Striker sort of started out explaining how strong various military
organizations were. The _Rebellion Sourcebook_ does have a list of pop. vs.
tech level listing how many battalions of infantry are probably present.
Combining information from Rebellion Sourcebook ('_RS_') and from
Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium, we can get some good estimates of
fleet sizes. Quoting from para 1, pp. 27 of Rebellion Sourcebook;
"FLEETS
Each sector of the Imperium theoretically has a group of
fleets numbering about 1000 ships. This number includes combat
vessels such as cruisers, carriers, battlesships, and some
escorts; it does not include auxilliaries, support ships, and scouts.
...
NUMBERED FLEETS: The Imperium has about 320 numbered
fleets (Approxomately one for each subsector within the empirt).
A numbered fleet, depending on its mission, may have
between two and 10 squadrons amounting to between 50 and 200 ships. ...
Note the listing of combatant squadrons only. The 'some escorts'
descriptor in the first paragraph above indicates that they mean the 5-20kton
escorts from FSSI, not minor sub-kiloton escorts. Presumably, if you include
the smaller ones, they number about as many as larger vessels do.
So, now we need to determine what makes up a 'Squadron'... looking at
FSSI, we find a BatRon (Battleship Squadron) normally contains 4 Battleships,
or a battle tender and four riders. A CruRon has about five cruisers and about
as many escorts. A carrier-type CruRon (fighters) usually just has the
carrier itself. These are not hard and fast rules, but generally accurate.
There is also mention that they tend to collect like-typed ships into
squadrons. Having done a bit of organizational work, it looks to me as if most
squadrons will have been more mixed than that suggests. I can bet that they
are organized along lines of similar jump capability and similar maneuver
capability. (It makes little sense to put a J-3 BB-12 with a bunch of J-4
battleships, but a J-6 BS-15 might make sense. Simmilarly, if most of your
major warships are M-2, a M-1 one will slow the rest down, but a M-4 one will
add a bit of flexibility.)
- - -george william herbert
[email removed]
(next week I'll post a fleet I've been developing in detail for some work
I'm sending GDW.)