SHIP STATS for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ----------------------------------- Opinions regarding the dramatic and scientific virtues of "Battlestar Galactica" may vary, but what cannot be denied is that there's lots of space battles in the show -- which makes it perfect for Full Thrust fans. What follows are ship designs for the major warships seen on the screen, plus a few others that come from a variety of sources (mostly my imagination). My versions of the Colonial and Cylon ships are based on a few assumptions that, in turn, were developed from what was shown in the series. I have not used novels, comics or fanfiction as references. These assumptions, which I freely admit are open to challenge, are: i. The weapons shown in the series are very powerful. Ships can suffer a _lot_ of damage from a few hits. This may be because of the highly volatile fuel that both sides use. Because of this, and also because Adama's order for "Positive Shields" only ever seemed to cause a blast shield to be lowered over the bridge viewport, I have not given any ships screens or armour. ii. Weapons are also short-ranged, or so it would appear from the few ship combat scenes (as distinct from those involving fighters). This is almost certainly a result of a wish to show both sides on the screen at the same time (the Star Trek stationary battle syndrome), but I have interpreted it as implying that most beam weapons would be no larger than B batteries in FT terms. A ship may have a long-range or heavy weapon, but these would be few in number (generally only one per ship). iii. Fighters are the primary long-range weapon of both sides. Based on their representation in the show, I have defined Vipers as Fast fighters and Cylon Raiders as Attack fighters. A capital ship of either side is thought to hold a lot of fighters -- in "The Hand of God", Tigh mentions that a Base Star carries 300 fighters, and his comment that the Colonials will be outnumbered 2 to 1 is evidence that the Galactica can carry at least 150, and probably more, although this figure is slightly contentious in fan circles. In any case, 100+ fighters is far too many to represent individually in an FT ship -- the Base Star would mass at least 600! -- so I have chosen to let an FT fighter Group stand for a Colonial or Cylon Squadron. The Galactica's fighter wing is not outnumbered in FT terms by comparison with a Base Star's complement, but that can be thought of as allowing for the lousy shooting of the Centurions..! :-) iv. Since fighters are so important, fighter defences will be equally so. However, even the Galactica does not seem able to provide cover for the rest of the Fleet other than by drawing the fire of attacking Cylons and by engaging incoming Raiders with its Vipers. This I take to indicate that it lacks any form of area defence (ADAFs in FT terms), which makes sense because Battlestars would seem to be designed to be able to operate without "conventional" escort ships (certainly none were ever seen in the series). Other ship classes that might be added, particularly if gamers want to simulate battles from the Cylon War rather than those of the series, include minelayers/sweepers and a whole gamut of smaller classes. With the importance of fighters in the BSG universe, most warships of any size (say, cruisers and up in FT terms) will carry at least one Group. It might be useful to allow half-Groups (MASS 3, 3 dice/attack) in order to allow more flexibility in designing smaller ships. Most of the Colonial Fleet will be unarmed merchant ships, of all shapes and sizes, pressed into service as transports for the fleeing survivors And finally, for those people who adore big guns, the deadly Ravishol Pulsar, the super-weapon from the episode "The Gun On Ice Planet Zero", can be represented in FT terms by an enhanced Wave Gun, i.e., a weapon which uses the Wave Gun rules but does double damage or even more (bringing it up to Nova Cannon levels or beyond, but with the need to charge up and the single-turn firing concept). This should not be considered as a ship-mounted weapon (not in the BSG universe. anyway). A miniature of the Galactica is available from Comet Miniatures in the UK. Unfortunately, it looks to be based on that appalling model kit that Monogram released (they got the Base Star right -- how come they messed up the Galactica?), but it's all we got. Comet also sell a Viper and a Raider, but no Base Star. All are approximately 2-3" long. Some of the GZG/CMD fighters could be modified to produce reasonable facsimiles of the BSG fighters that are rather more in scale with ship miniatures, or even the model kits: NSU heavy fighters make quite good Raiders if you cut their noses off; Vipers could be made from several of the fighter types (such as NAC or FSE fighters) but the conversion will be more involved. The Fleet was a hodge-podge of whatever ships were available at the time, so anything is suitable for use as a freighter. Their vulnerability and sheer numbers (the consensus in BSG fandom is that there are around 200 ships in the Fleet) could make for a boring game (not to mention a large one!), so ship miniatures could represent groups of ships much as fighter groups do (although the damage capacity of a group would be considerably larger). And now, the ships: COLONIAL BATTLESTAR MASS: 100 Mass for Fittings: 50 Damage Points: 50 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 200 FTL - 100 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 4 - 400 B(2) x 4 8 28 Pulse Torpedo x 1[1] 5 15 PDAF x 8 8 24 Fighters (F) x 4[2] 24 128 Superior Sensors 2 30 ECM, Area Effect 3 30 DC Party x 3 - 30 ------------------------------ Total 50 985 Notes: 1: This design is intended to be a generic representation of the Colonies' major capital ships and is specifically based on the Pegasus. The Pulse Torpedo is my attempt to portray the Pegasus' missiles since FT missiles are too large (massive) to be provided in the numbers seen on TV. Individual ships of this class may well have greater or smaller variations from this layout -- they probably will, since Battlestars are reputedly anything up to hundreds of yahrens/years old, and will presumably have been refitted many times. 2: Gamers wishing to play out the adventures of the Pegasus after the events of the episode "The Living Legend" should remember that the ship now only has 3 squadrons of fighters. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA MASS: 100 Mass for Fittings: 50 Damage Points: 50 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 200 FTL - 100 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 4 - 400 A(1) x 1[1] 3 7 B(2) x 4 8 28 PDAF x 10 10 30 Fighters (F) x 4[2] 24 128 Extra Fighters x 1[3] - 32 Superior Sensors 2 30 ECM, Area Effect 3 30 DC Party x 3 - 30 ------------------------------ Total 50 1015 Notes: 1: The Galactica has been modified from the standard battlestar configuration in two major ways: firstly, the ship was never seen to use missiles, even in direct combat with a Cylon Base Star, so the Pulse Torpedo has been replaced by a more powerful beam weapon; and secondly, to reflect its post-Destruction role as sole protector of the Fleet and the few surviving humans, its fighter defences have been increased. ADAFs might have been of more use, but Adama's operational doctrine -- putting his ship in harm's way in order to protect the vulnerable Fleet -- seems to indicate that the Galactica cannot protect other ships with its fighter defences. 2: Two fighter Squadrons (Blue and Silver Spar) are ACEs. 3: The Galactica carries an extra Squadron of fighters (Silver Spar Squadron from the Pegasus) that it was not designed to carry normally. To reflect this, the ship has been given the extra Squadron, but MASS has not been allocated for the launch bays. The Galactica may only launch 2 Squadrons at one time, as per the FT rules, and the remaining Squadrons must wait until the next game-turn before launching. Players may decide that the fifth Squadron must wait one or more further game-turns before launching since the ship does not have dedicated facilities for it. COLONIAL GUNSTAR MASS: 82 Mass for Fittings: 41 Damage Points: 41 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 164 FTL - 82 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 4 - 328 B(2) x 4 8 28 Wave Gun x 1 10 30 PDAF x 6 6 18 Fighters (F) x 2 12 64 Superior Sensors 2 30 ECM, Area Effect 3 30 DC Party x 3 - 30 ------------------------------ Total 41 804 Notes: The Pulsar-class Gunstar was created by James M Stevenson. His excellent drawings of both classes, available in GIF form from his web pages (URL http://www.snm.com/~jstevens/ships/ ) show the Gunstar to be slightly smaller than a Battlestar. From these drawings and its designation, I have assumed that the ship carries a powerful beam weapon akin to the Ravishol Pulsar. A Wave Gun seemed to be the best bet to represent such a weapon -- ship-borne, and thus necessarily smaller than its planet-mounted counterpart -- in FT terms, and the rules for its use match well with what was seen of the Pulsar's operation in that episode. Adama would _love_ to have one of these, and I have included it for those gamers who might like to play battles from the Cylon War rather than limiting themselves to post-Destruction scenarios. COLONIAL FLEET DEFENCE SHIP ("Flakship") MASS: 40 Hull Type: Q-ship Mass for Fittings: 20 Damage Points: 10 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 60 FTL - 40 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 4 - 160 B(3) x 1 2 9 C(2) x 4 4 16 PDAF x 2 2 6 ADAF x 4 12 40 ------------------------------ Total 20 331 Notes: If the Colonial Fleet did have, or developed, something like an ADAF, then the _second_ thing that they would do (after refitting the Galactica) would be to find one or more large freighters and fit them out to defend against Cylon attacks. Operational doctrine would require "squadrons" of Fleet ships to cluster around each flakship when attacked. COLONIAL FLEET ARMED TRANSPORT MASS: 50 Hull Type: Merchant Mass for Fittings: 5 Damage Points: 13 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 75 FTL - 50 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 2 - 100 C(3) x 1 1 5 PDAF x 1 1 3 ADAF x 1 3 10 ------------------------------ Total 5 243 Notes: This is a less extreme version of the flakship -- a typical Fleet ship, modified to carry as much defensive armament as it can without compromising its main priority, which is to transport as many survivors as possible in at least tolerable conditions. Gamers may like to experiment with different weapons arrangements: an extra C-battery and some PDAFs replacing the ADAF, for instance (if you choose to assume that the Fleet doesn't have ADAF technology, or even if they do). Losing the area defence capability will make these ships' lives rather more exciting, because they will have to encourage Cylon attacks on themselves in order to use their weapons..! CYLON BASE STAR MASS: 100 Mass for Fittings: 50 Damage Points: 50 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 200 FTL - 100 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 4 - 400 A(4) x 1 3 16 B(3) x 4 8 36 PDAF x 5 5 15 Fighters (A) x 5 30 130 Enhanced Sensors 1 15 ECM, Area Effect 3 30 DC Party x 2 - 20 ------------------------------ Total 50 962 Special Rules for Base Star: Being circular, this ship doesn't really have a bow or stern, so certain rules regarding the rear arc of a standard FT ship are suspended. The Base Star will have a Velocity and Course as normal, and all usual movement rules apply. However, some beam batteries may fire into its "rear" arc. It should be noted that the Base Star's two "mega-pulsars" (as described by Colonel Tigh in "The Hand of God") are represented by the single A-battery. If you wonder why almost everything is in fives, well, that stems from the five-fold symmetry of the FX models. CYLON TANKER MASS: 80 Hull Type: Merchant Mass for Fittings: 8 Damage Points: 20 Component MASS Used Cost ------------------------------ Hull - 120 FTL - 80 Normal Space Drive Thrust = 2 - 160 PDAF x 2 2 6 Fighters (A) x 1 6 26 ------------------------------ Total 8 392 Notes: This ship is the tanker seen in the series pilot, found by Apollo and Zac after it has refuelled the Cylon Raiders before their final attack on the Colonial Fleet. Examination of the FX model has forced me to include fighters, but I feel that a full Group is really too many and makes the ship rather too massive for its depiction in the show. A "half-group" of fighters (MASS 3, 13 points) would reduce the overall MASS of the ship to 50, which seems more reasonable.Cylon