 January 26, 2016 - 11:26am | http://starfrontiers.wikia.com/wiki/Privateer
Looking at the privateers, the Condor class is in the light crusier range with an impressive range of weaponry. The above link has the stats for the ship side by side from both Dragon articles.
I have little doubt that this ship has seen duty as the heavy muscle for corporations and for pirates. It's represented by both a miniature and artwork from one of the miniature's boxed sets. Mapping the deck plan aught to be straight forward- Miniature and artwork dictate that.
Beyond the stats there are a few questions before you could do this; namely related to stuff not in the board game section of the rules. Why would you bother? It's not the best ship for a PC ride. It would be a good location for an adventure as you would come across the ship from time to time. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 4, 2016 - 7:08am | Talk about space-navy nomenclature, what do you guys think about this title floating around on Atomic Rockets for Space Marines? They came up with Espatiers. It is pronounced "ess-pa-tee-yea", which is an Americanized French word for "Spacer" ("ess-pa-cee-yay", if you speak French proper). |
February 4, 2016 - 9:14pm | Who not just say spacer. In SF, everyone who works in space calls themselves a "Spacer." Plus, "Espatiers" follows a western nomenclature and is a neat alternative to Space Marine, that everyone and their dog uses. |
 February 4, 2016 - 10:15pm | a neat alternative to Space Marine, that everyone and their dog uses.
According to the wage table on the last page of the Expanded Rules, Space Marines are beam weapon specialists. I prefer slug throwers so me and my dog use "Sharp Shooter".  |
February 5, 2016 - 11:53am | a neat alternative to Space Marine, that everyone and their dog uses.
According to the wage table on the last page of the Expanded Rules, Space Marines are beam weapon specialists. I prefer slug throwers so me and my dog use "Sharp Shooter". Sorry, dog. You're stuck with a gyrojet! The ladies are not all over ground-droppin' Star Grunts, as they are with a beam-toting Ringneck*.  *a term I just made-up to describe the metal caller found on an astronaut. |
 February 6, 2016 - 11:13am | One thing to remember is you use privateers. You need to change part of the canon setting. In particular the part that says Trans Travel controls 80% of the merchant shipping in the Frontier. Thinking Trans Travel would declare war on anyone issuing a letter of marque and having them interfere with their shipping. Or boycotting the planetary government and stopping all trading with that planet. Their own ships and also refusing to transport for anyone who supports that planet. Trans Travel could have planetary blockades by total lack of shipping set up very quickly. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 6, 2016 - 3:36pm | Trans Travel could have planetary blockades by total lack of shipping set up very quickly.
I don't see this being feasible for several reasons. > Based on the list of subsidiaries in Zeb's Guide, I don't see TT as a mega-corp that would be contracted to produce warships. TT is described as having a monopoly on transport, and as far as star ships go I would interpret that meaning liners and freighters. Read: lightly armed at best. > Planetary governments would have the final say on any Frontier based blockade, more so if they have warships at their disposal. Even a squadron of star fighters would make short work of some clumsy liners and freighters. > As such any blockade would have to be enacted by an allied mega-corp (of which none are listed) such as GTF or MerCo, and not having bonafide warships I would say the best they would have to offer would be...privateers. I certainly don't see WarTech getting involved considering their lucrative UPF contracts. > Prenglar and Cassidine --- home ports to the three divisions of Space Fleet --- would never fall victim to any blockade of civilian ships, even one backed by armed ships from GTF or MerCo. I also don't see the blockade of any other world/system succeeding if any detachmment of Space Fleet were to arrive. While UPF charter may not permit direct intervention, those ships may still need to legitimately access those worlds. Best of luck to any foolish enough in trying to stop them. |
 February 7, 2016 - 12:14am | I think what we are talking about is not a blockade but a boycot. TT could boycot a planet but the little guys would just fill the gap and grow from the opportunity until the were a competitor to TT. Also TT has the competitor of the CFM. -iggy |
February 7, 2016 - 12:57am | I think what we are talking about is not a blockade but a boycot. I just re-read that and agree. I've been waking up way too early lately and gave up caffeine at the same time. ;) |
February 7, 2016 - 8:52pm | Trans Travel has numerous escorts ships to protect their merchants but would not need them for a blockade. This is simple people. First they would let it be known that anyone dealing with the government that issued the letter of Marque would not be dealt with favorably by TT. This will be anything from increased shipping rates to not transporting any goods for them. Step Two is a letter of Marque was issued by one side in a war. TT would get the other side to issue letters of Marque to TT ships or more likely privateers sponsored by TT. Any little guys trying to supply the side that went against TT''s wishes would soon find themselves without a ship and held for bond. Mega corps stay Mega corps by ruthlessly crushing the competition. Plus anyone else thinking they can beat them at their own game. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 8, 2016 - 12:32am | Still in agreement with all that has been said, but just for the sake of a parallel discusion... Trans Travel has numerous escorts ships to protect their merchants Again, I don't see them having warships. Look at the most successful(?) businesses today, none of them have military grade tanks, fighter planes, helicopters, or naval vessels. So we're back to privateers at best (privateer class ships, mind you, not letters of marque). Even so, I don't see them having one to escort each and evey merchant vessel in their employ. Not without subcontracting to GTF (who also won't have any warships, again...privateer class ships at best) or Merco. |
February 8, 2016 - 4:29am | Looking at today merchant ships aren't armed but every Sci Fi RPG has armed civilian ships so there isn't a comparison. RPGs take a creative license arming civilian ships so players can have exciting space ship fights. Economically having space wasting weapons and crew members who very rarely do their jobs especially if your trade route is along well protected lanes does not make sense. But this is the fantasy part of the game. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 8, 2016 - 8:03am | Looking at today merchant ships aren't armed but every Sci Fi RPG has armed civilian ships so there isn't a comparison. True, and I'll touch on that with the next part. RPGs take a creative license arming civilian ships so players can have exciting space ship fights. Economically having space wasting weapons and crew members who very rarely do their jobs especially if your trade route is along well protected lanes does not make sense. But this is the fantasy part of the game. No route is truly protected, more so if you're strictly adhering to canon. Going by what we know of the Second Sathar War: there are two Space Fleet divisions, one each in Cassidne and Prenglar, and a roving fleet that could be in any one of 18 systems (or 30 if you use all of the Zeb's systems, which really waters their efficiency down more than the original 18). Add ten planetary militias and you still have numerous unprotected worlds/systems. Only a fool would travel the Frontier in an unarmed ship, even in peace time where pirates (using full fledged warships in canon, mind you) replace the worms as the big threat --- allow me to submit Exhibit A: the Serena Dawn. With the Frontier setting being very much like a hi-tech Wild West setting, armed civilian craft is certainly justified regardless of the need for exciting play...much like the early days of sail where merchant ships were sporting rows of cannons ready to fend off pirates (and I daresay they were armed just as well as military ships back then) there is an inherent NEED for it. That said, only two megacorps (again, canon) would have access to warships: WarTech and Merco. One could stretch that by including PGC and Streel, or at least they might subcontract/farm it out illegally...but going by what is written it's just WT and MC. WarTech has lucrative contracts with nearly every planetary government and the UPF (re: 80%, much like Trans Travel's representation in the merchant sector) so they aren't going to go against any of them by supplying warships to a mega-corp that could potentially use them against their customers. That leaves MerCo as the sole provider of hired gunships (which I would define as a mix of privateer class ships and small HS:1-4 warships). Now perhaps TT is willing to sacrafice their ship performance to squeeze in that extra weapon system. This of course annihilates their chances of evading fast pirate craft, their biggest threat. When doing so, hopefully they opted for a beam weapon (while reducing their atomic drives to ion grade performance, not to mention reduced cargo/passenger space), because the rocket battery only gives you four shots (unless you were wise enough to stockpile additional salvoes in the hold) and their short range is easy to avoid. Any freighter or liner can safely add a single laser battery with no performance hits (IIRC a HS:12 can do so with two LB and HS:18 can add three LB), but adding one extra system to that can kill the performance --- more so depending on how much is added (re: you're better off adding two MHS:3 LB instead of a single MHS:5-6 system as it ends up as the same performance hit). Which, in the end, only gives them superior firepower against other civilian ships. Pirate scouts, corvettes, and frigates will still be able to overwhelm them with ease, with or without any weapon upgrades as the pirate ships all have better performance (save for the corvettes, which have matching performance to an unmolested HS:5-12 ship). So it still begs the question: what does Trans Travel utilize to ensure their "safest route with TT" slogan? Certainly it has to be far more than what their merchant craft can be armed with. Scout ships armed with single laser batteries? This makes little sense, having small craft with reduced performance just to have an extra LB in the field. Freighters converted to carriers (would WarTech supply TT with fighter craft? Possible, but doubtful)? The only feasible option I see, other than hiring MerCo, is to enlist their own fleet of privateer class ships as escort vessels...and even so they would have to at least double their entire fleet size to ensure each ship has an escort. |
February 11, 2016 - 2:47pm | Letters of mark were issued by one country to hurt another. Indiscriminate attacking of any ship was piracy while only attacking the Ships of the enemy country was covered by the letter. It's hard to imagine any planet issuing a letter of Mark against TT.
However, I could see Inner Reach issuing them against ships flagged to Outer Reach. Or PGC issuing a letter of Mark against Streel during the Lacos War - Zebs says dozens of ships destroyed in space at Dixon's Star. Perhaps might see a letter of Mark issued for something less dramatic than destruction or capture of a vessel but search and seizure of persons or contraband. Finally it might be that a colony or mega corp issues a letter of Mark empowering a private warship and crew to operate as the militia force for a system. No doubt something similar is in place to cover pirate vessels acting on behalf of Outer Reach. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 13, 2016 - 4:19pm | This is where pirate movies and how the letters of marque actually worked comes in. Pirates would try to take a ship through intimidation first with their flag hoping the merchant would just give up and hand over the cargo in hopes they would be let free. In using a letter of marque the holder would need to board the ship and search the cargo and the cargo manifest and owner ship papers to verify who actually owned the cargo. The merchant might be flagged as a ship of the country the letter of marque was issued against but if the cargo is from a neutral nation then it could not be taken. If all this sounds similar to the first part of Warriors of the White Light then you have the situation pretty well written out. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 13, 2016 - 9:37pm | Easy to see why some holders of letters of mark turned pirate. The simply cried FIDO. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
