I had thought this up a while ago, and then Peter Boddy asked for something along this lines, so I figured I'd finally post it.

In Y178 the Cluster Cartel started floating a rumor of a new vessel they were designing to sell to other cartels, the War Dreadnought, it would be the ultimate Enforcer ship and allow the cartels to enforce their whims on their rogue captains, on their neighboring cartels, or even attack the empires close to the WYN Cluster in unopposed assaults. It was truely a misinformation campaign to throw the Klingon ESS, Kzinti WHISKERS, and the Lyran spy service (can't remember name) into a tizzy (and it succeeded with the Lyrans at least).

It is believed that this misinformation caused the Lyran Red Claw Duke to push heavily for the invasion of the WYN Cluster in Y180(?).

Orion War Dreadnought
It is made by taking 2xBRs welded side-by-side like the Orion DCR is made from 2xCR hulls.

It keeps a 3rd warp engine as it's center warp. (so 3x12 box warp)
The wing options would be converted to Drone-B racks. (So it'd keep 2x3 box Optional Weapon groups in the nose).
The phasers would be:
2xFA+L-P1, 4FA-P1, 2FA+R-P1
2xL+RA-P3 (1xP1 maybe?), 2R+RA-P3(1xP1 maybe?), 4xRA-P3

Some other internals would have to be renamed:
6xC Hull as F Hull, 6xC Hull as A Hull
4xShuttle would have to be changed out for APR possibly (8 shuttles is a lot on a DN)
6xCargo could be removed to expand control facilities (so it has 2xBridge, 2xFlag Bridge, maybe add a Probe).

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 10:44 am: Edit

Cool idea, Scott.

Have any ideas for an Orion ACS or DCS? Again, I don't have R8 or R11, so those ships may exist, conjectural or not.

And I really do like the idea of a misinformation campaign on the Orion's part. I think it'd work on more than just the Empires, it'd work quite well on rogue captains and neighbouring cartels too.

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 10:53 am: Edit

Lyran Intelligence Service:

TUFTS

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 11:13 am: Edit

The Orion Double Battle Raider can be found at

http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/sft/images/R8_j2_brd.gif

And I always liked the Orion DN from Starfleet Times #2, as well Loren. ;)

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 06:32 pm: Edit

That's not a war dreadnought; it's a BCH. For a DN, weld a pair of CAs together.

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 08:05 pm: Edit

NO NO NO

For an early war orion DN take a CA and remove the wings, put on a pair of SAL wings add an option to each wing.

50 points of hypable warp is just an obscene thought.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 08:23 pm: Edit

I agree. It's a BCH.

I wouldn't want to invent a "war dreadnought" as separate from a DNL or everybody will want one.

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Monday, July 14, 2008 - 08:34 pm: Edit

What about a medium dreadnought? Like in R9?

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 11:21 am: Edit

I never really liked the double-wide Orion ships. They always make me dizzy just looking at them. Maybe they'd look okay if I got drunk first, but Hey! I don't drink.


Garth L. Getgen

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 11:32 am: Edit

Hehe. The thing that has always bugged me, is when you have a fleet that has a specific set of lines, looks cool... and then you get to the ugly duckling, and wonder... why would they do that?!?!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 02:46 pm: Edit

then you get to the ugly duckling, and wonder... why would they do that?!?!

Well, one things for sure that the story behind it is much more interesting than the ones behind the pretty ships. Red tape and politics tarnishes everything.

As for double-hulled Orions... I can imagin that a particular ship commander/owner is allowed a second LR under his command but no larger ship is being made available. Having a second ship just means double the expenses and possibly losing it to another commander who decides to steal it. But if he welds the two together he gets everything he wants and doesn't risk watching his other LR bail on him in the middle of a battle.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 04:13 pm: Edit

Think of the US Navy welding two ships together or worse the Korean Navy. It just makes you smile at the sillyness involved.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 04:36 pm: Edit

Silly or not, SFB supports cutting and stitching hulls.

The Lyrans and Archeo tholians made the backbones of their General War fleets that way.

"Can I have that Tartar in a 43XL? Thanks."

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 08:47 pm: Edit

LOL...I liked the Tholian and Lyran versions. Didn't mind the OK6 or the mods made to unique ships like the "Hammerfield". I had started to really appreciate the concept of Orion "Pirates" with them and the stories that coincided. At the time I had likened them to the same spunk as that scoundrel Han Solo (who did shoot first) and made a lot of special modifications himself. But was a bit too much when we (SFB'ers) started to submit and generate a whole classes of Orion ships, and later ISC and Gorn, that were "split and welded". It seemed a bit odd even way back then.

And truth-be-told it bothers me less now since the ships get just broken down into simple values like hull type and size class and then made to fit production schedules for F&E.

I would have (back then and I suppose even now) rather have seen more ships modified with warp engines and such. Those salvage cruisers were of course looking for weaponry but why not a few more salvageable add-on type parts. This would have made for a great one page article on Orion ship mods or 2-5 page story, maybe with an SSD thrown in for fun. SVC often works magic with stories (as do some of the rest of you CL writers). I am sure these would have been (or fingers crossed could be) fun to read and fun to write. It adds that flavor SVC tends to season things with now and again for our benefit.

By John C. Barnes (Nitehawke) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 10:12 pm: Edit

Lawrence said:

---

Quote:

that scoundrel Han Solo (who did shoot first)

---

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 10:15 pm: Edit

I stand corrected.