This topic recently popped up over here, but I wanted to post a topic about it for future reference and to allow the class to be discussed in more detail.


Of the 21 Omega Octant empires currently in print, two have battleship SSDs; the Mæsron Alliance (who have an "unbuilt variant" BB in SSJ1) and the Iridani Questors (who have the Man-O-War in Module Omega 3). Of the two, only the Iridani are noted to have fielded the class historically; several were said to have been built, with at least two MWs surviving long enough to take part in the Grand Quest against the Andromedans.

Ostensibly, that leaves 19 other empires who do not have a battleship SSD in print. However, there would be a difference between the "possible battleships" (in the sense that the empire in question would have been theoretically capable of building one, even if they did not historically) and the "impossible battleships" (in cases where, for whatever reason, the empire in question would simply not have been in a position to even attempt one).


In the latter case, some of the limitations are biological in nature (no pun intended). The Alunda Host already found stretching the female Host ship to dreadnought size to be a tough ask, pushing against the limits of that avenue of bio-engineering. (In the long run, perhaps this was a factor in obliging the Alunda to accept the Sigvirion offer to control their living ships, and thus develop a pseudo-X "Sig-Tech" instead.) In the case of the Branthodon Regime, their Ancient Dragonship (which is technically listed as a heavy dreadnought equivalent in the Branthodon R-section, but in practice is a battleship in all but name) is at the upper limit of their own capabilities... but, quite frankly, at 360 BPV is more than monstrous enough.

Other empires' limitations would be logistical. Due to the highly decentralized production facilities of the Vari Combine and the Hivers, no Vari Vizu or Hive Queen owned facilities capable of constructing Size Class 2 warships. In the case of the Vari, they made do with Battlewagons and Command Cruisers; by the time one single cell (the Vriss) achieved dominance across the entire Combine, the focus would have shifted to X-ships in any event. For the Hivers, their size classes were wedded to their physiology; to them, a "battleship", should they ever build one, would be a BCH to a rival empire.

Still others would have one reason or another to make battleship construction a long shot at best. The original Sigvirion Expansion was destroyed by the Mæsrons several decades prior to the onset of SC 2 warships, and the later Sig infestations were lilely too small in scale to consider such a grandiose vessel. (Their last hurrah was in helping the Alunda to develop pseudo-X Hunt ships.) The Ymatrian Horde was also crushed as as empire before DNs entered the scene; they'd only be found serving on such vessels if the post-Y206 Paravians are shown to field any. The Ryn Enclave did field dreadnoughts in Y180, but the DN's R-section notes that their shipyard facilities were unable to build anything larger, at least not prior to their mysterious disappearance in the late Y180s. And the Singer Protectorate had only been able to build a single DN hull (which in itself was a taxing endeavour, even with all of the help bring provided by the Loriyill) prior to the fall of their home space to the Souldra in Y194.


So, taking those empires off the list of "possible battleships" (except, perhaps, for the Hivers, if one were to count their BCH/"BB"), that would leave the following empires:

*Koligahr Solidarity
*Trobrin Empire
*Probr Revolution
*Chlorophon Association
*Drex Unity
*Loriyill Collective
*Souldra
*Worb Technicracy
*Federal Republic of Aurora
*Bolosco Merchant Guilds
*Qixa Amalgamate

Which makes for 11 battleship hulls, or 12 if you add in the Hivers.

But of that list, there would likely be a set of different tiers, in terms of which ships of this class would be more, or less, viable logistically (if not in terms of actual performance).

The first tier would be the major powers: the Koligahr Solidarity, the Trobrin Empire, and the Probr Revolution. They would likely have about the same capability as the Mæsrons to attempt to construct such a ship type, even if none of them ended up fielding one historically.

The second tier would be the "mysterious" factions: the Loriyill Collective and the Souldra. In both cases, the nature of each power's production facilities is hard to determine in "normal" terms; the Home Stars may, or may not, have the facilities and income required to build BBs, while the Souldra might (or might not) be able to "grow" a battleship-sized vessel (even if actually running one away from the Black Sun might be a tough ask in terms of its energy requirements).

The next tier is in the various middle powers; those with a good degree of resources, but which are not quite up at the top table of Omega powers. The Drex Unity might be a good candidate for fielding battleships, as part of their singular determination to defend the Drexari home colonies. The Worb Technocracy already build a very big dreadnought; would a BB push things too far, or might the High Worb try to go for the ultimate attempt at one-upsWorbship in the years prior to the loss of their primary shipyard? (By the time the yard is rebuilt in the Seventh Cycle, the Worb might be more focused on X-ships instead, as with other Omega empires.) The Chlorophon Association might need to build a "BB" simply as a means of allowing a particularly large Phon to comport itself, but they might just deploy such individuals to starbases (or retire them to a more sedantary life on a new colony world). And in the case of the Bolosco Merchant Guilds, they did come to this galaxy in gigantic Guildships (which have yet to be shown in SSD form), and certainly would have been in a good financial position to afford a BB or two; but whether or not they would have been in a position to make such an attempt prior to the fall of their home space is another matter.

And then you'd have the smaller powers, who may or may not bother with even a design study. The Qixa Amalgamate may be small, but they are fabulously wealthy, and carry a very strong degree of paranoia reagrding the security of their planets within the Qixavalor Cloud. That might be enough of a combination to encourage them to attempt a battleship for use in their "in-cloud" fleet, even if the result ended up being little more than a monitor in terms of agility (as is the case with their Stronghold dreadnought). Which leaves the Federal Republic of Aurora. Could they take the BC-to-DN expansion one stage further, and add even more hull space and a fourth warp engine to come up with a fearsome, yet ungainly, tub of a warship? And how far into the red would their military budget go if they made such an attempt?


While it would be interesting if at least one or two of the "possible" battleship designs was historically built, I would understand if they were each listed as unbuilt variants instead. Still, if Alpha Octant BBs (most of which are themselves campaign conjectural) can be interesting for players to operate, the same may be true for Omega Octant battleships.

Plus, if Alpha BB can end up on double-sized FC Ship Cards, any new Omega BB SSDs might make things interesting for the FC Omega project.


So, with all of that in mind, would more Omega battleships (possible or otherwise) make for interesting future candidates? And if so, does anyone have their own take on which should be "possible" and which would more likely be "impossible"?

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Tuesday, July 02, 2013 - 01:57 pm: Edit

Quick thought, If conjectural, I suspect that the Hiver BB would be DN sized.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 02, 2013 - 03:01 pm: Edit

I was going by this extract from (OR10.02):

---

Quote:

Normal (non-Queen) Hivers are small, measuring perhaps 1/2 to 3/4 a meter long, with a one-meter wingspan (on individuals that possess wings). Their starships match their size, being one to two sizes smaller than the comparable ships of other empires. For example, their “heavy cruiser” is essentially a destroyer. Hivers do not have a starship larger than Size Class 3; what they would call a battleship is actually a BCH. What they lack in size they make up for in sheer weight of numbers.

---

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Tuesday, July 02, 2013 - 03:31 pm: Edit

Understandable, but if we go the conjectural route, let's make them real monsters.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 02, 2013 - 03:38 pm: Edit

I dunno. Given the choice of a SC 3 "BB" they might actually have a shot at fielding historically, and a SC 2 hull which would be outright beyond them, I'd sooner go for the former. (There probably wouldn't be enough space in a future Omega module for both options to be explored.)

Not least since, if the Hivers ever end up in FC, porting over an "unbuilt variant" hull would not be an issue, whereas an "impossible variant" might be a deal-breaker. (Not that the Hivers are anywhere near the top of the list of empires I'd want to see ported over any time soon, but still.)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - 01:13 pm: Edit

For future reference, it might be worth considering whether or not any of the "Omega's Lost Futures" empires might have use for a battleship-sized vessel or not.


*Vulpa Insurgency/Confederacy: The Vulpa insurgents would likely not have the spare resources available to build such a ship prior to their "final" defeat in Y189. (It's not yet clear if they built a DN, for that matter.) The Vulpa Confederacy might have more leeway as a secure, independent power, but may have been keener to focus their energies on incorporating Mæsron first-generation advanced technology instead. Unless they felt like building a battleship as a status symbol, such a design may end up counting as an unbuilt variant.

*Nucian Clans: We don't know yet what kind of economy the Nucian Cluster can provide for, but its small size and the fractious nature of its inhabitants makes such a vessel hard to envision historically. (We don't know if the Nucians have any SC 2 yards, or how they may allocate any ships such a yard might be capable of building.) By the time the Cluster comes under a single ruling bloc in Y210, X-ships (should the Vulpa allow the Yaskitor-Nucians to field them) would win out in terms of priorities.

*Paravian Jihad: The Paravians are a large enough power to at least consider having a go at fielding a battleship-sized vessel. Would such a ship serve as a standard BB, or as an Omega-Paravian equivalent to the giant mothership the C6 Paravians will be getting an SSD for?

*Echarri Dynasty: With so little known about the Echarri both before and after their arrival in the Omega Octant, that kind of question will have to be asked while the concept for this empire is being hammered out. Perhaps they had a series of BB-sized colony arks they used to help get them to Omega from Sigmawherever they came from? (And maybe such hulls could double-up as siege engines, for use against fortified planets or deep-range fixed installations?) I'm sure the Seltorians would approve of such a concept.

*Scon: Given their unorthodox "nature" as beings native to subspace, it may or may not be possible for them to "manifest" a BB-equivalent vessel in normal space. Again, it'll have to be worked out when the time comes to figure out just what it is they can do to manage operations in "our" reality.

*Zosman Marauders: It is known that they have a "Godfather" dreadnought historically, but whether they could take the next step and go for a BB is another matter. Perhaps it could be a unit only seen in their home "off-map" territory, which could be used to keep out Souldra or Andromedan invaders, but not on raiding missions on the Omega Octant map proper? (And as with the Paravians, would such a ship be designed more for combat, or as a gigantic support vessel? With the reported Zosman yen for modularity, maybe they could pick and choose what options to provide to such a unit at a given point in time.)

*Jindarian Freehold: Perhaps if a suitably massive asteroid was floating around the Freehold, and the Jindos were capable of turning it into a rock-BB, maybe. (Perhaps as a means of trying to hold back the Andro offensive of Y199?)

*Loriyill Splinter Collective: Whatever answer applies for the Home Stars would most likely do so here, not counting for the kind of logistical network the Splinter Collective might be able to construct in (or relocate to) their new territory.

*Hiver Unihive: Technologically, the same answer for the regular Hivers may apply here. Economically, the Unihive might not be in a position to actually build or operate one (even if it was technically possible) before their defeat by the Echarri Dynasty.


So, not counting the ones with too little data to work on (Echarri, Scon) and those who are likely incapable of establishing the economic or logistical framework required to build or operate such a vessel (Vulpa Insurgency, Nucian) or whose answer would in part depend on that for their "home" faction (Splinter Collective, Unihive), that would leave the Vulpa Confederacy, the Paravians, the Zosmans, and the Jindarian Freehold as "possible battleship" candidates among the "lost futures" empires.

That would bring the provisional list of new "possible battleships" among all known present and future Omega empires to sixteen (or eighteen if the Echarri and Scon are added, or eighteen-and-a-half if the Unihive also have one).

By Kurt Byanski (Kurtski) on Thursday, December 05, 2019 - 06:01 pm: Edit

In Galactic Conquest, the Omega races can research missing hulls and ship types as the need arises. The Qixa in U5/U7 developed a battleship to provide a command ship that would be more durable against their Ryn, Drex and Khol neighbors than their dreadnought. Battleships are used in most offensive squads outside of the cloud.