Starship Taxonomy

[CRMcNeill]

This article was posted on G+ the other day. Since it is a subject of interest to me, I thought I'd post it here, as well. In addition, I had some thoughts of my own to add from a Star Wars perspective, plus a few of the classifications I use IMU.

Destroyer - While the article's description of a destroyer is dead on for the real world, a destroyer in Star Wars is obviously a completely different breed. In fact, destroyer may be the SWU word for a real-world Dreadnought. The actual role of destroyers in the SWU seems to fall to Assault Frigates, as a subset of the frigate classification.

Star- - In my SWU, a Star- designator is an enhancement that indicates a capital ship with multiple roles. The three primary roles are space combatant, small craft carrier and assault transport. As such, the three subsets of Star- designation ships are:

Star Cruiser - Space combatant and small craft carrier, such as the MC80. It may carry troops, but these will be primarily light infantry for boarding actions, and lack the heavy vehicles needed for ground assault.

Star Monitor - Space combatant and assault transport, such as the Victory I. This ship is intended primarily as a planetary assault platform, carrying both heavy weaponry to take on planetary defenses and the ability to transport and deploy a respectable number of troops and equipment for ground assault. If it carries any fighter craft, these are almost always intended for escort, not strike missions, although some atmospheric combat fighters may be carried to support deployed troops.

Star Carrier - Small craft carrier and assault transport. Carries both small craft and a respectable contingent of ground troops, at the expense of heavy weaponry. The only in-universe example that comes to mind is the Liberator-Class Cruiser from Star Wars: Rebellion.

Star- can also indicate a vessel that is larger and more powerful than a normal ship of that class. For instance, a Star Frigate would be larger and more powerful than a standard frigate, but still be designed for the same missions as a frigate.

Heavy Cruiser vs. Light Cruiser - WEG diverged rather severely from real-world classification of cruisers. For starters, Medium Cruisers don't exist; in the real world, there are only heavy cruisers and light cruisers. In addition, as stated in the article, the main differentiation between the two types is their armament, with heavy cruisers mounting heavier weapons and defenses, and light cruisers mounting lighter ones. WEG's heavy and medium cruisers, however, mount essentially similar energy armaments, with the Medium cruisers actually being more heavily armed (ion cannon and tractor beams). If the cruiser classification in the SWU were brought more in line with the real world (which would, IMO, clear up a lot of confusion), light cruisers would basically be frigates on steroids, with the same basic type of turbolaser cannon, just more of them. It could serve as both a heavy escort or be used for long range independent operations, such as scouting. Heavier cruisers, on the other hand, would mount heavier grade weaponry, and actually be capable of threatening capital ships if they attacked in groups.


Just some thoughts. Feel free to contribute your own ideas.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[cynanbloodbane]

The problem with real world comparisons to Star Wars Fleets is the years of service. Real world navies do not utilize 20-100+ year old ships alongside brand new ones. The Dreadnaught Heavy cruiser was the Line of Battle, Star Destroyer of its day. Due to quality construction and such it is still a viable warship, but it is outdated. Military designations are more about politics than actual function. Calling a new ship a Medium cruiser indicates a desire to not have it be expected to supplant the old ships that are currently filling the Heavy cruiser role. Funding may have been simpler to get for a Medium cruiser rather than a new model of Heavy cruiser. Whatever the reason, the Service Life of Star Wars ships is much closer to real world Great age of Sail, where ships were known to have up to a century of active service in multiple wars. The USS Independence (1814-1912) is a good example, but many more exist. Also WEG used Great age of Sail fleet tactics when describing the Imperial and Rebel Alliance, Line of Battle deployments. (Starting on pg. 53 of the 2nd ed. rebel alliance sourcebook.) The ship positioning was modified to reflect the Star Wars Designs but the principles are the same. The "Ackbar Slash" was known in Lord Nelsons day as Breaking the Line.
My point is, for a Galaxy with Tramp Freighters, Lines of battle, Corvettes and Frigates, you may be looking at the wrong time frame for a real world comparison. Yes I know Lucas borrowed heavily from WWII, but that was mostly for fighters and dogfighting. Just my 2 cents.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain

[CRMcNeill]

But WEG did use WWI/II era nomenclature by including the phrase cruiser at all, as cruisers didn't exist as such during the age of sail. Indeed, the role of cruisers in the modern era was filled by frigates in the sail era. On top of that, WEG did a horrible job differentiating between different cruiser classes. The Strike Medium Cruiser is a Heavy Cruiser in all but name, and all three cruiser types (the Carrack, Strike and Dreadnaught) mount heavy weaponry capable of threatening capital ships, which was an identifying trait of Heavy Cruisers, not cruisers in general. Also, what is your basis for saying the Dreadnaught was the ship-of-the-line of its time? That certainly isn't bourn out by anything I've read.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[D+1]

[evilnerf]

The Essential Guide to Warfare did a pretty good job making sense of the ship classifications in my opinion with the Anaxes War College System

It also made clear that colloquial terms don't always follow the system, which explained outliers.
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His eyes are shifty. That's how you know the nerf did it.

[CRMcNeill]

Personally, I find the Anaxes System rather lacking. We discussed it in another topic a while back, and the conclusion Mikael Hasselstein and I reached (IIRC) was that a system based on size ignored the importance of mission, and was, in effect, more of a system of classification for the uneducated layman, or the politician more interested in impressions than reality.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Yup, pretty much what crmcneill just said.

While comparable battle capabilities are what tend to interest us, I would maintain that to a regime like the Empire, it's hegemonic appearance matters most.

But that doesn't mean that clever naval tacticians don't have their own set of classifications that deal more with capabilities than size and impressiveness.

[Thx1138]

You also have to remember that in Star Wars, there are thousands of starship manufacturers and each of them could have their own classification system for their ship lines. And since as stated earlier that you can sometimes have ships from around a hundred years old serving in a navy in Star Wars, many ship classifications would have changed in the period of time.

[CRMcNeill]

[cynanbloodbane]

[The Brain]

[CRMcNeill]

[evilnerf]

[CRMcNeill]

And I take exception to your assumption that your view of ship classification in the SWU is the only right one, so let's call it even.

Just to clarify, I game almost exclusively in the classic era. During a set time period, ship classification will be relatively fixed, with advancing technology changing its effectiveness at its mission, and only rarely causing the evolution of a completely new ship type. So when I say the words Heavy Cruiser or Light Cruiser, I mean them in the terms of what their mission would be roughly around the time of the Battle of Yavin, or a few years either way.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[The Brain]

Overall sci-fi game wise I've found the classification criteria from Traveller works best for me. Caveat #1 a big part of if something is considered a capitol ship there is whether or not it mounts a spinal weapon which you don't see often in SWU especially in the classic/rebellion era. Caveat #2 in most versions of Traveller because of technological limitations fighters/small craft are either a non-threat or at best minor nuisance to capitol ships.