Variant Small Craft
- Thread starter RossWinn
- Start date
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Armed Armoured Assault Shuttles.
Working on a one shot assault glider.
Working on a one shot assault glider.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Oh heavens, forgot that stealth IMTU is a thing but fabulously expensive to build and maintain. So normally only small craft get the useful levels, with a few ships getting the minimal stealth treatment.
Small smuggler craft, specops insertion/exfiltration, stealth recon missions.
Small smuggler craft, specops insertion/exfiltration, stealth recon missions.
ady
SOC-7
I tend to stick to the classic smallcraft hull shapes (rolling pin) and sizes (20t,30t,40t,50t) with most of my small craft, so that they can use a standard size docking bay on different ships. For example, most launches and boats have a 4.5m tube hull, so can dock with a standard 4.5m bay, while most standard pinnaces and cutters can use their 6m wide hulls to dock with most 6m bays. Different performances can be built into a wide range of 'standard' hulls, depending on the TL and role they are designed for. Different sized and shaped hulls (wedge, box, disc, sphere, dispersed structure, with wings etc) are possible as well, but they will either have to be carried in either custom bays designed just for that smallcraft (and will be incompatible with most other starship bay), will have to be carried in a cargo bay of the right dimensions, or be not carried by a starship at all and just used for local in system (world to world) flights. I also find this is a good way to keep the players guessing - if they pick up a 'Ship's Boat' on the sensors, it could be anything from an insystem slow freighter/passenger Boat to a heavily armed gunship/troopship/Fighter.
Attachments
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
If you think in terms of Squads (9-10 people), you can put a GCarrier (8 tons, TL=8+), a Speeder (6 tons, TL=8+) and 10 acceleration couches (5 tons) plus 1 ton of cargo space (for consumables) into a 20 ton form factor that can be dropped into a LZ (and left there?
). That gives you 2 vehicles with gravitic mobility, one slow APC (optionally armed) for moving the grunts and one fast mover for recon/overwatch/rapid evac, at the squad level.2x squads and you've got yourself a Section.
4x squads and you've got yourself a Platoon (just add extra 20 ton box for additional mission supplies).
The assault carrier would have the staterooms for barracks.
Like kilemall, custom shuttles for intra-system work. As these aren't intended for carriage by ships, they don't need to be, and often aren't simple bullet shapes. They'll often have wings, and be of non-cylindrical form - needles for high performance craft (they look fast) and domes/disks for other craft are common (being the cheapest aerodynamic forms in FF&S).
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
You leverage the design, and spacecraft operations, rules.
Man, that is an open question....
Been playing with the 6 ton fighters in Broadsword again, with rewriting the rest to scale alongside.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
LBB A7, p31:
For space combat, this thing is barely better than a practice target because of the computer (functionally model/0 due to no bridge).
1.02 tons for Maneuver-6 (17%)
1.08 tons for Power Plant-6 (18% @ TL=12)
1 ton for fuel (minimum 1 ton)
1 ton for single turret (missile) ... because code: 1 instead of code: 2 (triple turret) and only 1 battery
1 ton for computer model/1
0.5 ton for acceleration couch (1)
0.4 tons "cargo hold"
= 6 tons
Against Free/Far/Fat Traders (with model/1 perhaps bis computers), this kind of micro fighter would have its uses ... but up against anything with a model/2+ it's going to be at risk in LBB5.80 combat. On the plus side, it will have 3+12=15 missile shot rounds before exhausting its ordnance load, so it'll have better combat endurance with a single turret than a triple turret would offer (due to ordnance consumption rates).
However, as "mobile field artillery" this thing would be absolutely devastating for making precision strikes. Being able to attack vehicles and stationary installations with this kind of fighter (from orbit!) would be extremely ... unfair ... for those on the receiving end. So as a fire support platform for troop movements, this kind of micro fighter would bring a LOT of "cremation per credit" to mercenary operations. Therefore, as a "ground attack micro fighter" it's basically got everything you "need" to get the job done with few to no downsides, other than the number of pilots (and their staterooms aboard ship) you'll need for a flotilla of these micro fighters.
See that is the mistake you are making with your assumptions... I default to book2.
Fighters in Book5 are called Battleriders....
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Technically, they are are externally docked.
That's not the Battle Riders I recall.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
If you're defaulting to LBB2 for space combat, are you also using the computer programming rules (p38-41) of LBB2 in those combats?
Because if so, a model/1 computer (small craft or not) is going to be excessively vulnerable to attack.
2 CPU / 4 Memory isn't a whole lot of room to run maneuver+combat programs in simultaneously ...
You can't do much more than "Push the button, Max!" ...
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
More flexible in that phasing allows combat programs to run without maneuver active.If you're defaulting to LBB2 for space combat, are you also using the computer programming rules (p38-41) of LBB2 in those combats?
Because if so, a model/1 computer (small craft or not) is going to be excessively vulnerable to attack.
2 CPU / 4 Memory isn't a whole lot of room to run maneuver+combat programs in simultaneously ...
You can't do much more than "Push the button, Max!" ...
You won’t be able to run target predict and gunner interact at the same time, and something like return fire may be dropped in favor of anti missile, but fighters don’t need generate or jump so less constraints than a Free Trader packing the same model.
Of course with full computer rules comes full software prices, easily double the price of the fighter itself. I’d be inclined to orient towards dual purpose fighter/transports on an expeditionary ship.
There is the -1 fire DM for no computer small craft so little fighters work, just that much more not survivable.
If you're defaulting to LBB2 for space combat, are you also using the computer programming rules (p38-41) of LBB2 in those combats?
Because if so, a model/1 computer (small craft or not) is going to be excessively vulnerable to attack.
As if in LBB5:HG a ship with a model 1 computer was not vulnerable...
In my Traveller game, I'm not really using small crafts for this, but 400 tonnes shuttles...
See this thread for more details
Think about it conceptually, Build the smallest ship possible with a spinal mount as your attack craft. Ships can only attack one target per turn.
The smaller ships i.e. traditional "fighters" are really speed boats with machine guns.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
That's been done.
I think two kilotonnes.
It was disputable on using batteries to energize it.
I think two kilotonnes.
It was disputable on using batteries to energize it.
Black Vulmea
SOC-12
From another thread, the asteroid workboat, the grav scooter, and the orbital tug, complete with sources:
