I had the good fortune to restore a derelict Paragon Battleship with nothing but a degraded engine. Fixing that was 600k that could have gone anywhere else, but I'm satisfied with what I got out of it.
Tactical lasers, graviton beams, and high intensity lasers combined with the point defense AI mod is a great combination, I can mulch a carrier's entire strike group in seconds and then switch to focusing down nearby frigates on the fly. However, the main event so far has been the twin tachyon lances, slow to fire and heavy on the flux, but a direct hit will straight up delete anything smaller than a cruiser. Fights so far have all gone a little something like this:
Oh hello Hound. Splat! Oh hello Enforcer. Splat! Oh hello Abaddon. Splat!
There may be more effective loadouts for the Paragon, and as is it may just be a distraction for enemy capitals, but bulldozing through an enemy's weaker ships with the cannons of the 1812 Overture firing in time to the explosions is something I'm just not going to get anywhere else.
And to top it all off, I even managed to find two sets of blueprints for the Paragon. Not one, but two.
Once the Big Zam Paragon is mass produced, I'll put an end to the Federation EVERYONE in no time!
Update: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I was able to sell my extra Paragon blueprint on the black market for a hefty sum. The bad news is that now pirate fleets are fielding Paragons on a semi-regular basis. Whoops. At least now I don't have to mass produce Paragons, I can just recover them from the pirates.