Canon 2: Empire Distinctives

[Whipsnade]

The willingness to sustain massive losses and press on could also be why the Swordies win

Ermattungsstratgie could be part of the reason and an appreciation of it did color the Confederation naval doctrine I suggested to Hans while he was writing GT:SW.

However, there's a great difference between throwing legions at Pyrrhus of Epirus or human waves at panzers and combat between starships and that difference is economics. Infinite missile boats only work when you can build, maintain, and man them in infinite numbers.

 

[McPerth]

Another factor to conseder about the Darrian TL16 squadrons is that they are told to be pre-Maghiz relics.

If we see Darrian pre-Maghiz position, it's unlikely they had a powerful fleet, as they had no hostile neighbours (in fact, they didn't have any high tech neighbours), and Darrians were not an aggresive/warlike race.

Of course, the (probably, due to history) more militaristic Solomani that sparked their tech developement would have insisted in building some fleet, just in case, but I guess most of its ships were not precisely superdreadnoughts, but more on the cruiser/destroyer range, as they didn't need larger ships when they were built.

And, before anyone asks, all of this is purely speculative, with no (at least known to me) published material to support it.

 

[Whipsnade]

If we see Darrian pre-Maghiz position, it's unlikely they had a powerful fleet, as they had no hostile neighbours (in fact, tjey didn't have any high tech neighbours), and Darrians were not an agrtesive/warlike race.

And that's another reason why those relic TL 16 squadrons aren't "sooper dooper" never fail warships: They most likely weren't warships in the first place.

A merchant group unlike the later military Gram Fleet, the Itzvin(?) Fleet is said to have "scouted the neighborhood" before selecting Darrian for contact and uplift. They passed across the jump5 Rift Span route and through the Trojan Reach on their way to the Marches. They have a general idea of just who and what is around the region, groups like what's left of the Sindals, 1st/2nd Imperium refugees are drifting spinward, refugees are moving away from the Zhodani, Zho-influenced planets are nosing about, and all the other odds and sods passing through the region.

They'll know their ships need to be armed but they'll also know there is no pressing need for a battle fleet. So, those TL 16 relics found in the Darrian outer system weren't a mothballed CruRon.

 

[Condottiere]

Regarding the Solomani Navy, my belief is that after autonomy was granted, they basically had to recreate entire fleets at tech level twelve, but knew that they had to make provision in their designs for tech upgrades.

Having to play catch up both antebellum and postbellum, I further believe that they've never mothballed any major combatants.

They probably went straight for a massive light and escort carrier building programme once their naval strategists had the exact figures for the losses in their initial blitzkrieg.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The newer MgT books specifically state that the Confederation lacks mid-tonnage ships by design.

 

[Condottiere]

Yes, but it looks like a post bellum decision, and it also appears due to the fact that whatever tonnage is allocate to cruisers, SolSec takes half of it, and a substantial part is allocated to building more fast dreadnoughts.

You build capital ships before a conflict, and the Confederation probably makes up the numbers with strikecraft and patrol ships.

My take on it is they'll designate ships with five hundred tonne bays as light cruisers.

 

[Garnfellow]

Yes, but it looks like a post bellum decision, and it also appears due to the fact that whatever tonnage is allocate to cruisers, SolSec takes half of it, and a substantial part is allocated to building more fast dreadnoughts.

I think this is correct. T20's Fighting Ships of the Solomani Confederation describes the Solomani Navy circa 993 as a "battlecruiser navy," with battlecruisers being capital ships roughly the same size as battleships, but with far less armor in exchange for greater speed, manuverability, and firepower.

I could see the Solomani over-correcting following the Rim War . . . no more cruisers! Battleships! Big Battleships! Really big Battleships!