Star Trek: Federation

This post covers Fed ships/tech.  It also covers Fed design philosophy
(as I understand it) and gives examples of several ships.

Design: Federation ships (within SFB) have several characteristics that stand
out when compared to other racial ship designs. The first is a slightly lower
maneuverability and speed when compared to other races. The is that their
weapons tend to have very poor firing arcs. Most weapons on a Fed ship can
fire straight to the front, and little else. They often have blind spots into
which enemy ships can maneuver. The third is their over all ability to take a
pounding. Federation ships tend to have large amounts of space designated to
crew or lab facilities. While this space is seen as a waist by most races it
does tend to mean that a fed ship can stay in the fight longer. Building on
this Fed ships tend to have very good shielding. A fourth note on Fed ship
design is that they tend to mount only the best weapons. Phasers will be type
I or III, rarely will the less effective type II be mounted on a Fed ship.

In converting to FT I would suggest that players mount only A and C batteries
on Fed ships. Good shielding is also a good place to show Fed ship design
preference, so putting some amount of shielding on even the smallest ship is a
good idea. The Fed ability to withstand a pounding is best shown by maxing out
the number of extra Damage Control parties a ship can mount. Other races
should stay away from the DC system. A lower thrust than usual can also help
to show some of the Fed ship design ideas. This however is not a real strong
point and is hard to show in FT.

Fed design shows a good example of a race with lots of money to spend, that
has bought the best systems for its ships, but only designed them to fight
themselves. Their ships are designed to engage a race with
a lot of high quality battery fire (A-batts, so good shielding is
needed). They expect their ships to take internal damage quickly (photons
ignore shields and so DC parties are more important). Poor firing arcs and
weaker rear shielding is acceptable since Fed ships would have a hard time
maneuvering into these blind spots. The 360 Phaser III were added in response
to the Klingons.

One last note on the ship designs below. While all of the above does not apply
to every Fed ship it does give the "feel" that Fed ships have in SFB (IMHO). I
tried to follow this flavor when designing the ships below. They are at best
an approximation and I am sure that many people can do better. I look forward
to hearing your ideas and improvements on this topic.

ramble ramble ramble

New System:

Photon Torpedo (Heavy Weapon) Mass: 3 Cost: 15

The Photon Torpedo has the same effect as the Pulse Torpedo with the following
changes. The Phot Torp may only fire every other turn as it must be recharged
on the "off" turn. It does not take a dedicated Fire Con to fire a Photon
Torpedo. The Phot Torp follows this to hit chart:
        0-6     6-12    12-18   18-24   24-30
         2+      3+      4+      5+      6+

All other rules for the Pulse Torpedo are followed (one arc, 1d6 damage,
ignores shields, etc.)

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A couple of comments on the first post on systems. Each individual weapon
system (phaser. photon torpedo, whatever) should be thought of as a set of
that weapon. So one Phaser I below might represent a two or three of the
weapon actually firing or one photon torpedo might actually be two on any
given ship. The effects are generalized to just one system.

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Addenda (oops)

Phaser: All Phasers may be downgraded to fire as a PDAF as per the
C-batt
rules in More Thrust. Any ship may do this with any Phaser system without
restriction (no dedicated fire con). In SFB Phasers of all types are used for
anti drone (missile) fire, it is just that Phaser IIIs are usually dedicated
to it.

Really, Phasers should be allowed to engage fighters and missiles at there
maximum range and roll a number of dice equal to the amount of dice they would
have rolled in order to damage a ship. Scoring a "6" on d6 as a hit. So a
Phaser I could engage a fighter or missile at range 36 or a Phaser II would
roll two dice at range 12.

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Some ship examples

Fed Fleet

# of systems cost mass

DD

Mass                    20              40      -
FTL                     20              -       -
Drive (thrust)           6              30      -
Dir Scrn 1 25 2 Point Scrn 1 25 1 Phot Torp 1 15 3 Phaser I, 3 arc 1 13 4
Dam. Control             1              10      -
                                       178      10
The Destroyer actually mounts the same weaponry as the CA. However it does not
have nearly the energy needed to operate the systems on it. The above is an
approximation of what a DD would be able to do on any given turn. The Phaser I
is given 3 arcs and represents several different phasers placed all over the
ship,

CA

Mass 40 80 FTL 40 Drive 4 40 SCRN 1 25 3 Dir Scrn 1 25 2 Point Scrn 1 25 1
Phot Torp 2 30 6 Phaser I, 2 arc 2 20 6 Phaser III, 4 arc 2 12 2 Damage
Control 2 20
                                                357     20
Note: because of the Configuration of the CA the Phaser Is fire 180 across
the front (1/2 right & front & 1/2 left).  This is the reason for the
addition of the 360 Phaser IIIs. The CA is the work horse of the Fed fleet.

BCH (New Jersey class)

Mass 60 120 FTL 60 Drive 4 120 Scrn 1 25 3 Dir Scrn 1 25 2 Point Scrn 1 25 1
Phot Torp 3 45 9
Phaser I, 2 arc 		 4	 40    12
Phaser III, 4 arc 3 18 3 Damage Control 3 30
                                        508
Note: the BC has the same Phaser I fire arcs as the CA. The BCH is a stand in
flag ship. It was introduced during the General War when the number of
Dreadnoughts began to run low.

Two of the Phaser Is on the BCH are the 180 CA style. One of the two
remaining covers the Front/Right arc and the other covers the Front/Left
arc.

DN

Mass 80 160 FTL 80 Drive 3 240 Scrn 2 50 6 Dir Scrn 1 25 2 Phot Torp 4 60 12
Phaser I, 2arc 6 60 18 Phaser III, 4arc 2 12 2 Damage Control 3 30
                                717
The firing arcs on the DN are much the same as the BCH. Two of the
Phaser I are 180 arc, two are front/right, and two are front/left.

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That is about it for the Feds. There are a bunch of other ships of course, but
I think I will leave them for another day. The fighter rules especially need
some thought before I go about putting out carrier designs. If you really want
to get into the SFB fleet design you will need to include a rule for Command
Ratings. In SFB the number of ships in a fleet is limited to the number of
ships that can be commanded by the flag ship as expressed by its command
rating. I would suggest that a simple way to show this is to have a ships
command rating be equal to the mass of the ship divided by 10. True command
ships could be created by added an additional Fire Con and increasing the
command rating of that ship by two. Just a thought.

Oh yes, if I was being honest I would admit that one of the reasons that only
these ships made it into design is that they are the only models I have.
Besides, I just intended them to be examples.

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