Federation Commander

1. What is the mission profile of the D7Z? Does it have a special purpose or is it just a "no disruptors but lots of ph-1s" variant?

2. What is "penal" about the D5J Penal War Cruiser? Is it manned by convicts, or does it guard prison worlds, perhaps?

Thanks for any info anyone can offer.

The D7Z was built as an experiment, more than anything else. It is indeed just a variant that replaced the disruptors with more (and better than usual Klingon-standards) phasers.

All of the penal ships (F5J, etc.) are crewed by those who have failed, dishonored themselves, or are politically untrustworthy. These transgressions were not considered bad enough to be kicked out of the service or jailed for, so the person is given a chance to redeem themselves on a "penal" ship. Penal ships are often given the most dangerous missions to create these opportunities. Should a person excel in a notable way, they are returned to the mainline ranks with their reputation restored.

To ensure the more problem-prone crew stay under control and don't mutiny, penal ships have more security stations and ESS personnel aboard.

Because the chance of death is every bit as great as the chance for glory, the penal ships also feature booms that have small warp-engines, something not seen on most mainline Klingon ships (which have impulse-only booms).

Thank you! That's a very cool bit of lore. Interesting possibilities for fiction there...

Actually, I just looked - the D5J doesn't have the small warp engine on the boom. I guess the larger ones do (I didn't realize there were others).

Going from memory and could have that detail wrong.

You seem to know a lot of ship lore...maybe you can shed some light on something else I've wondered about. The Fed DN+ Improved Dreadnought from Communique 109 - it actually is *downgraded* from the standard Fed DN. Is it supposed to be "improved" over the Franz Joseph version? (In that case, a better name might be "Intermediate Dreadnought.)

The earliest incarnation of the Federation-class dreadnought is the "Franz Joseph" DN Ship Card in FC Booster #91. That ship served during the "Middle Years", which ran from the 2520s (in Federation Commander's "Valkenburg Chronology", or the Y120s in the "Y-calendar" used over in Star Fleet Battles) to approximately 2560 (Y160). The "standard" Ship Card for the "Main Era" Federation DN is referred to in SFB as the DNG, which was a further upgrade to the DN+.

The Middle Years are covered in FC by Briefing #2, which is available either as a black-and-white print volume or as a series of colour PDF packs.


Over in SFB, certain ship classes have a series of "refits", which are typically, though not always, integrated into a single SSD (with shaded boxes or other details indicating what changes are made when the refits are installed). Here in FC, there is a clearer distinction between "Middle Years" and "Main Era" Ship Cards.

So, for example, the SSD for the Romulan KR in SFB Basic Set incorporates a refit which sees its engine-mounted plasma-Gs get upgraded to plasma-S torpedoes with improved launching arcs. The "Main Era" KR Ship Card in Romulan Border shows this refit, whereas the "Middle Years" KR Ship Card in Briefing #2 is armed with a pair of plasma-G torps. (In fairness, referring to this ship as a "Middle Years" design is a bit of a fudge, since the Treaty of Smarba which saw the first Kestrels enter Romulan service was signed near the tail end of the MY time period. But anyway...)

Yup, like Gary said.

Federation Commander basically doesn't do all the timeline and "refits" stuff that is part and parcel of SFB. Nominally, every ship shown in mainline FedCom is the fully refitted, "final" and most-bestest version.

There are exceptions for marquee ships and for the different era settings described by Gary.

The reasons for having the earlier verions is because playing ships with "flaws" is challenging and can be fun. The fully-refitted versions usually have some of the "flavor" smoothed out of them. The earlier versions often have idiosyncrasies and deficiencies that provide challenges to overcome.
e.g. Early Klingons are every bit as maneuverable, but have really weak rear arc shielding, etc.

djdood wrote:e.g. Early Klingons are every bit as maneuverable, but have really weak rear arc shielding, etc.

And this single item is what led to the version 1.0 ACTASF Klingons having those incredible turning arc and the double strength, reinforced, super-effective, uber shield in the front arc.

Scoutdad wrote:And this single item is what led to the version 1.0 ACTASF Klingons having those incredible turning arc and the double strength, reinforced, super-effective, uber shield in the front arc.

Well, misinterpretation of that by someone who didn't understand what it means, perhaps. I'm very glad you fixed ACTASF, Mr. Thomas.

Penal ships can make good psyops tools against the right opponents. You can out-think them while they're distracted coming up with juvenile jokes.

Were penal ships deployed in their own squadrons/fleets, or would you find them mixed in with regular DSF forces?

Mixed in, usually.

I would assume having them operate in groups would increase the risk of mutinies, in the ESS' view.

Note that most of this only really applies in SFB. FedCom doesn't really bother itself with all the minutia and rules it takes to simulate chance for mutinies and etc.

So you'd have a normal fleet charge into battle with a D6J taking the job of photorp sponge...and if they manage to make a Kirov blink, the survivors stand a good chance of getting transferred back to a regular ship.

djdood wrote:Note that most of this only really applies in SFB. FedCom doesn't really bother itself with all the minutia and rules it takes to simulate chance for mutinies and etc.

Actually, we have some BoM rules for penal ships and mutinies for FC ...