Saber class

[Deepcrush]

Who compared them to the Defiant? I can't imagine any reason at all to do so.

I was comparing them to the Defiant and the uses between. They just aren't needed or really that useful.

The Akira is far too large and presumably expensive to be anything other than the 24th century equivalent of a ship-of-the-line, and probably a first-rate one at that (technically first-rate, not just a compliment.) You don't need an outrider to have the bulk of your long-range bombardment ability.

I have to disagree strongly. I don't see the Akira as a Ship of the Line. I see it as more of a support ship that should be free to move about the lines as it sees fit. Its a missle cruiser by modern standard, not a battleship. Posting it in a single position on the line would harm its ability of support.

[Mikey]

I agree with that last bit, inasmuch as I sadi "the equivalent." A true line-to-line naval battle plan of the 18th century has no place at all in 'Trek, Akira or not. However, there's a huge difference between calling something the equivalent of a missile cruiser (with which I agree) or the equivalent of a picket boat (with which I don't.)

PS - check out our RP - we jammed up the Daystrom with QT's.

[Deepcrush]

The Akira's firepower is on the order of the Galaxy/Nebula, in a smaller package. Even in the age of the Sov, that's not inconsiderable, given the low numbers of such beasts as a Sovereign-class as yet. She's a front-line battleship. There could be smaller patrol or policing roles for which a Steamrunner-type would be suitable. There does have to be some policing to be done, after all; we've even seen some shadier parts of the Trek universe in spite of Picard's bluster...

Local policing roles would be just as well served by a Defiant which is far more powerful, much safer and has a cloak.

As to the Akira being a battleship. Most battleships are built to go toe to toe with other battleships. The Akira's firepower is mostly based on her PTLs. Which while good for ranged combat will sooner or later run out and you don't want a battleship that is going to run out of torps midway through a battle. GCS and Nebs base most of their firepower on phasers, a lot of phasers. Those would be battlecruisers or battleships by standard. The Sov is the first ship to really mix heavy amounts of both phasers and TLs though I think of the Sov more like the Star Trek version of a Dreadnought.

[Deepcrush]

I agree with that last bit, inasmuch as I sadi "the equivalent." A true line-to-line naval battle plan of the 18th century has no place at all in 'Trek, Akira or not. However, there's a huge difference between calling something the equivalent of a missile cruiser (with which I agree) or the equivalent of a picket boat (with which I don't.)

PS - check out our RP - we jammed up the Daystrom with QT's.

Missile Cruiser and Picket ship in Star Trek would be best filled by the same ship. Long range, fast and at least some what able to strike at both lighter and heavier enemy ships. The Akira is a huge Torpedo Boat, that all. Other then being big she's the dream design of a hit and run ship.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

We have seen that phasers can be drained as well.

[Deepcrush]

Umm, might want to think about how those two things work though. PTs don't recharge anywhere there is power now do they?

[Captain Picard's Hair]

It would still take time to effect repairs to the phasers, though. If an Akira could get to a supply ship, it might not take it any less time to get back into action...

[Deepcrush]

Yes but that is rare matter for phasers to run out as I only recall seeing it 3 times in TOS, once in TNG and then in ST-Nem. It also takes time to repair PTLs though it won't matter so much if you run out of ammo. You repair a phaser and you get to shoot again, you repair a broken PTL and it still doesnt' work until you have PTs you shoot from it. Plus phasers don't have the same fire arc problems of a PTL. If you have a ship based on PTLs you are better off keeping it away from the main fray and use it to support your ships that are in the battle. When you run out of PTs then you fly in and use what phaser power you have.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

I'm not arguing on the usage. On the upkeep, though, it's also true that we haven't often seen ships engaging in such fierce battles as the Dominion War battles and the Nemesis battle. Phasers being drained might become quite a bit more common under those conditions.

[Deepcrush]

Maybe true, the Defiant did burn out her phaser coils quite often. Though that never seemed to stop her from fighting. SoA showed ships fighting for several hours without burning out their phasers.

[Teaos]

The Defiant is short range and highly unefficent when it comes to fuel and other things. Its only use is during war time when you have no other option and and a few arpund core planets for defence.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Using a massively gunned ship like that for routine policing seems a bit of overkill.

[Teaos]

It also lowers production rate.

[Deepcrush]

It would seem fine enough to me if you only need one or two per sector. The fact that it would never have to worry about facing anything it couldn't deal with alone I would call a good thing, not so much as over kill. If I would have put a Sov there then I would understand the overkill idea. The Defiant is a small, capable and reliable ship that is big enough that it can deal with any small time troubles one would likely come across without the cost of a larger ship like an Akira.

I just don't see a problem with it.

[Teaos]

The original GCS was limited to 6, and this one is even more resourse intensive.

Also the opposition doesnt field anything as powerful as it yet, but if you build it they will build something more powerful as well.