The thing about a battlestar's main guns is that they have to face their target directly and the unenhanched BC-304s can take on hive ships that are not only bigger than they are but they also have more fighters as well.
Dogfight:BSG Viper vs SG F-302
- Thread starter Silversmok3
- Start date
The thing about a battlestar's main guns is that they have to face their target directly and the unenhanched BC-304s can take on hive ships that are not only bigger than they are but they also have more fighters as well.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
The main guns on a battlestar CAN traverse, we see Galactica's do it in the pilot. The Pegasus uses the same types of turrets, so it's logical they could too, we just never saw it clearly on screen.
304s can take on Hive ships because they use sneaky tricks like beaming nukes INSIDE the target. Barring that, they take it up the proverbial you know where.
A BC-404 would be dwarfed by the Galactica's hangar pods,much less the rest of the ship.
That said,BC-404B vs Battlestar will result in the following,as objectively as can be surmised;
An F-302 packs shield modulating AMRAAMS.If one can waste a mother ship,a wing of 10 can surely kill a battlestar .
If we exclude the fighters,the BC-404 will use her beam weapons to eviscerate the battlestar.And the -404B's shields will absorb whatever the basestar tosses back.
In turn,the basestar is much more massive than the -304B,and will consequently take much more physical abuse before being physically destroyed.
If we include every available tool and fighter,it could go either way depending on the strategems of the commanders of each ship.
The FTL on Galactica can be used more precisely than the -404's hyperdrive, and used effectively with their Raptors it could make life hard for the USAF ship...I mean,this would be a real complex fight,on the scale of WW2 aircraft carrier duels.It would come down to one missile or tactic to win the day for either side.
Its very possible in this hypothetical fight you'd just have two wrecked starships (and a lot of wreckage)in space,both too wrecked to kill each other.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
All shield modulating does is get you past the enemies' shields...it wouldn't do squat about the PDS fire from a battlestar's anti-air batteries.
Depends on the yeilds...remember a battlestar's armor can take a direct nuke strike and only have a slight uptick in interior radiation and some systems damage as a result.
True.
Agreed about the complexity, but disagree about the two drives. 304's would have the tactical advantage because they can open a window, fly in, then drop out 2 seconds later, turn right around and come back. A battlestar would have to spend time plotting the jump. jumping, then RE plotting while the drive "spooled back up".
Agreed.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Battery
The Galactica changed it's position before the battle stared in the miniseries. And there's little proof that their weapons could penatrate the shields of a BC-304. Shields and the mass of the ship make the difference, the BC-304s have fought a number of ships far larger than themselves and have won.
Getting back to the topic, the F-302 are the better fighter IMo but it would depend on the pilot as who win a one-on-one fight between the two.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
With all due respect, the footage from the mini specifically showed the guns both traversing AND elevating to engage the basestars at Ragnar Anchorage.
And there's no proof they COULDN'T penetrate the sheilds either. Remember that Hull Armor in the new Galactica universe is much sturdier than normal metals, capable of taking a direct contact multi-megaton nuke strike and not doing much more than letting a trickle of radiation in, making some sparks fly, and throwing people about a bit.
There's a pic on the web of Battlestar Galactica size compared to an aircraft carrier.The Galactica's pods alone could probably carry ten modern aircraft carriers.Its so small that ill bet the aircraft carrier could fit between the armor and the cabin spaces.
Since the -404 carries 16 F-302's,its not too much larger than an aircraft carrier.While the -304 does have the Asgard beams and weaponry,to do any serious damage the -304 will need to strike at vital systems.Picture a midget with brass knuckles made from diamonds boxing Yao Ming.
The only way the midget can send Yao to the floor is a shot to the family jewels.Otherwise Yao will just crush the midget.
Like I said above,it comes down to tactics and strategy.Admiral Adama vs SG-1 in their respective ships would be a battle worthy of sweeps week.It could go from a draw to a slight victory,and even then the victor's going straight to the drydock.
The Galactica is not that big.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Galactica_type_battlestar
And yeah here's the picture.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Image:Bsg-2-cvn.jpg
So i do thinkthe battle would be more evenly matched than you suspect.
When you have to start limiting one side or the other's obvious tactical advantages (like "un-modifying" a BC-304) you are essentially confirming the inequality of the two players. There isn't a vessel anywhere in the nuBSG universe that can last more than 60 seconds against a BC-304 (aka Deus Ex Machina class). Galactica's crew would all be dead before they even figured out the ship had shields or what "shields" even were. Two, maybe three beam hits and they're done.
To take this ability away for academic purposes is arbitrary and skews the results. The 304's were built to fight enemies who are still much more powerful than the Tau'ri, orders of magnitude more advanced than the Colonials and Cylons*. A Goa'uld Hatak, if it gets enough hits in, can still severely damage a 304, even with shield enhancements. We've already seen what Ori and Wraith ships can do. If such a ship can barely take on an unshielded, slow as snot, impossible not-to-hit ship completely lacking in directed-energy weapons, then the boys at Area 51 have obviously failed.
Truth be told, Adama would never be that stupid. And a ship's commander is as important a tactical asset as any technical spec. He would clearly devise some other tactic (after he got his head out of Roslin's ass, that is). What that would be is open to endless speculation.
That's why the fighter vs fighter square-off is much more interesting. Nothing about the ships, as they are, confers an automatic victory to either one.
* = It is obvious that the Cylons are among the premier experts at cybernetics in science fiction and that may confer advantages to them that any SG 'verse baddies can't immediately counter.
To take this ability away for academic purposes is arbitrary and skews the results. The 304's were built to fight enemies who are still much more powerful than the Tau'ri, orders of magnitude more advanced than the Colonials and Cylons*. A Goa'uld Hatak, if it gets enough hits in, can still severely damage a 304, even with shield enhancements. We've already seen what Ori and Wraith ships can do. If such a ship can barely take on an unshielded, slow as snot, impossible not-to-hit ship completely lacking in directed-energy weapons, then the boys at Area 51 have obviously failed.
Truth be told, Adama would never be that stupid. And a ship's commander is as important a tactical asset as any technical spec. He would clearly devise some other tactic (after he got his head out of Roslin's ass, that is). What that would be is open to endless speculation.
That's why the fighter vs fighter square-off is much more interesting. Nothing about the ships, as they are, confers an automatic victory to either one.
* = It is obvious that the Cylons are among the premier experts at cybernetics in science fiction and that may confer advantages to them that any SG 'verse baddies can't immediately counter.
The F-302 in The Fallen had a hyperdrive, the X-302 was destoyed in Redemption part II.
Of course the "stock" Daedalus can withstand multiple high-energy weapons strikes. The main guns would have to deal some serious damage to bring down the shields quickly. Not that I'm saying they wouldn't, but- The Colonials would have to be doing some pretty persistent nuke flinging to pull that one off. Not to mention the Colonials simply don't have a defense against critical components being beamed out of a Battlestar, or Naquadah-enhanced nukes being beamed in. SG-verse beaming works through shields, and them Earth folk loving using it as a weapon.
Sure, King Arthur and his men may be more numerous and well-armed, but the French have a castle, and a catapult they use for the occasional flinging of large objects.
To reference my conjecured post on what a battlestar vs BC-404 engagement would turn out,I left out beaming for a reason.One,to beam a weapon into Galactica requires a destination.Because Galactica posses a size advantage over the -404,the Air Force crew would need intel on the precise layout of a battlestar to enploy the Asgard beam without sticking a naquadah-enhanced nuke in the battlestar's reactor(s) and vaporizing everything in a square parsec-including themselves.Or putting it someplace useless.
And Galactica won't let the -404 sit still long enought to run deep enough scans of its guts.Assuming its nuke-resistant armor allows any return at all.