Ship Class Comparisons

There is plenty of room in SFB to satisfy both sets of players, but then there needs to be a system of identifying which ships are the more proper ''duelling'' ships, and which are the historical oddities that do not correspond to their opponents. My proposed solution to this is to outline the basic features of each class, give a table comparing vital statistics, and perhaps my own recommendations.

I list the classes in the rough order that they were introduced to the game -- from the original ships around 1980, the new ``war'' designs introduced from 1985-1987, to the post-Doomsday classes of the 1990's.

HEAVY CRUISER TABLE

These are the original ships of the game, which vary a fair amount from race to race -- although some of this was eliminated with refits.

LIGHT CRUISER TABLE

These are units defined in the early game which do not fit into most standards. Notably, there is not a standard movement cost or warp amount. Some later races do not even have a CL class.

DESTROYER TABLE

The original destroyers are often uniquely designed, notably the Federation DD. They have major variation in armament and shields from race to race.

FRIGATE TABLE

Frigates were introduced piecemeal to the game and show a lot of diversity. Few are a ``balanced'' matchup.

DREADNAUGHT TABLE

Dreadnaughts were also designed fairly early, and thus have a lot of variation. In particularl, the Federation and Hydran DN's are notable as atypically small and inexpensive, although the Fed DN was ``fixed'' with refits.

POLICE SHIP TABLE

Police ships show a very large amount of variation, even between historical opponents. Notably, the Lyran and Klingon police ships are small and poorly armed compared to the Federation, Kzinti, and Hydran police ships. Refits bring only minor changes to the ships.

WAR CRUISER TABLE

War cruisers are the first of the "war" classes which began a pattern of standardization. They are significantly more standardized than the original classes. There are exceptions like the original Hydran CW's, but those were also fixed by the newer Hydran CW's.

FAST PATROL SHIP TABLE

PF's are really a separate class of unit, given that they use many different rules and even a different DAC table. PF's are fairly standardized with a Move Cost of 1/5, 6 Warp plus 6 in packs, along with other features. However, there is a fair amount of variation.

HEAVY BATTLECRUISER TABLE

This was apparently the first attempt at a real set of classes for duelling: as most were designed to have exactly 180 BPV. Thus, they are fairly standardized.

WAR DESTROYER TABLE

These were intended as more `balanced' destroyers, with greater standardization.

X-CRUISER TABLE

The X-cruisers were the original X-ships. They lose several distinctions in that there is less variety of phasers and drone mounts, for example. While there is noticable variation, there are also noticable regularities...

BATTLESHIP TABLE

While the Klingon B10 had been around for ages, it wasn't until 1992 that other races got battleships with Module R5. The conjectural battleships match the B10 extremely closely.

NEW HEAVY CRUISER TABLE

The New Heavy Cruisers are General-War alternates to the original heavy cruisers, usually expansions of the CW class. They usually have higher BPV with fewer racial weaknesses and strengths. Shields are more standardized, and increased damage is usually through phasers. For example, compared to the CA, the Kzinti NCA loses PH-3's but gains 5 warp, ADD's, and more standard shielding.

HEAVY WAR DESTROYERS

This new class from R6 is the most standardized class yet. All ships have Move Cost 2/3 and exactly 24 warp, four APR*, four NWO boxes, two fighters (even the Gorn!!).

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