Queadol Magdomilla Class Command Ship

(Version 1.00 - Last Modified: 02/14/2004)
Background information inspired by Queadol Magdomilla class Task Force Command Ship by Pieter Thomassen, with Peter Walker, on the Unofficial Robotech Reference Guide.


Queadol Magdomilla Class Command Ship

Queadol Magdomilla Class Command Ship

In 1807 CE the Queadol Magdomilla concept was devised as an efficient means of building a task force command ship and amphibious assault ship into one design. The solution was to build two ships, one with the means to carry out planetary assaults and command duties and one to haul the large engines, mecha complement, fold drive and other equipment that were not required for the assault task. At first, the design was considered a high risk, but as the first series of ships proved itself in service and the critics were silenced, and massive production efforts began.

As with the majority of the Zentraedi ships, this class was mostly destroyed in the Solar System during and after the Zentraedi Holocaust of 2011. Although numerous Queadol Luhoutzs ships survived the fighting, they were among the first vessels drained of whatever protoculture remained and placed in reserve. This was because there was relatively little demand for their specialized services in the RDF / Zentraedi fleets. The remaining command ships outside the Solar System soon met the fate of their other brethren and lost generator power at such a rate that almost none remained after 2022. The mothballed vessels stored in the Sol System were completely destroyed by the Invid during their initial invasion at the beginning of the Third Robotech War.

The Queadol Magdomilla Class Command Ships were unique among Zentraedi vessels in that it was actually two ships joined together. The rear portion of the command ship was an amphibious assault ship and had the majority of the command ship's mecha, but the forward section was considered a light assault ship and had the most powerful of the command ship's weapons. Usually the command ship fought without ever separating, but some missions required the command ship to take a more active role in combat without being required to bring the large and valuable amphibious section of the ship into combat.

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Whouva Class Amphibious Command Ship

Whouva Class Amphibious Command Ship

Due to the position on the bow of combat vessels, and its assault tasks during landings, the Whouva class suffered heavier losses than its larger sister, the Luhoutzs, did. Therefore, production of the former outstripped that of the latter. The Whouva was very effective as a landing command and assault vessel, and was therefore one of the first classes to be refitted with the modern Queadlunn-Rau Tactical Power Armor. In combat the Whouva often air dropped its infantry right after the initial bombardment, using its heavy armament to smash through any remaining defenses. With an initial landing zone secured, the more vulnerable Zentraedi ships and auxiliaries could begin ferrying troops and supplies. This gave the Zentraedi forces a credible 'hot-zone' insertion tactic; the vulnerability of the other craft limited them mostly to deliver troops to a point a safe distance from the defended target. However, care still had to be taken that the Whouva was not employed against an enemy position without orbital softening up first, or worse, alone against another ship. The armament might have been impressive on paper, but in reality the Whouva was a sitting duck; it was slow and lacking a solid punch against these targets. It took the Luhoutzs section to achieve an acceptable defense against such threats.

Externally, the Whouva is one of the most 'bumpy' Zentraedi ships ever built, with a very elongated nose and a huge bulging superstructure towards the rear. The aft end is composed almost entirely out of engine clusters, with three fusion-plasma engines for space flight and numerous secondary plasma-shock engines for additional atmospheric thrust. Several secondary engines are mounted in streamlined clusters on top of the other engines; these give the ship the appearance of having fins. A mecha release hatch is located in the bottom. Four sensor aerials are mounted on top and another cluster is under the nose. The forward hull of the class is more heavily armored than other Zentraedi ships as one of the designed missions was 'hot landing zone insertion', in which the ships could expect to encounter voluminous enemy fire.

Internally, there are seven deck levels. The command spaces and crew quarters are mounted in the 'hump', the service and mecha hanger in the hull proper. The forward spikes house turret machinery and the high-resolution sensor arrays of the Luhoutzs. All mecha are launched through the same hatch, in the bottom. While this is not desirable when action damage to the hangar is considered, the installation does allow for a concentrated combat drop by the infantry. The Raulonve fighters also launch through this hatch from the Whouva. When the Whouva and the Luhoutzs are coupled, combat launches by Whouva mecha are often made from the Luhoutzs section.

The armament of the Whouva was at the same time heavy and underpowered. The heavy guns of the Queadol combination, the four heavy anti-ship cannons, are mounted directly behind the prow, but the small size of the ship and hence of the generators severely limits the available power capacity and thus the rate of fire. The Whouva has between 20% and 25% the normal rate of fire for these weapons, if the ships are disconnected. When connected, the generators of the Luhoutzs will add their power to that generated by the Whouva and allow a normal firing rate. Although the vessel does mount the standard Zentraedi medium cannons and defensive missiles, there are no heavy torpedo tubes, as these are all mounted on the Luhoutzs.

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Weapon Systems:

  1. Heavy Reflex Cannon
  2. Main Laser Cannons (4)
  3. Retractable Particle Beam Cannons (6)
  4. Retractable Laser Turrets (24)
  5. Retractable Long Range Missile Turrets (30)

Standard Systems:

  1. Life Support System
  2. Communication Systems
  3. Sensor Systems
  4. Targeting Computer System

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Luhoutzs Class Task Force Command Ship

Luhoutzs Class Task Force Command Ship

This vessel was conceived in 1807 as an amphibious assault and command ship, but this requirement was expanded early on in the design process to include task force command duties as well. The task force command facilities were not integrated with the amphibious facilities in the Whouva section, but in the Luhoutzs section proper. In addition, the envisioned armament was upgraded as well; additional heavy cannons were added to the Whouva section, and the medium cannon and torpedo batteries of the Luhoutzs section were increased as well.

The resulting vessel was an efficient combination of amphibious and fleet command ship. The effective firepower of a Queadol combination was second only to Nupetiet Vergnitzs Flagships, not counting those vessels fitted with a Reflex cannon. Consequently the class, although receiving numerous upgrades in electronic and weapon systems over the centuries, remained in production up until the end of the First Robotech War. The class was the heaviest design of the 'fast wing' of the Zentraedi fleet, capable of maneuvering alongside the smaller Thuverl Salan Heavy Cruisers and the nimble Tou Redir Frigates. As a fleet command ship the Queadol Magdomilla excelled due to its roomy command facilities and high flank acceleration, while it was of course the vehicle of choice (barring availability of a Nupetiet Vergnitzs Flagship) during planetary assaults. Typically, a Zentraedi task force was made up of about sixty ships of all types, lead by one Queadol Magdomilla. However, not all Zentraedi ships were organized in task forces, the system guard forces and reconnaissance vessels often operated independently from the task force structure. Hence, the percentage of Queadol Magdomilla ships was lower than the task force structure and total number of Zentraedi ships would lead one to believe.

Because the Luhoutzs section would not descend to the planetary surface in an invasion, its combat tasking and thus mecha complement differed as well. Rather than the large Regult percentage of other ships, the Luhoutzs carried a far larger part of Raulonve fighters. The Luhoutzs, in orbit, was eminently suited to act as a large orbital base. Regult pods would have been of relatively little use in such a situation, but with the large fighter group, the Luhoutzs could launch airborne strikes and support missions from outside the atmosphere, and fly better aerospace defense missions as well. This did not mean that the Luhoutzs carried little infantry mecha; indeed, it was about as capable in this respect as the Thuverl Salan class. However, these troops used Frandlar Tiluvo Transport Pods to travel to the surface rather than being delivered by the ships or they double packed with the amphibious forces in the Whouva vessel.

Externally, the docked vessels are formed from a large diameter aft section (the Luhoutzs) and a smaller lengthwise nose section with a protruding bow (the Whouva section). The Luhoutzs hull narrows very gradually to the top of the ship, and the side armor extends below the vessel's ventral hull, forming two stakes protruding diagonally. The armor also extends forward of the couplings to the Whouva section, giving a Luhoutzs without forward section a hooded appearance. The four main engine clusters are to the rear, while large hangar doors are mounted in the lower hull, opening downwards. Seven sensor pods and fins are mounted directly aft on top of the hull.

The Nauglar Nodral Tankers are located in four of the larger Raulonve hangars, which circle the forward part of the Magdomilla-Luhoutzs. These hangars are equipped with dedicated mecha launch tubes for a faster launch cycle, a definite necessity given the sheer number of Raulonve mecha. The infantry mecha holds are more to the rear, adjoining the lower hangar. However, these holds do have airlocks as the Regult and Glaug battle pods also serve as space borne mecha.

As a combined vessel, the Queadol Magdomilla carries a very effective armament. However, the component vessels do not divide these amongst the two in an effective manner, though design criteria made this unavoidable. The main anti-ship cannons are mounted on the Whouva section, which does not generate enough power to charge these cannons effectively on its own. The Luhoutzs section on the other hand mounts all the torpedo tubes, which drain negligible power levels, even though this section generates plenty. In compensation for the loss of the main guns, the torpedo battery has been made rather large for the size of the ship. But as it was intended to fight space battles with both sections combined, this has rarely been a problem. The nose-on battle attitude of the Zentraedi standard tactics does however expose the Whouva section to far more enemy fire, which occasionally lead to the total loss of the nose ship while the aft section remained operational. Consequently, the losses (and hence produced numbers) for the Whouva are larger than for the Luhoutzs. Both sections mounted standard (for their size) batteries of medium cannons and defensive missiles, though the hull shape of the Luhoutzs section makes a forward concentration (as used in nearly all other Zentraedi ships) of the medium cannons unfeasible.

Internally, there are thirteen deck levels. The upper levels are the troop and crew quarters, the middle levels carry the engineering and command systems, and the lower levels are mostly used for hangers for the larger auxiliaries and infantry mecha. As stated, the Raulonve hangars ring the forward section. Far more of the relative mass of the Luhoutzs is dedicated to reaction mass stowage than on other Zentraedi designs, and the opposite holds for the Whouva. This is because the Whouva is intended mainly for atmospheric flight, where the engines can function in a plasma-shock expansion mode, in effect using the atmosphere as reaction mass. Consequently, its fuel requirements are far lower and more of its mass is dedicated to cargo and weapons (such as the large particle beams). This of course meant that, in order for the Luhoutzs combination to reach the delta-v requirements set for Zentraedi ships, the Luhoutzs section had to carry more than its relative share of the fuel. The fuel situation also accounts for the relative low number of troops given the size and mass of the Luhoutzs, and for the relative large troop complement on the Whouva section. Combined these two ships mostly cancel each others weaknesses out, and form a balanced vessel. Unfortunately, the independent capabilities of the Whouva, and the connected requirement to carry deadweight in docked condition give the Queadol Magdomilla combination the lowest mecha / armament-to-mass ratio of all Zentraedi ships. It is a tribute to the designers that these drawbacks had little to no operational consequences.

Ship Information:

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Weapon Systems:

  1. Retractable Particle Beam Cannons (15)
  2. Retractable Laser Turrets (40)
  3. Retractable Long Range Missile Turrets (115)
  4. Retractable Heavy Missile Turrets (45)

Special Systems:

  1. Missile Storage
  2. Weapon Production Facilities

Standard Systems:

  1. Life Support System
  2. Communication Systems
  3. Sensor Systems
  4. Targeting Computer System

Combat Summary: