Overlord-class Battlecruiser
The Overlord-class Battlecruiser of the Imperial Navy was based by the Adeptus Mechanicus on the design of the Acheron-class Heavy Cruiser in an effort to create a cruiser-sized warship with the long-range punch and potent firepower of a true battleship.
The Overlord-class Battlecruiser is a popular hull with both Imperial Navy captains and admirals. Captains favour the class' long-range weaponry, good armour, and reasonable speed, whilst admirals like the fact it can unleash heavy punishment at the range of a battleship, whilst being able to manoeuvre like a cruiser.
Many see the Overlord as a poor man's Retribution-class Battleship, though in truth it is a formidable capital ship in its own right, capable of taking on almost any comparable warship for its tonnage and emerge victorious as a result of its longer range and thick armour plating.
The Overlord battlecruiser also incorporates extensive void shield and turret cover, which allow it to better weather both incoming fire and assaults by enemy attack craft.
History
An Overlord-class Battlecruiser in orbital dock.
The design of the Overlord-class Battlecruiser is generally considered a success in regards to it being a battlecruiser possessing the long-range capabilities and firepower of a battleship, despite many problems with its design. Difficulties in replicating the Acheron-class Heavy Cruiser's power transmission systems led to the Overlord-class possessing only an armoured prow and standard cruiser torpedo tubes in place of the Acheron's more powerful forward weapons batteries.
Fortunately, this modification also freed up enough power to allow the installation of an upgraded dorsal Lance turret and row-upon-row of broadside weapons batteries, providing a range comparable to the vessel's other long-range laser batteries. These changes resulted in the long-ranged firepower that the Overlord's designers had hoped for when they had outlined the tactical requirements for the new battlecruiser.
Further difficulties in actually building the Overlord-class, however, meant that each one had to be painstakingly constructed at the Cypra Mundi orbital shipyards that serve as the headquarters of the Imperial Navy in the Segmentum Obscurus, and as such very few entered service with the Battlefleet Obscurus, with only three seeing action during the Gothic War.
A successful early illustration of how workable the battlecruiser concept can be, the Overlord is as fine an example of a pure warship as can be found. Most Rogue Traders find the ship is poorly suited to anything other than combat, as its enormous weapons systems place a colossal strain upon the plasma reactor. Some Rogue Traders strip out the extensive macrobatteries, freeing up space for other components, but others regard this as a foolish and blinkered waste of some of the most elegantly designed and lethally effective weapons systems in the galaxy.
Manufactured in the vast orbital shipyards of Cypra Mundi (as well as at other shipyards in lesser numbers), the Overlord is a difficult vessel to construct, but faithful and fierce in its service to Mankind. It does not waste space on massive attack craft hangars or the temperamental Nova Cannon.
Instead, most designs use powerful long-range Macrocannon batteries and Lance turrets, backed by prow torpedo tubes. This simple, proven, and effective weaponry plays to the strengths of Imperial Navy tactics and Imperial technology. The design is an ancient but successful one, and new examples of the class are still commissioned every decade or so.
Notable Overlord-class Battlecruisers
- Cypra Probatii - The Cypra Probatii was completed partway through the Gothic War and arrived in the Gothic Sector only after a long and dangerous Warp journey from Cypra Mundi. It later had its point-defense turret array upgraded.
- Righteous Power - The Righteous Power fought in the Taros Campaign. It scored the killing blow on the Or'es El'leath (Custodian)-class Battleship A'Rho.
- Flame of Purity - The Flame of Purity fought in the Gothic War alongside the Sword of Retribution, protecting strategic star systems from the Chaos raiders that plagued the Gothic Sector. When the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon faced a massive fleet of Imperial Navy, Space Marine, and Craftworld Aeldari starships in the Schindlegeist System, he attempted to use the Warp Cannons of the captured Blackstone I, Blackstone IV, and Blackstone VI Blackstone Fortresses to destroy his foes. Lord Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg ordered all available ships to intercept the captured Blackstone Fortresses. The Flame of Purity was the only vessel close enough to attack, but the battlecruiser's weapons proved to have little effect. As they prepared to fire, Captain Abridal ordered all power to the void shields and rammed the Flame of Purity into the energy waves linking the Blackstone Fortresses as they prepared to fire on the fleet. The Imperial warship was destroyed almost instantly, but the detonation expended the power of the Warp Cannons, saving the rest of the allied fleet from instant annhilation.
- Sword of Retribution - Fought in the Gothic War alongside the Flame of Purity protecting important star systems from Chaos raiders.
- Niobe - The Niobe fought in the Damocles Crusade. It was destroyed in battle after its reactors went critical following a massive strike from T'au warships.
- Saint Aster - The Saint Aster, under the command of Commodore Eloise Athagey, served as the flagship for the Indomitus Crusade Fleet Tertius' Battle Group Saint Aster. The battlecruiser is named in honor of the Imperial Saint Aster and several statues depicting her were located within its interior. Before the Saint Aster began its service to the Indomitus Crusade, the battlecruiser was the command vessel of the Machorta Sector Battlefleet's Strike Group Saint Aster.
Dimensions
- Hull: 5.3 kilometres, 0.85 kilometres abeam at fins approximately
- Class: Overlord-class Battlecruiser
- Mass: Approximately 31 megatonnes
- Crew: Approximately 100,000 crew
- Acceleration: 2.4 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration
Sources
- Battlefleet Gothic Rulebook (Blue Book), pp. 101, 109
- Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign
- Star of Damocles (Novel) by Andy Hoare, Chs. 14, 15, pg. 218
- Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus (RPG), pg. 22
- Avenging Son (Novel) by Guy Haley, "Prominent Vessels of the Indomitus Crusade," Ch. 6
- Battlefleet Gothic Armada (PC Game) (Image)