a couple of fighters, as well. The PoW will end up replacing the aging Victory class battleships in the future (yes, even the Brits look to the future from time to time). Since the Brits and the Germans are the only two countries to have BC's listed in any books, and since there are so few of them, I discerned that BC's are a more modern trend in the game...thus the PoW being a modern ship. Check the web page for more details.

 

HOOD Class Missile Cruiser

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: old Brit seafaring ships of the line

Known ships of this class: Drake, Dreadnought, Hood, King George V, Montrose, Mountbatten, Rodney

Analysis: Old ships, but they still have some punch left in them, especially after the fleet upgrades. Same story generally as the Victory class battleship. See the web page for more.

 

CAMPERDOWN Class Destroyer

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: I just pulled names out of Jane's, based off what I saw in Invasion.

Known ships of this class: Bastion, Campderdown, Courageous, Defiance, Fearless, Imperious, Impervious, Indefatigable, Redoubt, Renown, Robust, Stalwart

Analysis: They managed to stand up okay in Star Cruiser, but their age starts to show here. Invasion lists the Camperdown as a Kiev...yeah, right! This is probably the most major change to printed material I ever made. See the web page for more

 

ACHATES Class Frigate

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: Looks like figures from Greek mythology

Known ships of this class: Achates, Achilles, Andromeda, Apollo, Argonaut, Ariadne, Athena, Calliope, Cyclops, Dionysus, Helena, Hermes, Homer, Hydra, Medea, Penellope, Poseidon, Ulysses

Analysis: These ships need help. I'd still take one of these armed with a Ritage-1 against an Aconit, though (can you tell that I despise the Aconit?). They are old, slow, and have only a moderate punch. They basically hang around the big ships for protection. See the web page for more (last time I'll say that...I promise).

 

EXETER Class System Defense Boat

Reference: Ships of the French Arm, page 32

Fleets of Service: UK

Apparent Naming Convention: towns and regions of Great Britain

Known ships of this class: Dover, Edinburgh, Inverness, Ipswich, Liverpool, Northumbria, Norwich, Wessex

Analysis: Well, good for patrolling the space lanes, and not much more. No missiles, either. Meat for the Kafers. These are your basic Coast Guard ships.

 

DONOVAN Class Fighter

Reference: Ships of the French Arm, page

Fleets of Service: UK

Number of Ships in service: Unknown, but probably not too many of them left....and where the heck would they be, anyway? I'm content to just go with the three on the Nelson.

Analysis: A very novel concept for a fighter. With 24 missiles that can all be fired at once, sounds good to me. Problem is that they are all Ritage-1's. Solution? Replace them with Silkas. The 24 Ritage-1's could be replaced by 20 Silkas, and would take the same mass and volume (as well as the same exit-port size). Okay, it would require a bit of retooling, but that is just what I say the Brits have done. Now...there are three of them on the Nelson. That's 60 missiles flying out at once...probably more than the Brits have communicators at the Battle of Beowulf. Even without these missiles, the Donovan is in a class by itself (I call her a light-frigate, really...and better than an Aconit!).

 

HARRIER Class Fighter

Reference: designed by Wade Racine

Fleets of Service: UK

Number of Ships in service: Just the ones on the Nelson, the Prince of Wales, and the two Victory class battleships...she's very new.

Analysis: Not a bad little ship. Can't take a hull hit and survive, really, but it's got good armor to make up for it. The LHH-637 submuni-dispenser is what makes her shine. It's on the web-page (so I lied about not saying it again).

 

WELLINGTON Class Fighter

Reference: Ships of the French Arm, page 28

Fleets of Service: UK

Number of Ships in service: Three squadrons, it says in SotFA...however many that is. Call it 30. One squadron at Henry's Star, one at Tirane, and one at Beta Canum, according to SotFA.

Analysis: Slow. Blind. Only a thin shell of armor. She can take a hull hit, but not a power plant hit. This fighter is definitely for use against ships, not other fighters. With no real targeting computer and such wimpy sensors, combined with the -3 penalty on those particle accelerators, she's only going to be able to hit the broad side of a battleship anyway.


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