Avatar/Liberator Class CruiserLength – 855 meters
Displacement – 830,000 tons
Crew Compliment – 380/539
BackgroundWith the Aegis class getting long in the tooth the SLDF put out a requirement for a replacement heavy cruiser that was to succeed the old Terran workhorse. The accepted design was considerably larger, 80,000 tons heavier and 130 meters longer than the Aegis, with a correspondingly larger crew requirement as well. But it seems that little expense was spared with the new cruiser design, not only was she considerably larger, but featured heavier armour and most impressively, a Lithium Fusion battery which gave the ship considerable strategic mobility, albeit at a considerable price hike. The ship also featured new engines and reactors, capable of pushing her along at a sustained 1.5g of thrust and doing short 2.5g sprints making her accelerate quicker and thanks to a considerable increase in the number of RCS thrusters and their design being improved over the years, she was more agile, able to twist and roll far better than the Aegis.
This also let the new Avatar class keep up with ships like the Farragut or Essex classes and the addition of the Lithium fusion battery gave the ship far more strategic flexibility as at the time of her introduction, few WarShips mounted the new battery. With over 1,200 tons of armour the ship didn’t scrimp on protection and firepower was not weak by any standards either.
Unlike many Hegemony designed ships prior, the Avatar would feature a large mix of energy weapons unlike the largely ballistic dependent Aegis, Dart and Monsoon classes. Indeed, the Avatar seems to have at least been partially inspired by the older Baron class destroyer which relied on large clusters of 35cm lasers for its main punch. The Avatar took this example and expanded on it. Clusters of 35cm lasers dotted the cruisers sides and these were joined by double or quadruple mounts for fearsome heavy naval particle cannons. Additional firepower came from paired NAC-20 and 30 mountings whilst a dozen Killer Whale launch tubes dotted the ships hull. She also had a score of 55cm lasers for firing at bow on targets, again supported by a quartet of Heavy particle cannons. There was even a point defence battery, small clusters of LRM-20’s each launcher equipped with Artemis, and these formed a terminal anti-fighter defence.
The Avatar’s aerospace compliment was just as impressive. Six DropShip collars (three on her spine, three along her keel) made the ship very flexible, able to carry a small invasion force if needed, whilst 24 fighters could be berthed onboard. Perhaps the only oversight is the complete lack of Small Craft, but you could replace fighters with them if needs be.
Onboard security was also augmented by the 25 Marines that could be embarked making the ship a very formidable one in all aspects.
Cruisers serve many roles, the British used them from acting as Colonial gunboats, to merchant escorts, to scouts and to cruiser killers. The Avatar seems to have been designed as a cruiser killer and with its Lithium fusion battery and large DropShip compliment would also allow her to react quickly to any attack or sudden crisis where you might need a WarShip and ground troops to make sure that a neighbour does not try anything, or if Pirates or raiders needed to be hunted down and destroyed. But this energy heavy mix of weapons and a then new and as yet not quite fully tested battery system also seem to have been the classes biggest weakness.
Whilst heavily armed and armoured, as well as fast and capable of carrying a large number of DropShips, the Avatar class was plagued with electronic glitches, from brownouts to full on power shorts of critical and non-critical systems alike. This seemed to mirror the Cameron class that would come out more than a hundred years later and although we don’t know of any disasters that affected the Avatar class, twitchy power systems are something you don’t want when your main weapons are energy based and you could be in combat and suddenly loose power to not just weapons but entire sections of the ship.
Another flaw of the Avatar was its cooling system. Unlike the much later Sovetskii Soyuz class where the designers forgot to mount the guns before installing enough heatsinks that a Gargoyle Prime would think it was a tad excessive, the Avatar was very under-sinked and if a Captain dared fire a full broadside, the resultant heat surge would easily overwhelm the ships cooling systems and potentially risk the ship going out of control. And, for a SLDF ship the Avatar had a fairly small cargo capacity at a ‘mere’ 60,886 tons which somewhat limits her range but with 4,500 tons of fuel onboard she does not suffer from having short legs in that regard.
But it was the electrical systems that doomed the Avatar to an early retirement and by the outbreak of the Amaris Civil War the Avatar had long since been consigned to training commands or sitting quietly in mothballs. During the Amaris crisis the old Avatar was brought out of retirement to serve on both sides of the conflict and of the ships built, only six would survive to see Terra liberated. Despite their age and electrical faults, these six ships would depart the Inner Sphere as part of Operation EXODUS and would vanish from the Inner Sphere for centuries.
Design.I like the Avatar, not only does it look good, but its got firepower, protection and she’s far from perfect, her god awful cooling system and her average armour being main pointers. And whilst she’s got average armour, its not bad, over 100 on the bow, 90+ on each flank and 80+ on the stern and she’s got guns sticking out all over.
Six NL-55’s and four Heavy NPPC’s in the bow give her the ability to really reach out and touch someone, the fore and aft quarters on each side all contain paired NAC-20’s and paired Heavy NPPC’s, as well as a trio of NL-35’s, a trio of Killer Whale launch tubes and three LRM-20’s (each with artemis.) The broadside takes this and goes MOAR!!! Six NL-35’s, four Heavy NPPC’s and a pair of NAC-30’s give the ship its main punch and a trio of Killer Whales can join in with their crit seeking goodness, or nuclear warheads. The stern also features a six pack of NL-35’s and a pair of NAC-20’s as well as a trio of LRM 20 for point defence.
That’s a LOT of firepower, and whilst it does not have the raw punch of an Aegis with their big NAC batteries, the Avatar’s firepower lets them pick and choose what they want to do, and they can bracket fire better than any cruiser other than the Kimagure, and even here the Avatar out does it with that big broadside cluster of NL-35’s. But oh lord the heat. Her broadside guns alone pump out over 1400 heat, and she can vent just shy of 2400. If you add a bow or stern quarters into that mix you’ll be pretty much heat maxed out, firing both and you WILL overheat and risk running out of control. Still the Avatar can take a pounding, her armours good and 85 Structural integrity is also meaty and where it not for the fluff about her having electrical issues, she’d have no doubt gone on to live as long as the Aegis did.
And speaking of her gremlins…
Personal theoryThe power problems that plagued the Avatar seem to point at the class not having a suitable reactor system and this makes sense. The reactor was either too small, or simply too stressed by the energy needs of the weapon systems. Perhaps her builders had planned for a NAC heavy armament, and instead the Admiralty went “Make it go imma firin’ mah lazor.”to the folks who actually chose the weapons. Either way, the Avatar when trying to power all her weapons in combat would probably be running at full power or in excess of it, straining the reactor and the power relay systems which might explain the brownouts and power surges.
But wait. There’s more.
Liberator Class CruiserThe Avatar didn’t end with EXODUS, all six ships were instead mothballed following the settling in the Pentagon worlds and there they would quietly remain, slowly gathering space dust until REVIVAL reared its head.
Feeling the need for more WarShips, the Avatar’s were reactivated and hauled in to be very comprehensively overhauled. And these refits were major. The original Avatar had two large grav-decks, one at 145 meters in diameter the other at 185 meters wide. The Clans stripped the ships of their hull plating and removed the 185-meter deck, as well as the ships reactor system and electronics, finally curing the gremlins that had plagued the class. Nearly 1000 tons of Ferro-Carbide armour was then reapplied to the hull, which although weight less than the Avatar’s 1,200 tons plus of standard plate, provided much more protection.
The weapons were also overhauled, the bow naval PPC battery was removed and the laser battery downgraded to six 45cm lasers. But a plethora of anti-fighter weapons was added including ultra autocannons as well as large and small ER lasers. The fore and aft quarters lost their 35cm lasers but retained the paired NAC-20 and heavy naval PPC’s. The LRM’s were upgraded to Clan spec ones and a quartet of Medium pulse lasers was mounted. The broadsides received major changes. The NAC-30’s and six 35cm laser mounts were retained, the weight freed by removing the heavy PPCs was used to install two naval gauss rifle mounts, each with a heavy and medium naval gauss rifle in it. This drastically reduced the cruiser’s heat output whilst keeping her punch roughly the same. For point defence amidships, six ER large lasers and six ER small lasers were also mounted. The aft was only covered by six 35cm lasers as well as a potent battery of autocannons and lasers mirroring those in the nose. The ship lacked the heavy missile battery of the Avatar and now boasted thicker hull plating as well as Harjel hull sealing tanks to close any breeches in the hull.
The cruiser, now designated the Liberator class also had its aerospace wing adjusted to fit the Clan’s base 10 grouping and she now carried a rather formidable 30 fighters, but, like the Avatar, she lacked any small craft berths. The six DropShip collars were retained, allowing the Liberator to act as a self-contained invasion force if needs be. She also carried up to 50 Elementals for onboard security as well as having space for a full Cluster of conventional infantry. This carrying capacity is almost never used as the Clan’s, even the Hells Horses do not use pure infantry Clusters so one has to wonder if this space wasn’t meant for things like prisoners or other very important personnel, or its just a hangover from when the ship was designed. Cargo space also decreases down to little more than 50,000 tons, which by SLDF standards or Clan standards is positively anaemic.
Unfortunately, the Liberator suffers from even bigger heat woes than the Avatar. Despite upgrading to double heatsinks, she mounts far less of them and dissipates less heat than an Avatar did. The Liberator can vent just 1,180+ of heat. But, firing her aft quarter guns alone generates over 800 heat. The broadside guns bump this up another 600 plus. This means that a Liberator’s Captain must be VERY careful with what weapons they fire. They must also ensure that they do not get surrounded by foes because the Liberator simply can’t fire both broadsides without crippling herself and risking drifting out of combat whilst she cools down, a sitting duck for any threat.
Despite these flaws, the Liberator is still existent today in the current 3150 setting, with two of the ships serving in the Wolf Empire’s fleet, although the operating condition of these ships is unknown as there’s no shipyard in Wolf space capable of taking them. But this is still a considerable feat, making the class at least 619 years old and the third oldest ships in service anywhere in the Inner Sphere, only outdone by the surviving Aegis and Whirlwind class ships.
Fighting them and fighting with them.As both the Avatar and Liberator are the same basic craft the tactics for them are the same. You’ve got lots of long range guns and can bracket fire with them, especially as the Avatar so use that advantage. The Avatar also has the capacity to launch 9 missiles at a target, letting her be able to score crits early on before a fight is joined. With your 3/5 movement curve and thrust rating you can dance as well as an Essex class destroyer or any of the later era battleships. You’re also as manoeuvrable and can accelerate as well as any Frigate and out run Johnny come lately’s like the Sovetskii Soyuz. You’ve got a meaty punch and can engage targets at all ranges and you’re armoured enough to at least take a good slap before having to be worried.
But that heat…you’re over-gunned, under-sinked and unless you’re willing to risk drifting without being able to manoeuvre or fire accurately and this plagues both classes as neither can use their full weapons load without risking drifting.
But if you’re using one, stand-off at long range, bracket fire until they are weakened and close in to finish them off with autocannons. You’ve got 24 or 30 fighters, so you can use them to strike or defend yourself and with six DropShips you’ve got lots of carrying options, although I would hazard that canonically, one of those DropShips would be a cargo ship due to the classes limited cargo space.
Fighting against an Avatar or Liberator would be a painful fight, if you’re using 3068 House ships, he can bracket fire, you can’t. Both sides have decent anti-fighter defences and an Avatar or Liberator is well protected and solidly built, so if you happen to be driving an Agamemnon class, don’t get into a brawl, you’re not built for it. Really the best result is numbers, use WarShips or DropShips to approach from multiple angles, forcing the Avatar/Liberator to choose what to fire at and what not to fire at. It’s hard for the crew being shot at, but it lets other ships get close and engage.
So what one's better?Good question, both ships are well armed, and have the same movement capacity and their punch is broadly similar. But despite its weaker armour, i'd go with the Avatar, with her lasers and missiles she's just better at long range fighting than the Liberator. The paired guass rifles are nice, but the ship is so criminally under sinked that she can't use her firepower even less than the Avatar. And in reality, unless you're going head on at someone, the Liberator's armour isn't that much better than the Avatar's, only on the bow is it way heavier. The Liberator does have a lovely anti-fighter defence though, and if you was playing her alone, then that might well be very useful in making sure that a fighter strike against you does not get off scott free. So, in a big battle, Avatar, in a single ship engagement, Liberator.
The Avatar class, a fine looking ship, one that looks like a 'proper' space ship.
The 3057 Liberator, one of the better looking ships of the book, looking suitably meaty.
And finally a personal and non-canon. commission done by Matt Plog of the Liberator Class. We both liked the look of the 3057 one and mostly kept the design the same.
As always, thoughts, comments are most welcome!
