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The Marza Dreadnought is the TEC's heavy assault capital ship.
Manual Description: With modest beginnings as a small planetoid destruction and recovery workhorse, the Marza-class dreadnought is the pinnacle of TEC military retrofitting engineering and is the most recent addition to the TEC arsenal. Immediately recognizable by its spinal mounted siege cannons, the Marza can bring crushing firepower to bear on hostile empires' settlements.
Overview
Think of the Marza as the second battleship of the TEC. Its base damage can destroy most any other capital ship equal to or below the Marza's current level, even in a nebula and without abilities. With Missile Barrage, the Marza's Ultimate ability, the missiles go in every direction. That also includes behind the dreadnought. This makes it powerful on all sides, where the Marza has limited port and starboard firepower.
Tactics
Though it was not changed in version 1.18, many other capital ships were improved, particularly the Sova and the Akkan. These two have largely eclipsed the former role of the Marza, being more versatile and well rounded overall. The Marza remains one of the highest damage-dealing capital ships (both in terms of anti-planet attacks and anti-ship attacks) in the game, as well as a tough and powerful damage sink in combat, but it has some outstanding weaknesses.
The Marza Dreadnought, even more than the Kol Battleship, is a brute-force solution to warfare. Combining heavy weaponry with two damage-over-time abilities (one of which is passive, the other of which is area-of-effect) and an area-of-effect "ultimate" ability (Missile Barrage), the Marza is a partial solution to the TEC's primary disadvantage: the inability to effectively deal with either swarms of opposing ships or singular "hard" targets. The Marza Dreadnought's laser weapons do approximately 75% more damage than those of the Kol Battleship, the Marza's autocannons outperform the Kol's nose-mounted beam cannons by 33%, and the Marza's missile barrages are comparable to the Kol's autocannons (though 18% weaker, they have a longer range and a wider targeting aperture, since the Kol's flank autocannons fire parallel to the ship's facing). Of course, the Marza sacrifices armor for firepower: the Marza is not as well-armored or well-shielded as the Kol, meaning that TEC support vessels must work harder to keep the Marza alive. Since the TEC fleet tends to excel in battles of attrition (even Kodiak Heavy Cruisers are built for durability over firepower, as opposed to the fragile but exceedingly powerful Advent Destra Crusaders), this means the Marza Dreadnought is the odd man out and potentially a weakness in a battle of attrition. More often than not, slow and steady wins the race for the TEC, and the Marza Dreadnought can jeopardize this strategy by over-emphasizing offense.
A pair of Marzas supported by Gardas, Hoshikos, and Percherons, along with a Dunov Battlecruiser, and a few Kodiaks creates an almost unstoppable military force.
All that being said, the Marza's siege ability, Raze Planet, increases the mobility of an otherwise-ponderous TEC fleet simply by freeing up other capital ships from the lengthy task of orbital bombardment. This is particularly useful for bombarding planets in combat, since the Krosov Siege Frigate is relatively fragile and easy to destroy, but a Marza is not. A pair of Marza Dreadnoughts can sterilize planets in seconds, whereas a group of five capital ships could potentially take minutes to do the same level of damage. If a large battle is not in progress upon entering the system, Marza Dreadnoughts can be ordered to break formation and bombard the planet while the remainder of the fleet deals with important orbital structures.
A pair of Marzas that have attained their ultimate ability can inflict very serious damage on an enemy's supporting fleet by simultaneous use of both Missile Swarms. When combined with the EMP charge from a Dunov and a few well-placed radiation bombs, this can rather quickly decimate even quite a large enemy fleet. After the first few times you pull this on somebody, expect your Marzas to become even more of a priority target than your Hoshikos.
The Marza's greatest weakness, like all siege and battleship-class capital ships, is that it does not deploy strike craft of its own. This leaves it very weak to carrier-class capital ships that deploy bombers in the early game. The Marza's siege capabilities makes it an incredibly dangerous addition to an early-game force, but it's also very risky since if you run into a carrier-class capital ship you could be forced to withdraw it very quickly. It may not be wise to deploy a Marza to deploy as your starting capital ship, despite it having the highest starting damage output in the game, due to its vulnerability to carriers. Supporting a Marza with Garda Flak Frigates negates this problem.
Without one of these, your major offensive fleets are going to be tied down for quite a while...and your opponent will be able to see everything you do with them in the meanwhile. Even if the strategic positioning of your fleets dictates against immediately proceeding onward, the value of denying the enemy intelligence about where, precisely, your big offensive fleet is hiding is dangerous to ignore.
Quotes
- "Bringin' out the big guns!"
- "Time to kick some ass!"
- "About time!"
| Ship Type: | Capital |
|---|---|
| Primary Role: | Long-Range Assault/Planetary Bombardment |
| Shield Power: | High |
| Hull Points: | Very High |
| Armor Level: | High |
| Armor Type: | Capital |
| Antimatter: | 235 (+25 per level) |
| Weapons (Fore): | 6 x AutoCannons / 3 x Heavy Pulse Lasers / 8 x Ship-to-Ship Missile Banks / 3 Ship-to-Surface Nuclear Missiles Tubes |
| Weapons (Side): | 3 x Pulse Lasers (Port) / 2 x AutoCannons (Starboard) |
| Squadrons Supported: | 0 - 1 |
| Crew Complement: | 2,500 |
 Radiation Bomb |
 Raze Planet |
 Incendiary Shells |
 Missile Barrage |
 Ability Management |
 Attack |
 Stop |
 Move |
 Tactics Management |
 Squadron Management |