Last week I made a post talking about the ISD and how it's better than most people give it credit for. Today, I'm doing something similar to the venerated MC80 and I will review the ship's size, engines, weapons, shields/defences, overall design, and doctrine.

I will be switching between Legends and canon when discussing the MC80's systems, because it has retained all of its technical aspects.

Size: The MC80 sits at 1200m and has a broadened shape. Overall there's nothing bad here and it's a fairly normal size for a cruiser.

Engines: The MC80 has a class 1 hyperdrive, flies at 975km/h in atmosphere, and can pull 2750G's of acceleration in open space . This means that the MC80 is a supremely fast ship, capable of striking anywhere in the galaxy in a short order of time alongside the rebel fighters. The MC80 can outrun an ISD, but it's not so fast as to negate the ISD. The MC80 fits nicely into the Alliance's hit-and-run strategy by being extremely mobile, being able to always be where it was needed most. Again, the MC80 doesn't see complaints here, since it performs above average here.

As an aside: Acceleration is how we should measure speed in space because you could continue accelerating closer to lightspeed (without ever reaching it of course) if you have the power to do so.

Weapons: The MC80 packs a reasonable punch with 48 heavy turbolasers, 20 heavy ion cannons, a bunch of laser cannons for point-defence, and 6 tractor beams. Its turbolasers packed a decent punch, but aren't anything outstanding. This loadout is below average for a ship this size and for reference the ISD carries 60 heavy turbolasers, which doesn't even include the massive turbolasers on the flanks of the superstructure. When compared to its main competitor the MC80 falls horribly short, as the ISD I and II have ~120 turbolasers (the 60 heavy the ones around the superstructure). The 20 heavy ion cannons are an improvement over the clone-wars era ships which had virtually none and so the MC80 has the ability to easily drain the shields of enemy space units. Overall the weaponry on the MC80 is good, but it has too few for a ship of its size. I would consider it a cruiser based on its defenses, but only a frigate based on its limited armament.

Defence: The defences of the MC80 are where this ship truly shines. It has several main shield generators which are covered by several more redundant generators as a backup. I cannot stress how well-shielded this ship is and if you've read the ISD post, you'll know how important shielding is. The armor on this ship is quite strong, but it takes a backseat to the supreme shields. Since the MC80's shields are so strong, it has the capability to act as a brick in space battles, being able to just absorb hits with no damage. Of course it can still be beaten by the extreme firepower of 1 ISD, but that's not how war works, so the MC80 can continue playing to its strengths while the stafighters deal with the harder targets. The defensive capabilities are where the MC80 shines brightest and it's why the Alliance loved the ship.

Design: I haven't heard anyone really complain about the design of this ship, since it maintains a reasonable level of firepower on any angle and can deal powerful broadsides. I have heard people call the ship ugly, but that's not really important since its appearance doesn't dictate its effectiveness. The ship can only carry 36 starfighters, which limits its ability to rearm fighters in a battle. Although it carries so few fighters, it does not severly hamper the ship since the rebels already use hyperspace-capable fighters. An argument can be made that the ship cannot focus its limited firepower like star destroyers can and that's certainly a problem in long-range engagements where your orientation can decide how the battle goes. However, the ship's inability to focus fire plays into the way in which the ship is deployed.

Doctrine: The Rebel Alliance tends to play the MC80 to its strengths by deploying it as a brick. What I mean by this is that the MC80 is deployed to draw fire from the star destroyers onto the MC80 and away from the fighters. This strategy works especially well when the opposing forces are a large distance apart and the ISD's have to divert their fire to deal with the MC80's which are an immediate threat with their turbolasers. The Imperial's weapons are either firing at the MC80's which are also shooting back, or the fighters which are easy targets at long range, but whose lethality increases inversely with range. This strategy works well for the rebels who cannot match the numbers of the Imperial navy and can force the Imperials into playing into the rebels' fighter advantage.

The New Republic strategy regarding its use of the MC80 class is somewhat flawed. With new shipyards, the N.R doesn't modify or build new ships and does not play to the ship's greatest strength. Instead, the N.R tries to use the MC80 as a battlecruiser, focusing on its limited armament. This is a huge problem since the MC80 is not well-suited to gun duels against ships fielding a 2.5:1 firepower advantage. As such, the MC80 takes horrid losses in N.R battles because it's trying to beat a star destroyer at its own game. Sure, the N.R wins repeatedly with its use of fighters and great tactical commanders, but the MC80 loses some of its presence when it is used as a battlecruiser and not as a brick.