Earth Alliance Advanced Prototype Cruisers Avatar Class Heavy Cruiser EAS Ranger Tempest Class Heavy Cruiser EAS Tempest Charybdis Class Interdicter Cruiser EAS Siren Intimidator Class Command Ship (Click pic to go to the site I got the above graphic from) Intimidator Class Command Ship History These ships were built as a precursor to the powerful Warlock Class Advanced destroyers. They possess command facilities that are second only to those found aboard Poseidon class supercarriers, and are armed with experimental (for the most part) EA weaponary. However, they were designed without the latent Shadow technology found in the Warlocks, and are considered second line warships. Their role seldom finds them in fleet combat, but when they are, these "second line" ships have been more successful than not. The proposed Beta model will have more standard weapons and systems. The Gamma model is being proposed as a new Heavy Cruiser for Earthforce. There is rumor of a Delta model enhanced with Shadow Technology, but claims to its existance have thus far gone unsubstantiated. Intimidator Class SCS (Alpha model) Avatar and Tempest Class History These two classes were attempts to build a Heavy Cruiser design based on the Warlock Class Advanced Destroyer in order to replace the Hyperion Class. Like the Artic Class, these ships have as their central main weaponary the Heavy Particle Cannon. There was only one Tempest class built, while an unknown number of Avatars have been built. Neither will ever enter full scale production. A number of Avatar variants have entered service since the inception of the Interstellar Alliance. The Avatar Beta was an attack cruiser built for standoff attacks. Its heavy particle cannon was removed and two medium laser cannons and one heavy laser cannon replaced it. It lost the A-racks as well. The Avatar Gamma was a strike cruiser built around the rail cannon first deployed aboard the Hectate class EAS Endeavour. Four were placed on board, as well as four railguns, in addition to the two LH-racks. This heavily ammunition dependant vessel, while powerful, rarely leaves the systems they are assigned to protect. It is unknown if the Beta and Gamma variants are new build vessels or refits of Alpha variants previously unobserved. A new model of Tempest has also been observed, though like the Avatars, it is unknown if they are new hulls or refits of previously unseen Alpha models. (This model appeared in either a Great Machine or Babcomm, I forget which, and was thought up by "Steve1".) Tempest Class SCS (Alpha Model) Tempest Class SCS (Beta Model) -NEW Avatar Class SCS (Alpha Model) Avatar Class SCS (Beta Model) -New Avatar Class SCS (Gamma Model) -New Charybdis Class History The Charybdis class the EA has access to Shadow tech, and the Shadow cruisers had a weapon called the vortex disrupters. Well, seeing this, and finally figuring out how the Minbari sensor arrays disrupted the EA's jump engines when they finally encountered them, the EA decided to build a few ships that were meant to set traps for the Rebel forces during the Civil War. The first ship entered service in 2261, but never saw any combat. It was undergoing tests for much of the war. The EA had some trouble with the Shadow vortex disrupter, in that they couldn't duplicate it exactly. They could duplicate the weapon to a point, then they needed extensive support systems to enable the weapon to work. The result is that on the SCS, there's a support system icon in the primary section. If either it or the forward weapon are destroyed, the ship can no longer stop actual hyperspace vortexes in their formation. The second new system is the Sensor Weapon. (The EA has no imagination when it comes to naming weapons.) It was based on the readings gathered during the Earth Minbari War and how Minbari sensor arrays fouled up EA jump engines. Seeing how the Minbari stopped Earth jump engines from working, some nut-case scientist reasoned that since Earth jump engines are based on Centauri engines, and most of the League's engines as well as the Narn's are Centauri based, a weapon could be developed to shut down enemy jump engines. The prototypes and subsequent production models were large and difficult to use. Once an enemy ship has been rendered incapable of jumping by this weapon, the lock must be re-verified every four turns or the enemy ship is able to jump if the engine was charged before being shut down. The Charybdis class is a combo of the old Hyperion class CA's and the Explorer Class Survey ships. It has a rather large reactor, as well as the Explorer's solar panels to generate the power needed for the advanced systems. The ship also carries a flight of the EW variant of the SA-23E Aurora, the ESA-23S Prowler. One small detail about the operation of these ships is that when the main disruption weapons are powered up, the ship's jump engine must be powered down or risk damage or even destruction. Not too many of these were things built, and with the Shadows saying "Sayonara", no more would be able to be built. (Note: Both the top ships are fan based designs that I found in the B5tech.com discussion board, or from a link there. I think the Tempest was created by Lars Jorteg, while the Avatar is a mystery. There used to be an online repository for these designs, and others created by those on that board, but all recent attempts to access the site haven't been successful. The later ship was designed for use in the Babylon 5 Total Conversion for the Homeworld PC game.) Charybdis Class SCS (Alpha Model)