[Kosh]

I personally liked the concept of Andromeda. I also thought the ship designs and special effects were pretty cool (even though they tend to re-use battle sequences WAY, WAY too much and it's totally obvious). I thought the costuming was AWFUL.


But none of that matters, as Babylon 5 rules all

[Ford Prefect]

Originally posted by Liberator
What costumes?  They all look like they came out of a music video.  Contrary to what we've been lead to believe, the High Guard must be very low key when it comes to proper dress.  I realize it's kind of a naval setting and it's not like I'm asking for full dress every week, but is it too much to ask for the crew to wear standard uniforms?  I mean really, they're the command staff for a crew of 4000, they should set an example.  I understand that non-standard clothing might be required for covert stuff but really, there's not a whole lot of covertness about a Glorius Heritage cruiser.

BTW, kinda OT but does anyone have the dimensions of the Andromeda?  I've seen 9?? x 4?? x 4?? in places but I remember a plot character commenting how she was the size of twelve or her worlds aircraft carriers.  I may not be terribly gifted at the maths, but I know that an aircraft carriers are commonly in the 600 to 800 meter range so how can the Andromeda be the stated size and elicit that kind of comment?

I find the lack of standardized uniforms appealing because I detest the rigid military mentality, and the less that it resembles that, the better.

Dimensions for the Glorious Heritage XMC:
Length: 1301m
Beam: 976m
Height: 325m
Inertial Mass: 96,408,876kg

[Ghostavo]

Er... "rigid military mentality" is necessary in any kind of armed forces

Oh and *cough* http://www.allsystems.org/engineering/dsa2.shtml *cough*

[Ford Prefect]

Er... "rigid military mentality" is necessary in any kind of armed forces

Well that's an argument I won't get into.

And yes, I read the little blurb about it; this site is my source. I don't care what the description says, look at its armament and then look at the heavy cruiser's.

[Ghostavo]

Example:

Andromeda's:

Combat Systems:
40 ELS missile tubes
12 PDL 50Mw turrets
12 AP cannons
6 Radiating Counter Measure generators

Fighter and drone support:
76 RA-26 Shrike strike fighters
12 AF/A-29 Phoenix atmospheric attack craft
16 ES-115 Oracle heavy sensor/attack drones
8 ES-14 Janus light sensor/attack drones

Wrath of Achilles':

Combat Systems:
180 ELS missile tubes
24 PDL 35Mw turrets
4 AP cannons
6 Radiating Counter Measure generators

Fighter and drone support:
32 ES-14 Janus light sensor/attack drones

So you can see in terms of raw firepower, the Wrath of Achilles is much more powerful, as the only advantage the Andromeda has is it's fighter support which it's effectiveness against such a ship is unknown seeing that IIRC it was never used against it.

[Ford Prefect]

I'm willing to bet that fighter support makes a huge difference against a ship like the Wrath of Achilles, whose arsenal is configured for engaging large vessels at longer range. (Of course they didn't show that in the show because it would have worked against the desired plot course.) And although its armor, shielding and single entry point may decrease the likelihood of this, heaven help that thing if it ever is boarded, because it has no Lancer compliment.

And if this feeble attempt at an argument fails to convince you, I will say this: The DSA II is funny-looking.

[Ghostavo]

It has a Lancer contingent. And the DSA II has double of the turrets of the Andromeda, and given it's lower profile it's probably less vunerable to such threats. But since it was never shown... I guess we'll never know.

And I love the looks of the DSA II

[Ford Prefect]

...the new DSA forgoes such standard shipboard features as small craft, a Lancer contingent, and research capabilities in favor of missiles, missiles, and more missiles.

[Ghostavo]

oh... sorry... misread it

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Tiara

I think in the St-verse, it's very possible. Hell, the warp nacelles on most ships are tied in with bent tooth pick to the main hull (like the Galaxy).

IMO, the external nacelles are an old fashioned design. In the past they needed to be outside the ship to create a stable warp field. But instead of working it away (what should be done in a military fleet. See Defiant design) they decided on keeping them external because it gives a slight edge in speed (The Defiant is limited to Warp 9.2 IIRC and the Galaxy can go Warp 9.6+).

Also, power conduits seem to be very small in such ships. Like in the Intrepid class, one of the main powerconduits was an about 4 inches thick tube. It had 5,000 Terawatts flowing through it.

I don't know what's nerdier - you being able to spout off such data, or me for reading this thread.

*glances up at 2 towering bookshelves filled to the brim with 350+ ST books*

[Grey Wolf]

That's one thing Trek ships are really lacking in: redundancy. They have all the random things that serve no real purpose (holodecks, for example) but they lack things warships really need. For example, the warp core. Given their notorious habit of breaking, you'd think they'd have a backup core or two built into the design of the ships.

[Bri_Dog]

I think the Sov has a backup core......I'm probably thinking of something else though.

[Tiara]

Eh, they were never designed as pure warships. They were build for science and exploration but with big and sharp enough teeth to fend off any potential hostiles. Most of the recreational areas were built in because of the fact that these kind of ships (like the E-D) were designed for long term missions. This is something only a few people seem to understand.

The only dedicated warship in the fleet is the Defiant. It had a more advanced warp core to power it's new advanced array of weaponry, it had heavy ablative armor, didn't have recreational areas, no luxurious quarters but mere bunks, etc etc. A single Defiant is a match for entire squadrons of Jem'Hadar Bug ships or even much larger battleships (like the Negh'Var, the largest Klingon battleship).

It's a fun thing though that even though the Federation fleet is based on exploration ships that they still are powerfull enough to scare off any other major power. It's probably also the reason why the Federation kicked so much Dominion ass in the final stages of the war. They had completed most of the War refits on their ships.

For example; The Galaxy class vessel was a pure exploration ship. But after the War refit, the Galaxy (widely known as the War Galaxy) became notorious for it's power in battle. In DS9: 'Sacrifice of Angels' you see entire Galaxy wings maul entire sections of the Cardassian/Dominion blockade even though they were outnumbered 3:1.

[Kosh]

Tiara is appearently quite a Trekkie.

[Tiara]

Well, duh! Where have you been the last few years?

[Zeronet]

DS9 had big battles with lots of flashy booms an stuff, wheeee!

[Flipside]

Well, that's me sold, I'm off to watch some DS9

[Knight Templar]

Is anything else required really?

[Tiara]

Re... quired?

[Knight Templar]

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