Full Thrust Ergovore Crusader Warspheres

 

Revisiting the Ergovore Congress and its Crusader fleets with some more sublight combat ships, this time a dozen destroyer-sized warspheres.  See the original post here for background on the Congress of Ergovores and what their Crusade is all about:

 

https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/01/full-thrust-ergovore-crusader-squadron.html

 

These are built by the Thromm, one of "Saved" races that's been modified so they are no longer Eaters.  They were formerly a vegetarian amphibian race who fed mainly on their homeworld's equivalent to algae, but even that was too much for the ergovores.  The Thromm, faced with the prospect of fighting a war they couldn't hope to win, chose to allow the Congress to implant every member of their species with a symbiotic artificially-engineered life form that provides all their nutritional needs via photosynthesis.  The symbiote greatly reduces the Thromm's mobility and shortens their lifespan by about 10% but hey, better than having your whole civilization smashed and the survivors more or less permanently stuck in the stone age.   

 

One of the first Saved species, the Thromm are more trusted than most former Eaters and contribute significantly (if not entirely voluntarily) to the Crusade forces.  They aren't trusted with FTL technology, but their sublight vessels are seen throughout Congress space.  They generally have very low mobility but are durable and well-armed for their size.  Thromm warspheres are often brought along via jump tugs to provide orbital interdiction around worlds targeted by a Crusade fleet, or deployed as a defensive cordon around advanced logistics bases and support ship formations.

 

There are two similar variations of the basic warsphere design, cunningly designated the Type 1 (above) and Type 2 (below).  Overall performance in game terms is identical, although interior layouts are slightly different and the wallow pools on the Type 2 are much more comfortable than the ones on the Type 1. 

 

Thromm Warsphere (Type 1 & 2)

TMF 34
NPV 136 / CPV 114
Advanced Thrust 2 q 1 q
1 Fire Control q
2 PDS qq
1 Class 4 Beam Battery (All Arcs) q

Armor 1
Advanced Hull 9 (3/3/3) - 2 crew units, one every 5th box

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