Hello.


At present, the only faction presented in an Omega module which has a battleship-sized vessel are the Iridani, whose Man-O-War serves as the flagship of the largest and most powerful fleets the Questers can currently muster.

However, I was considering whether any faction within the Omega Octant itself would feasibly develop a battleship of their own - and if so, under what circumstances would said ship need to be constructed?

In theory, one could of course do conjectural BBs for any number of Omega factions, and it is possible that the ancient Souldra and Loriyill may have been able to build (or grow, in the Souldra's case - though who knows how the Loriyill construct their vessels?) but in this case, I believe that there is one Omega power with the will, resources, central organisation and sheer conceit required to make the effort to build battleships - the Trobrin Empire.

Trobrin Destiny-class Battleship

When the first dreadnoughts appeared in the Omega Octant - be they Chlorophon ships built to host the largest Phons, Ancient Dragonships raised at great length by the Branthodons, or Brigantines sailing into the Octant from the distant Iridani Cluster, the precedent set by these massive vessels was soon pursued by every Omega power that could afford to do so.

However, when the first Iridani Man-O-War battleships were encountered in Omega, the various powers were far less eager to follow suit. While the Iridani could afford to simply curtail other construction efforts at Iridia's shipyards and churn out battleships at will, even the largest Omega powers were not afforded amything like such a luxury. Like the various Alpha Octant powers, the effort required to design and construct a battleship was seen as an unaffordable luxury - even before the Andromedan and Souldra Invasions bit deeply into the Omega powers' economies.

However, the Trobrin Empire, like the Klingon Empire in the Alpha Octant, would prove to be an exception - though like the Klingons, the Trobrin would have to take their time in marshalling the resources required to make such vessels a reality.

Two Destiny-class battleship keels were laid down in the midst of the Second Great War, and the original plans were for these vessels to be completed by Y192. However, various re-allocations of resources, unforseen engineering difficulties and other setbacks forced a number of revisions to this somewhat-optimistic timetable.

And then, the Sixth Cycle began, and the Empire found itself beset on all sides by the Andromedans and Souldra - the lofty goals of the Silicon Destiny superseded by the need for racial survival.

By Y198, despite the various delays, one of the ships, the Imperial Trobrin Starship Destiny, was nearing completion. However, the second, the ITS Imperium, was still missing a number of key systems, not least its heavy weapon suite and much of its armour.

Fortunately, the recently-smuggled gunboat technology (supplied from the Mæsron Alliance, as a show of Omega solidarity against the invasers) promised a solution. The admiralty, in concert with the corps of engineers, agreed to complete the Destiny as a true battleship, while Imperium would be outfitted as a Stellar Domination Ship, capable of supporting fighters and gunboats into battle.

Destinyproved her worth in Y201, as she took part in a fleet action which saw Imperial forces drive an Andromedan force from one of the key Trobrin core systems, and would eventually lead the Empire's contingent against the once-Ryn Nebula in Operation Concerted Strike.

Imperium would not enter service until Y207, long after the Sixth Cycle had come to an end. However, it would launch well in time to engage Paravian raiders, and would eventually lead the main Imperial invasion force against the Probr in Y214.

At present, it is unclear whether either vessel encountered one of the Iridani's own battleships in combat, or faced any other vessel (or monster) of a similar displacement - though such an encounter would certainly be worthy of renown for all concerned.


Sound feasible?

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Do you have a design idea? I only have Omega 1 and 3 so the largest Trobrin ship SSD I have seen is a CA. Does the DN look like just a larger CA? So would a BB be an enlarged DN or some new design?

The idea is interesting.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 08:35 am: Edit

The DSN (Deep Space Dreadnought) has a similar large forward hull, thin centre hull and large aft hull as the CA, though the centre hull is relatively thicker to the rest of the ship than that on the CA.

Also, Omega 5 gives specs for the Trobrin SCS and DCS, based on the DSN and command cruiser respectively, which help give some sort of template for the conversion from a BB to a SDS.


I picture the BB to have an even thicker centre hull, just about as large as the forward hull, but perhaps slightly smaller than the rear hull would be - with a mix of both IBs and ITs as its heavy wepon complement.

For the SDS, it could have some of its heavy weapons (and the rear armour belt) replaced with two special sensors (as seen on the DCS) 4 mech links (Trobrin PF flotillas come in groups of 4) and room for the standard 11-fighter squadron seen on the SCS and DCS.


And funnily enough, I was thinking about other potential battleships in Omega - and I thought of one empire that might be able to put one together on the cheap!

By Jim Pennington (Cutlass401) on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 09:25 am: Edit

There is a SSD for a Maesron BB in SSJ #1 Pg 34

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 09:48 am: Edit

Noted - and I wonder what a Mæsron SDS based on that hull design might look like - but I'm not overly sure that the Alliance would go to the effort of building a battleship, as opposed to focussing on better X-cruisers.

However, I do believe that it may be possible to find a means by which one (or in my proposal, two) battleships could be launched by the Empire.


Oh, might it be feasible for a Trobrin SDS to have four additional mech links and an increased repair capacity, so that it may field two flotillas and a fighter squadron?

That would cut back on the amount of heavy weapons aboard, but would still leave Imperium as a pretty dangerous opponent, even without its attrition units.

And due to the deployment limitations in (OR1.F3) and (OR1.PF3), a Trobrin fleet led by such a vessel would have no additional carriers or tenders present.


EDIT: Never mind, I found SSJ1 - but are there any other Omega ships in it, or SSJ2?

By Jim Pennington (Cutlass401) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 09:04 am: Edit

Gary:

No, there are no other Omega ships in either SSJ1 or SSJ2

JBP

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 09:06 am: Edit

Thanks, Jim. I'll have to check it out.


What do you make of the Trobrin ideas here, or the Probr ones in the other thread?

By Jim Pennington (Cutlass401) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 10:54 pm: Edit

Gary:

I have nothing against your ideas for the Trobrin or Probr, (I have never really liked the Probr however). I think your ideas do have merit even if they turn out to be a "worst case scenario" that the other empires thought they might be building.

JBP