Marza Dreadnought

The Marza Dreadnought is the TEC's Heavy Assault Ship.
==Overview==
With modest beginnings as a small planetoid destruction and recovery workhorse, the Marza-class dreadnought is the pinnacle of TEC military retrofitting engineering and is the most recent addition to the TEC arsenal. Immediately recognizable by its spinal mounted siege cannons, the Marza can bring crushing firepower to bear on hostile empires' settlements.
==Tactics==
The Marza Dreadnought, even more than the Kol Battleship, is a brute-force solution to warfare. Combining heavy weaponry with two damage-over-time abilities (one of which is passive, the other of which is area-of-effect) and an area-of-effect "ultimate" ability (Missile Barrage), the Marza is a partial solution to the TEC's primary disadvantage: the inability to effectively deal with either swarms of opposing ships or singular "hard" targets. The Marza Dreadnought's laser weapons do approximately 75% more damage than those of the Kol Battleship, the Marza's autocannons outperform the Kol's nose-mounted beam cannons by 33%, and the Marza's missile barrages are comparable to the Kol's autocannons (though 18% weaker, they have a longer range and a wider targeting aperture, since the Kol's flank autocannons fire parallel to the ship's facing).
Of course, the Marza sacrifices armor for firepower: the Marza is not as well-armored or well-shielded as the Kol, meaning that TEC support vessels must work harder to keep the Marza alive. Since the TEC fleet tends to excel in battles of attrition, this means the Marza Dreadnought is the odd man out and potentially a weakness in a battle of attrition. More often than not, slow and steady wins the race for the TEC, and the Marza Dreadnought can jeopardize this strategy by over-emphasizing offense.
All that being said, the Marza's siege ability, Raze Planet, increases the mobility of an otherwise-ponderous TEC fleet simply by freeing up other capital ships from the lengthy task of orbital bombardment. This is particularly useful for bombarding planets in combat, since the Krosov Siege Frigate is relatively fragile and easy to destroy, but a Marza is not. A pair of Marza Dreadnoughts can sterilize planets in seconds, whereas a group of five capital ships could potentially take minutes to do the same level of damage. If a large battle is not in progress upon entering the system, Marza Dreadnoughts can be ordered to break formation and bombard the planet while the remainder of the fleet deals with important orbital structures.
A pair of Marzas that have attained their ultimate ability can inflict very serious damage on an enemy's supporting fleet by simultaneous use of both Missile Swarms. When combined with the EMP charge from a Dunov and a few well-placed radiation bombs, this can rather quickly decimate even quite a large enemy fleet. After the first few times you pull this on somebody, expect your Marzas to become even more of a priority target than your Hoshikos. A devastating early rush strategy is to build a pair of Marza Dreadnoughts and directly assault the closest enemy planet. If the enemy is not paying attention, you can quickly begin destroying their planets this way while adding units to the Marzas to support them, preferably Garda Flak Frigates, Percheron Light Carriers, and Kodiak Heavy Cruisers. The best way to counter this strategy is to repeatedly scout your borders. If the dreadnoughts already reach one of your planets, it is very likely too late.
The Marza's greatest weakness, like all siege and battleship-class capital ships, is that it does not deploy strike craft of its own, at least at low levels. This leaves it very weak to carrier-class capital ships that deploy bombers in the early game. The Marza's siege capabilities makes it an incredibly dangerous addition to an early-game force, but it's also very risky since if you run into a carrier-class capital ship you could be forced to withdraw it very quickly. It may not be wise to deploy a Marza as your starting capital ship, despite it having the highest starting damage output in the game, due to its vulnerability to carriers. Supporting a Marza with Garda Flak Frigates negates this problem.
==Ship Info==
Ship Type: 	Capital
Primary Role: 	Long-Range Assault/Planetary Bombardment
Shield Power: 	High
Hull Points: 	Very High
Armor Level: 	High
Armor Type: 	Capital
Antimatter: 	235 (+25 per level)
Weapons (Fore): 	6 x AutoCannons / 3 x Heavy Pulse Lasers / 8 x Ship-to-Ship Missile Banks /3 Ship-to-Surface Nuclear Missiles Tubes
Weapons (Side): 	3 x Pulse Lasers (Port) / 2 x AutoCannons (Starboard)
Squadrons Supported:	0 - 1
Crew Complement: 	2,500
Category:TEC
Category:Heavy Assault Ships