Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Potemkin Warship

"The pride of the Voshkod has come."

-Potemkin Warship

The Potemkin Warship is the heavily modified version of the Slava-class battleships that serves as Voshkod's capital ship and answer to the Iowa class battleship and similar Capital ships. Planned to be voiced by Brian Protheroe.

Tactical analysis

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History
"We sunk Atlantis!"

-...

In testing of the Dreadnought-class missile cruisers following their refit, something soon became apparent; though the new Dreadnoughts retained all of their survivability, and though they could now level coastal fortifications with ease, the once unstoppable battleships were found to be lacking in anti-ship capability. Their V4 missiles were formidable, but they were not able to track moving targets, and their high explosive warheads were not designed to penetrate ship hulls. Furthermore, all of the Dreadnought's pre-refit weaponry had been removed to make room for the missiles; before, the Dreadnought could have dispatched ships that closed the distance with its ancillary guns and fended off attacking aircraft with its anti-air mounts; now, it had no defense against either.

Attempts to rectify the issue by arming all Dreadnoughts with scaled-up versions of the S-15 anti-ship missile for ship-to-ship combat soon ran into problems, and despite the best efforts of Voshkod engineers, it didn't look like those problems would be sorted out any time soon. Premier Cherdenko ordered Admiralty Shipyard to develop a ship to fill in the niche the pre-refit Dreadnoughts had filled now that all the Dreadnoughts had been converted to missile cruisers and rest of pre-refit Dreadnoughts are sold to Encantadia.

With the issues surrounding anti-ship missiles, they were soon discarded in favor of a more traditional armament; guns. However, with the Union gearing up for war by this time and most steel going into the production of more tanks and airplanes, Admiralty didn't have much to work with. To get around this, they employed the hulls of an existing ship class; the Slava-class Battleship, the successor of the Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships from the interwar period. A total of eighty of these ships had been built during the 1950s V.C. and they used in the GVAW, clashing against the battleships of the Allies.

The slowly rusting hulls of the ships still remained, however, and were suitable for Admiralty Shipyard's purposes. The ship would of course have to be able to defeat battleship-grade armor like that found on the Pennsylvania-class and later the Iowa and Montana-class battleships, which would require large, powerful guns. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough steel available for a full complement of battleship caliber guns, and the Slava battleships were likely too small to mount all of them anyway. However, smaller guns wouldn't be powerful enough.

A compromise was made; instead of six or nine guns, Admiralty engineers eventually decided on just four. To justify the new ship's worth, however, it was decided that the guns would have to be of massive caliber; to this end, the engineers came up with a design for a thoroughly monstrous 508mm naval gun. Such a large and heavy gun, it was reasoned, would be able to wreck any ship easily with just one or two shots. Inspired by the Apocalypse tanks, a powerful magnetic harpoon was also mounted, a system to allow the Slava to pull ships that tried to flee towards it (or it towards them). Three hundred twenty guns were soon made, and the magnetic harpoons were requisitioned from Arkhangelsk. Cherdenko had his warship, and all guns were pointed forwards for maximum firepower.

The newly refitted Slava, now known as the Potemkin-class got the chance to prove themselves in naval battle soon enough when the 2004 V.C. invasion of Aquila broke out. It soon made a reputation for itself. As the designers had predicted, the 508mm naval guns could utterly destroy other ships that opposed it even the upgunned Iowa-class battleships, and the magnetic harpoon could pull targets right into the Potemkin's sights. The only real threats it faced were from aircraft and submarines, and with proper escorts, these could be dealt with. While the Potemkin's were ponderously slow due to their new engines being insufficiently powerful, their armor (reinforced by Admiralty to ensure it could survive engagements with battleships) allowed them to go toe to toe with battleships, and their firepower ensured that, once the target was in range of their guns, it was good as sunk.

Today, the Potemkin serves as the main Capital Ship of the Voshkod's naval power.

Trivia

 * The ship itself resembles the Slava battleship from World of Warships rather than one from Red Alert Paradox

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * Iowa-class Battleship (Aquila)
 * Trident Battleship (Alliance)
 * Triton-class Battleship (ADI)
 * Shogun Battleship (Protectorate)
 * Shinra-Class Battlecarrier (Andora)
 * Musashi II (Community)
 * Lurenisa-class Battleship (Empire)

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Potemkin Warship (Voshkod)
 * Kane-class Battleship (Brotherhood)
 * Looted South Dakota-Class Battleship (Horde)
 * Whiskey (MLA)
 * Naggaroth-class Battlecruiser (Collective)
 * Encantadia-class Dreadnought (Encantadia)
 * Alsace
 * Ocean Ruler (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * Angelos-class Battleship (Coalition)
 * Chaos Potemkin (Heralds)
 * Bishop Ironclad (Order)
 * Pennsylvania Battleship (Survivors)
 * Jupiter Battleship (Syndicate)
 * Aden-class Warship (Legion)
 * BB-X (Conglomerate)

Bonus Factions

 * Orbit Breaker Battleship (ASA)
 * Targareyn-class missile battleship (Bastion)
 * Battleship Creep (Rangers)
 * Bismarck (Pirates)
 * Yamato
 * Bourak-class battleship (Elona)
 * Ironclad (Ascalia)
 * ... (Dominion)
 * ... (Security)
 * ... (Ascendancy)

DLC

 * ... (Federation)
 * Sea Hawk Infinite Battleship (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * Eradicator Battlesub (Skynet)
 * Dainsleif-class Battleship (Elemental)
 * ... (Autocracy)
 * Argonia-class Missile Battleship (League)
 * ... (Swarm)
 * Arkesia-class battleship (Confederation)
 * Jörmungandr Battleship (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * H-Class (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * Sovetsky Soyuz (Warlords)
 * ... (Cult)
 * Al-Rubit-class battleship (Raiders)
 * Emmanuel Battleship (Theocracy)
 * Alaska-class (Insurgents)
 * Corrector of Arrogance (Guardians)
 * Sky Devastator Submersible Carrier (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * Titicaca Tectonic Warvessel (Ecumene)
 * Fearless Battleship (Concordat)
 * Monument Missile Cruiser (Contingent)
 * Super Montana (Eden)
 * ... (InGen)
 * Steam Battleship (Hallows)
 * Louisiana-class Battlecarrier (Commune)
 * ... (Clique)
 * Nagato (Guild)
 * ... (Threat)
 * ... (Traders)
 * Prophecy-class Dreadnought (Entente)
 * ... (Oblivion)
 * ... (Corporation)
 * ... (Covenant)
 * Williams Missile Cruiser (Institute)
 * ... (Commonwealth)
 * ... (Nimbus)
 * ... (Carnival)
 * ... (Wraiths)
 * ... (Chronophage)
 * Vermont Battleship (Privateers)
 * ... (Foundation)