Create your own order of Battle

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FTeik
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Create your own order of Battle

Post by FTeik »

Well, since no topic of interest to me has been posted for some time, i do one myself.

There are one million major worlds and fifty million colonies in the SW-galaxy. Assume, that they are equally distributed over thousand sectors, so each sector has thousand major worlds and fiftythousand colonies. Each major world counts as much as fifty colonies. All worlds contribute evenly to galactic economy. Ten percent of the major worlds have full planetary shields.

Create an order of battle for. THE EMPIRE!!!

You are the SupremeCommander of the ImperialForces. You have been given "charte blanche" by Palpatine after the Rebellion was finally defeated to make a complete overhaul of the imperial fleet.

The tasks of the fleet are:

On the sector-level, the fleet has to be able to

-protect commerce between planets,
-hunt pirates, smugglers, left-overs from the rebellion,
-serve as occupation-forces, aka, keeping the worlds of the empire in line,
-deal with uprisings of ten percent of the worlds of the sector at the same time.

Forces above sectorfleet-level have to be able to

-support sectorfleets if the number of uprisings in a sector breachs the ten-percent-barrier,
-increase the territory of the empire (assume a growth by hundred worlds per day),
-deal with an uprising of an alliance of at least ten Moffs, who try to replace Palpatine with one of their own,
-face an extragalactic invasion force of unknown size going to arrive within the next ten years.

How many ships in total (for a single sector as well as for the entire fleet) and how many ships of each kind would you take?

You have "charte blanche" but your fleet-size should still be reasonable.

How would your fleet look, if you could create your own ships (based on what we know about SW-technology, please no fighters or gunships, that could take on star destroyers, a gunship-sized vessel should have gunship-sized weapons, speed and troops)?

How many corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers and so on would you need/take and how would you group them together?



Create an Order of Battle for: THE NEW REPUBLIC!!!

You are the Secretary of Defense and responsible for the complete overhaul of the NRDF, now that the empire has been stomped (no ImperialRemnant). Since the econony has fully recovered money isn´t an issue. However, for political reasons a decentralisation of military power is wanted and so the worlds of the New Republic have permission to have their own defense-fleets. Since every world contributes equally to the galactic grossproduct a single world should be able to maintain at least one-millionth of your total fleet-size.

On the sector-level, the fleet has to be able to

-protect commerce between planets,
-hunt pirates, smugglers, left-overs from the empire,
-intervene in internal conflicts on at least ten percent of the worlds (single worlds).
-maintain the peace in conflicts between two different worlds (another ten percent)

On the galactic level:

-support the sectorfleets, if the number of internal conflicts surpasses ten percent,
-maintain the peace between groups of different worlds with up to ten worlds affected,
-form a fleet-reserve of ten percent.

For the rest: See above.
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Post by Super-Gagme »

Why don't you do your own work? :evil:
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phongn
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Post by phongn »

I did this here and on SB awhile back. Marina (Duchess of Zeon) has come up with an Imperial fleet...
The official revision of the Imperial Starfleet and Navy Upper Limit size estimates is now in. Herein I will admit to, albeit most vaguely, attempt to give measure to the larger possible size of the Galactic Empire's Starfleet and Navy.

The following figures are based on the WEG "One Million Member Worlds and 50 million Colonies, Protectorates and Governorships" statement in the primary sourcebook. Specific types listed therein are rended down to vague class generalizations of broadly "Saxonian" style.

Sector Group: 2 Mobile Deepdocks; 120 very heavy repair ships; 2,260 noncombatant resupply ships; 240 torpedo spheres; 28,372 Corvettes/Gunships/Light Frigates 101-449 meters long; 11,902 heavy frigates/light destroyers 450- 1,000 meters long; 80 heavy Destroyers 1,001-1,600 meters long.

This calculation is using the maximum augmented figures for a sector group as listed in the Imperial Sourcebook.

We can presume that since the book is set immediately after Yavin, and considering Imperial manufacturing capabilities as based on the second Death Star, that these fleet levels could have been reached in each Sector Group. The total tally shall follow.

Sector Groups (Total): 3,200 mobile deepdocks, 192,000 very heavy repair ships; 3,616,000 noncombatant resupply ships; 384,000 torpedo spheres; 45,395,200 Corvettes/Gunships/Light Frigates 101-449 meters long; 19,043,200 heavy frigates/light destroyers 450-1,000 meters long; 128,000 heavy Destroyers 1,001- 1,600 meters long.

Based on the 1,026 Sector estimate from the Phantom Menace (Number of saucers in the senate building), and giving it a total of 1,600 Sector Groups. This in turn is based on a rough estimate of the number of Sector Groups assigned to "Oversectors" (Which can vary from two to a score, and the number of Grand Moffs is implied to be not unsizeable), 250 Sector Groups hidden in the Unknown Regions, those hidden in the Deep Core, and any additional sectors that might have been added since the time of The Phantom Menace -- We know that the Empire, unlike the Republic, engaged openly in expansion and added numerous territories quite openly in several regions. Obviously the largest increase is the direct official statement in Vision of the Future saying the Empire has hidden away the military forces of 250 sectors in the Unknown Regions.. If not colonized that many sectors outright!

Colonies, Protectorates and Governorship defence fleets: 225,000,000 (Alternatively: 300,000,000) Corvettes/Gunships/Light Frigates 101-449 meters long; 225,000,000 (Alternatively: 300,000,000) Non-Hyperdrive equipped light picket ships; 50,000,000 multipurpose defence stations.

These figures use the Bakuran defence force of two 350 meter light frigates (Carrack Cruisers) and four 125 meter gunships, along with one multipurpose orbital station (As per the Truce at Baruka novel), and a patrol group of 6 IPV-1 picket ships that was mentioned in the Truce at Bakura sourcebook by WEG. It should be noted that Bakura is in fact a less than average colony/protectorate. It has one industry of particular interest, but not major (It produced novelty repulsorlift equipment), and a small population, less than a billion... 400-650 million, IIRC. Irrelevant, virtually, on the scale of galactic civilization with planets like Coruscant that have a population of 650 trillion beings.

If the Galactic equivalent of a small town in Alaska that makes custom landrovers is guarded by that force, I would consider it rather conservative to assume all other minor planets also have such protection. It is, however, a vast assumption. We know that other planets of a similiar nature were unguarded in other books, but for the most part we only see them post-Endor, when the warlords were massing fleets and expending them fighting each other on a vast scale. Our ability to rate Imperial defence forces is better typified by what is shown pre-Endor, only. Bakura represents a good baseline; other examples could and will be used to improve the figure. For major worlds, like Coruscant and other core worlds, I used the two Golan-IIIs as a firepower representation; this being based on the two guarding Coruscant that were presumably captured from the Empire, during The Krytos Trap. The heavy Destroyers (ISDs) are based on the assumption that the two left behind by Ysanne Isard were part of Coruscant's defence fleet. There was no reason to leave them behind otherwise; considering how few ships she had, she needed them badly. It would only make sense to leave them behind if they were part of Coruscant's traditional defence fleet, and if the crews, perhaps part of a local naval militia, would have been unreliable or simply refused to have followed her away from the world. The height of illogic would have typified the act otherwise. This figure also has limited support from several comics as well that suggest at least one ISD or heavy destroyer type is stationed above many other major worlds at all times. The rest of the fleet is assumed to be identical to that in size and ship-types to a colony world's fleet for the maximum conservativism, assuming that the heavier platforms and ships are added on for the member worlds to that standard fleet. Should computer games be added as official material, the number of platforms could be increased by around x3.

Member World defence fleets: 2,000,000 heavy Destroyers 1,001- 1,600 meters long; 6,000,000 Corvettes/Gunships/Light Frigates 101-449 meters long; 6,000,000 Non-hyperdrive equipped light picket ships; 2,000,000 Golan-III Battlestations (Or firepower equivalent in larger number of smaller stations.); 1,000,000 multipurpose defence stations.



Imperial Navy:

25,000 heavy Destroyers 1,001-1,600 meters long; 5,000 light/medium Cruisers 1,601 meters long to 4,999 meters long; 5,000 heavy Cruisers/Battlecruisers/Carriers/Battleships/Commandships 5,000 meters to 17,600+ meters long (Estimated Max superlaser equipped: 250.) Also: 6+ Torpedo Spheres.

Beginning basis in the "25,000 ISD" claim from WEG for the Imperial Navy. This claim was highly odd, because WEG's own figures suggest a minimum of 128,000 ISDs in their own Order of Battle. Likewise was the claim that only 6 Torpedo Spheres were in service bizzare when the Order of Battle suggested potentially over 300,000 Torpedo Spheres (Which made me conclude the idea of finding weaknesses in planetary shields was hogwash; with one bombardment fleet and one assault fleet, you'd have 200 Torpedo spheres, IE, 10,000 proton torpedoes a salvo, firing at the shields. That would batter them down using pure firepower, especially if the other armed ships joined in.). I chose a different interpretation. The 6 Torpedo Spheres and 25,000 ISDs are in the "Imperial Navy" according to WEG. In the Canon movies, it's always called the "Imperial Starfleet".
Considering this difference, in which you seem to have references to the Imperial Starfleet, and the context there refers to a body which is just that - the Imperial Starfleet as a space going naval force - one has to think that perhaps it is something different from the Imperial Navy, which may be a specific arm, something like the Grand Armada, a centralized and elite force of heavy ships.

Working out from this I concluded that the Imperial Starfleet has far more ISDs and Torpedo Spheres than those listed, while there is a group within the Imperial Starfleet specifically devoted to heavy combat engagements as opposed to "Coast Guard" duties that the Sector Groups and planetary defence forces do. This fleet contains the 25,000 ISDs and 6 Torpedo Spheres (perhaps more by the time of the Battle of Endor). It quite possibly also contains the following ships:

A minimum of 5,000 ships larger than ISDs, which is based on the five ISD escort for the Executor. We don't have any reason to assume that Lord Vader's squadron was a-typical, and it seemed to be constituted in a normal fashion, patrolling for rebels like any other part of the fleet might do. It also maintained that concentration during the time it was seen.

However, according to one computer game (Which are official according to Curtis Saxton's interpretation; by the rules of the FAQ, disregard the 10,000 figure and use the 5,000 figure), a ESB Arcade Game, another ship larger than an Imperator participated at Hoth, namely, in the search for the Falcon, though it was not at the initial attack. (It is possible it had a slower Hyperdrive, and in Lord Vader's haste, he left it behind.) I concluded then that three of the ISDs would be the Executor's escort, and two that of the other ship. From this, I derived the 10,000 heavy ship figure, split evenly between light and medium cruisers and vessels larger than that. The Six torpedo spheres are in three bombard lines of two spheres each, with the potential for more by the Battle of Endor. The superlaser guesstimate was based on a comparison of Sovereign/Eclipse and Executor numbers, and assumes that Superlaser equipped non-battlestation vessels would exist pre-Endor. They may in fact still be necessary to bring some of the higher-end firepower calculations in line with the AOTC:ICS firepower data, despite the size of this fleet, which is one of the reasons I included that for consideration.

Totals for the Imperial Starfleet: 3,200 mobile deepdocks, 192,000 very heavy repair ships; 3,616,000 noncombatant resupply ships; 384,006 torpedo spheres; 276,395,200 (Or 351,395,200) Corvettes/Gunships/Light Frigates 101-449 meters long; 231,000,000 (alternatively: 306,000,000) Non-hyperdrive equipped light picket ships; 19,043,200 heavy frigates/light Destroyers 450-1,000 meters long; 2,153,000 heavy Destroyers 1,001-1,600 meters long; 5,000 light/medium Cruisers 1,601 meters long to 4,999 meters long; 5,000 heavy Cruisers / Battlecruisers / Carriers / Battleships / Commandships 5,000 meters to 17,600+ meters long (Estimated max superlaser equipped: 250; Percentage of known Executors against Eclipses/Sovereigns as a comparison); 51,000,000 multipurpose defence stations; 2,000,000 Golan-III Battlestations; Other Support ships / Stations / Outposts: Unknown. Possibly as many as three times that number of defence outposts, based on the computer games, or even more, but that is not admissible evidence at ASVS at least, so they have been left out.

This is everything added together, and separated by ship type, as you can see. The total number of combat ships is around: 378,000,000 of all types (Rounded), roughly, plus 306,000,000 non-hyperspace capable picket ships, still capable of fighting of course, just no hyperdrives; some 51,000,000 platforms, plus many more we do not have accurate figures for. Also, around 4,000,000 resupply and support ships that are unarmed, and probably a lot more we have no accurate figures for, and finally 3,200 mobile Deepdocks, plus all the non-mobile construction / repair facilities that we cannot accurately guess of in total numbers.

Here's the stunning conclusion: In a total of all Hyperspace capable combat starships over 100 meters in length, divided among the 51,000,000 potential inhabited worlds of the WEG quote, we get an average of around 7, that's right, only seven ships PER INHABITED PLANET. I sincerely hope this gives you a true sense of the scope and scale of the Galactic Empire. In terms of an invasion force, only the Imperial Navy, with its 6+ Torpedo Spheres, 25,000 heavy Destroyers, and 5,000-10,000 Cruiser / Battleship / Carrier / Command rated ships would be realistically capable of entering and invading another galaxy.

The other 378,000,000 combat starships would have to stay in their home galaxy to police it against rebels, pirates, smugglers, terrorists, and potential yet highly unlikely enemy raids from the invaded galaxy or the unknown regions (Or, of course, a Vong arrival). Considering that the Imperial Navy is the only truly mobile force out of all these ships, the Galactic Empire would have essentially zero offensive capacity in its own galaxy during an invasion; only defence, except for the direct pacification of known, rebelling planets, and small operations within sectors. Any large scale offensive against the rebels or Unknown Region species would be impossible with the Imperial Navy committed to another galaxy; the Starfleet would just have to hold the line until the pacification either succeeded or failed and the Navy returned, or what was left of it. Of course, this assumes that the galaxy to be pacified requires the commitment of the entire Navy.

Essentially, the Empire is a massive organization in terms of pure numbers; but the necessity of guarding 1,000,000 major planets and 50,000,000 minor planets cuts so considerably into these numbers that no more than on the order of 25,000 destroyers, 5,000 cruisers, and 5,000 capital ships, supported by 6+ mobile bombardment platforms, could be used for an invasion, or rallied in one place to stop one. This is probably the fleet under Vader's command that was far-flung throughout the galaxy looking for the Rebels. He likely chose one region of space for himself, with the Grand Admirals taking the others, or administrating the Starfleet, which is unlikely considering it is an asset for the military governors, not the true navy with the above ships. One should think of the Persian system of governing, with Satrapies under the Great King, and each Satrap ruling sub-governors in turn, and all of them capable of mustering their own military forces, to understand the Galactic Empire in the proper context. Of course, local area ships could be, in an emergency, gathered to stand with this fleet, but such is likely to be necessary. After the collapse of the Empire, the individual Moffs and their ilk took control of the portions of the Starfleet and fought to the death, while the Grand Admirals also turned warlord, and more ships were hidden in the Deep Core for the clone of the Emperor, explaining the destruction of this once awesome fleet, through fratricidal combat.

Note that I welcome revision to these calcs, and they are admittedly on shaky ground, but the simple facts are that they match up with the known evidence about the size of the Empire, and a fleet necessary to patrol and defend said Empire, and also explain the huge inconsistencies in both official and canon material. Finally, there is one last thing to note. The Empire built the Death Star. An object that, when complete, would have massed as much as fifty billion Galaxy class Starships. Now, granted, an ISD masses considerably more than a GCS, but not remotely enough to make these figures implausible -- For the whole mass of this fleet is quite possibly less than that of the two death stars combined!

378,000,000 combat starships and 306,000,000 sublight picket starships may then indeed be a conservative estimate. It assumes that the average mass of each of those ships is somewhere on the order of seven (7) times the mass of a Galaxy Class Starship... If the entire Imperial Warship production line is only comparable to the completed Death Star II! Considering that 306,000,000 are 150 meter long sublight pickets, this is obviously not the case. Certainly some of the starships will be massive, but none larger than an Eclipse, and those are limited to some 5,000 capital ships even approaching that size. I would say that this fleet's existence is made reasonable by the existence of the Death Star II alone, if for no other reason.

Incidentally, the total number of crewers required for this fleet comes out as very roughly 40% of the population of Coruscant. (Assuming the accepted figure of 650 trillion people). Considering the number of worlds the Empire has.. Even with an army, they're still ridiculously under-militarized.

Again, the comparison with the Persian Empire fits. The Grand Moffs are like Satraps, the Moffs like the regional governors, and then the system governors under them like local chieftans or rulers of cities. In every case they were capable of raising their own militaries by their own expense, and had a duty to do so in time of war. They could even declare war on their own, and conduct some diplomacy with foreign powers. Obviously the Empire is more centralized, but the idea of the Starfleet consisting of a huge number of ships under a largely decentralized organization, with an elite central core, like the Immortals and Apple Guards of the central Persian Empire, can best be understood in this context. The Grand Moffs and Moffs, then, are kept in line by their rivalries, and by their mutual hatred for each other - or by fear of assassination (What do you think Mara Jade was for?) or outright acts. As a last resort, the military force of the concentrated navy, and those Moffs or Grand Moffs which hate one who should revolt, would serve to overwhelm.

Indeed, the Emperor, it has been stated in official material, appointed people as Moffs and Grand Moffs who hated each other's guts. This supports my theory, as having all the Moffs and Grand Moffs hating each other would make it easier for the Emperor to rule, as they would have only him to turn to, and could not form pacts among themselves. Also, this supports the Starfleet/Navy separation contention. In A New Hope, it's commented that the Rebellion poses a threat "To your Starfleet" but not to "This Battlestation". This is at a meeting held by the Grand Moff Tarkin. I would think that, since the word "Starfleet" is used in the movie in cases like this, while Navy is only seen around the 25,000 ISD figure, that it provides further support: The Admiral in question was the commander of Grand Moff Tarkin's personal Starfleet, which was separate from the Navy, and hence called a Starfleet. Rather simple, when you consider it. That's why it was referred to as a Starfleet there, but in the books, especially around the 25,000 ISD figures, it's called a navy.

As for the argument that the WEG stats I am using reflect goals of the Imperial Starfleet, not what was actually completed, consider this: the WEG Imperial Sourcebook is set immediately after the Battle of Yavin. Remember the speed at which an object the mass of 50 billion Galaxy class Starships was built... In six months, 25 billion GCS masses were assembled by the Empire. And all I'm arguing is that the Empire could have built on the order of 120 million starships in 3.5 years... Far less expenditure than the Death Star, even were they to mass a hundred times the mass of a GCS, each, which the average Imperial starship, built for customs and picket duty, obviously does not.

(I assume the other 258 million Hyperdrive equipped ships were already in service based on the ratios between minimum and optimal sizes for the sector fleets. Even if none of the non-hyperspace equipped ships had been built yet, their total is such that they and the 120 million starships in 3.5 years would still fall well below the production capability of the Empire as required for the DS II.)

Observing this, it seems that the industrial capability of the Empire is more than up to the task, and the Empire moreover needs these ships to police its borders. The evidence is rather circumstantial, I admit, but I would contend it does point towards the fleet size I have estimated above.

I would request such data and suggestions as might refine the estimates.
Andras argued some problems with it, though:
Marina's calc is actually far short of the actual fleet strength. Here's why- She assumes 1600 total sector groups, yet the the Empire went on an expansion spree and added "countless regions, some of which contain thousands of sectors" to that was the Old Republic. In addition, the last line of the Imperial fleet chapter of the Imperial Handbook, states the Emperor can call on "thousands of sector groups". IMO, there are between 3000<10,000 sector groups.

Marina's numbers are roughly 2-6 times too small for the Fleet portion (not the planetary defense forces portion).

However, she did over estimate the number of torpedo sphere's and Assault fleets. Bombardment Fleets are not needed in every sector, they are a mobile resource deployed to sectors that the Empire determines it has less then a 50% chance of preventing open revolt. Assault Fleets transport the offensive strength of the Imperial Army, and again, it won't be needed for every sector.

I'd guess there'd be less then 1 of each for every 10 sectors
FTeik
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Post by FTeik »

Super-Gagme wrote:Why don't you do your own work? :evil:
Why don´t you kiss my hairy ass? :evil:

Seriously, i didn´t start this topic to masturbate about the potential power and size of fleets in SW suggested by their industrial infrastructure, but a realistic outluck based on mission-profiles and not numbers made up by WEG.
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Post by FTeik »

The contributions so far aren´t very encouraging ... :?

Alright, then i will begin:

a) protect commerce between planets:

I can´t think of another threat to commerce, that would be dealt with by the military than pirates. Until pirates get their hands on interdiction-technology freighters and transports should be relatively safe while in hyperspace. That means, that the critical areas, where raids and attacks are to be expected would be points, where hyperspace is entered or left. If not more than one jump is needed from starting point to final destination we get a minimum of 51,000 points per sector to supervise.

This number could probabely be reduced by the following factors like the fact, that colonie-worlds wouldn´t have the amount of traffic a major world would have or the measure of conducting transports only at certain times or regular intervalls (on agricultural worlds after the harvest for example) and by a selection of spots, where pirates would have enough time available to assault, board and take over their prey before help or reinforcements could arrive.

Lets say those circumstances allow us to reduce the points to supervise to one quater of the original number. That would still leave us with 12,750 different places where our fleet has to show presence. Now we don´t have to be physically present to cover those areas. A 1:5 possibility of our forces to appear combined with an erratic and unpredictable patrol-pattern should be enough to make every pirate think twice before he is going to conduct his business.

If this system would be realistic, we would need 2,550 ships or groups of ships.

I think the possible ships best suited for such tasks would be Lancer-Frigates, Carrack-Cruisers, Strike-Cruiser and Vindicator-Class-HeavyCruisers. If you only want to defend yourself you should use a combination of Carrack-Cruisers and Lancer-Frigates, if you want to do more use Strike- or Vindicator-Cruisers and support them with an Interdictor.

Possible combinations:

-Four Carracks and four to eight Lancer: 8-12 ships, with a total of 16 TIEs.
-One Strike (modified to carry three squadrons), two Carracks, two to four Lancers: 5-7 ships, with a total of 44 TIEs.
-Two Vindicators and one Interdictor: 3 ships, with a total of 72 TIEs.

Assuming maximum numbers we would get between 30,600 capital ships with 40,800 TIEs, if we take the smaller ships or 7,650 bigger ships
with 183,600 TIEs, if we decide to protect our convoys by the big cruisers.

Possible flaws:
- freighters and transports would have to make more than one jump to reach their destination,
- the ships we have aren´t enough, because we have them at base for supply, maintainance, vacation of the crew and so on,
- the pirates could get wind of our patrol-patters and adapt their raids,
- the pirates don´t limit their raids to ships, but attack our colonies, too,
- others i didn´t think of.

Thoughts, comments?
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Post by hvb »

The 51,000 number, late quartered, assumes that all commercial ships arrive and depart at only one point at the 51,000 worlds. This is not likely so.

Departure is hopefully done from sufficiently diffuse locales in the system that pirates must lurk at the planet (thus comming under the guns of one central force located there) if they want to go after departures. Thus they can easily be forced to go after inbound traffic.

It is likely nessessary to have at least about 6 points in each system where inbound traffic can arrive, 3 each placed above and below the system ecliptic and spaced so one will be on the near side of the sun from the incomming hyperspace traffic lanes.

The level of force deployed at each of these points will need to vary faster then pirate informers can holonet their ships where the patrols are: the pickets must cycle constantly, both insystem and between systems, to vary the total numbers available, in order to make the "1:5 of patrol sites occupied" work as a deterrant.

Also note that having everyone arrive at one (or as I suggest here 6) points in a system will be a traffic control nightmare for planets with any real level of traffic (look to Coruscant for a feel at the density level of the traffic around the 1,000 member worlds): the larger destinations would need to split arrival points up further just to cope with the density of arrivals at a given point.

Colonial ag-worlds etc. (like Tatooine :wink: ) could likely make do with 1 point on the side towards the center of the sector, all trafic incomming from another direction would have to reroute through a mulit-point system or arrive at the wrong side of the system and take their chances.

Patrol frequency should include a variation in the time a patrol stays after arrival as well as a likelyhood of the patrol position being occupied. Less important worlds could thus be patrolled by taking a 1 minute peek every hour or so. This would be costly in fuel, but cheaper in ships, and work better against pirates then against smugglers (see below).
-hunt pirates, smugglers, left-overs from the rebellion,
Something like 5% of the force needed to do commerce protection, taken mostly from the heavy mixture, should be sufficient to deal with these tasks. So this could be considered part of the commerce protection cycle: 5% in ready reserve or actively chasing known targets.
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Post by consequences »

Remember that the Mining Guild in the Old Republic had a presence(or at least mining rights) in billions of systems, most of which are uninhabited, and thus would have no inherent fleet presence.
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Post by Mr Bean »

Fast response teams are always the best method when your trying to defend a ton of area from few but numorus low end enemies
Say, a pair of Interductors with a ride along Lancer each with a Vic providing Troop support and heavier firepower, give them a territory and have them patrol or escort.

Half a dozen tweaked bulk freighters would not stand a chance aginst such a fore and a strong force, plus with the lancers focusing around anti fight support unless the enemy brought a couple of Dreadnaught then you should be easily able to handle any enemey with the Interductors providing trapping abilitys and sinces you have two you can't sucide aginst one

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