Print this page
Ship Classes and Roles
|
Ship Class |
Deckplan | Abbreviation |
Role |
| Assault Landing Ship (interplanetary) | not yet available |
ALS |
Carries ground forces (up to half a GFD) and their equipment, with extra shuttles for landings. This is in addition to it's resident marine regiment. |
| Assault Landing Ship (interstellar) | not yet available |
ALSI |
|
| Assault Carrier | not yet available |
AVI |
An assault landing ship converted for pacifier operations - can carry either 3 or 5 pacifiers (but can only turn around 2 at a time). |
| Battleship (interplanetary) | Battleship (1.29Mb) |
BB |
The heavy hitters of the space fleets. These are the most heavily armed and armoured warships capabale of interstellar travel. |
| Battleship (interstellar) | Battleship (1.29Mb) |
BBI |
|
| Pasmatic Battleship (interstellar | not yet available |
BPI
|
A version of the battleship where secondary weapons have been stripped out to adda few more PAD batteries. This is regarded as a highly specialised vessel. |
| Captured Viking Unit | not yet available |
VKI |
Captured exterminator component warships, codenamed 'VIKING'. |
| Carrier (interplanetary) | not yet available |
CV |
Major warships, carrying between 8 and 16 pacifiers and therefore capable of delivering an offensive blow at least equivalent to a battleship. Has increased flexibility, but is more vulnerable than a battleship. |
| Carrier (interstellar) | not yet available |
CVI |
|
| Class 1000 Armed Merchant | not yet available |
C1A |
Armed merchant ships are used as a cheap way of providing escort ships and 'Star Guard' units. They lack the ability to stand up to regular warships, but are effective against pirates and other armed merchants. |
| Class 2000 Armed Merchant | not yet available |
C2A |
|
| Class 3000 Armed Merchant | Class 3000 Merchant |
C3A |
|
| Class 4000 Armed Merchant | Class 4000 Merchant |
C4A |
|
| Class 5000 Armed Merchant | Class 5000 Merchant |
C5A |
|
| Class 5000 Armed Merchant - Enhanced | A-E merchant |
C5A-E |
Recent upgrade to the armed merchant class. |
| Destroyer (interplanetary) | Destroyer |
DD |
The destroyer is the smallest specifically designed warship. More powerful than armed merchants, and built for sustained operations, the main role of the DD class is to scout and act as picket/communication relay ships. |
| Destroyer (interstellar) | Destroyer |
DDI |
|
| Support Carrier | not yet available |
SVI |
A conversion to an LSSI to turn itts militarised transport capacity into a pacifer operations facility. Can carry and launch up to 8 pacifiers as 'one-shot' launches. |
| Escort Carrier (interstellar) | not yet available |
EVI |
The is a Class 5000 merchant ship, modified to carry and operate 4 pacifiers. Useful to add to the pacifier force, and as a suplement to other armed merchants. |
| Heavy Cruiser (interplanetary) | Hvy Cruiser Mk2a |
CA |
Smaller than a Battleship, but still a heavy hitter, with a place in the line of battle. These tend to be cheaper and faster than battleships, but lack the sustained punch in fleet actions. |
| Heavy Cruiser (interstellar) | Hvy Cruiser Mk2a |
CAI |
|
| Heavy Cruiser (Missile) Interstellar | not yet available |
CAI(M)
|
A heavy cruiser modified to increase the number of missile launchers (which replace other elements of main armament). These are regarded as somewhat specialised vessels. |
| Interstellar Survey Ship | not yet available |
SSI |
A specialised ship designed for independent operation in uncharted regions, or for updating charts of know systems. Is armed, and has a strong marine complement, it is capable of operating in diffiuclt situations (for example in hostile non-aligned colony systems who might object to being surveyed). |
| Light Cruiser (interplanetary) | not yet available |
CL |
More like an up-gunned destroyer than a true cruiser. This class tends to be deployed as heavier firepower power support to destroyer actions. |
| Light Cruiser (interstellar) | not yet available |
CLI |
|
| Logistic Support Ship (interplanetary) | not yet available |
LSS |
Logistic support ships are essential to fleet operations. They carry the consumables such as air, food, fresh water, missiles, cannon ammo and the like to the fleet. Lightly armed with a small marine contingent. |
| Logistic Support Ship (interstellar) | not yet available |
LSSI |
|
| Troop Transport (interplanetary) | not yet available |
TPT |
A large troop transprt. This is designed to carry a ground force division, though not to unload it in combat conditions - it requires assistance of a friendly orbital station to unload. |
| Troop Transport (interstellar) | not yet available |
TPTI |
|
| Hospital Ship | not yet available |
HS |
A variation of the
troop transport. Has lots of shuttles for recovering wounded crew
and escape pods etc.
Hospital Ships are designated non-combatant and are so designated under the Saturn Convention of 3101. Each vessel has its hull and external fittings painted white, and has the green cross marked clearly on the main thruster pods and main hull sections. |
| Hospital Ship (interstellar) | not yet available |
HSI |
|
| Emergency Hospital SHip | Emergency HS |
EHS |
A modified interplanetary ship used for dealing with casualties from the fleet. Not as large or well equipped as the specifically built hospital ships. |
| Scout | not yet available |
SCI
|
A destroyer class vessel optimised for scouting. It is less well armed than a destroyer, but retains its speed, trading armament for additional detection and communication equipment. |
| Pacifier |
not applicable
|
PAC |
A high performance, highly manoeverable short range fighting ship, desgned to operate from carriers and orbital stations. Usually one pilot. Come in a variety of weapon mixes. Some types are robot controlled. All pacifiers are interplanetary. |
| Semi-Automatic Battleship (interplanetary) | not yet available |
SAB
|
A heavily-constructed battleship designed to operate at up to 5g. Has a small crew of pacifier pilots and relies very heavily on bright slave autopilot systems. Repair and maintenance has to be carried out by an LSSI which must accompany a SAB when on operations. Secondary weapons and crew have been traded for higher rated engines and much stronger spaceframe. |
| Semi-Automatic Battleship (interstellar) | not yet available |
SABI
|
|
| Space Dock, Mobile, Interstellar | not yet available |
SDI
|
These vessels have to operate in pairs. A pair of SDI can provide mobile repair facilities to ships of the fleet. Based on the LSSI spaceframe, but heavily modified. |
| Mass Driver Ship (interstellar) | Class 5000 Merchant |
MDI |
A converted Class5000 that can be dismantled and used to mass drive asteroids. Mass driving against inhabited worlds is illegal. These have been recently brought into service for use against the exterminator menace. |
| Note 1: 'Interplanetary' means lacking a Hyperspace drive unit. This means they cannot move or communicate between stars. Interplanetary ships therefore tend to occur only in systems where there is a shipyard - i.e. in the Home Systems. Because they lack the very expensive HSD, they are a lot cheaper to build than their interstellar equivalent. |
| Note 2: There have been hundreds of alternative ship designs during humanity's time in space. Many were just plain silly - most have been supplanted by modern types. Every so often the tactical situation or changes in doctrinal fashion cause an old type to be revived. Here is a general list of just some of the obsolete types from the archive. |
| There are deckplans for a variety of other ships on the Starship Marine Deckplans Page |
|
|
BACKThe
Universe(of Starship
Marine, Cruel Void and Hellfire) is © Jim Wallman 1996-2005.
You may freely use this material in other games, works, websites etc for
your personal entertainment - with appropriate credits as to authorship
and copyright. It may not be resold or distributed with any publication
for sale without the express permission of the copyright holder.