A variant of the Frax War Destroyer, the Torpedo Destroyer gave up a disruptor and drone rack to add to axion torpedo mounts, firing on oblique arcs off the bow.

In theory, the DWT could operate at the same speed as the standard DW, holding a pair of axion torpedoes to deter an overrun. The weapons would also be effective in hunting cloaks, as they did not suffer penalty from a lack of a lock on. Unfortunately, the ship often found itself over-taxed at short range, as the two disruptors and the axions competed with each other for limited power. The ship appeared only rarely in Klingon simulators, often to the releif of prospective Klingon captains.

FRAX TORPEDO DESTROYER

Note: Was thumbing through SSD books and got this idea. Could a Frax surface ship make any use of the Axion torpedo? Torpedo-armed surface ships were a mainstay of many navies for more than a century, and while they are mostly defensive weapons today, during their hayday, they were nearly as lethal as submarine launched weapons. I went the the offset arcs to replicate a typical "fixed" torpedo mounting on a surface ship. An alternative would be to make some changes, and give the ship FX torpedo arcs, unable to fire down the forward centerline, this would be a resonable representation of larger anti-ship mounts found on WWII destroyers that could be trained to either port or starboard.

This is all admittedly pretty tongue-in-cheek. I'd like to try this out on a map sometime, but I have my doubts about its usefulness. Might cause a cloaker problems, but outside range 5, its not worth a whole lot. Anyway, enjoy. Comments welcome as always

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 07:05 pm: Edit

Odd. To be honest, the Axion doesn't really simulate a torpedo anyway; it just provides a tactically similar threat for a cloaked unit.

The Catfish drone is more like a torpedo, in that you aim it in the right direction, it zips along underwater being hard to shoot and it might miss. You can load a normal DW with Catfish drones anyway.

An alternative torpedo emulator might be a seeker that sideslip but can't turn (or has a lousy turn mode) but which has more hp and does more damage than a normal drone. Start with a type-H or Exocet.

I have a similar weapon here though it's more like plasma than a drone.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 05:11 am: Edit

This is mainly an effort to tinker with the Axion placed on something other than a sub. In terms of performance, it would really be more similar to most modern shipboard torpedoes, which tend to be shorter ranged and primarily defensive. I agree, to get the actual feel of say, a WWII torpedo, you'd need a weapon with range equal or greater than a Frax "gun", and with a lot more hitting power.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Looks good.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 07:04 pm: Edit

Sheepish admission here...

Upon reading this, my first thoughts on how to simulate the torpedoes that were used back in the days was the Worb Subspace Rockets.

IF they hit, they do crippling damage, just like the Whitehead type torpedoes (and unlike Axion torpedoes). They also take time (albeit not much) to reach a target at anything more than the closest of ranges, and they're less accurate against moving targets.

I know (and VERY much appreciate) the rules against tech-sloshing, BUT since the FRAX are purely simulator, aren't even ideas as bad as this one supposed to be possible there?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 04, 2019 - 08:26 pm: Edit

The people who invented the Frax had (at the time) never heard of Omega. By the time they did, the Frax were no longer relevant.

By all means, if you want to do it, do it. You don't need me to do it for you.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, August 05, 2019 - 10:00 am: Edit

Sticking closer to Frax "home", what about the SCUD missles? They do devastating damage if they hit, and have troubles with moving targets. How about just uses that as the basis, then scaling it down to be more ship-appropriate?

Just a thought.