Mass Combat Ratings

[Mgellis]

This thread is providing specific ratings for specific aircraft, naval vessels, etc. for use with the GURPS Mass Combat rules.

To take full advantage of the granularity built into the Mass Combat rules, it is assumed that the Equipment Quality modifier of poor, average, good, fine, and very fine (p. 11) allows us to rate each class of ships, aircraft, etc. on a 1 to 5 scale (weakest to strongest) relative to the general type.

For example, Akagi, Yorktown, Kaiyo, Hermes, and Ranger were all TL 6 carriers with a base TS of 48,000. However, based on the Akagi and the Ranger both having about 60 aircraft, and Yorktown about 90, but Ranger being smaller and less seaworthy than some big carriers, we might rate them as...

Yorktown: 5 (Very Fine): TS = 120,000
Akagi: 4 (Fine): TS = 96,000
Ranger 3 (Good): TS = 72,000

and the other two carriers, relatively small and with only about 20 aircraft, as 2 (Average) and a TS of 48,000.

(I'm assuming 1 should be reserved for truly below average vessels, perhaps unusually small and/or poorly equipped for their type.)

(Mind you, some folks might disagree on those ratings, but I'm just trying to give an example here.)

For modern TL 8 carriers, I would assume that medium-sized well deck carriers like the British ones or Wasp-class amphibious assault ships (the phrase "amphibious assault ship" is usually code for "big honking helicopter carrier") would be a 2 or a 3, American supercarriers are a 4 or 5, and really small carriers like the Spanish and Thai ones would be a 1, not because they're bad ships but because, for aircraft carriers, they're really small. Each one only has about 12 aircraft and these have to be either helicopters or V/STOL jets like the harrier. (A Wasp is limited to these as well, but can carry something like 40 aircraft.)

For our first argument--I mean discussion, let us examine modern frigates and destroyers. On a relative scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the following classes?

French Lafayette
U.S. Burke
Canadian City (or Halifax)
German Brandenburg
Japanese Asagiri
Japanese Kongo
U.K. Type 23 (or Duke)
Soviet/Russian
Soviet/Russian

(And any others anyone would like to add...)

All of them are TL 8 guided missile escorts (base TS = 32,000). How do they stack up, compared to each other? Which ships are a 5, which ones are a 4, and so on?

I look forward to our conversions on this topic.

Mark