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"Wodaan"-Class Minelayer Corvette
Mass: 820 tons
Firepower: -
Armor: 1250
Coverage: -
Maneuverability: medium
Max. Velocity: 425 m/s

The Wodaan class of Minelayer Corvettes is a venerable design with a long and checkered history. Originally the Wodaan was intended as an electronic warfare vessel, but countermeasures were always one step behind sensor adaptation, to the point that Taiidan Fleet Command canceled the project. The Wodaan Corvette hull plans lay abandoned for almost 20 years until plasma research made it possible to create and load high-energy tracking mines with a small and efficient PDA unit. Instead of designing a new dedicated minelayer hull from scratch, engineers merely removed the complex EW warfare suite and replaced it with the mine-laying unit. The resulting corvette functioned well enough to satisfy the design requirements and was commissioned into full service.

Unfortunately for the three-man Wodaan crew (one pilot, one WO and one engineer to maintain the Mine PDA), "well enough" still left plenty of room for the system quirks that make service aboard the Minelayer ships "interesting" at best. Jamming in the mine launch system is still chronic, despite numerous overhaul and equipment changes, and it is not rare for a new crew to be lost as the jammed mine goes active while still in the launcher.

Taiidani commanders usually deploy Wodaans in four-ship wings that lay down their mines in standard grid pattern. When attacked, a Wodaan wing will immediately try to circle the enemy vessels, while dropping as many mines as possible. The Mk 12 tracking shock mine uses plasma polarity to lock onto an enemy ship's electromagnetic cross signature, and then vents a tiny portion of its plasma warhead to accelerate rapidly towards its target. The range of the Mk 12 mine is a few hundred kloms, and it is highly recommended that when fighters sweep such a minefield they use full evasion tactics in very loose formation.