posted
There has been debate on this forum why Starfleet still uses fairly old ships in the fleet. What if you have the choice on the size and compostition of the fleet, what would be your perfect fleet in YOUR opnion?
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posted
Well, it depends. If this were for the Dominion War, I'd build a fleet of primarily Defiant-class ships supported by some Akiras and Sovereigns. I wouldn't diversify too much as space combat doesn't need as many specialties.
But for a peacetime fleet as shown in the TNG days, diversity is much better. Do-it-all ships are also necessary given the length of time it takes to get places.
posted
That's true. Miranda's aren't exactly combat ships seeing how easily they were taken out like in "Sacrifice of Angels". Then again, I saw quite a few Akira's spinning out too.
But Starfleet doesn't design warships really. The Defiant was designed as part of the advanced weapons in preperation for the Borg. The Sovereign also seems to be a "Borg-buster" too, but came out later most likely because a ship like that takes more time to build.
Some think the Akira was built to fight the Borg, but going by the registry it seems unlikely. TNG made some references to a Cardassian war, it's possible that the Akira was built for that.
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posted
Hmmm... the Akira built for the Cardassian War. That makes plenty of sense! (Except for the part about the ship having 15 torpedo launchers. Bullshit, I say.)
I believe the New Orleans was from around that time as well. At least, O'Brien and Captain Maxwell were on the USS Rutledge (a New Orleans class ship according to the Encyclopedia) during the war -- at Setlik III.
The only problem is how to reconcile the registry numbers and the design style. The ships look cool, but IMO that designer for ST:FC had no clue what he was doing.
posted
Same here. At least, I don't think he understood how Trek weaponary behaves...
Anyway...perfect fleet?
In combat, a few large ships are nice like the Galaxy and Nebula to "hold" the lines. Toss in a few Defiants and some cruisers like the Akiras and Excelsiors. I'm not exactly convinced that Starfleet fighters add any worth...opinions?
For ordinary runs, you would need patrol and other "business ships" like the Constellation, Miranda, etc. Add in your exploration craft like the Galaxy and Nebula...
I fail to see how the "advanced" Sovereign would have done well in a full scale battle. Those long nacelles are just begging to be ripped off. The ship doesn't seem to have good aft/dorsal coverage, either...just what was the design objective of the Sovereign?
Please note, I am not attacking the look, "coolness", blah, blah, blah of the Sovereign-Class. (anti-fanboy flame statement)
posted
Miranda's were taken out very easily in SoA...way too easily. That battle was possibly the worst choreographed space battle I have ever seen on film. One of three reasons why I think that episode was terrible (the other two was the Dukat character and the cop-out ending).
Like someone said, the perfect fleet would depend on what you were doing. And also, with no guide lines or limitations, a question like this is really unanswerable.
For research, get a few dozen (or hundred) of the best research ships and go after it.
For fighting, how about a few dozen (or hundred) Sovergien class ships.
For exploration, how about a few dozen........see what I mean, an open-ended question like this is kinda meaningless. One would need to identify the purpose of the fleet and then set limits to ship numbers or hull sizes to make it meaningful. Or have a pool of ships to choose from with a maximum fleet size set.
This was always fun to do, I thought, when playing the game Starfleet Battles. The game assigns point values for each ship and the players (or rules) would set a max value for the fleet. This would yield literally dozens of different fleet possibilities, depending on what race you chose and the hull sizes and types you liked (there were over 800 ships to choose from).
Just to say 'what is the best fleet' is too broad---the parameters need to be narrowed down somewhat.
Hey, how about a million Executor-class Star Destroyers?!!!!
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posted
Aiight! You got your Sovereign Class vessels, 2 Defiants per Sovereign, and 3 Akiras for every second Sovereign. You just need to input number of Sovereigns and you get your fleet.
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posted
Omega_Glory? Thats the actual display name for a new member?
Oh...boy....
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posted
It seems to me that Starfleet has never suffered from a lack of quality in its ships, but from a lack of quantity and availability. For each destroyed Miranda, three or so Jem'Hadar bugs or one Hideki went up in fireballs...
The perfect fleet IMHO would be one that doesn't need to be constantly upgraded. There would be a lesser economic burden and a greater combat availability if century-old ships could be given a meaningful role in conjunction with the most recent ships. So far, we haven't seen much indication of "roles" in Starfleet, since all warships simply enter the melee and begin firing the phasers and holding back on the torpedoes and barely maneuvering at all.
So my perfect fleet would consist of the existing ship types, but divided into meaningful formations. Each ship would be utilized to a purpose - some would have special combat roles (the Steamrunners could just disgorge assault shuttles from those huge shuttlebays of theirs, the Akiras could pump out torps from their umpteen tubes, and the Defiants would fire their pulse phasers at close ranges), while some would be more generic by design and would be distributed according to their level of overall performance (Galaxies could spearhead, Excelsiors could flank, Mirandas could trail). Some would only come in on a second wave (support ships, troop carriers, etc) and would be escorted by suitable vessels (Mirandas incapable of frontline combat).
In no case would a combined fleet of, say, Intrepids and Mirandas, be sent to combat - the slower ships would deprive the faster ones of their tactical advantage. But a slow flotilla of Mirandas could strike at the same time as a separate fast task force of Intrepids, for maximum effect and surprise value. The enemy would have greater difficulty following and predicting fleet movements if different forces moved at different speeds and courses and utilized different tactics best fitting their hardware.
At least, I don't think he understood how Trek weaponary behaves...
That's exactly what the SoA battle should've been like!
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