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HMAS Empyreal Imperium

Here is the final blueprint of perhaps my last fleet dump. While I'll be making more airships for the foreseable future, I'll probably release them as they're done rather than in bulk like I have in the past.

His Majesty's Assault Ship Empyreal Imperium is the magnum opus of this release, if not my fleet as a whole. While she isn't quite as expensive as Monarch (and has about 3/4 the firepower), she is a much more interesting design and took much more work to put together. While Monarch is the flagship of the line ships (typical looking "realistic" airships with broadside armaments and centerline turrets), Empyreal Imperium is the flagship of my assault class of airships. While Monarch broadsides from a distance, Empy goes straight in, guns blazing, and bombs whatever poor soul thought to oppose her. Just look at the Imperium from direct front and you'll see that this is exactly what she was designed for.

Empy has an eclectic collection of APS guns, many of which have been borrowed from other airships. You can find the main gun of Resolution (2x 30rpm 400mm), the CIWS of Conqueror (2x 140rpm 50mm kinetic), the main guns of Nineveh (2x 80rpm 200mm flak), the chase guns of Monarch (2x 35.4rpm 225mm), and some modified CIWS taken from Vengeance/Zenith and Bombardment/Armageddon (100mm kinetic). She also has some custom guns, namely a twin 200mm gun for'ard, two different types of 500mm (kinetic and pendepth) guns amidships, and some more 100mm guns. To round it off, she's coated in twin and quad 40mm bofors for AA, with a random pair of casemates thrown in for good measure.

All the guns of 100mm or 200mm caliber are triple purpose anti-ship, AA, and CIWS. The sheer number of different guns ensures a pretty consistent protection from any type of munitions, and the kinetic guns are potent against large and huge missiles.

Empyreal Imperium is designed to barrel directly towards her target, bomb it into oblivion, then keep going and look for a new target (or turn around if by some miracle her original target survived. She has twelve 2000mm CRAM bombs and a big APS ejector bomb setup so she can do tremendous damage to anything she passes over. The ejector bomb bay holds 156x 500mm x 8m shells, which are all released by having the ejectors shot out, generating a large burst. These shells are an even mix of HE, frag, HEAT, and HESH, and they are devastating, though you may need to personally pilot the airship to make sure it directly passes over the enemy to ensure maximum damage.

Important note: This is a large and capable capital ship, but she is not prepared to fight lasers or EMP. There is only one defense against EMP, and it only protects against EMP (surge protectors). Honestly that's just bad game design and I refuse to include those when most of the time they are unneeded. Smoke is similar, and the other option (shields) just aren't great. If you intend to face these targets with any of my airships (other than Vengeance), you need to install your own smoke and surge protectors if you want them to perform well.

Lore: While Monarch was an undeniably successful design, the aggression-minded planners of the navy wanted an airship better able to pursue a fleeing enemy and get involved in close combat. As initial designs for the airship that would become the Empyreal Imperium class were drawn up, demands consistently came from the admiralty for more and more weapons. Eventually the designers caved in and stuck guns wherever they could fit and still have good firing angles. After the admiralty commented on a large empty section between the for'ard flak guns and the main armaments amidships, the designers promised to fill that space with a comprehensive bomb bay. The final design positively bristled with guns but ironically was too effective and terrified many enemies into never engaging. Any enemy with any sense that looked through their binoculars and saw Empy from dead ahead and looked down the bores of 22 large caliber weapons would very quickly lose their appetite for battle and flee posthaste. But once battle is joined, no lone enemy or fleet can hope to escape the ire of the Empyreal Imperium of the Avem Navy (unless they move faster than 50m/s lol).

If you're curious, since Empyreal isn't a very common word, the name of this airship means "Celestial Power" or "Absolute Power of the Skies", both of which absolutely describe her. And as far as pronunciation, you can just pronounce it like you would "Imperial Imperium". It sounds the same, so the name is very alliterative. Since the name is kinda long I like to just call her Empy or Empy Impy or Empy Imperium or The Imperium or some variation thereof.

I hope you like her. Let me know what you think.

I've also attached my flag so you can use it yourself, and my graphics settings. I use the lower quality one most of the time when building, but swap to the other for cinematics and screenshots. If you want to use your own, just try to keep the reflections low (or off) and I personally suggest disabling edge detection and PBR shaders, since they make my gold-painted railings and windows a lot darker, which detracts from the looks too much to be worth the benefits of PBR imo.

General Stats:
955k materials, 56k volume
Three twin 500mm, 2x 15rpm, 1x 30rpm, One split/double-ended 400mm at 30rpm, one twin 200mm at 72rpm, two single 200mm at 80rpm, two single 225mm at 35.4rpm, Eight 100mm at 264, 156, 156, and 356rpm, two of each, two 50mm single 140rpm, two 130mm casemates, 12x CRAM bombs, one APS ejector bomb (156 shells), 100x 40mm Bofors barrels
Motto: Tela proelia vincunt, virtus bella vincit, utrumque habemus (We fight with guns but win with valor)

Please join the United Builders Discord server at
https://discord.gg/QkpkvKXsEA

It's where I hang out and post WIPs and we've got an incredible community!

Check out the rest of my airships from this release!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815367193 HMLS Steadfast, a pre-dreadnought battleship
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815370348 HMES Ire, an assault escort
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815372024 HMLS Aedile, a central battery ironclad
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2816150569 HMLS Relief, a cargo cruiser
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2816153126 HMLS Iron Sky, a really detailed dreadnought battleship
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2816155925 HMES Kimberley, an adorable tiny AA escort
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2817443680 HMCS Endeavor, a twin hulled light carrier with CRAM dive bombers
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2817548309 HMES Nineveh, an AA and fleet support destroyer
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2817552272 HMCS Great Nova, an ironclad turned carrier with a lot of guns
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2818335965 HMES Ransbel, a retrofit of Nineveh with stronger armor, more torpedoes, and better aesthetics
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2818338889 HMCS Endeavor (Hawks' Nest), a carrier with sixteen to-scale planes made by Samson for me to use
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2818682971 HMAS Empyreal Imperium, a massive capital ship designed for running down its opponent and obliterating them with forward firepower and bombs, an absolute must have!