Roughly contemporaneous with the Dart and Dreadnought the Black Lion I is one of the Terran Hegemony’s first generation of ships. Supposedly designed by James McKenna, the Black Lion is intended to provide a more manoeuvrable version of the Dreadnought. It became the Admiral’s preferred flag ships and set the standard for all future Hegemony cruisers. Well that is the theory. Let us look at the reality.
The first point to be made is that the Black Lion is no more manoeuvrable than a Dreadnought. At least not in game terms. On the other hand the Black Lion shows remarkable commonality with the battleship. The auto cannon load is virtually identical, with streamlining to NAC20s being the only difference. The AAA fit is basically identical, based around auto cannon. This is important as laser systems were very new at this time. An interesting development is the missile system. The 2300 Dreadnought lacks capital missiles. The 2305 Dart mounts Killer Whales in the forward arc. The 2315 Black Lion mounts heavy triple batteries in the quarters. These heavy missile fits will become a feature of all future heavy cruisers up until the Luxor in 2727. Notably the abortive Quixote battle cruiser adopted a similar approach to capital missiles while later frigates largely abandoned them. Compared to the Dart the Black Lion is in a totally different class. The Black Lion has 28% more broadside weight, with more crit capable weapon bays than the Dart. The battleship roots of the Black Lion are most clear here.
Defensively the Black Lion is tougher than the Dreadnought with only 67 tons less armour and far stronger internal structure. This is probably due to the experimental nature of the Dreadnought. Later cruisers all had similar structural integrity to the Black Lion. More important is the armour layout. While pre-Reunification War ships tended to focus their armour forward, the Black Lion focused its armour on the broadsides. This would later become a defining feature of Star League WarShips, which can be traced back through the Aegis back to the Black Lion. The Black Lion is still not as tough as the Dart. The difference becomes clear later.
Compared to the Dreadnought and Dart the Black Lion has very limited combat persistence. It only has a fraction of the earlier ships’ cargo capacity. The heavy internal structure of the Dart begins to make sense here as it was a far ranging, hard traveling, work horse. The Black Lion seems more of a thoroughbred in comparison. Made to win battles and little else. It is interesting to note that this thoroughbred nature would be a common feature to all successful SLDF cruisers like the Aegis, Black Lion II, Avatar and Luxor. Failures like the Quixote and Cameron all featured far more cargo capacity.
Built in an age of flux, the Black Lion lacked docking collars. Not surprising considering the times, but it is interesting to note the Dart (designed for independent operations) received them. Implicit in this is that the Black Lion was not intended to operate independently. Rounding out the Black Lion’s fighting capabilities were bays for 24 Small Craft identical to those of the Dreadnought.
The Black Lion I served Terran Hegemony until the refitted Aegis entered service in 2582. At this time they were sold off alongside those Aegis’ that were not refitted. Where the Aegis was a recognisably modern ship the Black Lion had aged poorly. While still manoeuvrable with solid anti-fighter weapons, the armour and weapons compared poorly. The refitted Aegis combined more armour with 28% ranged broadside firepower and even more close in. Handled well they were adequate if expensive and antiquated. The Golden Age made it hard to justify keeping them and most were scrapped for their germanium.
In use Black Lions occupy a middle ground between modern destroyers and cruisers. They are approximately comparable to a Sovetskii Soyuz, though the later ship has far more modern refinements. Pick on the weak and avoid the strong. AA remains solid and the Black Lion is no more vulnerable than a Kirishima or Dante. The killers remain the NACs and missiles, not the auto cannon. The big problem is that in the modern environment a Black Lion could be left with no supporting assets due to its lack of docking collars. This is as true in 2750 as 3050. In 2400 the Black Lion was a cheap alternative to a battleship. At least until the Monsoon redefined the type. By 2750 it is a glorified destroyer too big to be expendable.
