There are still a few challenges to be overcome, but the project does continue. You can control up to four PF's at once (five for the Lyrans) and the role of bases is played by PFTs.
The war takes place in a "colonial zone". The colonists and natives don't really have the resources to fight a full-scale war, but find themselves drawn into conflict anyway when their mother-nations go at it. PF's become the weapon of choice; even for the normally reluctant Federation.
Here are some in-game shots of a few of the participants
The Federation's first foray into the realm of fast patrol boats was the Mustang interceptor. While it proved (barely) that the concept was workable, its limited powerplant simply did not allow enough shields and weaponry for the boat to be truly effective.
The Thunderbolt carried a larger powerplant, and was thus able to use bigger shields, fire more photons, and carry more drones to target. Lots of eager native draftees -- and absolute necessity -- let the Federation set aside its usual disdain for assigning crews to attrition units.
The Gorn interceptor was the Pteradon. Like most interceptors it was underpowered and undergunned. It did prove usable enough to stave off the "barbarians" until the pacifistic elements of the Gorn government could be talked into sense.
Once war was recognized as inevitable, the Gorn Pteradactyl was the standard Bruce fast patrol boat, armed with a heavier powerplant and four stasis-tube plasma torpedos. Even the "non-combat" variants of the Pterdactyl were effective in combat due to their well-arranged phaser array.
The Hydrans produced a wider variety of "standard" fast patrol hulls than any other race, tailoring a different line to each of their heavy weapons. The Hydrans also had more success with the fighter-conveyer concept than did the other races and chose to add one or two to most flotillas. (Unlike the Kzin and Lyran concept, which was to build entire flotillas of fi-cons.) Here we see a squadron of Howlers, bristling with phaser-G's.
The Klingons' first experiment with fast patrol boats was the H1 interceptor. While effective enough in small police interdiction actions, it lacked enough punch to be truly useable in combat.
The Klingons discarded the H1 for the G1, which was to prove the most famous "gunboat" in the Federation's recorded histories. (Mostly because the Klingons were right on their border, and their competitive economic engine allowed them to build so many.) A drone variant was also available for attacks on strategic targets.
The Lyrans were the first to experiment with an interceptor concept, and the first to decide that it needed more power. The Lynx was an exceptionally popular idea at all levels of the Lyran navy and yet barely saw a day of service before its replacement was being built.
The Lyrans never did build a PF with the combat power of their neighbors, and made up for this with numbers. They also continued with much wider fi-con operations than did the Kzin, who abandoned the idea almost as soon as they tried it. For years during the war extra-large flotillas of Bobcats darkened the stars both in the alpha quadrant and in the colonial zone.
The Romulan experiment with interceptor technology was the Decurian. It did prove that you could launch a plasma F from a fast patrol boat and that you could cloak a PF cheaply, but it proved little else.
The Romulans upgraded their design to the Centurian. While still critically under-phasered and still short on power, it's five plasma-F stasis tubes gave it more torpedo firepower than most of the cruisers found in the colonial zone.
The Romulans also built a more general-use PF, the Starhawk. This fast patrol boat had a modular design and could be quickly modified to meet the mission at hand. Here we see one passing by a Decurian interceptor during approval testing.
The Kzinti also chose to branch out into a modular PF design, building both standard Needle PF's and the Multi-Role needle. This gave them more variants than even the Hydrans or Romulans, but you could always bet that whatever you faced would be bringing plenty of drones. The kziniti were the first to experiment with the fi-con concept, but abandoned it almost completely in the colonial zone and elsewhere. Their PF's simply had no means to replenish the expendables on their fighters.
Get set to prove who is the
Top Gun. Happy Warmongering!
-Herr Burt
Topic: Squadron Commander: Howlers and Bobcats and Thunderbolts, Oh My! (Read 2701 times)