Database and Lore

Prinz Eugen Class Guided Missile Armored Cruiser *Spoilers if you haven't read past Gabatrix: The First Peace arc* “I served on the UHN Seydlitz at Cipra. The Aksren poured missile after missile on her. Eventually, the Aksren gave up and went after the other battleships. They knew they couldn’t take us down,” Petty Officer Sanza, 2349 AD.  The second design of the heavy cruisers. The Prinz Eugen class Armored Cruiser had formed the unsung heroes of the UHN fleets. However, in all their forgotten service, the cruisers still serve as the defensive line for the UHN for the impending invasions to come.       Design The Prinz Eugen class Armored Cruiser, sometimes known as the UHN Heavy Cruisers, was intended to replace the aging Zara class. The Armored Cruiser program was established near the beginning of the UHN's creation. It was intended to serve as a fallback warship design. While the battleships had formed the core of frontal service and exploration in UHN service, the UHN still wanted additional ships to help supplement the dilapidated but ever-growing state of the Martian space force. The Zara class had proved to be an interesting design. The concept of the Armored Cruiser was to produce a warship capable of absorbing numerous weapon strikes across its surface. The mid portion of the shell consists of two heavy layers of armor plating designed to cut down hull breaches. While smaller than the typical battleship, the ships were more robust, slightly cheaper, and used new heat-reduction vents that eliminated the need for spaceship radiators, while still serving as effective combat platforms. In all, 34 cruisers of the Zara class had been built, mostly kept at Mars, Cebravis, and ultimately Batrice’s home defense fleets, while the battleships were typically sent out in outer system patrols or exploratory missions. However, the Zara class was not perfect. The ship, while effective in combat, had relatively poor armament. It’s two light railguns and five torpedo launchers combined with inadequate storage facilities for munitions are not enough to adequately repel a battleship in an equal fight. Even its CIWS capability was partially limited, reduced to a few flak guns, autoguns, and a small VLS array to counter enemy warheads. With the introduction of the Helix class Battleship, the UHN wanted to take a look at the Zara class once again. By then, the UWA economy was improving, and so was the desire to update the ships to a new standard, fitting of UHN service. The Prinz Eugen class was an improved Zara class, carrying an enlarged revolver-cylinder launcher for torpedoes, capable of unleashing a salvo of six warheads instead of five, with additional space for munitions. The VLS launcher array was replaced with side launchers that could deploy and carry even more intercept missiles. AIO turrets replaced the original PDF Laser and autogun turrets. The armor layout was improved, providing additional protection in the frontal bow, power facilities, and the rear engine module. Even the spinning box ring was replaced with a more comfortable rotating ring module for the crew to sleep and perform basic operations. While suffering from slow acceleration, which was limited by human capabilities, the cruiser was still seen as a vast improvement over the original Zara class. The UHN was quite impressed by the Prinz Eugen design and ordered production to begin immediately. History The Prinz Eugen Cruisers are the second most produced warship of the UHN in the early 24^th  Century, only slightly beaten by the Magellan class Battleships of 2317. While some are produced for Cebravis’s orbital defense fleet, the Prinz Eugen had formed the core of the Martian and Batrice home fleets. The purpose of the cruisers was to provide relief for the battleships when they were used in frontal attack fleets or exploratory missions. However, by 2320, most of the long-range exploration missions of the battleships had been cut down considerably, and the age of exploration had mostly faded out in preference to civilian research vessels. The “Exploration Battleships” were retired and decommissioned shortly thereafter. With this, UHN doctrine began to transform. The Helix and Magellan class Battleships had, instead, been mostly used as a home defense warship. The armored cruisers would remain as escort and support vessels for the battleships. In the Sol System, Batrice, or Cebravis, the cruisers would sometimes outnumber the UHN battleships in a 3-to-2 ratio. Often, they served as basic mobile defense platforms in case of an attack. However, there were generally not enough of the heavy cruisers to properly serve in the escort role, where they were typically used as supplementary warships in fleet formations.   By 2349, with the advent of the JJ-78 Incident and the Itrean conflict, the UHN battleships were mostly called into action. It was never intended for the cruiser to replace or supersede the UHN battleships. Even the Prinz Eugen class still carried less anti-ship firepower than the famed Magellan class Battleships. Another prevalent issue remained as well: the Prinz Eugen class had been replaced by the improved Northampton class Armored Cruiser. The Helix class had been mostly retired and scrapped from service with the first series of Prinz Eugen class ships to also be retired sometime by 2355. However, with the advent of the Itrean War, the UHN needs every ship it can use to its full potential. The aged cruisers were used as they were originally intended: for UWA core world home defense, while the newer battleships were sent into direct combat zones, such as defending the outer colonies of Cipra, Oshun, and Eutera. However, around ten armored cruisers were sent to help defend Cipra during the long sieges that the Aksren clan performed. The ships had proven to be effective, with only two cruisers that were lost in combat compared to the more significant losses of battleships in turn. During the early months, the UHN Seydlitz, for example, helped “tank” a series of volleys while providing cover for the UHN Gagarin. The ship was to be quite resilient as intended, ultimately surviving the siege in combat service, but was forced to return home for much-needed repairs. UHN analysts would sometimes debate the true purpose of the armored cruiser and whether they were more effective than battleships. However, many point out that the lesser firepower would not make up for the ship’s survivability. In the end, having more cruisers mostly present at Cipra wouldn’t have made a difference. Against overwhelming firepower, even the heavy cruisers still couldn’t change the Aksren sieges. Regardless, the Prinz Eugen and the Northampton class did fulfill a deeper role in providing crucial defense of Mars, Cebravis, and Batrice, seeing that the outer colonies would likely fall to Itrean attacks. With the Magellan and Nelson classes taking considerable losses in the number of ships commissioned or stuck in repairs, the armored cruisers were reconsidered in proper 2-to-1 escort missions, often protecting the battleship while serving as a validated wall for defense for the battleships. Ironically, the armored cruiser had essentially replaced the battleship by accident near most of the 2350 till more battleships could be built or repaired to supplement the UHN fleets. Despite the age of the UHN fleets, the Prinz Eugen would serve as the guardian of Mars, Cebravis, and Batrice. *Spoilers if you haven’t read past Gabatrix: The Batrice Crisis arc* The Prinz Eugen class had served in more numerous roles by the later years of the UHN, often being pressed into more frontline service. In escort roles, the cruisers appeared to work rather effectively, protecting the battleships during patrols, taking the hits when needed, while providing proper support fire for the battleships. Even T’rintar clan analysts were impressed with the cruisers, seeing them as more combat effective than the lighter battleships they used, but just used for a different purpose. Slowly, during 2350 to 2351, the cruisers were sent to reinforce Aphadus and Palora to help provide support alongside the T’rintar lend-leased Ikra Battleships. During the siege of Palora, the cruisers had supported the Paloran fleets quite adequately against the Shal’rein invasion, albeit in insignificant numbers, to make a difference against the superior numbers of the Itrean assets. During the Civil War of 2351, the armored cruisers had formed the core of both the UHN and Batrice fleets. Battleships and carriers had been used, but in fewer available numbers. Regardless, the cruisers had proven to be more than fair in combat, being able to sustain considerable damage with a vast majority surviving the battles for later repairs. Despite the lesser firepower, the resilient warships had all proven to the UHN that the armored cruisers were there to stay.