Ravensburg-Class Cruiser

The Ravensburg-Class is the German Marine’s take on a multi-role cruiser of the modern age and successor to the well-established Dresden-Class. Straying from the traditional U-boat style of design, it is among the first classes of the Marine’s new lineage of design.

## Technical Specifications

### General

The design of the Ravensburg revolves largely around its primary heavy Artillery lance cannon and secondary weaponry, providing a resilient platform of conventional ship-to-ship firepower. Purpose-oriented as it is, the Ravensburg-Class foregoes various utilities such as extended electronic- and cyber warfare suites, deep space sensors or crew amenities. Despite its size, the crew accommodations are kept spartan and relatively cramped, as much of the interior space is kept up by ammunition storage and security measures.

### Armament

The primary piece of weaponry wielded by the Ravensburg is the turreted, Heavy Artillery lance cannon. This upgraded variant of the heavy weapons utilized aboard the Dresden-Class represents a new generation of laser weaponry with unprecedented damage output against even heavily armored targets. This increase in effectiveness is achieved due to specially grown carbon crystals to focus the weapon’s energy beam.

While supremely effective, this highly specialized weapons component is very costly and, more importantly, time-intensive to produce. As a result, more than half of the Ravensburg-Class vessels were introduced into service while fielding a less expensive, but also much less damaging conventional version of their main gun.

The conventional laser turrets aboard the Ravensburg-Class provide decent firepower against most vessels of similar tonnage and good coverage even when engaging several foes at once.

### Defenses

The defensive measures of the Ravensburg-Class are largely dependent on its heavy armor and augmented by moderate point-defense and interceptor capabilities. While capable to hold its own in a firefight against other capital vessels, the Ravensburg does depend on Flak-escorts or spatial aviation superiority to aid against hostile strike craft and bombers.

### Tactics

In battle, the Ravensburg-Class follows typically a straight-forward doctrine of ship-to-ship combat, seeking to destroy enemy vessels by means of heavy artillery bombardment while keeping smaller hostiles at bay with secondary close-proximity weaponry.

Like most cruisers of the German Marine Weltraumdivision, the ship is most effective in conjunction with smaller specialist vessels, providing covering fire to smaller vessels engaging the enemy.

## History

In 2180, ten Ravensburg-Class Cruisers are in active service. Two of these serve in the German Marine Weltraumdivision, the remaining eight in the Finabel Cosmo Navy. Ten vessels more were contracted by the joint commission of spatial militaries of the Pan-European Union and scheduled for completion in early 2182. But with tensions rising rapidly across the globe, it is more likely for these to be rushed into service and sacrificing the additional damage output of the Ravensburg’s signature Heavy Artillery Lance in favor of a cheaper, more readily available Laser Artillery Cannon.