As threatened, here appears a status report of two posts that appeared between the publication of Honor Among Enemies and In Enemy Hands.

A marked up version of the master file can be found here.

Grayson Ship Names (1996)

(sparked by a report of David Weber mentioning that the Graysons were going to name a ship after Honor because they thought she was dead, and then refuse to change the name when Honor turns up alive - complicated by a confusion on my part on what "next book" meant).

Here, I hoped that the GSN "Honor Harrington" would be a superdreadnaught; it was.

Precedence of Grayson Ranks (1996)

(my original description was not as clear as it should be - I was considering who would the senior officer in a task force with a Grayson admiral and a Manticore admiral when both were of the same rank. My assumption was that the Grayson admiral would be senior if he had more time in grade than a Manticore admiral of the red, but admirals of the green would be senior, even including time in grade from 1st promotion to the red squadron. I thought that High Admiral Mathews might be an exception and would only be junior to Admirals of the Green with more time in grade).

Nothing definitive here (other than High Admiral Mayhew appears to be a Fleet Admiral) - I am still assuming that RMN admirals of the green outrank Grayson admirals of the same nominal rank.

Posthumous Promotions (1997)

(just an idle speculation - I had noticed that all the surviving officers of the CL "Fearless" appeared to have been promoted).

IIRC, David Weber has been quoted that there is no such thing in the RMN.

Honor in Love (1997)

(I listed a bunch of alternatives, all of whom had appeared by Flag in Exile, which I believe is what David Weber hinted as the cut off - I viewed White Haven as a careers-ending scandal rather than controversal).

It appears that Hamish Alexander, the Earl of White Haven is IT. I still hold to my objections (though I will admit that one career can be salvaged, the career of the one who was slower in attempting to resign). Nov 13, 2005 Note: Well, Weber made Hamish the First Lord of the Admiralty, thus putting Admiral White Haven on the inactive list and removing fraternization problems. A little bit of legal and other razzle-dazzle and Weber gets to square his circle.

Technology Breakthroughs and Tactical Implications

This comprised of several sections:

1. New Style LACs (1996)

   (all based on my deductions of what the LACs in Honor Among Enemies were like)

   My speculation that David Weber was planning a carrier revolution appears to be correct, but the Shrikes are not the missile-heavy LACs that I was assuming (I still wonder if an attack variant carrying single drive capital missiles will still appear just so the LAC wings can be a threat to ships of the wall). And, I also had predicted that the carriers to make their first appearance in either Honor #8 (Echoes of Honor) or #9 (Ashes of Victory). And, the prototype appeared in the first, and the mass deployment appeared in the second.

2. Missile Pod Deployment System (1996)

   Basically, the SD(P) design (rather obvious of course) - March 1, 2003 Note: However, Graydon's idea of a missile pod cruiser showed up in War of Honor (but not from Manticore or Haven). November 13, 2005 Note: On other hand, At All Costs has Manticore missile pod cruisers.

3. Haven Missile Pods (1996)

   I expected them to show up - and did they. November 13, 2005 Note: And Haven SD(P) designs with multi-drive missiles show up in War of Honor

4. Improved Inertia Compensator (1996)

   This was based on a comment in Honor Among Enemies of a major cross the board improvement. My conclusion was that brand new Alliance SDs could chase down battleships (for that matter, battlecruisers as well). No real confirmation (though the Battle of Elric did have Alliance SDs at 500 Gs or so). November 13, 2005 Note: And even higher accelleration rates are mentioned in At All Costs, but since Haven has devined the secret to the Manticore Alliance Inertia Compensator designs, I assume RHN battlecruisers have been upgraded and can now run away.

5. Variable Accelerations for Missiles (1996+1997 additions)

   (this was dynamically varying acceleration in flight, i.e., 50 seconds at 30000gs, 10 seconds at 40000gs, 30 seconds at 80000gs).

   On one hand, this has been explicitly ruled out by David Weber. On the other hand, the new triple drive capital missiles can approximate this feature (and end up with three times the final velocity, a very good trade off). I had some ideas how this could work with LACs (which might still work assuming that a LAC design could fire the new capital missiles, which might be a dubious assumption) even when Haven had acquired the same capability.

6. Who needs Special Grav Generators to Send Messages (1996)

   Using deliberate fluctuations of a ship's wedge to send messages has not been explicitly ruled out. I suspect that the bit rate is very slow, however. Feb 9, 2003 Note: Someone does use a wedge flicker as a signal in "With One Stone" in the anthology The Service of the Sword

7. Missile Pod Drone (1997)

   (take a missile pod, add the fusion bottle used for recon drones and a drive system)

   This one is still open. Since AoV had two examples of recon drones being converted into stealthed missiles (both Theisman's failed trick at Barnett and smuggled Solarian League missiles acquired by the SS), I still have hopes on this idea. After all, it might be a way for Haven to counteract the triple drive missile (the drone has to be stealthed, of course, but if the PN can recover some of the SS's stockpile of smuggled missiles, they would have a very good system to try to copy). Nov 25, 2005 Note: In AAC, Manticore introduced recon drones equipped with either laser heads or standard nukes. The RMN also started deployment of a missile control system that used an FTL grav com link. All the necessary parts for a working missile pod drone (which only needs single drive missiles) are present.

(post Honor Among Enemies action)

I had predicted that Honor would be promoted to Commodore (true), that she would be working for BuShips (close to true at worse) and that the capture of Trevor's Star would be delayed (false) long enough for Honor to be involved (really false). And, to complete my hubris, I had sketched out the Battles of Trevor's Star that ended with the Alliance surrendering the system (two battles, perhaps a week or two apart). For that matter, I killed off White Haven as well (I really didn't like the Hamish-Honor affair speculations which had been around at the time of my original post). And all of this was followed by the appearance of a special Solarian League representative who brokered a peace treaty (perhaps too much initiative for that organization).

Comments

This was my explanation of my guesses on the post HAE action, much of which was invalidated by either In Enemy Hands or Ashes of Victory. Oh, well. I probably won't try THAT again.