Crecy Type: Missile Destroyer In Service: 2777 In Class: 17 Mass: 680,000 Sail Integrity: 4 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 3000 Structural Integrity: 60 Armor: 816 tons of standard armor: fwd 56+6, others 54+6 Docking Collars: 0 Fighters: 0 Small Craft: 2 Crew: 300 Lifeboats: 20 Escape Pods: 0 Grav Decks: 1 80 meter Cargo: 7,030 Bay 1: 2 Small Craft 1 door Bay 2: Cargo (7,030) 5 doors Weapons Heatsinks: 3600 Fwd: 8 Naval Autocannon 30s FR/FL: 20 Barracuda Launchers 20 Killer Whale Launchers LBS/RBS: 20 Barracuda Launchers 20 Killer Whale Launchers AR/AL: 20 Barracuda Launchers 20 Killer Whale Launchers Aft: 2 Naval Autocannon 30s Ammo: 1175 rounds of NAC 30 ammo 2000 Barracuda 1200 Killer Whale Designer's notes: This is the first ship I have designed where I had to worry about firecontrol tonnage. I hope I got it right (5760 tons, or twenty percent of the relevant weapon mass) As an optional rule (given the ship's weapon composition, fluff text, and intended role) the two hundred odd missile tubes shouldn't be grouped into bays. The player should have the option to designate fire for each one independently rather than having to use twenty barracudas all against one fighter. Of course this can slow the game down considerably in battles with lots of targets to hit... Overview: The Crecy was developed in a mad rush to counter a percieved weakness in the Davion military. Shortly before the Amaris Coup, the SLDF deployed the Adcap standoff guided weapon. This massive fusion powered cruise missile was capable of tremendous destructive power and, so some pundits liked to claim, would by itself change the very nature of naval warfare. [editor's note: of course what do they know? The adcap was indeed terrifically destructive, however the high cost of the weapon and its inherent limitations, in theory, counterbalanced its massive power] This did not bother Davion too much at first, as the SLDF was a force for peace (or something like it), and was not likely to mount an agressive war against its neighbors. Therefore, in theory at least, the Federated Suns had little to fear from the Adcap. All this appeared to change towards the end of the Amaris coup, however, when Davion intelligence learned of the development of a new cruiser by the Capellans, tagged the Crossbow, which, according to some reports, was intended to carry the Adcap. Of course there was little real reason to worry, as the Crossbow wasn't even being designed for the Capellan fleet, but for the SLDF. Also the Crossbow only had the potential to be refitted in the future to use the Adcap, the initial design lacked the fire control computers necessary to control the missile. Futhermore, the only production facility for the Adcap was a pile of debris floating in space. Lastly and most importantly, the Crossbow was never even produced. All in all there wasn't much threat of the Adcap popping up in the Capellan fleet anytime soon. But Davion didn't know that. Though many in the Admiralty claimed that the Adcap could be easily countered simply by adapting the tactics of the existing fleet, many others claimed that the Federated Suns now faced what they called (in an ironic repeat of history) a "missile gap". Though Prince John Davion wasn't all that concerned about falling behind in weapons technology, the Amaris Coup and the growing concerns that the Star League would soon cease to be did worry him a great deal, so he authorized two programs to both counter the so called "missile gap" and to augment the Davion fleet for the increasingly inevitable war that was brewing. The first of these two projects was the Crecy class missile destroyer. Capabilities: The Crecy (named for a decisive English victory during the hundred years war) was built to engage multiple small craft (such as fighters and standoff guided weapons like the Adcap) as far out as possible, and in this respect the ship is a frightening success. Davion engineers produced the design for the Crecy in roughly four months, taking the standard Davion II class destroyer and extensively modifying it, removing two of its main engines and most of its weaponry and replacing them with what can be rightly described as a downright enormous battery of naval missile tubes, the largest single mass of naval missiles ever mounted on a single ship. Two hundred and forty naval missile tubes line the sides of the Crecy, which can not only spell death for any fighters that decide to close in on the ship, but also makes using Adcaps and other such weapons utterly futile, at least as long as the missiles last. Of course, with better than three thousand missiles in the Crecy's magazine, that can be a rather long time. The missile control system is fully automated. When hostile inbounds are detected, the missile system automatically allocates missiles to the targets as apropriate and, if set to full automatic mode, will open fire starting at a pre-set range. This automated system greatly enhances the Crecy's ability to engage multiple targets, and during the First Succesion War it wasn't uncommon to see a Crecy engaging anywhere from one to two hundred fighters simultaneously. Backing up the missiles and providing some extra bite against hostile warships are ten naval autocannons. These guns, however, are more a leftover from the original Davion II, and only rarely were Crecys employed in ship to ship combat. Despite its capabilities, the Crecy also had a number of problems as a result of the rush to develop the ship. The missile magazines aren't all that well designed, as in many regards they are simply the cargo bays of the Davion II modified to serve as ammo storage. As a consequence, the Crecy is more vunerable to magazine explosions due to combat damage than most ships. Also, the sophisticated fire control system is at times a little too independent. In combat opperations it has at times proven to be difficult to reassert manual control of the missile system. [editor's note: This defect resulted in the destruction of the Hastings during the battle of Cholame. The Hastings' missile system was set to automatic fire when the ship was engaged by the DCS Ayanami. During the engagement the control computer refused to target the combine vessel, having been set to engage fighters only, and the crew was unable to establish manual control. Sensing her prey's weakness, the Ayanami used her superior manueverability to keep in the Hasting's vunerable broadside arcs, managing to severely damage the ship before she was chased off by a Davion cruiser. A day later the Ayanami, along with a pair of Kujira class ships, finished off the Hastings] Deployment: Crecy class ships were assigned as escort ships for cruisers and battleships througout the first succesion war. Though they were never confronted with the Adcap in combat, they did play an important role in the Davion fleet, shielding their charges from massed aerospace fighter attacks. Interestingly enough, because the Crecy class was only rarely exposed to direct ship to ship combat, very few members of the class would be lost during the early days of the first succesion war. However, as the supply of naval missiles dried up, so too did much of the Crecy's value. The last handful of Crecy class vessels to survive the first succesion war were mere shadows of themselves, with their missile and naval cannon magazines virtually empty. In an ironic twist, these last few ships would each fall to massed fighter attacks along the Capellan and Kurita frontiers.