Concordia FAQ

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Okay, people, there's the Concordia FAQ you requested... lets add stuff/fix stuff/etc., and then I'll stick it in an article so we can go "READ THE FAQ!" whenever anybody asks about how many COncordias there are...

LOAF's Concordia Mini-FAQ

1. What does the word 'Concordia' mean, anyway?

The dictionary defines it as "haromy or agreement of interests or feelings" or as a "treaty establishing peaceful relations". It fits the apparent name scheme of WC2's 'Confederation class', as 'Confederation' refers to a similar union. Concordia is also a popular name given to religious schools, including a <A HREF="http://www.concordia.edu/">Concordia University</A> in Austin, Texas (home of Origin Systems, makers of Wing Commander).

2. How many ships in the Wing Commander Universe have been named Concordia?

Three.

3. What classes of ships were they and where do they appear?

The first TCS Concordia (historically) was the first ship of the Concordia class fleet carrier line of ships. It appears in the novel "Action Stations". Concordia #1 was comissioned in 2634 and was destroyed the same year.

The second TCS Concordia was the first ship of the Concordia class of supercruisers. It appears in the Wing Commander movie and in the novel "Pilgrim Stars". Concordia #2 was comissioned in 2648. The last mention of the Concordia SuperCruiser is a set of transfer orders in the Kilrathi Saga manual which are dated 2656. She was presumably decomissioned before 2661.

The third TCS Concordia was the second ship of the Confederation class of dreadnoughts. It appears in Wing Commander II, Wing Commander III and the novels End Run and Fleet Action. Concordia #3 was comissioned in 2661 and destroyed in 2669. Her designation is CVS-65.

4. Can you provide the technical specifications for the three Concordias?

Concordia #1
Length: 800 meters
Max. Speed: 120 kps
Cru. Speed: 50 kps
Acceleration: 10 k/s^2
Max. Y/P/R: 5/5/5 dps
Weapons-
Dual Laser Batteries (11)
Fighters: 96
Fore Shield: 800 cm
Aft Shield: 800 cm
Fore Armor: 300 cm
Aft Armor: 300 cm
Right/Left Armor: 300 cm
"Core" Armor: 6,000 cm
Fighters: 96

Concordia #2
Length: 855 meters
Mass: 73,000 tonnes
Max. Speed: 100 kps
Cru. Speed: 50 kps
Weapons-
Point Defense Laser Turrets (30)
Anti-Matter Guns (4)
Torpedo Tubes (50)
Fore Shield: Meson
Aft Shield: Meson
Fore Armor: 35 cm
Aft Armor: 35 cm
Right/Left Armor: 30 cm
Fighters: 20

Concordia #3 (CVS-65)
Length: 983.7 meters
Mass: 73,000 tonnes
Max. Speed: 100 kps
Cru. Speed: 50 kps
Acceleration: "Bad"
Max. Y/P/R: 1/1/1 dps
Weapons-
Flak Cannons (3)
Anti-Matter Guns (8)
Phase Transit Cannon (1)
Fore Shield: Phase
Aft Shield: Phase
Fore Armor: 500 cm
Rear Armor: 500 cm
Right/Left Armor: 400 cm
Fighters: 120

5. How many anti-matter guns does Concordia #3 really have?

There is some confusion about this, as Wing Commander 2 internally simulates only seven guns -- whereas Joan's Fighting Ships lists eight. The proper number should be eight, as she lacks guns 'in-game' for purely technical reasons.

6. Why don't we see more Confederation class dreadnaughts? They're super-cool!

According to the Kilrathi Saga manual production of the Confederation class ceased in 2665 when a design flaw in the Phase Transit Cannon was discovered. This is also why Angel doesn't want Tolwyn to fire the 'main gun' in Secret Ops 2 (2667) -- it might destroy the Concordia.

7. Why does Blair comment that the deck of the Lexington is similar to that of his Concordia (#3)?

Although they are different classes (the Lexington is a Concordia class fleet carrier, Concordia #3 was a Confederation class dreadnaught) they simply have similar deck layouts -- simple as that. The 'real' reason for the comment was that WCIV's script simply identifies Lexington as 'Concordia class'. The author of the novel assumed this meant it was the same class as the Concordia from WC2 and the other novels.

8. The WCIV novel refers to Concordia class as having two bays -- WCIV shows only one. What's up?

"Bays" refers to the areas to each side of the ship wherefighters are prepped and repaired -- hence the 'Black Lance' controlled bay is completely cut off from the normal bay. Concordia class ships also have two catapults (one for each bay).

9. Is the Victory in WC3 a Concordia class carrier? It looks exactly the same!

The 3D model is the same, but the Victory is not a Concordia class ship. The Victory is much smaller and carries less fighters. Both ships are of the same pre-war era, and so share similar designs. The Victory is a Yorktown class light carrier.

10. I heard that the Concordia-class fleet carrier and the Confederation-class dreadnaught are really the same, minus the Phase Transit Cannon. Is that true?

No. That was an elaborate and confusing pre-Action Stations theory to explain the similarities between the Concordia and the Lexington's deck plans in the WCIV novel. The revalation that WCIV's "Concordia class fleet carriers" are far older than the Confederation class changed all this (it was a dumb theory, anyway -- Concordia and Confederation class ships look nothing alike, and we're told in Joan's Fighting Ships that the Confederation class is built around the PTC).

54. If any Concordia got in a fight with every other Sci Fi universe, who would win?

The Concordia. And it's printed in a FAQ, SpaceBattles jerks, so it HAS TO BE TRUE!
 
"What battles did the 3 differnt ships take part in"... this would be all the documented ones... like Battle of Terra, Vukar Tag, Rescue of Tarawa... the big ones... ones that had a lot of "Boom boom" hehe.
 
Who captained the TCS Concordia from WC2 after Admiral Tolwyn left (I'm assuming he left the carrier to oversee the final stages of the Behemoth prior to WC3)?
 
Can you provide some history behind the Phase Transit Cannon?

In 2654 the Kilrathi tested their prototype Proton Accelerator Gun (aka 'Graviton Weapon') on Warhammer XII. The weapon fires a special explosive burst (which appears similar to a Particle Cannon blast) at a target. The explosion is followed by a 137 fold increase in gravity, which completely eliminates a target. The weapon went on to form the centerline armament of the Kilrathi Sivar dreadnaught, and was field-tested with the complete destruction of Goddard Colony. The Kilrathi weapon had a single operational drawback: it took several minutes to lock and fire -- it could not effectively be used against starships. For several months between 2654 and 2655 the Confederation's Task Force Delta took part in Operation Thor's Hammer: the pursuit and destruction of the KIS Sivar. The wreckage of the Sivar was returned to human space, where it was studied by Confederation scientists. The Concordia's Phase Transit Cannon is the resulf of these studies: a Proton Accelerator Gun which trades damage potential for speed... although it cannot destroy a colony like its forerunner, it can effectively target and destroy enemy capital ships in a single blast.
 
same?

Lexington and Concordia the same? No way, the Concordia was considerably more heavily armed and also the Concordia had two landing bays, THEY DONT EVEN LOOK ALIKE!
 
Um, Corsair, TCS Concordia from Action Stations (Concordia #1, in LOAF's list at the top of this thread), not the WC2 dreadnaught that served as our home (Concordia #3).
 
Thing that might best be added:
Why does Joan's silhouette describe Concordia as "Concordia-class"? (At least this was the case in my WC2 manual. Might be part of the reason for the WCIV confusion.)

And-
Mention of the fact that they first tried to cram in the WCII model into WCIV when doing prelim stuff?
 
Yeah Corsair. The original TCS Concordia (CV-1) was the first of the Concordia class, the same ship the TCS Lexington (CV-44) was in WC4.
 
Why does Joan's silhouette describe Concordia as "Concordia-class"? (At least this was the case in my WC2 manual. Might be part of the reason for the WCIV confusion.)
Click to expand...

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure what you mean. All the copies of Joan's that I have (stand alone, red, blue and Kilrathi Saga) treat the Concordia like the Tiger's Claw in Claw Marks - with 'Concordia' as the header, but "Confederation" listed in the class column.

Mention of the fact that they first tried to cram in the WCII model into WCIV when doing prelim stuff?
Click to expand...

The extent to which this is true has been significantly exaggerated recently. It was something they talked about early in the design process - not a last minute switch like a lot of retellings seem to imply. I'm rather unhappy about the fact that passing this along as an interesting fact in the first place has lead to mods deciding that it's a mandate to play around with the carrier designs.
 
Concordia is a region in the Himalaya somewhere near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A region at about 18-20,000 feet where two huge glaciers meet. In this area 5 of the worlds highest peaks can be found including K2

stick that in your pipe and smoke it
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Hmm... I'm not entirely sure what you mean. All the copies of Joan's that I have (stand alone, red, blue and Kilrathi Saga) treat the Concordia like the Tiger's Claw in Claw Marks - with 'Concordia' as the header, but "Confederation" listed in the class column.
Click to expand...

Hmm, alright.

The Joan's I had at hand had a silhouette described as "Concordia-class" with CVS-65 as the design outline, but then the weaponry description having the PTC attributed to the Confederation-class Dreadnought.

It's an odd situation, I'm not sure if it's simply an oversight or something of a typo in a certain run of manuals. It's been something like 10 years since that time so I'll be honest in saying my memory isn't perfect.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Can you provide some history behind the Phase Transit Cannon?

In 2654 the Kilrathi tested their prototype Proton Accelerator Gun (aka 'Graviton Weapon') on Warhammer XII. The weapon fires a special explosive burst (which appears similar to a Particle Cannon blast) at a target. The explosion is followed by a 137 fold increase in gravity, which completely eliminates a target. The weapon went on to form the centerline armament of the Kilrathi Sivar dreadnaught, and was field-tested with the complete destruction of Goddard Colony. The Kilrathi weapon had a single operational drawback: it took several minutes to lock and fire -- it could not effectively be used against starships. For several months between 2654 and 2655 the Confederation's Task Force Delta took part in Operation Thor's Hammer: the pursuit and destruction of the KIS Sivar. The wreckage of the Sivar was returned to human space, where it was studied by Confederation scientists. The Concordia's Phase Transit Cannon is the resulf of these studies: a Proton Accelerator Gun which trades damage potential for speed... although it cannot destroy a colony like its forerunner, it can effectively target and destroy enemy capital ships in a single blast.
Click to expand...


Would a shot from the PTC take out one of the Kilrathi superdreadnaughts seen in WC3?
 
Since the Confederation class was built around the Kilrathi technology discovered from the Sivar in SM, is it possible that at least one was still in service at the very end of the war? The Ranger class that the Victory was is even older than that and those are still around. Also, is the docking bay on the Confederation class linked? I.e. a pilot lands through one launch pad and can see a pilot who had landed through the other landed pad.
 
Based on the charts TC and I developed, only six would have been built in all - and none of those could have survived the war.

The two runways open into a single larger bay in WC2.
 
Yeah, it's pretty impossible for any of them to have been operating by the end of the war with the information we have. Because the lack of carriers was so integral to the storyline between WC2 and the end of the war, the novels repeatedly list the number of carriers that happen to exist at the time. Since there are only a few, they all tend to get mentioned by name, especially since giant battles are the focal points of the books.

A dreadnaught isn't something you'd forget to mention in situations like that.
 
Considering how big confed was, the numbers we have on the books and games and etc are sooo small.
 
We have evidence that less complex ships like destroyers and whatnot were built by the thousands - at that the balance of the war was largely maintained by destroyer and cruiser squadrons. We just see the glamorous carrier service in the games...

(It stems largely from the fact that Confed had a battleship focused fleet at the outset of the war - so they had to play catch up with regards to carrier production while fighting a full scale war...)
 
Edfilho said:
Considering how big confed was, the numbers we have on the books and games and etc are sooo small.
Click to expand...

LOAF's already covered this, but it does bear repeating - Confed was in a 'peacetime' state during the start of the war, as evidenced by statements in End Run as well as Action Stations, and they were still battleship-focused at the start of the war. I believe they quoted "ten years to build a shipyard and to train the crews, then five more years to get the first carrier out", which hasn't left them ALL that much time to build new carrier yards. We know there are some present - Trojan IV yards around Jupiter being but one such base. However, given the time it takes to build a carrier (anywhere between 3-5 years), the numbers have been remarkably consistent, as far as the size of the Carrier fleet goes, at least until the last three or so years of the Kilrathi War.
 
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