TLDR; create a new tech 2 battleship using tier 3 hulls that can fight capital weapons at a rate of 3 t2 ships = 1 dread that cannot jump, conduit, or titan bridge that is geared towards passive tanking with capital sized armor plate or shield extenders.
During the boom of naval development during the turn of the century, large nations fielded large capital ships. These battleships were often the pride of the nation and often used as a show of force around the world. For smaller countries, a cheaper coastal defense ship was used instead.
Logically, smaller alliances should have access to something similar. A small capital weapon armed ship that at marauder price and skill level, could help defend space against capital ships. These new ships would have two possible configurations. Have limitations preventing it from becoming a cheaper blob ship, while making it something that could be useful for system defense.
My suggestion is to add a Tech 2 Border defense ship.
This tech 2 hull would lack a jump drive, not be able to be moved via conduit or titan bridging. Would have two high slots, one weapon hard point (launcher / turret based on faction) and have a bonus to power / cpu requirements of capital armor plate and shield extenders only.
This tech 2 hull would use the bastion module when configured with an XL turret, the bastion module only being allowed to be online while an turret is fitted. The alternative configuration for this ship would be a new “fighter hangar” module. This module (could be used to help fix carriers, besides fixing fighters) would allow a wing of fighters to be carried and launched. This configuration would take the hard point location, allowing the light carrier configuration to have one utility high slot.
Why would this work in Eve?
Most alliances seem to surround themselves with smaller, weaker alliances as buffers. These smaller alliances often cannot field dreads or carriers (carriers are so broken and weak they’re glorified Uber) and are often left to watch as dreads come kill whatever then jump out.
I’ve seen an alliance bait the 5 or so dreads a small alliance could field into deploying only to drop double the dreads to kill them. With this new border defense ship, anyone who can fly a marauder could hop into a 1.2-1.5b hull, jump 2-3 systems (not move vast distances) and become a force multiplier. If an small alliance can field 5 dreads at ~6b per dread, they could field an easier 15-20 border defense ships. This changes the dynamic, this is 15-20 individual ships would bring more people into capital style game play, make defending space more interactive (the favorite target of capitals in my area are jump gates, they come blow them up with a few dreads unchecked because the small alliance next door cannot counter them) and add another layer to escalation. A small alliance can lock down and engage these larger ships, meaning there needs to be a tactical reason to bring these dreads.
Even with the anti sub cap module fitted, the dps would be similar to a normal battleship. The power this ship has is in the passive amount of tank, combined with the anti capital capacity. One could use the anti sub capital turret, but at that point being in bastion, one would just use a marauder.