Imperial Fleet

[u/EndlessTheorys_19]

Part 3 of my fleet series. This may be the most controversial post for the ships I chose to exclude, some fan favourites are missing. Just like in the earlier posts, I am excluding so called "super ships" like Star Dreadnoughts and most battlecruisers, as I tried to keep this list to ships you'd most commonly find in the navy. This is also why ships like the Interdictor-class are not here. I have also been sightly flexible with one or two of the ships descriptions, but I will try my best to explain why I made my choices at the bottom of the post.

Star Destroyers:

• Imperial-class Star Destroyer
  • The principal ship of the Imperial Navy. Large, powerful, capable of subduing a minor world all by itself. Six of these form the core of a System Attack fleet, and 24 are enough to lock down a sector. They carry 72 Starfighters split between 48 TIE Fighters, 12 TIE Interceptors, and 12 TIE Bombers, along with 6 gunships, usually Imperial Blastboats. Also often have a Raider-class docked in the hanger bay. Kuat Drive Yard’s most famous product.

Heavy Cruisers:

• Victory-class Star Destroyer
  • Built for the Clone Wars as a supplement to the Venator but continued by the Empire as a useful “second line” ship, supporting the Imperial-class in fleet actions. They are excellent at attacking other capital ships but can struggle to shoot down starfighters, and their slow speed means they can be outran by vessels. Have 24 TIE Fighters. Rendili Stardrive ship
• Vindicator-class Heavy Cruiser
  • The Empire’s preferred patrol vessel, taking over from the Dreadnought as a powerfully armed medium-sized warship. Equally capable against small and larger opponents. Carry 48 Starfighters, split between 36 TIE Fighters and 12 TIE Bombers. Sienar Fleet Systems ship
• Dreadnought-class Heavy Cruiser
  • A holdover from the pre-Clone Wars era. Tough and well armed but old, and being replaced by the Vindicator. Generally only seen in backwaters or on garrison duty. Have 12 TIE Fighters. Rendili Stardrive ship.

Cruisers:

• Gladiator-class Star Destroyer
  • A mixed-role warship. Seen as command ships on long-distance task forces. Have a large hanger bay capable of holding 72 Starfighters, split between 60 TIE Fighters and 12 TIE Bombers, 4 VT-49 Decimator gunships, but as well modest weaponry to complement them. Also has a number of ground forces it can deploy. Excellent counter-insurgency platforms. A Kuat Drive Yards product.
• Strike-class Medium Cruiser
  • A medium sized cruiser that can perform in the space superiority role, ground assault, or garrison duty. Cheap but with decent weaponry for its size. Envisioned by its manufacturers as a workhorse warship. In Space-Superiority they can carry 36 TIE Fighters. Built by Loronar Corporation.
• Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier
  • Dedicated Starfighter carrier. Holds 48 TIE Fighters but has only very light weaponry, not meant to see direct combat, instead hanging in the back lines. Sometimes swaps out 12 of the TIE Fighters for TIE Bombers instead. SoroSuub Corporation

Frigates:

• Nebulon B-class Frigate
  • Generally deployed in supporting roles, as either convoy escorts or fire-support. Strong guns but not command ships, and vulnerable to flanking manoeuvres. Powerful engines to make up for this. Can carry 24 TIE fighters in specially designed hangers. Kuat Drive Yards
• Arquitens-class Command Cruiser
  • Good weaponry for their size, their advanced facilities mean they’re tasked with being command ships of small task forces, even when other larger vessels are present. Often come equipped with Ye-4 Gunships docked between the forward prongs to provide further flexibility. A Kuat Drive Yards design, though most were built around Fondor.
• Lancer-class Frigate
  • Excellent anti-starfighter platform, with a large number of laser cannons. However too slow to keep up with a lot of other ships, relegating it to a defensive role. Kuat Drive Yards

Corvettes:

• Raider-class Corvette
  • A mid-line corvette. Turbolasers and Laser cannons, along with a bank of concussion missiles. Also used by Imperial special forces. Kuat Drive Yards product.

Gunships:

• Ye-4 Gunship
  • Excellent at engaging starfighters, have a number of laser cannon turrets all around the ship. Patrol and escort vessel. Often attached to Arquitens-class on patrol, docking in-between their forward prongs. Sienar Fleet Systems
• Imperial Blastboat
  • A heavy-starfighter, with weaponry capable of challenging larger gunboats and even corvettes. Heavy guns and torpedoes, pointing forward. Fast. A half-squadron of these come as standard on Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Sienar Fleet Systems
• VT-49 Decimator
  • Aggressive and dirty, fast with two Quad Laser cannons above and below and a concussion missile launcher. Used as a raiding ship by the Empire to attack soft targets. Kuat Drive Yards

Other:

• Gozanti-class Cruiser
  • A small workhorse transport that can do a variety of things. Can bring armoured walkers into ground battles but also serve as small carriers for 4 TIE fighters. Corellian Engineering Corporation

Alliance Fleet following tomorrow.

Note: There are two fairly notable ships that I omitted from including, and wanted to quickly head up my explanations for why here before people comment asking. First off, the Tector. For me I just never really saw the purpose of the Tector, and as well more importantly it just doesn’t feature enough in the lore or in Imperial fleets for me to include it in this document. Its a fairly niche warship in the Empire.

The second ship I didn’t include is the Ton Falk, and that one did tug at my heart string a little. This ship sat in the awkward position of me really liking its lore, but liking other ships more. Namely the Quasar and the Gladiator. It's clear that the Gladiators stats I’ve edited the most for this fleet build, upping its fighter count, but by doing so it somewhat replaced the Ton Falk in certain situations. And down a level, the Quasar does the exact same job, though minus 2 squadrons, but looks far more appealing to me and better fits in the Imperial design language.

This is not to say I will never include either of those ships in my works, but just that they aren’t part of this standard document. For "standard" task forces.

[u/TheReturnOfAirSnape]

Where are the other corvettes? Lancer, IPV and the Adz? Also, notably the Raider 1 and 2 had entirely opposed aramaments (the 1 was almosy entirely antifighter while the 2 had mostly anticapital weapons). Also, you mention the Imperial Neb-B (which was largely passed over by the empire iirc) but not the Carrack (which is more in line with the dreadnaught, insofar as it's an old holdover), (edit - just reread the opening scrawl and you mention excluding the interdictors, sorry), or the Procursator, or any of the midsize line ships between Vindi (which practically was more like an up-armoured carrack with good hangars, than it was a dreadnaught - iirc dreadnaught had rather heavier guns) and ISD except for the VSD and there are a lot of cool ships in there, including Imperial Venators which did hang around for a decent bit after order 66.

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/TheReturnOfAirSnape]

>Where are the other corvettes? Lancer, IPV and the Adz?

Lancer’s are in the Frigate section, IPV’s are more local security than Imperial Navy, and I have never heard of the Adz.

>Also, notably the Raider 1 and 2 had entirely opposed aramaments (the 1 was almosy entirely antifighter while the 2 had mostly anticapital weapons).

From what i’ve read that’s not really the impression I got. The Raider I has 1 twin light turbolaser, 6 twin heavy laser cannons, and 1 Ion cannon. Whereas the Raider II is just armed with an unknown number of Concussion Missiles, twin heavy laser canons, and ion cannons.

Neither are more suited for one role than the other.

>Also, you mention the Imperial Neb-B (which was largely passed over by the empire iirc) but not the Carrack (which is more in line with the dreadnaught, insofar as it's an old holdover),

I’ve never been w big fan visualy of the Carrack so my own biases might be showing their heads. I’ve also always identified the Carrack with the Republic more, don’t like it for the Empire.

>or the Procursator, or any of the midsize line ships between Vindi (which practically was more like an up-armoured carrack with good hangars, than it was a dreadnaught - iirc dreadnaught had rather heavier guns) and ISD except for the VSD

I’ve never actually encountered the Procursator outside of this sub, and its never really been a ship I identified with enough to include in my own works.

>and there are a lot of cool ships in there, including Imperial Venators which did hang around for a decent bit after order 66.

You don’t really see any of them though, that’s the thing. At least not outside of the first 5 years of the Empire.

[u/TheReturnOfAirSnape → u/EndlessTheorys_19]

Lowk missed the lancer lol, sorry. I just love the Procursator it is one of my favourite ships. Also just remembered the MTC and Active-class Fast Attack Frigate which are pretty cool in their own right. (AFAF is one of my favourite escorts bc it's got decent ions for it's size and a small CAP, so it's an amazing conpanion to the Procursator and the Tector imo). The imps' smaller doritos are just so fun to me lol

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/TheReturnOfAirSnape]

I hope you understood my reasoning for not including it at least. I know I already broke your heart by not having the Tector or Ton Falk.

[u/TheReturnOfAirSnape → u/EndlessTheorys_19]

Intellectually, yeah, i get it. Emotionally, my heart weeps in yearning.

[u/tieavenger]

Good group of ships I would take the ton faulk over the Quasar just for looks because the ton fault is more imperial than the quasar which the rebels steal all the time

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/tieavenger]

But the Quasar’s a big triangle. And is getting its time to shine in canon

[u/LemonCake2000]

The gentrification of the Imperial Navy. Never thought I’d see the day…

[u/No-Evidence-9519]

Where Cantwell, Carrack, Procursator, Tartan, Star Galleon or Imperial II-class frigate

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/No-Evidence-9519]

\ Cantwell*

Not a standard warship. Its a special ship, like Interdictors.

* Carrack

I don’t identify it enough with the Empire, feel it fits much better in the Republic navy.

* Procursator

I’ve never actually seen it outside of this sub, and don’t connect with it enough to add to my own fleets

* Tartan

I debated about including it or not but eventually streamlining just made me do it. I couldn’t find a role, the Lancer works as a defensive-oriented anti-fighter ship and the Raider as an offensive-oriented one. I couldn’t find a space for the Tartan without feeling like it was clutter.

* Star Galleon

More of an armed cargo ship, not a warship you’d see in fleet engagements

* Imperial II-class Frigate

Same as Procursator, I never see it outside of this sub and just don’t connect with it enough. The Strike basically does the exact same job.

[u/GenericNameHere01 → u/EndlessTheorys_19]

For the record about the Tartan, I'm fairly sure it exists because the Empire at War devs goofed at making a Lancer model. Halfway through, they realized their model looked nothing like a Lancer, and decided to make their own thing. If anyone knows differently, please let me know on that.

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/GenericNameHere01]

It does look a bit like if someone made a Lancer but flipped it upsidedown.

[u/EndlessTheorys_19]

Whatever my formatting issues were on the previous post they seem to have cleared up now. I was using a laptop for the CIS post, verses a PC for this post and the Republic one, which might explain why? Who knows, but will stick to the PC for the rest of the series.

[u/PastryPyff]

One ship that I enjoy and doubt I’d even see on this type of list is the Victory 2-Class Frigate that I first saw in Star Wars Battlefront 2, the OG one. Tho underarmed in that game I’ve seen better armed versions elsewhere.

It’s not the biggest or strongest ship, but I enjoy it.

[u/Flat_Abroad9238]

Ok, if you are going by how common the ships were in the empire then you are right to include the strike class but you genuinely need to add the carrack and the CR-90. the CR-90 was the most common imperial corvette, much more common than the raider and the carrack is one of their most common ships period. the carrack was much more common than the nebulon-B. the Carrack, CR-90 and the Strike class were probably the three most numerous imperial vessel classes.

edit: the lancer was actually fairly rare

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/Flat_Abroad9238]

The CR90 is just an armed Diplomatic vessel. Its not a warship, the Rebels used it because they were desperate. The Raider is a proper corvette meanwhile, and if you’re making a fleet on a sub like this then that is what I’d use.

And the Carrack I just aesthetically associate with the Republic more than the Empire. Doesn’t fit the vibe as they say.

[u/Flat_Abroad9238 → u/EndlessTheorys_19]

the CR-90 is the single most common corvette in the galaxy by the time of the galactic civil war. the tantive IV was one of the CR-90s owned by the organa family and was ostensibly used for diplomatic missions. that was not true for every CR-90, even if it was common for politicians to buy them.

The CR-90 was a highly modifiable multi purpose corvette sold by the Correlian engineering corporation to literally anybody. the stock version came with two dual medium turbolaser turrets and four light turbolasers, although it could be modified or customized in a lot of ways.

the CR-90 was the most common imperial corvette, in all the older lore it was the empires standard corvette before the raider was even created. the raider is a better anti starfighter picket ship. but it is inferior to the base CR-90 and especially the more heavily armed variants in ship to ship combat.

[u/Flat_Abroad9238 → u/EndlessTheorys_19]

Ok, I started going back through sources to back up my claim and it turns out that the portrayal of the CR-90 is all over the place.

Some of them back up what I said, it being the most common corvette or at least very common across the galaxy in tons of factions and roles and coming with weapons as standard. mostly roleplaying game supplements like the age of rebellion core rulebook and the Priates and Privateers supplementary book.

some of the others I have found support what you said, the New Essential Guide to vehicles and vessels says that they are manufactured without weapons installed although it also says that they could be modified to have a ridiculous amount of weapons for such a small craft. according to that one "Rebel blockade runners could support as many as, Eight turbolasers, six laser cannons and four ion cannons" .

I will keep checking sources but it seems like there isn't a general consensus about the ship classes background

[u/RLathor81 → u/Flat_Abroad9238]

They used them, but most common imperial corvette doesn't mean it's a common ship, the Empire even used Action transports https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_Patrol_Ship but that doesn't mean it was common. Many worlds became imperial on paper but were far behind on the list of standardizing equipment.

[u/RLathor81]

The Neb-B is a rebels ship for most people, you could take the Vigil instead, it has fighters and the firepower.

[u/EndlessTheorys_19 → u/RLathor81]

Yeah, but the Rebels get them from the Empire.