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So I have not read much Starwars EU stuff other than the Black Fleet Crisis, the Thrawn set and a few of the X-Wing books. I am curious about the employment of the missile launchers on the large ships. Some seem to have them. Some don't.

This sort of thing figures prominantly in the X-Wing books, particularly when they put them on freighters to take down the SSD, but it seems like they need a ton of them to make it work.

It has been a while but I don't recall seeing capital ships use them much at all in the Thrawn books.

In the Black Fleet books they feature heavily for both sides.

In the OOU world I get that different authors just wrote different books but what is the agreed upon IU reason for all of the differences? I am guessing one might speculate that cost of missiles make them unwelcome if you can avoid it. Were these things huge and took up a ton of space that could be used for more productive things? Or were they more like WWI era torpedoes that might allow a smaller craft to hurt something way out of its size range?

Any ideas?

And one more question...did anyone ever try to build an anti-fighter ship based around missiles rather than the Lancer types with all the laser turrets?

I would go with the cost being the issue. I can't recall where I read it, but the Rebellion was often hard pressed to afford the things.

They certainly aren't big, I believe an X-wing carries six of them standard.

I don't believe they offer a Cap ship that much of an upgrade in power over a turbo-laser, if any, and the TL ammo is much cheaper and virtually unlimited over the course of an engagement.

As for a missile Lancer, never heard of one myself.

From what I've gathered. Most larger capital ships simply have missles/torpedoes to deal with enemy m/t boats or bombers. I know in the X-Wing games at least that Caps would fire missiles at ranges beyond energy range. Normally into swarms of fighters and bombers or into smaller corvettes and frigates. Since a single PT or pair of CM could knock out most fighter craft and double that could take out most torpedo boats it makes for an effective crowd clearer.

I'm not sure, but didn't one gen of the ISDs dispense with missile launchers in favor of ion cannons?

As far as I know, neither of the ISD models used t/m launchers. In fact, I think only the ASD and VenStar were the only SD models to mount t/m launchers.

Generally the t/m were more popular on smaller ships that had to worry about being overwhelmed by fighters.

From Wookieepedia:

The Victory I-class Star Destroyer was well known for its battery of concussion missiles, however newer capital ships like the Imperial-class Star Destroyer replaced them with ion cannons because missiles were expensive and could only be carried in limited numbers.

Unfortunately, sources are listed but the statements aren't annotated, so as a reader it's anyone's guess as to whether this statement stems from an EU source, a toy line, or what.

I've never seen a VicStar with t/m on them. As to 'Only limited numbers" I think whoever put that in there doesn't notice the size between the t/m being fired and the ship that is carrying them.

Sounds like bull to me honestly.

It is quite possibly a load of bull. While the "limited numbers" bit referred to expense rather than magazine capacity, the article is from Wookieepedia - not necessarily a confirmed source.

I just checked the Databank and couldn't find anything on VicStars or ISD's having t/m mounts. I'm betting they relied on their own fighters for that.

Deepcrush wrote:I've never seen a VicStar with t/m on them.

Huh? VicStars have always had concussion missile launchers - eighty of them, with unknown magazine capacity. Two Vics used them to take down Reckoning in Isard's Revenge

Some ISDs also carry launchers - the Chimaera used her PTs in Spectre of the Past.

Databank records them as not having any t/m. Only Turbolasers, Ioncannons and Lasercannons. It may be possible that some ships have been modified over time though.

Deepcrush wrote:Databank records them as not having any t/m.

Which one? The ISD, sure, I was a bit surprised myself when I read SotP. The Vic, however, is one I've always read about having missiles - they're in the EGVV.

Both ISD and VicStar.

Lets all act surprised that SW details are messy.

This is why I don't trust any one canon source when it comes to SW facts and figures. SWTC is right 90% of the time though.