Star Fleet Calendar hand-on review
Jack Bohn
starship calendar:
http://www.cafepress.com/starfleetuniv.481897067
Since it is starship art, and I promised to buy one for my brother as
well as myself if it ever came out, I have one for review (and index,
I might as well try to identify all the ship types displayed).
If you want to follow along, the "View Calendar Pages" line between
the main image and the two smaller images on the page above is not
just instruction, it is the link to show the months.
As I'd said before, this calendar is reusing existing artwork from
products (of which I have... one) that were more designed for 8 1/2 x
11 than the 11 x 8 1/2 of the calendar, so the picture is smaller, but
without words printed all over it.
The calendar is printed on heavy, coated paper, and wire bound, so
there is a series of perforations across the bottoms of the pictures.
Cover: This is two interlocking covers, one for the Basic Game box and
one for the Advanced Rules Expansion box. On the left are some the
basic cruisers of the star nations, featuring a Federation (NCC-1706)
and a Klingon D-7, and, less prominently, a Gorn and a Kzinti cruiser.
On the right are advanced ships; counter-clockwise from 1:00: a
Klingon F-5 frigate, a D-6 or -7, another Fed Heavy Cruiser, a Fed
Light Cruiser, three Tholian corvettes forming a pinwheel (they can't
move like this, but their shields are combined), and a Romulan "Bird
of Prey" ship which the game had long taken to calling "Warbird" for
short... it's probably a technologically upgraded version they call a
"War Eagle." And, in the middle, is the B-10 Battleship, the biggest,
baddest, ugliest ship the Klingons -or anyone else- produced!
Jan: The ship in the lower left is a D-7, but note it has sensor
dishes in the forward points of the secondary hull, and Lego-like pegs
on top of the secondary hull. Those pegs are docking hatches for Fast
Patrol ships, one of which can be seen in the lower right, and two
more off the port bow of the D-7. These ships are 30-40m long, about
twice as long as a Runabout, and don't have the range of a starship,
hence must be carried to the vicinity of a battle. Ahead of the
patrol ships are shuttle-sized Klingon fighters. Their target is some
mobile platform the size and shape of a cargo pod (on the calendar you
can see the attachment point for the Tug's tow pad). Defending are a
Federation War Destroyer (NCC-72something) and probably some type of
Fast Light Cruiser (NCC-1382). Filling out the right-hand side of the
page are two top-view graphics of Fast Cruisers; experimental warp
engines and modified hull shapes to take advantage of the more power
produced. Yes, they were first printed in the '90s when Voyager was on
the air, why do you ask?
Cover of ships booklet #12:Support ships
Feb: A cover to one of their Prime Directive role-playing game
sourcebooks, we have a painting of Starfleet personel and their
starships. Another War Destroyer and two Heavy Cruisers. The two
cruisers are modified by having the nacelle struts horizontal.
Mar: The box cover to their card game, Battle Force, shows a
Federation Heavy Battlecruiser (an upgunned Heavy Cruiser with
horizontal nacelle struts and additional photon torpedo launchers in
the secondary hull -- the top of the secondary hull) (NCC-1752) takes
on a Klingon Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught is designed along Franz
Joseph lines -- enlarged primary and secondary hulls, and three
nacelles, the third being mounted to the seperable primary hull. On
the right is one of the Battle Force cards, showing one use they make
of the top-view graphic.
Apr: I think one of my favorite images. A Federation Dreadnaught
(NCC-2120) and Frigate (NCC-471). From the size of the two decks on
the rim of the frigate saucer you can see the smaller diameter of it.
They are patroling past a Mobile Base. Yes, three tugs can bring in
the components, pull out some duct tape and bailing wire, and provide
a sector with a base lickety-split. In the distance you can see a
Light Cruiser (NCC-1521?), a freighter (a control unit and two small
nacelles added to a cargo pod), and several trader ships.
From the full-theater wargame Federation & Empire, the Strategic
Operations expansion rule book.
May: From their gaming magazine, Captain's Log #41, a heavy cruiser
(NCC-1724) firing on some strange space object that looks like a
six-pointed starfish made of basalt and magma. To the right and a
little bit further reduced, the cover of Log #38, a Lyran ship, an
interesting family of designs from the far side of Klingon space.
June: Where's the starship? Oh, I guess it's all around them. And
from the dual warp cores (!) and the signage by the door, I'd guess
it's a pretty advanced one. Klingon role-playing sourcebook cover.
The hairy ape, and less obviously the kneeling gunner, are two Subject
Races; aliens in the Klingon Empire.
July: Federation Commander Klingon Border cover. A painting makes a
nice change, with portraits of two captains and their ships.
Aug: Klingon Armada cover, SFB ships converted to work under something
called Starmada rules. The Klingons left to right: F-5 frigate,
Dreadnaught, D-7, another F-5, and what I'd guess to be a D-5. They're
facing a Federation Dreadnaught, Cruiser, and Frigate. On the
advertisement side is the cover for Romulan Armada: Condor
Dreadnaught, SparrowHawk (the cruiser they built using what they
learned from the Klingons), a Romulan D-6, another D-6 below the
Condor, three small ships--either destroyers or frigates (the one
looks like the other, only smaller), a War Eagle - firing their plasma
weapon, and a narrower ship of the Eagle's generation, either a Hawk
or a Snipe.
Sep: Klingon Fleet Box #3, I think this may actually be an enlarged
image as well as textless; the boxes I have measure 4 1/2 by 6 1/4
inches, just large enough to hold five metal miniatures without
squooshing them together. From the product description in the catalog
we can definitively identify the ship types and variants in the
picture: D-5W war cruiser, D-6S Scout, D-7V Carrier, C-7 Heavy
Battlecruiser, and D-6M Mauler -a special weapons platform. On the
right: a Klingon Dreadnaught mini assembled and painted (and
reproduced about actual size) and a flight group on the hexagon-celled
playing surface, showing things can get a bit busy.
Oct: No starship at all.
Nov: What? Ads? "Just in time for Christmas," I imagine. Various
artwork can be printed on various physical objects. Unless I'm
mistaken, the Federation cruiser in the logo has the NCC of 1701
despite having the straight-line struts modification.
Dec: Omega Sector Using their game rules, but with ships and weapons
never seen before, and in a part of space that has nothing to do with
us. Well, not qute nothing. It seems the invaders from Andromeda are
invading all our galaxy at once. There is nothing to give scale, here
(that's what windows on a starship are there for,) but the fact that
the book this is taken from is titled _Flotilas_, I would guess the
smaller ships are the 30-40 m Fast Patrol ships, which travel in
flotilas to be effective.
I don't know what statistics to develop from this. Three pages
feature a Constitution-class, seven if you include their battlecruiser
that can be taken for one. (And speaking of being taken for one, it
took me a second look at April to tell the dreadnaught wasn't a
cruiser.)
To mention things I'd like to see on another calendar, ships of the
InterStellar Concordium, and a better view the Gorn ship, which I like
as an object d'art and for doing that one nacelle up/one nacelle down
thing... heck, since they probably don't generate enough new art in a
year to reuse, I can probably point to existing things:
ISC ships heading off into the galaxy:
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=4229&Category_Code=FCW-P
The Gorns don't seem to get no love, the best I can find is them
playing sidekick to the Federation in taking on an Andromedan:
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=5423&Category_Code=SGH
Tholians vs. the guys who kicked them out of their home galaxy:
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=4103&Category_Code=FCTA
Lyrans vs. Hydrans on the far side of Klingon space:
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=4219&Category_Code=FCDK
A golden oldie from the days when paint Roamed The Earth (The Romulan
ship looks just so impressive):
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=5605&Category_Code=SNRM
--
-Jack