Aeran Cruiser Lore: Lessons of the Rlaan-Aera War
Upon its introduction, the Anaxandridas was able to stem the tide of Aeran capital losses to Rlaan capital blitz tactics, destroying or disabling sufficient numbers of Shundi, Ruizong and, when Anaxandridas cruisers could be deployed en masse, even Dezong class battleships to give the Rlaan pause about continuing their tactics, even given the Assembly's deep reserves. However, while superior to the Anaxander in fleet engagements against the Rlaan, the Anaxandridas proved insufficiently powerful in its standoff role to completely replace the Anaxandridas, necessitating that both designs be kept in production as well as service if the Aera were to make an attempt to press their gains deep into Rlaan territory. As these limitations became clear to the Aeran command, and as it became equally clear to both the Aeran and Rlaan commanders that a swift and decisive victory was unlikely to arrive for either side any time soon, the Ascendancy embarked upon a plan to design a new generation of ships - not for this war, but for the next. As the war ground on, and new lessons, such as the vulnerability of both the Anaxander and Anaxandridas to Janissary class assault craft, were learned, these too went into the design of the new Aeran fleet.
The Anaxidamus class would need to be able to fight the Rlaan, but it would not be a Rlaan specialist, constantly bracing for a capital blitz. Instead, it would be skewed slightly toward the Ascendancy's other front, where Humans, Klk'k, Shmrn and Uln did not share the odd Rlaan aversion to missile warfare, and advanced and plentiful point-defense emplacements were dire necessities. The Anaxidamus would be a larger platform than the Anaxander or Anaxandridas, and aimed to be a more survivable one as well, taking lessons from the Rlaan on practical redundancy. With the Anaxidamus, the Aera would move closer to their pre-war standoff tactics, but with a shift from projectile to missile weaponry. While ballistic projectile assault on orbital infrastructure was still a primary goal of any Aeran incursion into a system, the responsibility was for siege and for strike were now to be split between the upcoming Leonidas class and the Anaxidamus. With a missile-oriented armament, it was hoped the Anaxidamus could excel at anti-capital stand-off engagements while still being able to perform infrastructure raids, if not system sieges. Learning their lessons from the Anaxander, however, escort vessels are no match for a suicidally determined enemy capital vessel, and some form of close-range weaponry would still be necessary. The laser arrays of the Anaxandridas were effective, but very inefficient weapons. For the Anaxidamus, the Aeran instead opted for turreted Xiphos emplacements, which, if easy to dodge at range due to low exit velocity, can sustain high burst fire rates and have warheads powerful enough to make an enemy vessel feel every blow that lands.