Starship history: The Tempest

The Tempest is a widely used vessel and a staple in any long-range fleet engagements. It's tough shields and resilient armour make this ship a valuable asset.

The mighty Tempest class Battleship has seen many alterations and refits since it's birth by fire. The first true dedicated Battleship design forwarded by the Minmatar Republic, at the time more commonly known as the Minmatar Rebel Alliance. It was quickly and quietly deployed en mass to repel the slave-hunting invasion of the Amarrians.

The Amarr Crusade Warfleet were extremely surprised and the High Command had no available response to the powerful and potent warship. The Amarr fell back under the onslaught of literally hundreds of thousands of massive 1400mm artillery shells. The first design was little more than a scaffolding structure with a boxy habitat section occupying the mid-section and an engine bolted to the back. Then guns and missile systems were added.

The power-sail arrays were fitted during the third refit, which also included the addition of uprated armour and a shield grid that rivaled those manufactured by Caldari engineers. The engineering and habitation decks were redesigned to provide more structural support and create a larger internal volume for subsystems. The fourth refit was launched two years ago, replacing the aging systems on the older models. This was seen as a necessary move by the Republic Feet as some of the original third refit Tempests were over 100 years old and still in service. 

The fourth refit is a  powerhouse. Sporting 8 high power slots with mounting points for 4 super-heavy missile launchers and 6 heavy turrets means this ship is never lacking in firepower. It also allows for a lot of pilot flexibility in loadouts.
5 medium slots allow for either shield upgrades, sensor boosters and warp scramblers to be fitted. The choice of low power slot modules can really make this ship reach out and touch people. There are 6 slots and they can be utilized to extend the already staggering range of the the guns to truly epic distances. Gyrostabilisers are a popular choice to equip on this ship as they increase the effective range massively.

Don't be fooled by it's fragile appearance, this ship can hit hard and gives no quarter to those unfortunate enough to be its pilot's target. The Fleet Issue and Tribal Issue Tempests feature even greater shield and armour upgrades, as well as an advanced power-sail system that can boost main power production by up to 50% in emergency but in normal operation provides main power to life-support and secondary computers.


A fourth refit Tempest Battleship would probably set you back a good 80 to 90 million ISK, just for the ship hull. The modules would add up to around the 130 million mark, but it is well worth the money to see Amarrians instinctively flee before it!