GTC Leviathan

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File:Leviathan320x240.jpg
The GTC Leviathan

The first of the GTC Leviathan cruisers were built during the 14-Year War when it turned out that the war will not be over in a short time. Leviathans improve upon the much more fragile GTC Fenris with its heavier armoring and deadlier weaponry. Many of these craft were used during its long career beginning from the 14-Year War till the end of the Second Shivan Incursion. After the Great War's conclusion and the development of beam cannons, Leviathans were armed with a deadly array of four AAAf anti-fighter beams and one anti-warship beam cannon. This warship had the most anti-fighter beams of any GTVA cruiser, and the second most powerful anti-warship weaponry after the Aeolus, which had two SGreens vs. the Leviathan's one.

Some Leviathan-class cruisers joined the NTF and saw deployment against the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance. Many of these vessels were destroyed during the rebellion.

Despite its superior armoring and armament compared to those of the GTC Fenris, Leviathans were much slower and thus impractical for swift hit-and-run strikes, but whenever a Fenris would not have a chance of survival, there was still hope for the crew of a Leviathan to manage through.

Description:

FS1 Tech Room Description

After the Vasudans began making incursions into GTA space, command decided that it needed a new defensive cruiser. Changes to the Fenris led to the GTC Leviathan line of cruisers, produced as mobile defense battleships. Their speed and maneuverability were greatly reduced in tradeoff for more powerful weapons and a stronger hull. Production was discontinued when the GTA thought they would win the Vasudan war after the Battle of Gulnara, and then the production was started up again after the defeat at the Talania system. Because of the on-again off-again nature of this vessel's production, almost all of the Leviathan Cruisers have different armaments, but all have consistent hulls and speeds.

FS2 Tech Room Description

Early in the Great War, Han-Ronald engineers designed and built the Leviathan class of cruisers. The Leviathan is much heavier armed and armored than the Fenris, but also much slower and less maneuverable. Leviathan cruisers are used to guard critical installations, such as permanent jump nodes, deep-space factories, and gas-mining operations, where firepower is king and speed is of little importance. They're also well-suited to escorting slow-moving freighters or transports. The Fenris is good for fast-moving operations, but when you need some muscle, call in a Leviathan.

Developer Notes

None

Name origin

In the Old Testament, Leviathan is a large sea creature, associated with the Devil or Satan.

In the English language, leviathan functions as an adjective meaning "monstrous" and also a noun meaning "something very large."

Performance:

Statistics

Type	Cruiser
Manufacturer	Han-Ronald Corp.
Maneuverability	N/A
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	10.0 s
Max Velocity	N/A ms-1
Max Afterburner Velocity	N/A ms-1
Armor	35 000
Hitpoints	N/A
Shields	253
Length	{{{10}}} m

Armaments

• Turrets

Freespace 1		Freespace 2
Turret Type	Amount	Turret Type	Amount
Terran Turret	8	Terran Turret	3
FighterKiller	1	Fusion Mortar	1
		Anti-Fighter Beam	4
		Small Green Beam	1

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

There is a discrepancy between the Freespace 1 and 2 technical descriptions. While the Freespace 1 description seems to indicate that the Leviathan was in service during Terran-Vasudan War the Freespace 2 description states that it entered service during The Great War. This discrepancy can be explained as the author of the Freespace 2 description getting mixed up with the two wars. In the Freespace community, the Leviathan is generally recognized as coming into service during the Terran-Vasudan War.

It's just another cruiser, but significantly tougher than most, in FS1. However, in FS2, you need to fear this ship. It has four AAA beams, covering every direction save dead aft and directly ahead. It can bring at least two of them to bear on any target further than a hundred meters. The single forward-mounted SGreen is not particularly well-suited to anti-capital work, but decent in the role (and don't forget the Fusion Mortar, which does more damage than its beam). Overall the Leviathan is probably the third-most effective cruiser in the game, falling after the Shivan Lilith and the Aeolus.

With its four AAA beams and its thick hull plating the Leviathan could be a very good escort cruiser, but with just 10 mp/s it's much too slowly for that job. Even destroyers are faster! Anyway the Leviathan is quite usefull in fighting enemy bombers at long range, but it needs fighter support here, too, because without flak it has only little chance to stop enemy torpedos at short range. In my opinion, the best location for this ships is near installations, depots or planets, where speed is secondary.

If you have to attack a Leviathan, attack it from the front, where the SGreen is, thats the only place the AAA beams can not hit you.

Most people think that the Aeolus is more powerful than the Leviathan. They are quite wrong. While it lacks the flak guns that the Aeolus possesses, the Leviathan has four anti-fighter beams as opposed to the Aeolus' two. Flak is not what does the damage, rather, it's the anti-fighter beams. Do not be fooled, the Leviathan is far more dangerous than the Aeolus against fighters. However, against capital ships, the Aeolus has double the Leviathan's firepower with a second SGreen.

I disagree with the poster on top. While the Leviathan does have superior AAAf firepower in the form of 4 beams, all those beams cannot target enemies in the forward arc of the cruiser. In other words, you can avoid the beams, but you can't avoid the flak on the Aeolus unless you stay out of range. Flak is deadly to bombers and forces fighters to keep their distance or keep moving. Also, you have to account for the fact that the Leviathan has that Fusion Mortar, which is a decent weapon by all accounts, and that there are also AAAf beams which are very much capable of targeting capital warships.