How many Pegasus-Style Battlestars can take out...

[Praeothmin 532]

1) An ISD...

 

 

 

 

 

2) The E-E...

 

 

 

 

 

3) The Defiant...

[Tyralak 12,068]

I don't think they can make enough.

[Khas 12,158]

Might as well be asking how many neutrinos pass through our bodies every second...

[Praeothmin 532]

Might as well be asking how many neutrinos pass through our bodies every second...

 

 

 

Ok then:

 

How many Neutrinos pass through our bodies every second?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously though, I thought this would be interesting scenarios, since the Pegasus was considered more powerful then the Galactica, and the Galactica was roughly a match for the NX-01 Enterprise in one match we had over at SFJ...

[Khas 12,158]

True, the NX-01 is a match for the Galactica, but you forget, all three of these ships easily outclass the NX-01. Any one of them would reek absolute havoc on the Colonial Navy. If someone had all three, they could easily conquer the Twelve Colonies.

[InvaderSkooj 1]

One. At sufficient velocity

[Khas 12,158]

Well, aside from a kamikaze, there's really no way for a Battlestar to take out any of these ships.

[Airlocke 12,014]

One. At sufficient velocity

 

 

 

"Perhaps today IS a good day to die. PREPARE FOR RAMMING SPEED!"

[The Stair Master 101]

You know what they say about fungi. If you can't make'em, shake'em and bake'em.

[Khas 12,158]

What is this, I don't even

[Mr. Oragahn 0]

1) An ISD...

 

 

 

 

 

2) The E-E...

 

 

 

 

 

3) The Defiant...

 

 

 

I must say that the way you worded your question sounds very odd.

 

Are you asking how many Mercury-class Battlestars (like the Pegasus) it takes to destroy each one of those ships?

 

 

 

It depends on how they are prepared. If the Vipers and Raptors are fitted with nukes, according to what we saw in the last seasons of nBSG, it could actually turn out to be a dangerous situation for several of those ships.

 

Without that, I don't think it's going to be good. Admittedly, the Colonial ships have decoys which could lure enemy ships to some moderate degree, but Trek sensors are just too good. SW sensors, a tad below, but not by much, so I doubt they'd be fooled.

 

So the only chance of dealing some hurt to enemy ships is in a scenario wherein the Colonials have really decided to deploy their greatest firepower.

 

We are, of course, talking about Battlestars which are in pristine condition, with full crews, fighter and bomber complements, and munitions.

 

 

 

Now, let's get something out of the debate right there: the Battlestars will fall very quickly. I think the ISD is the weakest of all, notably due to its weapon type which is fire and forget, without any homing capacity since it's bolts.

 

 

 

The ISD:

 

 

 

At several 2-3 digits terajoules bolts, It will need several volleys to destroy one Mercury. The ISD's much superior weapon range means it can even keep its shields on the lowest setting.

 

But that is in the vain hope that Mercury captains would jump too far from the ISDs, which is not obvious since Battlestar captains rarely place their ships out of their own fire range, which is pretty close (something like 15 km tops on the average).

 

 

 

TIEs and other crafts will be capable of harassing the Pegasus by launching missiles (but I think the Pegasus may use a combination of ECM and flak to destroy most of them). That said, unless those Imperial crafts carry high kiloton firepower, the Pegasus will be mildly annoyed. For example, if Imperial ships use proton torps at near 1 KT (the yield given in the SW Technical Journal for the X-wings' proton torpedoes), they wouldn't hurt a Mercury much. Not to say that the weapons would be shot down in droves, and Imperial crafts are clearly not tough enough to survive to the close range defenses.

 

 

 

What they can do, however, is chase and shoot down the Vipers Mk-VII and Raptors, so much that the Colonials would not be able to fire many nukes. It also depends on the distance between both ships. We've seen that nukes fired from the Colonial crafts can actually cover large distances very quickly. The Imperials have simply nothing to shoot such things down.

 

Considering how close a Mercury is likely to jump, it's going to be very tough for Imperial crafts to intercept Vipers and Raptors soon enough.

 

However if an ISD has an ECM system in place, it might has its chances at fooling the rather primitive Colonial missiles. I say might because the Cylons would obviously know about the ECM and yet it never really prevented Colonial missiles from hitting their Basestars or their Resurrection Ships, or even the Resurrection Hub.

 

That's assuming they even put the ECM up soon enough.

 

 

 

Now, two Mercuries shall be more than enough to get the ISD down. Sure, both Mercuries will be destroyed, but the ISD's complement of small crafts won't be enough to match the numbers launched from both Mercuries before nukes are fired. Add that to the likely close fighting range between so many beached whales, and the ISD is quite toasted.

 

 

 

The E-E may be the luckiest of the lot since her phaser strips could target the nukes and easily evade all the other forms of firepower. Mundane heavy colonial missiles wouldn't be a problem either.

 

 

 

The Defiant may not be able to dodge the nukes, but both Trek ships don't need to fight at any close range. They can really sit at a far distance, even after the Mercuries have jumped in, and fire.

 

Plus with the technobabble and dishes, they can easily jam the primitive missiles imho.

 

 

 

Now, if we're dealing with DS9-style close range battles, then missiles are agile enough to possibly get a hit.

 

 

 

There's also the obvious answer that you can add as many Mercuries as it takes before both Trek ships run out of antimatter and torpedoes.

 

 

 

So it's quite doable against an ISD, with sufficient preparation and full nuclear load ready on all small crafts, but totally overkill against Trek ships, which win hands down.

[Tyralak 12,068]

The only problem I have with some of this, that that you're overthinking it. The Colonials wouldn't have time to do any of this. An ISD could jump in and open fire with a full volley of HTLs and turn the Mercury class ships into a debris field in seconds. Even more so with the Defiant or any Trek ship. A couple of Quantum torpedoes, and that's all she wrote. Lets not forget, that it wouldn't matter how many nukes the Mercury ships have, nukes simply wouldn't do much damage to any of the aforementioned ships. They're designed to take hits from much more powerful weapons. Such as the ones which can pull this little number off:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nukes are child's play, especially since detonations in space would waste most of the total explosive yield.

 

 

 

Even if Vipers were deployed, this would likely be the result.

 

 

 

[Mr. Oragahn 0]

I think it's pretty clear that unless we begin to roll out unreasonable numbers of Battlestars, Trek easily takes it, nuclear preparation or not.

 

The nuclear preparation is almost a special scenario, but what is obvious is that the more Battlestars you have, the more captains there will be left after the first minutes of engagement to understand that they're facing something they can't engage with pulling punches.

 

 

 

With nuclear prep, the ISD is not safe, that's all. Trek ships are just too much agile, powerful and advanced. They're no fun.

[Tyralak 12,068]

But what makes you think that a nuke could damage an ISD's armor, even if the shields were down?

[Praeothmin 532]

But what makes you think that a nuke could damage an ISD's armor, even if the shields were down?

 

 

 

Because a non-nuclear low KT asteroid destroyed the bridge of an ISD in TESB?

[Tyralak 12,068]

Point taken.

[Khas 12,158]

Well, given that it was stated to be in the gigajoules range, that would make it sub-KT.

[Ado Mortumee 500]

Because a non-nuclear low KT asteroid destroyed the bridge of an ISD in TESB?

 

Asteroid=/=nuke. An asteroid impacting in space is far more damaging than an equal yield nuke (and IIRC in TESB novel there are asteroids hitting other parts of the hull and not doing any damage at all). Also as I recall the asteroid was in the low triple digit KT range.

 

 

 

Well, given that it was stated to be in the gigajoules range, that would make it sub-KT.

 

[Khas 12,158]

There was a thread on SFJ that rated the energy from the asteroid's impact in the gigajoules range. The Hiroshima bomb (13 kilotons) had an energy output of 54 terajoules.

[Mr. Oragahn 0]

But what makes you think that a nuke could damage an ISD's armor, even if the shields were down?

 

 

 

THe ROTJ novelization has thermonuclear weapons used against Mon Cal ships, and I'm yet to see evidence that they are even in the mid megaton region. Anakin was going to bomb the bridge of the Malevolence with proton torps which didn't look particularly powerful. Quite luckily, they'd be about as powerful as those seen used by the X-wings, which are rated at near 1 kT in the Technical Journal, and that fits.

 

There's also the fact that tylium, used both for fuel and sometimes for explosives, can have an enthalpy of 500 TJ/kg.

 

 

 

Vipers can launch nukes:

 

 

 

 

 

So can Raptors:

 

 

 

 

 

Those proved devastating to a Death Star sized Cylon Colony parked somewhere in the accretion disk of a black hole.

 

Simply put, if those Mercuries are nuclear-ready, the ISD will suffer.

 

It will also be a bad day for the Imperial crew if we take into account the numerous hints at ISDs having terajoules of firepower, and the fact that Pegasus alone tanked three nukes which cut off her FTL drive, but didn't dramatically damage her. Those nukes would, at the very, very least, be rated at 50 KT each, although there's no reason for the Cylons not to launch the "heavier" nukes, especially since the 50 KT are launched by raiders and the Basestars used the same launchers to fire those megaton nukes during the holocaust;

 

The problem with nukes is that sometimes it renders tylium ore inert, so that's another reason why nuclear attacks are a bad thing in nBSG, because it's possible they have similar effects on tylium fuel.

[Praeothmin 532]

Asteroid=/=nuke. An asteroid impacting in space is far more damaging than an equal yield nuke (and IIRC in TESB novel there are asteroids hitting other parts of the hull and not doing any damage at all). Also as I recall the asteroid was in the low triple digit KT range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point is, Prophet, Ty was asking why we should believe the nukes could even "damage" an ISD's armor.

 

The asteroid ripped it a new hole, literally, and it was no more than 60-80 KT from my own calcs (don't have them ATM, will get them Monday).

 

So a nuclear weapon in the double-digit KT should damage an ISD quite well, thank you very much...

[Tyralak 12,068]

Do we have any EU sources that show an ISD with shields down faring any better?

[Praeothmin 532]

Do we have any EU sources that show an ISD with shields down faring any better?

 

 

 

Yes, the X-wing novels show us ISDs being damaged by X-Wing guns...

[Ado Mortumee 500]

Point is, Prophet, Ty was asking why we should believe the nukes could even "damage" an ISD's armor.

 

The asteroid ripped it a new hole, literally, and it was no more than 60-80 KT from my own calcs (don't have them ATM, will get them Monday).

 

So a nuclear weapon in the double-digit KT should damage an ISD quite well, thank you very much...

 

Depends on where it hits. If it hits the bridge it will do heavy damage if not outright destroying it, and now upon checking TESB novel I found the quote I was looking for:

 

 

 

The Star Wars Trilogy The Empire Strikes Back section page 268

 

 

 

THE Avenger had spotted the Millennium Falcon the moment

 

the freighter shot out of the enormous asteroid.

 

 

 

From that moment, the Imperial ship renewed its pursuit of

 

the freighter with a blinding barrage of fire. Undaunted by the

 

steady rain of asteroids against its massive hull, the Star Destroyer

 

relentlessly follwed the smaller ship.

 

 

 

The Milllennium Falcon, far more maneuverable than the other

 

ship, darted around the larger asteroids as they came rocketing

 

toward it. The Falcon was succeeding in holding its lead in front

 

of the Avenger, but it was clear that the steadily pursuing ship

 

was not about to abandon the chase.

 

 

 

Suddenly a gigantic asteroid appeared in the Millennium Fal-

 

con's path, rushing towards the freighter at incredible speed. The

 

ship quickly banked out of the way, and the asteroid hurtled past

 

it, only to explode harmlessly against the Avenger's hull.

 

 

 

So if they catch the ISD with shields down the only place we know they can do any real damage with KT range nukes is the bridge tower. And even then their going to need to get the nuke within IIRC a hundred meters or so of the ship for it to do any real damage in space and the yield would have to be triple digit KT range since its Omnidirectional.

[Tyralak 12,068]

It doesn't say anything about the shields being down. ISDs have deflector shields for dealing with asteroids and micrometeorites.