Sa'cea An interesting little ship, remember there's actual precedent here for the Tau to actually deploy a 'Broadsided' Battlecruiser, A second set of railguns where the LBs are on the T'olku variant, but with L/R fire arcs respectively. It's FP12 Forward, but also possible FP8 on each broadside! I think we could do an article here very nicely roughly on the same basis as the Ork Battleships, where each variant is a 'unique' ship(well, 1/force anyway
)Fal'shia What a boring ship! ?
Okay, maybe a little harsh but 'cruiser carriers' strike me as being the obvious use on a Merchant Hull, but an utter waste on a Hero hull! IMO Launchbays are very 'inexpensive' requirements on the actual power output of a ship. All that generator power going to waste!(And before it's said, yes Carriers 'should' be faster in this regards as they're not hulking power into Lances, however, thats a matter for BFG 2.0!) However, from that, it could be a 'unique ship' which was so badly damaged it's only use was to be relegated to an 'all carrier' outfit. In fact, that idea I quite like! Perhaps call it the N'Dras variant?Other ideas I had, but not on the Hero hull:
Drone Control Ship An odd ship, if ever there was. Based upon the Explorer hull, but with this weapons outfit(all broadside launcbays):
Prow Gravitic Missiles S8 Front
Prow Railguns S6 FLR 45cm
3* Port Gravitic Missiles, S4, Left
3* Starboard Gravitic Missiles, S4, Right
Cost...?
Counts as having an Integrated Tracking System
A hefty ship, I know, but it'd make for a very interesting vessel, perhaps even a famous 'centre of the defences' ship for T'au itself, rarely seen outside the T'au system!
Fluff: Simply, the behemoth carries a simply ridiculous amount of drones assorted into many forms and variations. However, as their propulsion system is akin to that of a Tau Starships(and also to that of the Drone Guided Missiles employed by the Tau in space), with a controlled depressurisation of a storage hold(Launch bay essentially) they can be released in the same manner as a standard form of gravitic missiles.
ShogunTau's Fleet Carrier He always wanted a fleet carrier, so here it is!
Explorer Hull
Prow Railguns Fp6 LFR 45cm
Port Grav Hooks S3
Starboard Grav Hooks S3
Dorsal Grav Hooks S3
Fluff? It's simply a massive 'tug' Explorer, probably akin to the Orbital Merchant, in that eventually it is destined to form part of the colony it is settling/fighting for. Also, perhaps, it could be the 'preferred' outfit for an Explorer that is to setup station in an otherwise 'uninhabited' system, eg an All Orbital colony with no actual gorund components(ref: Cloud City). Here there would be less need for the deployment of the Manta, especially when you have Orcas and Dhows which do the job better(fluffwise) when atmospheric entry isn't involved.
Orbital Merchant An older(perhaps badly damaged) Merchant hull destined to be disassembled and put to use in colonisation or construction of Orbitals around a planet, the Orbital Merchant works as a self-destructing hive over time, it's own cargo craft and constructors slowy shredding it and forming a new refurbished Orbital from it's constituents. In times of battle however, these ships are used as an intermediary platform for controlling the launch and oversee of any excess attack craft in the fleet.
Prow Railguns Fp2, Range 45cm, FLR
P+S Launcbays S2
An interesting range of ships if ever there was, no?
Now, I'm sure I have a ton of others lying around in my mind, but when I truly can't think of them offhand. Probably doesn't help that I've had no sleep and it's 6 in the morning...
In fact, I think we could be onto a winner here with these articles, they're feasible, and so long as we 'control' outselves with their useage(good restrictions on them), then I don't see the problem tbh...could easily make it into Fanatic, it's not as if the models would be hard to convert...
Xisor
