Battleship

General Information

The battleship is the largest and most powerful alien craft. It is normally the primary alien mission craft, equipped with powerful weapons and numerous crew members.

Statistics

Statistic	Value
Size	Very Large
Max Speed(km)	5,000
Weapon Power	148
Weapon Range(km)	65
Weapon Range(range units)	520
Damage Capacity	3,200
UFO Downed points	700
UFO Destroyed points	1,400

Additional Information

Great care should be taken while engaging one - be it a ground assault or recovery, or aerial interception. Battleships always show up as Very Large on a radar profile, and often maintain very high cruising speeds.

TFTD Note

TFTD also has Battleship. However in there it's not the strongest. The TFTD version of the Battleship is...the Dreadnought.

Statistics

• Radar Profile: Very Large
• Maximum Speed: 5000 knots
• Damage Capacity: 3000 units
• Weapon Power: 140 units
• Weapon Range: 65 km
• Missions used in: Base, Infiltration, Retaliation, Harvest, Abduction

Alien Missions

Battleships are normally associated with retaliation, base construction and Infiltration missions, however, unlike Terran Battleships the alien battleship can fulfill a very diverse set of mission profiles. Unlike Supply Ships, Terror Ships, Harvesters, or Abductors, a Battleship's presence does not lend itself to one or two specific alien missions. For an X-COM Commander tracking a Battleship using radar, he or she must observe the Battleship's movement patterns in order to guess its mission. The Commander must then take appropriate measures to deal with the battleship. He or she may even choose to ignore the Battleship, as their size and firepower require an extensive commitment of personnel and equipment that may not justify the attack. Though not often, Battleships can occasionally accomplish nothing, with no penalty aside from a slightly raised UFO Activity graph. (See: Alien Retaliation)

Battleships can be involved in the following missions:

Alien Base

The construction of alien bases are marked by heavy UFO activity in rural areas. In addition to the scouts and Supply Ships sent by the aliens to survey the potential base site, a Battleship is sent to construct the base after the new site has been determined, and also to transport the valuable alien commander. It is possible to capture the Battleship's commander at this time, while it is vulnerable. Construction of the base will not stop even if the Battleship and its commander are captured.

[Alitorious: I've heard both that it works and doesn't work, so I'm not sure if you can interrogate these commanders or not. Maybe it depends on the version of the game?]

[ NKF: Oh yes they will. A commander's a commander's a commander. The game doesn't distinguish. The problem only arises if you don't have the right prerequisites for the tech you want the commender to unlock.]

At any rate, it is much easier to find the commander on the bridge of a Battleship than inside the maze of an Alien Base. If a Battleship lands in a rural area as part of a large force, then it is likely to be on an Alien Base mission. If all ships of an Alien Base construction force are shot down or assaulted, then the Alien Base has no chance to be built.

[Alitorious: I might be wrong about that, actually.]
[ NKF: Well, it's only the battleship that matters. You should be able to stop base construction if the battleship is shot down before it lands.]

[ Papa Legba: Shooting down a battleship en route for base construction does not prevent the base from being constructed. However, other ships may be sent out to scout the area prior to construction, and shooting these down will delay or prevent the construction ship being sent out. The battleship can be sent out on either, or both, missions, so it's difficult or impossible to distinguish a scouting battleship from a constructing battleship. ]

Alien Infiltration

Two Battleships are always the primary component in the final phase of an infiltration. The Battleships are part of a large force of five ships sent, much like in Alien Base missions. However, ships involved in an Alien Infiltration mission will instead land in urban locations. Battleships contain the alien "diplomats" who will attempt to persuade one of Earth's countries to cease funding X-COM, and form a pact with the aliens. The alien "diplomats" leave the ship immediately after landing, however, and continue their goal of signing a pact with one of Earth's countries regardless of what happens to their base ship. This means that a ground assault on the UFO will not always prevent the aliens from accomplishing their mission. The only possible way to prevent a pact-signing would be to shoot down the Battleships before they can reach their target city.

Battleships are most often seen on this type of mission. When two Battleships, and usually a force of smaller craft, are in the same region, then it is most likely on an Alien Infiltration mission. This can be confirmed when the craft land near or in the cities and no Terror Mission begins.

Alien Retaliation

Alien Retaliation missions have two main components: Search, and Destroy. The Battleship quite often fulfills the "destroy" component for obvious reasons - it's the troop carrier. The heavy firepower of a Battleship is required to breach any barricaded underground Hangars or Access Lifts, and they contain the troops, weapons, and terror units for the subsequent assault on any X-COM Base itself.

After unloading its troops, a Battleship on a retaliatory mission will return to space immediately. It is thus impossible to assault the Battleship itself after the base has been defended.

Any Battleship that is going to attack your base will head on a direct path for the base at near-maximum speed. It is thus impossible to shoot down the Battleship except with the Avenger, or with base defenses. Even then, I sadly bemoaned once as an Avenger tried a close tail chase to stop one attacking a base. And failed. Intercept them from the front. If a Very Large craft is detected on a direct course for one of your bases, then start base defense preparations immediately.


If X-COM craft are successful at downing all alien scout craft on a retaliatory operation, then the Battleship itself must search for your base. Despite the Battleship's formidable strength, one thing it does seem to lack is scanning and sensing equipment. It is rare that a Battleship searching for your base will ever find it, so these Battleships can be safely ignored.

[ NKF: Not battleships. Other scouts are dispatched to scout. It is possible to mislead for a short time by shooting down the scouts further and further away from your base. I wouldn't count on it though. Also, not to forget, there will be a ceaseless stream of Battleships until one manages to break in.]

[Alitorious: Well, of course they send scouts in first. I've just noticed that if you keep downing all the scouts, then eventually they send the Battleship in anyways. This Battleship doesn't attack your base, though, and seems to be searching for your base just like the scouts.]

Papa Legba: Battleships will be sent on scouting missions if you shoot down the smaller scouting craft. I'm pretty sure this is a game-wide pattern-- when smaller ships are interdicted, a battleship will be sent to do their job.

Battleship movement on an Alien Retaliation mission is characterized by either a fast, direct course for one of your bases, or a repeated "weaving" pattern around where many UFOs have been downed recently. They will only land to attack your base. A Battleship searching for your base will soon give up and head for space.

Jasonred : If, for some reason, you coincidentally decided to dismantle the base (possibly to relocate?), and there is a battleship actually enroute to attack your base, the battle ship will head for that base's ex-location anyhow. It will then realise it's been duped, BUT, after consulting it's alien masters, will simply head to the next closest base. In a straight line, top speed. HOWEVER, once it arrives there, it will realise that they only have the lift access codes to your old base, and will then simply hang there hovering over your base for ages and ages. In fact, this is due to the nature of the code which sends out the scouts. If successful, it sets the "aliens know where base is" flag, and applies it to the next battleship launched on a retaliation mission. This flag is only removed after a battleship actually manages to land and send troops inside your base. This flag is not removed by base defence blowing up battleships, craft blowing up battleships (I think), or, as I just mentioned, by removing that base entirely. Nor is this flag restricted to that base in particular.

Alien Harvest

It seems that if X-COM forces are successful in downing or assaulting many Harvesters, then the aliens will send their glorious Battleships to do the dirty work in the hopes that X-COM does not have the resources to attack them. Or maybe they hope you just won't want to waste the effort.

Battleships on harvest missions will fly and land in rural areas. Sometimes they work in pairs.

[ NKF: To top it off, harvest missions are harmless in comparison to retaliation and infiltration missions.]

Alien Abduction

The Battleship will sometimes participate in Alien Abduction missions. Like its participation in Harvest missions, this occurs only when X-Com has already been successful in preventing lesser craft from doing the job.

Intercepting Battleships

Speed

Despite being the largest class of ships, alien Battleships have four powerful Elerium-115 power sources, and as such can travel through Earth's atmosphere at a surprisingly high speed - they have been known to travel at over five thousand knots during atmospheric entry and exit. Because of this, it is very difficult for X-COM craft to intercept a Battleship during these phases of its flight. X-COM Commanders must usually wait for the Battleship to slow down as they approach their mission zone in order to intercept it.

Weapons

When X-COM forces have engaged a Battleship, the commander and pilots must be extra cautious. The battleship's primary weapons have a range of sixty-five kilometres - greater than that of long-range Avalanches or Plasma Beams.

Do not send Interceptors to attack a Battleship or heavy losses will be expected. A direct hit from a Battleship's primary weapons are enough to incinerate an Interceptor in one or two hits. Even the very durable Skyranger will only survive a few hits. It is recommended that commanders only intercept Battleships using Alien-Terran Hybrid craft.

[ NKF: Or short of that, have interceptors attack in groups. This'll cut the Battleship rate of fire to 1/n-th its normal speed as it fires sequentially on each ship in range.]
[ JFG: It's possible. Have multiple fighters at standoff, then send in the Skyranger first as a damage soak, and follow him with Interceptors to dump their ordnance. (This is a surprisingly similar method to using a Journeyman and Berserkers to beat the final boss in Myth II.) I prefer the ground assault, though. ]

Armour

A Battleship is also incredibly well armoured. Native terran technology - Cannon, Stingrays, and Avalanches - have little chance of downing a battleship unless used in high quantity. Anything less than an Avenger with twin Plasma Beams is not recommended, and even an Avenger will sustain moderate damage when intercepting a Battleship. Fusion Ball Launchers may be effective, but only when intercepting with three or more craft.

[ NKF: If you've gone absolutely mad, consider twin Cannons on an Avenger!]

[ Jasonred: ... Next, tell us: how many Cannon Avengers does it take to down a battleship? ;)]

[ NKF: Two - minimum. A single avenger will be down by 1/4th of its armour before it even gets its cannons in range.]

General Conclusion

Although it may be possible to eventually design a hybrid craft that can go toe-to-toe with a Battleship, it is recommended that any aerial assault be undertaken with multiple craft , and with maximum available firepower.

Addendum: The Alien-Terran Hybrid craft class Avenger is capable of one-on-one engagement with a Battleship. However, very heavy damage will be inflicted on the Avenger, which must be repaired prior to further flights. Considering the complexity of the craft, however, repair times are extensive and border on the time taken to manufacture a new Avenger. Multiple Avengers, with Firestorms or Lightnings as support if avaliable, are still recommended in order to assault a Battleship. This has two mayor advantages. First, by using multiple crafts your firepower raises and the time the battleship has to inflict damage to your craft lowers, therefore also lowering the overall damage that has to be repaired. Second, repairing Avengers takes quite a time. However, if the damage is distributed to 4 Avengers they will be repaired all at a time. The overall damage will therefore be dealt with much faster. Only negative aspect, as mentioned below is the temporary loss of up to 4 Avengers.

Alternate opinion: There is a lot to be said for the "gang up on the Battleship" theory, but I prefer single-Avenger assaults. If there are multiple Avengers available, I use only one to intercept, and suck up the long repair time. Rotate the damaged Avenger out of the high-activity regions, and rotate a fresh Avenger in. I find this preferable to having multiple avengers knocked out for a shorter period of time, since if another Battleship comes along quickly, you'll have two or three Avengers out of commission, instead of just one. --Papa Legba 13:19, 22 Nov 2005 (PST)

In conclusion, choosing aerial engagement of an alien battleship is a very high-risk. If a commander does not have sufficient or well-equipped craft to deal with this threat, it is recommended that he or she instead wait until the Battleship lands and assault it with ground forces if possible. The weapons systems of a Battleship are not activated while it is not in flight, so the transport faces little threat of return fire.

Assaulting/Recovering Battleships

Mission Spoils

Assaulting a landed or downed Battleship with ground forces is a dangerous operation. However, a success is well worth it. A Battleship has four power sources, and two hundred units of Elerium-115. On top of that, Battleships carry many Alien Entertainment and UFO Navigation units, and vast quantities of Alien Alloys. Because the crew size is so large, one can find large amounts of alien weapons and ammo, including deadly Blaster Bombs. In addition, every rank of alien can be found on a Battleship, including the commanders X-COM needs to capture to end the war.

Ground Threats

The Battleship carries a large crew compliment. These are often equipped with Heavy Plasmas and Alien Grenades, which pose a large threat. In addition to the regular alien species, their asoociated Terror Units accompany them on Battleships. Last but not least, some officers on a Battleship are armed with the dreaded Blaster Launcher. Squad leaders must be careful in their deployment of personnel on the battlefield.

Battleship Layout

The Battleship itself consists of three levels. The ground level has five "legs," one on each corner and one in the center. The corner legs cannot be entered from the outside, as they house the valuable elerium power sources. The center leg has two doors that give accesss to a wide central lift. The doors are large enough to allow passage of Cyberdiscs, Reapers, and Sectopods, so they can also be used to allow Heavy Weapons Platforms access to the UFO. This pair of doors is the only access point in or out of the Battleship, therefore a siege is very effective here. However, a siege may attract hostile blaster bombs, so use the tactic with discretion. Alien Engineers can sometimes be found taking care of the power sources in one of the outer legs.

The second level has four major hallways (or two, if you look at it that way). Each leads to a small lift that accesses the four outer pods holding the Power Sources. There are three main rooms, two of which seem to be used for storage. One is filled with the red spheres and cylinders on blue support legs that we have not yet identified. The fourth room contains an alien entertainment complex.

The central lift also extends to the third and topmost level of the Battleship. Unlike the level below it, the lift on this level is in a small room. This level of the UFO has lots of smaller rooms and tight corridors, making it very dangerous. There are two rooms which appear to be the navigation room, and bridge. Both rooms have the distinctive blue chairs, yet only one has any navigation modules. For some reason, the two rooms are on opposite sides of the ship. The third level is also where X-COM forces are most likely to find any Alien Navigators or Alien Leaders, or possibly even the commander if present.

Entry

Heavy Weapons Platforms can enter the central lift and navigate much of the second floor, however the lift on the third floor is closed off via small doorways. HWPs are very useful for opening the main doors on the bottom level and allowing soldiers to fire at any aliens inside, or to send a blaster bomb up into the interior of the UFO.

Forced entry using a Blaster Bomb is often used, as it also reduces the risk of succumbing to an alien ambush on the second or third floors. The four corner legs can be one entry point, although elerium may be damaged from such an entry. If Flying Suits are avaliable, then an entry from the third level is also an effective tactic that also minimizes the risk of damaging elerium. Entering via the top floor also gives a good chance of surprising and capturing alien officers. A pincer movement, with two or more fireteams working from multiple entry points, is a very effective tactic while storming a Battleship.

Recoverable Components

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	4	$1,000,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	4	$320,000
Alien Food	$5,000	0	$0
Alien Surgery	$38,000	0	$0
Alien Entertainment	$20,000	24	$480,000
Examination Room	$9,000	0	$0
Alien Alloys	$6,500	231	$1,501,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	200	$1,000,000
Totals			$4,301,500

Also see UFO Recovery Values.

Alien Deployment

Rank	Beg./Exp.	Vet./Gen.	Super.
Soldiers	4-8	6-10	8-12
Navigators	1	1	2
Medics	1	1	2
Engineers	1	1	2
Leaders	1	2	3
Commanders	1	1	1
Terrorists	0-2	2-4	4-6
Totals	9-15	14-20	22-28

Floor Plans

2nd Floor:

1st Floor:

Ground Floor:

Terrain Maps

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

See Also

Small Scout
Medium Scout
Large Scout
Abductor
Harvester
Supply Ship
Terror Ship