Kilimanjaro Class Dreadnought image - Dawn of the Reapers mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Maybe just an Alliance Dreadnought capital. Did the Council have one before?

Destiny Ascention?

Kilimanjaro Dreadnoughts are the current DNs of Systems Alliance, or they were the first DN class and the other is Everest...

The Kilimanjaro-class are the new ones. They were just starting to be built around Mass Effect 1.

The Everest is the largest Dreadnought in the alliance navy at the time the Kilimanjaro Class are the newest.

Everest is about 888m long. The Kilimanjaro is about 1000m or 1km long from what I've found.

It still had a spinal cannon. :S

I highly doubt that as it is stated that the Kilimanjaro has 156 broadsides that run 40% of the width of the hull on either side of the ship. I don't really think that there would be enough room for a big arse spinal gun as a result.

Its spinal cannon ran the entire length of the dreadnought. Thats a 1km long cannon that shoots nukes like anal beads bro.

Even if the gun can fire the shell at relative speeds it still needs a high enough mass, so the shell still needs size meaning width PLUS length. Also how many times do we see a human dread appear? A few. It being shown in action? None. We never see any human ones fire their weapon systems, and the Kilimanjaro having a spinal gun is not written anywhere (as far as my memory serves me). So due to bioware making most ships look so damn similar we don't know which one is an Everest class which is written to have a spinal cannon or a Kilimanjaro that is stated to have MAIN Weapons sized broadsides. Therefore it is very easy to get confused as to if a Kilimanjaro has a spinal cannon or not because we only see one type of human dread in game so we don't know which one it is. (Ill admit you are right about the size of ME projectiles being so small and that that bit of info slipped my mind at the time so ill change my first comment to say that it most likely does not have a spinal cannon (but its not impossible) because then it would be a ship with schizophrenia, whats its role? a sniper in space or a knife fighting brick? Being both is impractical at most.

ME tech has a lot of limitations, so for a 1km ship that has a spinal gun the runs along most of the ships length (90% I think) making it its main weapon, being able to maneuver and relocate is its biggest concern. So giving it loads of armour increases its mass making it slower. Broadside based ships are more close range fighters so they need heavy armour to stay alive. So if the Kilimanjaro has both, it becomes highly ineffective as a weapon system because it cannot fulfill both roles to the max.
Then again this is bioware and they are game designers not weapon and ship designers so most dreads in ME will probably have both which make me laugh as the design screws its self over. And Id like to think that the Systems Alliance after the use of the Everest class realized that since they only can have a small amount of dreads due to the treaty in place they need a ship that fits the human style of warfare which is all movement heavy, and since the carriers aren't limited and they are the forefront of the Alliance navy, they can handle the long range attacks while a battleship style dread can move in with the rest of the fleet to provide front line heavy fire. Which means it would need more armour and shields so a spinal gun is rather limiting in those areas since it takes up space for structural reinforcement plus at those ranges a spinal gun of that size is way to cumbersome for a big ship. So in logical terms why would a ME ship with Capital class broadsides in such heavy numbers need a spinal cannon in the first place.

From most of the sources I've read it did have a spinal Mk. 3 MAC as well as 156 broadside Mk. 2 MACs.

Huge Mass Effect cores lower the mass of the ship allowing it maneuver easier. All dreadnaughts had a main gun. broadsides were used for up close "knife"fights". There were also smaller, forward mounted mass accelerator cannons that all ships were mounted with.

Right. The main advantage of the Dreadnought is the main gun. Mass effect ships are typically armed with a main gun that runs approximately 80% of the ship's length. This is essentially an railgun that utilizes Mass Effect fields to reduce the mass of the bullet while retaining it's potential energy. The Everest Class fired a slug that weighed only 20 kilograms (approx 44 lbs), so, even if the Kilimanjaro has a bigger bore size, it won't be much larger than a 5in naval shell of today (probably smaller). Railguns are basically linear motors that accelerate as long as the circuit is complete (i.e. a bullet in the barrel). This means that the longer the barrel, the higher the maximum velocity and kinetic energy of the projectile fired. The higher the velocity, the longer the effective range of the gun as the gun velocity overtakes the ability of a ship to dodge.

Now, regarding your assertion that a ship with both broadsides and a spinal can't be good at both, you're partially right. Designers do tend to focus on one area or another when building ships. But you can find real life examples of ships that tote both impressive main guns and secondary armament. Look no further than the dreadnought and post dreadnought era battleships. A prime example is the Iowa Class as she was in 1943. Armed with 9 16in guns in three three-gun turrets, 20 5in guns mounted in ten twin turrets, her ability to both fight off ships at range and in close quarters were excellent. The three primary turrets were located along the center line whilst the secondary guns were placed to either side of the superstructure, five turrets to a side. This is evidence enough to me that you can design a ship that is good at both long range artillery and fleet brawling.

As for the Alliance doctrine, there is a difference between strategic and tactical level doctrine. The Systems Alliance utilizes very similar tactical doctrine to the other races on a basic level. Cruiser lines supported by dreadnought artillery and carriers behind while frigates and strike craft both escort and hunt down wounded prey. On the other hand, strategically, we try to outrun anything we can't outfight and strike at vulnerable areas of the enemy (logistics and command).