Keldon Class

posted on January 16th, 2011, 8:28 am

@navyguy:  that's tough... By Dominion War standards the Ambassador was OLD, but I would guess they're both around the same.  Assuming Keldon are superior to Galor then it seems to me they'd be right around the same strength by FO standards: both heavy cruisers.

posted on January 18th, 2011, 5:23 am

I was doing some reading, and i see a captian of Ambassador Class said the shield's were so weak on a Cardassian Ship that a few torpedoe's was all that was needed to put them out. Would most of you here agree a Keldon is a match for a Ambassador Class or not? iam assumeing a Keldon is not as powerful? Do you think it would take alot to gear a Keldon up to the rank of a Galaxy, or Ambassador? meaning firepower. What would be the energy output of the Spiral Disruptor on the Keldon Class, and does it match the phaser strip's on the Federation Ship's.

Cardassian ship design is very interesting, as well as the cardassian combat mentality. Yes Cardassians have weaker shields than federation ships, but cardies focus more on heavy armor. You could knock out a galors shields, but it can take alot more punishment than a federation ship. Example: Gul Dukot's Galor took a ton of punishment from a couple of birds of prey before they where rescued by the defiant. An example of weaker shields would be how easily Thomas Riker disabled a Keldon class with a couple of quantum torpedoes. Quantums are much more powerful than photons, but the keldon's hull was still intact, dispite the ship being disabled. The USS Pheonix (Nebula Class) was able to destroy a couple of cardassian cruisers by moving out of range of their weapons (beam weapons) and pounding them with torpedoes.
The Spiral wave disruptor is more powerful than standard fed phasers. Fed phasers are designed for varing output, control, and multipurpose use, including very intricate work. The spiral wave is designed for combat first and formost, so output is the chief concern.
Finally, almost any ship could be upgraded to the level of an Ambassador or even a Galaxy. I doubt that the Cardassians ever upgraded a Galor or Keldon to that level, but anything is possible. For the Game, I think a Galor upgraded to Vor'Cha levels is ok....and a Keldon upgraded to an Ambassador level might not be over the top.

[navyguy]

posted on January 18th, 2011, 7:08 am

Last edited by navyguy on January 18th, 2011, 7:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Interesting i alway's under the impression the Cardassian's were the weakest of the group? I read they travel in 3's to protect agains there foe's. I guess maybe i underestimated the Keldon Class , but i think i read somewhere a Galor Class has a dampening effect able to render Federation Sensor's useless for a short time. I think the Federation is still a little stronger yes? I want to say the name of the episode, but memory fail's me where Picard cleary state's that if the two were to go to war the Cardassian ship would be at a disadvantage.

posted on January 18th, 2011, 8:53 am

i dont think a galor should match a vorcha. Maybe offence wise, but defence must be weaker, approximately kvort levels.

posted on January 19th, 2011, 1:10 am

i dont think a galor should match a vorcha. Maybe offence wise, but defence must be weaker, approximately kvort levels.

I agree that a standard non-modified Galor would be weaker than a Vor'Cha, in both shields and weapon ranges. NavyGuy is interested in the Galors maximum potential, and within FleetOps and the ranking system, I think a veteran rank Keldon or Galor as powerful as a low or medium ranked Vor'cha could be acceptable.

NavyGuy: Cardassian vessels are considered to be at a disadvantage compared to vessels of the Major Races. They do have dampining fields that fed sensors can't penetrate, and the episode you are thinking about is an TNG episode...the one with Captain Maxwell and the Pheonix.

posted on January 19th, 2011, 1:16 am

INavyGuy: Cardassian vessels are considered to be at a disadvantage compared to vessels of the Major Races. They do have dampining fields that fed sensors can't penetrate, and the episode you are thinking about is an TNG episode...the one with Captain Maxwell and the Pheonix.

In the beginning scene of the episode "The wounded", we saw the Enterprise fighting off an attacking Galor before they started talking.

The Starfleet's Galaxy-class was at this time faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar superior and the Enterprise disabled Massett's Galor very quickly without even taking noteable damage. So the Vorcha would be superior to it as well in my view (on DS9 even a few B'Rel managed to disable Dukat's vessel).

posted on January 19th, 2011, 2:46 am

i think the galor would only just lose in a fight with an Ambassador. and a keldon would be similar to a vorcha .

posted on January 19th, 2011, 7:13 am

I really like Captian Ben Maxwell, thought he was a good Captian, wish would have seen more of him in TNG.

posted on January 19th, 2011, 11:18 am

a veteran galor being vorcha level is reasonable. i think its best to stick to unranked comparisons though, as veterans are shielded by massive amounts of plot armour.

a new trek series should take place on a kbq, it already has thick vet armour so it wouldnt be bad.

posted on January 19th, 2011, 5:09 pm

My thoughts: The Keldon/Galor forces of Cardassia end up mostly mothballed after the war as they are disarmed and otherwise busy recovering from the war.

The ensuing years result in their not keeping their ships or their R&D for their ships up to date.

In the Cardassian/Klingon war prior to the Dominion war, the Cardies got their butts handed to them, not being able to keep their economy, their R&D, or their ship building/refiting going at anywere near the level of the other powers would mean that they fall behind even more.

So I'd think that they would become a third rate power, BUT would still have the forces (as a good part of their fleet switched sides at the end of the war) to maintain a decent defenseve force, focusing on massing ships in larger battles, and flying in groups when they face more powerful ships.

Past that, I dont see them causing any of the main powers any trouble or otherwise annoying them, as they could too easily have their fleet removed if they caused trouble.

To be honest, I'd think that with the Federation (and Garak) involved in rebuilding Cardassian industry it'd be a lot like post WWII Germany in that they focus on mass produced exports.

posted on January 20th, 2011, 5:08 am

Agreed, the Cardies are totally done after the war. Not to mention they were nearly exterminated by the Dominion 

[Anonymous]

posted on January 20th, 2011, 8:58 am

Last edited by Anonymous on January 24th, 2011, 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

I must say I agree a lot with Cmndr Parker, but just because I like the Cardassians so much. Besides Way of the warrior there is little evidence for a strong hull, besides "Once more unto the breach" and "what you leave behind" there is little evidence for strong spiral wave disruptors. Since those episodes are late DS9 I always assumed that they refitted the Cardassian ships with the help of the Dominion, they made the ridiculous destroyer from TNG a powerful medium cruiser. We may assume that they also refitted the larger and stronger Keldon with those nice powerful Disruptors.
Remember that the Klingons weren't able to conquer the Cardassian Union after they knew about the attack . They were able to put up a defense force which prevented the Klingons from gaining territory quite a long time.
The Cardassian Union is of course much weaker than the Federation, remember that they've been at war before "The wounded"(episode with Phoenix and stuff) and pretty much lost. In TNG and beginning DS9 you may compare the Cardassian military to the one of North Korea today: large but old. They control the government but they don't have the strength to keep up research.

posted on January 20th, 2011, 10:58 am

i agree they should have large numbers of older ships that they couldnt upgrade. They wouldnt have long weapons range either. max medium.

posted on January 21st, 2011, 9:46 am

The Cardassians in FO seem to be getting a new ship design, I don't think that'll be an older design. Their ships are durable enoigh to take a pounding, but I don't see them as well built enough to have a life-span as long as some other races ships.

At least one tooltip mentions a torpedo launcher being designed with exported Cardassian technology, so they appear to be going the export route.

posted on January 21st, 2011, 11:59 am

like china lol. Maybe they are buying federation debt as leverage. :p