Battlefleets of Sector Six: Ships of the 4th Reich

Previous to the Siege of Rentlaw Prime, the 4th Reich had never shown real naval strength beyond individual ships and small raiding squadrons. In fact it was the engagements against the RS Drache (see "Voyages of the Mary Shelly") that the first capital ship was known to have been deployed by the Reich.

With the capture of the Imperial Titan Legion (renamed the "1st Titan Army" by the Reich, see "The Rise of Tyranny" Campaign) on Xochoi, all that changed. Always adept at technical challenges, the Reich was very quickly able to reverse engineer the weapons technology of the captured Titans and the ability to manufacture the various types of massive ordnance was realized.

After the ceasefire, construction practices for ship hulls to carry these various types of massive ordnance followed. After 5 years of peace, the "HimmelWaffe" (Heaven Force) is ready to crush the Imperials and their allies and drive them from the Rentlaw SubSector once and for all.

Battleships
Improving on the design of the original RS Drache, these next generation Battleships deploy over 17 primary turrets for nearly complete coverage of the fire arc sphere. Additionally, the mid-hull landing decks can accommodate 2 full Fighter/Bomber squadrons.



Carriers
The utility of purpose built carriers in this era of naval warfare is an open question. With Battleship and Cruiser classes being able to deploy large numbers of fighters and engage an enemy with direct fire ordnance, the relative fragility of a carrier may prove to be the demise of this class. However, the coming battles may show otherwise. Fighters are easily replaced, and may provide enough protection for the ship itself. 
Essentially, this class has the equivalent Fighter/Bomber capacity as a Battleship of 2 full squadrons, but only mounts secondary defense guns for close combat protection.

Cruisers
The middle-weight component of the HimmelWaffe, Reich's cruisers are capable platforms with an ordnance throw weight of about 2/3 of their Battleship sisters and can support a Fighter/Bomber Squadron. The hulls have gone through several revisions in the short 5 years of the building program, and sport several different superstructure configurations.


Destroyers, and Fighter/Bombers
Of the smaller classes, Destroyers are probably the weak element of the fleet. Cheaply produced, the class struggles for a place in the fighting doctrine of "big guns and screen" of the fleet. Conversely, the Fighter and Strike Bomber designs are adept at their mission to keep their enemy counterparts at bay while the massive guns of the Battleships and Cruisers pound the enemy.
In this picture, a small sensor laden utility ship can be seen in the lower right corner. Whether this is a Strike Coordinator for the Fighters or a Forward Observer for the heavy ordnance is unknown at the time of  publication.
 

Super Dreadnought
The actual deployment of this massive vessel cannot be verified at this time. If this is an actual pic (not some propaganda fabrication) fighting against this class would be a terrifying  prospect for Imperial or other forces.


Additional Footage
It is known that the Reich has captured and redployed some Imperial ships, the pic below shows the RS Wolfe on patrol with the Imperial hull renamed RS Vichy.

The RS Scharnhorst and  RS Faehig



FILE ENDS...

Hello Readers,
First of all, all of the ships are from a small company known as Dark Edge Designs. He is, in a word, GREAT.  Some of the ships are slightly modified (because I just cannot help myself), but I love his stuff. The ships are really big, have great details, and as they are 3d printed, very very tough for table handling. My orders have always arrived quickly, accurately, and usually with an additional sample of something of a different style to get my imagination going.

He makes a variety of styles of ships, some more WWII in Space as seen above, some much more advanced SCI FI, and lots in between. Dark Edge also makes a wide variety of items for Gaslands. Please go check out his FB page: Dark Edge FB

...and most importantly his etsy shop: Dark Edge Games Store

If you are looking to support a small business that does great work, Dark Edge Games fits the bill.

Let me know if you guys have any questions, and as always, 
Thanks for looking!

Maj

*Oops, I forgot, Fighters and the recon ship are from Brigade Models, my bad












Comments

  1. Thrilling stuff! I like that you have a variety of ship types (although it seems like you need some logistics elements)

    And seeing those makes me want to have a go at printing ships on my own printer...hmm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a post about transports and orbital installations coming :)
      Thanks

      Delete
  2. These are impressive! Wow, I love the design and how they all look. Pretty nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Dark Edge does great ship designs as well.
      He's about to get even more of my cash

      Delete
  3. Very nice looking fleet! Interesting designs there, might have to pick up a few!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some cool looking ships, with a great paint job! So what will they be going up against? Also, what rules are you planning to use?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Next 2 posts will cover the good guys (Kingdom of Colores) and the "inbetween" guys, my take on the Imperium.

      Rules?
      Well, I do really like Red Alert, and I've been messing around with "Gridded Naval Wargames" by Bob Cordero.
      GNW is very fast play and has some scenarios involving shore batteries.

      Delete
  5. Are you ever planning on doing another campaign like the Rise of Tyranny?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't thought about it, BUT ...now you have me thinking.
      Possibly....
      Hmmmmm

      Delete
    2. I remember you letting other people play games in your universe, and that just seems like a lot of fun. I hope to be able to get some friends to do a non-specific Space Opera game when Covid is done with us, ranging from Pulp Alley level to Full Thrust level...

      Delete
    3. I think that would be cool to do again. Maybe something about a campaign for the outer system resources/assets to determine the direction of the siege?
      Possibly...

      Delete

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