The Shipyard: Earth Alliance Battlemaster-class Heavy Destroyer

The Omega-class Destroyer is the most numerous capital ship in Earthforce and has become a visible symbol of the resurgence of the Earth Alliance in the wake of the Earth-Minbari war when humanity was driven to the brink of extinction. The Omega is the most powerful ship in service among all the younger races, with the exception of Centauri Octurion, a terrifying behemoth, and the ships in service with the Minbari, the Sharlin chief among them. While the Omega is a powerful unit, what Earthforce wanted was a ship that could go toe to toe with the Minbari Sharlin and win, thus began the Battlemaster project.

Details of the Battlemaster project can be found on the EFNI website and is a fan design representing the early development of the Warlock-class Heavy Destroyer. The ship is based on proven technology and is built around a pair of the massive and incredibly potent G.O.D. Heavy particle cannons that give it exceptional long range striking power. This is backed up by a heavy secondary armament that gives good all round firepower and an armour scheme that is a marked improvement over that of the Omega class destroyer. The trade off is that the ship is larger than the Omega-class destroyer and thus has significantly more mass, and it lacks a rotating section so is unable to simulate gravity limiting the endurance of its crew.

EAS Battlemaster and EAS Arctic on their way to conduct comparative weapons testing of their heavy particle cannons. circa 2259

The addition of additional propulsion units goes some way to compensate for the increased mass but the ship was still going to be slower and more sluggish than the Omega-class Destroyers. While the Battlemaster never saw service, it did provide the basis of the Warlock class Destroyers when advanced technology became available. But what if in 2254 the design work had been far enough advanced that the Battlemaster could have been built and put into service? what might that look like?

The Rules

As the precursor design for the Warlock the Battlemaster is obviously going to be inferior in many respects. The challenge therefore is how to make it a Battle level ship but not one that would overshadow the Omega-class Destroyer. It has to retain the Warlocks particle cannon and some of its weapons, be tougher than the Omega but not as tough as the Warlock. The solution was of course to remove everything that is on the warlock but not the EFNI Battlemaster, and then give it a slight increase in damage and crew, and then be slower than the Omega. Gone is the flight computer, Command+2, railguns, missiles, the speed is dropped to 5 and there is the addition of the Lumbering rule since the design pre-dates the Warlocks gravitic drive. All that is left is the Main beam weapon, and the secondary Heavy Pulse cannons. The fighter complement I left given its a feature of the large Earth Alliance ships from the Nova Dreadnought onward. I elected to exclude the SA-32A Thunderbolt from the fighters available since at the time of the hypothetical launch the SA-23E Aurora was the front line fighter and while a retrofit was possible to carry the Thunderbolts from 2259/60 onwards, as is the case with Omega Class destroyers, I would think the limited number of Battlemasters and their young age, they would only be refitted once conversion to the Warlock was possible, the Warlock is essentially derived from the Battlemaster after all.

EAS Battlemaster in company with Chronos-class escorts and a Perseus-class Minesweeper in 2269

The changes made still leave the Battlemaster with an incredibly potent armament so I reduced the secondary weapons to be more in line with the Omega, and reduced the main beam to 5 shots not 6. It could go as low as 4 but the ship is, at this point, simply a long range sniper. Slow and lumbering with a more limited threat profile with its comparative lack of secondary weapons.

As a final flourish, I added in the Mjolnir Plasma Mortar from the Nova-E (since I can) to give it a very very nasty up close punch should it find itself with a suitable target, which is incredibly unlikely given the weapon traits.

I think its still a bit on the strong side so making it Unique will stop it being spammed.

What do you think? what changes would you make?

Thanks to Ginge for helping with the balancing of the ships and play testing

STL's by Tyrel Lohr

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