Abusing an AHL

[Fritz_Brown]

That's why it sits somewhere quiet and undetected....

 

[SlightlyLyons]

Originally posted by Ran Targas:
^ I see skimming done by dedicated refueling craft supporting a dedicated tanker. The AHL would rendevous with the tanker, get topped off, then rocket away. The tanker could either follow the AHL to the next system and refuel again, or stay in the nearby system, rebuilding its stock of deuterium/tritium.

This would effectively:

1) keep the AHL from having to enter a deep gravity well and possibly exposing itself to accidental damage or attack just to refuel
2) keep the AHL from having to jump deep into a system and expose itself to detection or attack just to refuel
3) keep the AHL from having to carry a bunch of refueling shuttles or cutters instead of combat craft
4) keep the AHL from having to dedicate space to scoops and refining gear, leaving room for ammo or other supplies necessary for prolonged operation (this could be addressed with additional support craft as well)

Isn't the AHL's roll like that of the Bismark, to operate unescorted in enemy held teritory raiseing heck with there convoys? Doesn't that sort of preclude meeting up with supply ships?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Actually, it would make refuel/resupply even more important out "in the deep", as it were. Of course, you could just take the fuel off the ships you target....

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by SlightlyLyons:
Isn't the AHL's roll like that of the Bismark, to operate unescorted in enemy held teritory raiseing heck with there convoys? Doesn't that sort of preclude meeting up with supply ships?

Actually an AHL is a poor choice to engage Capital Ships. It doesn't fair well against most Light Cruisers, forget about similar sized or larger ships. It does, however, make for an excellent Commerce Raider. Killing Convoys of Merchant ships, and light escorts (Destroyer and smaller) with relative ease. Think of it more as the equivalent to the Graf Spee, instead of the Bismark and employ it as such and you will do well. As soon as you start thinking it is the equivalent to the Bismark you will find that the Hood wins this fight.

 

[SlightlyLyons]

Well that was the Bismarks problem, they realy needed to have made more comerce raiders, but Hitler wanted a battleship, so they built one, and used it as a comerce raider, or tryed to, but battleships don't hide well.

 

[Antony]

I believe the AHLs were originally designed as commerce raiders (Fleet Intruders) so whoever designed them should probably have been shot. They were to operate behind enemy lines with a light escort so tanker support was unlikely. Though the German system of Milchcows could be an interesting adventure possibility.

How the designer got away with it, "hey we have a J5 cruiser, think what that will do for your power projection my lord." The result a J5 vessel that can barely refuel itself and is slow to boot.

I think we are probably concentrating on the wrong class, only 92 were completed which would actually make then rare in the Imperial Fleet, even more so in later years.

 

[mike wightman]

All this talk about commerce raiding gives me an excuse to post this link again

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Antony:
I believe the AHLs were originally designed as commerce raiders (Fleet Intruders) so whoever designed them should probably have been shot. They were to operate behind enemy lines with a light escort so tanker support was unlikely. Though the German system of Milchcows could be an interesting adventure possibility.

How the designer got away with it, "hey we have a J5 cruiser, think what that will do for your power projection my lord." The result a J5 vessel that can barely refuel itself and is slow to boot.

I think we are probably concentrating on the wrong class, only 92 were completed which would actually make then rare in the Imperial Fleet, even more so in later years.

I agree that they were probably designed as Commerce Raiders. Based on its load out it is one of the few things that makes sense about the design. The use of Fuel Shuttles means that the ship can undergo refueling operations and act as its own "high guard."

A Major benefit of having a Jump-5 ship, besides making it capable of deep penetration strikes, or quick reaction is the difficulty of getting a read on where it will strike next, as by the time your fleet bases know there is an AHL in your command area raiding your supply lines, it can be halfway across your command area. And pinning one down is a real bear, taking up more resources, especially front line, Capital Ship resources well out of proportion to its actual capability.

Another benefit of using a Jump-5 ship is you can always go into your target area with a Jump 2-3 and if you run into capital ships, an ambush, or simply no targets, you can always jump right back out, (Jump 2-3) Or you can do three jumps in rapid succession keeping your pursuers guessing as to where you are, and off your trail. Since it has been published that you can follow a ship that entered jump, in the T20 rules in particular, I am not sure of other rulesets, based on things like energy signatures, if you jump soon after the leaving ship, a nasty tactic for an AHL would be to Jump-3 into an empty hex then Jump-2 out of it. Leaving any ill prepared Jump-4 ships in pursuit stranded. (they would have to pool resources and bring a tanker back to recover the balance of the stranded ships. (NASTY!) In fact if you are not careful the AHL could get back before your tankers and make short work of anything left behind with insufficeint fuel.


Remember they were one of the first large canon ships published, if not the first. While there may not have been all that many built, they will continue to have a major place in the OTU as they have had a role in CT (Azhanti High Lightning, and Supp 9), MT (Arrival Vengence), T20 (TA#7), and I seem to recall a Challange Adventure for an AHL in TNE.

So while it may not be an optimum design, and it might not be a typical design, it is the one big ship that has been consistently mentioned in virtually all forms of Traveller, and is the one Large Ship, with Canon Deckplans.