*Although
the Turanic carrier has 6 salvage points, it cannot be salvaged.
¹Burst
fire; burst length 1.8 s, burst wait 1.1 s.
The Turanic Raider Lord-class Attack Carrier Rancor has the
dubious distinction of being the first heavy capital ship to
be destroyed in the Homeworld War. The Rancor and her fleet
had been ordered by the Imperial Frontier fleet to intercept
and destroy any ship attempting to leave the Kharak System.
After easily destroying the unarmed research vessel Khar
Selim, the Rancor found herself badly outmatched by the
immensely powerful Mothership and was eventually destroyed.
On paper, the Lord-class Attack Carrier is a powerful and
inspired design. While small for a Carrier—less than half
the size of an Empress-class Carrier—it is relatively
maneuverable and well armored, and carries an ion beam
cannon as its main weapon. This gives it an offensive punch
unmatched by any other Carrier design currently in
production. Unfortunately, in operation these attributes
detract from one another, making the Lord the least
effective vessel in Turanic operation. While the ion beam is
devastating against single targets, it is relatively useless
against corvettes and strike craft, and it also robs the
Lord's point defense turrets of power in the heat of battle.
The higher speed and maneuverability of the Lord is useful
when bringing the main gun to bear or entering combat, but
it is nearly impossible for Raider pilots to take off or
land via the Lord's relatively narrow launch bay while the
Carrier is making violent combat maneuvers. The Lord's small
size makes it easier to deploy, but at the cost of having a
smaller and less effective construction bay than that of a
standard Carrier, and this undermines much of the purpose of
fielding a Carrier in the first place.
The Lord-class Attack Carrier could be a potent offensive
unit if deployed in large attack groups, but this seems to
be utterly against Turanic Raider tactical doctrines, which
always seem to place the Carrier at the rear of any battle.
As it is, a vessel from the Lord line of Carriers will
remain a dangerous foe when cornered, but a second-rate ship
when on the attack.
(Despite the assertion of this article
that the Lord is small, it's significantly larger than
either the Kushan or Taiidan carriers.)
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