Taking inspiration from SVC’s post in Hey Steve Cole in which he mentions there is a proposal for a Romulan SSD book in the works that will include all the DemonHawk configurations, I realized that we have yet to get a modular battleship. While this is an obvious “missing ship”, there is room for what this ship could be, with a few different options:

1. Overgrown MegaHawk: two pairs of SpH modules, one set being hard-welded K modules.
2. Overgrown DemonHawk: A pair of SpH modules and SkH module.
3. Hybrid Mega/DemonHawk: The double SpH modules with the hard-welded set and a SkH module.
4. More Demon Than A DemonHawk: A pair of SpH modules and two SkH modules.

I’m making the proposal with option 4 in mind. The first three are all modular combinations that already exist in the game (option 3 is just hard-welding K modules to the DemonHawk pattern). Two SkyHawk modules is a radical idea, and a battleship is a heavy enough platform such that they would not need to be paired modules for dynamic balance - especially if they are an over and under arrangement on the centerline.

This would allow for some truly…interesting combinations (three PF flotillas) and this may well be a case where the engineering would not allow for such a ship to be made - but you know the Romulans thought about it!

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Thursday, August 14, 2025 - 04:18 pm: Edit

For option 4, 2xSpB and 2xSkB modules comes to mind. It feels very Romulan.

--Mike

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Thursday, August 14, 2025 - 11:16 pm: Edit

Having played with the Demonhawk modules, which can have some cool combos, sticking an extra SkyHawk module in there would cause some very interesting combos to spring up, most of which would likely be illegal to some extent. At the least, a BBBB combo would give you a full 24 fighters.

I'll roll it over in my mind to see if I can come up with a design I can defend. I'm not sure either Steve would be interested, though.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 12:15 am: Edit

Sounds fun.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 09:48 am: Edit

I agree with option 4, though I would "widen" the DemonHawk hull and then set the two SkyHawk modules side-by-side.

-----

On a somewhat related note: back on Shapeways 1.0, the "Mongoose-type" miniature for the DemonHawk had what looked like six SparrowHawk engines, grouped into three pairs.

Perhaps this hull would have four pairs of SparrowHawk engines instead?

If so, one could set the two "central" pairs on separate struts atop the secondary hull, each with their own SkyHawk module placed behind (and beneath) them.

-----

I would also say that there should be "dynamic balance issues" which would limit some of the more potentially egregious module configurations here.

For comparison's sake: the Iridani Man-O-War battleship can fit as many as four Iridani Quest modules, and for the most part is not limited in terms of which ones can be chosen. But, the PF Tender module in Module Omega #5 is not an option for this hull, as it can only be installed in the aft module slot on a Brigantine dreadnought.

Although I do have a thought or two on how to address this, as and when the Iridani get their turn in the "campaign compatible" project someday.

To double back to this Romulan design: I don't know if it would be wise to allow the ship to take a pair of SparrowHawk-E modules and two SkyHawk-C modules; such a "REVHawk" might be a bit too powerful - not least from the perspective of any Andromedan RTN nodes it were to be tasked with destroying!

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 09:51 am: Edit

Quad B’s would be 32 fighters (16+8+8). Even if it had some limits like not being able to carry more than two PF flotillas, that still makes for interesting choices - so you take SpH-E modules and a SkH-C module to have special sensors (knowing you will be blinding them a lot of the time) or do you take a pair of SkH-C modules? And of course what you do with the third pick in either case can have lots of interesting choices.

Also, one possible design trade-off of the over/under SkyHawk modules is the ship doesn’t gain the customary rear-firing heavy weapons found on battleships. It would be a minor but colorful drawback.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 06:38 pm: Edit

Folks, the SkyHawk-C does NOT have the tractor beams you think, the deck plans (CL#31, pg 18-21) shows the tractors on decks 3 (2) and 7 (2). The module runs decks 1-4 (with the shuttle/cargo area taking decks 2-4).

The module holds about 10 boxes on the SSD …
A = 10 = 4/4/2
B = 10 = 10
C = 10 = 8/2 *
D = 10 = 4/3/3
E = 10 = 4/4/2
F = 10 = 4/4/2
G = 10 = 4/4/2
H = 10 = 8/2
*[the two additional tractors might be in the module depending on how large the repair area/volume covers it's four decks]

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 07:08 pm: Edit

I would submit that the deck plans are in error. All of the C’s tractors have collapsible bay repair capable mech-links. The deck plans would have at least two of the shown tractors be out of position for accessing the repair facilities. Further, nothing in the R-sections nor in F&E indicates it takes any more effort to mount or dismount the C modules, as adding/removing the mech-links would entail.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 10:49 pm: Edit

I am pretty sure the initial Skyhawks modules were made before things were fully nailed down as to how the tractors actually fit in the overall design.

But it doesn't really matter. It's easy enough to make sure the BalorHawk (yes, I know that is a completely unusable name) has all of the tractors it would need to make the Skyhawks C modules work. Heck, I'd even advocate for it to be allowed to use two Skyhawks C modules at the same time.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 10:55 pm: Edit

The SkyHawk-R module only has two tractors, which means that at least two tractors have to be module-mounted.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Saturday, August 16, 2025 - 07:27 pm: Edit

Alex, the error may be displaying all six with the repair stripe but that requires convincing SVC … not to mention that the illo in the Romulan MSSB shows only two PFs on top of the SKC, with only one on top of the module itself, but with scaffling, the range of repairs may be larger then just the module.

As for the SKR, those tractors are probably the ones on deck 7 (being further away), the ones on deck 3 are now probably the ship's internal cargo leaving most of the module volume for the stored fighter/spare parts

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Sunday, August 17, 2025 - 10:15 am: Edit

The four tractors are not in the module.

The SkyHawk-R is a known issue. It just ... is. Don't use it as a precedent.