Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser

Overview

The Allied Cooperative Starship Development Board (ACSDB) is excited to announce their first vessel with unified design philosophies. While the ACSDB has been involved in the later design states of many new starship designs, this is their first jointly-designed starship built from the ground up. Its launch is a cause to celebrate - especially a starship such as this.

The Alliance Battlecruiser has performed exceptionally in all of its trials, with its command and coordination abilities noted as exceptionally helpful in larger fleet actions. Its staying power and offensive capabilities in combat have clearly demonstrated that the cruiser and battleship expertise that went into the ship’s design has paid off well. Alliance engineers have noted that the success this design has achieved so far makes them optimistic for a unified future.

Strengths

Battlecruisers are essentially a compromise. While they are generally not quite as impervious as a cruiser, in return a battlecruiser gains a degree of maneuverabilty surpassing that of a full cruiser. Similarly, they may not have the agility of an escort, but they are typically much tougher. For many, a battlecruiser is the sweet spot between sluggish cruisers and fragile escorts.

The maneuverability of the Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser allows it to keep its five front-facing weapons on-target for sustained attacks. Because of this, and the accessibility of the Ancient Omni-Directional Beam Array, we have opted for a build based on using Beam: Overload to provide devastating single-target attacks from the bank of front-mounted beams. While the example build provided here utilizes beam arrays, a build using dual beam banks or even dual cannons (with some modification to bridge officer skills and turrets in the aft weapon slots) could also likely work quite well.

Equipment

This build uses easily-obtained equipment, including only standard gear and pieces which can be obtained through Fleet Holdings and/or mission rewards. See below for upgrade suggestions using more difficult-to-obtain gear.

Clearly, upgrading gear to Mark XV and Epic quality will provide the best results. However, see the Suggested Upgrades section below before heavily investing in gear you may be replacing before long.

Weapons

Because the Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser comes equipped with a starter set of antiproton weapons and the Aligned Antiproton Shielding console, antiproton seemed a sensible choice for the energy type of this build.

Fore Weapons

Antiproton Beam Array (x5)

Aft Weapons

Ancient Omni-Directional Beam Array from the Solanae Dyson Sphere mission "Sphere of Influence."
Antiproton Beam Array (x2)

Deflector

Elite Fleet Intervention Protomatter Deflector Array from the Fleet Colony holding

The Elite Fleet Intervention Protomatter Deflector Array provides additional Impulse Expertise, as well as bonuses to Weapon Specialization and Shield Penetration to make this build even more deadly.

Impulse

Kobali Hyper-Impulse Engines from the Delta Quadrant mission "Ashes to Ashes."

The Kobali Hyper-Impulse Engines provide bonuses to flight speed and turn rate, in addition to a +60% Hull Regeneration bonus when used with the shield from the Kobali Regerative Circuits set.

Core

Obelisk Subspace Rift Warp Core from the Solanae Dyson Sphere mission "Sphere of Influence."

The Obelisk Subspace Rift Warp Core provides some additional Aux power and improves Slipstream speed and turn rate, among with some defensive bonuses, but is used here primarily to obtain the two-piece Ancient Obelisk Technology set bonus when used with the Ancient Omni-Directional Beam Array, which provides a +10% increase to antiproton damage.

Shield

Kobali Regenerative Shield Array from the Delta Quadrant mission "Ashes to Ashes."

This build uses the Kobali Regenerative Shield Array for excellent defense. Using this engine with the Kobali shield enables the Kobali Regenerative Circuitry two-piece set bonus which provides additional 60% increase to hull regeneration.

Devices

Shields Battery
Weapons Battery
Subspace Field Modulator from the "Skirmish" mission.

Engineering Consoles

Console - Universal - Aligned Antiproton Shielding
Console - Engineering - RCS Accelerator
Console - Engineering - Reinforced Armaments from New Frontiers mission "Beyond the Nexus"
Console - Engineering - Trellium-D Plating from Future Proof mission "Ragnarok"

Science Consoles

Console - Science - Temporal Disentanglement Suite from Iconian War mission "Butterfly"
Console - Science - Emitter Array
Console - Science - Shield Emitter Amplifier

Tactical Consoles

The tactical console slots are filled with four Vulnerability Locator [+AP] which can be purchased from the Fleet Spire holding. In order to maximize antiproton damage and to avoid having to split console bonuses across multiple weapon types, we have opted to not use torpedoes on this build. If you absolutely cannot live without torpedoes, we recommend using only one front-mounted torpedo and replacing the Engineering officer in the Ensign Universal seat with a Tactical officer with Torpedo: Spread I.

Console - Tactical - Vulnerabilty Locator [+AP] (x4)

Note: You can also use Console - Tactical - Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infuser [+AP] from the Fleet Colony holding. This will increase defense at a small cost to overall DPS. Mixing the two types of consoles to maximize offense while providing a comfortable amount of defense is also an option.

Bridge Officers

The bridge officer seating of the Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser allows the use of a somewhat advanced type of build commonly known as Aux2Bat. This involves using two copies of the Engineering skill "Auxiliary Power to Emergency Battery" to reduce cooldowns and cause all bridge officer abilities to be usable more often.

Note that for this approach to be effective, you should slot three Technician Deck Officers into active space slots, of the best quality you can find. They should also have the ability "Bridge Officer power recharges reduced by x% after activating Auxiliary Power to the Emergency Battery." This will allow all of your Bridge Officer abilities to be used more frequently, which can dramatically increase DPS as well as provide increased defense through uptime on engineering and science abilities.

Commander Engineering

Engineering Team I
Auxiliary to Battery I
Emergency Power to Weapons III
Reverse Shield Polarity III

Lieutenant Commander Tactical

Tactical Team I
Attack Pattern Beta I
Beams: Overload III

Lieutenant Commander Science/Command

Science Team I
Hazard Emitters II
Rally Point Marker II

Lieutenant Universal (Engineering)

Emergency Power to Shields I
Auxiliary to Battery I

Ensign Universal (Engineering)

Emergency Power to Engines I

Suggested Upgrades

Replace the Weapons Batteries with crafted Energy Amplifiers from the Beams R&D school.
Replace the Shields Batteries with crafted Reactive Armor Catalysts from the Engineering R&D school.
If you have access to the Temporal Negotiator from previous Temporal Recruit events, use it instead of the Subspace Field Modulator.
Replace one of the aft-mounted Antiproton Beam Arrays with a crafted Omni-Directional Antiproton Beam Array.
If you have access to Console - Universal - Crystalline Absorption Matrix from a past Crystalline Entity event, use it instead of Console - Science - Emitter Array
If you have access to Console - Universal - Voth Phase Decoy from a past Breach event, use it instead of Console - Engineering - Neutronium Alloy.
Replace one of the front-mounted Antiproton Beam Arrays with a Crystalline Energy Torpedo Launcher, a Very Rare reward from the Phoenix Prize Pack. Also, replace the Engineering Officer in the Ensign Universal station with a Tactical Officer using Torpedoes: Spread I
Replace Console - Engineering - RCS Accelerator with Console - Universal - Chroniton Drive Actuator from Temporal Defense Initiative reputation Tier 1.
Replace one front-mounted Antiproton Beam Array with an Advanced Temporal Defense Beam Array from Temporal Defense Initiative reputation Tier 4 to enable the Temporal Defense Initiative Armaments two-piece set bonus.
Replace Kobali Hyper-Impulse Engines with Prevailing Innervated Impulse Engines from Competitive Wargames reputation Tier 3.
Replace Kobali Regenerative Shield Array with Prevailing Innervated Resilient Shield Array from Competitive Wargames reputation Tier 5.
Replace Console - Science - Shield Emitter Amplifier with the Console - Universal - Assimilated Module from Task Force Omega reputation Tier 1.
Replace one rear-mounted Antiproton Beam Array with the Kinetic Cutting Beam from Task Force Omega reputation Tier 2 to enable the two-piece Omega Adapted Borg Technology Set bonus.
Replace Console - Engineering - Reinforced Armaments with Console - Univeral - Polymorphic Probe Array from the Herald Lock Box.