Smallest ship that could destroy the Federation?

[Lord Pounder]

From the list I'd go with an Imp Star for the simple fact that the support ships the ISD carries is more than enough to level any AQ planet.

[Starglider]

The Slave One had a standard loadout of seven of the devices, and I'd hardly call it an ordinary Firespray (indeed, ordinary Firesprays are police vehicles, probably less heavily armed than an X-Wing, and certainly lacking highly illegal armament).

Agree, but since it's the Empire building or commandeering the wormhole generator and preparing the ship, sensible military upgrades (which I think covers Slave 1) are fine.

During the NJO, the Enemy Lines duology involves the brief bombardment of a Yuuzhan Vong worldship in orbit around Coruscant by a New Republic starcrusier on the edge of its solar system. The target was not a moving one, and it is probable that such an attack could not be carried out on an alerted, operation starship, but it does indicate that heavy turbolasers have quite an incredible range.

That's pretty impressive (very impressive if 'edge' means 'pluto orbit', extremely if it means 'oort cloud'). The accuracy might not be good enough to hit specific cities from that range, but with even Dreadnought-scale firepower you could just hyperspace in, loose off a few hundred multi-gigaton shots at the system's inhabited planets and then hyperspace away before the Feds know what's going on. In the unlikely even that that doesn't completely trash the biosphere, you can always come back and destroy any survivors later. With those tactics it should be possible to completely destroy the UFP without Starfleet ever being able to fire back or truly understand what hit them.

I'd like to hear whoever voted for Slave-1 to justify their claim.

To be fair, I'd also like to hear whoever voted for the Executor to justify their claim, if they seriously think Starfleet can bring down an ISD with a competent Imperial captain.

[Ritterin Sophia]

That would indeed work fine if the turbolaser bolts maintain their effectiveness over several lightminutes. The borg might be able to detect them incoming, but if they scatter to avoid them their facilities are toast and their cubes can be picked off individually. I'm not aware of any evidence that turbolasers work at those ranges though; if there's an example that they do from the EU I'd appreciate it if you pointed it out.

I remember something about an Executor-class Star Dreadnaught bombarding a Vong Worldship in orbit around Coruscant from outside the system, however, I can't remember where I read it, can someone shed some light on this or am I imagining it?

[Ritterin Sophia]

Ghetto Edit: Well the cartoons did show that Batman WAS a ninja...

[phongn]

Acclamator, due to fuel issues.

[bz249]

Since in terms of firepower a CC is more than enough to wipe out the entire Fed fleet and bomb back every planet to the stone age it is a question of logistics.
The Dreadnought was my first thought, however it is a rather old design and have a rather inefficient hyperdrive. The Nebulon B is roughly the same size, but more modern. Since jumps are the largest energy consumers the most important part of the job would be planning a nice route with the least possible number of jumps. Using the engines in economic mode also helps a bit. The planetary bombardments should be somewhat overkill, since going back to same planet cost much more energy.
The destruction of their fleet is quite important, because Trek capital ship can easily construct a quite self-sufficient colony in any habitable planet. To do it in the least energy consuming way I would wait for their large fleets to catch me. If I have hyper-capable fighter I will use them to hunt down the lone Fed capital ships, maybe adopting their photon torpedos (if possible) will help with the logistics.

[Batman]

The Nebulon B is roughly the same size as the dreadnought? I must have missed a MAJOR revamp.

[bz249]

[quote="Batman"]The Nebulon B is roughly the same size as the dreadnought? I must have missed a MAJOR revamp.[/quote]

Oops, well khmm half her length... your point.

[Master_Baerne]

Slave 1 could zip around the Sol system, launching seismic charges at Earth whenever it had the chance.

I confess that I'm in the habit of using sensible upper limits for Trek capabilities, and sensible lower limits for Imperial capabilities, simply to make the debate more interesting (and to block off any pro-Trek weasel arguments). If I was using either upper limits for both, or lower limits for both, I'd pick the Corvette for the Federation and probably the Nebulon-B for the Borg.

Since Earth is the capital of the Federation, it's destruction would bring about the end thereof, yes?

If Washington DC was hit by a 1 megaton bomb, would that destroy the United States? Regardless, that's not the requirement in the OP, and the Firespray doesn't carry enough missiles or seismic charges to hit every city on one planet never mind multiple planets, and there's no way to replenish them in this scenario. Even if I was being fairly harsh to Trek, I think Starfleet would eventually be able to kill one patrol ship (though with heavy losses ).

All right, then. Using upper limits for both, I suggest that the Acclamator, which is made for planetary bombarments (IIRC from the AOTC ICS), would be best suited to destroying the Federation.

[CaptHawkeye]

It may be overkill, but I would prefer use of a Venator. Though Ven and Acc may fall into very close categories, my reasons for a venator are...

1. Personal Attachment - What can I say? I just really like that SD class.

2. High variety and numbers of starfighters - I can use the ARC-170s and hyper ring assisted Eta-Actis interceptors to attack and destroy relay outposts and harass commercial shipping. (Or outright destroy it.)

3. Atmospheric flight - Mostly needless, since I can ice Federation colonies from orbit. But it can be very nerve wracking to civilians when their enemy's warship sits a few hundred feet above them.

4. Lots of ground forces - Again, capturing random colonies will be mostly useless. But every now and then the soldiers need some groud pounding if just for shits n giggles.

[Lord Pounder]

Even a frigate sized ship isn't equipped for planetary bombardment. In Truce at Bakura the Carrick Class Cruiser there would need signicant adjustment to bomb a planet and even then i very much doubt anything smaller than a Victory/Venator Star Destoyer would have enough firepower for a proper BDZ.

[Batman]

Even a frigate sized ship isn't equipped for planetary bombardment. In Truce at Bakura the Carrick Class Cruiser there would need signicant adjustment to bomb a planet and even then i very much doubt anything smaller than a Victory/Venator Star Destoyer would have enough firepower for a proper BDZ.

A proper BDZ isn't required. All the OP tasks you with is
'destroy all major population and industrial centres on all Federation member planets (including Earth)', which should be absolutely doable with MT-range guns.

[Surlethe]

A proper BDZ isn't required. All the OP tasks you with is
'destroy all major population and industrial centres on all Federation member planets (including Earth)', which should be absolutely doable with MT-range guns.

Hell, it's possible with Federation-level weaponry: see the General Order 24 thread still floating near the top of this very forum. The question really boils down to one of sustainability: what's the smallest ship that's capable of operating for the time period required to do the job, as well as retaining the capacity to conduct multiple orbital bombardments?

[harbringer]

unfortunately I missed the vote due to work..... ahh well I need money to pay for the net...

I would have voted acclimator as it is I think the only ship with enough long term deployment smaller than any sort of SD that can do the job. Yes a firespray could do it with bio weapons (the Empire has quite a few) but you risk someone inventing a cure and you still need the fuel to go everywhere.

As an aside which two house plants voted that the UFP would destroy the death star??.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

As an aside which two house plants voted that the UFP would destroy the death star??.

That's a libelous insult to houseplants! You'll hear from my lawyer shortly

I suspect this thread may hint at the truth.

[Solauren]

Question -

What's the arament on the Firespray? Is it customized?

Cause if it's got Seismic Charges on it....

Hell, if it's got a decient tractorbeam, just two a 30 meter diameter asteroid and toss it at a target planet.


However, for practicallity, I'd say at least a Dreadnaught, with a Star Destroyer being the preferable choice.

The Corvette could end up having a bad day and run into a few Borg cubes or a spatial anomoly....

[Starglider]

What's the arament on the Firespray? Is it customized?
Cause if it's got Seismic Charges on it....

See above. It doesn't matter, because it can't carry enough seismic charges to destroy every city on one planet, never mind the whole UFP. Plus I think Starfleet can take it down with planetary defences and/or local fleets if it has to get that close to every planet. I know the evidence for starbases (other than DS9) having serious weaponry is non-canon, but frankly I find it hard to believe even Starfleet would build a base the size of Starbase 74 without giving it decent defences.

Hell, if it's got a decient tractorbeam, just two a 30 meter diameter asteroid and toss it at a target planet.

The UFP isn't that useless; we know they can destroy much bigger asteroids with a single ship's torpedo salvo (and there's no reason why they couldn't tow/deflect/vaporise such an asteroid over the hours at minimum it would take to reach the target - though this will probably work on remote colonies with minimal sensors and in-system spacecraft).

The Corvette could end up having a bad day and run into a few Borg cubes or a spatial anomoly....

The huge number of spatial anomalies are truly the most fearsome aspect of the ST galaxy for Imperial commanders.

[fusion]

I just realised a Firespray can do it due to the "short" distances in the UFP, the distance covered by traveling to every planet is about few thousand light years which is no biggie for most Star Wars ship. Also each shot of the guns is kilotons in power and averages about a thousand shot a minute, which a few megaton of fire power can be delivered in a few minutes. After a few months the ship should be able to destory the Fedration. The other advantage the Firespray is so small that the ships will have trouble tracking it. Of course a corrvette would be playing it safe, a Imp Star would be overkill, and a Death Star would be boring.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Okay I admit I choose the SSD...

Reason. Sooner or later in my campgain the other powers will smell blood and come rushing in.

So I am looking at a possible. Me vs. UFP vs. Klingons vs. Romulans vs. Borg vs. Dominion vs. whoever the fuck else wants in on this!

Plus I'd forgotten the extreme issues with travel and the range an Imperial ship can fire from...

An I just didn't feel like doing the Hyper in Hyper out thing. I wanna just sit there and slug it out if I can...

[Ritterin Sophia]

An Imperator could take on a Federation, Romulan, Klingon, Borg Alliance, none of them have the shielding and range to hit an ISD.

[Jericho Kross]

Okay I admit I choose the SSD...

Reason. Sooner or later in my campgain the other powers will smell blood and come rushing in.

So I am looking at a possible. Me vs. UFP vs. Klingons vs. Romulans vs. Borg vs. Dominion vs. whoever the fuck else wants in on this!

Plus I'd forgotten the extreme issues with travel and the range an Imperial ship can fire from...

An I just didn't feel like doing the Hyper in Hyper out thing. I wanna just sit there and slug it out if I can...

Brute force is comedable but it is unneeded. An ISD is good enough verses star trek ships. Not to mention there would be very few cases where an SSD's firepower is required in a space battle[ though it would be funny to watch].

[Jericho Kross]

Okay who the hell thinks the UPF could take on the Death Star !!:roll:
I want their heads to roll

[Darth Servo]

Okay who the hell thinks the UPF could take on the Death Star !!:roll:
I want their heads to roll

Keep in mind that the Rabid Stupid Asshole probably still has his hidden account here.

[Connor MacLeod]

I'd bet the Loronoar Strike Cruisers could do it, if you configured them properly. They're rather heavily armed for their size.

[Lord Pounder]

I'd bet the Loronoar Strike Cruisers could do it, if you configured them properly. They're rather heavily armed for their size.

But they look like space dildo's