UEFg Narayana

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

The UEFg Narayana.

The different Fleet color schemes.

Description:

Blue Planet: War in Heaven Tech Description

The Narayana is a heavy frigate in service with the Federation Navy.

She was an evolution of the frigate warship line that began with the Purusha and was refined with the Karuna. The next-generation heavy warship concept was first realised with the powerful but ultimately aborted dreadnought prototype. Admiral Calder's Murugan Project aimed to address the deficit in offensive firepower by focusing on a main battery of mass drivers. This contrasted with the defense-oriented Solaris destroyers with their massive Apocalypse swarms. When the audacity of the Murugan precluded further investment in dreadnought development, the Heavy Frigate project gravitated towards economical tried-and-tested designs.

The Narayana heavy frigate eventuated from this, essentially taking design elements of the Karuna and expanding on them. The hull was lengthened to accommodate a greater fighter and shuttle hangar capacity. Mass driver and gauss cannon firepower was augmented and concentrated forward. This meant the frigate's entire offensive fire could be brought to bear at a single target, in contrast to the Murugan whose turrets divided her firepower across multiple vectors. Point defenses were weaker than the Karuna's as a result of the expanded main battery but it was anticipated the Narayana's greater fighter carrying capacity would make up for the shortfall.

The heavy frigate was built when the only hardened targets the Federation Navy had engaged were old System Rim fortresses commandeered by the Gaian Effort, with the occasional armed mining ship pushed to service as a capital ship. When the GTVA launched its invasion of Sol, Narayanas proved completely inadequate to counter the advanced beam weaponry of TEI corvettes. Many frigates were lost during the opening stages of the conflict. In what would later be memorialised as a particularly inspired act, Admiral Netreba of Mars' Second Fleet authorised a massive refit of all Narayana frigates, installing specialised artillery weapons capable of engaging hostile targets at extreme range. Federation forces have since won several key engagements where the frigate's artillery forced Alliance warships to withdraw from combat.

The refit Narayana would serve with great effectiveness throughout the conflict with the Alliance. However, the long-range guns took up space otherwise occupied by fighter hangar facilities - the artillery frigate would no longer be able to house fighters within its diminished hangar. Because of this they would prove to be vulnerable to strikecraft attacks, shock jumps and cruiser groups, which aggressive, dynamic Alliance commanders were able to exploit ruthlessly.

Credits

• Model and original textures by Steve-O
• Optimization and textures by Esarai

Name Origin

Narayana or Narayan is an important Sanskrit name for Vishnu, and in many contemporary vernaculars a common Indian name. Narayana is also identified as the original man, Purusha. The Puranas present divergent views on Narayana. In the Kurma Purana he is identified with Brahman and Krishna-Vishnu, but in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana Narayana is considered different from Krishna and also considered part of Krishna.

Performance:

Statistics

Name	UEFg Narayana
Type	Heavy Frigate
Manufacturer	Tethis Designs
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	150.0, 150.0, 150.0 s
Max Velocity	30 ms-1
Hitpoints	90 000 pts
Length	1977 m
Turrets	21 turrets
Fighter Complement	12

Armaments

• Turrets

Default Statistics
Turret Type	Amount
Apocalypse#Narayana	3
Mass Driver#Narayana	2
Gauss Cannon#Narayana	4
Burst Flak	4
Point Defense Turret	8

Gallery

• 

  The Narayana.

• 

  The pre-refit Narayana.

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

In an anti-capital ship capacity, the Narayana doesn't have nearly the firepower of newer GTVA corvettes, and arguably less than a GTCv Deimos. Within beam range, this ship will quickly be shredded by most of the GTVA's new warships. What it does have is the ability to project most of its firepower out to 14.4 kilometers, out-ranging the BBlue by 6.15 kilometers. Since the GTVA depend mostly on large beam emitters, the Narayana can often completely neuter their capital ships outside the range of their beams. In the anti-fighter role, the has fewer anti-fighter defenses on a longer hull length than its lighter counterpart, the UEFg Karuna making it far more vulnerable to strike craft attacks.

The Narayana, even moreso than the Solaris, is the UEF's most useful and unique ship--it is a true artillery ship, capable of dealing significant damage over time at ranges several kilometers longer than even a BBlue. In terms of mission design, deploy these at the outer edge of their effective range, and this will force the other side to either commit to a full-scale battle or retreat. However, Narayanas are highly vulnerable to coordinated strike craft, shock-jump tactics, or charges from superior numbers of ships. As such, Narayanas should be accompanied by a good fighter screen whenever possible, and they should be used as fire support rather than a front-line brawler, even by UEF standards. When facing a Narayana at long range, one should constantly perform maneuvers to keep one's turrets "on the move" so as to dodge incoming gauss and mass driver rounds--even if such maneuvers are as simple as rolling in place.

As a GTVA pilot, the Narayana is relatively safe to approach compared to the other UEF warships. In ...Nor the Battle to the Strong, the best way to get to the jaws of the Maitreya is by curving around the nose of the Charles de Gaulle. But, as with all other UEF warships, the best way to deal with them as a Tev is to let your capital ships take care of them.