Confed destruction of Kilrathi carriers/carrier production in 2667

[Dundradal]

While writing the First Battle of Kilrah I spent quite a bit of time with ER and FA. It's interesting what we learn about Kilrathi carrier production from these two books.

The Kilrathi have 18 standard carrier construction slips in 2666. By either late 2667 or early 2668 they have 5 slips remaining. 6 are destroyed by the Tarawa and 7 others are destroyed by means Tolwyn doesn't reveal when speaking to everyone at Winward.

For active carrier losses, 5 are destroyed at Vukar Tag, 2 are crippled for a year, the CVEs TCS Enigma and Khorsan destroy 3 carriers still fitting out in the Za'kathag region. That's 8 carriers destroyed and 2 crippled.

The Home Fleet had 3 carriers left (the 3 Thrakhath has during the Battle of Kilrah) and we can surmise 5 standard carriers coming online from those slips at some point. There are of course the 12 slips being used to construct the Hakagas as well.

Before the defense of Sol in 2668 Tolwyn notes "Don't forget that the Kilrathi had a minimum of nineteen other standard carriers and at least twenty heavy cruisers that carried thirty fighters each. That comes to over three thousand seven hundred additional strike craft."

Confed success in 2667 is, well, amazing. When you consider the Kilrathi position with all the information, the armistice really makes sense considering how bad things had gone that one year. With many of those standard carriers needing long overdue overhauls the Kilrathi really were in a corner.

It also puts the change in atmosphere from WC2 to WC3 in a much better perspective.

 

[Wedge009]

Perhaps, but I still think it was cheap of the Kilrathi to do such a thing. A stain on their so-called blood honour!

From a purely pragmatic point of view, however, it's amazing that they turned near-defeat to near-victory in the space of a year, given that - from what I understand of the war before WC2 - the Confederation and the Kilrathi were practically at a stalemate. Neither side gained a real advantage until End Run...

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Perhaps, but I still think it was cheap of the Kilrathi to do such a thing. A stain on their so-called blood honour!

From a purely pragmatic point of view, however, it's amazing that they turned near-defeat to near-victory in the space of a year, given that - from what I understand of the war before WC2 - the Confederation and the Kilrathi were practically at a stalemate. Neither side gained a real advantage until End Run...

What part of the timeline are you referring to here with the one year reference, Wedge? Was that the armistice and the subsequent Temblor bomb attack?

 

[Wedge009]

Sorry, I should have made that clearer. By 'they', I meant the Kilrathi. They turned near-defeat - the situation that Dund outlined in his initial post - into near-victory, after lulling the Confederation into a false peace and then smashing them with their Hakagas. So 2668 to 2669.

 

[Dundradal]

Perhaps, but I still think it was cheap of the Kilrathi to do such a thing. A stain on their so-called blood honour!

From a purely pragmatic point of view, however, it's amazing that they turned near-defeat to near-victory in the space of a year, given that - from what I understand of the war before WC2 - the Confederation and the Kilrathi were practically at a stalemate. Neither side gained a real advantage until End Run...

Damn Jukaga and his "alien ideas!"

Confed was on the ropes prior to ER. 9 carriers lost, 1 (Austerlitz) heavily damaged with only 7 (I think? need to double check) carriers remaining. 4 are used at Vukar while the others were raiding near the Enigma Sector.

What's interesting is in 2665 they are basically at a stalemate. In 2666, Confed is on the ropes. In 2667, it's now the Kilrathi who stand at the edge....then we get 2668.

A very interesting 2 year period....

 

[Wedge009]

Damn Jukaga and his "alien ideas!"

He had an advantage of understand the Human psyche better than most Kilrathi.

Confed was on the ropes prior to ER...

Yeah, I saw that while reviewing your article. Well, I suppose this could have been written in End Run for dramatic tension. WC2 seemed largely positive in terms of Confederation progress, despite the losses off-screen and the eventual retreat from Deneb.

What's interesting is in 2665 they are basically at a stalemate.

That's sort of what I meant. In the periods before the novels taking place between WC2 and WC3, not much seems to be happening in terms of war progress.