Bk2 TL10 Colonial Bulk Cruiser

[plop101]

I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?

--Han Solo, Star Wars:A New Hope

Tech Level 10 Colonial Bulk Cruiser

Using a standard 1000 ton hull, the Colonial Bulk Cruiser is the largest ship in the Regina Colonial Navy. It has Jump Drive H, Maneuver Drive H, and Power Plant H, giving Jump 1 and 1G acceleration. Fuel tankage of 220 tons supports the power plant for 8 weeks and provides for 2 Jump-1's. Adjacent to the bridge is a computer Model 4. There are 50 crew staterooms, 42 Marine staterooms, and 2 extra staterooms, normally used as brigs. The ship has 10 hardpoints and 10 tons set aside for fire control. 10 triple turrets are installed, 2 with beam lasers, 2 with sand casters, and 6 with missile racks. There are 8 ships vehicles: 4 life boats, 3 armed marine pinnaces, and a air/raft.1 ton has been set aside as a ships locker. There is a 20 ton missile magazine, and a 60 ton cargo hold. The hull is streamlined.

The Colonial Bulk Cruiser has a crew of 50: 1 Commander, 1 Executive Officer, 3 Pilots, 3 Navigators, 3 Engineers, 3 Medics, 10 Gunners, 8 Lifeboat crew, 6 Pinnace crew, 2 other Officers and 10 other Ratings. There is a 42 man Marine platoon aboard. 2 passengers are possible. The ship is configured for single accomadtion, so more crew, marines and/or passengers could be possible.

The base cost of the ship is MCr 537.4, Architects Fees are MCr 5.374, and it takes 27 months to build.

The Armed Marine Pinnace

The Armed Marine Pinnace has 1 ton set aside for fire control. 1 triple turret is installed, carrying 2 Beam Lasers and 1 Missile Rack.
14 Passenger couches are installed. The craft carries a 8 ton Grav Carrier, and has space for 4 tons of cargo available. Base cost for the Pinnace is MCr 34.2.

The Colonial Bulk Cruiser--Book 5 complient.
High Guard Statistics:

C-A211142-040000-30005-0 MCr537.4 1000tons
-------------2-----2---1 Crew: 50 Marines: 42
-------------2-----2---1 TL10
Book 2 design Fuel:220tons EP:10 Agility:0
Fuel Scoops Cargo:60tons Missile Magazine:20tons
Ships Locker:1ton Lifeboats=4
Armed Marine Pinnaces=3 Air/rafts=1

Referees Note:
I could'nt come up with a good class name for this ship. Any ideas out there?

 

[Piper]

Originally posted by plop101:
I could'nt come up with a good class name for this ship. Any ideas out there?

hmmmm .... good size, heavily armed, not terribly fast; how about the "Large, dangerous critter-class"? Mammoth, Rhino, Damnthing, Wounded Lion, etc.?
Or ... "Firestorm" for the heavy missile armament?
Nice design!

 

[plop101]

Another quick note:

Using a standard 1000 ton hull, the Colonial Bulk Cruiser is the largest ship in the Regina Colonial Navy.

This got started after I read that Proto-Traveller thread in the CT forum. Supplement 3 has Regina as being Tech Level 10, so in that mileu the Bulk Cruiser would be the biggest ship.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

You have a math typo when listing the crew (you said 5, then list 50). But, I like.

And, Piper, I like the Rhino name - not normally something you want to get in the way of....

 

[plop101]

from Fritz88

You have a math typo when listing the crew (you said 5, then list 50). But, I like.

D'OH! Well, I guess it would'nt be Traveller without a little errata

Glad you like the design. I've got another one thats on the slip in the shipyard... I may post it in a few days. A TL13 Bk2 Missile Corvette.

 

[Ran Targas]

Nice design, any thoughts on what the plans would look like?

You might want to leave room for a Commodore or Admiral and his/her staff ... being the largest ship in the inventory implies it would likely be a flag ship for a squadron or group. Maybe double up those crewmen and Marines and open up some berthing for flag office/ops spaces.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Ah yes, Ran, he needs to include that. (Of course, he could just force the regular crew to double up....

 

[plop101]

Ran Targas writes:

Nice design, any thoughts on what the plans would look like?

Deck plans? I'll be perfectly honest. I cant do deckplans. I have absolutely no artistic ability in that area. Actually, I have no artistic ability in any area. I wish I did, but, like Dirty Harry said in Magnum Force, "Mans got to know his limitations." Deckplans are my limitation.

If anyone wants to take a stab at it, thinks the design is cool, I would be honored.

You might want to leave room for a Commodore or Admiral and his/her staff ... being the largest ship in the inventory implies it would likely be a flag ship for a squadron or group. Maybe double up those crewmen and Marines and open up some berthing for flag office/ops spaces.

Its implied in the design that you could fit more people in for various things. You could have one Bulk Cruiser serve as a flag/command ship, you could have another one carrying extra troops somewhere, one to carry that deligation of Nobles from Regina to Extolay, etc.

As I said before, this got started with that Proto-Traveller Thread in the CT forum. One of the things I got hooked on was a post on the TML by Ian Ferguson called "Small Navies", which, as the title suggests, advocates using smaller navy budgets in Traveller. Well, I started pondering these things, and I'm kinda in the middle of tooling up Bk2 ships and Bk2 fleets for such an endeavor. If you haven't checked out that Proto-Traveller thread, you really need to. Its got some neat ideas.

I haven't gotten done with it, and probably wont be done with it for a while. As a teaser, off the top of my head, I think this is what I had set up for the Regina Colonial Navy:

Main Colonial Fleet, TL10
6 Colonial Bulk Cruisers
12 to 18? Type T Patrol Cruisers

Reserve Colonial Fleet, TL9
20 Armed Merchants (your Type R with beam laser and missile Rack)
10 Type S Scout-Escorts (your Type S with 2 beam lasers)
1 Type Y Armed Yacht (with Triple Turret, beam laser, missile rack, and sand caster) This serves the Executive transport function.

Fighters and Auxilaries
100 Missile Fighters (Triple missile racks)
2 Passenger Launches
6-8? Cargo Shuttles

And some other incidental bits.

The project may take a while, especially on some of the navies like Efate. And I'm definately thinking of fudging the lower tech planets like Menorb and Rethe. All is up in the air for now.

The only thing for sure is that I have a rough draft design for a TL13 Bk2 Sliver Dart Class Missile Corvette. That one will get used in the Efate and Yori navies. Its done, I just got to write it up proper, and include some errata mistakes in there

just so that it will be a true Traveller ship.

 

[Ran Targas]

I am looking forward to seeing that corvette!

I've got some ideas for the bruiser, I mean cruiser; I'll submit to you a rough when I get done.

 

[rvatsaas]

Bulk Cruiser?

Why not call it the Metamucil Class?

 

[mike wightman]

Great work plop, I'm looking forward to seeing the other ships...

 

[jwcarroll60]

I too am looking forward to the other designs. I have always preferred the small ship universe and these designs help to make it playable again.

 

[endersig]

Actually, I just like the name Bulk Cruiser...
"Sir, we have 3 Bulk Cruisers off our starboard!"
or
"Arrrgh! A curse on ye, Bulk Cruiser's!"
It's just a good name

 

[Liam Devlin]

Hmmm. Good design there Plop101!

My thoughts for a small-ship universe were, if the 'BB's/dreadnaughts' were 5-10ktns, then a 'cruiser' fell in somewhere between 3ktons.

your destroyers, Destroyer escorts around 1-1.5ktons.

Frigates/ Escort destroyers around 2ktns..

This extrapolated line of reasoning from Ken Pick's 'Shipyard' articles for CT/ small ship navies on Freelnce traveller web site.

I have to admit though, a 'Colonial bulk cruiser' is an imposing name. With all that implies, a planetary navy's idea of said thing, as opposed to the Imperial navy's 'state-of-the-art' model. Probably equipped with no spinal mount, but a Laser/sandcaster turretted/ missile bay ship.

And they dinnae have to have jump drives, if they're planetary 'colonial' navies don't forget: they could just be monitors for THAT system [saves you space for more fuel, ship's troops, etc, and bigger M-drives!].

Just some thoughts. YMMV as usual.
Happy Fathers Day ya'll!