I hope I'm not remembring things wrong, but wasn't there a Lexington class of carriers? If so, how many fighters could it carry?
IIRC, the three classes of carriers in WC Saga were: Yorktown (light), Jutland (medium) and Lexington (heavy).
CT27, Here's some musings I've been doing just an hour or so ago. You can find your answer near the top, the rest, though a bit scruffy, I don't know if I'm going to do anything with it for a while, so I'll just put it up.
Oh and thanks Deathsnake. I'm not sure if I thanked you or not. I'll try your mod if you get it out. It looks nice.
Here's the stuff I'd been typing up:
Fighter compliments:
http://www.kitsune.addr.com/SF-Conversions/Rifts-WC-Vehicles/Bhantkara (Heavy Carrier) - 112: 40 Darkets, 32 Dralthi, 24 Vaktoths, 16 Paktahns. Also 16 shuttles.
Dubav (light Carrier) - 40: 16 Darkets, 12 Dralthi, 8 Vaktoths, 4 Paktahns. Also 8 Assault Shuttles (would just be normal shuttles in WCS)
Jutland (Carrier) - 84: 36 Arrows, 24 Hellcats, 16 Thunderbolts, 8 Longbows. Also 20 shuttles.
Hermes (Jutland Carrier) - 90: 20 Arrows, 30 Hellcats, 20 Thunderbolts, 20 Longbows, +10 Excaliburs? Also 20 shuttles and 4 Artemis.
Lexington (Heavy Carrier) - 100: 36 Arrows, 24 Hellcats, 20 Thunderbolts, 20 Longbows. Also 20 shuttles.
Confederation (Dreadnought) - 120: 48 Arrows, 36 Hellcats, 24 Thunderbolts, 12 Longbows. Also 20 shuttles.
Saga Team
Jutland 90
Yorktown/Concordia 40/96
Confederation 120
Tallahassee 12 Arrows or 8 Hellcats
Southhampton 5 (Arrows)
Savannah 8 (Arrows)
Harrier 60-72 fighters (5-6 Squadrons)
Fralthi 2 around 30 light fighters (Darkets and Dralthis)
Bhantkara 100
Fralath 16 (see Fralthi)
Dubav 40
Ralarad about 4 (Darkets)
Ralarax about 8 (Darkets and Dralthi)
Tactical Formations
I decided to run this knowledge through the “tactical formations” section found in the Wing Commander Saga manual.
Raiding Party - This kind of goes against the logic here, as it says that a single Ralarad will serve as a tiny flagship, bringing along a compliment of both light and medium fighters and several assault shuttles. While here all it says it can manage is 4 Darkets. Maybe they can be externally mounted like it says further down for the scout frigate?
Wolfpack - It says 4-6 Corvettes. However, since the target is known and chosen for the Wolfpack to hunt, I don’t see why fighters wouldn’t be along, unlike the Raiding Party, which is for striking behind enemy lines at soft targets. Also says it can be destroyers or cruisers as well, which would boost the fighter compliment significantly. 4-6 Rallarads would bring along 16-24 Darkets and 4-6 Cruisers could be anything from 64 to 180 fighters depending on number and class.
Scout Unit - A scout frigate with several externally mounted jump capable fighters and sometimes other ships such as light destroyers or corvettes. A bit vague to try and figure this one out.
Reconnaissance in force group - Now we’re talking. Taking down one of these, either in one big mission or a handful of missions could be fun. One Dubav, 2-3 Ralarads, a scout frigate, and a “fistful” of Corvettes. Going by the wolfpack entry, I’d guess this to be 4-6 corvettes. So at full size, this would be a Dubav, 3 Ralarads, a scout frigate, 6 corvettes, 28 Darkets, 12 Dralthi, 8 Vaktoths, 4 Paktahns. And maybe even those 8 shuttles.
Carrier Battle Group - Again, great potential for a several mission campaign or one great big mission to fight off a Kilrathi battle group. Though we’d be talking BOE proportions for such a mission this time, so likely unwise. A Bhantkara or Hvar’kann, 2-3 cruisers, 4-6 destroyers and 2 scout frigates. Sure some ships could be substituted, but going by this, at full strength for fighter capacity, though I won’t include a rare Hvar’kann, That would be a Bhantkara, 3X Fralthi II, 6X Ralarad, 2X Scout Frigate plus, now here’s an idea I had, the source says 112 fighters on a Bhantkara, the Saga team says 100. How about instead of 112 specified fighters, 100 fighters of any type I want from Darkets to Sorthaks. Though it would be unfair I think to have 100 Sorthaks. Keep some realism to it. Plus 90 Darkets/Dralthi on the cruisers, plus 24 Darkets on the Ralarads. 214 fighters.
Number conversions - I imagine going by the numbers, certain fighters could be substituted. I’m guessing the heavier fighters take up the same space on the deck as the lighter ones as a group, thus there are less heavies. With a Bhantkara having 40 Darkets, 32 Dralthi, 24 Vaktoths, 16 Paktahns and a Dubav having 16 Darkets, 12 Dralthi, 8 Vaktoths, 4 Paktahns, this suggests to me you could trade 2 Darkets for a Vaktoth and 2 Dralthi for a Paktahn if you wanted beefier ships, especially bombers, in an attack force. I don’t see any real need to be switching up Darkets and Dralthi. Likewise if an already lighter fighter heavy force needed to be even more lighter fighter heavy, you could trade in those heavier ships for more lighter ones. Perhaps an arrangement like with Hermes, you could have maybe 30 Darkets, 30 Dralthi, 20 Vaktoths and 20 Paktahns. Or perhaps the Lexington would be more suitable a model, so 36 Darkets, 24 Dralthi, 20 Vaktoths, 20 Paktahns.
I wonder how much deck space those asteroids and Sorthaks take up… However, the Asteriods would be expected to be found loose in asteroid fields, while the Sorthak is specialised for long range missions, so could probably just be thrown in on top of any of those above battle groups.
Of course there’s no need to be so precise. These are just as good for just hitting somewhere near the mark rather than being precise.
