Topic: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Hi all,

I decided to take a stab at creating a few of the ships from Stargate: Atlantis using some wiki info plus what I could remember from the show. I hope it's ok to post this here.

First up, the Prometheus cruiser. This was the first gen ship used by Earth. It never seemed to be particularly impressive in practice. I gave it some short ranged rail guns with the AF trait and some missiles, plus one flight of fighters. There were a few upgrades within the show itself, so I've selected a version that has some of the Asgard shielding, but not the weapons (which were initially witheld by the Asgard). I don't remember if they had the Asgard teleporters yet, but if not you can assume the teleporters are the Goa'uld variety.

(258) Prometheus-class Tau'ri Cruiser

Hull: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1               
Engines: 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1               
Shields: 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1               
Weapons:
1:XY 2:XY 3:X 4:X 5:X 6:Y

X: Rail Guns: 4/8/12, 3/5+/1/1
Carronade; Anti-Fighter
[AB][AB][AB][AB][AC][BD]

Y: Missile Batteries: 5/10/15, 1/4+/2/2
[HGI][ABC][ABD]
Ammo: 22

Special: Hyperdrive; Fire Control; Teleporters (2); Marines (4); Carrier (50)

Next up is the Prometheus. This contained some substantial upgrades from the Asgard and the ship was extremely vicious in practice with its new Asgard weapons and upgraded shields. It also carries more fighters.

(572) Daedalus-class Tau'ri Cruiser

Hull: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1               
Engines: 6 6 5 4 3 3 2 1               
Shields: 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1               
Weapons:
1:XY 2:XZ 3:YZ 4:YZ 5:Y 6:Y

X: Asgard Beam: 4/8/12, 1/4+/3/3
Piercing; Slow-Firing
[AB][AB]

Y: Rail Guns: 4/8/12, 3/5+/1/1
Anti-Fighter; Carronade
[AB][AB][AB][AB][AC][BD]

Z: Missile Batteries: 5/10/15, 1/4+/2/2
[HGI][ABC][ABD]
Ammo: 22

Special: Hyperdrive; Carrier (150); Fire Control; Teleporters (2); Marines (4)

Last is a Wraith cruiser. This was tricky because the Wraith don't use shields, instead relying on an armored hull with regenerative capabilities. In the show it seems to have a plethora of one type of laser cannon of some sort and a bunch of Dart fighters. It's larger than the Earth ships, though it's difficult to gauge relative size from the show.

Also the "countermeasures" listed in the Special section are really teleport jammers. I'm undecided how they should work exactly, but for now assume a -2 penalty to both the range and shield rolls for enemy ships attempting to board them. In the show, they're used to prevent the humans from using the Asgard beaming technology to beam nukes onto their ships and detonating them (it works twice, and is permanently foiled after that).

(550) Cruiser-class Wraith Ship

Hull: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Engines: 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1
Shields: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapons:
1:XYZ 2:XY 3:XY 4:XZ 5:XZ 6:YZ

X: Energy Cannons: 5/10/15, 1/4+/1/1
[AB][AB][AB][AB][AB][AB][AB][AB]

Y: Energy Cannons: 5/10/15, 1/4+/1/1
[AC][AC][AC][AC][CE][CE]

Z: Energy Cannons: 5/10/15, 1/4+/1/1
[BD][BD][BD][BD][DF][DF]

Special: Armor Plating; Hyperdrive; Regeneration; Carrier (250); Countermeasures*

I tried a single ship duel using a Wraith cruiser against a Prometheus cruiser because I was interested to see how a ship with no shields would fare against a more traditional ship. I know the battle was lopsided in terms of points, but I wanted to see if it could stand up to a smaller ship before bothering to put it up against a larger ship. I also played that AF weapons may fire at fighters *before* fighter combat if they're adjacent. That worked out fine.

In practice the armor + regen + no shields worked out well in terms of ship survival. Not only are 1's ignored due to armor, but 4's are a useless hit, too, since there are no shields to hit! Plus, a 3 is only partially effective, as only the hull hit matters, and that can eventually be repaired. If playing with E.1 (damage control) this ship would be even more difficult to take down, and would likely need a couple alpha strikes. The downside is that it tended to get its weapons shorn off. I had to increase the number of energy cannons at the expense of some speed to help with that. If not playing with E.1, then it will probably be stripped of weapons long before it's destroyed.

I haven't made a Wraith Hive Ship yet, but it would basically just be a larger cruiser with more fighters.

Enjoy!

Dan

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

BTW, the Daedalus class cruiser is tech +1, in case you were wondering how I squeezed more stuff into the same hull. smile

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Daniel Berger wrote:

. I hope it's ok to post this here.

There is a section named 'Bourbaki basin' for that purpose. Otherwise, very interesting. But as always, we want more!

Marc

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Oops, sorry about that. Should I repost it there?

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Well, this is not a problem for me, although that subject could be lost among thousands of other subjects.
Do you know http://b5warsvault.wikidot.com/?
There are some Stargate ships (in other universes), and although they are done in B5Wars style, they could easily be adapted to Starmada standard.

Marc

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

I decided to go ahead and post my stuff in the Bourbaki Basin so it's in the right place. Hopefully folks won't be too upset with me. smile

Thanks for the link!

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

What is Carronade? It doesn't seem to be in the TAE book.

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Carronade is in the Rules Annex. It means the weapon can't fire at long range, though it pays the SU cost as though it could.

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

So why would you take that? Just for fluff?

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Daniel Berger wrote:

Carronade is in the Rules Annex. It means the weapon can't fire at long range, though it pays the SU cost as though it could.

Weapons with Carronade get a SU cost reduction. Some of it is for fluff but you can have a slightly more powerful weapon for the same cost but a reduced range.

Paul

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Ozymandias wrote:

So why would you take that? Just for fluff?

It's primarily to go with the dual-mode weapons rule, which requires a weapon's modes to have the same range for the ORAT calculation. With the "carronade" trait, you can simulate a shorter range with one mode.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

I sometimes take it when I want a range different from normal ranges--such as the Zorkarn in my Interregnum, who have range-15, Carronade weapons so they have a one-hex advantage over the Oronans who have range-9 weapons.

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

Also, Carronade is useful to design a weapon without a long range penalty. I don't talk math or SU or ORAT, but a range 12 weapon fires with a penalty at range 9-12. A range 18 carronade weapon would have the same range, but with better hit probability, as it has a longer short range and no long range.

Marc

Re: Stargate: Atlantis ship designs

madpax wrote:

Also, Carronade is useful to design a weapon without a long range penalty. I don't talk math or SU or ORAT, but a range 12 weapon fires with a penalty at range 9-12. A range 18 carronade weapon would have the same range, but with better hit probability, as it has a longer short range and no long range.

Marc

I used to do this on my Chaos fleet; you can get the same max range with no long range penalty at just a slight SU cost compared to that range with a long-range penalty.  You suffer against Stealth, though, since you can only fire at them at half of your range rather than 2/3, and there is an SU cost.  Still, "Long 12s" (Carronade 18s) plus Fire Control for Directed Damage all the time was pretty nice...  It got to the point where the group started calling Directed Damage "John's Rule" after me.