A new life for the ugly duckling

The AMBASSADOR class seems to be Trek's "ugly duckling", sitting between the mass-produced and almost as capabel EXCELSIOR and the new, big GALAXIE.

Since an AMBASSADOR will be the players ship for my "current Federation" campaing set in 2376 and beyond[1], I am looking for ideas to Re-fit the old ladies. This is what I came up with:



While the EXCELSIOR could be called an apprentice designers work in shipbuilding, beeing all "known and tested" technologie (except her failed Transwarp) the AMBASSADOR is sometimes referred to as the "All prototypes" class or the "Senior engineers wet dream".

Using any new technologie barely (if at all) out of the labs the 50 ships of this class represented no less than 11 different equipment and weapon-loadouts. Thus nobody in the CoE wondered, when the first classwide refit in 2353 consisted of nothing more than bringing the 46 surviving ships to the same status.

With a costly first refit completed in 2056 and therefor not due for another in the near future and an, after the refit undeserved, reputation as difficult to supply and maintain, the AMBASSADOR's found themselfs relegated to second line assignments. While the ship's capabilties were wasted by using them as defence ships and diplomatic transports, the older but more numerous EXCELSIOR class continued to work as an explorer, leading to the AMBASSADOR being re-classified to heavy cruiser in 2370.

When the EXCELSIOR where refitted with new technologies in the "Black Hills" project, some engineering students in their last year where part of the team and made an outline of a similar refit for the AMBASSADOR the base of their yearly project. Initially rejected as "to costly" and "not due another 5-10 years if at all" the project was revived and "professionalised" with what would be known as the Dominion War looming at the horizon.

Due to war-related problems the refit did not start until 2375 when USS LEONIDAS, one of the early AMBASSADOR's docked at Earth Spacedock for repairs. Damaged during the Breen attack it was still deemed usefull to repair and refit her as a testbed.



Basically I took the "LAKOTA" type EXCELSIOR and the SOVERIGN templates from SRM1 and used:

Warp Core and Impuls unit from the EXCELSIOR
Two of the smallest Typ XII phasers to replace the front phaser arrays
The Type IX phasers of the EXCELSIOR to replace the side arrays
Pumped up the shield generator to 800 protection (from 700)

This filled up a bit more than half the available space. I was thinking about:

Adding a third computer and (maybe) a second ODN [Scientific system)
Adding an additional hangar bay [Increasing craft SU but keeping her Size 7) for a Runabout or two
Adding some more Labs


The target is a tough, long range explorer that can defend itself yet is, due to age and slapdash nature difficult to maintain, huge! and diffinitly a "white ship" of 24th century StarFleet.

The idea is to use "existinc parts" used in other mass-produced crafts like EXCELSIOR, INTREPID, GALAXIE or SOVEREIGN[4] etc.



Oh, I need a dedication quote that fits the name. Sure the
"Wanderer if you come to Sparta tell them that you saw us lying here like the law commands" comes to mind but like "Than we fight in the dark"[3] it is a bit too martial for a "white ship"[2]


Thanks for any ideas

Michael



[1] Working name: "The real VOYAGER" ;)
[2] White Ships = Exploration TNG-style
Grey Ships = More aggressiv campain, TOS or DW backgroud
[3] Also attributed to Leonidas. Used with "USS Lysander" in my "grey ship" campaing.
[4] After all they pop up alot lately

Rock and Roll!!! I always thought the Ambassador got a bit short-changed in the SRMs. I asked Steve about it - his line was that Starfleet probably never upgraded the Ambassador since we don't see many of them in the shows, whereas we see tons of Excelsiors. Still, I did some tinkering along these lines as well.

My modifications were a tad less severe. I gave her 750 shields to bring her into line with the uprated Excelsior and the Intrepid, improved nacelles (up to the level of a pre-2373 Galaxy-Class), Type X Phasers - very few starships other than the Sovereign have more than these, so I didn't push it. More powerful warp core (just enough to handle the upgraded systems), Type 7 long-range sensors, extra computer and the uprated photon torpedoes. Makes her a little less tough than you'd expect for such a big ship, but the modifications let her perform well in a fight.

Just wondering, did the Peter David "New Frontier" novels ever address the Excalibur's combat performance in comparison to vessels we have Spacedock stats for? (IE: roughly equivalent shields to a Fill-in-the-Blank Class vessel)

Oh, and I bumped the torpedo spread rating to 8 if it wasn't already there.

IMO, they're much better proportioned than Galaxies. I like them so much that I began my campaign on an Ambassador, the Santa Maria. It was a sad day when her engineering section was destroyed in a one-on-one battle with a Romulan warbird. :(

Okay, the latest stuff on the USS Leonidas:

I stripped her down a bit and changed some systems:

The bigger Typ IX Phasers of the LAKOTA subclass of the EXCELSIOR replace the Typ VIII

She get's the WarpCore, MIE (but two) and shield system of the EX-Refit

A bigger and better Recreational unit (+1 Level) and an extra replicator

Torpedo spread (as suggested) to 8

An externally attached (under the "butt") runabout (The RHEIN)


The dedication quote is:

"Somethings out there! Go and find it!" (from Kipling)


To make things a bit more interesting, she'll not end up in DQ alone:

4-6 transport crafts full of colonists relocated from a environmentally damaged colony will come with her. I am currently converting the Merchant Marine craft to Spacedock.

3 B'Rel class will start the scenario with her. If I am in a friendly mood, one might even make it to the DQ. Otherwise one wreck makes it to the DQ.


Michael