Warship Build Special — UNSC Fleet
Although I am a true and thorough BattleTech fan, there are other settings that I hold quite dear. One of those is the Halo universe. So, in this special season, I bring you a treat — six warships in two weeks, for both of the original factions. We’ll be starting with the human faction, of course!
I’ve always liked the idea of the UNSC — the United Nations Space Command. Taking the mantle of leading humanity during the trying times of the Human-Covenant War, it fought a losing battle to the end, always attempting the find that advantage that could turn the tables.
Heroics aside, the faction has this industrial, pragmatic aesthetics to it. The ships look like flying slabs of metal, with no elegance, build around massive weapons systems. This is a look that is sometimes associated with humans in sci-fi and I absolutely love it! There’s something plucky about it, of someone still trying to understand their technology but ambitious enough to venture far with it.
The Frigate is a good example of this.
One thing to keep in mind with these builds, by the way, is the scale. Halo ships are far larger than BattleTech ones, so the scale is slightly different for these. Here, each stud represents 100 meters. At roughly 500 meters, the UNSC frigate is a massive vessel for modern standards. Still, it is just the smaller one on this list.
Small, swift, and versatile, these frigates were everywhere before and during the war. They function as escorts to larger vessels, scouts and provide fire support. But in order to apply some real damage, you’ll need a cruiser.
Cruisers were possibly the first image most of us had of the spaceships of Halo. A cruiser carried Master Chief to the first Halo, and cruisers engaged Covenant ships directly in desperate efforts to hold back the tide everywhere.
One thing that I do not replicate on this list is the presence of carriers in human fleets. Maybe later I’ll try to add some. The issue is that carriers are just massive. At several kilometers long they would become unwieldy, easily 20 or 40 studs long at this scale. But I still wanted to add a heavy ship to form a trio.
Enter the battleship.
Cruisers are workhorses. Although not as versatile as frigates, they can still be adapted to several functions due to their endurance and sheer size. But by the times just prior to the first contact with the Covenant, the UNSC was starting to contemplate the need for specialized combat vessels, bristling with weapons and armor, with little consideration towards range and adaptability.
This turned out to be a good decision, as the battleships were among the few vessels to find equivalents among the Covenant fleet. In this conflict, their range wasn't really an issue. They were adept at defensive warfare and performed well in that role. However, they were always too few and the first few engagements caused immense losses that could never be truly replaced.
A few battleships would survive to the end of the war when the newer supercarriers would become the main flagships.
As stated before, this is just the first half of my Holiday special. I really wanted to do something special. This blog has been going for almost a year, which is crazy in itself. Thus, the different topic. But I do have a wide array of interests and I think some of you may appreciate today’s theme.
Halo is a good setting, in my opinion, Despite technology going to some ludicrous extents, it can also be quite grounded. The military acts as a military, people generally act like people, and even the aliens show surprising humanity. With Infinite’s campaign being quite good, I was inspired to do this.
Anyhow, enough talk. Next week, we’ll see the Covenant fleet.
