Winchester (Taurian) Type: Heavy Cruiser In Class: 12 refitted Winchesters, 4-8 Winchester IIs In Service (Winchester): 2347, transfered 2450, refitted 2561 In Service (Winchester II): 2570? Mass: 650,000 Sail Integrity: 4 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 2000 tons Structural Integrity: 70 Armor: 910 tons of standard armor (364, 60+7 fore and aft, 61+7 sides) Docking Collars: 3 Fighters: 18 Small Craft: 6 Crew: 400 Lifeboats: 0 Escape Pods: 30 Grav Decks: 2 85 meter Cargo: 51,733 Bay 1: Cargo 1 door Bay 2: Small Craft 2 doors Bay 3: Aerofighters 6 doors Weapons: Heatsinks: 4895 Forward: 6 Naval Autocannon 30s Fore Left / Fore Right 2 Naval Autocannon 30s 5 Autocannon 10s Left Broadside / Right Broadside 3 Naval Autocannon 30s Aft Left / Aft Right 2 Naval Autocannon 30s 3 White Shark Launchers 5 Autocannon 10s Aft 12 Heavy Naval PPCs 3 White Shark Launchers Ammo: 500 tons of naval AC ammo 500 tons of AC 10 ammo 90 White Shark Designers Notes: KF drive calculated as 50% of the ship's mass. The home grown Winchester II has a modern KF drive as well as the following modifications: Eight nose mounted NAC 35s added, 800 rounds of ammo included. All six nose NAC 30s moved. Each broadside recieves an additional gun, fore left and fore right each get two more guns. Armor is upgraded to Ferro Aluminium: 91+7 per facing 5855 heatsinks carried instead of 4895 Cargo is 48,773 Overview: During the early 25th century, the Taurian Concordat fleet was largely a corvette navy. Their only big ships, five Monsoon class battleships acquired from the Hegemony a few decades before, were admittedly big and powerful (for their day), but they were also extremely dificult for the Taurians to maintain, as a consequence they only rarely opperated as active members of the fleet, and their condition would continue to deteriorate with each passing year. To be truly able to stand against their neigbors, the Taurians needed a big ship that could actually opperate full time despite the limited repair facilities available. The Terran built Winchester seemed tailor made. The old class had been first built by the Hegemony in the year 2343, at a time when the Hegemony's own shipyards and repair facilities were few and far between. This meant that by necessity the ship was extremely rugged and reliable, and as a consequence well suited to the needs of the Concordat. With this in mind, and with the Hegemony in the process of retiring the Winchester class, the Taurians managed to acquire a dozen cruisers (along with several Wagon Wheel class frigates, which were essentially Winchesters with some of the guns removed in exchage for sensor systems) for their own fleet in the year 2450. These ships would serve as is for over a hundred years, serving as the main punch of the fleet. In the year 2561, with the first rumblings of a potential alliance among the Great Houses reaching the Concordat, and with the already old Winchester showing her age, the decision was made to put the ships through an extensive refit to allow them to better compete against potential enemies. The first thing to get replaced was the propulsion system. The engines were stripped out in favor of a slightly enlarged version of the modern propulsion system used on the Independence class destroyer, granting the ships improved mobility and at the same time greatly saving on mass. Taking advantage of the lighter and more compact engines, engineers mounted three quad heavy naval PPC turrets directly aft. Though their arc of fire is restricted by their placement between the engines, they can still prove a nasty surprise to anyone who tries to slip behind the Winchester expecting only a trio of naval missile tubes. The main guns were upgraded to the Vandenburg Arms God's Wrath-30s used on the Independence class. This, combined with the PPCs, gave the ship firepower enough to rival the Monsoon. The end result was a frightening and powerful ship, able to handle pratically anything the Star League would throw at her during the Reunification war. Though none of the class would survive the war intact, they would contribute greatly to the successes achieved by the Concordat during the war. Variants: Some time before the start of the Reunification war, the Taurian Concordat deployed its first Winchester II. The home-grown ship was based on the original hull of the Winchester class, incorporating a more advanced and lighter KF-drive. Though the capabilities of these new cruisers are well known from the accounts of the Reunification war, much of their history is shrouded in mystery. It is clear that the Taurians spared no expense in outfitting their new cruisers, including somehow acquiring Ferro Aluminium armor in order to armor them, and further upping the armament with the inclusion of eight brand new God's Wrath-35 naval cannons. However, given the secrecy with which construction of the class was shrouded, and given the basic similiarities between the Winchester and the Winchester II, nobody is really sure how many were built. Star League forces were able to identify the shipyard where the Winchester II was built, and it is commonly accepted that all Winchester IIs were destroyed before the end of the war, however, almost all records of the class were destroyed by the Taurian Concordat before the surrender. Though the SLDF claimed that they got them all, they couldn't actually say how many they got. [editor's note: And of course this spawns no end of lost ship legends. Though the Star League maintained that they had destroyed every combat effective warship in the Taurian fleet by 2587, the whole history of the naval war in the Concordat is a bloody mess, with SLDF and Davion forces repeatedly mis-identifying ships, covering up naval blunders, and claiming ships destroyed that clearly weren't, and with the Taurians cheerfully using every dirty trick they had to hide the strength of their fleet and destroying as much information as possible before surrendering. Many Taurians still believe to this day that Taurian warships were still actively fighting against Davion and SLDF units for decades after the official end of the Reunification war. And the truth is, with all that is still unexplained, they might just be right.]