Monday, March 12, 2012

Starfleet Wars: Carnivoran Ships, Part 2

This post deals with the larger, Capital ships of the Carnivoran Republic Star Forces. The background material and tactical dogma is somewhat different between the original Starfleet Wars rules and material, and the newer Galactic Knights version. These posts refer to the Starfleet Wars materials; more another time about the Galactic Knights version, which I just recently received. Regardless, I'm just happy the ships are in production and readily available!


Our first ship is the "Lion" class Carnivoran Galactic Battlecruiser (GB).


A fine looking ship, and one you don't really want to let in this close!


Here are the stats for the Carnivoran Lion class GB:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
   85             6                    7                 38%                  0                   6                 12



I've used an off-white, "bone" color as the "facing color" of this ship (and the alpha ship of each class for this starfleet) to accentuate the predatory appearance!


A Lion class GB, belly up, as it were.


This is a variant Carnivoran Galactic Battlecruiser, the Tomcat class GB.


Her's how the "Energy Damping Beam"  (EDB) works in Starfleet Wars: A ship must allocate power to this device, which is committed after movement is done and tractor beams are used, but before any firing. From 15 to 85 power units can be allocated for this purpose. 


The EDB has a range of 24" (as opposed to 48" for long range lasers), and it decreases the Beam factor of the target ship; should that be reduced to zero, then the ships shield factor is deceased for each additional reduction. Carnivoran ships can combine EDB's on a single target to completely neutralize the energy weapons and shields of opponents. 


The EDB is relatively expensive in power terms, 25 power units only giving an EDB factor of 1, but from there on it is linear, with a factor of 2 for 25 power units, 3 for 35, and so on, as opposed to the Squared power demands of engines, beams, and shields. This matches up nicely with the also non linear power requirements to load particle weapons!


Here are the stats for the Carnivoran Tomcat class GB:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
   110             7                   8                 40%                  0                   6                 12
As you can see, the Tomcat represents a considerable upgrade from the earlier, Lion class GB!



Next up is a Carnivoran "Tiger" class Galactic Dreanought (GD). I am using the same overall color scheme as with the smaller ships - base hulls are black with bright and dark red highlights. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the larger turrets are actually metallic burgundy with silver details!


Somewhat blurry photo of a Tiger coming straight at you!


Here are the stats for the Carnivoran Tiger class GD:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
  221             8                   13                60%                  4                  6                 16



As discussed in my previous post on this fleet, the Carnivoran ships are designed with close range combat in mind. Their special "Energy Damping Beam" makes this tactic even more viable.


A shot of the underside of the Tiger class GD, demonstrating the high degree of detail found there!




This ship is also a Carnivoran Galactic Dreadnought, but this time the "Hellcat" class GD. Like the "Tomcat" class GB, this was one of several variant starship models for the various factions brought out later in the history of the Superior Starfleet Wars line. 


Despite the change in overall configuration, the ship still has a very "predatory" look, I think!


Here are the stats for the Carnivoran Hellcat class GD:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
 225             9                   13                 60%                  4                   6                 16



Underside of a Hellcat class Carnivoran GD



Here is a pair of Carnivoran Galactic Attack Carriers (GAC), belonging to the "Den" class.


The Carivorans aren't big users of fighters ("attack craft" in the SFW background, but they still do use them.

Here are the stats for these Den class GAC's:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
 110              4                   6                 45%                  34                   4                 10


A view of the "flight deck" of these carriers.

Here once again we see the detailed underside of a Carrier that is so characteristic of this line.


Here is a pair of Jaguar class 2-decker Galactic Dreadnoughts. These were among the last of the releases in the original Starfleet Wars range, and thus only Terran and Carnivoran 2 decker models were ever made. 


I imagine the "pods (bone or yellow here) to be packed full of Particle Weapon launchers myself...


Released circa May, 1982, as far as I know no official stats were ever published for these 2 decker GD's.


Here is my speculative version of  the stats for these Jaguar class 2-decker GD's:
Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
 281              12                14                 64%                 4                   6                 18



View of the underside of one of these very large 2-decker ships.


Finally, there is the massive Polecat class Supper Galactic Dreadnought (SGD). I don't have one of these, but here are the stats for it anyway:

Power    Max Beam    Max Shield   CIDS Factor    Attack Craft    PW Factor  PW reloads
 450             21                 21               100%                 18                 12               34

Like other SGDs it gets an "Additional Offensive Factor", in this case 5, and an "Additional Defensive Factor", in this case 3. These are added to the powered factors until the ship drops below 25% of its power units.

An interesting point about the Carnivoran Starfleet Wars models is that there were more variations for this fleet than any of the others; as you can see, the later models (Tomcat, Hellcat, and Jaguar) have a very different look to them than the originals!

Peter




No comments:

Post a Comment