Which B5 Fleet would you take.

colmquinn · Post by **colmquinn** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:49 pm

Thats one of the things I liked about B5, the ability of fighters to do serious damage (as they can on earth) against larger targets and the obvious tactical advantage that gives in a battle. I know the weakness of relying on a large group of short range fighters but the carrier concept is sound and makes for many more options in a military situation. I konw its bordering on common sense but it isn't trek were talking here

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:01 pm

The centari would be a tough fleet to command. I would use them in mostly hit&run strikes and commerce raids. They just don't have a fleet that is well built around large scale combat.

colmquinn · Post by **colmquinn** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:18 pm

I agree with your points about them but with the right leadership they could be great though the Centari leadership seems to be rather fractous, besides their obsession with the Narn has blinded them.

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:19 pm

They also couldn't go toe to toe with most races. They were smart and used strike groups and not whole fleets for battle.

colmquinn · Post by **colmquinn** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:36 pm

I do agree that at present they're lagging behind the larger fleets but with their industrial capacity and obvious know how, not to mention some shadow tech I sure they managed to "aquire" they could be one of the prominant races again. Granted most other races have access to advanced tech too but the Centari have the industrial clout mainly untouched by the war to come out stronger. I haven't seen all of crusader and only just got a copy of the lost tales so bear with me if I'm falling behind current events.

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:53 pm

I have heard word of a new battle ship design but it wouldn't be built in mass. By the way so that you know their fleet is also in fair shape as they only lost about half of their ships in the war. They need to build a heavy warship that can go head to head with the warlock and sharlin. Otherwise they just won't regain they former power and will to stick to the weaker races.

colmquinn · Post by **colmquinn** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:06 pm

Thanks for info, I plan to make time at weekend to watch the lost tales, I've even arranged to borrow an LCD projector to hook up with my surround to enjoy it at its best

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:58 am

Anytime, like I said I have heard rumors of a battleship class in their fleet but it seems to be very few in number. Their main ship of the line is still that aging primus which just isn't a match for the newer fleets around. The vorchan can be mass built and comes with a lot of heavy weapons but seems to take very little damage and so would have very little armor. The lack of a heavy warship means that they won't be able to match EA which is their equal in numbers but is growing and coming out with more powerful ships. The Omega was about the match to the primus. The primus had better ranged weapons but the omegas have shown heavy armor and large numbers of fighters. EA's massive growth now puts the centari at the number 3 power slot. With the EA in second and the Membari running the top slot by a mile.

colmquinn · Post by **colmquinn** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:24 am

I know what you're saying deep and I do think they would end up no. 3 in the pecking order but I'd really like to see the new ship they have, their others looked so stylish , its bound to be good

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:04 pm

Its supposed to be styled like the primus but 3 times the size and 3 or 4 times the firepower. What makes it such a change for the centari is that its going to be heavily armored. The idea was to build a ship that could beat the Excalibur or at least match it. This plus what was thought to be a late or post series upgrade and refit to the primus is meaning to put the centari on terms with the EA. To be honest, I just don't see that happening. They lost half of their fleet which at the start was the same size as earth force but with better tech. Now the EA has both shadow and membari tech plus the new warlock which isn't far behind the sharlin in battle standards the tech race as closed. EA also shows that it can build ships at an insane rate, even faster the dominion, plus its building larger ships (this isn't Uni vs Uni, its just so you have some basis to go from) then what the dominion ever built. At the end of the membari war earth force was broken and left with only a small fraction of its starting fleet. 15 years later at the end of the series its numbers were greater then the centari republic being made up of mostly omegas which though not a match for the membari or centari fleets was still one hell of a ship. Now the new warlock is being built and between the end of season 4 and the start of season 5, EA had built around 50 of them, on top of the other ships they were still building. Earth's ship yards must be massive! Most of the cargo ships you see in the show are human built, even though JMS had made such cargo ship types for every race. The novels talk about earths ship yards being paid by other races to build for them and how human cargo ships were hired to ferry for other races as it was cheaper to hire human to do the work since they already had the ships to do "whatever" with. Earth became powerful because she did what few other races did. Earth took its power from trade and commerce. When on ship yard was finished the crew moved on to build another one. So much so that they had to start build ship yards outside of the Sol system. The membari must be close to this since they seemed to turn out ships whenever they just needed them. When they used "minor funds" to build the whitestar fleet of near 100 ships they weren't even noticed by their own government until they openly told them, who lets face it, was pretty good at maintaining a watchful eye. The centari would have to do nothing but build ships and yards for the next 20 years if they hope to catch up to earth. I wouldn't put it past emperor kato but its hard to tell so soon.

Reliant121 · Post by **Reliant121** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:48 pm

Only just discovered this topic. It may be old but i dunna care.

I would vouch for the Minbari fleet. Their grace and poise combined with their Deadly sting. The Sharlin's are just the most swan-like vessel. As i said above. Graceful yet supremely dangerous.

Deepcrush · Post by **Deepcrush** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:21 pm

The membari fleet is very impressive. With numbers the near equal of both post B5 EA and pre-war CR. Yet, their ships are far superior to all the younger races. They combine a great scale of beauty mixed with amazing firepower. They also have most likely the single largest 'fleet building' capacity of all the younger races. I also like that their whitestars are a even match for an Omega class warship yet are only 1/10th of the size and far faster to build.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:56 pm

Deepcrush wrote:The membari fleet is very impressive. With numbers the near equal of both post B5 EA and pre-war CR. Yet, their ships are far superior to all the younger races. They combine a great scale of beauty mixed with amazing firepower. They also have most likely the single largest 'fleet building' capacity of all the younger races. I also like that their whitestars are a even match for an Omega class warship yet are only 1/10th of the size and far faster to build.

I thought it took 3 or so Whitestars to go up against an Omega...?

mlsnoopy · Post by **mlsnoopy** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:44 pm

what I faund interesting was that at the start of the second season EA could not taget Mimbari ships. But at the end of season 4 they had no problem.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:48 pm

mlsnoopy wrote:what I faund interesting was that at the start of the second season EA could not taget Mimbari ships. But at the end of season 4 they had no problem.

Thank you Shadows!