Aslani warships

[The Oz]

Does anyone know of any canon HG stats for Aslani warships. I have the Aliens Module, and the FASA modules with the "Hero" and "Warlord" class ships, and the one with the "Stayaow" class combat scout. I am working up Aslani warships for Power Projection-Fleet and I'd like to include any canon ships that exist, and to avoid running over any established Aslani ship design elements.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mike wightman]

The MT Rebellion Sourcebook has stats for a 50000dt Ihatei-class transport, and a 10000dt Weakhto-class cruiser. GURPS Traveller Aliens book 2 includes a number (10+) of ships. Conversion from MT and GT will involve more work, but it can be done.

 

[The Oz]

I'll have to see what I can find as I don't have either of those.

Conversion from MT is no trick at all, as PP:F already has everything needed. Conversion from GURPS will be more difficult. It would probably be best to recreate the designs in HG, tweak them to be as close to the original as possible, and then convert them into PP:F.

Can you recall any unifying theme in the ship designs? I have some ideas along those lines but I'd not want to conflict with any pre-existing concepts.

 

[mike wightman]

50000t, Ihatei transport,
TL13, streamlined cylinder hull,
jump3, maneuver1, power plant?, nuclear damper2, computer7(?), 92 staterooms, 10000 cold berths, 5x shuttle, 8x cutter, 10x air/raft, purification plant, fuel scoops, cargo 15000t, crew to include 50 ship's troops.

10000t, Weakhto cruiser,
TL13, streamlined cone hull, armour 50F,
jump3, maneuver3, power plant?, 1x missile bay#9, 10x missile turrets #3, 5x #5 fusion gun turrets, 5x #4 plasma gun turrets, 9x #6 beam lasers, 1x particle accelerator bay #3(?- this has to be wrong), 10x #4 sandcasters, nuclear damper3, computer7(?), 87 staterooms, 100 bunks, 2x shuttle, 2x cutter, 1x air/raft, purification plant, fuel scoops, cargo 100t, crew to include 10 ship's troops.
This one will need some work

 

[mike wightman]

Do you want the MT stats for the seven ships in Solomani and Aslan? They appear to be the MT conversions of the Alien Module 1 ships.
They all have either configuration 2 or 3 in MT terms (cone and cylinder respectively) and are streamlined.

 

[The Oz]

Thanks, but I have the old Aliens Modules for Solomani and Aslan. I don't have the GT stuff, however.

Also, thanks for posting the Rebellion Sourcebook stuff. I can use those. I do see that the Ihatei transport continues the concept of shipping troops in low berths. I knew about that from the FASA supplements and seeing it continued encourages me to continue using it, and extending its use to other "expendable" personnel....

The use of Cone or Cylinder configurations is also a trend that has continued. I believe the Aslani also make great use of the Flattened Sphere configuration. The Stayaow combat scout is config-6.

 

[The Oz]

After a few minutes playing around, I can get the following PP:F stats for that Aslani "cruiser":
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Aslani "Weakhto" class cruiser (I'd call it a Destroyer Leader):

MT/HG stat = PP:F stat
10,000 tons = 20 structure boxes
50F armor = 1 armor box
Cone config = L1 config modifier
MT Streamlined = Partial StreamLining (PSL)
J-3 = Jump-3
3-G = Thrust-3
Agility-3 (assumed) = Turn-1, Agility Modifer-0
3,500 tons fuel = 4 fuel boxes
Mod/7fib computer = two RCP-2 icons.
One Bridge = one Bridge icon
1xf-9 missile bay = 1 M+ battery
10xf-3 missile turrets = 10 M batteries
1xf-4 (not f-3) particle bay - 1 P battery
5xf-5 fusion and 5xf-4 plasma batteries = 10 E batteries
9xf-6 laser batteries = 9 L batteries
10xf-3 sand batteries = 10 S batteries
One f-3 nuclear damper = one L1 nuclear damper icon
HG crew of 3 = 3 Damage Control Parties
10 ship's troops = Offensive Combat Capability-1
Crew of 122 = Defensive Combat Capability-3
Cost- MCR5,636.626 in quantity
PP:F point value = 41</pre>[/QUOTE]When I translated this ship into HG, I used an empty 100-ton bay to use the space that the f-9 missile battery would use. In PP:F there is no reason why a ship cannot have both standard and high-power weapons batteries of the same type, although none of the ships provided with the game are so equipped since they were all (I assume) designed with High Guard.

In making the SSD for this ship, I would arrange the firing arcs of the weapons to go along with the cone configuration. I'd put the E batteries into two groups of five, each covering the bow and one side (left or right) while the L batteries would be split into three groups of three, two of them covering the same arcs as the E batteries, and one covering the three rear arcs. This would give the ship rather minimal coverage directly aft (only 3 L batteries, plus the sand and missiles) but everything except those three L batteries would bear directly ahead. I'd put the P battery in a similar position, covering the bow and one other arc. I wonder if Dom would allow a P battery to cover just the arcs directly ahead and astern.

After translating the Weakhto into HG I found it had almost 2,000 tons (20% of the ship!) unused. For a warship of this size, this is ridiculous. I would use that for something. Quick experimentation shows I can get 6-G acceleration and Agility-6 and still have nearly 400 tons left for cargo. Or you can go for Agility-5 and 5-G, and get armor-7 (which is enough to get you two armor boxes in PP:F) although this option gives you only 180 tons of cargo space.

There are other options for using that space, of course.

 

[mike wightman]

I've checked GURPS Traveller Aliens book 2 again and all bar one ship are GURPS versions of the ships presented in Alien Module 1, S&A, and the two MT ships I listed earlier.
The GURPS Weakhto is broken as well. It replaces the PA bay with a spinal mount PAWS (GURPS versions come in a range of sizes at different TLs), has nine missile bays and nineteen assorted turrets.
The new ship in GURPS is a 20000t Taorl- class tender which can carry 24x400t SDBs and 8x shuttles. It is jump3, maneuver1. This ship is also in civilian use by replacing the SDBs with 400t pods (cargo, fuel, passenger, and low berth are given as examples) or civilian ships, and is called a riftliner (since with a couple of fuel pods it can extend its operational range with deep space jumps).
While speaking of pods, the 600t Khtukhao class transport is described as being constructed with pods (deckplans provided).

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
[SNIP]

}The new ship in GURPS is a 20000t Taorl- class tender which can carry 24x400t SDBs and 8x shuttles. It is jump3, maneuver1. This ship is also in civilian use by replacing the SDBs with 400t pods (cargo, fuel, passenger, and low berth are given as examples) or civilian ships, and is called a riftliner (since with a couple of fuel pods it can extend its operational range with deep space jumps).
While speaking of pods, the 600t Khtukhao class transport is described as being constructed with pods (deckplans provided).

--------------------------------------------------
Cool beans Sigg on the Taorl-class news! Ty!
constructed with pods? As in pre-assembled, modular pieces-Sweet!<nods approval>.

returns to making notes!

 

[The Oz]

Presumably the Taorl-class tender is a config-7 dispersed hull design? Most "pod-based" ship designs I've seen are dispersed hulls.

I've gotten away from using the dispersed hull configuration for my battle tenders. It makes them too reliant on outside refuelling sources (tankers, fuel shuttles, their riders, etc). I'd rather pay the extra tonnage cost for internal carriage of my riders and have the tender able to refuel on its own. Usually the tenders are big enough to launch all the carried craft at once, so that's not a real disadvantage.

Aslani ships seem to make a great use of the 95-ton shuttle, I notice. Hmmmm.

 

[siefertma2]

OZ! When you're done, post that SSD here please.

 

[mike wightman]

Presumably the Taorl-class tender is a config-7 dispersed hull design?

From the pictures in the book of the Khtukhao ( here's an example ) I would go with close structure (Configuration 4) for Aslan unstreamlined ships. There is an online gallery with the ship artwork, but I can't remember the URL.

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Mark A. Siefert:
OZ! When you're done, post that SSD here please.

Getting the SSDs done is the hard part. When I have them done, I'll let ya'll know where to find them (and Dom'll hopefully want them for the PP:F website anyway).

Sigg: I'd call that ship a dispersed structure. It's certainly more "dispersed" than the Arakoine-class Strike Cruiser in LBB#9.

 

[Dom]

Originally posted by The Oz:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mark A. Siefert:
OZ! When you're done, post that SSD here please.

Getting the SSDs done is the hard part. When I have them done, I'll let ya'll know where to find them (and Dom'll hopefully want them for the PP:F website anyway).
</font>[/QUOTE]That's an affirmative

Mark, how's the review going?

 

[Dom]

Originally posted by The Oz:
After a few minutes playing around, I can get the following PP:F stats for that Aslani "cruiser":
In PP:F there is no reason why a ship cannot have both standard and high-power weapons batteries of the same type, although none of the ships provided with the game are so equipped since they were all (I assume) designed with High Guard.

Correct. All the ships were either designed with (the Zhodani) or ported from High Guard stats (supplement 9 - I'm uncertain if they have been designed properly).

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Mark A. Siefert:
OZ! When you're done, post that SSD here please.

How's this for a first attempt?

 

[siefertma2]

Oooooooh Shiny! I like! I like very much!

 

[siefertma2]

Originally posted by Dom:

Mark, how's the review going?

It's almost done actually. I've been busy over the past week became I may be REALLY close to finding gainful employment again! Since I'm in going to be in limbo until Thrusday, I suppose I can burn the midnight oil and finish it.

Also, I'm trying to peice together a reference sheet like the one I composed for Escort. I'll send that one to you as soon as it's done.

 

[The Oz]

I see I managed to mess up that SSD a bit.

It's based on the stats that Sigg posted, but I decided to use that unused 2,000 tons for extra acceleration and agility, making the ship shown on the SSD the Weakhto-F (for Fast) Destroyer Leader. The ship on the SSD should only have one cargo box, not four.

If you want to use the SSD for the published Weakhto-class, keep the four cargo boxes and change the Thrust to 3, the Turn Capability to 1, and the Agility to 0 (zero).

 

[mike wightman]

Hi Oz,
I've been playing around with the Weakhto design a bit myself. Since it is a MT design, and several MT designs are noted for being broken, I can not see it being too much of a problem to "fix" the design a bit.
The excess space remaining is a result of MT power plant and power plant fuel requirements. I've seen several examples of HG ship designs with much lower agility and maneuver drive ratings when converted over to MT. So I don't see the problem with increasing the ratings when going from MT to HG to PP.
I would go with maneuver 4, agility 4, power plant 8, armour 7 as you have suggested, make both weapon bays 100t and add one more 100t weapon bay (I would have 2 factor 8 PA bays plus the factor 9 missile bay), and redesignate the laser batteries as 6 factor 7 batteries.
I'll add one final snip from the MT write-up- the Weakhto is considered obsolete by modern Aslan standards and is now used as colony ship escort or as a colony fleet recon/scout.