A relatively straightforward upgrade to one of the coolest, if a little dated, ships in the Romulan fleet....

The K9R Behemoth has been around in SFB for a very long time. It remains arguably the best Romulan DN until the introduction of the Condor-H and ROC. However, as time has gone on, both "in" the game and with the advance of years in SFB, the design is showing its age a little.

What I mean by that is the ship is very much a product of it introduction date in SFB. Kestrels introduced in the last decade or so feature subtle improvements that make them more survivable in the drone heavy environment facing the Federation that many of Kestrels served in (if I read the History of the General War correctly). The K9R is big and burely, and with the B-refit, it has a plasma load as good as a Gorn DNF or Rom Condor+. But, aside from copious, almost excessive, loadout of shuttles (to presumeably serve as WWs or SSs), it is actually pretty poor in defensive armament. The cloak is massively expensive and almost unusable. Meanwhile, more "modern" Kestrels like the KDR and KCR feature Pl-Ds in place of Klingon drones that give them a significant boost in the battlefields of the late Y170s and Y180s.

What I'm proposing here is to barrow some of the aspects of the C7->KCR and C8->C10 conversions to produce a uniquely Romulan upgrade the storied Behemoth. A slight boost in power, 2 Ph-1s, and addition of 3xPl-Ds, while giving up 4 of the 9 shuttles and a few other "fluff" internals that replaced Klingon systems on the C9 like cargo and security.

The conversion could be "real" or could have been a Romulan "intention" that was never carried out. Again, based on the History of the General War, Romulan DNs took a beating and those that remained appeared to be in pretty high demand. Its not clear to me that the Romulans could have afforded to take the K9R off the line for this kind of enhancement during a lot of the fighting. They likely needed the ship, even a dated ship perhaps, in the fighting, not in a shipyard getting a few new toys. Also, I'm not sure if there are any late war scenarios currently published that would nail the K9B to its existing configuration in a fairly late year (say Y180+). So maybe this never actually happens, or if it does, it is after the GW and before or after the Civil War. Not sure. But I think it is something the Romulans "could" have done as early as the late Y170s if they could afford to pull the ship into a yard.

Anyway, its an interesting what-if design that was largely modivated by Dale McKee's long-running use of the K9R in our "Day of the Eagle" campaign. The ship has been a heck of a warrior, but we're in the late Y170s, and its getting long in the tooth. Would be nice to see this kind of upgrade available to keep her at the forefront of the fighting in games like ours, even if it would make my own life harder in our particular campaign.

Romulan K9H Heavy Dreadnought

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 11:42 am: Edit

Personally, I always thought it would have been converted into a K9S Space Control Ship, or perhaps a ROC-ized K9P Dreadnought Tender.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 05:13 pm: Edit

I want it.

I do wonder, though, if the two extra ph-1s would be better as 4x ph-3. One of the painful things about the K9B is, every phaser hit kills a heavy phaser...

Just a thought. Otherwise I really love it.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, July 01, 2010 - 12:44 am: Edit

I did considered some Ph-3s in the design, but the natural place to put them, at the waist, would have removed one of the distinguising characteristics pointing to the ship's origin as a C9. Ph-3s there would give the ship more of a C8 flavor.

Besides, I figure on a ship with 16 Ph-1s, you no longer really need phaser padding!

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Friday, July 02, 2010 - 07:03 pm: Edit

I love the K9H. I really do. Except ...

(Ya know there had to be an exception ;))

... the FH boom Plasma D rack. Having a hard time visualizing how replacing the security station gives the rack access to the firing field (i.e to fire into space at a target). Granted my only reference to draw on the internal arrangement is the FASA D7 deck plans, but it can be used as a reasonable source to extrapolate that the forward security/surveillance station is on the deck above the forward scanner dish, then the center line of that deck is bowed up by the scanner dish and thus makes the placement of the rack more difficult to run and maintain. I can more readily see two racks set bilaterally of the scanner hump with LP and RP arcs respective of the centerline.

Of course all this can be ignored by deeming that the former security station was up a deck or that something else was moved to make room for the rack.

Personally I would rather just have the one FH D-rack, so feel free to click ignore.

PHDillman

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 01:04 am: Edit

It doesn't replace a security station. In the C9A, its the location of the SFG. In the C8, its the location of 2 drone racks.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, October 07, 2019 - 04:36 pm: Edit

PETRICK ANALYSIS: Romulan K9H heavy dreadnought. Could not see the SSD, but the concept is simple enough, do a heavy conversion of the K9R similar to a C8K to C8H. I have a memory that the Behemoth was destroyed, but it was in service and active in Y182 as one of the six dreadnoughts remaining to the Romulans. It is somewhat questionable if the Romulans would have had the time to pull it into the shop for an upgrade, but it would be useful. I just have a niggling that there is something somewhere about when the ship was destroyed. There is no mention of it in the Romulan Civil War (T10.0), and no history for it in the Index (although we know it was leading the fourth star legion in Y180 and was still active after Operation Remus in Y182). So the Romulans could have looked into doing one of the four possible conversions [K9H, K9S, K9V (or K9VH, i.e., one squadron of heavy fighters and one squadron of size-1 fighters), or ROK (just adding a flotilla of six PFs and repair facilities)] of it, and we could do the four or five SSDs, but we would need to make a decision on the history of this unique ship if we were to do anything with it, and any of the changes would probably have to be post Remus.

SVC ANALYSIS: okay by me.

FINAL ANALYSIS: In the R13 selection pool.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, October 08, 2019 - 04:20 pm: Edit

SHIP IS SO GOOD IT WAS PUBLISHED IN CAPTAIN'S LOG #47, BUT COULD STILL BE USED IN R13. LOTS OF CAPTAIN'S LOG SHIPS MIGHT GO INTO R13 SO THEY WILL BE OFFICIAL.