Garth,

There are two systems currently habited in the WYN Cluster.

Vanonia System
Vanonia (Major)
Plesetsk (Major)
Kamchatki (Major)
Freeholm (Minor)

Zinfarst
Zinfarst (Major)
Belarus (Minor)
Kostromshya (Minor)
Hyperialis (Minor)

It's in CL37.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 07:02 pm: Edit

Wow, I didn't know that. That's larger than the Hydran capital!

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, December 03, 2021 - 09:31 pm: Edit

There are actually eight systems in the WYN cluster.

By James Cain (Jcain) on Thursday, December 30, 2021 - 11:26 am: Edit

Question: How many parsecs across are the middle years neutral zones?

Background: The F&E map would suggest 500, since that is the size of a hex in F&E. However, in SH134 (Module S2), there are both Klingon and Federation bases in the same system, which might suggest otherwise. Likewise, the map in (T6.0) in Module C1 seems to suggest that neutral zones are more narrow than the size of the WYN Star Cluster which is documented to only be 50 parsecs across according to (R12.1) in Module C1.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, December 30, 2021 - 12:41 pm: Edit

James Cain:

Tyson's Star was an unusual situation which might one day be developed into a history article. Suffice it to say that the situation pretty much developed from the Federation Border Declaration. That the colonies grew in importance. But you cannot draw conclusions about the size off the neutral zones from the system. Both sides have colonies in the neutral zone, Tyson's star is just an extreme case. While the Cluster is 50 parsecs across in its inhabited zone it is still 500 total parsecs across as far as the Klingons, Kzintis, and Lyrans are concerned. Police and patrols skit the edges of the radiation zone to patrol the space without entering the radiation shell.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, December 30, 2021 - 01:01 pm: Edit

You might also consider Sherman's planet. But colonies in the neutral zone exist for both sides. Even the Gorns and Romulans have colonies in the neutral zone.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, April 02, 2022 - 03:14 pm: Edit

SVC,
There have been a couple of you tube videos posted about the Kola inlet, and the fact that both before, during and after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. A large number of hulls (submarines, surface ships, some civilian (spy trawlers) etc...) were left to deteriorate for years unattended.

After Putin assumed power, a number of those ships and subs were repaired and refitted for various purposes. One was made into a museum ship, others were rehabilitated and converted to training ships, a very few were returned to active duty, and still more were sold to client states for use in those nations naval forces.

I know The Klingons did not operate a formal mothball fleet like The Federation did.

My background question is, did the Klingons follow the Russian pattern of beaching ships? When they need a ship, they pick among the wrecks for the best candidate?

No operating costs, no payroll or fixed overhead expenses, the negatives would mean activation costs would be double (or more) for the Klingons compared to the Federation. Going deeper into the inventory, might even increase to costs to activate ships.

Go deep enough, and eventually it would cost more to activate these sort of ships than new construction would require.

The ONLY benefits that I can see would be:
1) destruction of the ship yard wouldn’t prevent reactivation of additional ships (though there should be a limit in place.... perhaps requires a ship repair slot at a star base, battle station, repair ship or FRD.)
2) linear cost progression. Each additional ship is progressively more expensive, but not double or triple the cost of the prior activation.

Would the Romulans be doing the same thing ? Or would obsolete ships be given (or sold) to various great houses?

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, April 02, 2022 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Both the Klingons and the Romulans have a mothball reserve like the Feds. The Klingon one is huge with 70 ships, mostly D6 and F5s. Plus the Imperial War Reserves which add another 33 ships.

The Romulan one isn't as big with only 19 old series ships. But it does have 3 DN hulls in it.

The Feds have 47 ships mainly CL and FF.

I think based on the FED Heavy Cruiser history article the Fed should be be able to double or triple the number of CA's in the Mothball fleet.

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Saturday, April 02, 2022 - 05:27 pm: Edit

Q: Was there ever a CL article on Operation Unity?
I am seeking which empires were involved in each of the three prongs to the LMC.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, April 02, 2022 - 06:44 pm: Edit

Operation Unity is published in C2 and updated in CL30, CL36, CL43

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 02, 2022 - 08:54 pm: Edit

As noted, you are just wrong. The Klingons had the biggest mothball fleet of all.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, April 03, 2022 - 10:29 am: Edit

SVC, the question was not about the existence of the Klingon mothball fleet.

I was asking about how the Klingons operated their mothball fleet.

It appears the federation operates much like the United States uses their mothball fleet. Ships are preserved in a way to minimize deterioration, regular (annual?!?) inspections and security is provided to prevent theft or vandalism.

The real world Russians just abandon the hulls, with no support or maintenance to preserve the ships material condition.

When the Russians select a hull to restore to service (in the examples listed above in my April 2, 2022 3:14 pm post) considerably more work appears to be required to be done than is needed by the United States Navy due to the large difference in the material quality of the individual ships/submarines.

The key phrase you and Ryan missed was “...the Klingons did not operate a formal mothball fleet like the Federation did.”

I wasn’t asking for the Klingons to have a Federation style mothball Fleet. Just asking if it results of their methods should be reflected differently.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, April 03, 2022 - 11:30 am: Edit

Jswile:

Going back to my old Commander's Edition Klingon OOB in (U3.2), I see "Central Reserve (mothball) Fleet", comprised of 24xD6, 12xF5, and 12xE4. The reactivation rules are no different than for the Federation Mothball Reserve: two ships per campaign turn.

Looks to me like they're handled the same. Despite certain parallels between the USSR and the Klingon Empire, one can read too much into it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 03, 2022 - 10:14 pm: Edit

They are, and should be, handled the same. The Klingons are not Russians and we do not have to re-write game systems every time some media source prints another funny story about Putin.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, April 03, 2022 - 11:28 pm: Edit

Good enough!

Thanks for the responses!

By Ryan Opel (Feast) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Shawn

Ask here.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction Ryan.

These are the questions I need guidance on before I start turning my idea into a story:

What is the exact relationship between the Tellarites and the Federation in the period of Y110-Y130? Would it be a stretch to call them associate members or something like that?

If I want to read fiction involving Tellarites, where can I read it?

When did the Federation retire the YCL class?

If I want to read stories involving a WCL/YCL/CL what stories should I read?

Quarantined worlds/systems, where can I read about why and how the Federation decides to quarantine a hostile domestic civilisation?

When was the Prime Directive first formalised? What were the precursors of this policy like?

When did the Federation first encounter plasma weapons? The "Balance of Terror" episode depicts the crew of the Enterprise being surprised by the plasma-R. Does the show depict the first encounter with the plasma-R, plasma weapons, or Romulan ships armed with plasma weapons?

What would a Federation captain know about Romulan armaments in the period of Y110-Y130?

How far would the Federation expect a captain of a starship to go to protect sapient alien life? What would be worth gambling a light cruiser on? What wouldn't be worth gambling a light cruiser on?

How aware was the Federation of its neighbours between Y110-Y130?

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Shawn

I recommend buying the Fed Sourcebook for Prime Directive. I'd buy the GURPS version but they should be the same background.

This will andwer a lot of your questions.

The master starship books will also have some background on ships as well.

By Joseph Jackson (Bonneville) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 09:52 pm: Edit

I recently picked up the Tholian Master Starship Book and was impressed with the amount of information it provided.
Now for Q & A.
If you were a Klingon officer commanding a Battle Station, what rank would you likely be?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Commander K5 or Captain K6.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, August 06, 2022 - 11:49 pm: Edit

You didn't ask but I'm going to throw this one out there for you. *** MY OPINION ONLY ***

The base commander of a Star Base will be a Captain O-6 or one-star Rear Admiral O-7 (aka Commodore). The commander-in-chief of the FLEET based at / supported by said Star Base will be a three-star or four-star Admiral O-9 / O-10.

Likewise, in battle, the commanding officer of the Fleet's Flagship will be a Captain or one-star Admiral, whereas the Battle Fleet commander will be a two-star or three-star Admiral O-8 / O-9 assuming there's a CC/DN/BB with flag bridge. Otherwise, smaller battle forces (i.e., squadrons) would be commanded by a one-star or just the senior Ship's Captain.


In general, the commanding officer of a ship will typically be:

DN / BB: One-star O-7.
CA/CC: Captain O-6, albeit with a few "Fleet Captains" and Commodores in command, as we saw on the TV show.
CL: Commander O-5 or Captain O-6. After Y170 or so, during General War, more likely to be O-6.
DD: Commander O-5.
FF: Lieutenant Commander O-4 but more likely full Commander O-5, especially after Y170.
POL: Lieutenant Commander O-4 with perhaps one-in-six being full Commander O-5.
Commanding officers of carrier variants will be of the higher rank listed or even one rank higher yet.

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Quote:

How aware was the Federation of its neighbors between Y110-Y130?

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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 07, 2022 - 01:10 am: Edit

Y40 first Fed-R war
Y85 first Fed-K contact
Y88 first Fed-Z war
Y113 Orion ships break away from Star Fleet to become pirates
Y157 Fed-Gorn "war" ends quickly

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Sunday, August 07, 2022 - 01:21 am: Edit

Thanks for the suggestions. I've added the Gurps material to my shopping cart.

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Quote:

How aware was the Federation of its neighbors between Y110-Y130?

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By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Sunday, August 07, 2022 - 03:12 am: Edit

By the year Y110 the Feds have had enough exposure to their neighbors to probably have a basic under standing of them.

That said I think a Starfleet Officer would have a hard time believing a Sirdarian is actually in Command. Possible but hard to believe

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 07, 2022 - 07:22 am: Edit

The Feds in Y111 would know everything in GURPS KLINGONS but not GURPS ROMULANS. (Well, not the history beyond that point, but cultural stuff, all of it.)

I think a Klingon would have trouble believing a Slirdarian was in command of anything bigger than a Marine platoon. The case of Kobol is so unusual as to be legendary, almost mythological.