I absolutely love the idea of the airships in Fo:E. I want to work one into my sidefic, but I haven't been able to find a way that doesn't seem forced.

Is there somewhere that has some detailed information on the airships? I find the wiki page to be woefully lacking.

4897942

the Enclave have airships instead of Vertibirds for some reason.

Well, the Enclave are a race capable of flight so I guess pre-war Equestria and/or the Grand Pegasi Enclave decided that air vehicles the size of 'vertibucks' would be a waste on raw materials. Size wise, not sure, but I think the Prydwywn is sort of larger than the Raptors. And as to what powers these giant magical behemoths? Yep, you guesses it, MAGIC!

4897942

I believe thunderhead is about the size of a city, since they act more as bases of the military and deploy raptors. you also forgot they have sky tanks and bombing chariots.

4897942

Firstly, the Enclave had cloudships.

Secondly, cloudships are not airships. Neither the Equestrians nor the Enclave fielded airships - the zebras did. It is mentioned that the zebras used zeppelins in the original. It is likely that they could have fielded an airship as large as the Prydwen, but I cannot ever see the Enclave using such a thing when they have a far greater, and more technologically superior arsenal of aerial vehicles to deploy, such as Thunderheads and Raptors.

As for the scale of ships, I imagine Thunderheads to be Prydwen sized, if not larger. They were able to launch Raptors and other aerial vehicles off Thunderheads, so they must have been immense. To me, they were mobile military bases, but not city-sized. Though I think in PH, Thunderheads were indeed city-sized (which is odd to me, because I don't think you could make a city fly in the air).

Raptors were meant to take on dragons (and were damn good at it), but remain mobile, so they were definitely much smaller than a Prydwen. Much, much smaller. I personally imagined them to be the size of a bomber craft - larger than a fighter (which in my mind would be a Vertibuck/bird, but those aren't canon) but with greater mobility and speed.

4897994

It is mentioned that the zebras used zeppelins in the original.

Because as we all know, zeppelins make superb attack platforms

The Prydwen is a good basis for imagining the size of a Raptor. Sky tanks (like the Tortoise) would be comparable in size to a Vertibird. (They would make up for the lack of VTOL wings by having more passenger space.) There is nothing in the Fallout games that is really the size of a Thunderhead, a vessel which would probably be best compared to a naval supercarrier.

4898005
someones burning the midnight oil

4898005

How could something Prydwen sized be maneuverable and fast enough to be able to chase after, evade, and or fight a dragon? I remember them dancing with the cyber dragon in your story. But how would that have been possible if they were as immense as the Prydwen?

4898014

I don't believe Raptors were ever described as "dancing" or being particularly nimble. They didn't kill dragons by outflying them; they killed them by deploying in numbers, wielding devastating firepower, and employing long-range, arcane targeting.

4898023

Interesting. I must be thinking about the sky-tanks in your story then. The Fo:E wiki talks about Raptors being "fast and highly maneuverable cloudships". I guess the wiki isn't to be trusted.

I have another question if you've got the time. Since the Enclave in your story didn't have verti(birds/bucks), at least as far as we've seen, what cloudship is equivalent in terms of firepower and speed? The Fallout wiki states that Vertibirds had missile launchers and gatling lasers, among other weapons, and I'm not sure if sky-tanks or bombing chariots were similarly armed.

4897946 I was thinking of putting airships into my sidefic. Already have an idea how to introduce them (Besides the obvious Enclave), but information on airships? That's rather tricky... I'm not so sure if there's any info I can recall that may help you out, I mean wikipedia comes to mind but I don't like the websites much even though they are filled with much details...

4897994 They have to be bigger then a bombing craft, given the a raptor has a hanger containing several bombing chariots. So probably about the size of a small aircraft carrier.

I like to hear your thoughts on these airships

badass

4898023 That sort of makes sense seeing as Spike survived so long during their attack on Enclave HQ. With the majority of the Enclave forces busy with operation Cauterize or licking their wounds, Spike had a significantly better chance then most dragons probably did when they faced them during the war.

Though if I remember correctly, wasn't the HQ gaurding the SPP control one of the Thunderheads? Well we know by size comparison that A Thunderhead is bigger then a Raptor, but what about firepower? It seemed like Spike was doing pretty well up to the point he lost an eye.

Though I do have to wonder, I would imagine that the Zebras would come up with a counter plan for Raptors eventually. Sabotages, boarding parties on dragons, floating mines in cloudbanks, we know at least some parts in the zebra lands do still have dangerous automated a defensiveness installations at least.

Thunderhead, a vessel which would probably be best compared to a naval super carrier

I echo my previous thread, how did the enclave lose.

4898283 Lose that battle with Spike?

Well remember that the Enclave was spread out already and suffered quite a few setbacks (either inflicted on or caused by themselves) during operation Cauterize.

Not to mention they the Enclave would be doing a lot of damage control on their civilians. Infiltration by Remedy and a few Alicorns probably didn't help that much when they took over a radio Enclave broadcasting station.

Theirs also the possibility that Thunderheads while effectively armed, weren't really prepared for an attack like Spike and Littlepip took to get to the SPP control. I'd imagine that a Thunderhead while capable of defending itself, isn't as great at attacking something that isn't really interested in actively engaging it. It probably relies on personnel and other more mobile forces for that.

Probably doesn't help that the Enclave has been living in isolation either. Though the Enclave strived to keep it's military in top condition, it probably could only do so much to keep equipment and personal at their best.

4898312

no I meant in general how did they lose.

didnt the equestrians use there version of the vertibird aka the vertibuck? i kninda use them in my fics, plus ive already some art of them online before

4898361 Overconfidence, no real way to foresee the type of battle they were committing too and incredible blunders on their part.

4898028

The Fo:E wiki talks about Raptors being "fast and highly maneuverable cloudships". I guess the wiki isn't to be trusted.

The wiki has a very small user-base to do contributing and fact-checking when compared to larger wikis. Many of the entries have text that comes from personal interpretations that aren't actually supported by the text of the story, from half-remembered scenes long after having read them, contain significant assumptions, or other errors. I know I've come across several things that I had to correct, ranging from vastly incorrect numbers to listing a character as the wrong species.

As for the question about the sky-tanks, I remember the Tortoise had multiple plasma guns (Described as being like the multi-barrel one Calamity had used on Topaz) and room for a dozen armored soldiers. I always pictured it as being similar to Vertibirds because of that, but that's just my impression. It filled the same role, in any case.

4898283

I echo my previous thread, how did the enclave lose.

Should we all echo the many, many reasons brought up in that thread? Because that's been pretty extensively answered.

4898406 Probably not much bigger then the air bus that Calamity pulled the gang in depending on the payload and armor.

Magic stuff certainly packs a punch, so it can be small. And armor is probably light to give protection but allow the pegasi pulling it greater range and speed to target. That is unless it's a big armored crate expected to take the damage.Would the Pegasi use a modified air tanks then or a Vertibuck? Then again, I could see them as nothing more then a chariot from the show, it simply having a a bit more armored then what we see in it and probably a bit more floor space for their cargo.

4898407

no, there's no version of vertibuck in the original since all members of the enclave can fly.

4898561 kinda meant during the actual war, where not everybody is a pegasus

4898725
They had skywagons (And chariots and sky-tanks) if you had a pegasus to fly you, and whirligigs (Such as the Griffinchaser) if you didn't.

4898014 The equivalent to a Vertibird would have been a pegasus in Enclave Power Armor.

4898406 Agreed, that seems about right.

4898361 As mentioned, overconfidence, limited resources, dealing with rebellion in their ranks during the fighting, and they really weren't a good military in the first place. They were still operating under the same playbook the Pegasi had been using in the war, where they were Equestria's shock troops, specializing in "Shock and Awe" tactics. The issue is that while they are great at showing up out of nowhere and wrecking shit with overwhelming force, they really have nothing to go on beyond that, since that doctrine was written while having the rest of the Equestrian Army to follow up their initial attack with the more sustained fighting needed to really carry a war. And they simply did not have the resources to wage a war of attrition.

4899290

How? How does a pegasus in power armor - armor that was built to be lightweight and mobile and functionally incomparable to Steel Ranger armor, be equivalent to a vertibird? A pegasus in Enclave power armor could never mount a 20mm autocannon or a rack of air to ground missiles, and thus could never be equivalent to a heavily armed close air support attack craft.

4899298 That's what Bombing Chariots and Sky Tanks are for.

There simply is no need, or place for a Vertibird type craft in the Enclave's TOE, every roll it could fill, is done by another existing craft, or simply be pegasi directly.

4899303

You are right. It would seem magical pony warfare in the original is uncomparable to contemporary human warfare, since battlefield niches appear to be filled differently.

Though this wont stop me from fleshing out combat in my own vision in my story. Thanks for the info.

4897942 i thought the thunderhead design was going to be more shaped like a crescent moon. thats what I've always believed them to look like because it would simply fit the picture the book writes more easily ( or at least, that is, for me )
I wanted the thunderhead to stick with its formidable and showoff/flashy military look, so why not make it
(a): huge and imposing
(b): seriously OP
(c): make it the kind of thing that is born to tear even the worst mutant (zebra built) creatures out of the sky
(d): make sure it looks like something equestrian would be proud of/would draw courage, hope, and relief/assurance when seen on the battle field