Editing Soyal

{{InfoBoxWarShip
| image = [[File:Soyal.jpg|191px]]
| name = ''Soyal''
| manufacturer = [[Delhi WarShips]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21">''Field Report 2765: CCAF'', pp. 21–22: "Soyal (Heavy Cruiser)"</ref>
| Use = Heavy Cruiser<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Tech Base = [[Inner Sphere]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Cost = 
| Introduced = [[2731]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| production year = 2731
| year reference = <ref>''[http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6984/ MUL online date for the ''{{PAGENAME}}'']''</ref>
| Mass = 1,500,000<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Length = 1,100m<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Sail Diameter = 1,200m<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Fuel = 25,000 tons<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Burn Rate = 39.52<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Safe Thrust = 1.5 g<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Top Thrust = 2.5 g<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Sail Integrity = 7<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| KF Drive Integrity = 30<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| LF Battery = None
| Armament = <span></span>
* 1x [[Medium Mass Driver]]
* 4x [[Heavy N-Gauss]]
* 6x [[NAC/30]]
* 6x [[NAC/20]]
* 12x [[NL45]]
* 6x [[Killer Whale]]
| Armor = 1,880 tons of [[standard armor]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| DropShip Capacity = 3<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Crew = 70 officers<br>345 enlisted/non-rated<br>46 gunners<br>130 bay personnel<br>28 marines
| Grav Decks = 2x 145m diameter<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Escape Pods/Life Boats = 21/21<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Heat Sinks = 779 [[Double Heat Sinks|Double]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| Structural Integrity = 120<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>
| BV (1.0) = 
| BV (2.0) = 130,574<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/><ref>[http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6984/soyal-standard MUL Profile for the Soyal (Standard) - BV2 and Introduction Year]</ref>
}}

==Description==
The '''''Soyal'''''-class heavy cruiser was a design which was offered to the [[Star League Defense Force]] as a candidate [[WarShip]] class to replace the ''[[Avatar (WarShip class)|Avatar]]''-class heavy cruiser following the SLDF call for a successor WarShip.

==History==
====Design Development and Sale to Great Houses====
The ''Soyal'' was designed by [[Nicholas Shipyards]]<ref name="ER:2750p86"/> - apparently a part of a larger company, [[Delhi WarShips]]<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/> - and was one of two candidates to make it to the final competition stage; however, thanks to political pressure from the Chief Executive Officer of [[Blue Nose Clipperships]], [[Craig Kovac]], the ''[[Luxor (WarShip class)|Luxor]]''-class vessel designed by Blue Nose ClipperShips won the competition.<ref name="ER:2750p86">''Era Report: 2750'', p. 86: "Craig Kovac"</ref>

Delhi WarShips had previously produced the ''[[Vincent]]'' family of corvettes<ref name="TRO:2750p126">''Technical Readout: 2750'', p. 126: "Vincent"</ref> for some three hundred years and the opportunity to bid for the contract to replace the ''Avatar'' represented an opportunity for Delhi Ships to not only step up into the market for larger WarShips but to do so with a design that promised to be revolutionary. The reason Delhi WarShips were so confident that their ''Soyal'' design would be a success was the incorporation of a new and highly-classified weapon system that had only just reached maturity: the [[Mass Driver]]. The promise of being able to deliver massive amounts of damage in the opening volley of any naval engagement seemed certain to provide Delhi WarShips and the ''Soyal'' a clear advantage over any designs offered by competitors.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

The reality was somewhat different; Delhi WarShips gained much more limited access to the Mass Driver research and technology than they had originally planned, and the company ended up over-engineering the design of the ''Soyal'' substantially to compensate for what they believed to be the predicted stresses of operating a Mass Driver. The required mass of the ''Soyal'' to incorporate a [[Medium Mass Driver]] resulted in the design massing a million and a half tons when completed - larger than any other cruiser in service save the ''[[Potemkin]]'', and rivalling the established ''[[Farragut]]'' and ''[[Texas]]'' classes of battleship for sheer weight. Delhi WarShips also skimped on secondary weapons, confident that the Mass Driver combined with a predicted combat doctrine that would see the ''Soyal'' engage opponents bow-on would make the need for secondary weapons largely redundant.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

Although Delhi WarShips were confident in the design, it failed to win the competition; political influence from Blue Nose Clipperships aside, the ''Soyal'' was also considered oversize and too radical a design by many. What Delhi WarShips also didn't know was that classified research had granted the SLDF with technology to make traditional WarShip weapons far more accurate at longer ranges than those of the Mass Driver, and that as a result the SLDF had decided that the Mass Driver was incompatible with modern SLDF combat doctrine and tactics. As a result, Delhi WarShips invested a substantial amount of time and energy on a WarShip design that was unsuitable for the competition into which it was entered.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

The ''Soyal'' would likely have ended with its failure to win the replacement contract if not for the efforts of the [[Capellan Confederation]], which was seeking to expand and modernize its WarShip fleet and which saw the ''Soyal'' as both similar to the existing ''[[Du Shi Wang]]''-class of battleships already in service with the Confederation and as a modern WarShip suitable for use in their expanding black water navy. The design required some changes before it could be manufactured for the Confederation, both to remove technology that was proprietary to the Star League and to incorporate changes required by the Confederation, such as the provision of quarters for [[Maskirovka]] detachments, but was judged suitable by the Confederation and resulted in an initial order for four ships.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

It isn't known if Nicholas Shipyards constructed the class from their shipyards at [[New Earth]]<ref name="H:LoTV1p72">''Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1'', p. 72: "Command of the Stars"</ref> but the appearance of the first ''Soyals'' in the Confederation fleet caused something of a stir, gaining enough interest from other markets that the [[Free Worlds League]] soon placed an order for a number of ''Soyals'' for their navy.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/> By [[2765]] the Confederation had no less than ten ''Soyals'' in service, making them the most numerous WarShip in the Confederation fleet at more than a quarter of the total fleet size,<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp5">''Field Report 2765: CCAF'', p. 5: "Guarding the Vault of Heaven"</ref> and also leading to enough calls from an uninformed public to force the SLDF into developing and testing the [[Surprise|SLS ''Surprise'']],<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/> a modified ''[[Kimagure]]''-class patrol cruiser mounting a Mass Driver.<ref>[http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,34523.msg805984.html#msg805984 Comment from author Jellico linking the SLS ''Surprise'' with the Kimagure-class SLDF testbed WarShip]</ref><ref name="ISP3:IEp24">''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 24: "Mundo Nublar"</ref>

For all of the public interest in the Mass Driver and the confidence Delhi WarShips had in the design, the ''Soyal'' delivered a few spectacular successes in the [[Succession Wars (History)|Succession Wars]] but many more embarrassing defeats. The Mass Driver dictated an all-or-nothing strategy, and the ''Soyal'' was frequently defeated by ships that were faster and more maneuverable, capable of avoiding the limited arc of fire the Mass Driver possessed.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

====The Succession Wars====
During the First Succession War, the ''Soyals'' were used as escorts for larger ships.  Many times during the course of the [[First Succession War]], the ships were used for retribution against opponent's worlds by conducting orbital bombardment.  However, the ship's inherent design weaknesses would lead to them being destroyed in course of the War.<ref>''First Succession War'', pp. 57–58: The New Delos Massacre/Fallout - Pair of ''Soyal''-Class Ships during a naval action as part retribution force during the First Succession War.</ref>

By the [[Second Succession War]], only a single example of the class had survived and was one of the last WarShips in the Free Worlds League in [[2838]].<ref name="SSWp50-51">''Second Succession War'', pp. 50–51: "The Battles for the Andurien"- The FWL Soyal-Class ''Kumbha'' only known noted action during the war and only named ship of the class mentioned in service.</ref>

==Armament==
The ''Soyal'' was designed around the single Medium Mass Driver mounted to fire from the nose. In addition to the Mass Driver the ''Soyal'' mounted a pair of [[Heavy Naval Gauss]] firing into the nose arc, with two more covering the rear arc. The ''Soyal'' also mounted banks of four [[Naval Laser 45]]s in the rear, forward left and forward right arcs, with the remainder of the ''Soyal''&#39;s secondary weapons being a mixture of [[Naval Autocannon]] and missiles. A single [[Naval Autocannon/30]] and [[Naval Autocannon/20]] was mounted in each arc of the ''Soyal'' other than the nose and rear, and a pair of [[Killer Whale]] launchers was mounted into each of the left and right hand broadsides as well as the left and right rear arcs.<ref name="FR:2765CCAFp21"/>

==Cargo==
* Bay 1: 12 Fighter Cubicles, 3 Doors
* Bay 2: 2 Small Craft, 1 Door
* Bay 3: 48 BattleMech Cubicles, 2 Doors
* Bay 4: 184,422 tons of Cargo, 2 Doors

==See Also==
* [[:Category:Individual Soyal-class WarShips|List of named ''Soyal'' class WarShips.]]

==Notes==
* Comments on the design of the ''Soyal'' from the [http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,34939.0.html official Catalyst Game Labs forum] by the writer responsible for the design as published in ''[[Field Report 2765: CCAF]]'' have been reproduced with permission on the [[Talk:Soyal|Talk Page for this entry]].

* As of this writing, the ''Soyal'' Heavy Cruiser record sheet is only found in ''Field Report 2765: CCAF''.

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Era Report: 2750]]''
* ''[[Field Report 2765: CCAF]]''
* ''[[First Succession War (sourcebook)|First Succession War]]''
* ''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1]]''
* ''[[Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3]]''
* ''[[Master Unit List]]''
* ''[[Second Succession War (sourcebook)|Second Succession War]]''
* ''[[Technical Readout: 2750]]''

[[Category: WarShip classes]]
[[Category: Cruiser classes]]
[[Category: Heavy Cruiser classes]]
[[Category: Capellan Confederation WarShip classes]]
[[Category: Free Worlds League WarShip classes]]
[[Category: Large WarShips]]