Post by talkos on Jan 9, 2011 2:33:44 GMT -5
Well, given the success of our first attempt, I decided to do a quickie build of several Star Trek ships. My goals were to stick as close to the spirit of Star Trek, without having to tweak the CB rules(in hindsight I should have at least tweaked a little to help simulate the prevalence of aft firing weapons). I was moderately successful, although there were a few quirks that I had trouble with and some things that were more successful than others. Anyways, please forgive the shoddy cell phone pictures and don't judge on the micro machine ships, lol.
The Federation Constitution class battlecruiser Coral Sea is due in for refit and upgrade. She was scheduled to be replaced along the Klingon border by the Miranda class cruiser Athens. Due to high tensions between the powers the Athens was sent early, with only a partial rollbar. The two ships received a distress signal from the edge of the Neutral Zone at Stardate 8205.6. What they found however was a Klingon battlesquadron and a debris field. Two Birds of Prey escorting a D7 Battlecruiser, later identified as the D'goth, Logh'pach and the Korvat respectively, turned to engage.
Federation Goals: Either destroy the D7 which will force the Birds of Prey to disengage, or both Birds of Prey, and escape from the D7(get out of range and have a higher velocity)
Klingon Goals: Crush the human ships! Drink their blood! Make gagh cups of their skulls! Bring home their shattered hulks to decorate the halls of Qo'noS!
The opening salvos at range begin, with the Federation ships attempting to hold the range and fire phasers broadside. The Klingon Birds of Prey accelerate.
The initial approach.
The first pass sees the Coral Sea take minor hull damage, as well as the Logh'pach. The surprise factor of the Klingons allow them to take the initiative, and both BOPs are firing into the stern of the Coral Sea. Damage control crews race to repair the torpedo launchers damaged as subsystems fail. The return phaser fire is concentrated on the Korvat, scoring some minor hull damage, but without the photon torpedo salvo they are unable to cause significant damage. Rear phasers hit the Logh'pach, and cut through the ship's relatively weak shields. The torpedo tubes are brought back on line by heroic efforts of the engineering crew.
The Federation ships regain the initiative and are able to bring the Klingons into broadside again, although the Coral Sea will once again suffer a concentrated assault by the Klingon Squadron, cutting through its shields and causing significant hull damage. Return fire scores the Logh'Pach and the Korvat.
The Bird of Preys swoop ahead, but now the Federation ships have a chance to retaliate, as the Logh'pach overshoots. Accurate phaser fire from the Coral Sea knocks out the Logh'pach's shields, followed by a volley by the newly repaired photon torpedos, and the phaser fire and photon torpedo from the Athens finds her way home. The Bird of Prey explodes.
A shot of just after the Logh'pach is destroyed, as you can see, the Klingons are ready to make another close in pass.
The Coral Sea and the Korvat close to within knife range, but a lucky bridge hit prevents the Coral Sea from firing its weapons. Accounts from survivors allows us to paint a crude picture of what happened. A heavy disruptor bolt cutting through shields and armor, vaporizing the command staff. The Chief engineer, fourth in the line of command assumed control of the ship, attempting to jury rig a secondary command console from main engineering, and by all means the man was said to be a miracle worker, as within minutes the ship was again firing.
The Athens, in an attempt to cover the damaged Coral Sea made a direct run at the incoming Bird of Prey, cutting through its shields and damaging their disruptor banks. The D'goth would now be limited to a single photon torpedo launcher, and yet as characteristic, the Klingon Captain declined to engage.
Two weary juggernauts square off for one final round. While the light ships fight their own deadly game.
The Coral Sea and Korvat continued to exchange blows, and it seemed as if the Coral Sea was getting the better of the standoff, however the damage from the previous attack runs was staggering, Klingon disruptors would continue to damage subsystems, only to be repaired by the heroic engineering staff. It was at this point that the Athens lost contact with the Chief Engineer of the Coral Sea(Engine crit), the Athens turned back to support, and was able to destroy the crippled Bird of Prey, but a final volley from the Korvat destroyed the Coral Sea.
At this point both sides opened the distance. The Klingon ship heavily damaged, but too heavily shielded for the Athens to pursue without abandoning any hope of searching for survivors.
There were a few things that I'd change a second time around. I make two versions of the Constitution, one a Battleline and one a Flagship variant, as well as two versions of the Birds of Prey, a 90 ton wonder and a 123 ton Cruiser. This time I used the Flagship Connie which didn't have quite enough umph, and the 123 ton BOPs which felt just a little bit too beefy. Also, given that the Federation really doesn't have a good RDF counter for them, I might make them stealth to reflect their cloak, because by the end they were going pretty ridiculous speeds and just essentially circling in place, once they got above 20 speed it was a given that they would always have a good firing solution on the same shield facings. Or else use the optional speed limit rules since Trek doesn't have constant acceleration, just full impulse as the cap. But that really helped the Klingon player concentrate fire, something I had a hard time doing with the Federation ships, despite wide firing arcs, they'd jump into knife range, take a few licks and then let the other BOP come in close next time. Then again, I had the initiative most of the time, and was able to usually turn and keep them out of my rear facings....except when the dice failed me(several times despite the +3, though they came through for me pretty well on the Damage Control checks, the engineer must have truly been a miracle worker, lol)
Although the fact that I had some aft firing phasers on the Connie did help negate the BOPs, it also reduced her full strike power, given that the photons were F only(another thing fixed on the Battleline version as opposed to the Flagship version).
In general, shields were in the low 20's for all but the Birds of Prey, which were in the teens, which was probably a bit low. On the other hand, anything more and the Klingons would have had trouble breaking through with their disruptors. If not for that Bridge hit as the two ships passed within one hex of each other, I think the Coral Sea might have been able to take the D7 with her. All in all it wasn't too bad, the Klingons outweighed the Federation by about 80 tons or so, so I could have dropped in a light ship, but couldn't really think of one to put in there that made sense for the setting.
They also needed more weapons than I gave them. This dragged on with turn after turn of shield breakthroughs and light hull damage. But hey, live and learn(not to mention improve)
And yes...we realized afterward that we had created a setup eerily similar the Kobayashi Maru scenario. lol
The Federation Constitution class battlecruiser Coral Sea is due in for refit and upgrade. She was scheduled to be replaced along the Klingon border by the Miranda class cruiser Athens. Due to high tensions between the powers the Athens was sent early, with only a partial rollbar. The two ships received a distress signal from the edge of the Neutral Zone at Stardate 8205.6. What they found however was a Klingon battlesquadron and a debris field. Two Birds of Prey escorting a D7 Battlecruiser, later identified as the D'goth, Logh'pach and the Korvat respectively, turned to engage.
Federation Goals: Either destroy the D7 which will force the Birds of Prey to disengage, or both Birds of Prey, and escape from the D7(get out of range and have a higher velocity)
Klingon Goals: Crush the human ships! Drink their blood! Make gagh cups of their skulls! Bring home their shattered hulks to decorate the halls of Qo'noS!
The opening salvos at range begin, with the Federation ships attempting to hold the range and fire phasers broadside. The Klingon Birds of Prey accelerate.
The initial approach.
The first pass sees the Coral Sea take minor hull damage, as well as the Logh'pach. The surprise factor of the Klingons allow them to take the initiative, and both BOPs are firing into the stern of the Coral Sea. Damage control crews race to repair the torpedo launchers damaged as subsystems fail. The return phaser fire is concentrated on the Korvat, scoring some minor hull damage, but without the photon torpedo salvo they are unable to cause significant damage. Rear phasers hit the Logh'pach, and cut through the ship's relatively weak shields. The torpedo tubes are brought back on line by heroic efforts of the engineering crew.
The Federation ships regain the initiative and are able to bring the Klingons into broadside again, although the Coral Sea will once again suffer a concentrated assault by the Klingon Squadron, cutting through its shields and causing significant hull damage. Return fire scores the Logh'Pach and the Korvat.
The Bird of Preys swoop ahead, but now the Federation ships have a chance to retaliate, as the Logh'pach overshoots. Accurate phaser fire from the Coral Sea knocks out the Logh'pach's shields, followed by a volley by the newly repaired photon torpedos, and the phaser fire and photon torpedo from the Athens finds her way home. The Bird of Prey explodes.
A shot of just after the Logh'pach is destroyed, as you can see, the Klingons are ready to make another close in pass.
The Coral Sea and the Korvat close to within knife range, but a lucky bridge hit prevents the Coral Sea from firing its weapons. Accounts from survivors allows us to paint a crude picture of what happened. A heavy disruptor bolt cutting through shields and armor, vaporizing the command staff. The Chief engineer, fourth in the line of command assumed control of the ship, attempting to jury rig a secondary command console from main engineering, and by all means the man was said to be a miracle worker, as within minutes the ship was again firing.
The Athens, in an attempt to cover the damaged Coral Sea made a direct run at the incoming Bird of Prey, cutting through its shields and damaging their disruptor banks. The D'goth would now be limited to a single photon torpedo launcher, and yet as characteristic, the Klingon Captain declined to engage.
Two weary juggernauts square off for one final round. While the light ships fight their own deadly game.
The Coral Sea and Korvat continued to exchange blows, and it seemed as if the Coral Sea was getting the better of the standoff, however the damage from the previous attack runs was staggering, Klingon disruptors would continue to damage subsystems, only to be repaired by the heroic engineering staff. It was at this point that the Athens lost contact with the Chief Engineer of the Coral Sea(Engine crit), the Athens turned back to support, and was able to destroy the crippled Bird of Prey, but a final volley from the Korvat destroyed the Coral Sea.
At this point both sides opened the distance. The Klingon ship heavily damaged, but too heavily shielded for the Athens to pursue without abandoning any hope of searching for survivors.
There were a few things that I'd change a second time around. I make two versions of the Constitution, one a Battleline and one a Flagship variant, as well as two versions of the Birds of Prey, a 90 ton wonder and a 123 ton Cruiser. This time I used the Flagship Connie which didn't have quite enough umph, and the 123 ton BOPs which felt just a little bit too beefy. Also, given that the Federation really doesn't have a good RDF counter for them, I might make them stealth to reflect their cloak, because by the end they were going pretty ridiculous speeds and just essentially circling in place, once they got above 20 speed it was a given that they would always have a good firing solution on the same shield facings. Or else use the optional speed limit rules since Trek doesn't have constant acceleration, just full impulse as the cap. But that really helped the Klingon player concentrate fire, something I had a hard time doing with the Federation ships, despite wide firing arcs, they'd jump into knife range, take a few licks and then let the other BOP come in close next time. Then again, I had the initiative most of the time, and was able to usually turn and keep them out of my rear facings....except when the dice failed me(several times despite the +3, though they came through for me pretty well on the Damage Control checks, the engineer must have truly been a miracle worker, lol)
Although the fact that I had some aft firing phasers on the Connie did help negate the BOPs, it also reduced her full strike power, given that the photons were F only(another thing fixed on the Battleline version as opposed to the Flagship version).
In general, shields were in the low 20's for all but the Birds of Prey, which were in the teens, which was probably a bit low. On the other hand, anything more and the Klingons would have had trouble breaking through with their disruptors. If not for that Bridge hit as the two ships passed within one hex of each other, I think the Coral Sea might have been able to take the D7 with her. All in all it wasn't too bad, the Klingons outweighed the Federation by about 80 tons or so, so I could have dropped in a light ship, but couldn't really think of one to put in there that made sense for the setting.
They also needed more weapons than I gave them. This dragged on with turn after turn of shield breakthroughs and light hull damage. But hey, live and learn(not to mention improve)
And yes...we realized afterward that we had created a setup eerily similar the Kobayashi Maru scenario. lol