Federation Commander

I just purchased the Battle Tug pack from W23, and I was wondering what section of the Gorn BT makes up the pod? Is it the rear saucer, or the center section perhaps? Are the wings part of the pod or the tug?

The pod is the rear saucer. Only the saucer is the pod. The rest is the ship.

Thank you. What was confusing me was how well-armed the Gorn BT is compared with the Fed BT, which has no "native" heavy weapons.

There#s quite a wide variation between tug weaponry; the Klingons, Kzintis and Lyrans armed their Tugs and LTTs quite heavily (but had non-combat versions of their tug as well) whereas the Feds, Gorns (exception HDT), and Hydrans armed theirs quite lightly. Not really sure why - there might be some sort of philosophical reason?

It might also be economical reasons. Phasers and photons and such cost money, and the Federation has a lot of pressure to spend money on non-Starfleet issues, whereas in more militarized cultures like the Klingons, the Fleet has a lot more sway over the national budget.

I'd go with empires' outlooks, but express it differently.

Empires like the Klingons and Romulans accentuate military prowress, so even tugs are expected to fight. You have to arm the ships so they can contribute to the battle and the captains have a chance for glory.

Empires like the Federation and Gorns know the value of the cargo tugs carry. The don't want to give their tug captains an excuse to fight, but rather be incented to flee. Better to keep them effectively unarmed and lose a few to surprises, than to arm them and risk losing all of them to glory seeking captains.