Fletcher-Class Destroyer

[Jame]

High Guard design. DD C6366E3-471100-60006-0 3,000 tons flattened sphere. 6-G, Jump-3. Plant-6, 1080 tons fuel. 30 triple turrets: 10 triple pulse lasers, 15 missile racks, 5 triple sandcasters. Armor factor 2. Factor-1 nuclear damper. Factor-1 meson screen optional. 65 staterooms, 60 low berths. 2 pinnaces, 4 GCarriers. Fuel processor, two extra capacitor banks. 104 or 14 tons cargo. 60 crew, 80 marines. 137 energy points remaining. Agility 6.
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The Fletcher-class destroyer is designed to be a small commerce escort, light raider or fleet fighter screen. It is still capable of independent action, as expressed in its light raider role. The flattened-sphere hull lets it (potentially) blend in with K'Kree ships, as one of the smallest family merchants. In addition, this class is tasked with destroying ships up to its own weight (though sometimes it can take on a single heavier ship). The meson screen is optional; it is placed in fleet screening elements but not in raiding forces (to allow for a larger cargo for longer operations).

 

[BetterThanLife]

I like it. Though in the 3KTon to 5KTon range (typical destroyer range IMTU), especially with a ship designed to be a fleet element or light raider, I tend to stick a bay or two on it. In this case a Missile Bay, and either double up your sand turrets or find a little more power and add 4 energy mounts and one Sand Caster.

What is the TL of this ship?

Why Pulse Lasers instead of Beam Lasers? 10 triple pulse lasers at TL12 give you one battery at rating 6, but you get 2 batteries from 10 triple Beam Laser turrets at TL12 of factor 6.

Further if it is to be a fleet element for a typical Imperial Navy Fleet/Task Force it should be Jump-4 unless it is only going to be a fleet element with Tigresses and Kokirraks (and Destroyers are typically not built with that type of limitation), and it should be Maneuver-6 (Agility 6) unless your fleet is willing to sacrifice those ratings, especially in a High Guard fight. (The fleet is only as quick and agile as the least agile ship.)

 

[Jame]

Tech level 12, hence the J-3. Agility is 6 (unless I misunderstood High Guard's agility rule, which I think I did). I will go back and tool around with manuever-6, though.

 

[mike wightman]

Yep, agilty is limited to no higher than maneuver drive rating.

 

[Jame]

Well, I went back and remodeled (6G, Plant 6, fuel as required, 180 EP total and 137 or 131 as required: the meson screen is optional.)

 

[mike wightman]

Emm, it needs a bigger power plant to keep agility 6. EPs have to be spent on weapons, computer, and screens.
Any EPs left over can then be used for agility.

Or are you trying the sneaky trick of saying the capacitors power those?

 

[Jame]

What do you mean? I didn't see a thing about how many EPs you need for agility, or rather, I saw no formula...

 

[mike wightman]

It's on page 28.

Subtract EPs used for weapons, computer, and screens from the power plant total. Divide the result by 0.01M (where M is the tonnage of the ship) and round down to give the agility rating.

Unless you're using first edition High Guard (this has a copyright of 1979 on the inside) in which case agility doesn't exist...

 

[Jame]

That's what I saw. So let me do it out: 0.01*3000 = 30. 131/30 = 4 and a bit. Oh.

Why would the capacitors be a sneaky trick?

 

[mike wightman]

The capacitors can store 36EPs per ton of capacitors.
Your ship has 0.5%xMxJn tons of capacitors for free, which is 45 tons of capacitors.
That's 36x45 = 1620EPs stored.

How many turns will that number of EPs power your weapons etc for?
I make it 33 rounds of combat, and during this time you could divert the power plant output in full to the maneuver drive to give agility 6.

That's not counting the extra banks of capacitors, since I don't know how many tons you've allowed for them.

The reason I say it is a sneaky trick is that there is nothing in the rules to stop you doing this, but for some reason most people don't allow it in tournament play.

But IMTU it would be standard practice to charge capacitors during normal space cruising, so that during combat weapons etc. can be powered from capacitors.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Sigg:
The Danger of that is to take a hit on your BG with your capictors charged.

Another problem is Capicitors, by definition, have a limited time that they can hold a charge, holding a charge also degrades the capacitor over time.

Remember Space Travel is years of boredom followed by 5 minutes of stark raving terror. You aren't going to put time on your capicators as a matter of course, just use them when you actually have to. While thre is nothing in the rules for it, that is how capicators in general work.

 

[mike wightman]

The ship that Jame's built doesn't have a black globe, the capacitors are part of the jump drive plus the extra ones installed.

There is nothing in LBB5 about capacitors having a limited ability to store a charge or degrading with time.

This is another reason why it's sneaky

 

[mike wightman]

And as an addendum, other versions of Traveller use capacitors in way similar to this - TNE, T4, GT, even the T20 vehicle design.

When does a capacitor become a rechargable battery???

 

[flykiller]

When does a capacitor become a rechargable battery???

well, a capacitor can hold a potential. it won't hold much of a charge, i.e. as a power source it doesn't last long.

they can be fairly retentive. the old tech 7 television CRT capacitors could hold a charge for several days.

imtu I limit the charge on capacitors to the available spare capacity of the power plant, i.e. the most you can get out of them as an extra energy source is one combat turn of full power, or draining at 1ep per combat turn per 1ep of demand.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
When does a capacitor become a rechargable battery???

When it's energy density is something much less than 36EP per ton

 

[Jame]

The extra capacitors were two tons worth. That may or may not be significant. (I kinda figured that the 45 tons of J-drive capacitors were subsumed into the J-drive total tonnage, though.)

But what'd be the difference between a capacitor and a battery? Both as a technical point and a gaming point?

Oh, and what's the difference between a manuever rating and an agility rating?

 

[flykiller]

Oh, and what's the difference between a manuever rating and an agility rating?

the maneuver rating is the acceleration the ship can achieve. the agility rating is the acceleration it does achieve, given enough energy points.

 

[mike wightman]

That'll be 34 turns of combat with all capacitors fully charged then

You could always just cruise around with a partial charge - say the two extra tons and 10% of jump capacitors.

That'll give you four turns of combat at full agility.

But as I said, there's no rules to stop you using the full capacitor EP reserve.

Note that neither CT and HG first edition didn't bother with EPs or capacitors - I think I can see why

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Batteries are specifically mentioned in HG, though, aren't they? Use a small tonnage for that, and I don't think you're being sneaky at all....

 

[Jame]

If batteries are mentioned, I didn't see it. Could you either give me a reference or a weight, price and performance?