The Shipyard: Earth Alliance Apollo-class Redux for A Call to Arms 2E

The Apollo class was designed and built following a Defence Estimate Senate Committee 'Whole of Fleet review' that was conducted in 2255. Earth force had been rapidly rebuilding following the war with the Minbari. The Omega-class had been built in very large quantities at the expense of any other classes of Capital ship. There were still Nova Dreadnoughts and Hyperion class Heavy cruisers in the fleet, and several of them were newer than the first Omega-class ships to be produced having been laid down during the war with the Minbari and completed after the first Omegas were launched.

But Earthforce was a much diminished force and the concentration on building a Battle fleet with a single principal combatant meant that supporting roles had to be performed by much older and numerically restricted hulls such as the Oracle class scout cruiser and the handful of surviving Avenger class fleet carriers. This put a lot of strain on those ships and Omegas were forced to perform duties they had not been designed for as ships needed to be brought into dock for urgently needed maintenance and refits. The desperate circumstances of the war with the Minbari meant that ships had been kept on deployment even as the ships deteriorated from lack of maintenance. Several classes of ship had also been completely lost such as the Sagittarius-class Missile cruiser and the Artemis-class frigates.

The Earth Alliances Next Generation fleet, Apollo, Chronos and Delphi

The Artemis would be replaced, along with the long obsolescent Olympus-class by the Chronos-class Attack Frigate. The Avenger would ultimately be replaced by the Omega (Delta) Strike Carrier, and the Senate Committee drew up requirements for 4 classes of ships that were needed to support the Omega Destroyers. The exact requirements can be found in Babcom 14, and the Apollo was the winner of the Design A competition. 

Design A set out the requirement for a replacement for the Sagittarius to provide the fleet with long range missile support. The Apollo achieved this and at the same time drastically improved on the Sagittarius design with better speed, protection, and survivability. It uses next generation missiles, and has a secondary battery of short ranged weapons. 

The Rules.

Apollo-class Bombardment Cruiser

The Apollo Bombardment cruiser is a ship available to the Crusade era Earth Alliance. It is a pure missile armed ship and will cost you a single battle point. As laid out in my Crusade Era fleet review, the Apollo is not a very good ship. for the price you pay the ship is very fragile and doesn't really offer value to a fleet. You are much better taking an Omega or Marathon for the same price. 

The Apollo and the ship it replaced, the Sagittarius

As a fleet support option it would be much better if it were less expensive. Simply reducing the Apollo to a Raid level ship would make it exceptionally strong. In its current state the ship is simply far too strong to be a Raid level ship, and too weak to be a Battle level ship. (Its almost as if the Priority system was a really bad idea).

I decided therefore to simply redesign the ship as a Raid choice. The ship retains its all round missile armament although reduced in power and I've added some light pulse cannons for up close defense against smaller ships as well as the Mjolnir in the front. 
The hull is where most of the change is though, I've reduced the Hull down to 5 and reduced the Anti-fighter, Interceptors and damage thresholds.

Apollo-class Strike Cruiser

An Apollo Strike cruiser and Hyperion

With the Hyperions rapidly reaching the end of the ships service lives Earthforce desperately needed a replacement. There was consideration given to producing a modernised version of the Hyperion but this was quickly abandoned as the base hull had reached the limit of its upgrade potential. A service Life extension program was instead initiated with Hyperions being deployed to patrol less important systems.

An interim solution was reached with the Apollo hull being used as the basis for a patrol cruiser, replacing the missiles with a more conventional armament and adding the provision of fighters. production of the variant has been low with the majority of the Apollo hulls being completed as the Bombardment version instead.

This ship uses the same base hull as the Bombardment version. I've reduced the strength of the broadside weapons compared to the Mongoose version, and added in some additional weapons to give it all round firepower. It sits as being a decent alternative to the Hyperion. Its slower and less agile, as it lacks the Beam, it has less potential punch.

I hope you like them, what do you think?
Do you like the Apollo as it is or do you prefer this version?

What would you change?

STLs by Tyrel Lohr.
Painted by me

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Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

Sources: Babcom 14. 2002: Tempest Advanced Cruiser Program. Diogenes and Roman Pernier 
                Babylon 5 Wars: Ships of the fleet 1: 2000
                Babylon 5 Wars: Ships of the fleet 2: 2002
                A Call to Arms: Second Edition Fleet Lists, 2007