NOTE: THIS SHIP IS NOW RETIRED; ALL NEW DESIGNS USE THE SUPERLASER SHIP HULL AS STANDARD.
Version 1: Armed with six heavy turbolaser turrets, sixteen light turbolasers, twelve laser cannon turrets, and five salvo-launch guided missile launchers. CIWS is thirty autoblaster turrets. Active defense consists of seven Impeders and 24 Shield generators. Passive defense is two-layer Ablative Armor. Three Repair/Damage Control modules effect field repairs while a Microjump drive enables quick dodges and getaways.
This ship is a straight-up brawler designed to smash enemy fleets open with overwhelming force. Its efficient steeply-angled hull enables at least half the ship's firepower is available at any quarter but directly aft, and it is common to see the Minotaur engaging multiple widely-separated enemy fleets. Its rear is vulnerable to attack if the enemy can survive the fire from dedicated tailguns and SGML, but the hull wings protect the engines quite well from flanking attack long enough for heavy guns and missiles to prosecute the offending target.
Version 2: HTLs reduced to two; LTLs to twelve and lasers to ten. Still has thirty Autoblasters and five SGMLs. Impeders reduced to six and Deflectors increased to 29. Main weapon is a multi-component Superlaser weapon consisting of eight Shockbeams. A third layer of Ablative has been added as well.
This ship is adapted for heavy strategic attack of high-value and heavily-defended targets. Its primary HTL battery has been slashed to two, removing two-thirds of the ship's heavy gunfire capability. However, lighter weapons have progressively been less reduced as we go down the scale. Power and space freed up allow for enhancement of shields and armor, ironically making this strategic attack ship tougher than the mainline unit!
The superlaser is a linear array of five-chambered ultra-long-range Shockbeams each capable of 750 megatons DPS at overcharge factor of one, which can go as high as six. One can figure out the whole array's DPS, too. :twisted:
EDIT: Since it's now a fleet, title edited to reflect this.
And now the littlest brother, the Mad Cow.
