Chrysanthemums and Fer-de-Lances

[Hyphen]

Colonial navies need some love. I haven't seen a lot of text on them other than describing them in high-level generalities, except for the odd bit of design notes for some starships.

Tavonni Sidebar: Tavonni Planetary Navy
http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/tavworld/m1201/tpn.htm

 

[Ulsyus]

Since the core was never upgraded to HG, and Sup 7 wasn't either, and no "HG versions of Bk2 ships" were published†, Book 2 continued to be used as the default for many players, even tho the new OTU used big ships...

Basically, 5 camps seem to have come about...

• Core Book Only: many players had ONLY the core books, or maybe core +Sup 4 and Bk 4. Small ships, no big weapons. No real sense of the OTU.‡
• Prototraveller: Nothing released after HG 1E is canon In the PTU...
• Mixed Drives OTU: HG combat system, both design systems freely. This was also the apparent default mode for all supplements after 1981.
• HG Only: Some players reworked all the book 2 designs into HG, and declared Bk 2 off limits except for those items needed for use with Bk 5.
• Small Book 2 & Big Book 5: if it was ≤1000Td, use book 2, otherwise, use book 5. They had to do conversions on TTA's ships.

At various points, I have been in each of those views. CBO was only until I got HG... I'm thinking Small Ship, no spinals, MT personal combat, and its related vehicle rules for ship combat.

†well, not in official materials, until T20 was released
‡ Many of the fans of this mode started later than 1981, and used Bk2-81...

The ACS and BCS versions of T5 seem to indicate your last option may be on track for release here. If that's the case then there may be reconciliation between the scales. Though, that said, there were small ships in both Brilliant Lances and in Battle Rider, so there is precedent in that instance.

It's the spinal mounts that seem to make such a difference between Traveller big ship action and that depicted in other settings (SW, BSC) where big bay weapons (besides the Death Star's spinal mount) seem to be the limit. I'd be curious to play a more operational game that has screening forces duke it out to allow more marginal battle-line units to have a chance to snipe away while the BBs and DNs batter away at each other. That would of course depend on whether the rules allow cruiser-weight units to have any reasonable impact on those heavies.

 

[infojunky]

Basically, 5 camps seem to have come about...

• Core Book Only: many players had ONLY the core books, or maybe core +Sup 4 and Bk 4. Small ships, no big weapons. No real sense of the OTU.‡
• Prototraveller: Nothing released after HG 1E is canon In the PTU...
• Mixed Drives OTU: HG combat system, both design systems freely. This was also the apparent default mode for all supplements after 1981.
• HG Only: Some players reworked all the book 2 designs into HG, and declared Bk 2 off limits except for those items needed for use with Bk 5.
• Small Book 2 & Big Book 5: if it was ≤1000Td, use book 2, otherwise, use book 5. They had to do conversions on TTA's ships.

You forgot the camp that extends the book 2 drives out to some arbitrary maximum either through adding on drives or doubling drives up.

 

[aramis]

Not sure what Aramis means by no real sense of the OTU.

The CT core books, except TTB, don't really discuss the setting. That's what I mean. There's a lot of assumptions built in, but it's possible to have a very un-OTU game using RAW.

 

[Carlobrand]

...In a big ship universe, the Gazelle is a TH or DLE (heavy patrol or escort light destroyer), ...

I like to call the little ones "corvettes".

 

[aramis]

I like to call the little ones "corvettes".

So do many Real World Navies... But they also tend to use Cutter for similar ships.

But note that CT has a few canonical patrol corvettes.
Adventure 7: Broadsword - A Zhodani Patrol Corvette, 600Td.
Adventure 6: Expedition to Zhodane - two different 600Td corvettes.

and CT also has a decanonized one:
The Ley Sector (Judges Guild) has a 400Td Corvette that is 2J2 4G P4 Model 5, 4x Triple turret 400Td... but it also has a 1000Td Colonial Fleet Cruiser.

For comparison, the IISS Ship Files has a 600Td Zhodani Patrol Frigate. J4 4G P4. It's a HG design...

And in MGT...
MGT AM Zhodani also has a 600Td Corvette.
MGT Scoundrel has a 600Td Customs Patrol Cutter.
Core has a 100Td Police Cutter

Originally, a Corvette was a fast warship too small for the line of battle, and usually smaller than a frigate. The late 19th C saw the term dropped... In WWII, it was almost synonymous with destroyer - almost, but not quite. Destroyers were typically torpedo-boat killers, and later (WWI on) torpedo armed ships, and corvettes were specifically anti-submarine.

A sail-era cutter was a small, fast single-mast and long bowsprit sloop, usually well under 20 guns, while a corvette was usually 20 guns and 3 masts.

All three (Destroyer, Corvette, Cutter) are small warships in modern (post 1965) use, but note that frigates can be larger or smaller than destroyers now; the reasons are political, and thus off-limits. Some modern frigates are essentially light cruisers...

Age of Sail, it was (smallest to largest)... Cutter (single mast), Brig (2 mast), Corvette (Fast 3 mast), Frigate (6th rate, 5th rate), Ship of the line (4th, 3rd, 2nd, or 1st rate). Note that Cutters, brigs, and Corvettes, and Sloops were all typically under 20-guns. Sloop can be used as a collective for almost all warships under 20-guns... and essentially, is "7th rate"... Note that Captains commanded rates 1-4, Master & Commander for 5-6, and Lieutenant commandant for 7th rate (and occasionally 6th rate). The french naval ranks still retain this: Captain of Corvette (LtCdr), Captain of Frigate (Commander), and Captain of [ships of the line] (Captain).

There's a wonderful Sci-Fi wargaming tradition of Escort, Corvette/Cutter, Frigate, Destroyer, Lt Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Battleship being the sequence by size... but several reverse frigate and destroyer. Traveller is the odd-man-out, using just as muddled and confusing a mishmash as World War II...

 

[pendragonman]

The CT core books, except TTB, don't really discuss the setting. That's what I mean. There's a lot of assumptions built in, but it's possible to have a very un-OTU game using RAW.

Ahh. Yes. I see what you mean. Setting stuff didn't start leaking out till after books 1-3.