So, did the rail guns on the 304s ever actually damage an enemy capital ship?

[Bateluer]

I've watched quite a few eps of SGA and SG1 with BC-304s, many with them lighting up enemy ships with their rail guns, but I've actually seen them do any damage to them. Are they anti-fighter weapons only?

 

[brainhulk]

 

[Bateluer]

I take it back. Season 3 premiere of SGA, the Deadalus's rail guns opened fire at the dart bays on the hive ship causing secondary explosions of the darts within the bay. Not exactly what I was looking for but I guess they did something.

 

[ViRGE]

I take it back. Season 3 premiere of SGA, the Deadalus's rail guns opened fire at the dart bays on the hive ship causing secondary explosions of the darts within the bay. Not exactly what I was looking for but I guess they did something.

That's really all they ever did. Without Asgard beams the 304 wasn't a match for Wraith cruisers and hives, it certainly wasn't a match for the Ori, and I don't recall a 304 ever going up against a Goa'uld ship.

 

[Glitchny]

Yea the rail guns pretty much suck. The human ships weren't good until they got then asgard beam tech.

 

[Bateluer]

That's really all they ever did. Without Asgard beams the 304 wasn't a match for Wraith cruisers and hives, it certainly wasn't a match for the Ori, and I don't recall a 304 ever going up against a Goa'uld ship.

The Ori ships pretty much mopped the floor with everything in the Milky Way from what I remember.

And the 304s came online pretty late in the series, by that time, most of the Goa'uld weren't much of a threat any more. Still, would have been cool to see a Ha'Tak and 304 go at it.

 

[ViRGE]

The Ori ships pretty much mopped the floor with everything in the Milky Way from what I remember.

And the 304s came online pretty late in the series, by that time, most of the Goa'uld weren't much of a threat any more. Still, would have been cool to see a Ha'Tak and 304 go at it.

Indeed. The 304 was a Battlecruiser after all; it's meant to blow up other ships, especially the damn Ha'Tak.

 

[Mo0o]

The Ori ships pretty much mopped the floor with everything in the Milky Way from what I remember.

And the 304s came online pretty late in the series, by that time, most of the Goa'uld weren't much of a threat any more. Still, would have been cool to see a Ha'Tak and 304 go at it.

I never watched until the full resolution of the Ori storyline. What happened in the end?

 

[Newbian]

I never watched until the full resolution of the Ori storyline. What happened in the end?

The beam weapons were able to destroy the Ori ships in the last episode but one of the movies made it so the Ori were no longer a threat.

 

[Bateluer]

The beam weapons were able to destroy the Ori ships in the last episode but one of the movies made it so the Ori were no longer a threat.

I thought they used one of Merlin's weapons to actually kill all the ascended Ori, it was just the Pryors, ships and soldiers they had to contend with after that?

 

[FallenHero]

I thought they used one of Merlin's weapons to actually kill all the ascended Ori, it was just the Pryors, ships and soldiers they had to contend with after that?

They had to deal with Vala's daughter gaining all the power of the combined Ori since she was the only ascended being left. The movie wraps it up nicely.

 

[Jeff7]

That's really all they ever did. Without Asgard beams the 304 wasn't a match for Wraith cruisers and hives, it certainly wasn't a match for the Ori, and I don't recall a 304 ever going up against a Goa'uld ship.

The Prometheus (303 though) did go up against Anubis' mothership, though its primary goal was a collision course.

Those railguns though were pretty much there to irritate large capital ships, and take out smaller ships. They seemed to rely more on missiles for capital ships, not that they were terribly effective either. At least in the case of the Wraith, those ships were just huge. And anything else had shields.

No Asgard = Tauri use BB guns on everything.



Oh, and the 304s did use the railguns to inflict a decent amount of damage on unshielded Aurora-class Replicator ships. Once they got the shields up though, the railguns were able to generate a nice light show, and not much else.

 

[ViRGE]

The Prometheus (303 though) did go up against Anubis' mothership, though its primary goal was a collision course.

Those railguns though were pretty much there to irritate large capital ships, and take out smaller ships. They seemed to rely more on missiles for capital ships, not that they were terribly effective either. At least in the case of the Wraith, those ships were just huge. And anything else had shields.

No Asgard = Tauri use BB guns on everything.

Well they could beam over nukes long before they had the Asgard beam weapons, but yeah, the point stands.

 

[ElFenix]

i know what i'm eating when i get to amsterdam

 

[Arkaign]

Hah, thanks for the waffles. I think my nerd points just edged over 9000 by being present in this thread, I have no idea wtf any of you are talking about. Carry on

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The Ori ships pretty much mopped the floor with everything in the Milky Way from what I remember.

And the 304s came online pretty late in the series, by that time, most of the Goa'uld weren't much of a threat any more. Still, would have been cool to see a Ha'Tak and 304 go at it.

In the first episode featuring the Odyssey it went up against a couple of Baal's motherships. If I remember correctly the railguns only did minimal damage.

What I really don't get is how the Hammond couldn't take out 4 Lucian alliance Ha'Taks in the SGU premier even though the other 304's could massacre Ori and Wraith ships like they were nothing.

 

[Jeff7]

In the first episode featuring the Odyssey it went up against a couple of Baal's motherships. If I remember correctly the railguns only did minimal damage.

What I really don't get is how the Hammond couldn't take out 4 Lucian alliance Ha'Taks in the SGU premier even though the other 304's could massacre Ori and Wraith ships like they were nothing.

Unfortunately, TV writers aren't too big on consistency.
(Or any sense of how much space there is in space. The Phoenix, another 304, was "outmaneuvered" and "blocked" from escaping by 3 lumering Hive Ships, before its destruction. Then you've got maneuvers like at 1:59, where they've got a fleet of at least a dozen ships all around, and they quick zip out of there without much problem.)

 

[kyrax12]

I remembered when several ships opened fire with rail guns against four ori warship but it didn't even blew past the warship's shield.



Rail guns are pretty obsolete against warships.

I just think of it as Anti-fighter weapons.

 

[Glitchny]

In the first episode featuring the Odyssey it went up against a couple of Baal's motherships. If I remember correctly the railguns only did minimal damage.

What I really don't get is how the Hammond couldn't take out 4 Lucian alliance Ha'Taks in the SGU premier even though the other 304's could massacre Ori and Wraith ships like they were nothing.

Plot Device

What I want to know is how every human ship in sci-fi history seems to have explosive gas mains and other shit running through the bridge... and that it explodes every damn time they get in a fight.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I was sad that they never seemed to show missile spam from the human ships. Rail gun spam isn't terribly exciting when all they do is kinda scratch the enemy ship.

Some more Naquada Enchanced Nuke spam would have been pretty awesome. Though they had the entire "enemy ships can shoot down missiles but can't shoot down fighters with humans inside them" thing going on

 

[Jeff7]

Plot Device

What I want to know is how every human ship in sci-fi history seems to have explosive gas mains and other shit running through the bridge... and that it explodes every damn time they get in a fight.

Pretty well like when the Daedalus was being chased by some powerful alien fighters, and the ship's engines failed. It immediately slowed to a halt, allowing the aliens to catch up and create some level of tension, apparently because in that particular reality, space has the viscosity of cold butter.

I was sad that they never seemed to show missile spam from the human ships. Rail gun spam isn't terribly exciting when all they do is kinda scratch the enemy ship.

Some more Naquada Enchanced Nuke spam would have been pretty awesome. Though they had the entire "enemy ships can shoot down missiles but can't shoot down fighters with humans inside them" thing going on

One other issue with rail gun spamming would be storage of munitions. With the quantity of shots they get off in even a small skirmish, it seems that a large portion of the ship's mass would just be ammunition.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Pretty well like when the Daedalus was being chased by some powerful alien fighters, and the ship's engines failed. It immediately slowed to a halt, allowing the aliens to catch up and create some level of tension, apparently because in that particular reality, space has the viscosity of cold butter.

Side effect of the inertial dampeners. It dampens the tendency of an object to resist motion, but it also dampens the tendency of an object to stay in motion.

 

[Jeff7]

Side effect of the inertial dampeners. It dampens the tendency of an object to resist motion, but it also dampens the tendency of an object to stay in motion.

Then, options:
1) If the engines fail while bad guys are chasing, turn off dampers.
2) Focus the dampers on enemy weapons fire, to slow it down and evade it.

 

[Bateluer]

Pretty well like when the Daedalus was being chased by some powerful alien fighters, and the ship's engines failed. It immediately slowed to a halt, allowing the aliens to catch up and create some level of tension, apparently because in that particular reality, space has the viscosity of cold butter.

That made me laugh.

One other issue with rail gun spamming would be storage of munitions. With the quantity of shots they get off in even a small skirmish, it seems that a large portion of the ship's mass would just be ammunition.

In the Season 1 finale of SGA and season 2 opener, they said a standard magazine for the rail guns holds 10K rounds. Rail gun ammunition is just a tiny metal slug. Moving very very fast.

 

[Jeff7]

...
In the Season 1 finale of SGA and season 2 opener, they said a standard magazine for the rail guns holds 10K rounds. Rail gun ammunition is just a tiny metal slug. Moving very very fast.

And yet slow enough so that it can take a second or two to cross a few thousand meters on-screen.
Now if you'd ramp those rounds up to maybe 20% c, then you'd start packing some significant energy into them. But tiny metal rounds against shields....well, it's a nice lightshow.