Cruiser types

[Spacecowboy87]

Just doing a little research on the star fleet website -- In more than on place, I see a list of Federation "CA Heavy Cruisers" with a 1700 series, and others with a 1600 series (but not NCAs, which have their own heading). What's the difference? I might need a ship name for a scenario.

[mjwest]

Federation heavy cruisers come in four different number ranges:
- 10xx (e.g. Constellation)
- 13xx (e.g. Republic)
- 17xx (e.g. Constitution)
- 16xx (e.g. Agincourt)

The 10xx and 13xx heavy cruisers are very old heavy cruisers built at the very start of the Middle Years. Originally they were supposed to be actual Early Years cruisers that were converted to modern technology, but I think that has gone by the wayside and now they are just the first lines of the "modern" cruisers.

The 17xx heavy cruisers are the main line cruisers of the late Middle Years and General War.

The 16xx heavy cruisers are there because the 17xx number range was pretty much filled up. So, it served several roles: overflow for CAs, and the place for CFs, CSs, and NCAs. From what I can tell, the heavy cruisers with 16xx numbers are actually newer than CAs with 17xx numbers.

[djdood]

I was hoping Mike would chime in, because I recalled he had done a great essay on this.

One caveat I would add - the 13xx-series is in two pieces.

The 136x-series are the Great-class oCA heavy cruisers, which were a backup design, in case the new technology of the Constitution-class didn't work out. They were an odd pair of ships, made by enlarging the oCL old light cruiser design and have nothing to do with the "saucer/rear-hull/two-nacelle" design of the the other heavy cruiser classes.

The 137x-series are the old "R" class, as Mike notes.

One other thing to note is that the NCC-numbers are indeed not used sequentially over time in any way. The use jumps around, with numerically lower numbers being used sometimes 100 years after higher numbers.

[Spacecowboy87]

Thanks-- that answers my next question, because I was looking for OCA names. There were only two of them?

[mjwest]

Here, go check out the Federation Ship Name List. That way you can see all of the names, not just the two OCAs.

[Dal Downing]

Thanks-- that answers my next question, because I was looking for OCA names. There were only two of them?

Three were named only 2 were built but, NCC 1364 - 1369 are unused come up with a great name and SVC might add it.

[Mike]

Something else I found out recently about those oCAs is that both the ones that were built were destroyed by the end of the Middle Years Era.

[djdood]

Yup.

There are "General War era refitted" version ship cards available for Federation Commander, but in the more-strict SFB timeline, both oCA ships were lost before the war started. The loss of the Alfred the Great happened concurrently with the famous Romulan incursion shown on tv.

[Mike]

Is there any history at all about those oCAs prior to their demise?

I'm wondering if any fiction piece has named any crewmembers or even what year they were launched?

[djdood]

The main fiction story in Captain's Log #43 features the Alfred the Great's final battle, trying to defend against the Romulans, holding down the opposite end of the line of outposts from the "ship on tv".

[Mike]

Thanks.