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Broadswords into Ploughshares

P

Patron Zero

SOC-13
Just wondering if anyone has considered using 'retired' Broadsword class mercenary cruisers as 800Ton subsidized merchants ?

Mind a bit of refitting involved, mostly in removal of the cutter wells and re-purposing the recovered space from such but a definite doable proposition.

The former troopships now acting as bulk freighters, passenger liners or salvage-recovery vessels, their duties and designations set by interior configuration and exterior out-fittings.

Perhaps some vessels serving as commercially operated fuel tenders high above busy prime worlds and other heavily traveled locations.

Again, not the most outwardly elegant ships to grace the spaceways but now operating in the merchant and transport 'theaters' of engagement might be less risky than their previous deployments.

1_ESSO_tanker.jpg
 
Alternatively, for frontier use (as the ship is unstearmlined IIRC), keep one or two of the cutters as shuttles to the planet's surface.

Or use the whole ship as an exploratory cruiser, keep the cutters, convert a lot of troop space to laboratories, supplies and hydroponics, and roam the frontier. The old laser turrets will still come in handy.
 
I considered using a Broadsword for a long-term expedition to a dangerous planet. Ended up having to enlist a 400-ton armed scout to complement its capacity, because there was not enough space for everyone. IIRC the expedition was expected to provide some tens of megacredits in raw materials over one year in order to be considered successful and receive additional funding. We never ended up playing that game.
 
Good point about the unstreamlined hull and atmospheric landings, I'm looking at the refits more operating in strictly vacuum environments, limited to orbital transfers and 'deep space' travels.

LBB Adventure 7 Broadsword (page 18, paragraph 2) does state though the ship capable of skimming gas giants, which makes such perfect to act as both tankers and mobile 'refineries' for small scale fuel producers.

Should one so desire, fully streamlining the vessel during refitting could pay off for those entrepreneurs that offer charter service for high passage patrons or a most well-appointed yacht for nobles and corporate executives.
 
Heck, I consider "[FONT=arial,helvetica]Broadswords into Ploughshares[/FONT]" to be an excellent title for a scenario or short adventure in a longer campaign detailing the lifecycle of a squadron of Broadsword-class cruisers.
 
My Thoughts

Broadsword class (800T J3 Unstreamlined) is Mcr. 285 (8 hardpoints)
VS.
Longsword Class (1,000T J4 Streamlined) is Mcr 646 (10 hardpoints)
I considered my Mercenary Corp buying a used Longsword (we wound up buying 10 which we then had to refit, overhaul the engines and update the computers) to be a bargain (used they were less than a new Broadsword).
Using it for 20 to 40 more years and then selling it (after removing the military hardware we were allowed to keep) would make an excellent plan.
The depreciation makes it very worth while and the market according to these ideas seems open ended.
1. Trader
2. Fuel station/support
3. Exploratory ship
4. Armed liner
5. Luxury Yatch
 
mike wightman said:
Note that in A8 the unstreamlined Broadsword lands on a planet ;)

Someone once again didn't read their own rules properly ;)
Click to expand...

Strictly my personal opinion, but I suspect that anyone who ever fired a cannon ball or threw a baseball would be surprised to learn that a sphere is too 'unstreamlined' to travel through the atmosphere.
 
Chuck Anumia said:
Broadsword class (800T J3 Unstreamlined) is Mcr. 285 (8 hardpoints)
VS.
Longsword Class (1,000T J4 Streamlined) is Mcr 646 (10 hardpoints)
Click to expand...
What's the reason for the huge price difference? Is the Longsword armored up the wazoo? Because otherwise I'd expect it to be about 25% more expensive than a Broadsword, give or take.

And where is the Longsword from? I don't recognize it. (Whoever named it must have ignored the existence of a Broadsword class (or vice versa); the two classes would be using the same names!)


Hans
 
atpollard said:
Strictly my personal opinion, but I suspect that anyone who ever fired a cannon ball or threw a baseball would be surprised to learn that a sphere is too 'unstreamlined' to travel through the atmosphere.
Click to expand...
So would the writers of HG; the sphere configuration is partially streamlined.

Also, if you stuck four forks in a baseball and tried to throw it, you might be less surprised that a Broadsword is considered unstreamlined.


Hans
 
rancke said:
What's the reason for the huge price difference? Is the Longsword armored up the wazoo? Because otherwise I'd expect it to be about 25% more expensive than a Broadsword, give or take.
Click to expand...

I guess the higher jump number has soething to do (about 72 Mcr, if I have not botched numbers), and I guess it would have higher computer number. Even so, you're right, it's quite more expensive.

rancke said:
And where is the Longsword from? I don't recognize it. (Whoever named it must have ignored the existence of a Broadsword class (or vice versa); the two classes would be using the same names!)
Click to expand...

I'd also like to see it...
 
McPerth said:
I guess the higher jump number has something to do (about 72 Mcr, if I have not botched numbers), and I guess it would have higher computer number.
Click to expand...
Oh, of course. Doh! :o

I just assumed they had similar performances, which is not, of course, a given.


Hans
 
There would also be the option of a retired Broadsword be 'restricted' to local space if such had it's jump-drive and supporting systems removed during renovation.

A hefty vessel like that would make for a good-sized freight hauler or passenger transport if the routes were limited in-system runs.

Mind, 800Tons is a bit of overkill for delivering pizza though !
 
Chuck Anumia said:
Here is the freelance traveler version of the Longsword.

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/classic/ken-pick/longswords.html
Click to expand...

Is it practical? On a positive note, it can be sent into unsafe locations where the free trader could not tread.

On a negative, I use the Tender for many purposes having a dozen or so versions and can upgrade to include various devices (turrets, engines, etc.).
The merc cruiser can be moved to an SDB role, remote base or several other options that may be more suitable.
 
Getting back to the original concept,

Keep the two shuttles and load them out as fuel skimmers. Now turn every spare inch of the Broadsword into a flying fuel tank.

What you have is a 800 ton fuel transport to keep a local small starport in business. Or just run a refueling business for rock jockys or smaller ships.

Seems a better way to refuel a fleet than landing and draining every standing body of water.

As a aside has anyone ever figured out how much fuel a large J4 Imp fleet would take in one bite from a planets oceans? How long could they drain a planet before affecting the ecology?
 
shadowcat20 said:
...As a aside has anyone ever figured out how much fuel a large J4 Imp fleet would take in one bite from a planets oceans? How long could they drain a planet before affecting the ecology?
Click to expand...

Well, Earth's the handy real example, so let's start there:

http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html

Estimated 1.386 billion cubic kilometers water on Earth. If I recall my metrics, a kilometer's a thousand meters on a side, and a metric ton of water's a 1 cubic meter block. So, 1.386 x1018 tons of water.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

A squadron of, say, 8 200,000 dTon J4 Plankwells needs 768 thousand dTons of fuel for full tanks. That's one jump plus 4 weeks of fuel - figure 704 thousand tons every two weeks, assuming a jump and a week's break. We will rather arbitrarily raise that to 750,000 dTons to account for escorts and just to make the math simpler, 'cause I'm lazy. That's hydrogen, so 750,000 tons of hydrogen.

If I recall correctly, every ton of water breaks down into 8 parts by weight of O2 and 1 part by weight of H2: the oxygen atom in the mix is 16 times more massive than a hydrogen atom, but there's two hydrogen atoms, and so on and so forth. So, you need 9 tons of water for every ton of hydrogen.

Which means the squadron above needs 6,750,000 tons of water to get its hydrogen.

Which means there's enough water on Earth to fuel 205.3 billion squadrons.

There's supposed to be some 20,000 ships in the Imperial fleet. If we pretend for a moment that they're all 200 kiloton dreadnoughts - 2500 squadrons of dreadnoughts - then there's enough water on Earth to fuel the entire Imperial fleet 82 million times. If we assume the fleet goes out somewhere and then comes back, refueling at Earth once a month, that's enough fuel for the entire Imperial fleet for 6.8 million years.

Now, Earth's rather large. Let's take a Size 1 planet with Hydro 1. We will not argue about how the planet's holding an atmosphere or whether that water's liquid or ice - this is a speculative math exercise, just to get a feel for how really big a planet is. Our little Size 1 planet has 1/512 the volume of Earth. Our hydrographics is about 1/7 that of Earth. Assuming water in the same proportions to rock and iron and such by volume (I think the oceans end up shallower) and then adjusted by that 1/7, the little weird planet with the 10% water coverage can fuel the entire fleet for 1900 years.

In fact, if every ship in the fleet refueled only at Lake Tahoe (and you could keep more water from coming in to replace what was taken), it would still take about 9 months to drain the lake.

I think I got that math right. Anyway, planets are very, very big places, and we are very, very small. If you take a 12" world globe, Plankwell is smaller than a speck of dust.
 
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