Many of the pirates and traders will have survived the turmoil of the clone wars and indeed will have profited from the conflict. Hard lessons have been learned and only the most stupid or poor traders keep the stock models that you have seen so far.
The average smuggler or freighter captain will only be able to afford modest upgrades, say improving shields or bolting on an additional weapon or two. At best they will have added a basic missile system, but nothing too alarming. These upgrades are common throughout the galaxy. Just as common are the huge variety of cheap salvaged ships, ranging from fighters to destroyers that are less dangerous than they appear to be. Bluff is a powerful weapon in a fight.
Some captains, however, are more daring and have heavily modified stock models for more profitable trading in active war-zones or off the major trade routes. Enter the Raiders and Assault Transports used by pirates and privateers. The Units Page has the stats of these new ships.
CT-11 Gunboat - a sad experiment used only by the worst of pirates. It has guns but no shields and is utterly pathetic.
HWK-290 Medium Raider - 4 Lasers, 4 Ion Cannon; 1 Octuple blaster cannon. This armament is tricky – true Quads are considered illegal by Imperial Law, so pirates have strung together 8 blasters to create the same effect. Technically they are blasters – and therefore legal – but as deadly as a quad.
YT-1300 Medium Raider – A custom smuggler ship armed with lasers, 2 quad blaster and side-firing concussion missiles
YV-666 Assault Transport – Fast, agile and heavily armed: It has 2 Dual Turbolaser turrets, 1 Dual Turbo-ion turret and a rapid firing proton torpedo launcher.
Barloz-class Heavy Raider – You don’t want to chase this as it has a surprise – 4 aft-firing proton torpedo launchers in addition to the Turbolaser and Dual laser cannon armaments. A true privateer mini-warship.
Guardian-class Assault Shuttle -Anyone think the Guardian was weak? – not any more.
This fairly rare model is crammed with weaponry. With 2 forward firing lasers, 4 turreted lasers and a heavy missile system this is a transport-sized interceptor ship with a mean punch.
Action VI Light Frigate – the old pirate stand by – armed with turbolasers and proton launchers.
Marauder-class Missile Corvette – With an armament of 4(40) Heavy concussion missiles this is a rapid firing fighter killer.
Quazar Fire-class Frigate – this is more of a corporate freighter conversion than a true pirate vessel, but with 16 lasers and Heavy concussion missiles, it’s still dangerous.
Fire Ships
Some of the cheaper transports have been converted into mobile bombs by packing their hulls with high explosives, and used by the more fanatical resistance groups. Intelligence reports also indicate that recent Ionite shipments may have been hijacked. Considering that Ionite allows energy to be redirected upon itself, thereby overloading the device that created it, large quantities of ionite in the wrong hands could be exceedingly dangerous!
Pirate Fleet Carriers
Pirates are not just content with raider ships, many have seen the power of the Venator in action, but lacking the resources to steal one, have still developed a range of fleet carriers, exploiting the large amount of damaged and salvaged fighter craft available on the black markets.
Super Transport VII Interdictor Frigate – a surprise unit for better pirates. And with a mix of lasers, ion cannon and concussion missiles it can also defend itself quite nicely in addition to its interdictor role.
Super Transport VIII Escort Carrier (Pirate) – A pirate fleet carrier also armed with Quads for local defense and a decent missile system.
Super Transport XI Fleet Carrier – with 16 pirate squadrons, turbolasers (stolen from Dreadnaughts), lasers and missiles, this is a poor-man’s Venator with an evil kick.
Droid ships
Many separatists have reconfigured captured or existing warships as droid carriers.
Valiant-class MC40 Light Cruiser (Droid) – these saw limited used by Separatist Mon Calamari, along with its larger Liberty-class MC80 Star Cruiser (Droid) cousin.
Venator I-class Star Destroyer (Droid) – a captured Venator re-fitted with veritable swarms of droid by the Separatists.
It should be noted also that the Invincible-class Heavy Cruiser now comes with a compliment of 8 fighters, and the Pirate version of the Recusant also has a noticeable Vulture droid fighter compliment.
While this gives a good picture of the more common pirate vessels, rarer, and more dangerous models may be in the hands of organised criminals and the super-rich.
Edited by Phoenix Rising, 11 December 2008 - 09:25 AM.
