Author Topic: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA  (Read 24677 times)

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Offline DIO

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Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Well, I've started playing FS2 again after few years (and btw I've got to say the SCP team has done a unbelievably great work), and it made me wonder how many ships did GTA/PVE and GTVA had. The impression I got was GTVA would have several dozen destroyers, several hundred corvettes and cruisers and several ten thousand fighters/bomber. Is there any canonical information to prove whether if I'm right or wrong?

 

Offline Dilmah G

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Well that's a valid deduction. But canonically the GTVA has always used its fleets conservatively. Instead of deploying their fleets from other parts controlled space to reinforce their fighting force.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
It's not clear. I've always assumed that the GTVA has some number of frontline fleets, each one centered on a destroyer, supported by cruisers and corvettes; possibly also a second destroyer. It would also have local forces, likely on the same model as fleet but one to a system, and war reserve ships in mothballs. For myself, I've always assumed fleet size to be 20 to 25 combatant ships. Vasudan frontline Battlegroups would be slightly smaller, 15 or so combatant ships, but their local and war reserve forces would be of similar size to Terran ones.

About the PVN we know very little. However, the GTA seemed to assign fleets to a "home system" so to speak (meaning probably larger), so they could be rotated off the line to rest, rebuild, and refit when needed, whereas GTVA fleets seem to be concieved of as more mobile entities (meaning probably smaller), likely because they are meant to move to meet a Shivan attack; the GTVA military, lest we forget, was almost certainly constructed and trained to meet a second Shivan invasion.
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Offline Dilmah G

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
It's not clear. I've always assumed that the GTVA has some number of frontline fleets, each one centered on a destroyer, supported by cruisers and corvettes; possibly also a second destroyer. It would also have local forces, likely on the same model as fleet but one to a system, and war reserve ships in mothballs. For myself, I've always assumed fleet size to be 20 to 25 combatant ships. Vasudan frontline Battlegroups would be slightly smaller, 15 or so combatant ships, but their local and war reserve forces would be of similar size to Terran ones.

About the PVN we know very little. However, the GTA seemed to assign fleets to a "home system" so to speak, so they could be rotated off the line to rest, rebuild, and refit when needed, whereas GTVA fleets seem to be concieved of as more mobile entities, likely because they are meant to move to meet a Shivan attack; the GTVA military, lest we forget, was almost certainly constructed and trained to meet a second Shivan invasion.


Yeah, hmmm, GTVA fleets tend to have around 4 destroyers per fleet in my observation, assuming all the Terran destroyers seen in the retail campaign are 3rd/4th fleet

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
To add on to NGTM-1R's post, look at the Aquitaine. It's the flagship of the Capella-based 3rd Fleet, but warships from it have been sent to the neighbouring systems such as Deneb and Gramma Draconis to repel threats to the GTVA. Ultimately, the entire fleet was uprooted and moved to Vega at the end of the Second Shivan Incursion with no losses to 3rd Fleet Command. By that time, the Aquitaine was already in Vega.

The Vasudan arm of the GTVA sorts all their ships into "battle groups". What I can surmise is that they are probably even more mobile than the Terran fleets, albeit smaller.

From playing FSPort, I've always had this feeling that the PVN deploys everything from Vasuda Prime, as well as from the systems immediately surrounding it. They do not seem to have any footholds in any star system more than one away from Vasuda.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2009, 07:26:00 am by Androgeos Exeunt »
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Offline Pred the Penguin

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
They might have lost many of their colonies to the GTA.

 

Offline Mobius

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
There also are Terran Battle Groups - read the GTB Boanerges' tech description. Back on topic, I'd like to say that:

1) Several hundred corvettes and cruisers is exxaggerated, IMO. The number of cruisers(including old designs, like the Aten and Fenris) could exceed 100, but the corvettes can't be that common.

You also have to consider that, according to the Aeolus' and Deimos' tech descriptions, Terrans will be focusing their efforts on building corvettes rather than cruisers. The Vasudans, however, will presumably keep building Mentu-class cruisers after Capella;

2) There's more than one destroyer in a fleet(battle groups might have only one, though), we know that from certain canon evidence - the NTF had something like 10 destroyers but they surely didn't have 10 or so fleets. Koth's flagship was the Repulse, but we also know of a second destroyer - the Normandy. There could have been a third destroyer that fell under the hands of the GTVA as soon as NTF forces in Epsilon Pegasi surrendered;
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Offline Snail

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
I don't think the GTVA would have the number of fighters or bombers specified (several hundred thousand?). Seeing as an Ursa reportedly costs as much as a small moon, I doubt the GTVA would have money to construct the equivalent of several hundred thousand small moons. ;)

I think they'd have quite a few thousand, but not in the quantities you're talking of...

 

Offline Mobius

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Wrong. "Quite a few thousand" is not a good estimate at all.

Quote from:  GVB Bakha - Tech Description
Learning a lesson from the bomber losses of the Great War, Vasudan defense contractor Akheton designed the GVB Bakha, a fast, agile bomber that could still deliver a warship-shattering payload. The Bakha's dual Akh-12 engines are baffled and masked, giving it a small profile for heat-seeking missiles. The bomber's speed and maneuverability make it the craft of choice for taking out destroyers and corvettes with multiple flak, AAA, and anti-ship beam turrets. Over 6,000 Bakhas have been produced in the orbiting shipyards around Vasuda Prime.

Please note that the Bakha is not supposed to be the most common GTVA spacecraft - it's not even supposed to be the most common Vasudan bomber.

Imagine how many Apollo, Anubis, Seth, Hercules, and so on fighters have been produced. That's more than only "a few thousand". :nod:
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Offline Droid803

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
There wouldn't be that many Ursas though.
And fighters are probably much cheaper than bombers.
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Offline Mobius

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
That many Ursae? Probably not, but their number would still be quite high.

I doubt fighters are "much cheaper" than bombers. They're smaller, but they may make use of advanced systems. I think the Perseus(not sure about this one), the Pegasus, the Ptah and the Ares might be more expensive than average bombers.
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Offline Droid803

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
But an Anubis would be much cheaper.
Definitely. None of these 'advanced systems' which you speak of :P

Also, I don't think the Perseus would be more expensive than an Erinyes.
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Offline eliex

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA

I doubt fighters are "much cheaper" than bombers. They're smaller, but they may make use of advanced systems. I think the Perseus(not sure about this one) might be more expensive than average bombers.


I highly doubt that one since after the Perseus is introduced into the FS2 campaign, it becomes quite a standard fighter.

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
I wonder how many Ares fighters there are. I don't think the number is anywhere near 300.
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Offline eliex

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
I'd think that they are a relatively new class of fighter introduced to the GTVA so they haven't been mass produced yet or they are simply too expensive to produce in massive numbers.

 

Offline Killer Whale

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Rather than build more advanced fighters and bombers, why don't they build ten times as many Apollos and anubi

 

Offline Dilmah G

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Rather than build more advanced fighters and bombers, why don't they build ten times as many Apollos and anubi

Pilots

are expensive to train, and too dear to lose in numbers that large.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
Rather than build more advanced fighters and bombers, why don't they build ten times as many Apollos and anubi

A good pilot is inevitably as or more expensive then a good fighter.
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Offline Androgeos Exeunt

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
I thought a good pilot was priceless.
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Offline Blue Lion

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Re: Total strength of GTA, PVE and GTVA
I always assumed fleets had about 4-5 destroyers, 4-5 corvettes and about 6-8 cruisers.

There are 10 destroyers named in the NTF fleet, and I assume there are way more.

3 systems + other defections from other systems + captured/newly commissioned ships = 20 destroyers?

There are 11 corvettes in the NTF listed.

I seriously doubt we saw every single ship the NTF has.