THE TERRAN ALLIANCEThe Terrans have started the Dindrenzi War of 3721 on the back foot, their fleets in the forward deployment of the Storm Zone have been outmanoeuvred and crushed, and their tacticians have realised that decades of complacency have left them behind the Dindrenzi in terms of ship design. The Terran Navy ships have weaker hulls and bulkheads than those in other fleets, but their saving grace has been the Shield technology of the Saurians.

The Terrans have ensured that most of their ships have Shields, which means that even lowly Frigates survive the occasional crippling blow. Even against the superior ship design of the Dindrenzi with their reinforced hulls, Shields allow Terran ships to keep on fighting with some measure of parity.

In terms of weapon systems, Terran Frigates have torpedoes for long range fire, whose effectiveness tails off as a Frigate closes in and uses its fixed fore arc weapons. The Cruisers

have the further advantage of starboard and port guns in addition to fore guns, allowing them to fire at multiple targets when they are positioned to their best advantage.

The pride of most Terran is the Razorthorn Class Battleship. It is a precursor to future Terran design philosophy, with a reliance on main gun turrets. The Razorthorn in particular has torpedo turrets whose ordnance loses accuracy over range, in contrast to most torpedo systems, but the torpedo turrets of the Razorthorn have a much higher rate of fire which negates the effects of point defence.

The Razorthorn forms the core of any Terran Battlegroup, linking the prodigious rate of its turrets with those of its starboard and port broadsides, or with its fore arc mass drivers. Alternatively it can take on multiple targets with these very effective weapon systems.

Meanwhile the Zenith Class Carrier performs a support role, supplying Flights of Wings to harass

FIRESTORM ARMADAFlEET TAcTIcS - A BIEF InTRODucTIOn TO ThE FIRST SIx RAcES

We have been asked by many of you for more information about the Way that the various races in the firestorm universe fight. so We asked alain Padfield, author of the firestorm core rulebook, to give us an introduction

to fleet tactics, and hoW he sees the different fleets fighting.

isolated enemy ships. It has quite reasonable fore arc mass drivers of its own, and is a durable ship with its many shield arrays. It cannot fight a straight up battle with a Battleship, but is quite capable of weathering the storm of repeated attacks by Frigates or even Cruisers.

THE AQUAN PRIMEThe Aquans have benefited from a far better deployment of fleets against the threat of the Dindrenzi, with multiple reserve formations and roving scout fleets. Their shipyards have engaged in a schedule of refitting existing ships in recent years, so that they are more difficult to damage. The Frigates, however, were the last to go into dry dock for this work, and due to the start of the Dindrenzi War were rushed back into service without the modifications.

Aquan tactical philosophy is largely determined by an appreciation of the three dimensional nature of space, and a requirement to be able to fire at any target in any arc. Aquans are often at their best when surrounded, or when they break through the squadrons of an enemy. Unfortunately, their laser weapons are sometimes comparatively weak against the weapon systems of other fleets, as a result of ensuring that they have reasonably strong guns in the aft arc.

The most common Aquan Battleship is the Poseidon Class, which illustrates this arrangement of weapon systems. The Poseidon is also the fastest Battleship amongst the main protagonists of the Dindrenzi War, providing it with the manoeuvrability to get into the aft arcs of its enemies where it is safe from their more destructive broadsides. Its speed allows it to keep up with smaller ships, and operate in more fluid attacks with Cruisers and Frigates from its own.

The Poseidon has a small security and marine complement, which is a common factor throughout the Aquan fleets, as they are not fond of boarding assaults. Their ships do, however, have very strong point defence and commonly have a lot of mines, providing them with protection against boarders and wings. The Poseidon has its own small Flight of Wings, and their captains often field Interceptors.

The Aquan tacticians favour mines, and their Cruisers’ squadrons in particular are well practiced in a fast approach to an enemy formation while deploying mines. They then overshoot their target while dropping more mines and firing at ships on the flanks of their main target. They may be weak, but when enough mines are dropped near one or more squadrons, they can cause havoc.

THE SORYLIAN COLLECTIVEThe Sorylians have suffered the worst losses during the onset of the Dindrenzi War, and their fleets have been badly outwitted by the Dindrenzi. They have had difficulty in putting enough Battleships and Dreadnoughts into the field, but are quickly remedying the situation. They were complacent and had put too much confidence in the effectiveness of their Cruiser squadrons.

The Skyhammer Class Cruiser is probably the most powerful Cruiser design in the region, with the ability to combat an enemy Battleship when their squadrons are fielded in full strength. It is the workhorse of the Sorylian fleets, whose tacticians favour Battlegroups filled with Cruisers. However, the Dindrenzi are well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Skyhammer, and often target them at the expense of other ships.

Sorylian ships are quite rugged and it is difficult to damage their critical systems, while they have a large complement of security and marine personnel. The Sorylians are fond of boarding assaults, but in contrast have comparatively weak point defence within their ship designs. This is surprising given that they often field a large complement of wings, and have a powerful fleet Carrier in the form of the Morning Star Class.

The Sorylians, like the Aquans, have benefited from Shield technology, but have weaker shield arrays than the Terrans, and are limited to

outfitting their Battleships and Carriers with them. The tougher hull design of Sorylian and Aquan ships has enabled them to stand up to the Dindrenzi invasion fleets despite this flaw. Fortunately for them, the Aquan fleets have encountered the ships of the Directorate, while the Sorylian fleets have fought against the Relthoza more often than the Dindrenzi.

The Sorylians focus on using their starboard and port broadsides after a slow approach firing their fore arc weapons and torpedoes. The Swordbreaker Class Battleship excels at this tactic, as it has starboard and port torpedoes that are effective at all but the closest of ranges. With the support of its Cruisers, a Swordbreaker is a ship to be rightly feared for its firepower and bruising persistence.

THE DINDRENZI FEDERATIONThe Dindrenzi have been making preparations to invade the Storm Zone for years. To an extent, the politicians in the Legislature and their warmonger backers within the Directorate have harvested the resources of the Federation for decades, in readiness for the coming storm.

In particular, the engineering departments of the Dindrenzi naval academies have developed a philosophy that encourages efficiency of design and a maximisation of power.

The most obvious result of this philosophy is the gun rack weapon system that is common to many Dindrenzi ships. It features a gallery of turrets that can fire into both the starboard and the port arcs. Although this means that their traditional broadsides weapons are comparatively weak, it means that the payload of the Dindrenzi fore arc rail guns is much more devastating.

The rail gun is the prominent weapon system of the Dindrenzi, giving them a huge advantage in a direct confrontation with very little manoeuvring. Punch for punch, only the Sorylians can keep up a battle of attrition with the Dindrenzi, and Dindrenzi ships are notable for screened critical systems and a much thicker hull, so that on an equal footing they rarely lose.

Dindrenzi ships are also fairly fast, so even when they are outmanoeuvred they can quickly regain the initiative. The training and determination of their crews is possibly their greatest advantage, as they frequently have the element of surprise, and react quickly to new threats and circumstances. Their ships have reasonable point defence and distribution of mine systems among their capital class ships, so that even when they lose the initiative they are still a credible danger.

The Conqueror Class Battleship and Claymore Class Carrier are excellent example of Dindrenzi efficiency, as they are the cheapest ships to produce in their class. Their superstructures are designed within a modular system, so that many more designs in the same class have the same efficiency. The Dindrenzi are therefore able to field large numbers of capital class ships, so that as the conflict increases in scale they can concentrate force where they are most needed.

THE DIRECTORATEThe crews of the Directorate Navy have probably had the most experience of fighting within the chaos of a space battle. They field tested ship designs and weapon systems against the Aquans and Sorylians during the Xenos War, and even after that died down, their elite troops were still conducting raids on planetary systems of the Aquans and Sorylians. They do, however, lack the Shield technology of the Saurians, the Cloaking Field technology of the Relthoza or the reinforced hulls of the Dindrenzi.

The Judgement Class Battleship is a good example of how the Directorate has combated this weakness. It has two weapon systems in the fore arc, plus torpedoes and guns in the starboard and port arc. The engineers of the Directorate have achieved this without sacrificing other systems, as the Judgement also has a good speed, a large payload of mines and an imposing complement of marines. The Vanquisher Class has a very similar design to the Judgement, only on a smaller scale.

The Judgement and the Overseer Class Carrier do, however, have low point defence, and the Overseer, like the Dindrenzi Claymore, can only field a comparatively small Flight of Wings. The Directorate fleet does seem to be vulnerable to torpedoes and wing attacks, but its commanders have been working on strategies to combat this. The crews of their ships are mostly made up of half human bio-hybrid clones and robots, so they are expendable to a degree, and Directorate captains are quite happy to slug it out with enemy ships until one or the other is destroyed or abandoned.

It is unfortunate that despite all of their advantages the Directorate captains are limited by restrictive tactical doctrine, so that their squadrons operate in tight groups and they are often outmanoeuvred once they leave fold space. Their frequent enemies, the Aquans, do not underestimate the Directorate though, because the Directorate ships can pour out a lot of firepower. More importantly, in these early stages of the invasion of the Storm Zone, the Directorate have not yet committed their more powerful and more numerous squadrons, the Gunships and Destroyers.

THE RELTHOZAThe Relthoza were once the feared enemy of the Terran Commonwealth, whom the early politicians of the Dindrenzi Federation succeeded in making into their allies. The Relthoza have now committed their warriors to a war that they hope is long and destructive, in which their fleets will invade and dismay the planetary systems of the Sorylians. The Terran leaders, however, remain fearful of Relthoza intentions, because if the Dindrenzi conquer Fathoms Reach and approach the Terran Hub, they may well let loose their allies to despoil and terrorise the oldest planetary systems of the Terran Alliance.

The vertical design of the Relthoza Navy is probably the most distinctive of the main protagonists in the Dindrenzi War. The internal structure is a labyrinth of crawl spaces and bulkheads, giving their larger ships a much

tougher hull. They would otherwise be vulnerable to repeated attacks, compared to the ships of other fleets, were it not for their Cloaking Field technology. With it they are able to approach enemy squadrons and suffer less incoming fire as they do so, until they turn off their cloak fields and return a blistering barrage.

The Relthoza favour a fairly traditional broadsides attack that is supported by reasonable weapons in the fore arc. They have a decent payload of mines, quite good point defence, and most importantly a large complement of security personnel, allowing them more freedom to sacrifice their marines in boarding assaults. There are Relthoza ship designs that have not yet been seen in the field, which military intelligence indicates are fearsome boarding vessels.

The Hive Class Carrier is probably the best design of its class in existence, as the Relthoza stress the importance of wing support. It carries a large complement of wings, and has a very effective broadsides attack making it a command ship in some. The Hive is also a relatively cheap design to produce and has a decent rack of torpedo tubes in the fore arc. The torpedo systems of the Relthoza are not consistent between ship designs, but they are still a credible danger, and like the Relthoza are not to be taken lightly.