Operating the Type C Mercenary Cruiser

[Mithras]

Hi,
I'm contemplating a naval campaign for my teenage sons, they can be the bridge crew of a Mercenary cruiser, an armoured varient without a third squad of troops and without extra modules. I started a thread here: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43836&sid=958ef4b5265aa40b780ffec16aeaa602

I'm moving on to details, particularly around Adventure 7 (Broadsword's) deckplans, and wondered if anyone had much experience with them. They look like they will work, but at a glance (trying to visualize people moving about) I see a couple of tweaks needed:

1) Owner is my commanding officer.
2) Captain is an exec/pilot

(I'm using an airforce influenced rank structure, so these guys are a major and a squadron leader, analagous to commander and lieut cdr * )

3) Ship's surgeon, will be a warrant officer
4) Cutter pilots, sticking to an airforce analogy will be warrant officers too, their gunners will be able starmen)

I'm giving these cutter pilots rooms of their own with the officers on D deck, and D deck lounge can be an officers mess. I see that troops on E deck would have to come up through the officers mess to get to the galley. Oh no! I think I may order them to go down a deck from 44 into the cargo area, to come up into the mess area 35, without bothering the officers!

That's it for now, I like the sickbay 'suite' which feels more realistic than a standard stateroom labelled 'sickbay'.

Are there any other user problems I should know about before I take command of my Broadsword??

* FYI: Human Republic Star Force ranks:

Chief Star Marshal
Star Marshal
Vice Star Marshal
Star Commodore
Group Captain
Major (instead of wing commander; commander being reserved for the commander of any spacecraft, 'captain' is not used)
Squadron Leader
Flight Lieutenant
Sub Lieutenant
Warrant Officer
Senior Flight Sergeant
Flight Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Senior Starman
Leading Starman
Starman (Recruit)

 

[Mithras]

Just noticed that the ship owner and captain and troop cdr (my comdr and his exec , plus troop cdr) will all dine together in the captain's suite 3. The surgeon (at 46) is not billeted on the same deck as the other officers, but the deck below. However, it is a simple matter for him to get to the mess/canteen (35) through the stairwell in the medical lounge (47). From the ship's mess/canteen at 35 the corridor leads directly to the officer's lounge. He is not cut off from the other officers.

Most of the enlisted crew seem to be billeted together on B Deck/Gunnery and so (5) becomes the enlisted lounge.

I've cut down the ships troops to 2 x 10 man squads, an officer+serg+runner. By turning all the staterooms into doubles (more or less) I'm able to satisfactorily split the two squads (sorry, being British I should be calling them sections); 1st section billets on E Deck, with the 2 section sergeants sharing (45); 2nd section billets on G Deck, with the platoon sergeant in 63. His runner shares a bunk in the triple stateroom 70.

So all cabins are filled, I have two squads commanded by a lieutenant and a platoon sergeant. Each has their own lounges on their respective decks (67 on G Deck; 40 on E Deck).

I'm having fun!

 

[Mithras]

What do 23 marines do in their working day? I envisage them spending time on H Deck, the Marshalling Deck; working in the armoury, training there, cleaning weapons, making modifications; Using 79 the troop marshalling area for drill, inspection and as an exercise area. The long cargo corridor between landing legs 73 and 74 is 24m in length, maybe used for jogging or some other kind of sport. Marines might also be ordered to work in the cutters, checking gear, working on drills etc.

The lounges will be turned into section briefing and training rooms during the day.

Any RL marines out there want to speculate on like aboard the Broadsword? What would you get up to?

 

[Whipsnade]

Mithras,

A few points off the top of my pointy head...

• The Broadsword's deckplans are notoriously broken, easily the worst in CT and most likely the worst through T4, so using them to fret about personnel movement is a waste of your time. There are corrected deckplans available on the 'net. IIRC, Walt Smith has some one his page and Kitsune created another version.
  
  
• As canonically statted out, the Broadsword-class makes for a lousy warship. In a LBB:2 universe, she'll kick ass, but after that she's poorly armed and poorly armored target. Her small battery sizes and small computer means that actual warships far under her "weight class" can slap her around with immunity, even without the use of nukes.
  
  Her best purely naval role, and it's still not saying much, is as a "pocket carrier" carrying four small 6dTon fighters in a frame aboard one of the cutters. The ship's best overall role is as a "battle taxi" and fire support vessel. She delivers the mercs and provides ortillery while acting as an untouchable, hopefully, orbital base.

Hope this helps.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Mithras]

It's really good to know there's a corrected set of deckplans out there. That the type C is a faulty design isn't common knowledge around these parts.

 

[Whipsnade]

It's really good to know there's a corrected set of deckplans out there.

Mithras,

Let me look around and see if I can't find a link or two.

That the type C is a faulty design isn't common knowledge around these parts.

The design itself is perfectly legal. The A:7 deckplans are badly broken however.

Sadly, quite a bit about A:7 doesn't bare real scrutiny.

Gard-Vilis has a population of 475 million, nearly all of whom do not support the local government and the colonial apparatus of Vilis, and which has somehow been completely disarmed down to the level of knives. The entire planetary army, which had mostly remained loyal, has been disbanded and disarmed well enough that no personal weapons went "missing". The only armed forces officially on the planet are a few companies of civil affairs troops which are somehow keeping entire cities quiet.

The TFL guerrillas are numerous enough to have groups of 3 to 5 platoons anywhere the players may be operating, the Sword Worlds have been able to insert a three-company "slice" from a mechanized battalion with unknown numbers/types of support weapons including grav tanks, and the Zhodani strike cruiser is carrying a platoon-sized marine detachment of 6 squads plus an entire squad of psionic commandos.

Against that, the players have three squads and maybe two ATVs.

I'm not even going to get into the naval side of the picture. Yes, the planet's meson gun will keep the Zhodani flotilla at bay. However, once the players' forces leave the meson gun's protection, as they must in the Escort scenario, the Zhodani cruiser, frigate, and corvette will easily destroy their opponents. (By the way, the strike cruiser is a badly broken design.)

Omar Golan had a thread here a year or two back discussing how A:7 could be made more plausible. IIRC, the result was a more Vietnam-like situation with the Vilis army and loyal Garda-Vilis formations tied down protecting/occupying the cities and major towns while making sweeps of the back country. In this situation, the players filled a role more like SEAL teams.

As for the naval side, giving the Imperials more SDBs and maybe a Gazelle will balance things. However, the players' Broadsword is going to a minor piece in any battle.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Renard Ruche]

Hey Mithras, thought you might find this link helpful:

http://www.sff.net/people/kitsune/traveller/bsimages/index.html

Enjoy, he has some great deckplans.

 

[Mithras]

Ah, they look more logical to me, and a little bit easier on the eye. I'll play the same 'internal logic' games with kitsune's deckplan. But keep an option open on a Type T game also....

 

[Whipsnade]

Mithras,

Renard was kind enough to post the link to Kitsune's corrected Broadsword deckplans. I checked out Walt Smith's site and found what's left of my mind had been playing tricks on me. Walt has several excellent designs, but a Broadsword is not among them.

Sorry to have misinformed you.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Mithras]

No problem, I dug around myself trying to find them, but assumed he'd taken them offline or something...

Thanks anyway!

Mithras,

Renard was kind enough to post the link to Kitsune's corrected Broadsword deckplans. I checked out Walt Smith's site and found what's left of my mine had been playing tricks on me. Walt has several excellent designs, but a Broadsword is not among them.

Sorry to have misinformed you.


Regards,
Bill