Federation Commander

Well, my inner geek was quite happy yesterday as I put my new ship cards in page protectors and then into 3-ring binders.

While organizing them I noticed that Romulan ships seem to fall into three design categories: those similar to Klingon ships (Kx series), traditional "TOS" style ships such as the Eagle, and one that I was not as familiar with, the Seahawk and similar ships.

Question 1: how do these relate to one another in timeline? I think the Eagle-style is oldest, followed by Kx and then Seahawk style. Is that correct?

Question 2: With respect to Romulan fluff/background, are these ever fielded together? Would one expect to see King Eagle with a Seahawk? Kx?

My 8-year old son (almost 9) is very interested in the Romulans (he likes the idea of their cloaks) and I'm sure he'll ask about this too.

Thanks!

Tim / MB

Question 1: Bang on. The 'Eagle' ships were built as sub-light vessels, and were the only ships the Romulans had to begin with. They signed a treaty with the Klingons (Treaty of Smarba) which gave them access to Klingon technology (warp engines, tractor beams, transporters) and included the sale of the 'KR' hulls. The 'Hawk' series ships are an outgrowth of the technologies that were purchased from the Klingons, but are wholly Romulan designs.

Question 2: Generally, ships were grouped within their respective hull types due to differences in capability not mixing well. The 'Eagle' ships were slow, but could cloak cheaply. KR ships are faster and more maneuverable, but have high cloak costs (for their size). 'Hawk' ships have balanced characteristics and can operate with either, but generally operated in homogeneous squadrons, IIRC.

The "Eagle" class ships were the original Romulan sublight ships...
After the Treaty of Smarba, the Klingon Empire sold their surplus ships (and Warp Technology) to the Romulan Star Empire. These are the "Kestrel" type ships.
Once the Romulans began receiving these ships, they also began retro-fitting the "Eagle" class ships to warp technology.
After that, the Romulan Star Empire began design work on a new type of ship designed from the ground up to be Warp Powered. These are the "Hawk" class ships.

That's a very simplified version of several dozen years of design and development, but it should give you the general idea.

[Edit - Looks like Carthaginian posted while I was typing...]

Yes, there are three series of Romulan ships. The first generation ships (the "Eagles", which includes the Vulture, War Eagle, Battle Hawk, and Snipe) are designs that date back to their sublight ships. The second generation ships (the "Kestrals", which include all of the "KR" style ships) are designs based on purchased Klingon ships. The third generation ships (the "Hawks", which include the Sparrowhawk, Skyhawk, and Seahawk) are newer designs that show Klingon influence, but completely designed by the Romulans.

The (short form) backstory is that the Romulans were stuck with sublight ships far longer than the other empires. While the other empires got warp ships starting in 2460 or so, the Romulans did not get warp ships until 2558 through the Smarba Treaty with the Klingons. As part of this treaty, the Klingons sold the Romulans obsolete ships and technical know-how on warp power and associated technologies. The Romulans quickly converted their old sublight ships to warp, and converted the purchased Klingon ships to their technology. While they could have just licensed the Klingon technology and built Kestral ships themselves, they decided to build a set of completely new designs that became the third generation Hawks.

Generally, they try to keep the three "generations" segregated into their own fleets to simplify tactics and logistics. However, that often broke down in practice. This means that, for your purposes, you can collect whatever set of Romulans together you want, irrespective of generation.

Hope that helps.

Romulan KR ships featured in at least one episode of the Animated series, firing photon torpedoes not disruptors or plasma.

Note that these evolutions of Romulan ship design took place independantly of evolutions of Romulan ship designs in other Trek based universes (TNG, FASA, etc).

And if you include the wrong ships in a scenario SVC will not show up at your house to straighten you out. If only it were that easy to get SVC to drop by for a game.

Of course a scenario submitted for publication with an incorrect mix of ship designs will probably be rejected, but hopefully will include a note as to where and how you went wrong. This is more likely to be an issue in SFB which has tighter timeline restriction on which ships were in service when and where. At home you can have Romulans and federation flying together against Klingon Kizint alliance if you want to...

dave wrote: And if you include the wrong ships in a scenario SVC will not show up at your house to straighten you out.

Wanna bet???

Note Steve on the left , hiding behind Merl...

If only it were that easy to get SVC to drop by for a game.

Although we couldn't get him to play... but it was a great visit, none the less.[/img]