Océan Class Frigate
The Oceán-class Frigate is a class of Asherah-type Frigate (to differentiate them with the Terran-type Frigate that both Japan and the Gra Valkas Empire used in their navy) built by the Parpaldian Marine Imperiale in the late 1620s. The reintroduction of the Frigate as a type of warships by the Holy Milishial Empire in early 1600s in the form of the Sagitta-class Frigate to replace their armored cruiser role and acting as a cheaper alternative to Battlecrusiser in the role of station flagship and general patrol across their trade routes and holding as Battlecrusiser are becoming more and more important and expensive and the Empire new strategy which requires to retain them in home water to act as quick response force to be able to quickly response to crises in the Central and Mu continent.
The new Frigate saw widespread adoption across the 1st and 2nd Civilization Zone as nations look to counter Sagitta and replace their now obsolete Armored Cruiser with the nations in the 3rd Civilization somewhat lagging behind in their response due to their lack of sufficiently advanced technology to build the modern Frigate at that time, it doesn't mean no one tried, through the results are often more slightly faster and slightly heavily armed Armored Cruiser that will shake itself apart if they tried pressing their top speed for too long than true Frigate. It took till the early 1620s when technology finally caught on to their ambition and true Frigate finally emerged in the 3rd Civilization Zone, with the Parpaldian Oceán-class Frigate being the 1st in the region to be launched and enter service in 1626, follow closely by the Altaran with their Candia-class Frigate and the Riemian with their Schanhorst-class Frigate. While the design, technology, and construction of the ship doesn't quite represent the best that Parpaldian technology could offer in comparison to the Altarans and Riemian counterpart, they are nonetheless decently capable warship.
More than 2 dozen Oceán-class have been built since 1626 to the current year of 1641, the construction was split into batches with the most modern one being the Batch IV. While the majority of the Oceán-class production went to the Parpaldian Marine Imperiale, some saw service in foreign navy in the 3rd civilization zone with Louria being the biggest foreign operators, with 4 ships from Batch I serve under the flag of the Lourian Armada. They saw extensive service during the Rondenuis War of 1639 against the Qua Toynian and Quilian before the Japanese Intervention. With the Japanese joining the war on the Qua Toynian and Quilian side, the Lourian Armada would then be rapidly dismantled by the JSDF. Other operators of the class include: Marl Kingdom (2 ships), Principality of Pandora (1 ships), Kingdom of Panera (2 ships), and Gahara Thearchy (1 ship). The Gaharan was an interesting case as their Oceán-class was gifted by Emperor Ludius to commemorate their 500 years of special relationship in 1636. The Oceán-class saw relatively quiet service throughout the 1630s, mostly conducting patrol, port visits and exercises.
This changed in August 1640 with the abrupt escalation of the August incident and declaration of war within mere weeks of each other. On August 15th, 1640, two Batch I Ocean-class Frigates under the name of Prince Ludius and Madame Remilies, (the 2 ships were named in commemorate the wedding between the two by the previous Emperor Laudon IV) were present at the Battle of Central Altaras Strait under the authority of the Imperial Coastal Command alongside a force of older Armoured Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Destroyers sortie to protect a special cargo ship heading to Esthirant.
Unfortunately for the Parpaldian in this battle, luck was not on their side. Eagerly to strike at what looks like an isolated pair of Altaran light cruisers and a destroyer. Rear Admiral Tirpitz detached the 2 Frigates to chase down the Altaran cruisers, intending to deny their Armored Cruiser and Frigate their eyes and ears in the strait. .By the time the Frigate captains realized that they walked right into the Altaran trap, it was already too late. The scouting cruisers have led them straight into an ambush site where other Altaran 5 Light Cruisers were hiding behind the smoke waiting for the opportunity for a concerted torpedo strike on the 2 unescorted Frigates. The ambush saw Madame Remilies sunk from multiple torpedoes hit to her side while Prince Ludius barely limped away as she was hit much less from the ambush. In exchange, the 2 Friagtes managed to sink one Light Cruisers, crippled another and caused various damage to other Altaran Cruisers there. The Altarans then went on to win the line engagement against the remaining Parpaldian Armored Cruiser and captured the cargo that the Parpaldian was doing their best to keep away from them.
The damaged Prince Ludius managed slipped away during the night and was spared for the destruction alongside the rest of the Imperial Coastal Command heavy assets. She then spent the next 12 months in Esthirant shipyard repairing the battle damage. The sinking of the Madame Remilies however causes quite the commotion in the capital in the aftermath of what the Altaran now refer to as Operation Crimson Strait as she now in rage demands the entire command staff in charge of the battle to be executed under the charge of being "treasonably incompetent". She later on would only drop the charge after great convincing by the Emperor himself behind the close door. Despite these early setbacks, the Oceán-class proved itself to be a decently capable warship, capable of going toe to toe with the Altaran equivalent under the right hands though the 27 knots speed of the Batch I to III is proving to be insufficient for the Parpaldian Navy of the 1640 with the Batch IV intend to fix this flaw by utilizing new powerplant to push her speed up to 29 knots, a speed comparable to the current Surcouf-class Light Cruiser currently in Parpaldian service.
Some Stats for batch II version, she is armed with 8 210mm guns, 8 100mm guns, and multiple 37mm and 15mm AA guns. She is also armed with 4 underwater torpedo tubes. She also has the max speed of 27kns and displacement of 16660 tons.
Lore description made by u/GodLucifer-007 who is also the game master of the current wargame.