Does Union use Carriers/Riders?

This thread originated in:
The technology levels of the different races

>Date: Thu, 13 May 1993 19:45:04 -0500
>From: "Phil G. Fraering" <pgf@srl.cacs.usl.edu>
>Subject: cherryhlist

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4. Noone mentions riderships on Union vessels. Multi-ship operations seem to be inherently harder than large single vessels. A comparison would be between the Enterprise (i.e. the aircraft carrier) and a modern destroyer. Sure the destroyer's newer, but from an operations standpoint the Enterprise represents something much harder to operate, and ultimately much more powerful.

Phil

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>From: Onno Meyer <Onno.Meyer@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 16:17:19 +0200 (MET DST)

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> 4. Noone mentions riderships on Union vessels. Multi-ship operations
> seem to be inherently harder than large single vessels. A comparison would
> be between the Enterprise (i.e. the aircraft carrier) and a modern
> destroyer. Sure the destroyer's newer, but from an operations standpoint
> the Enterprise represents something much harder to operate, and ultimately
> much more powerful.

From _DS_: p.133 ... Back from Unionside. Carriers orbiting at Viking, four,
maybe more. ...
p.250 ... Union carrier _Unity_ ...
p.275 ... at the cost of one of _Tibet's_ riders ... at the cost of
one of Union's ...

The Union definitely uses riderships. Further more, somebody said in _HB_ something like "We'll see the first carrier/rider teams in six months. We would prefer our teams to be the first ones." (this is from memory).

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Onno

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>From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist: Union Fleet & Tech
>Date: Tue, 18 May 93 8:54:48 BST

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>4. Noone mentions riderships on Union vessels.

There is a borardgame called "The Company Wars" by Mayfair games. The earth side has 9 ships, each with 4 riders. Union has an ungodly amount of ships. They have dartships, destroyers, cruisers, carriers and one supercarrier, The Janus. Their carriers carry the susal four riderships. The Janus carries 8. The EC has the edge, in skill. The average EC ships needs to roll 8 or less on two dice to hit, Union needs 7. (Mallory needs 9 or less :-)
Cherry backs all this up in an essay called "The Company Wars", included with the boardgame.

Jo

See also: The 'Company War' boardgame

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>Date: Mon, 17 May 93 11:25:04 +0200
>From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
>Subject: Re:  C. J. Cherryh List

(...)

>4. Noone mentions riderships on Union vessels. Multi-ship operations
>seem to be inherently harder than large single vessels.

I always considered the fact that Union had "carriers" as proof that they would have something resembling rider ships (after all, that's why the Fleet ships bear that designation). The purpose-built Alliance warships (as mentioned in Serpent's Reach) are never called carriers. Of course, that's an older book, so she might not have had the terminology established at the time.

Still, the relationship "carrier <==> rider" seems to me pretty valid. (...)

	Markus

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>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Tue, 18 May 93 9:25:52 BST

(...)

 
> 4. Noone mentions riderships on Union vessels. Multi-ship operations
> seem to be inherently harder than large single vessels. A comparison would
> be between the Enterprise (i.e. the aircraft carrier) and a modern
> destroyer. Sure the destroyer's newer, but from an operations standpoint
> the Enterprise represents something much harder to operate, and ultimately
> much more powerful.

Aren't the Union ships called carriers? That would imply riderships. They also have fairly nifty spy ships, which the EC doesn't appear to have, using semi-independent 'spooks' instead.

(...)

			Lesley