Aslan Capital Ships

[Morningkiller]

Does anyone know of a source for designs and specs for heavier Aslan military vessels?

The ones in the Aslan book top out around 2k and seem to be designed as options for Aslan PC travellers but I'm curious to see the Aslan big hitters.

 

[GypsyComet]

There have only ever been a few done officially, mostly for MegaTraveller.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

There was a FASA product long ago for Classic Traveller called Aslan Class Mercenary Ships long ago from FASA

 

[Morningkiller]

Cool

thanks guys Ill see what I can find

 

[GypsyComet]

The two Aslan ships in the FASA folio are at the high end of Adventure class (2k to 3k tons) range.

The MT book Rebellion Sourcebook has the Ihatei class Transport (50ktons) and the Weakhto class Cruiser (10ktons). Both TL13.

 

[Reynard]

Looking over several current and older Traveller references the only real difference between Aslan and Imperial ship design is aslan ships are heavily decorated and have one or more shrines. Take a capital ship from any Traveller source and make one state room per section a shrine room then decorate the hell out of the ship.

I was hoping there would be a military philosophy driving design such as more troops or types of ship weapon load outs.

 

[GypsyComet]

Keep in mind that MegaTraveller had a thoroughly sterile design system with no racial adjustments, and Traveller as a whole typically assumes that weaponry development is fairly similar between the polities.

Aslan are about the same size as Humans, and shipboard travel times are certainly no different. As such, quartering requirements are going to be similar. Only the Solomani and Droyne get away with a slightly denser transport ratio.

The other thing to note here is that, Imperium aside, no polity has had its fleets detailed to any great degree. This isn't SFB, where every polity has two centuries of naval development carefully mapped down to the tens of crew, precise weapon arcs, and dates of introduction, upgrade, and mothballing. As such, there has never been an extensive analysis of Aslan ships. Mongoose already has more Aslan ships than any other edition, IIRC.

If someone wanted to do so, a Fleets of the Heirate project, with both overviews and specific examples from various eras and/or clans would be fascinating. Realizing that the Heirate is a 27 "state" nation with no actual internal state borders, no "national" fleets, and only a few standards, makes it that much more interesting.

 

[Condottiere]

1. It's open to interpretation, or you could make it up, and still be correct.

2. The L5R approach would be that each major clan has a different approach and philosophy to war.

3. One could be an analogue to the Klingons.

4. One could be closer to the IJN, with few battleships, some refurbished, some modern and some in the half to full million range.

5. I like to think that the Vargr and the Aslan are opposites, in the sense that while the Aslan hunger for individual glory just as much as the Vargr, their motivations differ, and as such, the Vargr will build large numbers of small combatants, with only a few ships cruiser class or larger, and those captained and crewed only under those deemed most trusted and closest to the current Fuhrer, whereas the Aslan would try to squeeze as many weapons on the largest hulls they can afford.