Alien Starship Design

First apologies to the Starguard Group since this starts on topic but
wanders Off topic almost immediately.

I am migrating elements of my SF campaign over the region around the
Planets of the Cotu System (except for the skirmish fights) to FT for
Space Combat.

Nektons (of course!), the old Klackons, Whistlers, and Mertun races from
Space Marines days, the People's Holy Republic, Two (2)
dissident/Rebellious elements (supported by Rep-Com and Fabians
respectively,) and (nearby) Ralnai make up the main constituents along
with my own troublemaker Native Peoples' Circle (a confederation of
'groups') to add spice.

Right now I am (re-)designing the design parameters of the Alien fleets
in light of More Thrust and Fleet Book 1.

I have the armament prejudices of the aliens and am working on (using
leftover beads) the ship miniatures themselves.  I have some 'first cut'
ships glued together using small dowelling (from the hobby/craft shop in
the model airplane section) and wooden beads.

I have not created one and two bead ships in numbers since those would
represent the Scouts/Corvettes and will be pretty basic for most human
and alien races/groups.  I do have a series of designs put together
using
three of the four size beads I have in bulk excess.  These fit on the
dowels, the smallest having too small an opening to run the dowel
through.  I will use symbols for the various beads:

* = smallest (not used yet)
o = small
Q = medium
@ = large

Basing my designations on the figures Beth Fulton of Tasmania gave me I
will show the possible classes, the bead configuration, and an
approximate (to nearest half cm) size in cm's.

FF	ooo		<3.0 but > 2.5

DD	oQo		circa 3.0

DDE	QoQ		 >3.0 but < 3.5

DH1	oQo		<3.5

DH2	o@o		 < 3.5

DH3	QQQ		circa 3.5

CL	@o@		circa 4.0

CM	@Q@		> 4.0 but <4.5

CE	@@@		<5.0

CH	o@@@o		circa 6.5

BC	@Q@Q@		 < 7.0

		Q
BC(H)	@@Q@@	< 7.5 long but >7.0; stacked 'second' medium
bead.

The round shape might make the mass more pronounced but I am hesitant to
adjust class down a 'length' per class because that may be overkill.

The 'major' problem I am having is deciding if these should be Whistlers
(Avian stock) representing their desire for 'open space' in their ships,
Nektons (think Frogs with a bit of barracuda in them - representing the
oceans their race lives in), Mertuns (octopods, like the 'Martians' in
War of the World), or Klackons (crustaceans)  all of which share ocean
imagery (Mertuns a stretch as 'land octopods').   

My other bead shapes will be 'Spaghetti' or Tube shaped  (as used in so
called "Native American crafts") - a second possibility for the Nektons,

plastic "Berry" beads (Nektons possible again - images of egg sacks),
rectangular/square beads,  and faceted 'crystal' plastic teardrops.  
There are tons of possibilities but these are either the most common
'leftovers' in my bead boxes or are inexpensive wood, plastic or bone
beads I have available for my use.  Any ideas on who should use these
round bead ships will be appreciated.

A second issue is should I mount them with the long axis 'horizontal' [ 
00000  ]  or should I mount then vertically?  The last would almost be
perfect if the Whistlers were the race for the round bead ships.

Each race has a predilection towards weaponry ( designs prior modified
by
MT/FB ideas) ---   Basically it's weak to standard Hulls, Needle Beams
galore, one 'big' beam very few/bland fighters, and selected PT's/MTM's
for the Nektons; Hulls from weak through super, Armor and/or Screens,
Paired Beam weapons and some PT's for the Klackons; Weak, standard and
even a few fragile Hulls (small ships) using fighters, SMR/SML's and MTM
with Beam 'fill-ins' for the Whistlers, and 'multiple' (sets of 6 to 8
where mass allows) beams plus screens on many (even smaller ships) for
the Mertuns.   The basic humans (Cotu are Beams, numbers and screens on
larger ships).	I have a spreadsheet for Nektons I will try and load to
those lists having files sections from the local library/work if time
allows.  Things are somewhat busy at work and time is at a minimum for
personal stuff (like this post.)

Glenn/Triphibious
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.

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