Stalin-class Battlecruiser

From Acw

The Stalin-class Battlecruisers are the largest fighting capital ships in existence, with each one costing trillions and taking a decade to build. Built openly in the Mars Shipyards, the first two gargantuan hulls of this class joined the Maxim Gorky to form the Third Extrasolar Fleet.

The Stalins are gigantic, well-armoured and ponderously slow. They are designed to take an entire taskforce with them when tunnelling, with attachment points for four son ships and a docking bay holding six squadrons of small attack craft. The two vessels currently deployed were equipped with the Svoboda-class Gunship in support, though the universal mounting point could take other ships if necessary.

In combat they are too slow and large to evade damage, relying instead on their extremely thick armour and redundant systems for survival. Reports from the engagements around Neuostland reveal that this strategy may be less than effective, as deadly as the class is against enemy capital ships. It is in keeping with modern Russian design strategies that their capital ships are getting larger while other navies are moving away from Battlecruisers entirely, and the jury is still out as to the combat effectiveness of these behemoths.

The Stalins truly shine as blockade ships. One Stalin-class battlecruiser taskforce could blockade an entire planet if conditions are right. It is supposed that this was the plan for the unsuccessful invasion of Neuostland. But for the intervention of the SS battlegroup, it might well have succeeded.

Ships in Service

• Stalin
• Alexander Nevsky (II)

Commissioned Ships

• Kruschev (In Mars Shipyards)
• Zhukov (In Mars Shipyards)