Allies

kzt wrote:

Theemile wrote:
David discussed it on the side, and it was discussed heavily in SITS and Jayne's. The Short Story "Fanatic" has a failed raid from the Havenite side.

Yeah, The RMN was big on BC raids and that was one of the few examples of how RMN doctrine failed. A division of old BBs are extraordinarily difficult for a BC squadron to deal with.

IIRC, David showed that this failed in the books, and explained to us what happened. And then he denied to us that this was a failure. Because the RMN is perfect or something.

Echoes of Honor - Ch. 30 wrote:battleships usually couldn't catch battlecruisers. Unfortunately for the Royal Manticoran Navy, that rule didn't always hold true. It especially didn't hold true when the battleship's captain had the nerve to take her own impellers off-line and just sit there like a hole in space until the Manties were actually in extreme missile range. Hall had that kind of nerve, and less than a month after Citizen Rear Admiral Tourville blew out the Adler System picket, she had neatly ambushed a trio of raiding Manty battlecruisers. They hadn't had the remotest suspicion she was even there until they'd built vectors which gave them no choice, even with their superior acceleration rates, but to come into her engagement range.
RMN battlecruisers were tough customers, especially given the superiority of the Star Kingdom's EW and missiles. Many Republican officers would have hesitated to engage three of them at once, even if she did out-mass them by almost two-to-one. That, in fact, had been Citizen Commander Young's earnest recommendation. Hall hadn't taken it, however . . . and she'd blown two of her enemies right out of space. The third had gotten away, but with enough damage to keep her out of action for months, whereas Schaumberg's repairs had required only five weeks of yard time

Short Victorious War: HONOR HARRINGTON'S NAVY - THE BALANCE OF NAVAL POWER wrote:The large number of battleships in its order of battle were intended not for the wall of battle, where their smaller size would place them at a grievous disadvantage against "proper" ships of the wall, but to cover occupied systems against anything smaller than a wall of battle ship. (This was of particular importance against Manticore, which had always favored the battlecruiser. The BC's combination of acceleration and firepower made it ideal for raids on the orbital industrial infrastructure of enemy star systems, and the RMN had refined these tactics to a fine art over the centuries.)"

kzt wrote:Yeah, The RMN was big on BC raids and that was one of the few examples of how RMN doctrine failed. A division of old BBs are extraordinarily difficult for a BC squadron to deal with.

IIRC, David showed that this failed in the books, and explained to us what happened. And then he denied to us that this was a failure. Because the RMN is perfect or something.

Jonathan_S wrote:And EoH has a mention of a previous action of Citizen Captain Joanne Hall with her BB against RMN BCs.

Echoes of Honor - Ch. 30 wrote:battleships usually couldn't catch battlecruisers. Unfortunately for the Royal Manticoran Navy, that rule didn't always hold true. It especially didn't hold true when the battleship's captain had the nerve to take her own impellers off-line and just sit there like a hole in space until the Manties were actually in extreme missile range. Hall had that kind of nerve, and less than a month after Citizen Rear Admiral Tourville blew out the Adler System picket, she had neatly ambushed a trio of raiding Manty battlecruisers. They hadn't had the remotest suspicion she was even there until they'd built vectors which gave them no choice, even with their superior acceleration rates, but to come into her engagement range.
RMN battlecruisers were tough customers, especially given the superiority of the Star Kingdom's EW and missiles. Many Republican officers would have hesitated to engage three of them at once, even if she did out-mass them by almost two-to-one. That, in fact, had been Citizen Commander Young's earnest recommendation. Hall hadn't taken it, however . . . and she'd blown two of her enemies right out of space. The third had gotten away, but with enough damage to keep her out of action for months, whereas Schaumberg's repairs had required only five weeks of yard time

And SVW's appendix mentions the usefulness of BBs against BCs

Short Victorious War: HONOR HARRINGTON'S NAVY - THE BALANCE OF NAVAL POWER wrote:The large number of battleships in its order of battle were intended not for the wall of battle, where their smaller size would place them at a grievous disadvantage against "proper" ships of the wall, but to cover occupied systems against anything smaller than a wall of battle ship. (This was of particular importance against Manticore, which had always favored the battlecruiser. The BC's combination of acceleration and firepower made it ideal for raids on the orbital industrial infrastructure of enemy star systems, and the RMN had refined these tactics to a fine art over the centuries.)"

Jonathan_S wrote:The general Peep rear area security, helped by those BBs, seems like it was enough to discourage (but not eliminate) the deep BC raids -- but those raids were significantly less impactful that I think the Admiralty, or their captains, would have wanted.