Twenty-one new warships

Until this week, only the Solari had fleet ships of their own in Flagship flight. The other factions' patrols and escorts flew borrowed hulls. Not any more: twenty-one new warships are finished, a fighter, a frigate or corvette and a cruiser each for the Hegemony, Nereid, Fungus, Synthari, Spacers, Veilborn and Gobbos. With the Solari trio, that makes twenty-four ships, and every faction now has a fleet that looks like it belongs to them.

How a ship is made

Every ship starts as concept art in its faction's style, drawn to echo that faction's hero Flagship and Dreadnought, so the three ships of a fleet read as one family. Then it is built in 3D and checked against the concept, render after render, until the shapes, colours and details match. Last come the moving parts: wings that flap or sweep back at cruise, turrets that track, hangar ramps that open, legs that tuck in, jaws that drop when a fight starts.

Fighters

The fighters fly as each fleet's wing. A few favourites: the Nereid Ripplefin, a pearl manta with drooping ray wings and a whip tail; the Synthari Vexwing, whose wings flutter and fold back at cruise; and the Gobbos Zippa Rokkit, a rocket with a goblin at the stick and a ram cone that spins.

Frigates and corvettes

The middle of the line: escorts, raiders and honour guards. The Nereid Brinecutter is a long eel under swept nacre bands with a crystal pressure lance under its jaw. The Spacers Grapnel Brig is a boarding cutter with toothed grapple jaws, and the Gobbos Dakkabarrel drops a dozer jaw when it is engaged.

Cruisers

The cruisers lead the patrols. The Hegemony Drumline carries heavy turret batteries under a tiered citadel. The Nereid Deepchorus Nautilus wears a great nacre shell with a reef garden under its bridge dome. The Spacers Stormwake Man-o'-War carries a Saltjack fighter in its own hangar, and the Gobbos Da Lil' Boom leads with a spiked boom cannon and dozer blades.

Where to see them

• On patrol. Faction patrol fleets now fly their own space in formation: a cruiser leading frigates or corvettes and a wing of fighters. All eight factions fly them, so you can meet any of these ships out in the galaxy, and now and then a fleet of our own passes through home on its way to the front.
• In a fight. Pirates jump faction patrols on contested borders, and the defenders fly these hulls. Join in and the skirmish pays a bounty, standing with the defenders and salvage.
• In the Field Manual. Ship types lists every ship in the galaxy, its class and length, and where you will meet it.

The pictures in this post are rendered from the game's own 3D models with the same camera and lights for every ship; they are not shown to scale, so each card gives the ship's length. More ships are on the drawing board, and we will show them here when they are ready.