A bigger, better Harrier

[boggo2300]

No, that is not what the term means.
Magitech is advanced technology we haven't a clue how it works, we can't describe it or explain it, all we can do is say this is what it does.

The jump drive has more description and explanation in Traveller than gravitics. Still total handwavium magitech though.

And until it can be described and explained it remains magitech.

exactly correct

 

[gylesw]

I’m pretty sure that in the PoD book it says that the Harriers were built specifically to enforce the Drinax trade taxation policy. That lasted a year at most since the next year the Hierate glassed Drinax. So you don’t get many Harriers because within months of the policy announcement they needed all their ships and construction yards to defend against the Asian, and a few months after that they were The Kingdom of Drinax, pop 20,000.

Edit: yep, PoD Trojan Reach book p16: Harriers built starting 884. Fall of Drinax 885.

I moved that slightly and created a class history. YTUMV.

 

[gylesw]

The Harrier can easily handle most small civilian and paramilitary traffic, but runs into trouble punching above it's weight class, or when tangling against serious combat ships. It is outgunned, for example, by the Gazelle-class escorts in Treasure Ship or the Fiery gunships in Peter Vallis' fleet in Honour Amung Theieves. Anything armed and in excess of 600 tons is probably right out. What the Harrier does well is speed and stealth. That gives players agency to pick and choose their battles, which is absolutely invaluable, especially early on in the campaign.



Oh gosh, I did a whole write up for the Wyvern Corvette for JTAS 18. I built it as a 400 ton gunship employing similar lines and tech but wrote it kind of like the Harrier's angry big brother. I figure while the Harrier slips unseen patrolling for illegal shipping and pirates, the Wyvern is a big brute of a ship shaking down merchants for protection money and chasing off raiders. Plus, of course, they were probably just as bespoke and lavish. We got some really beautiful art of the officer's lounge decked out in full Sindalan finery. If anyone is interested in the Wyvern it might be worth checking out.

Had the party fight a T-Class Patrol Corvette and it was completely outclassed by the Harrier. Agree a Gazelle would be a big problem. But will check JTAS 18 out.

 

[gylesw]

The ship works fine in the right context. I found that in practice the Barbette doled out a lot more damage than 4Dx3 would suggest. It has +4 from software and the accurate trait. With a +3 gunner like my group had*, the crit's made it devastating against small ships. Even an average hit damage wise on say an Empress Marava, is likely to be in the 35-50 damage range (the weapon is high yield). On a 80HP ship, that's 44-62% damage before you add the crits.

*My former group already had a ship when starting the campaign. They ended up using that ship, plus a few they captured, to do all the pirating, and used the Harrier as the Drinaxian cavalry riding in to save the day. They got both loot AND a positive reputation... and I learned one of my players knew the plot ahead of time.

My players are now realising if they do get to fire on a ship a few times it will need millions of credits of repairs.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Yeah I was going to fess up to something like this: on page 120 of the core PoD book it says explicitly that Admiral Gani Peras (the finest Sindalian admiral) used Harrier class ships, so they date to at least -1400.

I moved that slightly and created a class history. YTUMV.

See above.

 

[Endie]

Yeah you'd have to specify that this was a history of the "Harrier class Batch/Flight/Tranche 4" or the like.