The Multi-Gun Corvette was a corvette designed for the purpose of tracking multiple fighters used by the Kushan and Taiidan Empire in Homeworld.
Overview[]
As the name suggests, Multi-Gun Corvettes are armed with several guns that are able to track individual ships all at once, granting them a larger zone of coverage than heavy corvettes. This makes them exceptionally powerful against swarms of fighters, because they can attack up to six fighters at once, compared to the meagre two that the heavy corvette can attack. In large attacks dominated entirely by strike craft, as during the battles of the Great Nebula showcased, they can quickly pick off fighters with limited damage taken against the fleet.
Despite being well equipped to deal with fighters, the guns are much weaker than those found on heavy corvettes, meaning they are not very effective against capital ships. They're also slightly more expensive to construct, as well as slower to manoeuver, making them only useful when attacking large swarms of fighters or corvettes and not much else.
Lore[]
Since the beginning of the Homeworld War, corvettes had been used alongside fighters in combat against their enemies. Most of these were designed to counter other strike craft but also had limited ability against Capital Ships. The Heavy Corvette, for example, was quite effective against enemy fighters as well as (in the right numbers) a true death sentence for any frigate other than the Taiidan Assault Frigate.
However, when the Mothership Fleet entered the Garden of Kadesh, none of the anti-strike craft weaponry would prove quite sufficient and so a new, completely anti-strike craft vessel was built. The ideal type for such a vessel would of course be a corvette, able to take limited damage while being fast enough to go toe on toe with Swarmers. So work began to, in just a short time, to build a vessel capable of protecting the fleet from the Kadeshi.
The chassis was simple enough, but the weaponry was difficult. To be truly effective, the new multi-gun corvette had to possess a fair number of turrets positioned all around its chassis. These weapons had to be powerful enough to knock a fighter out quickly but small enough that they didn't take up the huge room that the large guns did. Furthermore, high usage was dangerous and could cause overheating which would be both dangerous and render the turrets unusable.
So, two new systems were employed. First, gyro-stabilizers were employed along with the guided targeting systems to help the gunners track fast-moving targets. Secondly, a new maglev system in its prototype stages that was quite similar to the Multi-Gun Corvettes used by the Taiidan was attempted. Based on super-conductive polymers, the maglev turrets were able to track quickly and avoid overheating.
Multi-Gun corvettes were a success and became frequently used in both offensive duty and guarding larger frigates, particularly the vulnerable Ion Cannon Frigates.
Legacy[]
Multi-Gun Corvettes continued to be used after the Homeworld War, with both the Kushan and Taiidan factions making heavy use of them to protect their ships. However, by the time of the Vaygr War, they had fallen out of fashion as a result of the arrival of Gunships and Flak Frigates, which eliminated the need for the slower corvette in fleets.
Trivia[]
- In the Homeworld: Cataclysm manual, the Kushan ship is codenamed Tempest and the Taiidan ship is codenamed Diirvaas .[1]
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ Homeworld: Cataclysm manual