Confederation Waterloo class Heavy Cruiser (Wing Commander):

The Waterloo class entered service during the mid Twenty Six Fifties and replaced the Manassas class cruisers which were in service at that time. The Waterloo class heavy cruisers served as the Confederation Fleet's primary heavy cruiser for the Twenty Six Fifties through most of the Twenty-Six Sixties. They were the largest Confederation Fleet's warships except carriers and the Gettysburg-class battlecruisers. During the Twenty-Six Sixties, all Waterloo-class cruisers were retrofitted with two Anti-Matter Guns in place of their Heavy Neutron batteries, and refitted with heavier shielding, more powerful point defense batteries, and extra armor.

Originally the Waterloo class heavy cruisers were only designed to carry sixteen In response to the Kilrathi's new Fralthra heavy cruisers entering service in the early Twenty Six Sixties, Confederation Fleet began configuring the Waterloos cruisers to serve as small carriers. Their hangar decks and storage capacity were increased to carry up to forty fighters, the same number carried by the Fralthra class heavy cruisers. Normal compliment is a heavy squadron of light fighters (actually 16 fighters), a standard squadron of medium fighters, eight heavy fighters which is considered to be a light squadron, and four heavy bombers. The cruiser/carrier hybrid was a bit of a compromise with the flight deck was vulnerable to open Kilrathi attack, but it got the job done. The main armament was not touched, which and many people still referred to the Waterloos as cruisers instead of light carriers.

Besides providing escort for the mainstay fleet carriers, Waterloo-class cruisers also serve as flagships for small task forces which do not involve the large carriers. Of course, the ships are equipped with small flag facilities to act as flagships. Unlike carriers, the heavy cruisers are not large enough to have an auxiliary bridge. Examples of missions include working paired up with another cruiser or with a supporting destroyer escort. During the Battle of Earth, the majority of Waterloo-class cruisers were either lost in action or demolished while still moored in Lunar dry dock. While the five remaining ships of the Waterloo class are considered to have been rendered obsolete by the new Tallahassee-class heavy cruiser and have been placed in reserve or on second line duties. It should be noted that all ships of the Waterloo class are christened after famous land battles. Other examples on names include San Jacinto, Bastille, Gettysburg, and Stalingrad.

Notes of game conversion:

Because of the nature of the Video Game / Novel series “Wing Commander” and the needs to put the starship into game mechanics, the starship has several modification compared to the Video Game and Novels. The most important change it to change top speed to acceleration. Like fighters in Star Wars and original Battlestar Galactica, the fighters appear to act as if they are in the atmosphere even when they operating in space. This is incorrect. The Television series Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactic are good series to watch to get a clearer idea on how space vehicles would probably maneuver although still not a perfect perspective. The starship has been modified to uses my revised phase world starship rules and can hold their own against most C.A.F and Kreeghor starships. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: CA-74 Waterloo class Heavy Cruiser
Vehicle Type: Heavy Cruiser / Light Carrier
Crew: 350 (15 Officers, 18 Chief Petty Officers, and 317 Enlisted)
Troops / Passengers: 80 fighter pilots. Has flag facilities for up to 40 additional personnel

Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment (Original Version):

	8	Light Starfighters (F-54 Epee Light Fighters / P-64 Ferret Patrol Fighters)
	4	Medium Starfighters (F-44 Rapier Medium Fighters)
	4	Heavy Starfighters (F-57 Sabre Heavy Fighters)

Fighter Compliment (Carrier Conversion):

	16	Light Starfighters (F-54 Epee Light Fighters / P-64 Ferret Patrol Fighters)
	12	Medium Starfighters (F-44 Rapier Medium Fighters)
	8	Heavy Starfighters (F-57 Sabre Heavy Fighters)
	4	Heavy Bombers (A-17 Broadsword Heavy Bombers)

Other vehicles:

General Purpose Shuttles

M.D.C. By Location:

	Anti-Matter Guns (4):	2,000 each
	Light Point Defense Laser Cannon mounts (6):	100 each
	Light Point Defense Mass Drivers (9):	120 each
	Cruise Missile Launchers (6):	500 each
	Hanger Bay (1):	2,800 each
	[1] Bridge:	5,000
	[2] Engineering section:	6,400
	Main Engines (2):	3,200 each
	[3] Main Body:	15,500
	[4] Variable Force Field:	6,000 per side (36,000 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 does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is 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] 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).
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Destroyer 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% (1,800 M.D.C.) per melee.

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 0.35 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The heavy cruiser carrier cannot operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Stardrive: The heavy cruiser mounts a jump drive which is capable of jumping instantly from a fixed point in a system to another fixed point in a system. These points are weaknesses in the fabric of space and have been mapped in most cases. Fuel is hydrogen which the heavy cruiser scoops from space to fuel the jump engine.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. The cruiser has about two years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1650.26 feet (503 meters)
Height: 769.03 feet (221.2 meters) for hull and 799.9 feet (234.4 meters) including antenna
Width: 542.65 feet (165.4 meters)
Weight: 21,495.1 Tons (19,500 metric tons) fully loaded
Power System: Fusion with a 20 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 2,000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ships officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ships spaces are take up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: The Waterloo class heavy cruiser costs around 10.5 billion credits to manufacture. Fighter compliment cost approximately 2.1 billion credits.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Four (4) Anti-Matter Cannon Mounts: Weapons are mounted on the sides of the ship and is the main anti-ship weaponry of the destroyer. Weapons can angle up to forty degrees to the sides and above and bellow the ship. The anti-matter cannons are extremely powerful and inflict heavy damage to other capital ships. The weapon is not designed to target fighters and has standard penalties against fighters and other small targets.
Maximum Effective Range: 8699.2 miles (14,000 km) in space and 43.5 miles (70 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega-Damage: 2D6x100 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Four per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Six (6) Light Point Defense Lasers in Single Mounts: Six total on top, bottom, port, and starboard side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapon is equal to standard fighter laser mounts. Compared to most point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
Maximum Effective Range: 3,106.8 miles (5,000 km) in space and 15.5 miles (25 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega-Damage: 1D6x10 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Nine (9) Light Point Defense mass Driver in Single Mounts: Nine total on top, bottom, port, and starboard side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapon is equal to standard fighter mass driver mounts except has a higher payload. Compared to most point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
Maximum Effective Range: 1,242.7 miles (2000 km) in space and 6.21 miles (10 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 2D6x10 per 20 round burst.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: 20,000 Rounds (1000 Bursts) per cannon
Six (6) Cruise Missile Launchers: Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Cruise missiles have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles.
Maximum Effective Range: 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 does 4D6x100 M.D.C.).
Rate of Fire: One per launcher per melee attack
Payload: 48 cruise missiles total (8 each launcher)

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CGI / Artwork of starship created by Standoff. Picture taken from Wing Commander CIC.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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