The ships in this case study (SFT 36-37-38) have their heavy weapons mounted on the warp engines, freeing up internal hull volume for use for other things (usually more weapons or more power). We used creative approaches here. The Feds and Kzintis gained drone racks, as these do not require more power. The Hydrans (who are always short of power) used their extra hull space for two extra APRs (except in one case).

    These ships are non-historical. They are conjectural, as the owning races never even conceived of such designs. For all we know, there actually was some valid engineering reason why these designs are impossible from an engineering sense (although if the Klingons can mount disruptors on warp engines, one really has to ask why the Kzintis never figured it out). These ships can be used in your gaming with permission of the relevant judges, campaign masters, and opponents as may be required in each case.

    We did not bother with a Master Ship Chart since the data is entirely the same (except that the explosion strength is increased by one point in all cases).

    The "playtest rule numbers" all include a "Z" as the middle digit. While never done before, it was appropriate in this case (and allowed us to make all of the minesweepers 9Z4 and so forth) and we hope it does not confuse you.

SHIP DESCRIPTIONS AND DATA (SFT38)

(R2.9Z2) FEDERATION WAR DESTROYER: As with the NCZ, Petrick selected drones to replace the displaced photons.

(R5.9Z1) KZINTI MEDIUM CRUISER: The Kzintis need more drone racks like they need a hole in their heads, but once the disruptors are moved to the engines something had to go into the hole and Steve Cole felt that the Kzintis would naturally want more of their favorite weapon. (There is also the point that drones don’t use power and the Kzintis don’t have any to spare.) Note the firing arcs on the engines, which give some double flank shot capabilities but restrict alpha strikes to centerline targets.

(R5.9Z2) KZINTI WAR DESTROYER: Perhaps Steve Cole felt bad about the firing arcs on the CMZ’s disruptors when he created this design, which provides FX arcs for both. Rather than give the ship even more drone racks, Steve C decided to try something different and provided it with power instead.

(R5.9Z9) KZINTI OLD DESTROYER: This ship is a sentimental favorite among SFB players, and Steve Petrick insisted that Steve Cole include it. Rather than giving it the same FX disruptors of the DWZ, Cole chose to split the disruptors into ineffective firing arcs and move the probe launcher to the center engine to create a nicer appearance.

(R6.9Z1) GORN HEAVY DESTROYER: This design, by Steve Petrick, adds a second Plasma-S torpedo by moving these weapons to the engines. The liberated hull space is used for battery power, as this would be needed to quickload the torpedoes.

(R6.9Z2) GORN BATTLE DESTROYER: Following the concepts of his HDZ design, Steve Petrick mounted the size-limited G-torps in the engines and provided more battery power. It should be noted that with the extra torpedo and no extra power-generating capabilty, these ships will be more dangerous in their first pass than later in the scenario.

(R9.9Z1) HYDRAN MONGOL WAR CRUISER: After considering several alternatives (including changes to two or four heavy weapons), Steve Cole elected to stick with the original number of heavy weapons, displacing two of them to the engines while keeping the third in the nose. As there was no "drone weapon" to add in the liberated space, Cole decided to give the Hydrans two extra points of power. The change to the firing arcs will create some tactical opportunities for individual flank shots, but will require centerlining the target for an alpha strike.

(R9.9Z2) HYDRAN TARTAR WAR CRUISER: As with his Mongol-Z design, Cole moved two of the weapons to the engines and replaced them with power. The idea of also moving the phaser-Gs to the engines to add more systems in the main hull was considered and rejected as it would create a really ugly engine layout.

NOTE: Since the engines on the Hydran DWs are internal, it was decided that the concept of engine-mounted weapons did not apply to that Hydran class of ships.

(R9.9Z6) HYDRAN NEW PFT: In this design, Steve Cole replaced the single nose weapon with two sensors, keeping the engine-mounted fusion beams despite their tendency to blind the sensors. Cole briefly considered the idea of replacing them with more sensors, and players might want to consider the idea of a four-sensor/no-fusion version.

(R9.9Z7) HYDRAN NEW COMMANDO CRUISER: The two fusion beams will provide this ship with some fighting ability, but only as part of a fleet since their firing arcs are hardly optimal.