Watchtower-class Frigate

The Watchtower frigates take their inspiration from the venerable Nebulon-B frigate. Laro’s designers completely overhauled the frigate’s design and removed known weaknesses such as the long pylon that connected the bridge to the engines. They also managed to remove the extraneous arm brace by redesigning the frigate’s purpose from the ground up. The end result was a ship that bore a passing resemblance to the frigates they were based on, but were in fact different enough to constitute a new ship. However, in deference to the KDY vessels that gave the Watchtower its inspiration, the Watchtowers remain strictly exclusive to Laro and are not sold to any outside party.

Theses frigates serve many purposes. They’re outfitted with sophisticated communications and scanner arrays as well as a variety of counterespionage equipment to detect stealth vessels that might otherwise be missed by standard measures.

Although they’re weak against other capital ships, Watchtowers can be used in a number of ways on the battlefield. Aside from anti-starfighter and anti-warhead support, the Watchtowers can also use their impressive arrays to slice into other ships and take control of their systems, such as shutting down shields or engines. Anything that will hinder the enemy in battle.

Because the frigates are so specialized and carry so much equipment, they are expensive to build and require an inordinate amount of personnel to staff correctly. To keep these ships in one piece, the Watchtowers are fitted with powerful engines and shields to keep them alive and away from enemy capital ships. They also carry a single squadron of starfighters that are used for scouting or defense.