Post by cowboy40 on Feb 17, 2013 14:00:17 GMT -7
I have been giving some thoughts to the ships of FASA Trek. Lately it has been some of the Federation ships that I have been trying to learn to helm better in battle. Some things that we all have talked about stick out.
In the TMP era, the Federation is the most advanced in their ships and weapons. A starship of the Enterprise (Constitution refits) class can stand nose to nose with Klingon L-24 and Romulan Z-1. They are the strong arm of the Federation fleet. Even FASA admitted they wanted to keep the Enterprise class as one of the toughest ships in the fleet. In Kirk’s era the ships progressed through three marks. The Mk. I when it joined the fleet was a war winner, but like all ships it progressed through developments in tech and solving problems. The Mk. II brings more power to the ship, making it possible to improve the tactical balance of the ship. But the class still had the problem of no defense to the aft, and the Mk. III solved this issue. The only other ship more powerful than an Enterprise Mk. III was the Excelsior Mk. I class ships.
The Excelsior class battleships are the technological terrors of the Federation. They have all the most advanced equipment that the military industrial complex can churn out. They carry a war load that Is incredible by any standard. They carry more phasers, more torpedoes, shields that eat a lot of damage and transwarp drive. Though the Excelsior Mk. I configuration in a mix of different range phasers makes the ships awkward to fight. In the end you have to fight her more like an Enterprise Mk III. Don’t power the intermediate phasers until the fight get close in, and even then to bring those extra phasers to bear, you have to dance and side step the ship in tactical moves. That requires keeping a lot of power in the engines. You have to learn to use the ships advantages and disadvantages to your advantage. The awkwardness of the armament led to the design of the Excelsior Mk II that carries a more balanced weapons suite.
Along with the Excelsior class battleships, the Federation deployed another battleship as a hedge against the technology that was thrown into the “Great Experiment”. This new ship would protect against the failure of the Excelsior. The Indomitable class was designed using conventional armament schemes and mature technology. Indomitable Mk I have a weapons suite that was in line with the Excelsior Mk I except the medium range phasers. This makes for an easy transition for a crew that had previous service on a cruiser. The Indomitable Mk II was designed with a more advanced main computer and an increase in firepower.
Even the mature technology can hold its own in the TMP era. The Constitution class is evidence of this. In its last Mk IV refit the Constitution continues to be a viable ship when you use combat tactics. She is an even match for the Reliant Mk I type ships. Even before the Four Years War, the Constitution class was the premier exploration and combat ship of the Star Fleet. The Constitution Mk I was one of the few ships that could stand toe to toe with the Klingons in the early stages of the war, but their exploration capabilities meant they weren’t destined to stay on the line. They were sent out to look for ways to out flank the enemy. Though by the time they returned from these missions their weapons tech had been outdated. The Mk II was fitted with the new phasers and photon torpedoes that replaced lasers and accelerator cannons. The next step in the evolution of the Constitution was updating engines and computers on the Mk III type. The final Mk IV refit of the class was geared toward improving weapons, shields and power. This has kept the Constitution Mk IV a potent ship that can still be effective against most enemy cruisers. The final development of this class was the “administrative refits” to the Enterprise class.
We should discus administrative refits. This is an old navy trick of gaining more modern equipment by using the upkeep and refit founds of an older ship. History is full of this method. For example the monitors used by the U.S. Navy in the last half of the nineteenth century. They continued to rebuild the old Civil War monitors over and over by using some of the materials of the previous ship. (I believe this is a good example that supports both the Constitution rebuilds and the Anton rebuilds). The Federation using this method was able to replace both ageing types of the Constitution and the Anton class. So was burn the Enterprise class and the Reliant class.
The predecessor, that the Reliant was born from, was a good exploration ship. Along with the Constitution, the Anton class was responsible in helping expand the Federation and its territory during the “Great Awakening”. During the 2240’s, these ships were some of the most technically advanced ships in the Star Fleet. They were designed with first rate research facilities that are still keep them valuable science vessels. With the good comes the bad, the ship suffers from two major problems in comparison with the Constitution class ships. The Anton is short legged, only able to conduct cruises of three years compared to the Constitution’s ability to remain on station for five years. This meant that he ship had to stay closer to the advancing frontier of Federation space, but the more serious problem was the ship lacked teeth. Its armament was purely defensive when the ships went to space. In the early phases of the Four Year War, the Anton class was simply beat up on the battlefield. The Mk I with its lasers was no match for Klingon disrupters. When the Federation’s new weapons became available, this situation changed. When the Mk II put to space with phasers and more efficient shields her combat abilities were quadrupled. Now the class could stand toe to toe with the Klingons in battle. The last modifications to the class, the Mk IV were post-war modifications that increased power output and firepower a bit more, but the design just didn’t have the ability to install torpedoes without affecting her research ability. This was one of the factors in the next phase of her design history. Star Fleet took the decision to use the old “administrative refit” to produce a new class of ship that solved the issues inherent in the Anton design. The end result was the Reliant class.
The Anton Mk IV is still used by Star Fleet in exploration missions with the secondary role of being used to lead convoys and other duties in the back area that would relieve the newer ships for war service.
Like the Enterprise class, the Reliant Mk I was designed around more advanced technology to produce a cruiser capable of standing up to the demands of service that were expected in the 2270’s. The Reliant Mk I refit was geared to improving the weapons suite of the type and giving the ship a more advanced engineering plant. This including fitting the ship with phasers and more importantly it armed the ships with the photon torpedo that it was dearly needing. The designers centralized the weapons on the distinctive roll-bar on top of the larger saucer. The Reliant Mk II further improved power output and firepower. Now the weapons suite included weapons that were in line with the Enterprise class. While the final Mk III refit was used to improve power output again. These modifications have kept the Reliant a potent military vessel second only to the Enterprise class.
Another example of administrative refit being taken to the extreme is the continued development of the Federation class dreadnaught.
The Federation class dreadnaughts themselves were a development of the Four Years War and advancing technology. When the new phasers and torpedoes were ready to come online it was decided to see what could be done to bring the Heston class of battle-cruisers up to the standard. The Heston was the ultimate example of what could be produced using laser and accelerator cannon technology in a warship. They could stand up against anything in the Klingon fleet including the early models of the D-10 cruisers. The problem was when the Star Fleet started to plan for the updates to the Heston, her problems became apparent to the naval architects that were involved in her design work. The biggest problem is in the power output of her engine plant. While it was adequate to power the lasers, accelerator cannon and shields to an extent, it left no room for maneuver. To solve this issue they added a third nacelle to ship and upgrading the warp engine type. This gave the ship the power to restore some maneuver while being able to bring its new phasers and torpedoes to bear on an enemy. Even though the design goals were met, a new problem was discovered; the third nacelle produced an unstable warp envelope. Though with careful balancing this could be over came. The new Federation class proved to be an effective combat type, but due to its lack of duel capability they were put in reserve and maintained in a ready state in case of war. These were ships of war, not suitable for peace navy.
With no war to fight, the Federation class lingered in reserve, until the Klingons made a move for Organia. This attack into Federation controlled space convinced the Federation Council that a war fleet was just as necessary as an exploration fleet, so approved the reactivation of the Federation class. This was the first step of what would become an arms race that would lead the three major powers onto the cliff of galactic war. The dreadnaughts were being prepared for battle when the Organians forced the peace on the Federation and Klingon Empire. With this action, the Federation and her sisters were once again left to linger at dock, but they were retained in commission. They became the fleet’s dock queens.
As Star Fleet was expanding its forces with new construction and refits, the plans were drawn up for the Great Experiment, but that would be years off and Star Fleet had no capital ships to put to space. Yes the Federation class was available for service, but they were still based on matured technology. Their equipment hadn’t been updated for years and they still operated the old generation of phaser and photon torpedoes. With money for new construction tied up in other projects, the Star Fleet had no founds to construct a new class of desired battleships, so once again they looked to using upkeep founds for use on bringing the Federation class up to standard, but once the design work began it was felt that the problems could be solved in the original design. So began the ultimate administrative refit. The development team started from the Keel up and rebuilt the ships online with the Enterprise class technology. With the new engines and software they were able to stabilize the warp field and make it possible for the ship to use two of its nacelles for propulsion and use the third for power backup. They weapons suite was improved and more importantly the ship was given research capability with the hope that they would no longer be dock queens and hanger whores. The resulting Star League class dreadnaughts were once again the most powerful ships in the fleet. Though the result politically wasn’t what Star Fleet was hoping for. The Federation Council felt that there authority in controlling what goes into the fleet had been challenged. The result was that upkeep founds were cut by fifty percent across the board, now forcing Star Fleet Command to come to them to seek more construction funds and more importantly forcing Star Fleet to seek approval for new projects. They informed Star Fleet Headquarters that they were lucky that they weren’t taking any projects away from them.
This new forced control over Star Fleet, has led to the need for the Fleet to seek cheaper but still effective cruisers. Three different approaches have been taken to meet these new construction limits.
The first approach was the use of producing the best possible cruiser using mature engine technology with a mix of old and new weapons and defense systems. The result was probably one of the ugliest ships in the fleet, but the Benton class has proven to be an effective cruiser that performs along the lines of the Constitution and Reliant classes. The class has constantly been updated through its life cycle, but it was still seen as to expensive to produce in the numbers needed.
So the next approach was the Durrett class. This ship was designed from the start for mass production using mostly mature components and cheaper models of modern design. The result was a cruiser that is extremely underpowered for even its own weapons, shields and movement requirements. This light cruiser is mainly suited to secondary missions such as convoy escort, lines of communication patrols and diplomatic missions. The Durrett is best used in groups if it is to see frontline service in wartime. Its main virtue is that is cheap to produce. She is proof that quantity has its own quality.
The final approach was developed by the Andorians. They put forward a ship using first line components that could be made in smaller numbers but still deliver maximum firepower from the platform. The Andorian approach was recognition of what was already the case since the Four Years War. It was the recognition that the photon torpedo has displaced beam weapons as the main offensive weapon of Star Fleet. The Andor class cruisers once again used a balance of mature systems mixed with a modern weapon to produce one of the hardest hitting ships in the Star Fleet. Her massive torpedo armament can devastate an enemy when the Andor attacks in groups. These ships have proven to be a great addition to the fleet. They would be used to deliver your first strike in a battle action. They would approach fire off all the torpedoes they could bring to bear and fall back under the protection of the more advanced cruisers and battleships of the fleet. These ships would continue to through massive torpedo attacks to keep the enemy force off guard and turned away from the ships that can deliver more precise blows to the enemy.
With the drawbacks of the Durrett class in mind, Star Fleet put forth studies for the development of a more balanced light cruiser. The result of the study was the Ticonderoga class. With the design of the Ticonderoga Mk I the design team took the opportunity to test new ideas in engineering and power management. Using this above and below nacelle placement, in conjunction with software, the designers were able to achieve high warp speeds with more safety and a more effective warp envelope. Along with the improvements in the power plant came the benefit of being able to handle combat systems more efficiently. This has led to the Ticonderoga being an integral part of the defense plans for the Federation. This new ship has been placed into mass production.
As the 2290’s approached, Star Fleet went to the Federation Council and informed them even though the present Star Fleet force was adequate and capable it was facing a situation: Its was operating with designs that were getting long in the tooth. The designs were nearing the design limits of what could be done with them. It was time to start developing new design concepts. With council approval, the naval architects began the design process of a new fleet.
The first result of this new design program was the Constellation class cruisers. This ship was designed to be the ultimate ship on the battlefield. The Constellation was designed to be able deliver enough power to overcome the compromises forced on older ships in power management. The result was a cruiser that could dance across the field and fling a massive blow in torpedoes at the enemy and follow that up in an accurate phaser attack to finish off a wounded ship. For this purpose the ships weapons were balanced to work at similar ranges. The ships systems were all the best that could be bought: advanced computers, heavy shielding, powerful engines, and a reinforced hull. All this has led to a ship that is as nearly expensive as a battleship, but Star Fleet argues the survivability of the new cruiser justifies its purchase and introduction into the present force, because it is the best balanced combat ship in the galaxy!
This is the state of the large ships at present in the Star Fleet.
more to come on the little ships of the navy....
In the TMP era, the Federation is the most advanced in their ships and weapons. A starship of the Enterprise (Constitution refits) class can stand nose to nose with Klingon L-24 and Romulan Z-1. They are the strong arm of the Federation fleet. Even FASA admitted they wanted to keep the Enterprise class as one of the toughest ships in the fleet. In Kirk’s era the ships progressed through three marks. The Mk. I when it joined the fleet was a war winner, but like all ships it progressed through developments in tech and solving problems. The Mk. II brings more power to the ship, making it possible to improve the tactical balance of the ship. But the class still had the problem of no defense to the aft, and the Mk. III solved this issue. The only other ship more powerful than an Enterprise Mk. III was the Excelsior Mk. I class ships.
The Excelsior class battleships are the technological terrors of the Federation. They have all the most advanced equipment that the military industrial complex can churn out. They carry a war load that Is incredible by any standard. They carry more phasers, more torpedoes, shields that eat a lot of damage and transwarp drive. Though the Excelsior Mk. I configuration in a mix of different range phasers makes the ships awkward to fight. In the end you have to fight her more like an Enterprise Mk III. Don’t power the intermediate phasers until the fight get close in, and even then to bring those extra phasers to bear, you have to dance and side step the ship in tactical moves. That requires keeping a lot of power in the engines. You have to learn to use the ships advantages and disadvantages to your advantage. The awkwardness of the armament led to the design of the Excelsior Mk II that carries a more balanced weapons suite.
Along with the Excelsior class battleships, the Federation deployed another battleship as a hedge against the technology that was thrown into the “Great Experiment”. This new ship would protect against the failure of the Excelsior. The Indomitable class was designed using conventional armament schemes and mature technology. Indomitable Mk I have a weapons suite that was in line with the Excelsior Mk I except the medium range phasers. This makes for an easy transition for a crew that had previous service on a cruiser. The Indomitable Mk II was designed with a more advanced main computer and an increase in firepower.
Even the mature technology can hold its own in the TMP era. The Constitution class is evidence of this. In its last Mk IV refit the Constitution continues to be a viable ship when you use combat tactics. She is an even match for the Reliant Mk I type ships. Even before the Four Years War, the Constitution class was the premier exploration and combat ship of the Star Fleet. The Constitution Mk I was one of the few ships that could stand toe to toe with the Klingons in the early stages of the war, but their exploration capabilities meant they weren’t destined to stay on the line. They were sent out to look for ways to out flank the enemy. Though by the time they returned from these missions their weapons tech had been outdated. The Mk II was fitted with the new phasers and photon torpedoes that replaced lasers and accelerator cannons. The next step in the evolution of the Constitution was updating engines and computers on the Mk III type. The final Mk IV refit of the class was geared toward improving weapons, shields and power. This has kept the Constitution Mk IV a potent ship that can still be effective against most enemy cruisers. The final development of this class was the “administrative refits” to the Enterprise class.
We should discus administrative refits. This is an old navy trick of gaining more modern equipment by using the upkeep and refit founds of an older ship. History is full of this method. For example the monitors used by the U.S. Navy in the last half of the nineteenth century. They continued to rebuild the old Civil War monitors over and over by using some of the materials of the previous ship. (I believe this is a good example that supports both the Constitution rebuilds and the Anton rebuilds). The Federation using this method was able to replace both ageing types of the Constitution and the Anton class. So was burn the Enterprise class and the Reliant class.
The predecessor, that the Reliant was born from, was a good exploration ship. Along with the Constitution, the Anton class was responsible in helping expand the Federation and its territory during the “Great Awakening”. During the 2240’s, these ships were some of the most technically advanced ships in the Star Fleet. They were designed with first rate research facilities that are still keep them valuable science vessels. With the good comes the bad, the ship suffers from two major problems in comparison with the Constitution class ships. The Anton is short legged, only able to conduct cruises of three years compared to the Constitution’s ability to remain on station for five years. This meant that he ship had to stay closer to the advancing frontier of Federation space, but the more serious problem was the ship lacked teeth. Its armament was purely defensive when the ships went to space. In the early phases of the Four Year War, the Anton class was simply beat up on the battlefield. The Mk I with its lasers was no match for Klingon disrupters. When the Federation’s new weapons became available, this situation changed. When the Mk II put to space with phasers and more efficient shields her combat abilities were quadrupled. Now the class could stand toe to toe with the Klingons in battle. The last modifications to the class, the Mk IV were post-war modifications that increased power output and firepower a bit more, but the design just didn’t have the ability to install torpedoes without affecting her research ability. This was one of the factors in the next phase of her design history. Star Fleet took the decision to use the old “administrative refit” to produce a new class of ship that solved the issues inherent in the Anton design. The end result was the Reliant class.
The Anton Mk IV is still used by Star Fleet in exploration missions with the secondary role of being used to lead convoys and other duties in the back area that would relieve the newer ships for war service.
Like the Enterprise class, the Reliant Mk I was designed around more advanced technology to produce a cruiser capable of standing up to the demands of service that were expected in the 2270’s. The Reliant Mk I refit was geared to improving the weapons suite of the type and giving the ship a more advanced engineering plant. This including fitting the ship with phasers and more importantly it armed the ships with the photon torpedo that it was dearly needing. The designers centralized the weapons on the distinctive roll-bar on top of the larger saucer. The Reliant Mk II further improved power output and firepower. Now the weapons suite included weapons that were in line with the Enterprise class. While the final Mk III refit was used to improve power output again. These modifications have kept the Reliant a potent military vessel second only to the Enterprise class.
Another example of administrative refit being taken to the extreme is the continued development of the Federation class dreadnaught.
The Federation class dreadnaughts themselves were a development of the Four Years War and advancing technology. When the new phasers and torpedoes were ready to come online it was decided to see what could be done to bring the Heston class of battle-cruisers up to the standard. The Heston was the ultimate example of what could be produced using laser and accelerator cannon technology in a warship. They could stand up against anything in the Klingon fleet including the early models of the D-10 cruisers. The problem was when the Star Fleet started to plan for the updates to the Heston, her problems became apparent to the naval architects that were involved in her design work. The biggest problem is in the power output of her engine plant. While it was adequate to power the lasers, accelerator cannon and shields to an extent, it left no room for maneuver. To solve this issue they added a third nacelle to ship and upgrading the warp engine type. This gave the ship the power to restore some maneuver while being able to bring its new phasers and torpedoes to bear on an enemy. Even though the design goals were met, a new problem was discovered; the third nacelle produced an unstable warp envelope. Though with careful balancing this could be over came. The new Federation class proved to be an effective combat type, but due to its lack of duel capability they were put in reserve and maintained in a ready state in case of war. These were ships of war, not suitable for peace navy.
With no war to fight, the Federation class lingered in reserve, until the Klingons made a move for Organia. This attack into Federation controlled space convinced the Federation Council that a war fleet was just as necessary as an exploration fleet, so approved the reactivation of the Federation class. This was the first step of what would become an arms race that would lead the three major powers onto the cliff of galactic war. The dreadnaughts were being prepared for battle when the Organians forced the peace on the Federation and Klingon Empire. With this action, the Federation and her sisters were once again left to linger at dock, but they were retained in commission. They became the fleet’s dock queens.
As Star Fleet was expanding its forces with new construction and refits, the plans were drawn up for the Great Experiment, but that would be years off and Star Fleet had no capital ships to put to space. Yes the Federation class was available for service, but they were still based on matured technology. Their equipment hadn’t been updated for years and they still operated the old generation of phaser and photon torpedoes. With money for new construction tied up in other projects, the Star Fleet had no founds to construct a new class of desired battleships, so once again they looked to using upkeep founds for use on bringing the Federation class up to standard, but once the design work began it was felt that the problems could be solved in the original design. So began the ultimate administrative refit. The development team started from the Keel up and rebuilt the ships online with the Enterprise class technology. With the new engines and software they were able to stabilize the warp field and make it possible for the ship to use two of its nacelles for propulsion and use the third for power backup. They weapons suite was improved and more importantly the ship was given research capability with the hope that they would no longer be dock queens and hanger whores. The resulting Star League class dreadnaughts were once again the most powerful ships in the fleet. Though the result politically wasn’t what Star Fleet was hoping for. The Federation Council felt that there authority in controlling what goes into the fleet had been challenged. The result was that upkeep founds were cut by fifty percent across the board, now forcing Star Fleet Command to come to them to seek more construction funds and more importantly forcing Star Fleet to seek approval for new projects. They informed Star Fleet Headquarters that they were lucky that they weren’t taking any projects away from them.
This new forced control over Star Fleet, has led to the need for the Fleet to seek cheaper but still effective cruisers. Three different approaches have been taken to meet these new construction limits.
The first approach was the use of producing the best possible cruiser using mature engine technology with a mix of old and new weapons and defense systems. The result was probably one of the ugliest ships in the fleet, but the Benton class has proven to be an effective cruiser that performs along the lines of the Constitution and Reliant classes. The class has constantly been updated through its life cycle, but it was still seen as to expensive to produce in the numbers needed.
So the next approach was the Durrett class. This ship was designed from the start for mass production using mostly mature components and cheaper models of modern design. The result was a cruiser that is extremely underpowered for even its own weapons, shields and movement requirements. This light cruiser is mainly suited to secondary missions such as convoy escort, lines of communication patrols and diplomatic missions. The Durrett is best used in groups if it is to see frontline service in wartime. Its main virtue is that is cheap to produce. She is proof that quantity has its own quality.
The final approach was developed by the Andorians. They put forward a ship using first line components that could be made in smaller numbers but still deliver maximum firepower from the platform. The Andorian approach was recognition of what was already the case since the Four Years War. It was the recognition that the photon torpedo has displaced beam weapons as the main offensive weapon of Star Fleet. The Andor class cruisers once again used a balance of mature systems mixed with a modern weapon to produce one of the hardest hitting ships in the Star Fleet. Her massive torpedo armament can devastate an enemy when the Andor attacks in groups. These ships have proven to be a great addition to the fleet. They would be used to deliver your first strike in a battle action. They would approach fire off all the torpedoes they could bring to bear and fall back under the protection of the more advanced cruisers and battleships of the fleet. These ships would continue to through massive torpedo attacks to keep the enemy force off guard and turned away from the ships that can deliver more precise blows to the enemy.
With the drawbacks of the Durrett class in mind, Star Fleet put forth studies for the development of a more balanced light cruiser. The result of the study was the Ticonderoga class. With the design of the Ticonderoga Mk I the design team took the opportunity to test new ideas in engineering and power management. Using this above and below nacelle placement, in conjunction with software, the designers were able to achieve high warp speeds with more safety and a more effective warp envelope. Along with the improvements in the power plant came the benefit of being able to handle combat systems more efficiently. This has led to the Ticonderoga being an integral part of the defense plans for the Federation. This new ship has been placed into mass production.
As the 2290’s approached, Star Fleet went to the Federation Council and informed them even though the present Star Fleet force was adequate and capable it was facing a situation: Its was operating with designs that were getting long in the tooth. The designs were nearing the design limits of what could be done with them. It was time to start developing new design concepts. With council approval, the naval architects began the design process of a new fleet.
The first result of this new design program was the Constellation class cruisers. This ship was designed to be the ultimate ship on the battlefield. The Constellation was designed to be able deliver enough power to overcome the compromises forced on older ships in power management. The result was a cruiser that could dance across the field and fling a massive blow in torpedoes at the enemy and follow that up in an accurate phaser attack to finish off a wounded ship. For this purpose the ships weapons were balanced to work at similar ranges. The ships systems were all the best that could be bought: advanced computers, heavy shielding, powerful engines, and a reinforced hull. All this has led to a ship that is as nearly expensive as a battleship, but Star Fleet argues the survivability of the new cruiser justifies its purchase and introduction into the present force, because it is the best balanced combat ship in the galaxy!
This is the state of the large ships at present in the Star Fleet.
more to come on the little ships of the navy....