Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

G. If the Victory class are dreadnought armoured cruisers, and the Prometheus class the equivalent to Queen Elizabeths, than their armaments would be twelve and fifteen incher equivalents, respectively.

H. In theory, the Zeus class would be Splendid Cats, with thirteen and a half incher equivalents, in the form of factor/four meson guns.

I. That would make factor/two meson guns ten and a half inchers, or the armament of a light predreadnought battleship, or, post Treaty pocket or light battleship.

J. Which leaves the factor/one meson gun the equivalent of a nine incher, arming a first class armoured cruiser.

K. Thusly, I have factor/one particle accelerator as a seven and a half, or eight incher, for post Treaty heavy(ish) cruisers.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

L. Logical progression, someone somewhere else, once pointed out, would have been, for the Royal Navy, sixteen and a half inches.

M. That would be factor/six meson gun.

N. Armament for the successor to the Prometheus class, I had technological level fifteen factor/seven meson gun.

O. That would be a calibre of eighteen inches, which they had a go at installing on His Majesty's Ships Furious, Wolfe and Clive.

P. And, of course, the Yamato class.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

Q. Now, I can't really answer if it's worthwhile building really large spinal mounts for use in space combat.

R. There's a reason, or a bunch, really, why there was never a great push to increase the calibre beyond sixteen inches.

S. Besides the invention of aircraft.

T. In fact, the fifteen incher was good enough.

U. And, current rules make anything larger than a quarter megatonnes hard to manoeuvre.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

V. Since the Imperium Navy likely stripped the Sphere of anything that wasn't nailed down, there wouldn't be any legacy capital starwarships left behind.

W. It's possible that some member world navies did have a technological level eleven predreadnought, possibly a semi dreadnought.

X. Considering the internecine nature of their relationships with their neighbours, unlikely to be donated to the nascent Confederation Navy.

Y. The semi dreadnought would likely have a particle accelerator spinal mount.

Z. The predreadnought, a railgun.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

1. It's quite possible, that predreadnoughts might have particle accelerator spinal mounts.

2. The difference between pre and semi dreadnoughts, would be composition of secondary armament.

3. There would a significantly larger proportion of large bays for semi dreadnoughts.

4. Or, the installation of small bayed particle accelerators, and meson guns.

5. Predreadnoughts would have a significant number of small and medium bays.

6. They would be more doctrinally inclined to engage at medium range, ironically utilizing their secondary missile armaments at longer stand off, for the initial salvoes.

7. The large bays were added to increase the line of battle ships effectiveness against their opposite numbers, and first class armoured cruisers.

8. Small and medium bays were meant to counter minor combatants, as well as shoot up less protected sections of line of battle ships.

9. The tertiary turrets were normally used as missile point defence and anti smallcraft.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

A. There are no examples of spinal mounts below technological level ten.

B. You only have missiles, torpedoes, and mass driver bays.

C. Presumably, five hundred tonne bays take the place of spinal mounts.

D. Mass drivers can't hit a moving target.

E. Which leaves missiles and torpedoes, who do have the virtue of having range.

F. And likely installed in broadside.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

G. For their line of battle ships, it seems that the Confederation Navy uses Greek mythological deities to distinguish the classes.

H. Prometheus class fast dreadnoughts, and Zeus class battlecruisers.

I. That why I thought that while the initial Victory class battlecruiser would be named on political and propaganda grounds, the first ship would actually be the Nike.

J. While it would be rather appropriate to name the technological level fifteen successor to the Prometheus, the Mercury class, that's Roman.

K. Possibly, Galatea, which seems close enough.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Evolution of Line of Battle Ships

L. Pizza slice Empire aesthetic seems to predominate as the preferred hull configuration.

M. Why, I have no idea; sometimes that might require inquiries of the artist, writer, and editor.

N. Once I decided that the designs needed some refinement with the updated rules, plus some inspiration from the Royal Navy, that, actually, did some spacedockblocking.

O. Pizza slice configuration does allow atmospheric reentry.

P. But chops down on possibilities of optimizing spacecraft component placement.