Federation Commander

What is the refit sequence for the Fed CA? The Middle Years version is the basic CA, correct? I've read on this board that the "standard" FC CA is the "CARa+". What was added at each stage of the refit process?

The base CA has four photons, six phaser-1s, and no Reactor.
The R refit adds two more phaser-1s with an RH arc.
The + refit adds two reactor, two phaser-3s, and a drone rack.
The a refit is invisible in FC, but in SFB it changes the APR to AWR. (In FC, the different type of auxiliary power are combined into Reactor.)

That was also the order in which they were introduced: R, then +, then a.

Technically speaking, some Federation CAs were first deployed as YCAs in the Early Years; a playtest Ship Card for the YCA was printed in Captain's Log #39. The major re-builds needed to bring them up to "modern" CA standards meant that only some of the older ships were so upgraded; others were turned into GCAs (not yet in Federation Commander), for use with the various National Guards.

The "early warp" engines on the YCAs and GCAs were less powerful than those on "modern" CAs; in FC terms, a YCA or GCA would not be permitted to set a Baseline Speed of 24.

If you are curious to learn more, the convoluted story of how all of this happened is masterfully told by John Sickels in an article of his from Captain's Log #52.

Thank you both for the info - I'll have to check out that CL.

Another recommendation for John's excellent article in that issue of CapLog. He worked his butt off to pull together all the threads for dozens of different sources into a coherent history of the famous "tv ship".

I re-read it as I was working on the heavy cruiser model on Shapeways, after Mike West noted a glitch in where it was headed.