- Location
- Australia
I'll close the vote in about four hours.
I am terrified and eager to find out what happens when an Explorer Corps ship gets the benefit of Captain Kanil doing that voodoo that she do.We have Sulu and Kanil on the EC panel right now. I think it is Sulu's turn, but we have both the Excelsior launching this quarter and the Courageous to captain. So Kanil may yet get moved. Perhaps unfortunate timing, but an EC command may be good for her.
e: Actually, her luck and skill at evading surprises may be just what the Courageous needs.
This is why we ran the exercise, so yes. [nods vigorously]The thing is, Kanil was horrified to have succeeded. Because how does she know there isn't some mentat with their super-brain geared to EWAR to duplicate the feat?
DING DING DING HE GETS IT.There's only one possible solution; keep running the exercise and throwing new ships at the T'Mir until one group finally gets it right.
Enterprise:I'm PRETTY sure it says more about the T'Mir and Samyr Kanil than the rest. She first showed up simply having a moment of Active EWAR: Better Than You vs the biophage. Then she proceeded to inflict five or six years of Passive EWAR: Better Than You on the Cardassians.
With ten or eleven years of service, one super-long deep penetration recon patrol and two crew promotions later the T'Mir is probably every bit as hot-rodded and optimized as any EC ship. Yeah, even enterprise. Enterprise isn't getting 300% of rated performance anywhere, now is she? And I'd say that only Zaardimani is better at sensor scanning in particular, at the rest of the skills need for cloakless stealth approaches there is simply no contest.
If your name is not Zaardimani getting into an EWAR fight with Captain Kanil is a terrible plan.
Enterprise:
"You won't catch me saying anything against T'Mir."
"...Even I have to sleep some time."
[shivers]
Looks like the expected result by the stats. Evasion and combat reduction from hull damage breaks the even fight in favor of the frigates.
e: That's good information, though, which is entirely what we want out of wargames.
e2: Although, needing to be lucky to deal more than 60 damage plus regen is worse than expected.
I'll tell you what it does. It puts me off building Ambassadors for anything except the Explorer Corps. Because an Ambassador against its cost/crew in frigates is just going to be even worse.
Excelsior-As are probably around the optimum response ability/punch power trade-off we're going to want to see, and we should keep building those.
True, although it makes our explorer focus kind of awkward over the long run. By the time Ambassador finishes we'll probably have more than enough Excelsior-As to handle sector flagship duties and respond admirably to events. What will we do then? We've got political incentives to keep building explorers (reduced combat cap effect, +5pp per ship), but we know they're not very efficient in a fight and they're crew-hungry.The impression that I have gotten from other posters, is that in 'Canon' there are a lot of Excelsiors floating around, but not a lot of Ambassadors - so maybe the quest is successfully replicating the cost benefit analysis from the series.
Keep in mind that the Dominion War took place several years after Wolf 359 prompted a crash shipbuilding surge and the UFP had a few years warning that yes, this war is unavoidable, as well as conflict with the Klingons bubbling over repeatedly. The numerous Galaxy-class ships flying around in the Dominion War were undoubtedly a case of "build what you have" mobilization.The impression that I have gotten from other posters, is that in 'Canon' there are a lot of Excelsiors floating around, but not a lot of Ambassadors - so maybe the quest is successfully replicating the cost benefit analysis from the series.
I have no idea how the lore has changed, but many years ago I was given the tech spec book for the Galaxy class as a present. If I remember the stuff in that book correctly there as only supposed to be 6 Galaxy class ships fully completed, with another 6 partially built in case of emergency. Not the dozens of war-fit Galaxies that seemed to be running around late DS9 .... 6-12 units of a new Capital design for a polity the size of the Federation - sounds like they were ear marked for the Explorer Corps only, like you are leaning towards on the Ambassador.
The Human fleet may want an Ambassador as a vanity piece/flagship similar to how they currently have an Excelsior.
They're not efficient mainly because they can't even prioritize one ship over another in a 2v1 match.True, although it makes our explorer focus kind of awkward over the long run. By the time Ambassador finishes we'll probably have more than enough Excelsior-As to handle sector flagship duties and respond admirably to events. What will we do then? We've got political incentives to keep building explorers (reduced combat cap effect, +5pp per ship), but we know they're not very efficient in a fight and they're crew-hungry.
I think there's still that option for light explorers?True, although it makes our explorer focus kind of awkward over the long run. By the time Ambassador finishes we'll probably have more than enough Excelsior-As to handle sector flagship duties and respond admirably to events. What will we do then? We've got political incentives to keep building explorers (reduced combat cap effect, +5pp per ship), but we know they're not very efficient in a fight and they're crew-hungry.
I honestly see it as more likely that shield penetration will favor swarm over lone ranger, because with more ships you have more rolls to burn through, and that means the lone ranger starts taking hull damage sooner.It's possible that the balance will swing once we get both shield penetration and target priority techs. Not likely a large effect, but shield pen plus hp damage priority seems to slightly favor capships over frigates.
The explorers are far more likely to deal a "critical hit" burnthrough shot that punches out 20% (or more) of a frigate's Hull points in a single shot, significantly weakening it for all the rounds of combat to follow. Basically, the way Combat equates to damage and ship numbers equate to hit probability means that in almost every imaginable way, two Combat 3 ships are just as nasty as one Combat 6 ship consisting of both of them glued together. The only thing that changes that is highly sticky targeting (i.e. sticky enough that chaining 10-20 hits in a row on the same target becomes probable).I honestly see it as more likely that shield penetration will favor swarm over lone ranger, because with more ships you have more rolls to burn through, and that means the lone ranger starts taking hull damage sooner.
Very overwhelming:
True, although it makes our explorer focus kind of awkward over the long run. By the time Ambassador finishes we'll probably have more than enough Excelsior-As to handle sector flagship duties and respond admirably to events. What will we do then? We've got political incentives to keep building explorers (reduced combat cap effect, +5pp per ship), but we know they're not very efficient in a fight and they're crew-hungry.