3125 Scale Borak Battlecruiser (BC) CVN

The Borak are six-limbed oxy-nitrogen breathers from a world similar to Earth, but with far less water. They were discovered by the Hydrans as their world was located in the Hydran Old Colonies. For nearly two decades, the Hydrans and Borak had a cordial relationship.  That changed after the Hydran homeworld fell to the Klingons and Lyrans and the Hydrans feared the Borak might join with their enemies. The Hydrans eliminated the Borak as a spacefaring power during the Early Years, though their fleet continued to evolve in Hydran simulators. During the General War, the Hydrans used the Borak in a game of deception, leaking data on their (non-existent) warships and presenting them as a powerful empire that wouldn’t appreciate having Hydrans and Lyrans intrude in their sphere of influence. The bluff worked because the Klingons and Lyrans didn’t figure it out until they were so heavily engaged against the Federation that they couldn’t spare the ships to conquer the Hydrans.

The Borak Star League Battlecruiser was always something of an anachronism. While most other Alpha Octant empires were producing heavy battlecruisers as economical wartime replacements for lost dreadnoughts, the Borak Star League never faced such losses and continued to produce the their war dreadnought class through the General War. The design and construction of the battlecruiser was driven largely by a Borak Star League misunderstanding of the motivations driving heavy battlecruiser production elsewhere, leading to concern that sector-wide growth in cruiser size would force the production of more powerful mainline cruisers.

From the start, the design was a compromise. A third or even fourth megaphaser was viewed as necessary to adequately increase the ship’s firepower, but those few Borak Star League cruisers mounting more than two megaphasers suffered either from shock effects or limited firing arcs. Early attempts to mount three megaphasers in a single turret proved unsuccessful and the side-by-side mounting used in the war dreadnought proved impossible on a cruiser hull. Ultimately, Borak Star League designers reverted to the turret and megaphaser layout of the older dreadnought-class. As in the dreadnought, forward firepower was preserved, but the rear arc of the forward turret was blocked.

While capable, the battlecruiser was viewed as a disappointment within the Borak Star League fleet since it was recognized that the feared fleets of “super-cruisers” would never materialize. The battlecruisers would give good service in the border wars after the ISC Pacification campaign, but by that time they had been eclipsed by advanced technology command cruisers. Known names include Thunderer and Conqueror.

The ship is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.