Du Shi Wang

Du Shi Wang
Production information
Manufacturer	Capellan Confederation
Introduced	2380
Production Year	2380
Use	Battleship
Tech Base	Inner Sphere
Cost	9,211,920,000 C-Bills
Technical specifications
Mass	900,000 tons
Length	870 meters
Sail Diameter	1,300 meters
Fuel	5,000 tons
Burn Rate	39.52 tons
Safe Thrust	1.5 g
Top Thrust	2.5 g
Sail Integrity	5
KF Drive Integrity	18
LF Battery	None
Armament	4x Heavy NPPC 2x Medium NPPC 20x NL45
Armor	2,024 tons standard
DropShip Capacity	2
Crew	355 60 Officers 265 Enlisted 30 Gunners Bay Personnel: 36 Marines: 10 First-class Passengers: 5
Grav Decks	2 (1 x 150 meters and 1 x 70 meters diameter)
Escape Pods/Life Boats	15/25
Heat Sinks	2,100 single
Structural Integrity	150
BV (2.0)	45,726

Description

Designed by the Duchy of Liao and launched in 2380 as the first true WarShip built by the newly-formed Capellan Confederation, the Du Shi Wang was originally intended to anchor the massive armed merchant fleets the Duchy of Liao possessed. As such, the ship was normally escorted by a large number of support vessels to cover its design weaknesses and augment its strengths. Standard tactics were to simply point the battleship at the largest target and pummel it until it was destroyed - a tactic in part driven by the lack of funding to employ the large broadside armaments common to other battleships of the era.

A large amount of armor was placed on the front of the vessel to support the Du Shi Wang's role as a frontal attack craft - more armor than had in fact been seen on the nose of any WarShip fielded up to that point. Equipped with a weapons suite consisting solely of energy weapons, including Heavy Naval PPCs based on designs stolen from the Terran Hegemony, the "God of Burning Suffocation" was intended to perform long patrols. The Du Shi Wang was notable for being the first vessel to use massed orbital bombardment against civilian targets when the Confederation subjected the Federated Suns world of Novaya Zemlya to extensive bombardment in 2399.

The ship suffered from poor crew arrangements that emphasized the Capellan class system instead of efficiency; officers, the marines, and passengers were given priority over vital ship features like life boats and given sole access to the smaller of the two gravity decks in the rear of the vessel while the majority of the crew was left to the forward areas, a combination of poor design features that contributed to the destruction of many vessels during the Age of War. The Du Shi Wang was also reliant on the skill of the crew for efficient maneuvering to keep the nose pointed at dangerous opponents as its speed was average for vessels of similar size and the era.

The greater part of the Du Shi Wang class to survive the Age of War were out of service during the era of the Star League; in 2765 the Confederation was operating just five Du Shin Wangs, each of which formed the nucleus around which a commonality naval squadron was built. Still formidable ships at the time, each Du Shi Wang was accompanied by a pair of heavy cruisers either Aegis or Soyal-class, or one of each - and two or three lighter WarShips.

During the buildup to the First Succession War, the Confederation restored more Du Shi Wang-class ships to service, but less than a dozen were available at the start of the war's opening salvos, and all had been lost or destroyed by the end of the Second Succession War. One was known to have accompanied the Exodus Fleet, later known as the Quicksilver Mongoose, see Variants below.

Armament

Designed as a full frontal assault vessel due to lack of funds, 4 Heavy NPPCs are placed in the nose. Secondary weapons consist of 20 NL45 where 6 are placed in the FL/FR, 8 in the LBS/RBS, and 6 in the AL/AR sections. 2 Medium NPPC cover the Aft. The vessel was designed for long patrols and needs no ammunition storage.

Cargo

• Bay 1: Aerospace Fighters (18), 6 doors
• Bay 2: Cargo (79,317.5 tons), 4 doors
• Bay 3: Cargo (70,000 tons), 4 doors

Variants

• Quicksilver Mongoose 

  The Quicksilver Mongoose was a Clan upgraded Du Shi Wang, the only Du Shi Wang was known to exist in the thirty-first century. The Jasmine Liao joined the EXODUS at some point and the vessel survived the Pentagon Civil War before serving as a part of the Clan Mongoose touman as the Quicksilver Mongoose. Nearly destroyed by Clan Smoke Jaguar during the Absorption of Clan Mongoose, that last Du Shi Wang was mothballed in the Strana Mechty system for more than two hundred years, up until the loss of contact with the Clan Homeworlds around 3085.

The fighter complement for the Quicksilver Mongoose was increased to 50, and the cargo capacity lowered to a total of 108,627.5 tons. The weapons loadout was also upgraded, with nose-mounted 8 Heavy NPPCs and 4 Medium NPPCs joined by 4 NL45 in each aft and fore quarter and each broadside containing 4 NL45s and 3 Light NPPCs. Fighter-scale defenses of 25 small pulse lasers and 10 large pulse lasers are spread evenly around the vessel. 2,700 double heat sinks round out the new technological upgrades. Crew numbers are likewise larger: 437 crew are joined by a Point of Clan space marines. BV (2.0) = 83,704

Named Vessels

(See List of named Du Shi Wang-class WarShips)

Gallery

• 

  Original Du Shi Wang from TRO:3075

• 

  CMS Quicksilver Mongoose, former Jasmine Liao, from Era Digest: Golden Century

Bibliography

• Era Digest: Golden Century
• Field Report 2765: CCAF
• First Succession War (sourcebook)
• Technical Readout: 3075