Babylon 5 A Fighting Chance --- A Babylon 5 AU

[Harlock]

Exactly what I did 20 years ago Bought every piece of canon I could find so that when I wrote something it would be authoritative, last thing I wanted was someone showing up with a small fact which sunk my entire plot

Good luck with your efforts

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Exactly what I did 20 years ago Bought every piece of canon I could find so that when I wrote something it would be authoritative, last thing I wanted was someone showing up with a small fact which sunk my entire plot

Good luck with your efforts

That's what I always enjoyed about you and Ash and why I really couldn't stomach A Thin Veneer towards the end.

Too many fanfiction writers have no clue about the setting they write in and they tend to put fan theories and fandom beefs over internal consistency.

You kinda can't do that. You can take a huge departure from the surface stuff but the core of the story, it's spirit and morals need to remain consistent.

And if you aren't deviating then you need to keep the details within reason.


You guys and a lot of that gen of fic writers did that.

Not many else did.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Exactly what I did 20 years ago Bought every piece of canon I could find so that when I wrote something it would be authoritative, last thing I wanted was someone showing up with a small fact which sunk my entire plot

Good luck with your efforts

Well, the sad thing is that I don't have the money and finding the material is stupid hard.

So, if you have the race/faction books in PDF format, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Harlock]

Well, the sad thing is that I don't have the money and finding the material is stupid hard.

So, if you have the race/faction books in PDF format, I would greatly appreciate it.

sadly not, as far as I can tell no PDF of B5 Wars exists. The books I think sort of predate the take off of e-books and the such.
It cost me about £150- 200 to buy them all on ebay 20 years ago, but that's because I'm in England and I don't think they were ever released here. You may have better luck, and you don't need all of them at once. Just ones relevant to your interests

That's what I always enjoyed about you and Ash and why I really couldn't stomach A Thin Veneer towards the end.

Too many fanfiction writers have no clue about the setting they write in and they tend to put fan theories and fandom beefs over internal consistency.

You kinda can't do that. You can take a huge departure from the surface stuff but the core of the story, it's spirit and morals need to remain consistent.

And if you aren't deviating then you need to keep the details within reason.


You guys and a lot of that gen of fic writers did that.

Not many else did.

Appreciated. It sort of relates to Aaron's position, I knew most fans would not be able to buy these lore books or learn about this important backstory to B5, so a very big part of my motivation was to put it into a format interested parties could read.
So to do that it has to be as close to the real thing as possible, I grew up with those epic war films and that is what I wanted to make, a story but one that is historically accurate in the setting. Hopefully that way a reader would know the full canon history of the show and only need to spend time
It isn't perfect in the technical aspect, grammar spelling etc but I was rather young and rushed However from a lore point of view its pretty damn close to definitive and I'm happy with that.

That's just a long way of saying I'm a perfectionist and if I set to do something its going to be the best in its niche. Probably also why I have only finished about 5 fics If it slips I probably won't finish it because you are judged by your works and I don't want anything substandard

I've said to Spartan and Ash before that I think we caught a golden age of net fiction, after it became accessible but before it got utterly buried in shite. Writers respected the material and wanted to create, not trash or go for the squee factor. Now it is too much popularity and wish fulfilment, not the craft. Anyone can write 400 word chapters of an SI getting an anime girl harem, its annoying to be in that same medium
I think a lot of us had a bigger reason for writing, for me it was practice, it was sharing lore with fellow fans, and it was to see if I could. But because I did I ran out of challenges and haven't had nearly the same motivation since. I have no more worlds to conquer.

But you are perfectly correct, that is what separates writers. That you know and understand this is a damn good sign for your own efforts

 

[Aaron Fox]

sadly not, as far as I can tell no PDF of B5 Wars exists. The books I think sort of predate the take off of e-books and the such.
It cost me about £150- 200 to buy them all on ebay 20 years ago, but that's because I'm in England and I don't think they were ever released here. You may have better luck, and you don't need all of them at once. Just ones relevant to your interests

I mean I've got all the spaceship datasheets and the B5Wars Kitchen Sink Edition rulebook, the real problem is getting my hands on the faction/race books and their ground forces. Annoying as that is.

Finding them cheap is impossible with my current searches. One of the cheapest I found was over $100USD to buy. For a physical copy... of the worst version (Traveller B5Wars).

Seriously, though, from what I've heard, LightningCount at SB has PDF copies... or at least copies he can PDFify...

 

[Seawolf]

Seriously, though, from what I've heard, LightningCount at SB has PDF copies... or at least copies he can PDFify..

I am fairly sure that LightningCount is the same guy as Harlock here.

Mostly because he posted The Dilgar War fanfic on SB...

 

[Aaron Fox]

I am fairly sure that LightningCount is the same guy as Harlock here.

Mostly because he posted The Dilgar War fanfic on SB...

... it's a pain to keep track of who's who in the SB 'family' of forums... so if Harlock is LightningCount, then I might have to hire him as a consultant because I'm only getting something like ~250USD per two weeks right now... and I just got done paying off a major medical bill.

 

[Harlock]

Yeah if you have questions that is fine, costs me nothing to go look something up

 

[Wilykit]

I put up a list of League races and their technology back on pg 22(minus a few I couldn't find at the time like the Yolu and Iksha, or the Drazi which weren't relevant to why I made the list), here's the Brakiri section.

Spoiler: Brakiri

Spoiler: Weapons Descriptions

Brakiri weapons are generally based around the application of gravitational force or ballistics, with very little highenergy application other than gravitics. They can appreciate the uses of laser technology, but the Brakiri believe gravity based weapons are superior to any other. This belief has some truth to it, but the Brakiri’s blind adherence to this policy has in some ways stunted their military research. It may take the advent of a superior weapon used against them in battle to get them out of their ‘gravity rut’.

This event may have already occurred, though it will be some time before the laboratories of Im-Rehsa turn out any visible benefits from their research. The experience gained by the Brakiri during the Shadow War showed them the molecular cutter was a vastly superior weapon to their own. While they were able to compare their gravitic cannons favourably with the other weapons of the League, the beams of the Shadow fleet were undeniably better than anything the Brakiri had ever seen.

Brakiri Pulser: An extension of gravitic technology considered to be a dead end by the Brakiri because of its very low damage per pulse ratio, the pulser is a gravity handgun that generates fast moving waves of gravity. While it features a high energy capacity and can project its attack farther than many gravitic weapons, the Brakiri seldom carry these themselves because of their limited stopping power.

Gravitic Pistol: The smallest reliable gravity weapon the Brakiri make, this handgun fires a pulse of gravitic energy with enough force to punch a hole through a stone wall. When carried aboard a starship, Brakiri law dictates that a selector switch be used on the gun to limit its damage to 1d6 and its critical multiplier to x2; this switch is standard on all Brakiri-made gravitic pistols and is included at the listed price.

Grav-Cannon: A very powerful version of the gravitic pistol, the gravitic cannon is a bulky but not unwieldy rifle with better range and an even stronger impact. Grav-Cannons do not have a standard limiter switch, but one can be added that will reduce the weapons damage to 1d10 and pose no threat to a ship’s hull integrity for an additional 100 credits.

Grav-Grenade: An ingenious use of gravitic technology, this device is a small gravity generator that, on impact, generates a potent field of energy.

Heavy Gravitic Gun: A high energy weapon that generates a wall-shattering pulse of gravity on a tactical level, the heavy gravitic gun is a field weapon used by the military and is rarely, if ever, seen in the hands of a civilian. Highly illegal and rarely sold outside of arms purchases between galactic powers, the HGG has been known to find its way into the arsenals of raiders and other criminals (though the Brakiri government categorically denies any knowledge of such sales).

Wakat Rocket: The deadly outcome of a research line by the Wakat half of Pri-Wakat, the Wakat Rocket (a name that always seems to amuse human purchasers for some reason) is a disposable short rifle weapon that can be wielded in one hand without penalty. Shaped much like a shotgun, the Wakat Rocket holds two primed, short range unguided missiles. Extremely illegal, the mere sight of a Wakat Rocket tends to make Brakiri more compliant with the suggestions of the wielder

Spoiler: General Equipment Descriptions

Unlike the Abbai, the Brakiri surround themselves with material possessions. Instant meal generators, timepieces, small computerised devices, personal conveyances and a hundred inventions intended to save time are the norms of a given Brakiri’s existence. While some Brakiri prefer a Spartan lifestyle in an effort to avoid distractions, most would be lost if they had to go more than a few hours without their gadgets and ‘conveniences’.

Brakiri Keeper: A ubiquitous device carried by virtually every Brakiri in the galaxy over the age of 10, a Keeper is a multi-device with a small readout screen, a slot for a reduced-size data crystal with half normal capacity, a clock feature, a communicator capable of broadcasting over a planetary or shipboard network and a complicated set of scheduling and mail service features. Taking a Brakiri’s keeper and breaking it in front of him is considered a base insult and is grounds for legal assault in the Syndicracy.

Food Mate: A food preparation device that takes compressed ration tubes (sold separately for 3 credits per meal, more for higher end models) and turns them into palatable, if not entirely enjoyable, meals. Many Brakiri keep one of these handy even when they travel as they often find the food of other races bland or distasteful. More expensive food mates exist that can actually generate high quality meals, but regardless of the grade of food mate, they all take approximately five minutes from start to finish. It is a sign of Brakiri impatience and love for efficiency that many alarm clocks in the Syndicracy send an automatic signal to a slaved food mate nearby to begin operation.

G-Board: A favourite pastime of Brakiri children and considered suicidal by most adults of any race, the G-board is a two foot wide, three foot long platform of metal and textured synthetic latex with a pair of gravity generators on its underside. Operated by a hand stick or through foot pads (if one is an expert user), a G-board grants a base land speed of 60 feet per round.

Laundry Cube: An example of Brakiri conveniences, the laundry cube is a metal cube with a top loading door and a vibrating inner drum connected to a phased gravity generator. These devices do not generate very powerful fields; they are just powerful enough to shake normal soil and stains from articles of clothing, just as they were designed to do. Laundry cubes require a power connection to work. Energy cell operated Laundry cubes do exist, but they cost 800 credits and include a single, rechargeable cell, good for ten items of clothing.

Palmcomp: A palmcomp is an executive tool with a full data crystal reader, a holographic display capable of making an image up to six inches in all dimensions and a military grade communicator all built into a stylish glove. Entering text data into a palmcomp is achieved by ‘typing’ in midair with the hand wearing it; this does not require a Computer Use roll, but the user must have at least one rank to be able to use a palmcomp at all. Executives and their assistants are the primary users of palmcomps, but many professionals have one available if they need solid, portable computing power.

Sustenance Patches: The Brakiri are so concerned with time and efficiency that some of them try to avoid the need for meal breaks altogether during the workday. While this is not entirely healthy, it is possible through the use of sustenance patches; dermal patches that secrete all the nutrition of a full meal over the course of an hour. Using sustenance patches for more than a week at a time is dangerous, but the exact effects (typically exhaustion, digestive trouble, body odour) are left to the Games Masters’ discretion.

Water Belt/Harness: Water is a very important part of any Brakiri’s life, more so because of their history of treasuring the substance and the efforts they have gone through as a people to obtain it. Many Brakiri abhor the thought of wasting any water at all; thus, the water belt and harness were invented. These devices are worn directly against the skin and cover major perspiration sites of the body. Sweat is absorbed into the belt or harness, reprocessed into clean
water and stored in small hip-mounted flasks. Using a water belt or harness increases the amount of time a wearer can go without water by 150% (half again the time they normally could).

Spoiler: Armor and Clothing Descriptions

Brakiri Battle Fatigues: The standard combat jumpsuit and jacket of the Brakiri military, these outfits are generally well-tailored and resemble the dress uniforms of other races’ martial forces. A Brakiri in battle fatigues typically also has a water harness, a 4 pack of sustenance patches and a palmcomp as part of his general kit, but these are purchased separately (typically at the expense of the soldier’s corporate sponsor).

Executive Armour: Executive armour is state of the art body armour built into executive level clothing. The base price listed is for bottom of the line, store shelf garments that only the lowest-level corporate executive would wear in public. More powerful businessmen purchase commensurately more expensive apparel that provides no greater physical protection but is quite effective against the pointed stares and sharp social commentary of their employees.

Gravitic Plate: Not quite as exotic as its name sounds, gravitic plate is heavy armour created by subjecting composite materials to incredible gravity stresses in order to render them nearly impervious to physical damage. The result is incredibly dense (and heavy) armour plates attached to a flexible suit of ballistic material. While the plates are almost invulnerable to harm, the suit and the wearer inside are not. This limits the suit’s effectiveness but still provides impressive protection. Gravitic plate is very rare, generally only available to heavy infantry battalions of the Pri-Wakat military.

Spoiler: Vehicles and Spacecraft

The Brakiri have not announced it to the rest of the galaxy and keep them mostly hidden on their own isolated worlds, but they have finally cracked the secret of gravitic technology in regards to vehicular design. They do not have many gravitic vehicles yet, but most high-powered executives have access to the few models that exist. The Brakiri are frantically trying to retrofit their existing automotive and aerospace designs, seeing gravitic propulsion as the only civilised way to run their transportation industries. How the Minbari will react to seeing what was once exclusive to their technical base in the hands of the Brakiri remains to be seen, but the Brakiri are fortunate the Warrior Caste no longer hold a majority in the Grey Council.


Brakir Nightrage
A luxury sport model ground car made by the only company sanctioned by the Syndicracy to use the name of honoured Brakir, the nomenclature always symbolises the top of the line from their factory showroom. The Brakir Nightrage is made to order and while it is incredibly expensive, it is also capable of gravitic motion and has all the amenities a Brakiri might expect in a vehicle: dashboard minder, quality food mate in the console and a superior augmented driving module that drives the user to pre-programmed locations.


Cargo Transport, Brakiri
While the typical cargo hauler of the Brakiri is neither the fastest nor the toughest in the galaxy, it does manage to make the most efficient use of space of any comparable vehicle. Designed to make the best use of its fuel and drive time, a Brakiri cargo transport can move a larger payload than any other and provides adequate protection and speed while doing so. Brakiri cargo drivers are accorded a fair amount of respect, as their job is one of the vital pipelines of their race’s economic structure.


Gravitic Transport
Only used by the Brakiri on their homeworld and corporate-controlled domain worlds, the gravitic transport is essentially just a cargo transport retrofitted with gravitic drives and reinforced to withstand the stress of its use. Gravitic transports are both fast and efficient, two things the Brakiri adore in their labour force. While the Brakiri currently hide their gravitic technologies, these vehicles are becoming more common in their cities and it is only a matter of time before they start using them throughout the entire Syndicracy.

Spoiler: Military Vehicle Descriptions

The Brakiri do not have a very complicated array of military vehicles, only needing a few to handle all of their common engagement types. These are updated every 50 years or so with new models, but they traditionally keep the same vehicle names unless a major update has occurred. This is the case with the latest generation of vehicles; they have been renamed to signify the inclusion of gravitic drives and superior engine performance. With gravitic weaponry now standard on its military vehicles, the Brakiri field some of the most potent infantry assets short of the Minbari Federation.


Groundstrike Transport/Tank
Not wishing to put too much money into their ground vehicles, the Brakiri have for better or worse combined the concepts of battlefield weapon platforms with their main troop transports. This is not a very efficient design but with the Brakiri’s lack of intense ground-warfare experience, the flaws in its design have yet to be a concern. If the Brakiri become more involved in ground battles, they will likely scrap the Groundstrike completely and design separate vehicles for each role as other races have done.


Skyhammer Troop Carrier
A gravity capable troop transport aircraft with space capability and considerable firepower, the Skyhammer is mostly a Hurdar retrofit and has many of the same quirks and characteristics. The armour on a Skyhammer is considerable, copied as it is from captured Abbai materials. The most notable piece of equipment on the Skyhammer is its concealed comm jammer, another piece of Abbai technology that could cause a serious incident wereknowledge of its existence to reach the normally peaceful creators of that technology.

Spoiler: Space

The Brakiri are rightfully proud of their space fleet, considering they have some of the most advanced ships in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. While the Abbai have better defences, the Vree have more powerful weapons and the Gaim have better sensors and communications, the Brakiri have a remarkably well balanced fleet incorporating many of these factors into ships that regularly out-perform similar ship classes among their peers. When the Brakiri commit ships to an objective, their presence can easily turn the tide of battle in the League’s favour.

New Weapon: Graviton Beam
A slow arming but very powerful weapon, this is a gravity based energy cannon with the ability to focus and intensify its output at the cost of its recharge rate and firing time. When a ship with one or more graviton beams wishes to fire it can either do so normally or choose to ‘charge’ them. Every round the guns spend charging, they do not fire but bonus points equal to the weapon’s non-dice damage are added to the weapon’s damage total if it hits, and its range increases by 1. Charging is a full-round action that can be taken up to three times. After charging, a graviton beam weapon takes a full round to recharge before it can be fired or charged again.

New Weapon: Gravitic Lance
A modified and improved form of the graviton beam, this weapon takes some of its technology from the molecular cutters of the Shadow fleet. It fires a sustainable beam of tightly focused gravitons, allowing it to tear apart solid matter at a massive distance and with terrible efficiency. The gravitic lance has two modes; beam and lance. In the former mode, it acts exactly as a graviton beam with the added benefit of hitting twice instead of once with each shot. As a beam, the lance can only charge for one round if at all.

As a lance, this weapon has a tremendous range and ignores physical armour. DR is useless against the gravitic lance, but it is easily disrupted by gravity and electromagnetic effects. Ships with gravitic and EM shields take only half damage from a gravitic lance after reducing it as they normally would. These ships still do not benefit from their physical armour, however, as what remains of the beam is still potent enough to rip straight through it.

Spoiler: From a Ship Builder's Manuel

Primarily researched, designed and utilised by the Brakiri Syndicracy, gravitic weaponry is simple in theory – but extremely complex in practice. The idea behind a gravitic weapon is to accelerate a segment of intense gravity toward an enemy through an escalating singularity. Basically creating miniscule black holes as small as one atomic strand wide and firing them at the enemy, the weapon collapses a portion of the target’s mass under the extreme gravity before its existence winks out.

The hardest part to manufacture of any form of gravitic weapon is the directional mechanism. What the Brakiri have discovered is that it is possible to move the weapon’s payload along in the same manner as a gravitic drive moves a ship– but on a much smaller scale. By increasing the gravitic pull directly in front of the weapon’s emitter, the shot should carry forward into the void at massive speeds, allowing inertia to do the rest. The only diffi culty is making sure the weapon’s payload can last long enough to reach the target.

Gravitic weapons are diffi cult to manufacture and require several monitoring and stabilization conduits to connect to a ship’s gravitic drive which all of these weapon systems must be attached to.

Graviton Pulsar
The first of the long-ranged gravitic weapons that the Brakiri manufactured, the graviton pulsar is a row of several gravitic bolt emitters positioned and internally timed to fire in rapid succession. Not only do these shots stagger in order to create a wider field of fire, but they are mathematically pinpointed to travel in each others’ gravitic wake, carrying the shots farther while using far less of their own energy to do so. This means a longer range and a better impact ratio of the shots themselves.

Grav Cannon
Taking advice from their belligerent neighbours, the Drazi, the Syndicracy eventually began to make larger and more energy-consuming gravitic weapons to fit to their hulls. The grav cannon is the first of these weapons, using a much bigger series of conduits to shoot a greater singularity toward the enemy. The larger anomaly can absorb a sizable portion of hull and material before its hunger is sated and blinks out of existence. Unlike a laser, that moves from side to side, the grav cannon sends its payload deeper in the vessel to hopefully rip apart sensitive internal systems before collapsing.

Grav cannons may only fire once per turn due to their slow recharging times.

Graviton Beam
The Brakiri’s first and only attempt at a sustained gravitic weapon, the graviton beam is an effective counterpart to many medium laser batteries in the galaxy. Sending dozens of grav cannon-sized anomalies at a single enemy in rapid succession can have the same slicing effect that a common laser does, but requires vast energy stores to map and project the attack. It takes several minutes – a lifetime in any heated battle – to recharge and re-plot the next shot, even with the help of the gravitic engine’s monitoring computer systems.

Graviton beams may only fi re once per turn due to their slow recharging times.

Gravitic Lance
After seeing the effectiveness of the scything beams of the Shadows time and time again during that war, the Brakiri wanted to create a weapon that could keep their warships well out of the range of such terrible weaponry as their smaller vessels moved in to engage. Trying a dozen different ways to extend range, the best way they found was to chain a series of larger graviton singularities together in a sustained firing pattern. Effectively, the first few gravitons ‘tow’ those behind them farther and farther, leaving the rest to smash into the target for remarkable damage.

Graviton Shifter
The Brakiri once realised that their advanced gravitic drives could lend a hand to nearby ships that had lost access to their own – which immediately spawned the idea of using them against the enemy. Originally thought to be used for capture and towing, a brilliant fleet commander named Tor Okat ordered all of his towing gravitics to have their polarities push enemy ships into disarray. The abrupt movement would ruin firing lanes, alter trajectories and throw crewmen to the floor all over the ship. It was ingenious, earning the commander a place in Brakiri wartime history and opening a whole new avenue of possibilities for the Syndicracy’s armada.

Gravitic Mine Launcher
After seeing the spectacular results of what happens when accidentally fired graviton singularities strike one another, the Brakiri saw a great opportunity. Designing twin streamlined graviton emitters to throw a pair of unstable anomalies at converging angles to bisect at a specific place, the gravitic mine was born. When the two hungry anomalies meet each one tries to devour the negativity of the other a thousand times in a millisecond, and instead they collapse in a powerful release of alternating gravitic energy that will lash out at any target caught in the surprisingly large fi eld of destruction.

But yeah, the Brakiri are generally well beyond the Earth Alliance. Personally, I've found that you can sort space faring races in B5 into 6 tiers,

Spoiler

Tier 6: This tier is for the First One races, civilizations millions or even billions of years old and with godlike technology under their control. Dyson spheres, swarm fleets of several billion ships, warping the fabric of spacetime to do all sorts of crazy shit and turning yourself into an "energy being" are all things First Ones can do.
Tier 5: The "middleborn" like the Drakh, these races have been in space for tens of thousands of years and have access to technology far beyond that of the Younger Races. Widespread augmentation, colony fleets ala Macross, tank guns that can hit ships in low orbit and more.
Tier 4: This is where the "oldest of the youngest" are located, the Minbari, Yolu and technically the Vree(the Vree aren't really old enough to be here on their own but got very lucky early on in their space faring and found a fleet of derelict Minbari ships from the Valen War, a thousand years out of date by modern Minbari standards but still far in advanced of everyone else and catapulted the Vree by centuries). Advanced gravity manipulation, antimatter production and weapons systems based on exotic energies is the hallmark of this tier.
Tier 3: This is basically the "average" tier for B5 younger races, it's where the Centauri, Abbai, Brakiri, Drazi, Hyach and Pak'ma'ra are located. The races generally possess artificial gravity, "refined" versions of the technological and weapon systems used by Tier 2 races and in the case of the League races, often have specialties that rival or even exceed the abilities of Tier 4 races inside said specialties(the Brakiri might not be able to shrink gravity generators down as small as the Minbari do, but they certainly do a lot more tricks with gravity technology).
Tier 2: This is where the Earth Alliance and the Narn Regime are located as are several of the smaller League races like the Llort, Grome and Balosians. They generally have access to ftl technology, laser, particle, plasma pulse and beam technology, magnetic accelerator weapons(or matter weaponry as B5 puts it) advanced materials and large scale construction, advanced robotics and computers and holographic projection. At this stage, the only reason Earth and Narn are considered "bigger" powers to many of the more advanced League races despite their generally inferior technology is because of the size of their nations and the corresponding size of the fleets they can command.
Tier 1: Pre-ftl races basically, like Earth before First Contact with the Centauri. They've got spaceflight and "crude" versions of the technologies and weapons used by Tier 2 races, but they'd generally struggle with your average raider group, never mind and actual invasion by any of the higher powers. The Hurr are also here because for some god only knows reason they prefer to use oversized ballistic weaponry in space instead of anything more advanced.

The Brakiri are around average for a B5 Younger Race at Tier 3 alongside the Centauri, Abbai, Drazi, Hyach and most of the League of Non-aligned Worlds.

I've always been of the opinion that the EA can punch above it's tier due to 3 Things, their sheer size, the interceptor grid, and mainly the Starfury being just "that good". Well four really, they seem to also be better at the whole combined arms thing when it comes to space combat.

 

[BF110C4]

I've always been of the opinion that the EA can punch above it's tier due to 3 Things, their sheer size, the interceptor grid, and mainly the Starfury being just "that good". Well four really, they seem to also be better at the whole combined arms thing when it comes to space combat.

A good space doctrine always helps, especially after is tested in large scale combat and improved upon the gained experience.

 

[Ghostking 666]

I've always been of the opinion that the EA can punch above it's tier due to 3 Things, their sheer size, the interceptor grid, and mainly the Starfury being just "that good". Well four really, they seem to also be better at the whole combined arms thing when it comes to space combat.

Everyone has an interceptor grid equivalent, the EA’s is just better than what you’d expect from them because they based theirs on recovered alien technology they were lucky enough to find.

And while yes, things like starfurys and their brutally simple and militaristic style of ship design do let them get the most out of their level of technology(and thus punch above their perceived weight class), it’s the EA’s size more than anything that lets them be a major power.

Babylon 5 is a setting where there are clear advantages to building wide over building tall. Thanks to their size, Earth and the Narn can both build large militaries, far larger and more developed than the smaller and more hemmed in League powers. For all their technology, they just don’t have the available resources to construct fleets as big and versatile as what Earth, Narn, Centauri and the Minbari can all make, not without sacrificing something(the Dilgar had a large fleet despite their small size, but that was from focusing exclusively on military production at the cost of everything else. And while the Drazi can make a large fleet, their ships are generally small, fragile, cheap and all the same type).

 

[Aaron Fox]

Yeah if you have questions that is fine, costs me nothing to go look something up

I'll probably ask you in the near future about all sorts of things.

Everyone has an interceptor grid equivalent, the EA’s is just better than what you’d expect from them because they based theirs on recovered alien technology they were lucky enough to find.

Yes and no. Everyone has the Interceptor Concept down, only two races actually go 'all in' with the concept. One is Humanity, partially because of prior experience and partially because they got the Interceptor and E-Web technology. Another uses a supercharged version of interceptor technology (which can intercept lasers) but is entirely focused on being a defensive weapon (the Interceptor can -in a pinch- be an offensive weapon).

And while yes, things like starfurys and their brutally simple and militaristic style of ship design do let them get the most out of their level of technology(and thus punch above their perceived weight class), it’s the EA’s size more than anything that lets them be a major power.

It should also be noted that Earth is one of the few races in the setting that didn't treat their strike craft poorly or as a secondary arm. The few races that don't have some damn impressive craft in their arsenal.

Babylon 5 is a setting where there are clear advantages to building wide over building tall. Thanks to their size, Earth and the Narn can both build large militaries, far larger and more developed than the smaller and more hemmed in League powers. For all their technology, they just don’t have the available resources to construct fleets as big and versatile as what Earth, Narn, Centauri and the Minbari can all make, not without sacrificing something(the Dilgar had a large fleet despite their small size, but that was from focusing exclusively on military production at the cost of everything else. And while the Drazi can make a large fleet, their ships are generally small, fragile, cheap and all the same type).

It should also be noted that, like a game of Stellaris, it also depends on their location. Generally, the bigger powers lucked out on their locations being rich in resources. At least from my readings.

 

[Vlad_Dracul89]

In EA's arsenal I missed heavily armed gunships able to land troops in the middle of battle, rockets, plasma guns and turbolasers around. "Earthforce troop transport" seems made of paper and that's probably why Human infantry could suffer heavy casualties in landings.

In any case, if place is too heavily defended, orbital strike should be always the acceptable approach, collateral damage is of no consequence.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

I remember this fic - it was, i thought, very good.

Chris

 

[Harlock]

I remember this fic - it was, i thought, very good.

Chris

My thanks If you are the same chap who frequents SB then I have great respect for your work, particularly the Ark Royal setting

 

[paulobrito]

Yep, is the same guy.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

My thanks If you are the same chap who frequents SB then I have great respect for your work, particularly the Ark Royal setting

Tis me! And thank you!

Chris

 

[Seawolf]

I actually have to ask, how fast can the Earth Alliance crank out say a Nova class Dreadnought or a Hyperion class Heavy Cruiser? Likewise how fast can the Minbari crank out a Shargotti, Sharlin, or Tinashi; they're primary heavy hitters?

 

[Harlock]

I actually have to ask, how fast can the Earth Alliance crank out say a Nova class Dreadnought or a Hyperion class Heavy Cruiser? Likewise how fast can the Minbari crank out a Shargotti, Sharlin, or Tinashi; they're primary heavy hitters?

About 6-9 months I believe depending on the ship. Multiply that by however many shipyards and its a pretty fast build up.

No idea on Minbari, again depends on the ship. They built hundreds of Whitestars in a few months in secret so they probably have some pretty decent capacity when mobilised. Their ships are metal with crystalline blocks laid on top, probably not going to take too long to manufacture

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Their ships are metal with crystalline blocks laid on top, probably not going to take too long to manufacture

I wouldn't be surprised if they just grow the crystal directly onto the hulls of their ships.