For my new group, I'm thinking one of the recurring thorns in their side should be an Imperial Naval officer tasked with hunting down pirates. You know, an obnoxious, self-important wag that they keep meeting in social situations where they can't just start shooting, and also in the depths of space, where they can start shooting. I'm not sure what such a character would have for his ship. He's certainly not high enough on the food chain to command a Star Destroyer (he's hunting criminals in backwater posts, not fighting a war), but he does need something that your average fighter or light freighter wouldn't want to tangle with. Whaddya think, would a pirate hunter have a complement of TIEs? Or just a few Z-95's that could provide fast, maneuverable support?

An Arquiten?

Hmm might be worth asking yourself where do all those Clone War era warships ended up those that survived that is?

Could have a running gag where he turns up with a Clone Wars era warship, loses it for some reason only to turn up with another like an Acclamator then a Venators and so on.

Eventually you reveal he/she has been helping themselves to a hidden Imperial surplus site, now how much could they get if they stole what's left?

Lord knows the Rebels could use the extra ships...

The Imperial Customs Frigate in Fly Casual.

What's the size of what's being hunted? If he's a convoy protector/fast response (e.g. starfighter raids and the like), he could get away with a Silhouette 4-5 patrol frigate. If he's smashing pirate bases and shadowports, I'd say it'd definitely have to be a capital sized one, probably a Nebulon B.

CR92a Assassin (Sons of Fortune)

Adz-class destroyer (F and D Core)

Vigilance-class Corvette (A of R Core)

Nebulon-B all the way. Perfectly equipped and sized for hunting down a rogue corvette or two.

I'm liking the look of that Vigil-class destroyer. Or the Assassin corvette. I know they don't have a hangar for fighters, but do you think it's reasonable to say that most large ships could dock with a smaller one and carry them along on hyperspace jumps? Like could there be a couple TIE fighters or headhunters attached to the outside, ready to be deployed in an engagement?

The OP said Imperial, so I would assume that anything not made by Sienar, Kuat, or other shipbuilder for the Empire would be off-limits.

To fill the role of something used as a “Corvette Hunter”, I would think you would want something Silhouette 6 or 7 — see http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/?order_by=silhoutte&flattened=true

I was surprised to read that the Nebulon-B was widely used by both sides. But Corvettes would have a really hard time against a Neb-B. A Star Galleon-class frigate could be used as an “unpleasant surprise” for Corvette pirates, however.

Beyond that, I think you have to get into smaller Cruisers and Destroyers. Maybe the Gladiator Destroyer? I don’t think there’s an official FFG writeup for that, but it shouldn’t be hard to do one based on what’s in Wookieepedia and comparing that to others for which there are writeups. Or, if you want to go with the Cruiser variant, that would be the Broadside-class. Again, no official writeups.

With regard to Cruisers, I think you’d be looking at the Interdictor-class, the Vindicator-class, or maybe the Ton-Falk-class carrier. These things look a lot like Star Destroyers, but technically are Cruisers instead.

I checked out the Adz-class entry on Wookieepedia, and while these things are called Patrol Destroyers, they look to me to be lighter-armed than many Corvettes and only slightly larger. So, unless you had more than one of them, I’m not sure how well they would fare against pirates.

Between the Vigil-class Corvette ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Vigil-class_corvette ) and the Adz-class Patrol Destroyer (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Adz-class_patrol_destroyer ), the Corvette seems like it would make bigger holes in things, but not as many of them (with three twin light turbolaser turrets and three twin heavy laser cannon turrets), whereas the Destroyer would make more holes but they wouldn’t be as big (three quad laser cannon batteries).

Another contrast is that the Corvette has tractor beams to immobilize their quarry, while the Destroyer has Ion weapons.

I’m leaning towards the Corvette, since it would allow you to engage more targets simultaneously, and you’d be more likely to land that first level of Linked with the twin turrets than you would the second and third levels of Linked with the quad turrets.

The Corvette also has a much larger crew, which might make a difference for boarding operations, etc….

But even then, if you’re taking one Corvette to go hunting other Corvettes, that’s going to be quite a challenge.

IMO, better would be a small Frigate, Cruiser, or Destroyer.

Where are people getting the idea that the OP wants the ship to hunt down corvettes? He mentions taking on light freighters and fighters. Did I miss something here?

HappyDaze had a great list going in his first post. Personally I also like the Citadel; it's not technically a military vessel, but sometimes you might want to sneak up on your targets-

HappyDaze had a great list going in his first post. Personally I also like the Citadel; it's not technically a military vessel, but sometimes you might want to sneak up on your targets-

For that, the 4R3 Light Assault Transport is the ideal choice.

Taking a look at the likely targets, I'd say the ADZ is versatile enough to handle almost anything Sil 5 or smaller. With the fighters, small crew, high armor and ion cannons, I think it's quite capable of punching above it's weight as well. It's not a Star Destroyer, but it's quite the powerful little ship. I can easily see it filling a role as a pirate hunter. After all, how many pirate crews are fielding capital ships in order to loot freighters, transports and yachts? And wouldn't those who do merit a response from an actual Star Destroyer (even if it's only a little one)?

As I too am preparing to put a pirate hunter (though one who is probably a bit more competent than the one in the OP), this discussion is relevant to me. Would an Victory-Class Star Destroyer be too much gun for pirate hunting? I have this feeling it might, but at the same time, it is such an iconic design.

As I too am preparing to put a pirate hunter (though one who is probably a bit more competent than the one in the OP), this discussion is relevant to me. Would an Victory-Class Star Destroyer be too much gun for pirate hunting? I have this feeling it might, but at the same time, it is such an iconic design.

As some have stated, what degree of pirate hunting? Taking on individual pirate groups in silhouette 4 ships? Groups the size of Hondo Ohnaka's gang? Shadowports? Zann Consortium sized stuff?

Small stuff can be handled by (as I stated) a customs frigate, or corvettes. Larger groups and shadowports might justify heavy cruisers, like the Vindicator (also a wedge-shaped vessel) or (depending on how backwater you are) the Dreadnaught. Maybe a Nebulon-B or an Interdictor. The Victory II might mean your pirate group is dangerous and powerful enough to threaten planets.

As I too am preparing to put a pirate hunter (though one who is probably a bit more competent than the one in the OP), this discussion is relevant to me. Would an Victory-Class Star Destroyer be too much gun for pirate hunting? I have this feeling it might, but at the same time, it is such an iconic design.

Depends on what the Pirates are using. IMO, you want your main ship to be one Silhouette larger than the biggest ship that the Pirates have, and you may want to have a number of ships to help corral them in.

If you bring in a Victory-class, then they’re just going to lay low and pretend to be relatively law-abiding locals. Or, they will run. But they’re highly unlikely to stay and fight. And Victory-class ships should be rare enough that there just aren’t enough to go around to keep scaring the Pirates back into their hidey-holes.

IMO, you’d want something a bit smaller, like a Gladiator or a Neb-B, unless that’s the kind of thing that the Pirates already have. In which case, the Victory-class might make sense.

For pirate hunting, I'd be more thinking of a small battlegroup than a singular large ship. Something like maybe 2 Neb B's, 3 Vigil Corvette's and a Ton Falk Cruiser, I'm AFB at the moment, but IIRC that is some pretty serious firepower in the turbolaser department with a generous helping of fighter support for screens, especially if you throw in a squadron of Interceptors and Bombers in addition to the regular Ties.

EDIT: This would be in opposition to a fairly serious pirate group since they are making the Empire sit up and take notice. Otherwise, the local Moff or planetary governor might send his space forces after them, resulting in smaller/less quality ships.

My plan (which, of course, is unlikely to survive contact with the PCs) is to have the nemesis be competent, but fairly low-ranked. He sees this commission as the first rung up thew ladder, and intends to pursue his duties with zeal. So early on he'll be hunting small time pirates and criminals. You know, the kind who might fly a YT-1300 or something. As the campaign continues, I hope to have him climb that ladder, becoming ever greater a threat.

My plan (which, of course, is unlikely to survive contact with the PCs) is to have the nemesis be competent, but fairly low-ranked. He sees this commission as the first rung up thew ladder, and intends to pursue his duties with zeal. So early on he'll be hunting small time pirates and criminals. You know, the kind who might fly a YT-1300 or something. As the campaign continues, I hope to have him climb that ladder, becoming ever greater a threat.

In this case, I'd put him in something like a Lancer-Class Frigate, or some form of Patrol Boat.

If the officer is commanding something Silhouette 4 sized, then he's likely to be one lower ranked officer that's part of a larger task force, maybe not really calling the shots of how it operates. That might not be a problem for you after all, but something to consider.

How about something like this? Your officer is leading the anti-pirate operations so commands a decent sized ship (nebulon B or other smallish capital), but is brash and headstrong enough to personally take a smaller ship on excursions, say something like a VT-49 Decimator. I think you'll get the best of both worlds this way.

For the smaller pirate groups, you'll want a smaller ship. If your Nemesis is just picking off small targets here and there, then you'll want the smaller, more agile craft that can at least dock, if not have a custom hanger bay.

The Empire was not above using subterfuge, so a small ship modified to perform an ambush wouldn't be unheard of.

That said, I've had the Imperial Nemesis of my players in past games command smaller capital ships that only need a few hundred people to operate it; the Empire isn't about to commit a Star Destroyer to hunt down a single freighter across the galaxy, after all.

When a former group of mine stole a Marauder Corvette and used that as a small-time Rebel base (as they were trying to rejoin the fleet after their cell was destroyed), they would frequently use their inherently faster ship to outrun Star Destroyers. The looks on their faces when this Nemesis returned after a few months with a much smaller, much faster ship was priceless.

Since the nemesis is hunting small time criminals and pirates that are using just one or two freighters i think that a marauder corvette is perfect. Or if you think that's too big crew wise or too challeging, a militarized Gozanti (like the one in Rebels) should be good enough, small crew, a dozen troopers for boarding actions, 4 tie fighters , and lots of weapons. If you add an high output engine, a targeting array and a couple of medium ion cannons, you have a very capable ship.

Actually you could start him with the Gozanti and after some successes promote him to command a Marauder.

I have an antagonist on the way who will hunt the jedi in the party aboard a raider class corvette.

Why has no one mentioned the VT-49 Decimator from Fly Casual? Am I the only one who plays X-Wing? It's a beast of a ship for a sil 4. 2 shields front and back with 4 armor. Handling and speed aren't so great, and the armament is geared more towards anti-fighter (quad-lasers and concussion missiles). It does have a free hard point though, so you could upgrade weapons, speed, or something else. The lore on the ship is that it's often the first command of junior officers and it's the perfect thing for hunting smugglers with. I think this is exactly what the OP was looking for.

Why has no one mentioned the VT-49 Decimator from Fly Casual? Am I the only one who plays X-Wing? It's a beast of a ship for a sil 4. 2 shields front and back with 4 armor. Handling and speed aren't so great, and the armament is geared more towards anti-fighter (quad-lasers and concussion missiles). It does have a free hard point though, so you could upgrade weapons, speed, or something else. The lore on the ship is that it's often the first command of junior officers and it's the perfect thing for hunting smugglers with. I think this is exactly what the OP was looking for.

If you're going with something that small, the 4R3 is a better option.