Gunhound class Light Battleship
| Gunhound class Light Battleship | |
|---|---|
 Pack hunting capital ship | |
| Type: BL Light Battleship | |
| Category | BCS |
| Size | 60,000 Tons |
| Hull Configuration | Cylinder Hull |
| Streamlining | Streamlined Hull |
| Tech Level | TL–15 |
| Engineering | |
| Computer | Model/9 with extra capacity |
| Jump | J-3 |
| Maneuver | 6 G |
| Armaments | |
| Hardpoints | 6000 |
| Accommodations | |
| Staterooms | 249 |
| Personnel | |
| Crew | 456 |
| Officers | 42 |
| Enlisted | 414 |
| High/Mid Passengers | 0 |
| Payload | |
| Cargo | 598.5 Tons |
| Fuel tank | 0 Tons |
| Construction | |
| Origin | Solomani Confederation |
| Manufacturer | Transstar |
| Year Operational | 993 |
| End of Service | Examples still operate post-Collapse |
| Price | |
| Cost | MCr59,970.1125. MCr53,973.10125 in quantity. |
| Architect fee | MCrAdrian Tymes |
| Statistics | |
| Quick Ship Profile | BL-4FS63 |
| Images | |
| Blueprint | Yes |
| Illustration | No |
| Source | |
| Also see | Battleship |
| Canon | Published, fan design |
| Era | Third Imperium |
| Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions. | |
The Gunhound class Light Battleship is a capital warship.
- It is a military ship, specifically a Light Battleship.
Description (Specifications)[edit]
A Gunhound is a nearly-quarter-kilometer-long cylinder meant to destroy enemy ships, particularly other battleships. Between a meson cannon running the length of the ship, and tachyon cannon bays and laser turrets gathered on its front, the concept of operations is brutally simple: point at suspected enemy location to present a minimal profile, sneak up on it until enemy capital ship is detected and the meson cannon is in range, and fire before the Gunhound is seen. While true stealth in space is impossible, a Gunhound's profile and emissions are optimized to delay detection as long as possible - and once an enemy fleet's capital ships are inoperable, taking out the rest of the fleet is typically a mopping up exercise.
This philosophy can be seen in a Gunhound's loadout, with tachyon cannon bays sufficient to destroy most ACSes in one hit and enough laser turrets to put a dent in incoming missile swarms but emphasizing the meson cannon. Gunhounds are meant to operate in squadrons, spread out to approach from different vectors, so even if an enemy fleet does detect (and attack) one, they may be fooled into thinking there was just the one unescorted capital ship attacking. Standard doctrine is to disengage if the enemy attacks, to reinforce this deception until the trap can be sprung. All of a Gunhound's weapons face forward, and the ship can run its maneuver drives in reverse, allowing it to fire full salvoes while disengaging. After the first few engagements, it became standard practice to bring expendable decoys, designed to be detected before the Gunhounds and draw fire until the enemy capital ships could be taken out of combat.
The design has been viewed as mediocre, able to do its job but perhaps not as well as a larger battleship. Proponents have pointed out that expecting a Light Battleship to do everything that a larger and more expensive Heavy Battleship can do is missing the point, but the criticisms remain. It is infamous as one of the few true battleships to fall into pirate hands (see History & Background below).
Image Repository[edit]
- 2 Gunhounds and 34 decoys at maximum meson cannon range, as detected by an Imperial escort during the Battle of Kagukhasaggan in 1002. By the time this array was detected, the escort had time to relay targeting information for one missile salvo before the Gunhounds returned fire, destroying the escort. Fortunately for the Imperial fleet, the escort had been deployed far from the fleet, so the Gunhounds were only in range to fire on the escort. At this range, tracking the trajectory of the incoming meson fire did not distinguish between individual positions in this array. (Gunhound positions in this image, as subsequently determined by which dots defended themselves against the missiles: second row from the top, rightmost; fourth row from the top, third from the left. Not shown: the third Gunhound, which the escort never detected.)
General Description & Deck Plans[edit]
- Deck Plans for this vessel.
Basic Ship Characteristics[edit]
Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. [1]
| Basic Ship Characteristics [2] | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Category | Remarks |
| 1. | Tonnage / Hull | Tonnage: 60,000 tons (standard). 840000 cubic meters. Streamlined Cylinder Hull.
|
| 2. | Crew | Crew: 1 Captain, 3 Pilots, 1 Astrogator, 241 Engineers, 108 Mechanics, 4 Stewards, 3 Medics, 54 Administrator, 41 Officers. 307 virtual Gunners provided via software. |
| 3. | Performance | Acceleration: 6-G maneuver drive installed.
|
| 4. | Electronics | Model/9 ship computer with extra CPU capacity distributed through the ship. |
| 5. | Hardpoints | 6,000 hardpoints. |
| 6. | Armament | Spinal Weapons Mount with a meson beam. 15 tachyon beam bays. |
| 7. | Defenses | 42 pulse laser triple-mount turrets (sometimes used for offense, but primarily meant for defense against missiles and smallcraft). |
| 8. | Craft | None. Vacc suits required for EVA (extra-vehicle activity). Rescue Balls for crew escape normally carried. |
| 9. | Fuel Treatment | It is typically equipped with a fuel purification plant but no fuel scoops. |
| 10. | Cost | MCr59,970.1125 (no architect's fees, those having been paid by its Solomani Confederation design contract). MCr53,973.10125 in quantity. (These are the official average cost numbers according to Transstar, which included the extended decimal fraction.) |
| 11. | Construction Time | 27 months standard, 21 in quantity. |
| 12. | Remarks | A battleship designed to ambush in squadrons. |
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
In 989 as the likelihood of war became more apparent, executives at Transstar decided to dabble in making a battleship design. The result was rushed, and did not actually enter the Solomani Rim War until 993 - but the Solomani Navy was quite willing to buy more battleships, even of a design seen as suboptimal. Production continued for the duration of the war, then ceased as the Solomani Navy suddenly needed less capital ships.
It is believed that less than 100 were ever made, but the exact quantity is unknown due to circumstances surrounding the end of the Solomani Rim War. For instance, some Gunhounds were constructed at Langelos before the Third Imperium wrested control, at which time many records - including Gunhound construction logs - were destroyed, and there are rumors that at least one incomplete Gunhound was delivered to pirates (and thus, never made it into the Solomani Confederation fleet) rather than be surrendered to the Third Imperium.
Gunhound squadrons sometimes managed to accomplish their basic purpose - ambush larger battleships and destroy them before they could return fire - but were detected often enough that 78 were confirmed destroyed during the Solomani Rim War. Some see this as a minor blessing: there are not many shipyards in post-war Confederation space able to produce replacement parts for a TL-15 design, but most Gunhounds were able to die in the line of duty rather than through decades of deferred maintenance. Still, measuring by megacredits, Gunhounds collectively destroyed significantly more value during the war than was spent on them, achieving the aims of the program.
After the war, most of the remaining Gunhounds were put to use against the largest pirate bands, with some sold to minor polities. Perhaps the most notorious of these engagements was a Gunhound-on-Gunhound battle against pirates (the apparent source of the rumor about pirates obtaining a Gunhound from Langelos). The Solomani Confederation Gunhound managed to destroy the pirate one without taking return fire, after which the rest of the accompanying pirate fleet was quickly mopped up. Prior to the engagement, the pirate Gunhound been used to ambush freighter convoys, destroying their escorts and either taking the freighter or using captured freighters to offload all the cargo. It was targeting exclusively Imperial merchants, costing them gigacredits each month, so pirate hunters were on the way; the Solomani Gunhound captain wished to show up the Imperials by dealing with the problem first, but also feared that the pirates were about to target Solomani shipping too. There are rumors, not inconsistent with what records exist, that more Gunhounds made their way into pirate hands; if they did, they were disposed of more quietly, likely by small teams sent to infiltrate the ships rather than by other capital ships.
A few Gunhounds were mothballed and hidden in deep space, for the future day when the Solomani Confederation could come retrieve them. These plans came to fruition over a century and a half later during the Collapse: with the withdrawal of effective Imperial control, Confederation crews followed up on by-then-legends (if somewhat better documented than most) and found the ships, serviceable though in need of overhauls. Fortunately, having been completely shut down - including disconnecting the antennas - they could not be infected by Virus until reactivated, and by the time the recovery missions were launched, the crews knew how to safeguard against infection. Once recovered, the Gunhounds were more than capable of obliterating suspected vampire fleets, with much more affordable maintenance (in the far more resource-constrained environment of the Collapse) than larger battleships. They were primarily kept in-system for defensive use, no more than one per system; grouping up for offensive missions (as they were originally designed for) was a distinct rarity.
Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities[edit]
Ship Interior Details: Unusually for a capital ship, the spinal meson cannon forms the outer layer (after armor) of the cylindrical hull, with all ship's systems inside. This means the airlocks, lesser weapons, and sensors are all along the front and rear. The cannon can rotate relative to the ship to facilitate servicing.
Fuel and drives take up most of the rest of the top and bottom halves of the cylinder. Most crew activity happens in the central two decks - indeed, many crew can perform their duties entirely from their stateroom. A higher than normal degree of automation assists this (and allows a slightly lower crew count than would otherwise be needed). Duty shifts are commonly aligned for crew who will do this, so that both occupants of a stateroom are on shift from their stateroom at the same time, rather than let this practice intrude into off-shift time for the occupant not on duty. The crew commons is organized to help those who do travel through the ship (primarily the mechanics), with 3 main lounges and 4 sub-lounges to supply and relieve crew coming in from far corners of the ship.
There were plans, early in the design process, to number the decks 0 through F instead of 1 through 16. This was rejected as being seen as too Imperial, and causing confusion among crew used to all-number (or sometimes all-letter) decks: the crew decks, for instance, would change from being deck numbers 8 and 9 to being 7 and 8.
All known Gunhounds have some reference to a dog or dog-like creature (not necessarily Terragen) in their names. For example, the first Gunhound completed was the Hunter Hound.
Selected Variant Types & Classes[edit]
Military Ship - Warship - Light Battleship:
References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
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This ship was designed using Mongoose 2nd ship design rules.
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- Matthew Sprange. High Guard (Mongoose Publishing, 2016), 8-22. (Design Sequence Used)
- Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes
- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.
- ↑ Timothy B. Brown. Fighting Ships (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 10.