Battlecruisers vs. Fighters

[Blaster]

Apparently battlecruisers were a very important part of the war against the Nephilim, both the Confederation and the Kilrathi decided they needed giant squadrons of them. Fighters obviously still had a large role to play, both the Midway and the Port Broughton had many wartime achievements and each battlecruiser carries more than two thirds as many fighters as the Tiger’s Claw, but I was wondering if the emphases on battlecruisers meant that fighters were a little less important in the Nephilim war than the Kilrathi war.

 

[GreyViper]

Well considering most nephilm cap ships leaned twoward capital ship engagements, it makes sense. That is if the carriers traveled alone like we saw them do in most WC games WC3 being execption there you had a illusion that you had destroyer escort. Id conclude that what we saw in Phrophecy and SO didnt give the real picture of the threath that the ALigned represented.

 

[Chernikov]

I'd imagine it has something to do with battlecruisers being much better at protecting themselves against the hordes of fighters filtering around/through the CAP.

 

[Vinman]

Well considering most nephilm cap ships leaned twoward capital ship engagements, it makes sense. That is if the carriers traveled alone like we saw them do in most WC games WC3 being execption there you had a illusion that you had destroyer escort. Id conclude that what we saw in Phrophecy and SO didnt give the real picture of the threath that the ALigned represented.

Concordia had the destroyer William Tell, didn't it?

 

[ChrisReid]

Apparently battlecruisers were a very important part of the war against the Nephilim, both the Confederation and the Kilrathi decided they needed giant squadrons of them. Fighters obviously still had a large role to play, both the Midway and the Port Broughton had many wartime achievements and each battlecruiser carries more than two thirds as many fighters as the Tiger’s Claw, but I was wondering if the emphases on battlecruisers meant that fighters were a little less important in the Nephilim war than the Kilrathi war.

With the number of battlecruisers built and the number of fighters that each could carry, there's a case that fighters were even more important in the Nephilim war. But there must have been diferences as well, and massive quick-strike capship assaults were clearly a major part too. What if Nephilim carriers could grow replacement fighters? That could have placed a higher priority on taking them out quickly instead of letting fighter wings just do their thing. That doesn't mean you don't use bombers to smash enemy carriers, but maybe you're more likely to throw bombers AND battlecruisers together in concert to make doubly sure you eliminate that threat before it multiplies.

 

[Mincemeat]

This is interesting from a numerical point of view.

The Nephilim war involved massive squadrons of battlecruisers, each ship containing a larger fighter complement than the Tiger's Claw.

How would the Confederation and Kilrathi armed forces manage to geometrically scale up their number of personnel to operate these armadas?

Have both the Human and Kilrathi races somehow had a prolonged baby boom and expansion?

Although there is no mention of such, I wonder about the possibility of the use of AI and drones to pad out the necessary numbers to survive the Nephilim...

 

[Nomad Terror]

I don't know, but Prophecy and Secret Ops really gave me the impression that Confed was really out of the post-war depression of Wing Commander 4 and was really on the upswing, economically speaking at least. With as many Confed colonies as there are, I don't think there would have been a problem rounding up a few hundred billion, if not trillion, personnel for the war. Plus, Confed seemed to be more resourceful than the Nephilim. Just look how much the Midway and Cerberus individually accomplished in the Nephilim campaign.

 

[Blaster]

With the number of battlecruisers built and the number of fighters that each could carry, there's a case that fighters were even more important in the Nephilim war.

That’s certainly a possibility. Star Soldier gives lots of answers about what happened after prophecy and secret Ops but I think I raises even more questions, which is a good thing.

If it wasn’t for those big guns the battlecruisers would probably be considered carriers. I remember hearing somewhere that a carrier takes five years to build. If that was true than it looks like confed either had a huge number of shipyards or developed faster ways to build big fighter carrying ships.

 

[Haesslich]

With the number of battlecruisers built and the number of fighters that each could carry, there's a case that fighters were even more important in the Nephilim war. But there must have been diferences as well, and massive quick-strike capship assaults were clearly a major part too. What if Nephilim carriers could grow replacement fighters? That could have placed a higher priority on taking them out quickly instead of letting fighter wings just do their thing. That doesn't mean you don't use bombers to smash enemy carriers, but maybe you're more likely to throw bombers AND battlecruisers together in concert to make doubly sure you eliminate that threat before it multiplies.

Would some of this idea behind the deployment of heavy capital ships in combination with fighter wings have its roots in the events and missions of WC:SO? The TCS Cerberus seemed to be an interim 'step' in the shift from the Kilrathi War-era 'fighter wing' based battles with fleet actions involving smaller capships fighting one another to the emphasis on battlecruisers to do heavy pounding of the superheavy Nephilim craft which could kill whole old War-era style carrier groups with their Kraken and Tiamat-based ship-killers. Certainly, the way some of our WC:SO missions suggests that this line of tactical thought may have derived from a study of the way the early actions against the Nephilim went, which were probably a taste of what was to come after the capture of the wormhole.

 

[ChrisReid]

each battlecruiser carries more than two thirds as many fighters as the Tiger’s Claw

The Nephilim war involved massive squadrons of battlecruisers, each ship containing a larger fighter complement than the Tiger's Claw.

Careful there. Smaller, not larger.

How would the Confederation and Kilrathi armed forces manage to geometrically scale up their number of personnel to operate these armadas?

With thousands of recommissioned Kilrathi War-era fighters potentially. Both wars always had thousands of capships, it's just the carriers that were rare - and not necessarily ships that carried fighters. Many of the thousands of destroyers and cruisers in the last war did carry modest fighter wings.

Although there is no mention of such, I wonder about the possibility of the use of AI and drones to pad out the necessary numbers to survive the Nephilim...

If it wasn’t for those big guns the battlecruisers would probably be considered carriers. I remember hearing somewhere that a carrier takes five years to build. If that was true than it looks like confed either had a huge number of shipyards or developed faster ways to build big fighter carrying ships.

And in fact they did. In addition to their size and power, the Vesuvius and St. Helens were also remarkable because they were built quickly and without shipyards by using special mobile foundry ships.

 

[Ijuin]

Would some of this idea behind the deployment of heavy capital ships in combination with fighter wings have its roots in the events and missions of WC:SO? The TCS Cerberus seemed to be an interim 'step' in the shift from the Kilrathi War-era 'fighter wing' based battles with fleet actions involving smaller capships fighting one another to the emphasis on battlecruisers to do heavy pounding of the superheavy Nephilim craft which could kill whole old War-era style carrier groups with their Kraken and Tiamat-based ship-killers. Certainly, the way some of our WC:SO missions suggests that this line of tactical thought may have derived from a study of the way the early actions against the Nephilim went, which were probably a taste of what was to come after the capture of the wormhole.

Leading from this is the notion that tight formations of destroyers screening a carrier would be bad news, since a shipkiller could blow up the whole formation at once. On the other hand, three or four of these battlecruisers attacking together could spread out and continue to attack even if one is destroyed.