Shiny New Fleet

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

It occurs to me that the Imperial Navy, under Emperor Palpatine, is a relatively new fleet with bright, shiny, new equipment. There are no or few 50 year old aging warships out there in service.

[Zarn]

Well, yes. Depending on what continuity you're looking at, of course.

If one allows the existence of technology like the World Devastators - or for that matter, the city block-eating Coruscant droid (EVS construction droid) - then you're looking at an interesting situation: It might actually be more cost efficient to completely reconstruct rather than repair badly damaged starships or obsolete equipment.

The World Devastators we see are pretty much fully automated molecular furnaces. Given the relatively small size of the 'infant' World Devastators, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to consider the existence of larger, but perhaps more crude molecular forges in the KDY orbital shipyards - or other shipyards.

Which means that it might actually be an example of the lack of supporting infrastructure on the part of the Rebels that they try repairing stuff, and one more puzzle piece why the Empire seems to have a more ... disposable attitude to soldiers, TIE fighters, and so on and so forth - to some extent, they ARE disposable because the manufacturing capacity is very high given enough raw materials.

So in the long run, sending even large ships like the Victory or the Imp I or IIs to the breakers in order to produce new ships may actually be cost efficient - for the Empire.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I was thinking of just the films.

[CRMcNeill]

By that standard, the Imperial Fleet is also composed of nothing but Star Destroyers.
_________________
"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

[Bren]

[Zarn]

And the occasional Lambda class shuttle and TIE Shuttle. But other than that, pretty meagre, yeah.

[CRMcNeill]

Going just off what we see in the films is a keyhole approach; we're going to see some of what the Empire has, but certainly not all of it. However, it's not as though WEG has done a good job filling in the gaps. Much of what we see in the Imperial SB, for example, is older model ships that would be more likely to be encountered in the sorts of backwaters that characters tend to frequent. Other ships are mentioned or hinted at, but no stats are provided. I've posted a few stats of my own over the years to try to fill the gaps.

IMO, the Imperial Fleet's ship roster breaks down into roughly three different groups:

1). Clone Wars era ships, such as the Venator, Victory, Dreadnought Cruiser, Carrack Cruiser, which are generally posted in lower-priority areas, or are maintained in service because their design makes them the best fit for the modern mission (the Carrack's speed and durability makes it ideal for the Navy's Pursuit missions).

2). First-Wave Imperial ships, such as the ISD I and the Strike Cruiser, which are part of the Empire's initial post-war expansion.

3). Second-Wave Imperial ships, fielded in response to the shifting nature of warfare in the Rebellion Era, such as the Imperial II, Nebulon B, Lancer and Escort Carrier.

The Second-Wave Imperial Ships are going to be the "shiny new fleet" in question. It's not that the other ships don't exist; it's that they are "holding down the fort" in other areas while their flashier younger siblings get the screen time.
_________________
"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

[Kytross]

I have been working under the assumption that the Venator class cruisers were brought back to the shipyards and retooled into Imperial Star Destroyers. They are the same length and have similar superstructure

[CRMcNeill]

[Whill]

[Kytross]

[Whill]

I prefer the aging warships serving in the Empire, so in my SWU there are still some Venators in the time of the classic trilogy.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage

[CRMcNeill]

[RedKnight]

or ferrying tie squadrons between planetary/sector assignments and transporting heavy equipment - that middle bay is just immense cargo space if you dont plan to launch fighters from it.

[ForbinProject]

Or sent out as/is as a part of fleets to the various galactic hinterlands similar to the way Thrawn was.