Not to go into any particular universe here, but it seems to be fairly well
accepted that a single large ship isn't really a viable long term strategy.
Needle Beams reduce the large ship to a hulk
on a ballistic path. A small force can take out a _much_ larger
(by NPV) force with this tactic. The trick is to make your larger ships be
small enough that the disadvantages of the needle beam outweigh the
advantages. I personally think a BDN is about the biggest ship that fits these
criteria, although I have been known to play with an FSE SDN just so I can use
my miniature.
> Not to go into any particular universe here, but it seems to be fairly
I wasn't terribly claiming that it was myself. The Dreadplanet Roberts class
vessel(s) is(are) owned by a starfaring race that has access to a number of
other ship types ranging from fast cloaking escorts (skirmishers in their own
way), fast armored needle battlecruisers, and a large fleet of conventional
sized (or a little larger) dreadnoughts and carriers. The DPR itself is fairly
rarely seen.
> Needle Beams reduce the large ship to a hulk
This works better with huge battleships than it does with huge carriers, in my
experience. I've done this to huge battleships, but the fighters typically
prevent it from happening to a huge carrier. Of course, there's a number of
background assumptions involved here as well.
> A small force can take out a _much_ larger
Depends on the scale you're working with. If you're playing with relatively
small task forces then yeah, that's about the case... but if you're playing
with a bit more scale (in our range) then you're probably giving up more in
the low-threshold department by keeping your ships below BDN size than
you would be in making them more vulnerable to needle beams by making them
larger.