Aotrs Shipyards is a webstore on Shapeways.com, a 3D print house which had production and shipping facilities located in the USA and the Netherlands.
This month's release is the next wave of Xyriat carriers and smallcraft!
CVM01E Golulot Medium Carrier
link
The Golulot Medium Carrier has had a storied history. While only a little later, it is contemporary to the Caldrast, Hedrast or Halgat designs. Of these, the Golulot has seen the most major revisions to its base design over the decades. The Golulot is a "Medium" carrier by the Xyriat definition primarily because of the presence of smaller carriers, like the Halgat and several short-lived "light carrier" designs, which carried less than a full squadron of vessels. The older, earlier designs combined the functions of both transport/repair ship and carrier, and were very slow and cumbersome vessels.
The modern Golulot disposed of the ancillary facilities, pushing the duties onto dedicated ships like the CLRST01C Yaxir, The available space was used for more robust engines and power plant and a better array of defences, both in terms of passive and active systems.
The Golulot CVM01E has numerous particle beam turrets for point-defence. It has two missile racks, usually equipped with point-defence munitions, but somewhat atypically for a Xyriat vessel, has no torpedo tubes.
The Golulot's role in its current configuration typically is to provide support to other vessels information in the battle line. It is often assigned Vod or Vayox anti-ship drone squadrons. The drones typically screen the Golulot, essentially providing long-range railgun support and making the unit quite a capable warship in its own right,
The Xyriat navy contains a significant number of Golulots, including some still in their older configurations.
DNAS01A Vod Antiship Drone
link
The Vod Antiship Drone is one of the most common drones in the Hegemonic Navy. Their effectiveness centres around the simple design of the single, spinal-mounted capital ship railgun. Whereas most anti-starship smallcraft rely on short-ranged light torpedoes or missiles for their punch, the Vod can sit at extended range and chip away at a vessel, using its superior manoeuvrability to keep out of reach of most capital ships. A single Vod is not dangerous, but a squadron can prove a serious threat.
The Vod drones are also used for deep-strikes. Being equipped with their own GVD drives – focussed off the paired discs on either side of the railgun – means that they are excellent for raiding against static targets, where they can maximise their range. The Vods carry a very plentiful supply of ammunition for their railguns.
Nor are they entirely defenceless if brought to battle; the Vod mounts four light particle beam cannons and boasts good shielding. However, their manoeuvrability is only average and their railguns make a poor substitute for light torpedoes or missiles against other fighters and they do not fare well against all but the lightest of fighters.
The Vod drones are quite capable when used to screen capital ships; their particle beams can provide additional anti-fighter or missile defence and their railguns can provide significant extra firepower to a vessel. However, the Vod's primary drawback in this role is that they cannot do both at once with their limited firecontrol.
DNAS02A Vayox Antiship Drone
link
The Vayox Antiship Drone is the Vod's larger and modern brother, The Vayox is a large drone, though not quite approaching the Vitokor's size.
The Vayox has a similar mission profile to the Vod, though its size means it is perforce less agile and slower. However, the Vayox mounts three railguns rather than one, in a triad formation around the central GVD emission disk. In addition, rather than the Vod's fixed guns, the Vayox has point-defence particle beam turrets, with their own independent firecontrols, allowing it to fire at both short and long ranges simultaneously, even while screening. The Vayox's shields and hull are much more significant, allowing the drone to be able to survive the destruction of a screened mothership like a Golulot Medium carrier which would destroy a squadron of Vods.
Vayoxes are too large to be deployed in full squadrons of twelve (given the typical standard Xyriat hangar size), but are usually deployed in groups of six from a carrier. However, even a single Vayox can be a threat to lighter vessels.
As with the Vod, the Vayox performs poorly against other fighters. While the point-defence systems provide slighter better protection than for the Vod, the Vayox is more easily out-manoeuvred and the additional railguns do not compensate for the loss.
The Vayox has a small crew compartment for a single crewmember. This is not for a pilot, but for a squadron commander. Under normal battlefield conditions, both Vod and Vayox drones are directed by an officer aboard the mothership. On extended missions, the Vod drones have to be left entirely to their own devices, but a Vayox group (and any attached support) can still carry the unit's director, which somewhat mitigates the issues created by autonomous drones. The crew chamber is not large, nor suited to use for more than a few hours, and so it not suited for length deep-range mission but when used, it allows the Vayoxes to work more efficiently.
TCR02A Vutkor Tractor Runner
link
The Hegemonic Navy's doctrine of tractor beam capture and light torpedoes to pick apart a grabbed enemy is effective, but not without its drawbacks. Tractor beams are short-ranged weapons and again highly agile enemy vessels – or extremely fast-moving ones – it can sometimes be difficult to manoeuvre to make a pass close enough.
The Vutkor Tractor Runner was designed to compensate for this weakness. In essence, the Vutkor is a fast-moving platform for two tractor beam arrays, with enough defences to allow it to run into an enemy formation, grab a vessel and escape with it before taking too much fire.
The Vutkor is a small vessel, technically a self-sufficient smallcraft. It has only a small crew, supplemented with cheap drones. Crewing a Vutkor takes a brave soul (or not infrequently, a punitive assignment), as they modus operandii can be considered almost suicidal.
As manoeuvrable as a fighter, the Vutkor mounts an unusual combination of capital ship and fighter shield generators, providing it a reasonable balance of protection, as it is likely to take considerable fire from both regular and anti-fighter weapons as it performs its duties.
Itself, the Vutkor only has a few point-defence particle beam turrets in addition to the tractor beams.
A single Vutkor is no great threat, but a pack is enough to be able to steal key elements out of an enemy formation, and survive long enough to bring their prize for the main fleet to be disabled.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Photo of Golulot is the Replicator 2 protoype, the rest are in WSF.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Next month will see a 144th release (to coincide with the new model for the postponed-Hammerhead. After that, there will be a release with a couple of Wodef and Xyriat support ships. I am already well into the design of the new fleet – the third elenthnar power, the Phystyulons – and that should follow later in the year. We will be at Partizan in May and I'm aiming to have the Phystyulons on the field for then!
____________________________________________________________________________________
Accelerate & Attack: Aeons of War is also out now (a generic build-your-own ships system suitable for any set of models) is also now available of Wargames Vault here:
link
There is also a free Web Enhancement Pack; this contains the markers and the QR sheet the latter of which is an indicator of the level of the game if you want to have a quick nosey.
link
And, of course, I'm always happy to answer questions about it (though your best bet is to contact me through the Wargame Vault or Shapeways PM, since that PM system here isn't open to everyone and these days, putting your email address on a forum is a no-no!)
