So, like a lot of WarShips, the Congress has two sets of artwork: the TR2750 art and the TR3057 art. Ironwind Metals also conveniently produced minis for both versions of the ship. Here's where things get weird, though:
The TR2750 mini is the size you'd expect: between the Aegis and the Sovetskii Soyuz in size, as is befitting a 760,000 ton WarShip.
The TR3057 mini? Yeah, it's about the size of the Vincent, or Baron.
So, given the vast cargo holds of the original Congress class, I got to thinking: what if you shrank the ship? I was able to get down to 300,000 tons and still have a cargo fraction of nearly 13 percent. I did lose a little bit of armor, thanks to the size reduction, but it's still got more than twice that of the Vincent or most other corvettes. In terms of weaponry, I added a few point defense bays but otherwise left it alone.
The presumable end result of this would also be a ship much shorter in size: given Battletech's standards, we'd be looking at around 300-400 meters long or so, maybe even a bit shorter. This actually breaks a neat piece of artwork: the Pentagon class DropShip. As depicted in TR3057 and the mini, there are two inline hemispherical domes on the bottom of the Congress class. TR3075 shows us that these are, in fact, the ship's docking collars, where were designed to be used with the Pentagon class. In looking at the TR3057 art, they're the correct size for a 700-meter long Congress to have two 75-meter Pentagons docked underneath. So, with, say, a 350-meter long Congress corvette, you'd be looking at no more than 40 meters diameter for your attached DropShips, or something Manatee-sized.
Congress Corvette (2542)
Mass: 300,000 tons
Use: Frigate
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2542
Mass: 300,000
Battle Value: 63,436
Tech Rating/Availability: E/E-X-E-F
Cost: 7,026,372,000 C-bills
Dimensions
Length: 703 m
Height: 1207 m Sail
Fuel: 2,000 tons (5,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 4
KF Drive Integrity: 8
Heat Sinks: 604 (1208)
Structural Integrity: 75
Armor
Nose: 55
Fore Sides: 52/52
Aft Sides: 52/52
Aft: 55
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (6) 1 Door
Bay 2: Small Craft (4) 1 Door
Bay 3: Cargo (38893.0 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
420 rounds of NAC/10 ammunition (84 tons),
10 rounds of Killer Whale ammunition (500 tons),
20 rounds of White Shark ammunition (800 tons),
400 rounds of Half Machine Gun ammunition (2 tons),
100 rounds of NAC/30 ammunition (80 tons)
Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 1 (90 m)
Escape Pods: 8
Life Boats: 8
Crew: 24 officers, 95 enlisted/non-rated, 24 gunners, 32 bay personnel
Notes: Equipped with
1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
450 tons of improved ferro-aluminum armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (22 Heat)
1 Capital Missile Launcher (Killer Whale) 20 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) Capital Missile
Killer Whale Ammo (10 shots)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
FRS/FLS (60 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/10) 60 20(200) 20(200) 20(200) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/10 Ammo (70 shots)
3 Machine Gun 0 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Half Machine Gun Ammo (100 shots)
RBS/LBS (93 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/10) 60 20(200) 20(200) 20(200) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/10 Ammo (70 shots)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
1 Capital Missile Launcher (White Shark) 15 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) Capital Missile
White Shark Ammo (10 shots)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
ARS/ALS (176 Heat)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30) 160 50(500) 50(500) 50(500) 0(0) Capital AC
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/10)
NAC/10 Ammo (70 shots)
NAC/30 Ammo (25 shots)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
3 Machine Gun 0 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Half Machine Gun Ammo (100 shots)
Aft (202 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30) 200 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/30 Ammo (50 shots)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
