In Captain's Log 51 F&E added rules for the Heavy Police Ships. On the associated SIT the Romulans are listed as using a Klingon conversion of their G6. Do the Romulans have their own heavy police ship as well, or just the KR conversion?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - 01:49 pm: Edit

Thomas Mathews:

Just the G6 conversion.

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 09:46 am: Edit

While not done in history, is it possible for a WYN CA to be converted to a BCH. Thanks.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 02:08 pm: Edit

Colonel Strong:

At this juncture, lets just say "no." Cutting ships in half to add additional systems and then doing it again to add more just seems like a bad idea.

Lets just say that a BCH's stability requires that its structural members be intact, and not cut apart and welded together again. The CW was designed to be expanded into a CA. The BCH design showed up later and there was no intent for the CW design to be expanded into a BCH. And the added length of the BCH design required solid structural members, so an existing CA could not be cut up to insert sections to make a BCH.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 05:12 pm: Edit

That's what a WYN NCA is for....

:D

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Scott Tenhoff:

Technically, the WYN CA is an NCA, since it is made (or can be made) by cutting a CW in half and adding a section. It is just not as efficient as the way it is done with most other empires, which pretty much just added additional bulk without first cutting the existing CW in half.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 05:49 pm: Edit

While I'm NOT a certified welder, I have some training in the subject. Welded metals are essentially two separate pieces that have been joined by melting; a process that throws the crystal structure of the solid materials out of alignment.

This makes the question of whether a conversion can be made something that can be arbitrary; a PSB (an acronym I've heard; it stands for "Pseudo-Scientific Bull$#!t") answer can be, "The needs of the crystalline structure of the main structural load-bearing members do not permit it being welded." Or, if you choose to make it okay, then it's nothing more than the conversions Gorns make when they add a second bubble to their ships.

(TBH, in my opinion, it's the sort of thing that can open up one heck of a can of worms. I mean, if the WYN can do such a conversion, then why can't the Federation?)

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 06:22 pm: Edit

Because the WYN have the secrets of the ancients they discovered within the Cluster that are available to no one else, so only they can do such things, and the secret is closely guarded despite the best efforts of TUFTS, WHISKERS, the Galactic Research Bureau, The Klingon General Bureau, The Galactic Intelligence Agency, and various Orion Cartels to penetrate the secret, none have succeeded. No member of WYN society with any knowledge of the secret is ever allowed to leave the planetary system where the welding is done. And if any of them fail to check in at regular intervals, the Usurper is informed and he will trigger a self-destruct micro bomb that is imbedded into each person who is allowed to know the secret.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Friday, November 15, 2019 - 08:36 am: Edit

Tough gig that one.

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Friday, November 15, 2019 - 11:38 am: Edit

You can do almost anything you want assuming unlimited resources. I think the question is more whether it is economical rather than possible.

You could take a Federation lollypop destroyer, rip off the nacelle, rebuild most of the saucer, add a secondary hull, and put two warp engines on it, and then end up with a CA but it would cost so much and involve replacing so much it would probably cost less to just build a CA from scratch.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, November 15, 2019 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Somebody mentioned putting a lot of troops on freighters in order to see off (and sometimes visit) unpleasant callers.

Yes, I did that. After the "government" outlawed my use of T-bombs and nuclear space mines (not to mention raising the costs and restricting access to them even further, and imposing anti-littering legislation on dummy T-bombs). But I ran most of the convoys and solitary freighters in my "region of space," and had a fairly evil mind. (The result being complaints from the "Gentlemen's Business Association" to the government about my "business practices" interfering with their profits).

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 03:59 pm: Edit

What is it my fault my little freighter was transporting a group of marines on holiday. As well as carrying some illegal firearms.

Just saying.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Gregory S. Flusche:

The point inevitably was that SVC pointed out that all of those "bully boys" I was hauling around on my ships were for the most part drawing paychecks to just sit around and raise the life support costs for operating my freighters. They were basically of no use if I ran into a space monster (although if the space monster concerned ate sentient beings or considered them a nice garnish to the hulls of the ships, at least the monster got something out of it). And they were really only effective at staving off a pirate attack (or boarding an enemy ship) if there were large numbers of my freighters present (in the second case) or help was close to hand (in the first case).

As it happened "historically," most of the battles I fought when using the boarding party ploy tended to be "convoy battles" where the added boarding parties were a big plus (as noted in previous comments on my part, I did manage to capture a very surprised Orion or other raiding ship or two before the local players learned appropriate caution when I was the convoy commander).

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 06:11 pm: Edit

They were just sporting enthusiasts going to a tournament. IPSC to be exact...

Really.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 07:08 pm: Edit

I have to admit, that even back then, I used to wonder what sort of bounties the government would have paid my consortium for "pest removal" (whether it was the use of mines to destroy Orion and raider ships, or boarding parties to capture them). Surely the would have been some incentive to the government to offer honest merchants some stipend for assisting in such manners.

By Andrew Harding (Warlock) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 08:54 pm: Edit

I recall a campaign in which it was possible to upgrade civilian units by spending part of the fleet budget. Strategic speed also depended on the units top SFB speed, so armed freighters could deliver in half the time of standard ones. All hastily fixed after the first convoy battle, which was along the lines of 'my six large armed freighters against your CR and LR...'

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, November 17, 2019 - 11:08 am: Edit

Steve Petrick:

In one sense, the reward for "pest removal" is you got to capture the odd Orion ship.

Done effectively and often, you could build your own Orion Pirate Cartel.

One could imagine a campaign of Such "mercenary auxiliary ships" being deployed against an enemy empire, but sponsored, supported and paid for in a "plausible deniability" manner.

F&E already has rules to hire "Orion Mercenary Ships". By capturing the Orion ships, you effectively cut out the middle man!

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Saturday, December 28, 2019 - 01:16 pm: Edit

General question re: early years Paravians and Gorn...

How in the heck were the Gorn not annihilated before Y105? The inability to launch or bolt beyond 5 is a killer.

We just did single ships and I don't see how a fleet of quantum wave torpedoes could be beaten by a bunch of p-2s and bolts. The Paravian fleet can ballet. The gorns can't even get to decent range unless they're allowed.

What am I missing?

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Saturday, December 28, 2019 - 06:48 pm: Edit

The early years QWTs are weaker then those in the General war what ifs. A lot weaker and no overloads.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Saturday, December 28, 2019 - 10:16 pm: Edit

I'm basing this on section Y from the master rule book. Have they changed?

They're infinitely stronger than range 5 bolted G-torps. Or at least they are at any range greater than 5.

Definitely Gorn would crush them in later years, just based on the main rules. I don't have C6 and am only basing this on the technology they have available prior to Y105.

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 - 12:10 am: Edit

I don't have the rulebook in front of me but I could swear that the range limitation doesn't apply after Y90.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 - 12:41 am: Edit

Yes, QWTs are more powerful in later years as per C6.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 - 02:55 am: Edit

The timeline in G3 says:

Y67: Gorns have Plamsa-F and plasma-G, launchers in use, but can only fire plasma bolts to a maximum range of five hexes, no seeking plasma.
Plasma-F does not have stasis technology (holding cost of 1).

Y105: Gorns deploy seeking plasma torpedoes, PPTs, and can fire bolts to the maximum range of the torpedo, having successfully copied Romulan technology, and extend the range of their transporters to 30,000km.

The Y section in the Master Rulebook doesn't add anything to that. Maybe Y1 says something different? I don't have it since it's not in PDF form yet.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 - 05:12 pm: Edit

Douglas - you might be thinking of "Gorns develop tractor-Y adopted by other empires in Y80, extend the range of their transporters to two hexes. Gorns replace most phaser-2s on bases with phaser-1 s." for the Y90 limitations.

Ginger - don't forget that the early year QWT's only have a strength of 7 at range 0-5 (eMRB pg 450) and have an endurance of 20 impulses. Also, early year QWT's can not be overloaded, downloaded, enveloped or bolted and no grace period after they are destroyed (YFQ1.54).

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 - 06:29 pm: Edit

The Y105 quote is cut and pasted from the rule book.

In a fleet battle 12 QWTs launched at range 15 will do 12-36-12. The gorn have no choice but to get close, so those will probably hit at 6010 for 12-48-12.

Because the gorn have nothing truly useful outside of range 5-ish, they have three choices:

1. Turn off to avoid the torps. It becomes a ballet that they can't win because they have no seeking weapons.

2. Phaser the torps. They have to slow down or have fewer weapons available should the Paravians allow them to get close.

3. Darn the torpedos, full steam ahead! The fight becomes a slower ballet because the Paravians have to kick it into overdrive every couple of turns to open the distance. But by the time the gorn get close, they've lost several ships. EY ships can't take that kind of damage.

Is there a 4th tactic I'm missing?