Over the past year I've been working on a board game design of my own set in the 2270s-2290s span of time. Essentially, you have a ship and crew of your own undertaking and resolving missions in the local sector. It was also an excuse to make some nice TMP model minis and actually have something to do with them. With help from Furyofaseraph (Rob Mayer), I started making some to 3D print and put on the table. I began with the customary big three from the 2280s: Next I made up the experimentals. Part of the reason I wanted to share this thread was to post some pics of my take on the Constellation. I figure it was built under the rationalization that if the Excelsior was "the big experiment", Constellation was built out of contemporary parts as the next stage of cruiser development if Excelsior went under. This is why she's fitted with Refit nacelles, which would be eventually switched out for the clubbed ones. The other reason I wanted to share was, as I was developing my game, I started reaching for obscure content of this 2270s-2290s period from somewhat obscure sources. Things like the old 1982 comic strips just after Trek I but before Trek II, and both runs of the Marvel series. It's the closest we have to a TV series set in that TMP time period- which continues to be kind of sidelined to favor just about every other Trek period. Anyways, there are some interesting ships out there that I started modeling for possible inclusion in the game in one form or another, and to my knowledge nobody has ever sought out to render them. So this post is not just to show off what I made, but also to shine a spotlight on these obscure designs. Bold Venture (NCC-2013) Part of the 2274 Nogura Regatta from the newspaper comics, captained by Vera DiMarco. With each participant handicapped based on their speed, Bold Venture was launched fourth-from last. Last, and the fastest in the race, was the Enterprise. Of the three I'm presenting this one is the closest to getting into the game because of how unique it is. My take: Part of a three-ship class of couriers known as the Mercury class. Mercury herself is known for contesting the speed of U.S.S. Discovery's Earth-Vulcan transit run. Bold Venture, apart from the race participation, also made the Earth-Andor courier run in record time. The class was halted after three ships because the Sydney-class transports were also being developed at the same time in a much more economical platform. They also didn't use a massive experimental engine that the Mercury class used, so they were discontinued. Rim Explorer (NCC-3913) This ill-fated ship was targeted by mercenaries hired by Kyoshi Nogura (Grandson to the Admiral) to delay the racers. Instead the mercenaries kidnapped Kyoshi and attacked the Rim Explorer to destroy it. While Bold Venture continued the race, thinking the distress call was a ruse, Enterprise came to the rescue. My take: A "bulk explorer"- a class produced in large numbers for low-intensity scientific and exploration duties. She was also to take advantage of new technological developments, deployed around 2269. A prospective replacement for the Capella-class utility cruisers, she ended up being too awkward of a middle child once the sleeker Oberths began to be deployed. Rim Explorer's loss, combined with a few other disasters and their lack of capability in the face of 2270's developments, eventually saw the class sold off. By the time they were retired, the technology used in their construction (as well as the low armament) meant they were easily sold into civilian hands as couriers and tramp freighters. Gallant (NCC-????) Another ill-fated ship, commanded by Captain John Bearclaw. It was suddenly destroyed by the Klingons, striking from ambush out of a hidden base. Bearclaw's son comes to blame Gallant's Science officer for being unable to detect the ships in time, and takes it out on Bryce's daughter nancy. My take: A small exploration and patrol vessel, more intended for frontline duty than the RIm Explorer's class, they were intended to be frigates in wartime and medium science vessels in peacetime. Released so close to the Oberths they competed for the same space, and ultimately the Gallant's class type lost out. Supporters of the Oberth extolled the virtues of the ship's ease of maintenance and production (resulting ultimately in a weaker class), and the Gallant's type only produced around a dozen vessels before production ceased. Apart from the Gallant's loss, they were fine, capable ships. The developer for the Gallant would try again (and succeed) with the Nova class in the 24th century, which is more or less nothing more than a technological update of the Gallant-type. ------------- And that's what I got! If folks are interested I can post pics of the other craft I've made for this game of mine, and a few even got printed.
Really cool designs! Not really being into comics, I wasn't aware of them. And your models look great, looking forward to hearing more about your game.
I had this lofty idea of completing testing and moving into producing, on my own, one near-final prototype copy that I'd ambush paramount executives with. While that might still be a possibility someday, the game is taking a while to hone in absence of a regular play-group to game with. It's still under development, having to revisit some core mechanics. In essence this is the game that I've always wanted but no game has ever emphasized. In it, You are the captain of a Starship in the 2270s-2290s period. With a crew you have drafted and your ship to command, you work with other captains to keep the peace and prevent the Klingons from beginning an invasion! As an aside, really, no game scratched this itch. Star Trek Ascendancy is too zoomed out in scope, and I really hated the cross-generational aspects of Fleet Captains and Attack Wing (plus Attack Wing is poorly designed and balanced). Plus I wanted something exclusively 2280s period. Notably the research for this game draws deep from sources in the 2270s-2290s period. As I mentioned I reach deep into B-canon to find things to populate the universe. More than that, this game begins right when Trek I would. Meaning V'ger didn't necessarily come at this time, allowing you to command the refitted Enterprise. Ilia is a playable navigator, she may not necessarily be assigned to 1701. I already have a number of expansions planned that I'm working on as I go. The next one up is the Klingon Empire, which will add an adversarial player option to the game.
On the matter of obscure ships and rendering them though, I have something else to share. Way back when, Interplay released an adventure game called "Star Trek the 25th anniversary". As a kid it gave me some incentive to actually learn how to read, so it has great sentimental value. In it there's a one-off enemy race of pirates called the Elasi, which come into the universe by hijacking one of Franz Joseph's tugs (The Masada, NCC-293391). You tangle with them a few more times, notably in a battle where the Enterprise has to fight her doppelganger and three of these Elasi Pirate ships. When I kited around the Dynaverse community for Starfleet command and requested someone model this, the result was...well... something not as in-depth as I would have liked. If I only knew how to model then, I would have made a model to give this old, barely-known and totally forgotten starship some legitimate attention. I know how to model now.
This looks like a lot of fun! Love the set up and the period for starship combat really appeals to me.
Wow, that board looks great! Clearly a lot of though and care in this. As for the Elasi, I never noticed the Klingon bits on the old PC monitor I used to play, great adaptation!
I only know because the Judgement Rites manual mentioned it (well, mentioned that the Klingons emphatically denied the Elasi ships were obsolete Klingon designs), along with a high-res profile of the ship where you could see the engines and the bridge.
Judgement rites also switched the Elasi ship to a weirder 3D rendering that lost a lot of the detail (such as it was) from the ship. When making up my Elasi model I had to play the game and chase down the Elasi ship with aggressive screencapping to get as many references as I could. I think what happened was someone at Interplay kitbashed a model together from a K't'inga kit then took a bunch of pictures for reference. If this is the case, I can only imagine what happened to that ancient kitbashed model that no longer matters...
So the base game is set to include: 2x Enterprise-class refit consitutions, 2x Miranda-class, 2x Oberths, 1x Excelsior, 1x Constellation class. I imagined nice minis to go with them, which would probably drive up the price, but hey for now, sky's the limit. One of the major content expansions would include the Arial-class shuttlecarrier (Ships of the star fleet?). It would be able to use its shuttles to assist in challenges elsewhere, as well as launch executive shuttles to help out anywhere in the sector. Also included is the Soyuz-class ELINT ships (thanks to Timo for his take on it), which could help with mission sifting. Lastly, the Class III neutronic Fuel carrier (Based on the depiction from STO) to act as a super cargo carrier that can easily handle all the transport missions in-game and act as a supply point for ships in the middle of sectors (They won't have to return to starbase/outposts). Of these only the class III has been tested so far. This is content too far in advance right now, the base game needs to be ironed out completely before I can revisit these. Still, models are ready and just need to be printed.
I'll throw another out here. I fell in love with the Akula design when I started playing Starfleet Command (though I never flew it, DDs were painful to play). It made sense as a practical TMP destroyer , though I never understood why they clubbed the back end of the photon pod. I always wanted to stick one of the Miranda boxes there instead to enable rear-firing torps and mine laying. So... In my game they're stated similarly to the Oberths: Small hull, they can evade a critical hit. Instead of cargo space and superior sensors they have a photon mount (for auto-success generation in combat) and better weaponry. I actually have one of these as a model. They've gotten to the table once or twice, but they may not have the utility necessary to be a real playable ship (as in, it can't help with cruiser missions like relocating colonists, exploring nebula, or scientific pursuits). Currently I'm experimenting with them as a low-level helper craft you can drop into low-player games. And since it's obvious here, the peg is from Mel Miniatures. I've created them to accept X-Wing/Attack Wing flight base pegs, since I have plenty from those games.
Interesting. I always had a fondness for the Elasi design, which seemed to borrow a number of Klingon parts. The Bold Venture seems like kind of an oddball design.
Bold Venture is about on-par with some of the other weird examples of background ships out of the DC comics. Most of them are from the 2283 mirror universe, which is why I didn't bother, but I am toying with the idea of taking the Fractalsponge* route of making sense out of those background starships. Why I don't is because the game has about 23 projected Federation ship classes alone- I don't want to go overboard on trying to balance and legitimize all of them! But Bold Venture is one that I have a fondness for because it's the most interesting of the two newspaper era designs. It's rare enough to have media depicting the 2273 period of Star Trek I, it's especially neat to see new starship designs out of that period. The comic is also one of the rare distinctions I'm aware of where the refit is side-by-side with the pre-refit, and I'd like to acknowledge the source that went there. *Fractalsponge, aka Ansel Hsiao, is known in the Star Wars community for rendering entire Star Destroyer classes out of background shapes from a few of the old comics, such as Dark Empire. The Bellator, Secutor, and Fulgor are notable examples of ships derived from random comic book ships. Some of which made it into legends canon, and are certainly used by places like FFG's role-play game.
Yeah, I have a copy of the MUS comic (which I like a great deal), and it definitely has some interesting background ships, of which the stacked "double saucer" ship is perhaps the most unusual. I tended to think perhaps the Surak was intended to be a lead ship of its own class, but I've also seen sources suggesting it's intended to be an Oberth (which is rather odd in that case, as the art was more or less consistent for the film designs). The Surak's dimensions didn't seem consistent with the Oberth or even within the few panels it was seen, at least in my experience.
Surak is anything between an Oberth and a Miranda (as defined in the character guides). Most of the time it's depicted as an Oberth, so fwiw I'm treating it as such within the game I'm making (It'll be the third Oberth identity you could select, though at max you can have 2 ships of a class ingame).
Awesome stuff! Brings back a lot of memories. There's also the Star Trek III comic which shows all kinds of different ships in Spacedock along with the Excelsior (which the actual film didn't have). I have the comic but unfortunately I don't have screencaps
I'll admit, the "communist" ships are funny. What's the ship in the upper right? I didn't really follow much of the DC comics but I know that Spock's crew on the Surak was killed off in one issue.