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TARTARUS CLASS GUNSHIP:

Following the debut of the Tiger, Colonial victories against the Cylons increased as the double punch of the Colonial Destroyers and Battlestars allowed the Colonials to repel almost any Cylon attack and allowed the Colonials to go onto the offensive for the first time in the better part of a hundred yharns.

Quickly realizing that the Colonial's new fleet would present an unacceptable problem, the Cylons adapted to the Colonial's new strategy of sending heavily armed escort ships with their carriers and began work on deploying their own Destroyer type vessel to counter the massive firepower of the Tiger.

After years of work, the Cylons eventually deployed their own Destroyer class vessel - the lethal Tartarus class Gunship. Debut of the Tartarus was a devastating blow the Colonial forces. New Cylon Gunship was armed with ten long-range Mega-Pulsar cannons, giving her two-and-a-half times the firepower and range of the Tigers. For close proximity combat the Tartarus was also armed with over fifty turbo-laser turrets, and was capable of carrying 50 Mk. IX Raider class fighters to the Tiger's eight Vipers.

Debut of the Tartarus was nothing short of a disaster for the Colonials. First recorded use of the Tartarus was during the "Battle of Aegis", when the Colonial's Seventh fleet of 100 ships was decimated by a Cylon force of 20 Base-Stars and five Gunships. This battle effectively broke the Colonial's offensive and turned the tide of the war back into the Cylon's favor.

Cylon furor was soon to fade however, as Colonial tacticians quickly devised countermeasures to the Cylon's new weapon. The Tartarus, despite her massive weapon payload, had several inherent design problems, which the Colonials were quickly able to seize advantage of.

Unlike the Tiger, which was designed as an attack vessel with almost all her weapons set fore, the Cylon's new Gunship had her heavy weapons set to either five points spaced 72 degrees apart, suggesting that the Cylons had intended to deploy it into massive fleet engagements and open fire in the middle of Colonial forces, much like what was seen during the "Battle of Aegis." Also, the Gunship's weapons were so big, that the re-fire delay was three times that of the Tiger's and, given that she could not concentrate her fire power at one point the Tiger's were able to stand one-on-one in a battle with the Tartarus. Probably the biggest design flaw in the Tartarus' design was the fact she hand nearly no weapons set to either north or south her Y axis, allowing fighters and the Tigers to attack from above and bellow, virtually unchallenged.

Still, despite these inherent flaws the Tartarus succeeded in doing what she had been designed to do - break the Colonial offensive and force humanity to fight smaller campaigns where the Cylons had an advantage, rather than fleet actions where their Base-Stars could be bested by superior Colonial tactics.

Due to the fact that there were very few occasions to use the Tartarus, given that massive offensive operations from the Colonials or their allies were few, only a handful of Tartarus class Gunships were ever constructed many of, which were lost during the "Battle of Molocay."

CYLON TARTARUS CLASS DESTROYER:

   
SCALE: Capital
LENGTH: 1,800 meters
TONAGE: 25,500,000 metric tons
SPEED: 0.32C sub-light
POWER: 1 Tylium energizer [8,000 Terawatts]
5 fusion reactors [50 Terawatts]
STANDARD CREW: 205
5 officers
50 warriors / fighter pilots
150 crew
PASSENGERS: 1,000 troops
CARGO CAPACITY: unknown
CONSUMABLE: n/a
MANEUVERABILITY: class B
HULL/ARMOR: 2.8 to 4 meters
EM-SHIELDS: 15% - 30%
SENSORS: Short/Medium range, sub-light, 200,000 m^3/s +
SCANNERS: C at 300,000 KM
WEAPONS: 50+ Blaster batteries
10 long range Mega-Pulsar guns
5 tractor beam emitters.
FIGHTERS: 50 Mk. IX Raider class Fighter
10 surface transports
1 drop ships

 

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