Cruiser

The cruiser (CC) is the first real warship available for battle, relegating the now venerable destroyers and frigates to the rank of escorts and support ships as soon as it begin to appear in number on the battlefield. Able to be fielded efficiently both as a missile boat and a beamer ship, the CC open a new level of possibilities for anybody quick enough to reach construction 9 in a timely manner.

"Fer de lance" of many players, the CC is the warship which is most often seen and most often built in the course of an entire game. While later ultimately overshadowed by the BB at construction 13, the CC still retain much of its usefulness until late game due to its reduced cost and its superior gating ability. Even in the late game a CC is still useful as a "beefed up" DD for all role and purpose. Due to the research crunch experienced around tech level 10 in any field, the CC hull is still a logical choice to go for a large portion of the mid game even though the next warship hull, the BB, is still only 4 construction levels away.

Races built for speed of execution (such as quick-start or -F races) often stop research at or around the CC level in the early to mid game and use it as their true warship for their first few conquests requiring a more serious power than an army of DD and FF would procure. Other slower races also often consider building late CCs over early BBs due to gate size restrictions as it is usually a better strategy to be able to gate smaller ships without problems than to build big, expensive ships which risk getting lost as a net loss to the void.

Specifications

Base Fuel ―	Base Armor ―	Base Ini ―	Base Mass ―	Base Resource
600mg	700dp	5	90kt	85

• Require construction 9
• First combat hull able to mount missiles with high accuracy

Slot Layout

• 2 Engines
• 2x1 Shield/Elec/Mech
• 2x2 Weapons
• 1x2 Shield or Armor
• 1x2 General Purpose

Slot IDs

                   
         ___        0   = Engines
     ___│3·3│       1&2 = Shield/Electrical/Mechanical
 ___│1·1·3·3│___    3&4 = Weapon x2
╡0·0·1·1·6·6·5·5│   5   = General Purpose x2
╡0·0·2·2·6·6·5·5│   6   = Shield or Armor x2
 ¯¯¯│2·2·4·4│¯¯¯       
     ¯¯¯│4·4│       Cruiser
         ¯¯¯

Common Designs

Beamer/Sapper

The CC is the first hull to be able to be decent at everything combat wise. Its most common beamer design is thus a high battle speed ship sporting heavy shielding, the best range 3 beam weapon available in its two dedicated weapon slots and two sappers in its general purpose slot. The purpose of which is obviously to be able to sap the shields of enemy ships with a dedicated high power and high ini weapon, hopefully striping the target of its shields before the range 3 beams tear thru the enemy stack.

Many different iterations of this design exist, mainly with added computers in the shield/elec/mech slots for increased initiative and thus first strike. Other iterations instead sacrifice shielding for jets or overthrusters to be able to engage the enemy quickly and either destroy the pesky opposing chaff ASAP or act as a support for friendly capital ship missile boats which then deal double damage to unshielded targets.

Jihad Cruiser

Another common sight in the early to mid game is the cruiser stack sporting jihad missiles in its two dedicated weapon slots and computers in the general and shield/elect/mech slots. A battle speed of at least 1 1/4 is important for this ship so it can strike an opposing SB in the second turn, maximizing attack against stations. The odd jet is thus a common sight in such a design depending of the engine of choice.