kilrathi fleet in wc1/wc2

[d3r3k]

their fleet seems to rely upon destroyers and cruisers in this era. what really puzzles me is that what ship really takes on the carrier role. even though cruisers and destroyers can carry fighters, actions on the fighter level would never be as effective. could it be that they use their numerical superioty of ships to make up for the lack of carrying large amounts of fighters?

 

[SabreAce]

Snakeirs and Snakeir II class carriers are out and around...Blair just never runs into them in the missions he flys in the WC2-SO2 time frame. It's a case of the "small universe" syndrome again - just because we don't see it in the tiny part of the WC universe we see during that time, doesn't mean it's not out there.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Yeah, we're talking about fleets that include a dozen carriers and then hundreds and hundreds of line warships... which is why average Joe Blair encounters more Ralari tin cans than precious fleet carriers.

 

[Shipgate]

Stupid Ralari. I'll never get over how hard it was to protect that capture one from being destroyed. But I liked the idea of it. I wonder why in more battles it was not more of an option to take enemy ships as a prize. Especially with leech missiles and guns.

 

[Dundradal]

Leech technology did hit the front lines until 2667/68?. Kilrathi seem like the most unlikely of people to let their ship be captured intact (think of the kat admiral in FC when the Karga is commanded to self-destruct in hopes of taking the confed cruiser with it).

It's probably pretty risky to attempt a boarding when you know if the kats are losing control of the ship they will detonate it.

 

[Shipgate]

That's true. But the idea of taking a ship is so exciting. That's what I love about the battle scenes in Master & Commander. They'd all like to sink the enemy ship, but they'd really like to take her a prize.

I guess probably another reason is that taking a boat is one thing, you can learn how to sail it since it's all the same principle really. But perhaps taking a Kilrathi vessel would be too difficult due to not knowing the technology and language well enough.

 

[Dragon1]

In the Wing Commander movie, a Kilrathi battleship and two destroyers attacked the Tiger's Claw. Just from the movie perspective, it is appaerant to me that the Kilrathi fleet in 2654 was based primarily on older battleship designs. The battleships may have a had a light carrier capacity for in the aforementioned battle, 36 Kilrathi fighters were present. I feel that the Snakier carrier from the second WCI expansion game was probably brand new (in 2656) and that the Kilrathi may not have had dedicated fleet carriers before this time.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

My guess would be that capturing Kilrathi ships is more common than we know. We certainly see it happen a number of times:

* In Wing Commander, Marines capture a Ralari at Port Hedland and press it into Confed service at Kurasawa.
* In Secret Missions, the Reavers capture a Dralthi.
* In Secret Missions 2 the Ras Nik'hra and her fighter complement defect.
* In Wing Commander 3 you leech three Kilrathi tankers to fuel the Behemoth.

The Confederation Handbook references a number of captured Kilrathi ships (Ralari, Fralthi and Sivars), as though it were a common occurance.

The battleships may have a had a light carrier capacity for in the aforementioned battle, 36 Kilrathi fighters were present.

The Sivar-class dreadnought you're referring to carries a complement of 150 fighters.

I feel that the Snakier carrier from the second WCI expansion game was probably brand new (in 2656) and that the Kilrathi may not have had dedicated fleet carriers before this time.

The Snakeir carriers seen in Secret Missions 2 were new (Halcyon claims they were just encoutnered for the first time in the Ardai System) - but the Kilrathi did have dedicated carriers earlier in the war. We see them in Action Stations and on Wing Commander Academy.

 

[Dragon1]

The Sivar-class dreadnought you're referring to carries a complement of 150 fighters.

I was just refering to what was stated in the movie. I just rented it. One of the bridge officers on the Tiger's Claw reports to Captain Sanski that the Kilrathi were attacking with,"...three dozen starfighters, two destroyers and one battleship..."

If the Sivar in that scene did have a typical complement of 150 fighters, why attack with only 36?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Eh, who knows - that's the maximum complement for the class... we don't really know what it *actually* had onboard (and then presumably a significant portion would be flying patrols and such... and others wouldn't be appropriate for a strike mission).

Of course, one wonders why the Victory or the Tiger's Claw with dozens and dozens of fighters always launch only two during magnum launches...