Imperial Escort Carriers(fleet junkies and military nerds wanted)

I would have posted this in the big capital ship thread, but that seems mostly focused on NR ships, so since this is Imperial, I decided to make a new thread.

The Escort Carriers in Rebel Strike have piqued my interest, but they also raise questions. What do they escort? How much do they carry? And then there's the questions of crewing.

In the game it's said that they're exclusive to the Storm Commandos. Does this mean that the crew and pilots on the ship are Storm Commandos, or are they part of the regular navy attached to Storm Commando units? I've always seen the SC's as operating in small units. It would seem that ships crew and flight crew 'attached' to SC units would be larger than the SC units, which implies that the SC's are attached to the navy units, rather than vice versa.

So, are the crew and pilots actually storm commandos? This solves the attachment problems, but raises more questions. It implies that the storm commandos are more than just commandos, more like a full-fledged sub-branch of the navy. In other words, more akin to Marines than SEALs.

Then there's the question of the Escort Carrier's mission profile.

It's name suggests that it escorts convoys and carries fighters. But escorting standard supply convoys seems like a job for the regular navy, and probably one of the regular navy's most common jobs. So maybe the EC's escort high priority convoys, carrying important personel, or volatile prisoners.

Or maybe 'escort' is a holdover from an earlier model. I have seen the term "Escort Carrier" applied to any small carrier, so it's possible these things don't escort anything at all. If this is the case, maybe it's an insertion craft, akin to the submarines that sometimes deliver SEALs. But it seems well equipped for ship-to-ship combat, moreso than I would think an insertion craft would be. This implies a multi-role use.

I personally think they would work better as Imperial analogs to the corvettes. It would make sense that the Rebellion used converted civilian corvettes, while the Empire had a dedicated military model. Maybe the EC is a modified version of such a corvette, and the standard model has better shields, or more consumables, or more troop capacity in place of the fighters.

And of course there's the question of how big it is, and how many fighters it can actually carry. This information would help in answering some of the above questions. For example, it may be too big to be a corvette, more like a frigate.

Hmm. I guess this is what happens when people design ships that look cool with little thought as to how they're actually used.

 

No, we have imperial ships to, basically the GFFA ships in general!

 

Well I'll get more replies in a dedicated thread, so hush

 

Well, here are some more replies!

The Escort Carrier is used by the entire Imperial Na, it could be possible the ones you refer too are a modified bunch for the Storm Commandos!

 

These look nothing like the 'flying box' escort carriers though. They're a totally different design.

 

Ah, that does make A difference..hmm Must buy Rebel Strike soon? what do they look like?

 

I haven't gotten to the TIE Hunter part yet. but if they are indeed exclusive to the Storm Commandos, then I think it's pretty safe to say that there's a flight division of the SC's, which again implies that they're larger than I had previously thought, and also makes it more likely that the actual crew of the EC's are part of the Storm Commandos, rather than regular navy personel assigned to the SC's.

 

It seems there are TWO kinds of Escort-Carriers in the imperial armed forces.

From the ISB:
Escort Carrier

The need for a TIE escort carrier became apparent after the Battle of Ton-Falk. In that battle, two Imperial frigates and a Dreadnaught were lost due to, as Naval Command reported, "inadequate TIE support." So the Navy commissioned Kuat Drive Yards to construct a vessel that would serve the specific function of carrying TIE fighters into battle.

The main duties of escort carriers are to augment the starfighter strength of the fleet they are attached to, and to transport non-hyperspace support shuttles from system to system. Box-like and inelegant in appearance, KDY's escort carrier performs these missions admirably.

Each carrier bases an entire TIE wing in its cavernous bays. Imperial policy mandates that at least one squadron of TIE Interceptors be included in the mix. Additional bays can carry up to six shuttles.

While carriers are equipped with protective weaponry, they are not considered combat vessels. They do not engage enemy targets and try to stay as far from the actual battle as possible.

Other missions that carriers regularly perform include augmenting the power of Imperial garrison bases. While the garrison quells planetary problems, the carrier assumes a station- ary position in orbit over the planet. From this position, the carrier's TIEs can blanket the world to provide support from above.

Escort Carrier
Craft: Kuat Drive Yards' Escort Carrier
Type: Heavy starfighter/shuttle carrier
Scale: Capital
Length: 500 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: KDY Escort Carrier
Crew: 3,485, gunners: 20, skeleton: 1,500/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 3D+2, capital ship gunnery 4D, capital ship piloting 4D+1, capital ship shields 3D+2, sensors 3D+2
Passengers: 800 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 9 months
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Hull: 7D+1
Shields: 2D

Sensors:
Passive: 30/0D
Scan: 50/1D
Search: 100/2D
Focus: 4/3D

Weapons:
10 Twin Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 2 front, 3 left, 3 right, 2 back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 2-6/25/50 km
Damage: 3D


Given the fact, that rebel-activities were limited to raiding conveys with their hyperspace-capable fighters it is safe to assume, that the EC was used to escort convoys NOT important enough to be guarded by a heavy cruiser or star destroyer.

 

Given the fact, that rebel-activities were limited to raiding conveys with their hyperspace-capable fighters it is safe to assume, that the EC was used to escort convoys NOT important enough to be guarded by a heavy cruiser or star destroyer.

A mission profile somewhat similar to that of the escort carriers used by US/UK forces in WW II, although the escort carriers carried far less aircraft than the "real" carriers. However, six squadrons may be a bit of overkill to guard a single convoy, Perhaps they split their complement of starfighters up to guard multiple convoys, then had the closest ship pick up the TIEs after the convoys safely reached their destinations?

IIRC, another role of this escort carrier was to ferry starfighters.

 

Wouldn´t work, since the regular TIEs are not hyperspace-capable. They would protect the convoy in one system and then had to be left behind and picked up by another ship.

 

Yeah, that's what I saying. I agree, though, it wouldn't work well. Needlessly complicated as they say. Ah well, back to the drawing board .

 

Can someone get some images up?

 

The first pic shows a good view of what I assume is the hangar bay.

 

How about I give you some links that might be helpful.

Imperial Escort Carrier

Rebel Carrier Cruiser

 

Which one, the one in either of my posts or the one from Rebel Strike?

 

It's also in Rebellion, BTW.

 

The Imperial Escort Carrier in Rebellion is the same basic design as that in the X-wing games.

 

The following links may help with real world "Jeep" carriers. From that you may figure out what the role of SW Escort Carriers is.

Escort "Jeep" Carriers
Escort Carriers 1
Escort Carriers 2
Escort Carriers 3
UK Escort Carriers
Japanese Escort Carriers
Escort Carriers

 

I'm rather taken by the design, after having seen the pictures, actually.

More pics would be nice, however. Also, the composition of the crews and mission profile remain something of a mystery to me--I'll have to go through the backposts later.

 

Perhaps it's a generic term, escort carrier. The way Escort Frigate is. That's Nebulon-B-class, and you could have other types. N-B2s, for example.

Or the way you have patrol destroyers. There's the Adz-class, and being so general in nature, sure, there's other types of "patrol destroyers."

So unless both "escort carriers" from the separate games actually have class names, and if at least physically different, just assume they're not identical.

 

I don't think that there's any doubt that the NR and normal Imperial Starfleet "Escort Carriers" do exactly what it says on the tin - basically, they're flying hangar-bays designed to provide basic launch/recovery facilities for starfighters, generally to 'escort' convoys or cap ship squadrons that would otherwise lack the 'adequate' fighter cover they provide...

The Storm Commando "Escort Carrier" is a totally different kettle of fish, though. They're basically small Star Destroyers with high-tech equipment and elite crews, and unless the Empire is using Storm Commandos, and TIE-Hunters to escort its convoys as a really nasty surprise for the Rebels - which is an interesting strategic possibility, but I don't know if it makes any sense in terms of the game - I have no idea exactly what they're meant to be 'escorting'...

- The Imperial Ewok