The Constitution Class

[gord314]

The constitution class is the ship that started it all so to speak, and as such, it would be cool if it had a place in most federation fleets. However, as I play more games I find myself wanting to take it less and less. Here is my review of the class:

I shall begin by writing off the command variant completely. For 10 pts more you can get the cheapest of the Kirov variants which is better in every way.

The standard variant has one thing that sets it apart from the other federation ships of its cost (except the fast cruiser), hull points, it has more than the new light cruiser, the new heavy cruiser, and the strike cruiser. However, since critical hits tend to cause extra damage, and many weapons have either devastating or precise, once your shields are down your in trouble no matter how many hull points you have, and all these ships have the same number of shields.

If you want a well rounded ship for a little under 200 pts, take the fast cruiser, since it at least does something special and gives you the option for a real burst of speed with all power to engines. If you want to maximize photon torpedoes per point, take the new light cruiser. If you want firepower, but not necessarily the most photon torpedoes per point, pay 10 points more for the new heavy cruiser.

With labs 8 its rugged construction the constitution is a good choice for 5 year missions to explore uncharted system and boldly go where no one has gone before, but it sadly this iconic ship doesn't have the place of honor it perhaps deserves on the tabletop.

 

[Nerroth]

If you want to get a better sense of how the "TV ship" stands on its own, compare it to the other "pre-war" ships in the Federation fleet; the POL, FF, CL and DN.

Many of those ships first entered service decades prior to the General War (and over a century earlier, in the case of the original Terran-hull CLs); the versions seen in the core book incorporate certain refits which were implemented in the run-up to that conflict. However, as the war wore on, and the Federation economy strained to its limit, the array of "wartime" classes (such as the NCL and NCA) started to come into their own.

Over in Federation Commander (the primary source game for ACtA:SF), the pre-war (or rather, pre-refit) time period is referred to as the Middle Years, and treated as its own setting apart from the Main Era; this was the period in which a certain "five-year mission" (and a fateful earlier encounter at Talos IV) took place. The pre-refit Star Fleet hulls in that era are missing a few weapons, such as drone racks, but were still enough to serve the Federation well for almost forty years.

One day, it could be neat to see some of the MY ships brought into the game system; but if they were, I would imagine them being separated out into a different setting, as they are in FC. For now, you can get some of the flavour of that era by simply paring down your fleet choices (and those of your opponents) down to those which have a direct inheritance from this time period.


EDIT: I should also note that, for the Constitution-class, the story doesn't quite end there. By the mid-to-late General War, the surviving CAs were mostly converted into the more powerful Gettysburg-class CB class... and a few years later, most of them became Vincennes-class CXs, taking Star Fleet's first great leap into a new era of advanced technology. (The CB is supposedly set to get a limited-run mini by Mongoose in the not-too-distant future, but the more advanced CX may be quite a way off yet.)

 

[gord314]

Thanks for the information, is there a good place to look up background information aside from buying SFB/FC modules?

 

[Nerroth]

There should be an introductory guide posted up in pdf format later this week (though it'll be tailored a bit more for the RPG side of things, apparently); in the meantime, there is some free data to be found over here.

 

[Stu--]

You could download the middle years stuff (or buy FC briefing #2) from commander's circle and use those as a base-line for making your own TV show era ships.

Effectively all the middle years stuff is all down-gunned by something like 33-50%

 

[storeylf]

The same problem exists in Fed Com, in a points based game with no othe rerstrictions there is no way you'd take the standard heavy cruiser for 147pts when for an extra 3 pts you can have the far better New Heavy Cruiser - more power, better phaser arcs, and an extra drone for 3 pts, yes please!

 

[Nerroth]

If you want to get an idea as to how the Gettysburg-class CB might look if/when it appears, there's a low-toner Ship Card for it is in Communiqué 71.

(Several Alpha Octant empires have heavy command cruisers in SFB, such as the Klingon D7W; though most of those have yet to be ported over into FC.)