Space War - recruitment and OOC

[Derpnaster]

A cruiser is an escort ship. That was their original purpose. To escort aircraft carriers. Frigates were actually used as open sea raiders and as relays for flag signals due to poor visibility for ships of the line.

Slight correction, cruisers were used as escorts in the Second World War. They never actually saw major battle prior to that and were simply fast battleships, the term cruiser is a modern term applied to fast turret armed ships now used as part of task forces.

[Azazeal849]

Your light cruisers are scouts and raiders for sure, but destroyers are more for escort, screening and hunter-killer missions (including fast attack against capital ships).

And I’ll allow an escort carrier. Seeing some space fighter action would be cool.

[Derpnaster]

Cool. I’ll work on a carrier then.

[Cfavano]

if I am correct, 40k ships from smallest to largest...


Fighters/Bombers

Escorts/Frigates

Cruisers

Strike Cruisers

Battlecruisers (and variants)

Carriers

Battleships

Grand Cruisers

Battle Barges

[dakkagor]

Nope.

Destroyers are generally smaller than Frigates

Strike Cruisers are the size of Dauntless Light Cruisers, but more heavily armoured and less heavily gunned.

'Carriers' can exist at any hull size, so you can have escort carriers, cruiser sized carriers, and battleship sized carriers (Though escort carriers are not popular because of their limited hanger space)

Battleships and Battlebarges, are, again, about the same size, with the battle barge having more armour and space dedicated to interface craft launching than your average battleship, often at the cost of maneuverability.

Grand Cruisers are smaller than Battleships and bigger than Battlecruisers and Heavy Cruisers, which are bigger than Cruisers.

@Derpnaster look up the Defiant Class Light Cruiser as its a smaller carrier and probably perfect for your needs.

[Derpnaster]

Hmm, might be worth it.

[Azazeal849]

I wonder if there’s any hard numbers for how many strike craft these ships carry.

[PaintSerf]

I wonder if there’s any hard numbers for how many strike craft these ships carry.

Battlefleet Koronus sourcebook from Rogue Trader lists void squadron sizes as:

Fury Interceptors - 20
Starhawk Bombers - 10
Shark Assault Boats - 8

As for actively available squadrons, it notes a starship may have one squadron per point of Launch Bay Strength prepared and ready for launch at any one time - with a presumed extra amount of craft in storage and repair due to the impossibility of a flight line never being at 100% - and the launch bays marked for Defiants (Jovian-pattern Escort Bay) at one strength (2 strength for full cruiser sized bays) so that'd make for two flight-ready squadrons from the beginning of an engagement.

[Azazeal849]

Well found!

A light carrier could certainly make a mark then, and it would be a good change of pace to switch to pilots' POV every noe and then.

[PaintSerf]

For what it's worth, in further delving through Battlefleet Koronus, it does mention for every point of Strength in a launch bay, the bay can hold three squadrons total configured for any combination of fighters, bombers, assault boats (and for pedantic completionism) support vessels sized / squadron equivalent as assault boats, and Aeronautica at double the squadron size due to their smaller size.

The old Battlefleet Gothic rulebook has initial launch capacity for Imperial cruisers at four squadrons, which on the defensive side of things is matched by military space stations, orbital docks (presuming they’re adequately prepared once war were declared) and military airbases should void vessels enter into low-orbit.

Out of curiosity – what are the fleet colors for Adrantis and Ixaniad?

...asking for a friend.