GTC Leviathan

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The first of the GTC Leviathan cruisers were built during the Terran-Vasudan War when it turned out that the war would not be over in a short time. Leviathans improve upon the much more fragile GTC Fenris with heavier armoring and deadlier weaponry. The Leviathan has an extremely long commission period, beginning from the Terran-Vasudan 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 anti-fighter beams and one small anti-warship beam cannon. This class of warship has the most anti-fighter beams of any GTVA cruiser, and the second most powerful anti-warship weaponry after the GTC Aeolus, which has two anti-warship beams versus the Leviathan's one.

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

Despite its superior armoring and armament compared to those of the GTC Fenris, the Leviathan is much slower and thus impractical for swift hit-and-run strikes, but in situations where a Fenris does not have a chance of survival, there is still hope for the crew of a Leviathan to manage through.

Description:

The GTC Leviathan

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	Defensive Cruiser
Manufacturer	Han-Ronald Corp.
Maneuverability	N/A
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	80.0, 130.0, 100.0 s
Max Velocity	10.0 ms-1
Max Afterburner Velocity	N/A ms-1
Armor	N/A
Hitpoints	35 000
Shields	N/A
Length	253 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

Modding Resources

The GTC Leviathan in the latest MVPs

Retail:

$POF File: cruiser01.pof

Textures: cruiser01-01(a/b/c), cruiser01-02a, cruiser01-03a, cruiser01-04a

MediaVPs:

$POF File: Leviathan.pof

Credits: VA / Hades / Oddgrim / Fightermedic

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

Although slow, the Leviathan is a powerful cruiser. Its forward SGreen has a full 180-degree view of fire, allowing it to hit any warship in front of or below it.

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. Basically, the Leviathan can be considered a Class A threat to any fighter or bomber, but isn't meant to battle other capital ships.

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 useful in fighting enemy bombers at long 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, that's the only place the AAA beams can not hit you.

Although she has heavy armour and excellent anti fighter defenses, and the ability to engage enemy warships with its SGreen, she is simply outclassed by the Lilith. Her LRed and 40,000 more hitpoints mean that she has almost the hull strength of a Deimos.

The Leviathan is the slowest large ship in the entire Terran fleet. While it has more AAAfs than an Aeolus, this only gives it a minor advantage, for an Aeolus' turrets were built such that they can hit at any fighter or bomber from any given direction. Against a Leviathan, you could go up close, shoot the whole length across its broadside and get away with it.

The worst mistakes I've ever made are to forget the difference between blue and red. Attacking a Leviathan as if it were a Fenris is a very bad idea. Your first thought is, wow is this Fenris only paying attention to me? The next second you're torn apart by beams and being angry at yourself for not noticing this ship is blue.

It is to be noted that the red-blue difference is only present in mods or in the media vps.

If the Leviathan were to be compared to a real-world warship in terms of class and purpose, a useful analogue could be a coastal defense monitor. At least by the time of The Second Shivan Incursion if not before. It simply lacks the speed to pursue normal fleet engagements. However, its long service life and production cycle brings costs down. By choosing Leviathans, Command can pay less for a decent array of weaponry on a stable, tough platform. A remarkable amount of durability has been achieved in a cruiser that certainly costs less than an Aeolus. Simply put, it's a cost effective defense vessel.

As mentioned by a commenter on the Aeolus page, anti-fighter beams are functionally more effective at eliminating enemy fighters and providing point-defense against warheads than flak guns are. The positioning of the Leviathan's anti-fighter beams, particularly considering higher difficulties, makes them for all intents and purposes a deathtrap to incoming fighters and bombers - and aside from accuracy, they don't have to pierce through shields first in order to damage enemy fighters' armor, effectively halving the effectiveness of enemy ships' defenses.