Last week was pretty slow so I had some time to cobble this together. I'm not meaning to use these things, just filling in the blanks with a thought experiment.
HEAVY CRUISER HULLS
Heavy cruisers were once the backbone of the Imperial Navy. These ancient vessels, rugged warhorses, were heavily armed and armoured, forming a nearly unshakeable line of battle against humanity's enemies. It's ironic that it was human weakness that lead to the class' fall from grace: most were destroyed in the years following the Great Crusade and in the treasons over the millennia since. The few heavy cruisers still in service are untrusted and unwanted, relegated to reserve fleets along with discarded grand cruisers.
The battlecruiser experiment proved that there was still room in the Imperial Navy for innovation while at the same time revealing a gap in the line of battle for a ship that could withstand the damage flagships often attracted. Battlecruisers, while heavily armed, were not more durable than the cruisers they were based on and were never designed to do so.
In M38, following the reversals and loss on several fronts, admirals from across the Imperium independently issued requests to various forge worlds for a more durable flagship. The Imperium of Man's enemies were learning, isolating and blasting apart squadron commanders and denuding the Navy's command capabilities. Experienced officers were being lost at a far higher rate than they could be replaced, and there were never enough battleships to fill the gap in the lines.
The new heavy cruisers were formed from these universal requirements. Firepower was sacrificed for greater endurance, with the hope that the vessels could give navy commanders the resilience to see a battle to its end. Before the dawn of M39, the forge worlds answered and delivered a host of examples from the reborn class.
Heavy Cruisers
: These ships can use Components meant for cruisers and can also use one non-weapon Component meant for a battlecruiser or a grand cruiser though it may not choose to install a grand cruiser's plasma drives. Heavy cruisers may only turn after moving their full speed. All heavy cruisers may choose
Stoic
instead of rolling on the Machine Spirit Oddities table.
RESOLVE Class Heavy Cruiser
Dimensions: 5.7 km long, 0.9 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 35 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 127,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 2.1 gravities max sustainable acceleration.
The Resolve is the first heavy cruiser delivered to the Imperial Navy and sets the watermark for the rest of the class. Designed to use the simpler and easily manufactured components of the Lunar class cruiser, the Resolve is the most uncomplicated example of the new heavy cruisers entering Imperial service. Stripped down, it offers a 20% increase in armour protection and a 14% increase in hull integrity which can be further strengthened by diverting power to the field bracings compared to the base Lunar.
Limited to just a pair of broadsides, most Resolve heavy cruisers choose to install longer-reaching las-broadsides to add its weight of fire across longer distances, but many captains are given leave to refit their vessels after a decade of service and this has resulted in a class with varied weapons configurations. Most retain the lance batteries on the dorsal turrets and choose another macrobattery to be mounted on the prow.
Speed:
4
Maoeuvrability:
+0
Detection:
+10
Hull Integrity:
80
Armour:
24
Turret Rating:
3
Space:
65
SP:
65
Weapon Capacity:
Prow 1, Dorsal 1, Port 1, Starboard 1
Heavy Cruiser
: In addition to the class' rules above for all heavy cruisers, the Resolve comes pre-equipped with the following Components and cannot be removed:
Excess Void Armour
,
Armour Plating
, and
Field Bracing
with 0 Power assigned. The hull's Space and characteristics have already been reduced to account for these Components and additional Power may be supplied to the
Field Bracing
to improve Hull strength.
STALWART Class Heavy Cruiser
Dimensions: 5.7 km long, 0.85 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 34 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 117,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration.
Not to be outdone, the forge world of Voss Prime submitted two examples of their Stalwart class heavy cruiser to the Imperial Navy for evaluation. Both were then shifted throughout the Imperium on their centuries-long shakedown cruise, assigned to various battlefleets. Both managed to join the Angevin Crusade just as Saint Drusus took command and are considered hero ships in the Calixis Sector.
Unfettered by the need for a more established parts supply line, the Stalwart is both radical and practical. It mounts torpedo tubes to give the heavy cruiser some ship killing power and relies on the overbuilt redundancies and power field bracings to direct fire away from the more volatile parts of the ship. So far, this has kept the stored torpedoes from exploding inside the heavy cruisers.
Speed:
4
Maoeuvrability:
+5
Detection:
+10
Hull Integrity:
78
Armour:
21
Turret Rating:
2
Space:
64
SP:
68
Weapon Capacity:
Prow 1, Dorsal 1, Port 1, Starboard 1 (of these slots, 1 prow is pre-equipped with components)
Torpedo Ship:
The Stalwart's Prow weapon slot is occupied by a Mars-pattern Torpedo Tube component and cannot be removed. 2 Power must be provided to this Component. The hull's Space has already been reduced to account for this Component.
Heavy Cruiser
: In addition to the class' rules above for all heavy cruisers, the Stalwart comes pre-equipped with the following components and cannot be removed:
Armour Plating
,
Tenebro-Maze
,and
Field Bracing
with 0 Power assigned. The hull's Space has already been reduced to account for these Components, though 1 Power must be provided for the
Tenebro-Maze
and additional Power may be supplied to the
Field Bracing
to improve Hull strength.
THRAEX Class Heavy Cruiser
Dimensions: 5.9 km long, 0.9 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 36 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 136,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 1.5 gravities max sustainable acceleration.
Only grudgingly offered to the Imperial Navy for consideration millennia after the initial offerings from other forge worlds, the Thraex class heavy cruiser from the Lathes forge worlds has been lovingly referred to as a semi-mobile battle station. Due to superior engineering, so the Lathes' representatives claim, the Thraex is able to retain the standard cruiser weapons layout. In practice, however, the ship's energy redistribution systems prevent lances from being installed at all.
Still, the Lathes have indulged on the design, stripped down it may be for the Imperial Navy to use. Despite their best efforts to remain isolated, the Navy has successfully impressed upon the Lathes their desire for more examples of this hull and its impressive shield capacitors that has allowed a flagship to shrug off damage like a battleship can once). The slow rate of delivery has not stifled Battlefleet Calixis' enthusiasm and recent deliveries have been arriving sooner and sooner.
Speed:
3
Maoeuvrability:
+0
Detection:
+15
Hull Integrity:
80
Armour:
26
Turret Rating:
3
Space:
66
SP:
70
Weapon Capacity:
Prow 1, Port 2, Starboard 2 (the Thraex cannot mount lances at all and may mount a
Lathe Pattern Landing Bay
in the prow slot)
Heavy Cruiser
: In addition to the class' rules above for all heavy cruisers, the Thraex comes pre-equipped with the following components and cannot be removed:
Armour Plating
and
Excess Void Armour
. The hull's Space and characteristics have already been reduced to account for these Components.
Shield Capacitors
: The hull comes equipped with Common quality
Overload Shield Capacitors
. These can be upgraded to good or best qualities during play, or downgraded to Poor quality to reduce the SP cost by 1.
PERSEVERANCE Class Heavy Cruiser
Dimensions: 5.8 km long, 0.9 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 33 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 142,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 2.0 gravities max sustainable acceleration.
Hailing from the Gothic Sector and reportedly built with the lessons learned from the recent Gothic War, the Perseverance class is a heavy cruiser with an unusually weapons arrangement. It has the potential to bring considerable ship-killing firepower to bear, but almost always requires the use of a rare battlecruiser-grade plasma drive. This has made it mostly unwelcome as it's seen as a poor replacement to even the haphazard Armageddon class battlecruiser.
The most controversial aspect of the design is the installation of a rear-facing lance battery. Set just behind the towering bridge on the aftcastle, the lance batteries can fire aft or to the broadsides without any issues and has given the Perseverance the largest amount of hull kills in the heavy cruiser class. What's clear is that the Perseverance is not meant for command duties as none have been installed with anything but battle bridges.
Heavy Cruiser : In addition to the class' rules above for all heavy cruisers, the Perseverance comes pre-equipped with the following components and cannot be removed: Excess Void Armour , and Field Bracing with 0 Power. The hull's Space and characteristics have already been reduced to account for these Components and additional Power may be supplied to the Field Bracing to improve Hull strength.
Speed:
4
Maoeuvrability:
+5
Detection:
+15
Hull Integrity:
80
Armour:
23
Turret Rating:
3
Space:
65
SP:
69
Weapon Capacity:
Prow 1, Port 1, Starboard 1, Aft 1
Heavy Cruiser : In addition to the class' rules above for all heavy cruisers, the Perseverance comes pre-equipped with the following components and cannot be removed: Excess Void Armour , and Field Bracing with 0 Power. The hull's Space and characteristics have already been reduced to account for these Components and additional Power may be supplied to the Field Bracing to improve Hull strength.
