After recently watching the Blakes 7 repeats on Sky, here's what I can
remember.
The Liberator is armed with neutron cannons, either 3 or 4 depending on
whether the fourth middle and smaller prong is also a weapon. These seem to be
very devastating weapons with one blast destroying a typical federation ship.
They are all fixed forward firing weapons.
For defences, there is a force wall which is switched on just before an attack
hits and then turned off afterwards as it seems to place an undue strain on
the energy banks.
The auto-regenerative circuits seem to be able to restore the ship from
almost any level of damage as long as they still remain active. The perfect
example of this was the recovery of the ship after single handedly holding up
an alien invasion fleet for a few hours until the federation battle fleet
arrived. The damage incurred was enough to render life support inoperable and
all the crew had to abandon ship, but were picked up when the damage was
fixed. Of course the exception to all this was the funny liquid which fixed
itself to the hull and eat through the entire ship. After destroying the
computer systems, the ship eventually disintegrated once it's engines were
engaged.
The Liberator was also the only ship (until the Scorpio fortuitously turned
up) that had teleport facilities. Thus making ship boarding and planetary
expeditions a great deal easier.
Federation ships had a lot less detail revealed about them, but they seem to
have either 1, 2 or 3 (depending on ship size) main weapons. These where
plasma bolt launchers, relatively low velocity weapons, which in some episodes
were outrun and in others outmanoeuvered.
Weapons fire generally is very draining on a ship's energy banks.
Federation ships seemed able to fire off a half-dozen or so shots before
having to recharge. The Liberator was similar but usually managed more shots,
because it was advanced alien technology or some other PSB.
On a final note regarding FTL. In the Blake universe, ships that can exceed
the speed of light do it by a method called time distort. This is never
adequately explained, however they still remain in the same physical universe
and can engage in combat with ships moving below light speed.
As I'm just starting to watch series 4 (ie after the destruction of the
Liberator), maybe I can get some info on the successor ship - the
Scorpio if anyone's interested.
> k.g.mclean @ cqu.edu.au (Kevin Mc Lean.) wrote:
> This is all from memory but...
> At a guess it is probably about TOS Enterprise sized, but only
[...]
> All this leads me to suggest that 'roughly' the Liberator would be a
> Mass 60
> Argument could also be made for giving it armour 3 instead of shields,
> In any event it's horrifying in points terms, but would probably make
> Thoughts????
Hmm, well here's what I remember:
1) Liberator is BIG - at least twice the size of the largest Federation
ships.
2) She's also FAST - the only Federation craft that can come close to
her speed are the small advanced persuit ships Travis uses. 3) Liberator is
very highly automated, and given time can repair fairly major battle damage.
During a single battle, this is probably best represented using extra DCPs,
but in a campaign game she should be able to repair structural damage as well.
4) Liberator's "force wall" can absorb a number of hits from Federation plasma
bolts. 5) Her main weapons are 3 large "Neutron Blasters" which can do serious
damage to a Federation persuit ship. 6) Her sister ship (DSV1) is also armed
with missiles which are capable of destroying her. It is possible that
Liberator (aka DSV2) was also armed with missiles, but that these were used in
the battle which forced her original crew to abandon ship (before Blake and
co. were put on board). 7) Although superior to Federation ships, Liberator
has one major problem: endurance. Running at full speed, operating the force
wall and firing the neutron blasters all drain massive ammounts of energy from
her energy banks. In "stand up fights" the Federation's most succesful tactic
has been to try to force Liberator's crew to deplete her energy banks. In one
episode, the crew try to conserve energy by keeping the force wall turned off
until just before a plasma bolt hits, and turning
off immediatly afterwards - this works, but has obvoius risks.
To simulate this, you could say that Liberator has an energy bank with X
points in it, and the following all use 1 point of power.
- Each turn in which more than 50% thrust is used
- Each neutron blaster shot
- Each turn in which the force wall is used continuously.
(acts as lvl 3 armour) To 'blip' the force wall, you could roll a die for each
shot that hits:
1,2 Hit with force wall turned OFF - ouch !
3 Hit with force wall turned ON, but used a point of energy. 4,5,6 Hit with
force wall turned ON (but no power used). If you're feeling generous, you
could let Liberator recharge her energy banks by 1 point on any turn where she
doesn't use any thrust, weapons or the force wall.
What do you think?
> Kevin Mc writes:
@:) At a guess it is probably about TOS Enterprise sized, but only @:)
required a crew of seven to operate.
I don't know what would have given you this idea. I would have assumed that it
was significantly smaller than the Enterprise, whatever the crew size. In
fact, I think the center hull part was probably significantly smaller than the
enterprise hull (the stick part, not the round part).
@:) Oh, it was also very fast and maneuverable.
I've been waiting for someone to remember exactly how fast it was -
it could do something like "mark past twelve" or "twelve past factor seven" or
soemthing like that. There was a twelve in it, and the measurement was
otherwise obviously meaningless, that's all I recall. Surely there's a B7 fan
out there somewhere who can enlighten us.
@:) Argument could also be made for giving it armour 3 instead of @:) shields,
Kra'vak movement and rationalising railguns as its beam @:) weapons.
Well, it was built by aliens - so the Kra'Vak thing would make
sense.
@:) All this leads me to suggest that 'roughly' the Liberator would be @:) a
capital class ship of:
@:)
@:) Mass 60 @:) 2 AA Batteries F @:) Level 3 Screens @:) 2 A Batteries PFS @:)
2 PDAF @:) 1 ADAF @:) 3 Extra DCPs @:) Thrust 6.
I can't believe I'm going to nit pick someone's guess about a ship that I
haven't seen in ten years but here I go (sigh): I already suggested that it
should probably be smaller. There's no evidence that I recall of it's being
able to fire in any direction except F.
It had three nacelles, each of which contained an engine - and I think
a weapon as well, right? If so that would be a good argument for giving it 3
AAs instead of the AAs and the As. PDAF? ADAF?
Fighters? What are those? Thust 8, definitely, if not thrust 9 - the
Liberator was, hands down, the fastest ship in the galaxy and was in fact
faster than anything human engineers could ever hope to build. I think the
screens are a bit high because while it was pretty tough, it was far from
invulnerable (which is what level 3 screened ships tend to be). Well, that's
my $.029
@:) In any event it's horrifying in points terms, but would probably @:) make
a good ship to put in a demo game where five or more smaller @:) ships try to
tear it to pieces...
717 points sez the ol' spacedock applet. A little high, but that's because of
the 3 screens and high thrust for a capital ship. For 587 points, you can
purchase the following:
Liberator:
Military (FTL) Class: Capital Mass: 42 Thrust: 8 Cost: 587 FTL: Normal 3xAA
Megabattery 2xScreen Generator 3xDamage Control Party
which gets you a ship that (to my mind) fits the show better AND it's cheaper,
too. What a bargain!
Kevin wrote,
> At a guess it is probably about TOS Enterprise sized, but only
Crew of six -- IIRC, Blake's "seventh" was the ship's computer.
> All this leads me to suggest that 'roughly' the Liberator would be a
I don't remember there being any fighters in the Blake's 7 universe, so I'm
not sure about the *DAFs. Otherwise, that looks like a decent approximation.
Another approach could be to use Kra'vak railguns to simulate the Liberator's
advanced weapons.
> FieldScott@aol.com writes:
@:) Kevin wrote,
@:)
@:) > At a guess it is probably about TOS Enterprise sized, but only @:) >
required a crew of seven to operate.
@:)
@:) Crew of six -- IIRC, Blake's "seventh" was the ship's computer.
You've mispelled it. It's ORAC.
joachim wrote,
> @:) Crew of six -- IIRC, Blake's "seventh" was the ship's computer.
Actually, I meant IIRC, as in "If I Remember Correctly..."
I couldn't remember the computer's name.:)
> I would have
It's all relative. If you want the Federation to have only escorts, then I'd
make the Liberator a cruiser. If you want the Feddies to have cruisers, then
Liberator should be a battleship.
> There's no evidence
I believe you're right. Was this true for the Feddie ships as well?
Hmm...a
game where all ships have only F-mounted weapons...talk about putting a
premium on maneuvering!
> FieldScott@aol.com writes:
@:) joachim wrote,
@:)
@:) > I would have assumed that it was significantly smaller than the @:) >
Enterprise, whatever the crew size.
@:)
@:) It's all relative. If you want the Federation to have only @:) escorts,
then I'd make the Liberator a cruiser. If you want the @:) Feddies to have
cruisers, then Liberator should be a battleship.
Sure but let's not confuse federations here. I guess it never occurred to me
that the Liberator might be similar in size to the USS Enterprise. I always
assumed it was smaller and, I guess, that the B7 Federation ships were smaller
still. Upon further reflection I find I have no good reason to think this
except that the B7 models were significantly less detailed than even the TOS
Enterprise model.
@:) > There's no evidence that I recall of it's being able to fire in @:) >
any direction except F.
@:)
@:) I believe you're right. Was this true for the Feddie ships as
@:) well? Hmm...a game where all ships have only F-mounted
@:) weapons...talk about putting a premium on maneuvering!
Uh oh! There's no evidence for that either! Once again we find
that TV shows are not the best sources for war games - especially when
they're produced by the BBC.
SNIP
> It's all relative. If you want the Federation to have only escorts,
Hmm...a
> game where all ships have only F-mounted weapons...talk about putting a
I'm astounded that I remember this (never having seen B7 since the
original broadcasts), but I do :-) When the alien fiends (from
Andromeda, I recall) were being inexpensively dealt with by overheard tactical
transmissions, I remember one transmission mentioned the battlecruiser
"Newton".
And Ernie Bilko's serial number was 15042699
:-)
I watch too much telly!
Cheers,
Just a note of thanks to everyone who helped reconstruct several versions of
the Liberator for my demo game. I'll probably go with the 42 mass version, but
I might throw in Kra'vak drives so that it can really use those forward arcs.
To echo Joachim's words, it has also been a source of unending mirth to me
also. Hell, on the subject of perving on Servalan, I even netscaped around
until I could find a picture of her to put up on my sci fi corkboard...
Regards,
In message <v01530500af44efcc72ce@[138.77.13.41]> k.g.mclean@cqu.edu.au
> (Kevin Mc Lean.) writes:
You sad man.
...Did you find pictures of Jenna and Cally?...
In message <199703052316.SAA20005@sparczilla.East.Sun.COM> Joachim Heck
> - SunSoft writes:
No, it was Zen. Orac was the perspex box. B7, mostly, consisted of Villa (a
role model if ever there was one), Avon, one other bloke, two women, Orac and
the ship's computer.
Now there was a real sci-fi prog which got out of the studio and
into some gravel pits, where sci-fi belongs...
> David Brewer writes:
@:) > @:) Crew of six -- IIRC, Blake's "seventh" was the ship's
computer.
@:) >
@:) > You've mispelled it. It's ORAC.
@:)
@:) No, it was Zen. Orac was the perspex box.
Wow, bonus points to Mr.Brewer! Unfortunately, Zen isn't as good of a pun on
IIRC as ORAC is. Not that ORAC was much of a pun to begin with. Anyway I never
understood why they had two computers, especially since whenever things got
serious they'd plug ORAC into Zen and he'd take over. Or something.
@:) B7, mostly, consisted of Villa (a role model if ever there was @:) one),
Avon, one other bloke, two women, Orac and the ship's @:) computer.
Hmm... let's see. Avon was the leader of "Blake's" Seven - Blake
died pretty early, first season I think. Villa was a main character but was
always kind of lame. There was Kally and someone mentioned Jenna but I'm
thinking she came in later with that Federation guy... Tristan or Trent or
some such. Anyway, there was also the big brawny guy who got a door dropped on
his head in their first "Assault on a Starbase" episode and died.
Oh, and Avon is my hero because he is the second best computer hacker in the
Federation. Who's the best? "The guy that caught him."
@:) Now there was a real sci-fi prog which got out of the studio and
@:) into some gravel pits, where sci-fi belongs...
Could somebody please explain to me why the bad guys never heard the immensely
loud orchestral "hit" that accompanied the crew members teleporting in three
feet behind them? If they hadn't had those big bulky helmets there would
probably be a lot more Federation guards alive (or should I say conscious)
today.
Throwing in my two cents on Liberator...
As I recall, she was armed with neutron blasters (which had to be "cleared for
firing") and missiles called seekers. The seekers were not considered main
weaponry. I recall an episode in which they threw out a few seekers just to
make their opponents waste time and energy killing them. The main defense was
an ablative force shield called a force wall and it could be set to
"interlock" or "overlap" and it could be at full strength in one place and at
zero strength in another (in one episode, someone sets the controls wrong and
"leaves her keel exposed.") The neutron blasters were only fired forward. In
one episode, going to full power and emergency speed, I believe they got
Liberator up to speed standard by twenty. Liberator is armored with a hull
made of Herculanium, the hardest substance known to her creator's science. As
everyone knows, she is also equipped with teleport equipment, which I don't
think can teleport through force walls as I don't remember their ever being
used in combat.
As for Federation ships...
The Fed vessels are called pursuit ships and are equipped with weapons called
plasma bolts which seem to fire a round bolt of high energy plasma in a
straight line which can be outrun or dodged. Even though they were generally
referred to as pursuit ships there were differences between classes. For
example, the earliest of encountered pursuit ships were not force wall
equipped while later ones were. I clearly remember an episode in which somehow
Tarrant and Dayna destroyed a pursuit ship by making it fly through its own
force wall... Also, the villian Travis commanded a pursuit ship (leader?) that
held its fire while the other two pursuit ships systematically pounded down
Liberator's defenses. When Liberator tried to ram Travis' ship, his vessel
fired a simultaneous salvo of four plasma bolts.
While there are no fighters that I've seen in the Blake's Seven universe,
there are extremely small craft called "gunships" used for insystem patrols
and other coast guard type duties by minor powers that seem very close to
them.
Both Liberator and Federation pursuit ships relied heavily on accumulated
power in power banks rather than on produced power from their powerplants.
They would fill these banks outside of combat and then drain them to conduct
the high energy maneuvers and weapon firings necessary in combat. There are
several episodes that mention that they are low on power from running from
large groups of Federation pursuit ships and haven't had a chance to build up
juice again. Federation pursuit ships are typically seen in groups of three
but as Liberator became more and more of a threat, we
were told of (from off-screen or perhaps we saw blips at a distance) the
federation deploying pursuit ships in larger strengths, presumably still built
on groups of three. Fleets of pursuit ships participated in repelling
the would-be Andromedan invasion. Other classes of ships were mentioned,
such as scout ships and cruisers, leading me to guess that pursuit ships fill
a role akin to the destroyer.
James