Wolfen Legatus class Battlecruiser:

Like the Human Alliance, the Wolfen constructed their own warship designs before they became a member of the Consortium of Civilized Worlds. Even though the majority were smaller vessels, these did include a number of larger vessel designs. The largest combatant vessels they constructed, other than carriers, were the Legatus class battlecruiser. The term “Legatus” means warlord in Wolfen. These battlecruisers were named after well known and celebrated admirals and generals of the Wolfen, from historic times up until modern times.

The term battlecruiser can mean different things in the Three Galaxies. In some cases, it just means a small battleship and some prefer the term light battleship with them. In some cases however the term can also mean a fast heavily armed capital ship but comparatively lightly armored. This second definition mostly fits with regards to the Legatus class battlecruiser.

At one time, the Legatus class battlecruiser were considered one of the most powerful vessels in the Three Galaxies. Even today, the battlecruisers are considered powerful warships which are extremely dangerous opponents when in the hands of a skilled captain. Now there are a number of newer and more powerful warships classes which have entered service since the Legatus class battlecruisers first commissioned.

Since entering service, these battlecruisers have fought in many battles with a number having been lost. The Legatus class is considered to have served with distinction in many engagements during their long years of service. Even now, they are still considered an extremely important component of the Wolfen military forces with these battlecruisers often serving in the role of flagships.

Currently there are plans for an new battlecruiser design to replacing the aging Legatus class in Wolfen service. From preliminary designs, it appears as if the replacement design will share many similarities with the Consortium “Aegis”and ‘Archer” designs, mounting large numbers of missile batteries. Of course the new design would not carry Consortium Graser mounts because the Consortium does not allow the weapon systems on any ships other than those of the Consortium Armed Forces.

There has been some discussion given towards purchasing a number of Tri-Galactic Military Service Wyvern class pocket battleships as a stopgap although this has met with considerable criticism. Concerns include that the faster than light speeds of the pocket battleships simply would not allow them to operate with other Wolfen warships. In addition, the costs involved might reduce the number of battlecruisers built.

As a result, a number of naval architects within the Wolfen military recommend an upgrade program for the Legatus class battlecruisers instead of replacing them. These same architects have also brought up a suggestion that one might at least supplement new construction with upgraded Legatus class battlecruisers. As more new battlecruisers entered service, the upgraded warships could be put in a reserve force to supplement active naval forces during times of war.

In basic design, these battlecruisers have been described as being Lictor class heavy cruiser constructed on a larger scale. In general, the two warship classes carry similar weapon systems and many of the same construction techniques were used for both classes. These battlecruisers are well armed both for comparative close range energy weapon engagements and longer ranged missile engagements.

For the main anti-ship missile battery, these battlecruisers mount sixteen rapid fire capital missile launchers. These launchers are basically identical to those mounted on the Hunter class destroyer although have much larger magazines. There was a fair amount of criticism of these warships with regards to the number of missiles which could be fired. The old Human Alliance Yamato class battleship was considered far better at overwhelming the point defense of an enemy vessel.

This was later solved in large part by a software upgrade which allows missiles to delay engagement of the missile’s drives so that a larger volley could be linked. With good missile crews, the Legatus class can fire capital missile volleys the equal of those able to be fired by the old Human Alliance battleship class. In some cases, with excellent crews, the Wolfen battlecruiser can even fire heavier missile volleys. Various more advanced missiles have also helped to keep these warships extremely effective. The Wolfen navy does have access to the most advanced missiles including X-Ray laser warheads.

As these battlecruisers are expected to deal with other warships in extended missile engagements, the Legatus class battlecruisers have excellent missile defenses. This includes sixteen medium range missile batteries. When engaging capital missiles, usually four medium range missiles will be locked onto a single larger missile. Those that manage to get through the medium range missile batteries have to also get through the sixteen point defense laser mounts and sixteen point defense rail gun mounts.

For heavy energy weaponry, these battlecruisers are quite capable of devastating large vessels. The main battery of the Legatus class are two 38 cm laser cannons and four 20 cm laser cannons. They have a slower rate of fire than the heavy particle beams mounted on Human Alliance capital ships but have longer range. For the battlecruiser’s secondary battery, there is a total of sixteen particle beam cannons. These are the same particle beams which are mounted on the Hunter class destroyer but are mounted in turrets instead of being basically fixed forward.

One other thing these battlecruisers have been criticized for is their comparatively light shields. In comparison to the Human Alliance Yamato class battleship, the Wolfen battlecruiser’s variable shields only have about eighty percent the output of the shields of the battleship. Far less massive than the battleship, the Legatus class can also withstand far less abuse when the shields are breached.

Due to the battlecruisers far more powerful propulsion, the Legatus class are able to operate far better with modern units than the old Human Alliance battleship class. The Legatus class have a faster than light speed of four and a half light years per hour compared to only three and a half light years per hour for the Human Alliance Yamato class battleship. In addition, the battlecruiser has far greater acceleration in normal space. In fact, the Wolfen battlecruiser also has an acceleration almost equal to that of a modern Protector class battleship.

Generally considered a more minor issue, Wolfen warship classes generally have less automation and required slightly larger crews than Human Alliance vessels that were constructed at around the same time. Of course, the Legatus class battlecruiser requires an extremely large crew when compared to modern vessels. The Consortium Aegis and Archer class battlecruisers require less than one third the crew of the Wolfen battlecruiser. As previously mentioned, the Legatus class often act in the role of flagship and have provision for up to two hundred flag personnel. These ships are fitted with a flag bridge in addition to a regular and auxiliary bridge.

These battlecruisers do have a large marine compliment including a sizeable number of power armors, combat robots, and ground vehicles. Supporting these troops, the battlecruiser has a pair of assault shuttles. The crew of the shuttles is usually a mixture between marine and fleet personnel. Finally, these battlecruisers has a sizable fighter compliment. These are also often manned by a mixture of fleet and marine pilots. These fighters fill a variety of roles from strike, ship defense, and even long range scouting. Long range scouting is usually performed by Spiculum Heavy Starfighter due to being the only fighter usually embarked mounting a faster than light drive.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and weapon range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: CBC-110-B.

Class: Battlecruiser.

Crew: 1,820 crew members (295 officers and 1,525 enlisted personnel.)

Troop Capacity: 1,200 marines (Including power armor and vehicle crews), 24 shuttle crews, 200 fighter pilots.

Can carry up to 200 passengers in addition to troops and crew (generally flag personnel.)

Vehicles: These listing are for modern compliments and assume Wolfen Equipment being used in most cases. Old compliments were similar in number but were of earlier designs. As well, due to a shortage on Wolfen vehicles, new CAF or other designs are often carried in place of them.

Power Armors & Robots:

	10	Consortium BR-CCW2000 Battleram Robots.
	40	Consortium CAF-AR-20 Bombard Infantry Robots.
	120	Consortium SH-CCW100 Silver Hawk Power Armors.
	500	Wolfen GTA-14 Spartan Ground Power Armors.

Fighter Compliment:

	24	Wolfen PBI-22 Gladius class Medium Strikefighter (Often a mixture of older and newer models).
	48	Wolfen PBI-25 Falx Supina Light Starfighters (Often a mixture of older and newer models).
	6	Wolfen PBI-36 Spiculum Heavy Starfighter.

Assault Shuttles:

Wolfen ASA-01 Cohort class Assault Shuttles.

Tanks & Other Vehicles:

	40	Wolfen IFV-100 Maniple Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
	20	Wolfen MBT-35 Phalanx Main Battle Tanks.

M.D.C. by Location:

	38 cm Main Laser Cannons (2):	1,500 each.
	20 cm Heavy Laser Cannons (4):	1,200 each.
	10 cm Heavy Particle Beam Cannons (16):	650 each.
	Electromagnetic Point Defense Rail Gun Turrets (16):	400 each.
	Point Defense Laser Turrets (16):	300 each.
	Cruise Missile Launchers (16):	1,000 each.
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (16):	450 each.
	Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	150.
	Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	100.
	[1] Bridge:	30,000.
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge:	30,000.
	[1] Flag Bridge:	30,000.
	Hanger Bay:	40,000.
	[2] Main Engines (2):	35,000 each.
	[3] Main Body:	140,000.
	[4] Variable Force Field:	10,000 a side (60,000 total).

Notes:

[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship also has both an auxiliary bridge and a flag bridge. Even if all three bridges are taken out, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but the ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridges that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.

[2] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.

[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the cruiser out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.

[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (3,000 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.85 percent of light per melee.

Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 400 mph (644 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight.

Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 4.5 light-years per hour.

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about two years worth of supplies on board, but can be stretched to three in an emergency.

Statistical Data:

Length: 2,953 feet (900 meters).

Height: 525 feet (160 meters).

Width: 607 feet (185 meters).

Weight/Mass: 6.06 million tons (5.5 million metric tons)

Power System: Anti-matter; average energy life of 50 years. The ship normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting. Backed up with emergency fusion plants.

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 100,000 tons (90,720 metric tons) of cargo in addition to the standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ship’s spaces are taken up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.

Market Cost: Production cost of 32 billion credits (not counting other vehicles / embarked craft.) The ship is no longer manufactured and is not available outside of the Consortium Armed Forces and Wolfen Planets Military Forces. Cost does not include embarked craft.

Weapon Systems:

Two (2) 38 cm Main Heavy Laser Cannons: In the front of the ship are two 38 cm laser cannons. They are used as anti-capital ship weapons and can take out frigates in one shot and can do large amounts of damage to bases or larger starships. The Laser cannons can be combined together or each one used separately. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities. Weapon has standard penalties to strike fighters and other small targets. These can be fired forward and can be angled up to 120 degrees aft (can only fire one cannon at a target at that angle but can spin to be able to bring both batteries to bear) and can fire at a 30 degree angle up or down.

Maximum Effective Range: 100,000 miles (161,000 km) in space and 100 miles (161 km) in an atmosphere.

Mega Damage: 2D4x1000 M.D.C. each and two can be combined for a total of 4D4x1000.

Rate of Fire: Maximum of two (2) times per melee per cannon.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Four (4) 20 cm Heavy Laser Cannons: These cannons are used to engage any large ships that come into range and used for orbital bombardment. Two of the heavy laser cannons can be combined together or each one can be used separately. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities. Weapon has standard penalties to strike fighters and other small targets.

Maximum Effective Range: 100,000 miles (161,000 km) in space, or 100 miles (160 km) in an atmosphere.

Mega-Damage: 1D4x1,000 per single blast or 2D4x1,000 per double blast.

Rate of Fire: Two double blasts or two single blasts each (4 total per battery).

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Sixteen (16) 10 cm Heavy Particle Beam Cannons: These particle beams are the same version of the particle beams that are on a standard Hunter class Destroyer with the same range and same beam output. They are mounted in turrets which allow the guns to move more freely than on the destroyer. There is discussion of replacing the cannons with the faster firing versions carried on the Hunters class destroyers in New Coventry service or something similar. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

Maximum Effective Range: 10,000 miles (16,000 km) in space and 20 miles (32 km) in an atmosphere.

Mega-Damage: 2D4x100 M.D. each (4D4x100 maximum for two firing together.)

Rate of Fire: Each one can be fired up to one time in a melee.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Sixteen (16) 14.5 mm Electromagnetic Point Defense Rail Guns: Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. They are used as an anti-Starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each rail gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire.When used in space, projectiles are fired from rail gun at a significant fraction of the speed of light. When used in an atmosphere, projectile velocities are slower to prevent them from burning up but still are at hypersonic speeds. Rail guns use 14.5 mm depleted uranium projectiles. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

Maximum Effective Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 800 miles (1,290 km) in space.

Mega-Damage: Rail guns inflict 3D6x10 M.D.C. for an 80 round burst.

Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

Payload: 16,000 rounds (200 bursts) each cannon.
Sixteen (16) 18 mm Point Defense Lasers in Ball Turrets: This system is unaltered when compared to a standard Hunter class destroyer. This is the star ship’s primary anti-starfighter, anti-robot, and anti-missile defense system. Each laser is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

Maximum Effective Range: 200 miles (320 km) in space and has a range of 4 miles (6.4 km) in an atmosphere.

Mega Damage: 2D6x10 M.D.C. each.

Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Sixteen (16) Cruise Missile Launchers: Missiles have a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and have an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship) in space. Whether missiles can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launching starship, and missiles. When drive goes dead, missiles will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct or receives a destruct code, but have very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missiles, when unpowered, are at -25% to be detected.) Cruise missiles have penalties to hit small targets but almost always smart missiles. While missiles are only launched at the rate of one at a time, the ship’s computer has special software that allows all the missiles to hit a target at the same time for the purpose of making the point defense of a target more easily overwhelmed. This is done by slowing down the initial acceleration of missiles and by setting some for delayed activation although the target must be at least 30 seconds away (2 melee rounds) with regard to flight time. Missiles are then considered to only have an acceleration of 5% of light for the first turn. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time although rarely are.

Maximum Effective Range: Cruise Missile range is 8,000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space.

Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Anti-Matter multi-warheads inflict 5D6x100 M.D.C. each.)

Rate of Fire: One cruise per melee attack (special software allows 4 to 8 missile to be launched as one volley depending on gunners hand to hand attacks) per launcher. This allows total volleys of 64 to 128 cruise missiles to be launched in one melee round.

Payload: 100 cruise missiles each for 800 total.
Sixteen (16) Medium Range Missile Batteries: Weapon system is used for hitting enemy robots, fighters, and missiles (both cruise and long range missiles.) Missiles have a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and have an acceleration of 6% of light per turn in space. Weapon system can be used to engage multiple targets simultaneously.

Maximum Effective Range: Medium Range Missile range is 160 miles (257.5 km) in an atmosphere and 80,000 miles (128,750 km/0.43 light seconds) in space.

Mega-Damage: Varies with medium range missile type (Multi-warhead heavy warheads inflict 5D6x10 M.D.C. each - See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)

Rate of Fire: Can fire medium range missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), four (4), or eight (8) medium range missiles per battery.

Payload: 240 per launcher for a total of 3,840 medium range missiles.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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