Minbari Tinashi class War Frigate (Babylon Five):

This ship is the direct descendant of the Tinash-Haza War Cruiser that served in the last great Shadow war a thousand years ago. Although the last of those vessels were decommissioned well over five hundred years ago, after being replaced by the early versions of the Sharlin War Cruiser, the basic frame was so useful it was used for the Tinashi War Frigate. Apart from the external appearance the ships have little in common though. The Tinashi is a much more powerful ship, fitted with a quantum singularity reactor for its main power core, as opposed to a Matter/ Anti matter reactor for the Tinash-Haza. Also the weaponry has been improved immensly with more powerful Fusion cannons, and the incorporation of a gravimetric slicer beam cannon in the design. On the other hand, the Tinashi has paid for this powerful weapons array with most of its hangar space: it only has enough room for 4 standard Minbari shuttles, instead of the 24 fighters of Tinash-Haza.

These ships still serve as escorts for the Sharlin War Cruisers, and are frequently employed to patrol the borders of Minbari space. Their powerful weaponry gives them a firepower superior to just about anything but the Centauri Primus Class Battlecruiser. They often use their enormously powerful beamweaponry to knock down a targets shields, after which the target is immobilized without damaging it greatly by using the EMP cannons.

As far as the technological level of the all the younger races, the Minbari are the most advanced race. This has been so since the days of the last Great War, and has held true to today. Only the Centauri and the Vree are close to them in technological achievements. Even so, the Tinashi War Frigate can hold its own against larger ships from those races.

When this ship is compared to ships within the Three Galaxies, the ship is as heavily armed and armored as their Phase world equivalents and the Minbari would soon become respected by any of the races in the Three Galaxies. The shields of this ship are about as powerful as those on Phase World ships of the same size.

In physical configuration, the ship has a living look to it and looks like a cross between some type of fish and a Portuguese Man of War. It looks much like a slender, elongated version of the Sharlin. The ship has a large fins like structure on the top and two large fin like structures on the bottom of the ship. The hull of the ship itself has a ribbed like structure.

Contrary to the ships appearance, the ships is not organic in construction like many of the First ones ships but is constructed out of high density crystalline material that provides better protection than the armor used by the Centauri. The ship also has a powerful shield to protect the ship and it is capable of stopping most weapons. This shield uses both Gravimetric waves and radiation shielding to stop energy weaponry and kinetic weapons. It is not as powerful as the more advanced shields on the Sharlin, but is about as powerful as the shields on a Centauri Primus class Battlecruiser, which is a rather larger ship.

The ship carries a single slicer beam for its primary battery. Although not quite as powerful as the weapons on the Sharlin it is still a incredibly powerful weapon. The true effect of the weapon is to cut deep within its target and get critical strikes to vital components of the ship it is targeting . The ships also has a secondary battery. This Battery consists of five fusion beam cannons. These weapons are quite powerful and are themselves as powerful as some other navies main batteries. The ship has six Neutron/Particle beam mounts for point defense. These are capable of severely damaging a starfighter in one hit. The only weapon left from the Tinash-Haza in basically a original form are four Electro Magnetic Pulse cannons. These weapons do little physical damage to a ship, but are designed to disrupt internal systems. Unfortunately these weapons are easily defeated by shields, and are therefore of limited use in war. Against unshielded ships of the younger races they are a useful weapon though. The ship also caries a missile launcher that fire the equivalent of Phase World long range missiles.

The ships propulsion is by a gravimetric propulsion system. This allows the ship to achieve accelerations much greater than ships of most of the younger races. The only widespread member of the younger races that can achieve even close to the level of performance of Minbari ships are the Centauri. The Minbari actually are more advanced than the Centauri but are not as far separated from the Centauri as they both are from most races.

The ship design has both true artificial gravity and inertial dampeners. The artificial gravity allows the ships crew to serve in comfort and greatly increases the crews efficiency. The inertial dampening allows this ship to complete maneuvers that no ships built by the younger races other than those built by the Centauri, the Minbari or the Vree, without killing the ships crew.

One of the items that is very special about the ship is the Command and Control Facilities. Unlike Earthforce Ship or even Centauri ships with their flat screen displays, the Commander has incredible holographic displays that give the feeling that she is standing outside of the ship and watching the battle as a titan watching the battle from outside.

The ship can carry 480 marines and sometimes operates in ground attack roles as well as its other functions. The ship only carries 60 Marines in normal operations.

Notes of game conversion:

For purposes of game balance, there are two different versions of the starship. One is designed with accelerations in terms of gravities (G) which can better interact better with other Babylon 5 ships such as Earth Force and the Narn military. The other is written to operate within the Three Galaxies and operated with Consortium and Kreeghor vessels.

Phase world version uses my revised phase world starship rules and can hold their own against most C.A.F and Kreeghor fighters. This version is recommended if you with to put them into Phase World as among equals. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Moderate version uses Gs of acceleration but does not have reduced weapon ranges except for missiles. This version is useful for Mutants In Orbit, Phase World if used as a lower tech race, used with my Earth Force ships conversions for B-5, and as a possible crash on Rifts Earth. Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the fighters velocity and distance traveled.

Velocity = Acceleration x Time + Initial Velocity

Distance Traveled = Acceleration x ½ x Time ² + Initial Velocity x Time

1 G = 32 feet (9.8 m) per second ²

Model: Tinashi Class War Frigate

Class: Heavy Cruiser (battle cruiser)

Crew: 100 (10 Officers and 90 Enlisted)

Troops: Standard; 60, Maximum; 480

Vehicle Compliment:

	12	Minbari Windstar Fighters
	4	Standard Minbari Shuttles

M.D.C. by Location:

	Slicer Beam (1):	3,500 each
	Fusion Beam Cannons (5):	1,500 each
	Fusion Guns (10):	600 each
	Neutron/Particle Beam Cannons (6):	400 each
	Electro Magnetic Pulse Guns (4):	600 each
	Long Range Missile Launcher (1):	1,200
	[1] Bridge:	20,000
	[1] Emergency Bridge:	20,000
	[2] Main Body:	110,000
	[3] Engineering Section:	35,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	8,000 a side (48,000 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 an auxiliary bridge. Even if both bridges are destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.

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

[3] Destroying the engineering section means that ship FTL propulsion systems are destroyed and maximum sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).

[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (2,400 M.D.C. total) per melee round

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight:

Phase World Version: Has special sublight engines that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 1.0 percent of light per melee round.

Moderate Version: The War Frigate does not have an effective top speed but is limited by acceleration. The War Frigate can reach a top acceleration of 10 G but standard is 5 G to reduce stress on engines.

Atmospheric Propulsion: The Tinashi War Frigate cannot operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.

Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 75 lightyears per hour. This means that the Tinashi class War Frigate can cover the Galaxy in about 8 weeks. The ship enters hyperspace by means of a jumpgate. This ship can use an already made jumpgate or can form its own jumpgate.

The Tinashi has enough power to open a jumpgate every five minutes (20 rounds). The gate then takes one round to open, two rounds to traverse, and another to close.

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about four years worth of supplies on board and Quantum Singularity/Fusion power system gives power for 18 years before the ship needs refueling.

Statistical Data

Height: 1,311 feet (400 meters)

Length: 2,623 feet (800 meters)

Width: 770.5 feet (235 meters)
Weight/Mass: 8.76 million tons (8 million metric tons)

Power System: Quantum Singularity/Fusion power system (18 year duration)

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 50,000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition

Cost: 18 billion credits to construct. Any culture in the Three Galaxies would pay hundreds of billions of credits for an undamaged working model of this ship.

Weapon Systems:

One (1) Gravimetric Slicer Beam Cannon: This weapon is incredibly powerful and can decimate most ships very quickly. The weapon uses controlled opposing gravimetric waves to create an energy beam weapon that shreds the target. Due to the deep penetration of the weapon, it has a much better chance to do critical damage to the target and ships dread the slicer beam hitting their fusion reactors. The weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and other small targets. The Gravimetric Slicer Beam Cannon fires forward and has a 60 degree arc of fire. This weapon does full damage to targets in magic rich universes with the spell impervious to energy. Author Note: The source on this weapon system lists the revised weapons range as 3,000,000 km. It has been reduces to fit more with Palladium frameworks.

Maximum Effective Range: 187 miles (300 km) in an atmosphere and 187,000 miles (300,000 km) in space.

Mega Damage: 3D4x1,000 per Slicer beam strike (optional rule is that cannon gets a critical on a natural 18, 19, or 20 due to its high penetration)

Rate of Fire: Once per melee (beam last for full melee)

Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Five (5) Fusion Beam Cannons: The guns take high mass particles and compress them until they reach fusion. These particles are then fired in a beam. This cannon is far more powerful than a fusion gun is. The weapons have standard penalties to hit fighters and other small targets. Each fusion beam cannon fires individually and have a 180 degree arc of fire. Author Note: The source on this weapon system lists the revised weapons range as 1,000,000 km. It has been reduces to fit more with Palladium frameworks

Maximum Effective Range: 62.2 miles (100 km) in an atmosphere and miles 62,200 miles (100,000 km) in space

Mega Damage: 5D6x100 per fusion gun blast.

Rate of Fire: Three (3) times per melee round per cannon.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Six (6) Neutron Cannons / Particle Beams: These weapons are not as powerful as the Neutron cannons mounted on the White Star and the weapons primary purpose is point defense. These guns fire bursts of atomic particles at close to the speed of light but unlike Earth Particle Beams, most of the beam consists of Neutrons. They are very effective against fighters but are not as effective against larger ships. The weapon does more damage to organic targets because of the nature of the beam. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire. Weapon has a bonus of +4 to strike.

Maximum Effective Range: 9.3 miles (15 km) in an atmosphere and 932.7 miles (1,500 km) in space.

Mega Damage: 4D6x10 + 20 per cannon. Weapon does double damage to organic targets.

Rate of Fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Four (4) Electro Magnetic Pulse Cannon: These weapons are designed to disrupt the electronics of most ships through a high intensity electromagnetic pulse. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire. Weapon has a bonus of +2 to strike, and projects a EM Pulse in a cone of 30 degrees.(this weapon is not only used to disable enemy warships, but is also very effective against groups of missiles)

For gaming purposes, the EMP weapons will inflict normal damage to true shields. However, they will inflict double damage to EA defense grids and similar constructs.

Once the (if any) shields are penetrated however, the damage works differently. The EMP damage is recorded separately from normal physical damage. The amount of "damage" inflicted by the EMP cannons is compared to the amount of main body remaining. The percentage of damage inflicted is determined in relation to the main body: (damage / main body) x 100 = percentage

For every 10% damage from EMP weapons, the following penalties apply: The target will be at -1 to Strike, Parry (if appropriate), and Dodge. In space, target acceleration will be reduced by 15% and in an atmosphere, top speed will be reduced by 15%. Roll once on the Critical hit chart in the Phase World Sourcebook or Rifts Conversion book as appropriate.

If a ship takes 60% or more of its main body in EMP damage, then the ship or vehicle will be disabled completely. All weapon, navigation, and other systems will shut down. The ships Emergency life-support and emergency communications are likely to work, but nothing else.

When crossing universes, some ships would probably be totally immune to these weapon systems. These include the U.W.W. ships and the UFO Intruder ships from Phase World, the semi biological protoculture based systems from Robotech, and the Unusual hull construction of the Vorlons, Shadows, and races that copied the first ones technology from Babylon 5."

Maximum Effective Range: 3.1 miles (5 km) in an atmosphere and 3,100 miles (5,000 km) in space.

Mega Damage: 1D6x100 per cannon in EMP and shield damage only (Inflicts double damage to defense grids.

Rate of Fire: Two (2) times per melee.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
One (1) Long Range Missile Battery: These launchers are similar to Rifts / Three Galaxies long range missile launchers. Unlike cruise missiles, long range missile do not have penalties to strike small targets. They are considered smart missiles and long range batteries can launch on multiple targets each.

Phase World Version: Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship.) When drive goes dead, the missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and torpedoes when dead is at -25% to be detected.) See Modified starship rules for more details

Moderate Version: The description of these are close to that used for conventional cruise missiles Missile are assumed to accelerate at 2 times normal mach speed in Gs greater than the starships speed when used in space. Missiles can be launched at non moving targets beyond the powered range of the missiles to hit targets without the chance of the launching ship being hit by missiles itself but penalties exist when launching missiles beyond normal missile range.

Maximum Effective Range:
Mega-Damage & Properties: Both Versions: Varies with long range missile types (Use new missile/bomb tables - Fusion inflicts 2D4x100 M.D.C.).

Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, 24, or 48 long range missile per battery, per melee attack.

Payload: 480 long range missiles.
Interceptors: The Tinashi can launch decoys in front of the ship to draw that fire away from the ship. This system is mostly used to decoy missile. These can be used in addition to the ships ECM to stop missiles from hitting the ship.

Range: In front of Starship

Mega Damage: None
Payload: 80 Total.

Special Equipment:

Command/Control Systems: Like the Sharlin the Tinashi has some of the most advanced Command and Control facilities on any starship. These include highly detailed holographic displays that enable the commander to practically be inside of the battle and be able to see far more of what is going on. In game terms, this enables the commander to spot almost all situations and be able to plan for them before they occur.
ECM: The Tinashi War Frigate, like all Minbari ships is fitted with advanced ECM. This ECM prevented targeting systems from Earth Alliance ships from being able to lock on during the Minbari war against the Humans. This ECM prevents targeting systems from ships of the younger races with the exception of the Minbari, Centauri, and Vree from being able to lock on. An attacker would be at -10 to strike the ship and only if within visual range (approximately 500 miles). Missiles would have a 90% chance of being unable to achieve a lock on target as well. Rifts Earth and Mutants in Orbit would be treated to be at the level of technology of most of the younger races. While not as advanced as the Minbari, the Centauri are more advance than other younger races. The Minbari Sharlin War Cruiser would have a very small signature but could be detected on sensors. The Centauri would have penalties of -4 to strike beyond visual range. Missiles would also be more effective, at first engagement missiles would have a 60% chance of being unable to achieve a lock, the jamming could be fully adjusted for and the missile could achieve lock normally. Phase World, Macross 2, and Robotech sensors would be treated to be at the level of technology of the Minbari and Centauri. Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and Star Wars would also be treated to be at this level of technology. The sensors of the races of the First Ones would not suffer any penalties and would be able to strike normally. This included the Drahk Raider as well.
Sentient Computer: The Minbari Tinashi War Frigate has a artificial intelligence computer controlling it. This computer should be considered to be a moderate artificial intelligence in terms of Rifts. This computer can pilot the ship at 80%, can fire all weapons with half normal attacks, and has +2 to strike and +1 to initiative (these include all bonuses). If a full crew is onboard it will be able to fire all weapons at will and will have +5 to strike, +2 to dodge and +3 to initiative.

[ Brodkil TM, Bushido Industries TM, CAF TM, Catyr TM, CCW TM, Consortium of Civilized Worlds TM, Coyles TM, Free Worlds Council TM, Gene Splicers TM, K-Hex TM, Kankoran TM, Kittani TM, Kreeghor TM, Machine People TM, M.D.C. TM, Mega-Damage TM, Metzla TM, M’Kri Hardware TM, Monro TM, Mutants in Orbit TM, Naruni Enterprises TM, Noro TM, Paradise Federation TM, Phase World TM, Psylite TM, Rifter TM, SAMAS TM, S.D.C. TM, Seljuks TM, Splugorth TM, Sunaj TM, Trans-Galactic Empire TM, Tri-Galactic Military Service TM, United Worlds Warlock TM, U.W.W. TM, Wolfen TM, and Zembahk TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Anla-Shok TM, Brakiri TM, Delenn TM, Dilgar TM, Drahk TM, Drazi TM, Earthforce TM, G'Kar TM, Londo Mollari TM, Minbari TM, Narn TM, Pak'ma'ra TM, Psi-Corp, Starfury TM, Valen TM, Vir Cotto TM, Vorlon TM, Vree TM, and Z'ha'dum TM are trademarks owned by Warner Brothers Television. ]

Technical information sourced partially from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!

CGI of starship created by Chris Guinn. Picture taken from Guidos Galaxy.

Writeup by Mischa (E-Mail Mischa) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Return