The Shipyard: Tethys-class Patrol Ships for use in an Earth Alliance 3rd age or Crusade fleet

The smallest ship available to the Earth Alliance is the Tethys-class Cutter and the variants of it. It is also probably the numerically most common ship in Earth Force and used by planetary authorities to police their space. 

The first versions of the ship entered service in the mid 22nd century alongside the now retired Laertes and they have seen constant upgrades and revisions to their design as technology has improved.
Given their size and ease of manufacture they would likely have been mass produced in the years following the Earth-Minbari war given the attrition Earth Force suffered and the need to rapidly expand the fleet to police borders. They would have been equipped with upgraded weapons following the adoption of pulse cannons over the earlier Plasma based weapons.

A Pair of Tethys escort a Porcupine and Cotten-class Tender

Originally appearing in Babylon 5 Wars in a variety of versions and in the A Call To Arms Earth Alliance Early Years. It is conspicuously absent from later fleet lists and this leaves them in the position of having only the Hermes and, for Crusade fleets, the Myrmidon as its Patrol level choices. Neither are bad choices, but I think the absence of this little ship is an oversight that cannot stand.

The Ships.

There are 3 variants in the Fleets book, The base version is equipped with a powerful (for its size) battery of plasma cannons, the missile variant has a potent missile armament, and the Laser variant has a reduced plasma armament and a very significant beam weapon making it incredibly well armed for its size and priority level. The ships are also reasonably fast and agile and you get 2 of them for a single patrol choice. Their weakness is their durability. They are very fragile being able to take a mere 6 damage each. while they do have interceptors, anything that can get through or around them will put one out of action very very quickly. They are in many respects very similar to the Brakiri Kabrik but are a touch tougher since the interceptors give at least a small resistance to chip damage against a large number of weapons.

A Pair of Police Cutters investigate a convoy of merchant ships protected by the Brakiri

When converting their armament from plasma to pulse weapons there are a few things to consider. Plasma weapons have AP in every case i have seen but at the cost of short range and generally limited numbert of shots. Pulse weapons trade the AP for increased range, usually have more shots and sometimes come with Twin-linked. In the case of the Tethys variants it is just a matter of looking at a few other 3rd Age ships when converting the Tethys to pulse weapons.

Tethys-class Cutter (Kappa)

The cutter is the stock version of the Tethys, and possibly the weakest in the original configuration. Changing the armament to pulse cannons gives it a little more reach, and following from the conversion of the forward battery of the Hermes, which went from 4 Plasma shots with AP to 6 medium pulse cannon shots, the Tethys has a total of 8 shots from its 2 forward weapon batteries while still being as tough as a slightly damp piece of cardboard.

Tethys-class Laser Boat

This is another easy change, simply switching out the plasma cannons for an equal number of pulse cannon shots. the real power of the laser boat is the laser, and this is unchanged.

Tethys-class Missile Boat

The missile boat, like the laser boat is simply a change from plasma cannons to pulse cannons. the missile armament is unchanged.

The 3 ships are very close to their counterparts in the Early Years fleet list. Of the 3 the Cutter is probably the most improved with a third more shots when in range. The trade off being they are weaker shots. Against certain ships like raiders or other patrol level craft, they will stand a good chance. Larger ships though will tear them to pieces with ease.

Let me know what you think. would you use them in your games? do you already use the Tethys in later fleets? what would you change about them?

In the next Shipyard I will be taking a look at the Tethys-class light carrier fielded by Earth Force during the Dilgar war, the Police Leader, and the VBSS Customs Cutter.