Although this might be seen as necroing, I just had to add some factoids from the book. It's actually very nice and the illustrations are great, even making some of the funkier designs look good.
On the SSD section, they simultanously deny that Star Destroyer = destroyer in space, but at the same time accknowledge the destroyer type of warships. (Since they also call the
Recusant-class a destroyer earlier on, this is consistent). And it also means that, since the ISD is called a "destroyer" as well as Star Destroyer in several books and comics, it's both a destroyer, Star Destroyer and (according to this book) star cruiser (lowercase).
They also add that not only were most SSDs serving as sector command ships and mobile headquarters (i.e. the profile of all known
Executor-class vessels, the
Vengeance and Admiral Giel's flagship) but some served as dedicated starfighter carriers, mobile repair bases and communications ships (ROTJ novel reference?). The comm ships are mentioned in particular as having dozens of Holonet transceivers for this purpose.
On the
Viscount's page, the New Republic are said to have captured many SSDs from the Empire, enough to originally give doubts as to the need for the
Viscount-class. That's the first time I've ever heard the words "many Super Star Destroyers" and "New Republic" in the same sentence. Groovy. :P
I'll just go ahead and quote the whole SSD passage:
SOTG07 page 136 wrote:
The 19-kilometer-long Super-class Star Destroyers were the largest class of ships built by the Empire. (Though a few larger mobile space stations, such as the two Death Stars, were also put into service, they were neither common enough to qualify as a class nor, properly speaking, starships.) Each was equipped to shatter the backbone of enemy fleets, smash planetary defenses, and land enough troops to control important population centers. The only possible weakness of the ships is their lack of point-defense weapons, leaving them potentially vulnerable to massed fighter attacks if they lack escorts.
Some confusion exists about the official name of the Super Star Destroyer classes, much of it rooted in the idea that nothing 19 kilometers long qualifies as a mere "destroyer", super or not. This misunderstanding is based in the fact that the term Star Destroyer does not indicate a Destroyer-class vessel that happens to be a starship (unlike the terms star cruiser and star dreadnaught).
A Star Destroyer is named after the idea of a ship that has the power needed to destroy entire star systems, an omnious naming convention that goes back to the days of the Old Republic. Any ship that follows the design basics of those early ships (including a combination of massive firepower and a dagger shape to focus that firepower forward) can be a class of Star Destroyer. For this reason, the term Star Destroyer is always capitalized, unlike star frigate or star cruiser. A typical Star Destroyer qualifies as a star cruiser, and a Super Star Destroyer qualifies as a star dreadnaught.
Super Star Destroyers sometimes served as mobile repair bases, starfighter carriers, or communications ships (carrying dozens of Holonet transceivers), but most served the standard Super Star Destroyer role of sector command ship and mobile headquarters. Two Super Star Destroyers that fit this model are the Executor and the Vengeance. The latter vessel served as command ship for the Dark Jedi named Jerec, and though visually distinctive it had the same specifications as other Super Star Destroyers.
Some additional trivia: Both
Eclipses are mentioned as having begun construction around the Battle of Yavin, massed much more than any other Super Star Destroyer ever built and use 2/3 the power of one of the DS's superlaser components in their superlasers.
The
Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer is described as one of the largest and most powerful vessels in the Imperial Fleet, which basically means it's not necessarily the biggest warship in the Legacy era. That's promising.
The
Imperial-class is a multi-role warship that can be a assault warship, planetary defender or escort vessel for extremely important ships. Basically, a heavier, more independent update on the
Venator-class. Though they seem to wank to it, again, they also wank to SSDs and Star Defenders this time around. That's an improvement.
