The painted plastic prototype of the Nelson BB. Once translated into metal the ridges you see will be smooth. All the detail is rough because of the plastic layering process used to "print" this, but it looks pretty good (my camera work aside!). Thanks to Mike Ryan of PAGE for painting it, and on short notice too!

Right down the middle!

Closeup of Procyonese SQDN element Scythe 1-1 in Scenario S5 Firepower Pass - Assault at Secundis Majoris. Note the Double Lock-On on the flagship BLADEN (Dralance Class). It did not survive the first turn... ;-)

Advance the Cruisers!

Same scenario: My 10-yr old son boldly advances a corporate SQDN element, FastCruDiv 321 (the four cruisers in the center SQDN) into the thick of the oncoming Procyonese. He also advanced the following Terran units right up to the 60/40% TachSpace line (the ruler). He halted there, intending to prevent the Procyonese (me!) from crossing the line into the 60% zone and possibly escaping safely into TachSpace!

Event Deck

A closeup of the Event Deck as I like to make it, printed on Avery business card stock and inserting a front and back into a top loader for baseball cards.

Looped!

FastCruDiv 321 blows by the advancing Procyonese and reverses into their rear. It will be a tough fight as the cruisers are well within effective gun range of some of the larger Procyonese ships.

Point defense almost gone, Sir! Too may missiles inbound!!

Log sheets for TCF Strike Force 12 in Scenario S5.

PCON System Base Ship REAPER Class

The Procyonese Strategy for “claiming” planetary systems centers around the deployment of one or more of these massive Base Ships as the mobile headquarters for fleet and army units assigned to occupy a solar system. It has a considerable but not inexhaustable supply of deadly ship-killer missiles which double as ortillery. Many squadrons of Light Attack Craft for patrol and picket duties are also based on this self-contained, city-sized unit. Its large number of secondary turrets make assaults against it untenable at best, disastrous at worst.

PCON System Assault Ship DRALANCE Class

These are the main PCON fleet units for both system-occupation and planetary-assault operations, providing substantial firepower from multiple offset turrets and multiple missile batteries.

PCON System reserve Ship REVGONE Class

The Procyonese classify their ships by function, and the REVGONEs are used to reinforce the main squadrons of System Assault Ships on the attack, and System Patrol Ships on the defense.

PCON System Patrol Ship ORTON Class

System Patrol Ships are the typical military-police cruiser for occupied territories, as well as the principal class for intra- and extra-solar reconnaissance and courier duties. Classed by Terran NavIntel Departments as a “Cruiser” they have sometimes been used by the PCON to screen their main fleet elements in major battles. Raids by groups of SPSs are not uncommon.

TCF BB NELSON Class

The Battleships of the Terran Confederation Navy were developed in response to the System Assault Ships of the PCON. The are designed to be used in the company of the more numerous Terran Corporate Navy Dreadnoughts classes (see Victory Class, etc) used by most Corporate Navies, notably their main manufacturer, Militar Orbital. When properly handled, the Nelsons’ considerable gun firepower complements the ship-killing missile batteries of the Victory Class.

TCN MIL DN VICTORY Class

Current mainstay of the Corporate Navies - as opposed to the newly formed Terran Confederation Navy, now deployed to the PCON frontier - is the Victory Class Dreadnought. The Victory Class packs large ship-killing batteries with an ample supply of missiles which can do substantial damage at stand-off ranges. It has two well known weaknesses: its main gun batteries are underpowered for its size, and it carries no great complement of LACs. Terran Corporate designers promote the use of large squadrons of Escort sized ships - Light Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates and Gunbrigs - to perform both point defense and remote-strike functions for the Victorys. Tangentially there are unconfirmed reports that the profit margins on these Escort classes of ships are more considerable than on LACs.

TCF BC AUBREY Class

The Aubrey Class originated to fill a gap when tables of organization were depleted all across the Confederacy after the considerable Battleship and Dreadnought losses inflicted by the PCON in early battles. The big ships could only be replaced slowly until production geared up gaining wartime momentum, and the Terrans realized they would be outnumbered for too long unless measures were taken to close the gap in the number of hulls they possessed versus the PCON. The Corporate Council decided to let Militar Orbital replace the Nelson and Victory Class losses while other manufacturers like RP Industries and Belt Yards were licensed the design for a so-called “Stop-gap” battlecruiser with Battleship rated guns. Problems arose due to the small hull size used in order to facilitate producing large numbers of hulls in a short time, so the guns finally chosen turned out to be considerably smaller than Battleship rated; the Aubreys are considered well-armed for cruiser actions but under-gunned and -missiled to take on anything else. Also considerable numbers of escorts are needed for the Aubreys, especially for missile-defense. An upgrade is in the works. Yet Aubreys in use in large numbers have successfully combated PCON Cruiser forces in some areas when properly used.

Cover art

High-resolution front and back covers are available for free!
Here's some low-resolution snapshots to whet your appetite…