Tiny Homeworld Build 10 — Vaygr Tribes Part 1

Strike craft and frigates.

Once again, I’m really glad with how swiftly this series is developing. This is actually the quickest series I’ve ever done for this blog and my hope is that by the end of the year I ought to have all or at least most of Homeworld’s factions in construction brick form. I have six fleets already done with the compilations available in my Itch.io page, as well as fleet listings for Grimdark Future Warfleets based on them. The Vaygr tribes are the seventh faction and are also availabe in the fleet listings.

This is also another faction that I tried to assemble in the prior scale. I do like how those ships turned out, but for this I needed to start from scratch and I will admit it took me a long while to get it right, especially the smaller ships. Once more, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the aid of ThatBroDad.

The Vaygr are originary from a region of the galaxy known as the Vaygr Reaches. Nomadic, they travelled across space using sub-light engines, conquering the worlds they came across in their long, generational voyages. They also retrieved all the technology they could from the conquered peoples, which eventually led them to attain hyperspace technology. This allowed them to cross the galaxy at a much faster pace, their conquers expanding exponentially.

Yet, they weren’t unified yet. Although they shared many concepts in their fleets, each Vaygr tribe just did what they found best, sometimes even fighting each other. It was Makaan who eventually unified them. Presenting himself as a chosen of the ancient god Sajuuk, he imbued the Vaygr with religious fervor, the tribes uniting behind him to conquer the stars and, eventually, Hiigara.

In battle, the Vaygr depend on overwhelming numbers due to their haphazard and somewhat primitive technology. They use large numbers of assault craft, of which the Lance Fighters are the most powerful. Equipped wiht a large laser weapon, these fighters are very long, almost as much as a corvette.

Vaygr corvettes are also deployed in large numbers, each type performing a function in the battlefield and nothing more. They must be used in combination to be effective and this interdependence was something the Hiigarans learned to use in their favor by striking command and support ships first.

For this fleet I wanted to add one of these larger strike craft. Due to the limitations of the medium and the slender shapes of Vaygr corvettes, I decided to make the Missile Corvettes. These vessels use the same missiles that are the primary weapon of the frigates, making them quite powerful against other strike craft. Each mode uses 7 parts, which is quite a lot for builds this tiny.

Vaygr Assault Frigates are relatively small but versatile, although especially effective against strike craft. While the Hiigarans and other factions moved away from multi-purpose frigates in this time period, due to the more advanced technology allowing them to equip such small hulls with incredibly powerful weaponry, the Vaygr kept the class around. Simple and rugged, these ships are also quite small.

This is one of the smallest frigate models of this series, using only 5 parts. It is still as long as its equivalents from other factions, but is rather slim in comparison.

Despite their technology being relatively primitive, the Vaygr could still get inventive with it. Although they couldn’t deploy the same types of ion beam and torpedo technology of their rivals, they could still find equivalents that were almost as deadly, using them in mass to compensate for any shortcomings. It was from this though that came the Heavy Missile Frigate. The missiles it carries in its large bays can devastate any capital ship, and although they can be intercepted, if used in large enough numbers enough will pass to cause trouble.

This model is really simple and uses only 6 parts. Yet, it was the one that cause me more trouble. Try as I may, I could never get the proportions the way I wanted them. Despite the small size of these models I am perfectionist enough to want them to at least resemble the originals. Furthermore, ThatBroDad made a point in reminding me that the stripes of Homeworld ships, and Vaygr in particular, are an important part of the art design of this setting. So I labored for weeks until I had something that could show some stripes while still resembling the game model. Hopefully, you’ll like it as much I do now.

As stated above, the Vaygr are raiders and conquerors. Capturing freighters or enemy ships is part of their combat doctrine. Thus, they always had ships capable of deploying marauders in boarding operations. It took some time for them to develop a general design based on the Assault Frigate hull. Brutal in concept, these ships deploy the marauders in one way capsules, guaranteeing that the only way they would come back home was through victory. Should they fail, there was no way out.

This is the larger of the Vaygr light ships, using 8 parts. Thankfully, this model was rather easy to put together once the others were defined.

This would make the first half of this fleet. The larger ships will come in the next one, and I have some good ones in that as you see through the Carrier in the renders.

As always, you can help support me so I can invest more time in this nonsense in my Ko-fi page. That shop is bound to be expanded really soon with some fiction you may enjoy. So keep an eye on it. Furthermore, you can check my older RPG work so you can spice up your gaming sessions.

Now go out there play games and enjoy your lives!