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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 154
Message ID: 3
#3, RE: The Star Kingdom of Manticore's fleet
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-16-01 at 06:47 PM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON Oct-16-01 AT 06:48 PM (EDT)

>Are the Manticore vessels (ie 3-km long super dreadnoughts) different
>than they were in the books?

This has been covered elsewhere (short version: yes), but looking at that length stat, I'd just like to put down a couple of the UF universe's starship superlatives for the record.

The largest warship put to space by a modern civilization is the GENOM Corporation Military Arm Navy's Executioner class of Star Destroyers, at a round eight kilometers in length. (Trust GENOM to use the metric system instead of the galactic standard. :) The Executioner class (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Dreadnaught class or Super class) lacks a Class Omega weapon and has the Star Destroyer line's usual deficiencies in shielding, but is equipped with such numerous turbolaser batteries and so heavily armed that it doesn't really matter much in practical terms. Also, as we have seen in Twilight, for a ship that size, it's remarkably fast and maneuverable.

It's worth pointing out, though, that the Executioner class is a bit of an aberration. It's more than three times bigger than the next largest, the WDF's Megaroad class of Super Dimensional Fortresses, and over seven times the size of its GENOM predecessor, the Imperial class. The only real reason it's that big is the fact that Largo was out of his freaking mind. Even the Imperial class is really bigger than it needs to be. In the long run, for flexible fleet operations, the 900-to-1800-foot size range fielded by the Federation Starfleet, Earthforce, the bulk of the WDF Navy, and... well, just about everybody else... seems to be about optimum. Anything bigger isn't necessarily overkill, but it is somewhat limited in operational scope. One wouldn't, for instance, send an Executioner-class Star Destroyer on a Starfleet-standard five-year exploration-and-patrol mission, unless of course you had money to burn and were just trying to make a point. :)

The most powerful warship in the service of a modern civilization is debatable, but the most likely candidates are Wandering Child and Challenger. Discounting the somewhat unbalancing factor of overtechnology, you're back to the Star Destroyer again, or possibly the Gamilon flagship Destiny's Fist.

--G.
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