2300s - 2370s Gaming Minis

Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by Norsehound, Oct 25, 2021.

  1. Norsehound

    Norsehound Captain Captain

    Joined:
    May 21, 2013
    Location:
    Camel, IN
    So... my Captains game has been a bit of an adventure. While I have an original IP setting now and that's moved forward, my brain couldn't help tinkering with some core mechanics and re-starting development. Then it proposed a demo version of Captains for 1 player TNG play and suddenly I have a rules set and card deck in progress.

    I also have minis.

    Since I wanted to feature a new era in a new thread, here it is.

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    While I rail a lot against TNG ship design personally... most of my bitterness is directed at how swiftly and completely it shoved my beloved TMP style off the stage (and colored it as 'obsolite junk'). I seem to have a fascination, though, with early TNG style. While everyone's quick to embrace the First Contact designs and Voyager Era, I find myself continually looking back at the Wolf 359 designs and early TNG uniforms to wonder what that era was like.

    So, this thread is about gaming minis post Trek 6 through to Deep Space 9. It's the scope I would have covered in the TNG version of the Captains box for my game. This thread is for pure minis though.

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    To get rolling here's a timeline of all the ships I have so far. White is TMP, grey is FASA origin, Salmon is my own alternate universe take, and beige is TNG origin. I won't rehash the TMP models, that's been done elsewhere.

    This thread, as before, I'll be showing off my mini models and presenting my lore take on them.

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    I'll get started with one of the oddballs, the Royal Sovergin from FASA.

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    My Take: For close to forty years, Starfleet had been seeking replacements to the venerable Excelsior, which by the 2340s had been going strong for decades. Though the design was adaptable and flexible to the needs of Starfleet, the spaceframe was constructed with older methods (and so vulnerable to certain stressors). It was also resistant to certain technologies, and the legacy systems from its transwarp-supporting origins continued to spark ire in the minds of fleet designers (eventually resulting in the Obena class subvariant almost a century later to serve as a new basis).

    The grandest attempt to replace the Exclesior came in the 2350s as part of the "Galaxy Program" of designs- dubbed the Royal Sovergin.

    Even on paper the design is simple to understand. In essence, the Royal Sovergin is the Excelsior seen through the lens of Galaxy Program technologies. Even the Excelsior's original ambition of being a battlecruiser to the rest of the fleet was maintained, and she was suitably armed with the latest phaser technology and heavy photon torpedoes. When launched, the Royal Sovergin was championed with great fanfare as the next workhorse to Starfleet. There were even whispers of designating the next Enterprise as a Royal Sovergin, as the Galaxy-class had yet to finish the design phase.

    In the end the Royal Sovergin's glory was left... unstated. Only a handful of the ships were built before the design was paused. It was said that time was needed to evaluate the class, but a second flight was never followed up upon. Starfleet, meanwhile, approved continued upgrades to the nearly ancient Excelsior-class ships in service- costing only a fraction of what was necessary to procure a Royal Sovergin. In the end the class was limited to a dozen ships.

    All of them served with distinction up until the Klingon and Dominion wars, providing much-needed relief to the fleet in time for the anti-borg fleet of the 2370s to mature and enter the field. One of the early Casualties was the U.S.S. Nagato at Wolf 359, serving as the flagship for J.P. Hansen. The ship was completely destroyed when the Borg cutting beam penetrated the M/AM tanks, a tactic which accounted for the complete vaporization of many ships in the Federation fleet.
     
  2. Norsehound

    Norsehound Captain Captain

    Joined:
    May 21, 2013
    Location:
    Camel, IN
    Clearly the Royal Sovergin wasn't odd enough so it passed without comment. How about another?

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    My Take: The Paine class of starships is a somewhat odd example of the kinds of starships designed and fielded in the post cold war years of the 2300s. Enough experience had been gained with designing the Excelsior space frame that starship designers began creating larger and more robust hulls. Experience with the Excelsior-designed SCG class nacelles was also widespread enough in the fleet that they became the standard nacelle for most Federation starships of the period. Naturally, both resulted in ships like the Paine.

    While other classes like the Envoy (ex Ambassador) sought to replace the Excelsiors from the preceding decade, the Paine was simply a counterpart to those classes. The designers envisioned the Paine class taking up the role the old Constitutions did of the past era; present for missions Important to the Federation and not so commonplace that they would edge into the Miranda-class role of stock starship. In the end the Paine class landed somewhere in the middle- the cosmetic appearance of the ship could hardly be taken seriously next to the majestic appearance of the Excelsiors and Endeavours of the period, but functionally she was pretty baseline of craft of the period.

    Thirty Paine class frigates were ultimately constructed in a single flight. They served pretty unremarkable careers save for two craft. The first was the U.S.S. Joshua, a starship that participated in early conflicts with the Cardassians. The next was the U.S.S. Kiowa, which was the first ship to respond to the destruction of the Enterprise-B and rescue survivors from that disaster.
     
  3. Kaiser

    Kaiser Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2007
    Location:
    Boyertown, PA as of July 2011
    looks better in 3D :)
     
  4. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2010
    Location:
    publiusr
    Do their early version of the Ambassador--the one with the Refit 1701-A hull---but have the nacelles rise up above the saucer...
     
  5. Bernard Guignard

    Bernard Guignard Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2005
    Location:
    Ontario
    wounder what the Paine class would look like with the warp engines centered on support struts
     
    publiusr likes this.