Do Confed transports carry commercial cargo?

Does Confed ship commercial cargo with its transports?

  • Yes

    Votes: 19 63.3%
  • No

    Votes: 11 36.7%

  • Total voters
    30

CamW

Spaceman
There are numerous cargo containers on Confed cargo transports. Confed ships huge amounts of who knows what interstellarly. So my question is this: does Confed ship commercial cargo on their transports or no, it's only military cargo?

BTW this is for an animated movie project I'm doing. :)
 
they may carry some non-military stuff but im sure that military ships would be carying anything ment for sale on an open market (besides possibly weapons destined for a confed ally)
 
I wouldn't figure they do. After all, that's what the Merchant's guild and Privateers are for. Not to mention, in Priv 2 they have cargo ships for hire for that purpose alone. I'd assume that private business is shipped by the private investors.
 
Hrm, true true. All good points fellas. But why the hell does Confed have so many transports that ship HUGE amounts of cargo everywhere?

We see more transport vessels for Confed than warships!

During WWII, convoys of merchant ships were used to transport all sorts of goods to the Allies across the Atlantic. We do not have convoys now but in WC Privateer, civilian cargo trafic is plentiful but the chances of encountering a cargo ship big enough to house enough cargo for interstellar travelling such as the Drayman is minimal. Most merchants and privateers I figured had small cargo ships, nothing nearly the size of a Pelican transport ship.
 
Well, we did see in Fleet Action just how important that huge fleet of transports is for a war effort. Without them, the frontline ships will very quickly run of out missiles, decoys, afterburner fuel, food, even stuff like water and air.

Best, Raptor
 
Its not just the frontline ships that need constant supply. The factories and shipyards need to be constantly supplied to produce the war materials needed to fight the war. That means there are probably dozens of merchant ships for every war ship.
 
But after the war, Confed's transports only seemed to get larger. What's Confed shipping if their power isn't at their full wartime height?
 
Pelicans are, apparently mass-market transports: we see the military use them for military matters, we see civilians own them (particularly in SO) and the Kilrathi apparently have a lend-lease agreement that lets them use Pelicans...
 
In the present day US military, transports are flying constantly. These transports carry only cargo that has to do with military operations. Not just wars and stuff, but also humanitarian aid if the military is involved in that type of op. I would assume that that is the case in the future as well.

And with respect to the games, i believe there were no major battles that any of the carriers that Blair is on, was involved in. This would explain the lack of offensive escorts ships that you would encounter while playing.
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Yeah, we saw humanitarian transports delivering supplies to the Taliban in Prophecy.

No, really.

Well, they attempted to deliver supplies. Fortunately, those stalwart defenders of freedom known as the Nephilim took the convoy out before the cargo ships reached their destination.

:p
 
Okay I guess I'm thinking about this the wrong way. In my video, the Pelicans will have an escort of Excaliburs. In order to have military escort they'd probably be military operated and have military cargo, correct?
 
Well, the Confederation often has fighters escort civilian freighters and transports, too. Don't you remember those wonderful escort missions from the earlier games?
 
Originally posted by CamW
Okay I guess I'm thinking about this the wrong way. In my video, the Pelicans will have an escort of Excaliburs. In order to have military escort they'd probably be military operated and have military cargo, correct?

Not necessarily. Although the transports of WW2 involved in the convoy system were often carrying military cargo, they were civilian owned and crewed.

For a more WC-oriented example, the Amadeus was a civilian transport being escorted by Confed fighters, at the beginning of WC4. Likewise, the transports that we (as Bluehair/Blair) had to save throughout pretty much all of the games were civvie ships, not carrying military cargoes.
 
Originally posted by Death


Not necessarily. Although the transports of WW2 involved in the convoy system were often carrying military cargo, they were civilian owned and crewed.

For a more WC-oriented example, the Amadeus was a civilian transport being escorted by Confed fighters, at the beginning of WC4. Likewise, the transports that we (as Bluehair/Blair) had to save throughout pretty much all of the games were civvie ships, not carrying military cargoes.
Yup. Civilians are going to have reasons why they need to haul civilian freight through a warzone (anything ranging from bringing necessities in to a civilian population to a morale boosting celebrity visit to evacuating civilian casualties), and if there's the slightest possibility that they might get shot at, they're going to want military protection. And if they don't get that protection, and they get shot at, then they (or their next of kin if they don't survive) are going to complain to their local media and/or governmental representatives, who are both able to apply their own forms of pressure to the military.
And then there's also the fact that many times the stuff contained within these transports is vital to the war effort in one form or another, making it in the military's best interest to protect them. The military will probably save its own transports for the important stuff (like priority items and military equipment), and hire civilians to haul the rest.

What I think would be of particular interest (and something we never get to see - partially due to computer constraints, no doubt) would be a convoy of the size one might have encountered during WW1 or 2. A couple dozen cargo ships (at least) being covered by a light carrier and a couple of squadrons of corvettes and capital ships. But from what we've seen (precedent probably set, once again, by processing constraints) the WC universe doesn't run convoys of that size.
Yet.
 
a convoy of that size would be too big of a target and it would be nearly impossible to hide its existance or route because of the scale. smaller convoys probably have a better chance of sneaking past.
 
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