Fed CA Photons

[rlbell]

If you ever played the FASA Star Trek RPG one Fed CA was equal to three D7 in a battle. In SFB/FC 3 on one will leave maybe one crippled D7 and a cloud of Federation debris.

Unless the Klingons roll nothing but 6 on all their dice and the Fed rolls 1s.

Equal to three D7s? That seems a bit off for anyone who's seen ST2. I've never played the game myself, I just like the look of a lot of the ships. Too bad the minis are damn near impossible to find now. I was lucky to pick up a few Orions for a decent price off eBay.

Realize that the Enterprise is at least a first gen CX, in the motion pictures. One Enterprise versus three D-7M's requires a fair bit of luck, as you have to get the first shot, and it has to count-- missing with either photon means that you are crippling, at most, one of the three enemies. Of course, killing three D-7m's is not the problem in the Kobayashi Maru scenario, it is killing three D-7M's with enough ship left to endure the next two waves.

I bought one of the miniatures, but may have actually lost it -- the romulan Winged Defender! Ignoring the painting suggestions, I painted it gold with the feather-like plates coloured red, orange, and yellow on the wings and green and blue on the tail.

[pinecone]

Remeber that an enterprise and a constitution are different ships (the enterprise class is a refitted constitution, and can also be called that), but also in the Kobayashi Maru that they were fighting Katinga's, not D-7's.

[DArc_Tangent]

And, as usual, the movie ST2:WoK missed a couple points in the simulator that were made in the book. There were actually NINE K'Tinga class ships attacking the Enterprise in the initial assault: 3 from the front and 3 from each side. When Savik called for evasive, Sulu pitched the Enterprise straight up and 3 more K'Tinga's appeared from THAT direction. If they had tried to reverse course, 3 more would've appeared from that direction, too. Kirk was manipulating the scenario on the fly against the cadets AND his legendary crew. Remember, it was a test of character...not an actual combat test. There is a book called The Kobyashi Maru which tells the stories of how each of the original crew dealt with the scenario. Very interesting read.

Many races in later years use Photon Torpedoes in the Fasa games. They tended to be low power cost and high damage yield (1:20 for the type the refitted Enterprise was using I believe) but the power and shield system is different and more complicated. In the early years, Klingon ships had nothing BUT Disruptors and they are considered to be a phaser variant rather than a heavy weapon (phasers could actually use the less efficient disrupt setting, as well as stun, but the phased setting, while requiring greater accuracy, hit harder). For table-top games, the SFB and especially FC rules and ship cards are easier to use.

Final note: the K'Tinga was supposed to be equal to an unrefitted Constitution class cruiser.

[pinecone]

So the constitution was better than a D-7, and a refitted Constitution stronger than a katinga?

[Paul B]

I bought one of the miniatures, but may have actually lost it -- the romulan Winged Defender! Ignoring the painting suggestions, I painted it gold with the feather-like plates coloured red, orange, and yellow on the wings and green and blue on the tail.

The Winged Defender? Ah man that's one of the best ones. And you lost it! Darn. Actually my trekkie brother bought a whole box of half-broken miniatures years ago but then his apartment building caught on fire.

I did also pick up some Klingon resin "versions" of some of the ships, but, the quality is pretty crappy quite honestly. Don't recommend it.

Remeber that an enterprise and a constitution are different ships (the enterprise class is a refitted constitution, and can also be called that), but also in the Kobayashi Maru that they were fighting Katinga's, not D-7's.

It's a good thing that Starfleet had a copy of the motion picture, how else would they simulate those three Klingon cruisers?

And Kirstie Allen was soooo much better as Saavik than the girl who replaced her in 3&4.

[Paul B]

Oh, one more question, which relates somewhat to photons.

I checked the rulebook, but couldn't find just what I was looking for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most things in the game, are transparent, except for weapon arming. Is that right? I mean a person can ask, how much power do you have in your Destroyer? But they can't ask "how much power do did you put into your Plasma-S launcher?". Or am I wrong?

[Scoutdad]

Nope... it's all right there in the open.

In Federation Commander, everything is done in the open... including he amount of power used o charge weapons.

Your opponent can ask to see our ship card at any time, and it's marked right there on teh card. That makes it kinda hard to hide...

[markgeorgetwo]

My self i have played a duel against a fed ca i used a photon equipped d7 what mr west has on his web site the doomslayer aD7c and the results where very even.
Another ship i also used was a D7d and you can fire twice with both drones and still be ready to fire the next turn & do not quote me thats four inbound drones while the fed ca is still arming its photons. the other ship is a romulan kestral command ship now thats a differrent story.

[rlbell]

So the constitution was better than a D-7, and a refitted Constitution stronger than a katinga?

IIRC. there were two D-7 variants in the Star Trek III: Starship Combat Simulator game, the D-7A and the D-7M. The D-7A had less power than a Constitution, poorer shields, and fewer weapons of inferior quality. The D-7M (K'T'Inga class) has photon torpedoes (fore and aft) that do almost as much damage as the constitutions' pair of forward firing photon torpedoes (15 vs. 8 + 8 ) and the D-7M's torpedo has a much longer range and better to-hit. Its a toss-up whether the constitutions' phasers are better than the D-7M's disruptors, but neither vessel has the power to fully employ them. The D-7M has comparable shields and power, but a lower movement cost. Constitution vs D-7M battles require the constitution to close to where the photons can hit, but the wide disruptor arcs and aft firing torpedo make for the D-7M easily keeping the range open, even without the lower movement cost.

The Enterprise class has more power, better weapons, and better shields, gives it the power to blow away a single D-7M, in a single alpha strike, and not suffer much damage in the exchange. Three D-7M's is a really tough fight for an Enterprise and three waves of three is certain destruction; unless, you can cheat, like Kirk.

[USS Enterprise]

A: Kirk didn't cheat, he was just smart.

B: 3 Klingon D7's would bee a tough fight for 1 heavy cruiser, oh wait, unless your Kirk, in which case, piece of cake.

[jeffery smith]

the Fed CA has 4 photons because thats how SVC designed her. the nov '75 edition of the "SFTM" says "main phasers: 3 banks / 2 each , photon toprpedoes: 2 banks. doe's that mean that their are no other phasers aboard the ship or that their are only 2 photorps total on the ship? no of course not but if you watch the show you will see that either the photorp is a high yield /low power rapid fire weapon system or that the launchers were placed in pairs.

as for FASA they were licenced for the "movie era" which has a well defined shooting model (18 phasers and 2 photorp launchers and has no relevence where this game is concerned). which they never got right.

if i remember correctly the USS Defiant NCC-1764 was shown having rear firing phasers and an aft photorp launcher in the "in a mirror darkly" epsiode of ST:Enterprise. which just goes to show that writers will change things for the needs of the story.

with that in mind SVC chose to set a design standard for this game. i hope this answers your question.

[Dal Downing]

the Fed CA has 4 photons because thats how SVC designed her. the nov '75 edition of the "SFTM" says "main phasers: 3 banks / 2 each , photon toprpedoes: 2 banks. doe's that mean that their are no other phasers aboard the ship or that their are only 2 photorps total on the ship?

Hmmmmm.....

Fed CA deck plans were published before SFB was published. They show four photons. Franz says "two banks of two".

So the answer is yes?

In the end what is said or published elsewhere doesn't really matter to the SFU because SVC and SPP made a decision to creat a stable background and technical system that would stay consistant for what... 30+years now.

To bad some other shows or game systems can't say that...

[jeffery smith]

oh so very true!