[CODA] Large Ship Tactical Supremacy

[Kodiak]

This is a question for someone with Starfleet Ops: Given that we now have what can be considered final statistics for the Sovereign, and an equivalent technology small ships, the Saber, how do they compare in combat?
The reason for this question is to confirm that capital ships are still awe inspiring, and any consequences that it will have to the game Eric is working on over in Star Trek Chat.

[Cptn. Taggart]

I always like a good RPG war in space so I have had to create several capital vessels. What i found in the process was that large capital ships are better off giving fire support to squadrons or wings of smaller ships. The smaller ships can be fighters or Sabers or even Intrepids. My players who were also running some Starfleet brass designed the idea around a class of battleship called a Pulsar. They loaded it with phaser arrays and high yield torpedo launchers designed to fire Enhanced Quantum Torpedos. EQTs have a small warp sustainer engine that allows them to travel a maximum of four light years with the same yield of a mark 1 Quantum Torpedo. They topped this off with what was termed a Photon Cannon. A big phaser essentially that held the energy in a pre-fire chamber where it built up and was released for the damage of two type 10 phasers at a range equal to a photon torpedo. After I got done with it I realized that they had built the Iowa Class battleship in space.

The point is that Steamrunners, Mirandas and sabers and the like are the close in fighters while the Soverigns and Galaxies and other big capital ships stand off and plug away with their heavier and in some cases more accurate long range weapons. A big capital ship will always need it's support vessels in any slugging match, otherwise they would be dragged down by wolfpack tactics.

[Snake_Plissken]

I can't understand why some players try to pervert ST, and the RPG at that, into a uber-militaristic setting. There are plenty of proper wargames out there, or RPGs with military settings. There are already enough powerful or over-powered ships in the ST setting like the Defiant, the Sovereign, the Dominion battleship or the Scimitar without having to resort to munchkin designs.

[qerlin]

Hey, it's their campaign, snake. If they want more guns, more power to 'em. It's hardly a perversion of the universe. Krk never met a bunch he didn't want to light up or punch out, prior to a good simplisitic moral speech. DS9, 1st Contact...loads o' fighting.

[Cptn. Taggart]

Just thought I would say that in my campaign the players needed the battleship to face off against the uber powerful foes they would face in the climax. Once it was over the battlewagons were drifting hulks and the powers that be decided not to fund such huge projects anymore. But I like giving the PCs something uber powerful now and then so that I can destroy it later. In the words of one conversation with my players;

Player one: Wow I can't believe you're letting us have the Pulsar.

Player Two: Yeah, we're gonna get messed up bad now.

Player one: Whaddya mean? The Pulsar is the S***.

Player two: Uh-huh. But remember the rule. The GM only gives you the really powerful stuff cause he thinks you're gonna need it.

Me: Is Cpatain Garm still gonna sew that Pulsar patch into his favorite jacket? Hmmm?

Player one: I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

[JALU3]

I Like the idea. Nothing like the Iowa.

Relatively fast for a BB.

Could take hits no Modern Warship could even dream of.

And nothing like 16' Guns to throw a round the size and weight of a VW Beatle at 34 miles away at beach defenses to make your assaulting force smile.

However, back on the subject.

I would like to see the stats on this Ubership.

And to bad I don't have a game in the San Antonio/Austin area which I could join.

How I miss ST RPGING.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Star Trek is a dynamic universe. One in which someone will oppose ideals of said government, thus provoking the government in question to fight to protect the ideals. It is not perverting Trek to have a war going on, it is making that much more real.

[Cptn. Taggart]

As soon as I get the stats into the computer and out of my notebook, I will post it. But it is in Spacedock style, not CODA. Sorry.

[Snake_Plissken]

Lt Cmdr Matt; I'm well aware of how the ST universe works, thank you. Of course the military aspect in ST as always been very important; you have captains, lieutenants, ships named U.S.S. whatever; ships sporting photon torpedoes; crewmen armed with phasers, etc. But it is only part of what ST is supposed to be. When I hear about designs like a federation "super dreadnought armed with 32 multi phasic meta quantum torpedo launchers and 64 trans dimensional blast phasers and with time dilational ablative shields" I say it reeks of munchkinism. Of course if that's the kind of thing people enjoy then more power to them and I respect that. ST after all is about IDIC As a matter of fact sometimes it can be fun to experience with all-powerful stuff. With the old FASA starship combat simulator I once designed a uber-ship equipped with nothing but heavy-damage torpedoes. Was fun!

in fact ...

[Cptn. Taggart]

I don't know why I am bothering to post this. But in my own defense, The Pulsar was built to fight an enemy on par with the Shadows, and the Drakh of B5 fame. There were five of them in all and now after a, "God bustin, mother luvin Navy war." There is but one left and it is mothballed. The heavy weapons it used are relegated to fighting Borg incursions now, and then only the Enhanced Quantum torpedoes remain. The torps were the standard available in Spacedock for quantums and the phasers were Type 11. The Photon cannon had a fire rate of 1/3 which, with its poor fire control, limited it to up close and personal unless facing big ships at range. Like the Iowa it outlived its day and was retired. In the end, smaller, more maneuverable ships with more conventional fire power ruled the day.

[Kodiak]

Thank you for all of your comments. They have all provided guidence on how to proceed.

[Cptn. Taggart]

Sorry we turned your thread into a debate. My fault.