Commonwealth Navy vs. Earthforce

[Uraniun235]

The Commonwealth Navy from the Independance War space combat sim versus Earthforce of Babylon 5 fame.

Who wins?

[Hotfoot]

The Commonwealth Navy from the Independance War space combat sim versus Earthforce of Babylon 5 fame.

Who wins?

What time period for each?

[Uraniun235]

Commonwealth Navy has carriers and C-fighters.

Earthforce is just before the civil war and has it's fleet of Omega destroyers.

[Jason von Evil]

What's Independece War?

[Jadeite]

What's Independece War?

Its a space combat game.

[The Nomad]

Well, LDS-drive presents huge advantages for I-WAR, as well as the manoeuvrability of their starships, and LDA-shields. But I dunno if the power outputs of I-WAR ( high-megawatt for a 180 m long corvette ) can match Earthforce capital ships. Perhaps using hit-&-run attacks they'd win. Dunno.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Get me Clay and the CNV-301 Dreadnaught going against Sheridan in the Agaememnon and it will be fun.

[Balrog]

No clue about the strengths on the I-WAR fleet, but I still think EarthForce will wipe the floor with 'em

[Hotfoot]

I'll assume you mean then the Commonwealth Navy circa the first Independence War.

In that case, assuming that we do not allow the Navy the LDS-Aggressor Ram, it could be a tough call. With the LDS-Aggressor Ram, it's all over for Earthforce unless they can somehow manage to figure out LDSi fields before their entire fleet is destroyed (it's a weird game "feature" that was removed in the second game, so we'll ignore it to be fair).

LDAs give I-War ships a considerable advantage. While not "true" shields like Freespace/Star Wars/Star Trek, they do provide protection against bolt/bullet/missile attacks (beams do negate the effectiveness of LDAs, though use of beams in the first game is limited to a single cutscene). LDAs do, however, have a weakness against meson weapons unless fitted with a particle screen (unknown if this was standard equipment prior to I-War 2).

I-War weaponry is a little trickier to work with, since some sources place it in the terrawatt range, while other sources put it in the megawatt range. Seekers and REM missiles are likely to do significant damage to Earthforce ships, especially REM missiles.

Weakness for the CNV is the reliance on LaGrange points for interstellar travel. If Earthforce figures that out, they might be able to set up some nasty blockades against the Commonwealth Navy. Of course, all the Navy has to do is get in-system and then they can run around with LDS all that they want. Breaking the blockades would be...interesting, to say the least. At least it would be if the Navy picked up a few tricks from the Indies.

I-War Destroyers and Cruisers have some simply evil weaponry, and going by the fluff, they have tons of missiles as well. Unfortunately, there are no really good carriers in I-War 1, just some modified cargo ships and the Alabama. The Capital Class Carrier doesn't come into service until I-War 2, along with the Nova Heavy Cruiser and the other upgraded lines of combat ships.

But yes, Clay vs. Sheridan, head to head. I give it to Clay though. His ship was so badly damaged that he couldn't even get it to manuver so it could ram the target, so he separated the command section and gave his life to destroy the Spider, while Sheridan hit something smaller than his own ship while still having a mostly-functional drive and thruster array.

"Clear the Bridge."