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Description
The Siege Perilous has sort of become my benchmark Crumpleverse ship for gauging how I've improved and gained experienced over time. In that spirit, in the wake of the past two starships I felt like it was time to revisit this one, particularly as the last version of this was done when I was still using lineart and exclusively flat colours.

I won't copy the text of the previous infographic, though that remains entirely accurate, but I'll instead give a rebaked summary here.

First approved in 2389, the Siege Perilous was built to be the Second British Empire's ace in the hole in their coming war against UNSA. Against a foe possessing both numerical superiority, and entrenched defenses in many star systems, the belief was that this wast best overcome by a few ships so well shielded, armoured, and armed that they could simply outlast and outfight anything ranged against them. The Siege Perilous was designed to fulfill that niche.

These battleships possessed both turreted and fixed direction railguns as primary anti-ship armamanets. The former took advantage of the ship's immense length and powerful reactors, whilst the latter enabled the Siege Perilous anti-ship capability without having to wait for the ship to face its target. They were also carpeted in numerous missile launchers, with any individual Siege Perilous capable of bringing almost a fleet's worth of ordnance to bear on a given target. When combined with a support fleet, or operating in packs, these missile barrages were particularly deadly against an unwary opponent. Needless to say the Siege Perilous was also covered in laser arrays, CIWS turrets, and close quarter guns.

Where the engineers were forced to compromise, however, was the matter of its parasite craft. With the bulk of the Siege Perilous, and its role in besieging planetary systems, having it carry drop troops on board was not too big of an ask, nor was giving it the hangar space to carry and launch its own massive drop pods in the form of the Joyous Gard, each pod capable of dropping an entire company of Marines to a planet below. Nor was it ridiculous to give the craft large hangars in the first place as such a large ship would require frequent interaction with smaller tender vessels. The notion to include starfighters as well was another matter entirely. The concept of the 'starfighter' had not outlived the 22nd century, and the nearest equivalents by 2389 were either tertiary planetary defence craft or SEAD specialists. However, a large part of the ideology of the Second British Empire rested heavily on nostalgia for earlier periods, and this included seeing individually piloted craft as a noble form of warfare. The Empire's leadership insisted on the inclusion of squadrons of dual-role starfighters in the class, and nothing the engineers could do would persuade them otherwise. This then led to the forcible inclusion of Galahad fighters and the necessary facilities to maintain and launch them, using up tonnage that might otherwise have been spent on more weaponry or other direct combat systems.

By the beginning of the UNSA-Imperial war in 2396 seven of these behemoths had been completed, each of which wrought havok in myriad star systems in the war's first few years. Very few system defence nets could stand up to them for long, and when supported by escorts neither could many fleets. However, any time one received significant damage it was considerable effort to repair it to a full extent, and should one be destroyed or captured it represented a massive lose of material and experienced crew to the Second British Empire. Likewise the Dreadnought mentality of the Empire placed great stock in the capacity of these vessels to overcome all obstacles, and any time matters proved otherwise it was a devastating blow to overall morale. This led to many examples of specialised ships being deployed against the Empire that focused on anti-capital firepower to the expense of all else, knowing that this would be disproportionately effective. Over the 10 years of conflict these seemingly invincible battleships were wittled down faster than they could be built and recrewed, and by the war's end only two intact Siege Perilous remained, both under UNSA control.

These ships remain some of the most infamous historical vessels in humanity's history, even though they were never operational for more than a decade in their original form. However, the two captured survivors were reconfigured into dedicated humanitarian response vessels dubbed the Pangaea class, and remained in service for these purposes right until the fall of UNSA the following century.

Description
The Siege Perilous has sort of become my benchmark Crumpleverse ship for gauging how I've improved and gained experienced over time. In that spirit, in the wake of the past two starships I felt like it was time to revisit this one, particularly as the last version of this was done when I was still using lineart and exclusively flat colours.

I won't copy the text of the previous infographic, though that remains entirely accurate, but I'll instead give a rebaked summary here.

First approved in 2389, the Siege Perilous was built to be the Second British Empire's ace in the hole in their coming war against UNSA. Against a foe possessing both numerical superiority, and entrenched defenses in many star systems, the belief was that this wast best overcome by a few ships so well shielded, armoured, and armed that they could simply outlast and outfight anything ranged against them. The Siege Perilous was designed to fulfill that niche.

These battleships possessed both turreted and fixed direction railguns as primary anti-ship armamanets. The former took advantage of the ship's immense length and powerful reactors, whilst the latter enabled the Siege Perilous anti-ship capability without having to wait for the ship to face its target. They were also carpeted in numerous missile launchers, with any individual Siege Perilous capable of bringing almost a fleet's worth of ordnance to bear on a given target. When combined with a support fleet, or operating in packs, these missile barrages were particularly deadly against an unwary opponent. Needless to say the Siege Perilous was also covered in laser arrays, CIWS turrets, and close quarter guns.

Where the engineers were forced to compromise, however, was the matter of its parasite craft. With the bulk of the Siege Perilous, and its role in besieging planetary systems, having it carry drop troops on board was not too big of an ask, nor was giving it the hangar space to carry and launch its own massive drop pods in the form of the Joyous Gard, each pod capable of dropping an entire company of Marines to a planet below. Nor was it ridiculous to give the craft large hangars in the first place as such a large ship would require frequent interaction with smaller tender vessels. The notion to include starfighters as well was another matter entirely. The concept of the 'starfighter' had not outlived the 22nd century, and the nearest equivalents by 2389 were either tertiary planetary defence craft or SEAD specialists. However, a large part of the ideology of the Second British Empire rested heavily on nostalgia for earlier periods, and this included seeing individually piloted craft as a noble form of warfare. The Empire's leadership insisted on the inclusion of squadrons of dual-role starfighters in the class, and nothing the engineers could do would persuade them otherwise. This then led to the forcible inclusion of Galahad fighters and the necessary facilities to maintain and launch them, using up tonnage that might otherwise have been spent on more weaponry or other direct combat systems.

By the beginning of the UNSA-Imperial war in 2396 seven of these behemoths had been completed, each of which wrought havok in myriad star systems in the war's first few years. Very few system defence nets could stand up to them for long, and when supported by escorts neither could many fleets. However, any time one received significant damage it was considerable effort to repair it to a full extent, and should one be destroyed or captured it represented a massive lose of material and experienced crew to the Second British Empire. Likewise the Dreadnought mentality of the Empire placed great stock in the capacity of these vessels to overcome all obstacles, and any time matters proved otherwise it was a devastating blow to overall morale. This led to many examples of specialised ships being deployed against the Empire that focused on anti-capital firepower to the expense of all else, knowing that this would be disproportionately effective. Over the 10 years of conflict these seemingly invincible battleships were wittled down faster than they could be built and recrewed, and by the war's end only two intact Siege Perilous remained, both under UNSA control.

These ships remain some of the most infamous historical vessels in humanity's history, even though they were never operational for more than a decade in their original form. However, the two captured survivors were reconfigured into dedicated humanitarian response vessels dubbed the Pangaea class, and remained in service for these purposes right until the fall of UNSA the following century.