Honorverse ramblings and musings

cthia wrote:

Duckk wrote:You are placing way too much weight on this graduation thing.

How do you arrive at that supposition?

It's just idle curiosity.

kzt wrote:I've noted over time that you assign far to much weight to formal credentials.

That's quite a precarious thread dangling.

cthia wrote:

saber964 wrote:Has anyone thought to remember Erehwon might have its own naval academy much like Grayson's Isaiah MacKenzie Naval Academy which was closed until IIRC 1920 PD for upgrading and remodeling. So not graduating RMNA-SI wouldn't be that big a deal. The REN was probably sending the top 20 or 30% of it's middies to RMNA-SI.

I'm not so sure I can board this bus.

Regardless of Grayson's or Erewhon's academy, Saganami Island remains the premiere academy in the galaxy. Since the students didn't formally graduate, they cannot officially claim Manticoran standard proficiency on their records. I would imagine that a genuine Saganami diploma in your records is career changing.

Therefore, formally, what goes on their records?

Your placing to much on a RMNASI diploma. The reason why the GSN sent its middies to SI was its size. IMack NA probably only commissioned a few dozen officers a year given the size of the pre-alliance size of the GSN (IIRC 3 CL 5 DD and 12-15 LAC). Also given how prestigious some of the RW military academies are I wouldn't knock the other Honorverse military academies. Would you knock Sandhurst RMA, Saint Cyr, Frunze National Defense University of Japan or Korea. Plus how would Beowulf's equivalent of SI stack up against the rest.

If you were an officer in the RMN, would you really appreciate being on Honor's ship? You know that you're going for a ride into the maelstrom - that's a given. You may come out of it, but many don't. Honor has a high body count. Her very own, nightmarish body count. I bet Honor's nightmares would break the average man.

Or would you feel like Randy Steilman and his crew and not want to take a ride in the meat grinder?

cthia wrote:If you were an officer in the RMN, would you really appreciate being on Honor's ship? ...

If I were the least bit ambitious, the body count wouldn't be my main concern, the promotion rate and number of ship commands for Honor's proteges would be.

Weird Harold wrote:

cthia wrote:If you were an officer in the RMN, would you really appreciate being on Honor's ship? ...

If I were the least bit ambitious, the body count wouldn't be my main concern, the promotion rate and number of ship commands for Honor's proteges would be.

I'm pretty sure that Steilman and his crew figured out that a dead man can only be posthumously promoted - over their dead body.

I didn't like Steilman and his crew. But I fully understand the human side, that aboard Honor's ship, they felt that chances of them making it out alive were slim and none.

cthia wrote:I didn't like Steilman and his crew. But I fully understand the human side, that aboard Honor's ship, they felt that chances of them making it out alive were slim and none.

Strange that only a small handful of bullies, thugs and sociopaths felt that way. The other three or four thousand crew members didn't seem to exhibit that "human side."

Weird Harold wrote:

cthia wrote:I didn't like Steilman and his crew. But I fully understand the human side, that aboard Honor's ship, they felt that chances of them making it out alive were slim and none.

Strange that only a small handful of bullies, thugs and sociopaths felt that way. The other three or four thousand crew members didn't seem to exhibit that "human side."

Yet, to an individual, that just boils down to "does the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one?"

It isn't a question of how many. The point is that there is always one. Or two. You can always count on there being someone who will always value his own ass above all. The groveling Housemans of existence.

I can imagine that there are those crew members, Steilman and friends, that joined the navy for all the wrong reasons, or were forced into it by the legal system and then found the reality of the mortality rate quite sobering. Especially the legendary Sally's legendary death tolls. The only consolation is that they knew not to take it personally, as she exacts a death toll on both navies.

Ok, I should probably put this one in the snotty thread, but here goes.

When considering Sonja's test bed in Fearless, why isn't it feasible to station hundreds of the smallest ship possible to mount TWTSNBN, just sitting scattered along the most likely threat vectors awaiting prey as did Honor? It would be a boring job, but they could come in handy. And a CO maneuvering to fight an enemy can utilize the location of that sort of minefield.

Could TWTSNBN be mounted on a captured Solly ship? Can small, stealthy manned platforms be designed to mount them? They'll be kamikraze platforms, of course, but just curious.

One other question. How long was it stated before a ship can repair the damages caused by TWTSNBN?

cthia wrote:Ok, I should probably put this one in the snotty thread, but here goes.

When considering Sonja's test bed in Fearless, why isn't it feasible to station hundreds of the smallest ship possible to mount TWTSNBN, just sitting scattered along the most likely threat vectors awaiting prey as did Honor? It would be a boring job, but they could come in handy. And a CO maneuvering to fight an enemy can utilize the location of that sort of minefield.

Could TWTSNBN be mounted on a captured Solly ship? Can small, stealthy manned platforms be designed to mount them? They'll be kamikraze platforms, of course, but just curious.

One other question. How long was it stated before a ship can repair the damages caused by TWTSNBN?

You need a mil grade starship's propulsion to utilize for a GL, so the minimum size is roughly Frearless, a small CL or large modern DD. RFC has said if definitely cannot be mounted on a small unmanned platform or even a LAC. So you're talking about a fairly expensive disposable ''platform'.
Given than you can't also squeeze in the missiles and weapons of a similar sized conventional warship it is probably a bit cheaper that its conventional counterpart but stiil, hundreds of platforms is swarms of normal, more flexible, warships you could have funded for that same budget.

And even hundreds is no guarantee that they'll be in position to score a GL hit before being crushed. Or even if in position that the enemy force won't have a recon screen of DDs or even RDs out sanitizing their path. It'd be pretty crappy return on investment to GL the sidewall of a lowly DD before your DD/CL based platform got swatted by the missiles of the enemie's main force.

The good news is that it seems the GL does actual damage to the sidewall generators; it's apparently not just tripping the equivalent of a circuit breaker. So it's probably more on the order of 10s of minutes, possibly even over an hour, before the damaged generators could be repaired and full sidewall protection restored.

Oh, and a GL should be compatible with even a SLN warship, if you're willing spend the money and time to "dry-dock" it long enough to make room for a major engineering system install. Personally I don't see a sufficient reason to bother, but it shouldn't be a technical impossibility.

Please forgive me, but a few days ago, I watched reruns of two submarine movies. Crimson Tide and The Hunt for Red October. Both terrific movies. Terrific acting.

I'm thinking, wouldn't it be nice if a Mesan officer and his crew defected with their prize ship in the manner of The Hunt for Red October? How safe would it be trying to make contact with the alliance to deliver the ship without getting blown to dust? Which system and in what manner would it be advisable?

Manner, as in the Crazy Ivan maneuver. lol

At any rate, both of those movies had incredible submarine scenes. Submarine tactical warfare. Marvelous. I was amped up awaiting the Honorverse movie for the same excitement quotient.