Fed CA Photons

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:08 pm

One thing which always bugged me, why does the Fed CA have 4 Photons rather than 2? Franz Joseph's book seems to indicate two. Or is the four supposed to be representative of a higher rate of fire? Or maybe the unrefited CA only has two photons, I don't know, but when I looked at my old SFB SSD books I seem to recall it having four there too (never played SFB, just bought the books for whatever reason).

Dal Downing · Post by **Dal Downing** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:28 pm

From the beginning, or as long as I have played these games,

th Fed CA has always had 4 Photons the same number of Photons appear on all 3 of the FJ Cards (FJ-DN FJ-CA FJ-DD) that will be in Booster 91? (I think it is.) I have heard someone else mention that there were to many Photons on a Fed CA but they could never show me where they dug that fact up.

But to make it short and sweet SFB and FC are Wargames. Why would the Federation field a ship inferior to the Klingons? If you want a challenge delete 2 Photons the 2 Rear Phasers and the Drone Rack on your CA and then try to fight a D7 or D6 even.

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:51 pm

Dal Downing wrote:I have heard someone else mention that there were to many Photons on a Fed CA but they could never show me where they dug that fact up.

But to make it short and sweet SFB and FC are Wargames. Why would the Federation field a ship inferior to the Klingons? If you want a challenge delete 2 Photons the 2 Rear Phasers and the Drone Rack on your CA and then try to fight a D7 or D6 even.

Does the CA have 4 photons because the D7 does? Or the other way around. I don't think there's any canon evidence on how many disruptors a klingon d7 or d6 mounted. Can't recall if we really see them in action in TOS. And the movie-era klingon D7s seem to be using photons.
I know the drone and rear phasers aren't really consistent with TOS, but then again they're not supposed to represent those ships. I believe the drone and others were upgraded later on. Either way, I think it's a safe bet to presume that the CA was the design that all others were judged/balanced against, not the D7.

I get the two photons from the old Star Trek tech manual, which has the Franz Joseph designs in it (CA, DD, Scout, DN and a Tug). The CA therein basically has 6 phasers on the saucer section and 2 photons. Even the Dreadnought, has 5 banks of phasers (10 total) and 2 photons though the DN appearing in the communique has 4 photons. So I'm guessing they just translated the two photons into four for whatever reason.

It doesn't really matter to me. I was just curious really. In the TOS show all phasers and photons come from pretty much the same place anyway.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:16 pm

[Deleted by author. Trying to help. All I did was annoy SVC].
I had stupidly recalled that he had said it was a play-balance issue. It wasn't.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:44 am

In the Elann of troyus episode (I know I'm spelling that wrong), in TOS, The D7 seemed to fire to bursts of two distruptors at a time, while when the enterprise returned fire, it shot 2 bursts of 2 photons.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:53 am

Nonsense. I said no such thing. The CA has four photons because the Paramount-issued blueprints have four photons. Got nothing to do with "balance" or "rate of fire" or anything else.

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:06 am

Steve Cole wrote:Nonsense. I said no such thing. The CA has four photons because the Paramount-issued blueprints have four photons. Got nothing to do with "balance" or "rate of fire" or anything else.

Oh is there another set of ship schematics floating around out there? I wasn't aware of that.

Ravenhull · Post by **Ravenhull** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:11 am

Paul B wrote:
Steve Cole wrote:Nonsense. I said no such thing. The CA has four photons because the Paramount-issued blueprints have four photons. Got nothing to do with "balance" or "rate of fire" or anything else.
Oh is there another set of ship schematics floating around out there? I wasn't aware of that.

Legacy of the old pre-The Motion Picture era.

You could say that the Y-era ships are closer to the FJ designs, but I am sure that wasn't specifically planned as such.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:12 am

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

I'm getting a little tired of people "remembering" my saying something I never said.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:27 am

My apologies.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:12 am

This is kind of funny. A lot of TOS film shows the Enterprise firing 3 photons at a time. Perhaps they were holding one in reserve in case the enemy ship charged or perhaps they were using the power for something else.

DArc_Tangent · Post by **DArc_Tangent** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:14 pm

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

I'm getting a little tired of people "remembering" my saying something I never said.

I believe people may be confusing number of Photon "tubes" as indicating number of photos a ship is capable of firing. The Enterprise in Search for Spock fired 2 torpedoes from one tube a split second apart (the other torpedo bay being damaged). Each bay has 2 torpedo rails and launchers. TOS had many inconsistancies, like proximity fused phasers and getting hit by the equivalent of "90 of our photon torpedoes" and the shields didn't even go down....but hey...what great adventure stories AREN'T exaggerated just a little.

Starfury · Post by **Starfury** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:22 pm

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.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:43 pm

Different games represent different ships as stronger than in others. In star trek legacy, the Defiant class is as strong as a battleship. In star trek armada, it's on par with a bird of prey

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 7:42 pm

Starfury wrote: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.