NAC Commanche Corvette

Near the end of the 21st century, with the Kra'Vak invasion in full swing, the minds of the NAC military strategists came to question the feasibility of the corvette for combat purposes.  While efficient to build in large numbers, the crux of managing and deploying them had always been in finding a suitable complement of crew willing and able to operate such a small craft in a combat scenario.  With the distressing losses being inflicted upon corvettes like the Arapaho class by the Kra'Vak scatterguns, morale on such remaining small vessels quickly diminished and voluntary enlistment for such assignments all but disappeared.

With the Arrow scout class corvette fulfilling an ever-increasing role in scouting,  reconnaissance, and sensitive data/personnel transportation operations, it seemed more and more likely that the NAC of the future would be discontinuing the corvette as a combat asset altogether, until the well-known incident at Granger VII.

For those who may have been born after the Kra'Vak invasion, as a history refresher, in 2186, an attack of a Constellation orbital lunar base over Granger VII was initiated by a Kra'Vak battlecruiser, in which the orbital base was heavily outmatched.  Having sent out a distress signal hours ago, it appeared no help was incoming, when vid-scans from the station captured an unknown craft bearing down the aft of the engaging enemy.  A small group of outlaws, led by the farmer-turned-raider Brendin Horner (now a Knight of the Crown), had circled behind the Kra'Vak and used their disablers on the battlecruiser's engines before they could turn to face them.  In the fortunate turn of their gambit, they completely disabled the propulsion system and the Kra'Vak quickly succumbed to a decaying orbit and crashed into the moon.  

The replays of that engagement quickly spread throughout human empires.  Though the station was lost less than a month later, the NAC was quick to capitalize on the positive influence to morale.  Captain Horner and his crew received full pardons and Knighthood from the Royal Crown but, more relevantly, the NAC took an interest in replicating the results of that scenario.  From declassified documents, we know that it was only a few months before the Special Ops division was live-trialing what would become the Commanche class corvette.

While military use of disabling weapons is practically unheard of (since it is preferable to more quickly destroy the enemy outright), it seems to have found a place in the NAC line-of-battle doctrine.  Having a single or pair of Commanche flank wide at high velocity allows them to circle back in on an enemy formation at an advantageous angle.  In this way, the opposition is either forced to respond to this maverick maneuver or suffer the possible knockout of various systems on their key ships.  The corvettes don't stick around to exchange fire from the midst of the fleet, and quickly break off to the safety that a high velocity can provide.

The key to the Commanche's success is the two exterior weapon mounts.  In its intended role, these will be equipped with Disablers.  Normally expensive to operate and maintain, the cost of this is lessened by a lack of turret coupling hardware and the ease of access.  This has the disadvantage of restricting the firing arc to the front only, but this also leaves room for the addition of a defensive shield suite.  The paired weapons also allow the Commanche to threaten ships up to Battleship size, but the damage output and range on the Disablers is lower than the output by a more conventional weapon.

After the Kra'Vak invasion, the specifics of the Commanche class corvette became more public and the release of the building rights went out to the majority of shipyards.  While it has never been a first-choice ship for a system looking to begin or build up a fleet, an astute commander can recognize the unique advantages the Commanche can offer.  In smaller fleets, versions have been requested with one or more of the disablers replaced with kinetic weapons.  These are either used to accompany a Troutbridge frigate or similar as a fast-strike element or as an enforcement craft to patrol space lanes where lawbreakers are minor players who use less-than-lethal force themselves.  More variants of the Commanche will likely materialize in the future as the colonies of the NAC continue to proliferate.

Designer Notes:

I had to make a new icon and rules for "Disabler" weapons.  Give me some feedback if you like the look.  Essentially, they do half damage and a shorter range, but have the ability to generate a "condition" if any damage is done to the anything but shields.  I also got around to making an icon for "Advanced Scanners" and updated the Arrow Scout page, check it out.  I started to leave the nameplate blank, so you can add your own name if/when you print it for yourself.

Note to self: Must buy more spaceships to review...