SPG2 Dreadnoughts

Introduction
Main Article: Ships & Classes

Dreadnoughts are built with one thing on the mind - to create a vessel that will be capable of flying to the absolute limits. They are, right after the Titans, the toughest ships to take down. With both the Hull and the Shield strength pumped up to the absolute maximum, your opponents won't stand a chance against you without a large fleet of powerful ships. Even if you go down, be sure that your enemy won't glorify his Phyric victory. If you are among the captains who like early game ships like Gunships and Corvettes, be very, very careful when facing a ship from the Dreadnought class.

Their size varies between 400 and 600 Meters and they are the biggest ships to date in Gemini. The Dreadnought class is the predominant type of battleship in our time. The class was originally named named after the EE Dreadnought (EE stands for Earth Empire), the first of their kind. It was launched just three years after the foundation of the Earth Empire in 2185, and similar battleships built subsequently were referred to as “dreadnoughts” or “biggies”. Earlier battleships became to known as “pre-dreadnoughts “ or “kittens” as the marines (and often dreadnought officers) call them. Successive designs increased rapidly in armour and armament, size and propulsion and within just ten years the new dreadnoughts far outclassed the original EE Dreadnought herself and were/are referred to as super-dreadnoughts. These days, the governments and major houses all have their own unique designs thanks to mainly to the Croatian Four (see later).

The Dreadnoughts revolutionized ship building with the application of three major points:

1. An all-big-gun design

2. the at-the time new Tau Power Core and propulsion.

3. Size and logistic changes

The all-big-gun idea differs from the usual doctrine in that the new battleship design is built around supporting unified, same calibre and same effective firing range turrets instead of the erratic “build what you like and equip what you find” military practice to date. Equipping same calibre turrets make targeting predictions easier and with the applications of better logistic and materials, the new dreadnought design could become bigger, stronger and required a smaller crew complement.

While the pre-dreadnought battleships were between 280-400 meters in length, the dreadnoughts varied between 400 and 600 meters. The new Tau particle Power Plants and the related propulsion system gave the new frame hitherto unseen agility: the dreadnoughts – while having a mass and length 2/3 more of a usual battleship – were performing as well as previous battleships.

Changes in logistics were mainly possible to a revolutionary new approach, first devised by Sir M. A. Valdyr known as "Avatar Harvesting". This mainly meant that by using implant techniques (designed by Sir M. A. Valdyr) on every member of a warship’s crew for years, it was possible to record every stage of every maintenance work required during the run of a mission and an effective database and workflow process could be created. Analyzing and then implementing the various work processes, finding the crucial points and applying automatic mechanisms more effectively were possible therefore; meaning the crew size could be halved, and still be capable of maintaining an optimal capability during missions.

The all-big-gun design was not a new conception to the Empire: the brilliant Mihokovic Brothers and Sir O. Tomić - commonly referred to as the “Croatian Four ” – had submitted a paper study to the Earth Alliance (before the foundation of the Earth Empire), called "Historic Warship Building and Relations to Our Time" five years prior the ensuing battleship building race. Their proposal was to revise the historical, well-tried-out doctrines of using same-sized turrets on a superstructure built specifically to support them. They speculated on the stages of warship design and building, and found that an arms race was imminent. They had advised the strategic command of the Earth Alliance to skip planning and building battleships and go immediately for the all-big-gun dreadnought design, they were the ones that also proposed a new concept called the "Titan"-class. The Strategum didn't listen – mainly because of the commercial ties to main government related to the ship building companies – and went on to keep building battleships of various sizes and designs.

The Croatian Four decided to develop the plans of the Dreadnought and Titan classes themselves, and after 5 years of hard work, they presented a complete set of blueprint and a feasibility case study for the two classes to the newly formed Earth Empire. Still young and chaotic, the Earth Empire refused the plans, after which the Croatian Four decided to share their work with the public, making their plans available to everyone. This step triggered a new wave of arms race: suddenly the Colonies became aware how far they were outclassed by the new battleship designs (even if they were rejected by the Empire, the Colonies still assumed they will be acted upon) so they started to design and build their own dreadnoughts. This in turn forced the Earth Empire to start building the class as well, and the Emperor declared the Croatian Four traitors and sentenced them for life aboard the infamous prison cruiser "Dark Matter".

Additional Information
The Dreadnoughts boast a massive amount of weapons, and some of them have fighters. They're perfect for destroying anything that stands in front of you. Still, due to their weapons being mounted all over the ship, they'll have to move a lot to focus their guns on a single target, although their fighter wings compensate for this flaw for those who have them.

Basic Details
Only the basic stats are presented here. For full information, check out the specific page about each ship.

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