Okay...
Based on some discussions in the Pirates of Drinax thread (see above) and some thoughts I've had, been mulling over what to do with the Wyvern - the heavier Drinaxi/Sindalian Star Guard ship.
Mytholder's description:
Other thoughts essentially come from the name and comparisons with the Harrier - and what the Harrier can and can't do for a navy using one.
The first thought is that, as noted above, it's not going to be an especially big ship. The Trojan Reach is the territory of raiders and gunships. Equally, the territoriy of the Empire(s) is not especially far-reaching; unlike the Third Imperium's navy, you don't need battle squadrons capable of bouncing halfway across a sector in a month.
As a result, the Harrier-class commerce raider is a nice little ship. It's small enough to be flexible, has a big enough capacity for crew and cargo to act as a courier if it needs to, it's handy enough in a dead run or a scrap against a corsair or armed trader.
What it can't do - at least not very well - is fight a heavier opponent. Something like a Gazelle close escort or a Cutlass-class corsair can pack enough armour and heavy enough guns to either fend off a marauding Harrier or to bull straight through an escort screen with minor damage and gut a convoy. These are very powerful ships for a pirate group or vest-pocket navy to operate, but it's not unheard of, and stopping them will require much bigger guns. Equally, the missile racks used by a Harrier against lightly armoured, distant targets won't do much to a ship with the same armour it has.
Secondly, the basic Harrier doesn't carry any point defence. Now with armour 4, civilian missiles aren't too much of a threat - even a hit only has a 1/3 chance of hurting you - but a nuke fired by a star navy, Imperial ship or over-enthusiastic Ihataei is far more dangerous.
Thirdly, the Star Guard needs the capacity to deploy troops (in small but meaningful quantities) and orbital strikes. That means an expanded troop capacity and an ortillery railgun.
Lastly, the Harrier remains the 'default' ship. If the Wyvern was more than - say - twice the size, you'd have expected admirals and military squadrons to be using them as a primary force. Equally, if it had any command fittings, it would be the main squadron flagship, whilst Star Guard squadrons built entirely out of Harriers were not unheard of.
As a result, I'm thinking of using the Wyvern as essentially a double-sized Harrier at 400 dTons.
Manouvre/5, Jump/2 is presumably the 'fleet mobility' standard for the star guard (or at least we've no evidence to the contrary), so that stays.
Weapons - Both offensive turrets become particle beams, but upgunned to barbette calibre.
A single point defence turret with some beam lasers, and an ortillery railgun bay give a nice combination of weapons capabilities. Fire Control/2 allows for some more effective use of the main guns.
Of course, if you really wanted to prove a point, you could make the bay mount modular - allowing you to fit a missile bay or heavy missile bay (using your decent cargo space to turn you into quite the bomb truck) or a particle beam bay (giving you one of the biggest guns you're likely to see in the reach.
Troops - the crew requirements don't increase massively, but adding 6 more marines allows the Wyvern to drop a squad rather than just a fire team - enough to take a ship that doesn't want to be taken, or to be an actual threatening presence on a planet rather than just a security detail.
Cago - with a bit of fettling, you can give a wyvern the exact same cargo space and cargo scoop. That makes sense, because it would mean standard loading/unloading procedures, standard cargo containers and lashing interfaces.
Will try and mosh together some stats (advice welcome), and may well (if he's interested) give middenface a poke to try and come up with some deckplans for it.
Based on some discussions in the Pirates of Drinax thread (see above) and some thoughts I've had, been mulling over what to do with the Wyvern - the heavier Drinaxi/Sindalian Star Guard ship.
Mytholder's description:
It's probably a good bit bigger than a Harrier, while still being an Adventurer-type hull (<2000 tons) - the Sindalian Empire was formed as a coalition to beat up raiders, and you don't need giant capital ships for that).
Other thoughts essentially come from the name and comparisons with the Harrier - and what the Harrier can and can't do for a navy using one.
The first thought is that, as noted above, it's not going to be an especially big ship. The Trojan Reach is the territory of raiders and gunships. Equally, the territoriy of the Empire(s) is not especially far-reaching; unlike the Third Imperium's navy, you don't need battle squadrons capable of bouncing halfway across a sector in a month.
As a result, the Harrier-class commerce raider is a nice little ship. It's small enough to be flexible, has a big enough capacity for crew and cargo to act as a courier if it needs to, it's handy enough in a dead run or a scrap against a corsair or armed trader.
What it can't do - at least not very well - is fight a heavier opponent. Something like a Gazelle close escort or a Cutlass-class corsair can pack enough armour and heavy enough guns to either fend off a marauding Harrier or to bull straight through an escort screen with minor damage and gut a convoy. These are very powerful ships for a pirate group or vest-pocket navy to operate, but it's not unheard of, and stopping them will require much bigger guns. Equally, the missile racks used by a Harrier against lightly armoured, distant targets won't do much to a ship with the same armour it has.
Secondly, the basic Harrier doesn't carry any point defence. Now with armour 4, civilian missiles aren't too much of a threat - even a hit only has a 1/3 chance of hurting you - but a nuke fired by a star navy, Imperial ship or over-enthusiastic Ihataei is far more dangerous.
Thirdly, the Star Guard needs the capacity to deploy troops (in small but meaningful quantities) and orbital strikes. That means an expanded troop capacity and an ortillery railgun.
Lastly, the Harrier remains the 'default' ship. If the Wyvern was more than - say - twice the size, you'd have expected admirals and military squadrons to be using them as a primary force. Equally, if it had any command fittings, it would be the main squadron flagship, whilst Star Guard squadrons built entirely out of Harriers were not unheard of.
As a result, I'm thinking of using the Wyvern as essentially a double-sized Harrier at 400 dTons.
Manouvre/5, Jump/2 is presumably the 'fleet mobility' standard for the star guard (or at least we've no evidence to the contrary), so that stays.
Weapons - Both offensive turrets become particle beams, but upgunned to barbette calibre.
A single point defence turret with some beam lasers, and an ortillery railgun bay give a nice combination of weapons capabilities. Fire Control/2 allows for some more effective use of the main guns.
Of course, if you really wanted to prove a point, you could make the bay mount modular - allowing you to fit a missile bay or heavy missile bay (using your decent cargo space to turn you into quite the bomb truck) or a particle beam bay (giving you one of the biggest guns you're likely to see in the reach.
Troops - the crew requirements don't increase massively, but adding 6 more marines allows the Wyvern to drop a squad rather than just a fire team - enough to take a ship that doesn't want to be taken, or to be an actual threatening presence on a planet rather than just a security detail.
Cago - with a bit of fettling, you can give a wyvern the exact same cargo space and cargo scoop. That makes sense, because it would mean standard loading/unloading procedures, standard cargo containers and lashing interfaces.
Will try and mosh together some stats (advice welcome), and may well (if he's interested) give middenface a poke to try and come up with some deckplans for it.