Whatever experience the Cylons had with space travel and combat, they used to great effect with the construction of their first Baseships - the Styx Class.
Large and slow, but still carrying a huge amount of Raiders and an equally impressive offensive and defensive, it is easy to see how the Colonial Heavy Carriers of the time had trouble.

In fact, the design was so successful, that the modern Hades Class Baseship is simply an outgrowth of the early one, albeit bigger and carrying more weapons and fighters. One of the main differences between the old and the new Baseships is the amount of fighter launch bays - the old style Baseship has 4 whilst the new style has 5.

The Early Basestar was drawn by Steve Wilson. The SSD was designed by me and drawn by Sean Driscoll.

Baseships have one large shuttle bay. The bay has two launch tubes ([J1.54] which will propel a fighter flight to speed 12 and can launch in any direction) and the equivalent of a standard shuttle hatch (launching and landing from any direction).
The shuttle bay is large enough to accept yachts.
The Baseship has a hyperspeed multiplier of x1.5.

This is an Early Years ship.

The Early Baseship may rotate under the variant rules.

Cylon Styx Class Baseship boarding diagram:

The Cylon Baseship is handled exactly like a normal vessel, but to account for it is unique shape and internal passageway, it is divided into three levels. Each level is treated just like a normal ship, and transfer through the levels is done via areas A, E and F. It is assumed that there is one passageway between A and E, and E and F. Note also that there is always a guard in area F.
Finally just a word of caution: the boarding diagram does not accurately represent the SSD, but is more faithful to what I have managed to pick up from the series.

Upper Level	Middle	Lower Level

Master Ship Chart Extract:

Annex #7B: Ships able to land on planets

This ship may land on a planet via Powered landings (P2.434).

Annex #7G: Carrier information & Annex #7N: Missile reloads