Hi folks! We’re working on the Epsilon Point release of Star Navy, which includes finalizing our Starship Designs. We’ll be bringing you a series of short articles taking about each Ship design, it’s in-universe history, and a little behind the scenes of how that ship came to be.
Today, we’ll be looking at the most powerful Star Navy ship in the release, the Trebuchet War Destroyer.
Ship Sheet
The Ship Sheet is Star Navy’s bread and butter, defining the characteristics of each Ship class and providing an easy space to track damage and abilities. While it’s modular design makes it simple and blocky, it also keeps all your Ship’s info in recognizable formats, so finding the info you need is easy no matter the Ship Sheet.
The Trebuchet is a durable light Ship with heavy firepower that mounts a pair of powerful Prime Antimatter Cannons (AC+) in its forward arc. The biggest drawback to these powerful guns, aside from the energy cost to fire them, is that on a die roll of 6, the weapon becomes Disabled. Thankfully, the Trebuchet’s Repair rules help keep them operational, and in a pinch you can use a Command Point to automatically repair a Box or Weapon during the Prepare Phase, potentially making the Trebuchet a much more threatening target after speeds and shields have been set!
Siege Engine Redefined
8 years prior to the Epsilon Point Incident, the Star Union was faced with an unpleasant truth: Rath’Ton aggression was increasing, and so-called “rogue assets” were clearly enabled by the Empire. In response, the Star Navy began a number of shipbuilding projects to ramp up fleet capabilities.
Project Trebuchet was tasked with creating a vessel that could carry heavy firepower that could be built quickly with existing components. The result was the first Antimatter Cannons, and the Trebuchet War Destroyer, an extended frigate Hull mounting twin axial Cannons.
Antimatter Cannons fire powerful energy bolts that contain a physical Warhead in their tail. The bolt weakens a target’s defenses and then delivers an Antimatter charge directly to the weak point, causing an immediate explosion.
The first ship of the class, SNX-780 “Trebuchet”, launched 2 years later in 574 AR. After initial tests in the asteroid belt, the over 250-meter long warship was designated a success, and the Navy immediately ordered a dozen more into production.
In the year 580 AR, the SNV-790 “Vigilant” was part of a task force that discovered Rath’Ton stealth vessels near Epsilon Point.
Designing the Trebuchet
Most Star Navy ships start as top-down 2D design concepts, and the Trebuchet was no exception. The initial design came before the classic naval Hull aesthetic became a core design element of the game, and so it lacks the final’s extended rear Hull.
The core idea of the Ship was to mount 2 of the Navy’s most powerful guns on a frigate size Hull. Since those guns are basically “what if a Photon Torpedo, a Railgun, and a laser beam had a baby”, it seemed right to make them the full length of the Ship.
While the final design looks very different, the inspiration of the original concept is visible, with the biggest change being the design of the Antimatter Cannons themselves. The original design had been based on a basic beam-style weapon with a large focusing lens, but with the concept that Antimatter Cannons are more Railgun than Laser, it made more sense for the design to change to something slimmer.
The gameplay design for the Trebuchet was always clear – only slightly more durable than a Frigate, but with guns that could make a Cruiser blush. With no risk of losing a Weapon to incoming fire, the War Destroyer is built to be an inexpensive, powerful little ship.
Inexpensive? Of course, the Trebuchet will be free upon release of Epsilon Point. We’re talking about Matched Play of course! While Epsilon Point will not include Matched Play rules, Star Navy’s next release will! We’ll announce more about the second set when Epsilon Point releases, so keep your eyes peeled!