Klingon spies have succeeded in providing another Federation vessel for the Spacedock's inspection:
The U.S.S. Brittain's uses:
A Lot of Punch in a Little Ship: The Federation is reknowned for their pathetic weaponry and limiting rules of engagement. However, the Federation does have one affiliation they can attack at will: The Borg. This brings us to a use for the U.S.S. Brittain. Although the Klingons are well known for their Armada Borg-hunting decks, the Federation is rarely considered. However, it is not impossible to create a Federation Armada deck, which takes advantage of the fact that the U.S.S. Brittain has better Weapons than the other small Federation ship of note, the U.S.S. Oberth. By using the U.S.S. Brittain, five U.S.S. Oberths, and an outpost, it is possible to smash a Borg Ship (or Borg Cube) in two turns (since the five science vessels provide a total Weapons of 20 and the U.S.S. Brittain pushes the total to 25, enough to overcome Borg Shields). Alternatively, Runabouts could be substituted for the science vessels. Afterwards, the ships (whose Range will be only marginally decreased) can be used to engage in space redshirting (see Spacedock #3).
Tomek's Tractor Beam Strategy: David Bowling, perhaps better known to the ST:CCG online community as Tomek, and 1997 ST:CCG World Champion, used an imaginative strategy which took advantage of small ships with tractor beams. Tomek would place a double Engineer personnel (Geordi, Scotty, and Dr. Leah Brahms all work) on a U.S.S. Oberth (one of the smallest, easiest to crew Federation ships with a tractor beam) and would then trigger Radioactive Garbage Scows he himself had seeded. Tomek would then use his small vessels to drag the Scows to his opponent's outposts, where he would use Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow to wipe out their personnel! Although originally used with U.S.S. Oberths, this strategy works equally well with the U.S.S. Brittain.
However, the U.S.S. Brittain suffers from serious drawbacks:
Miserable Attributes: In the past, the U.S.S. Brittain's horrible Weapons and feeble Shields could have been written off as unimportant. However, with the Klingons becoming increasingly warlike and the Borg coming into the game, the combat attributes are no longer irrelevant to gameplay. To make matters worse, the U.S.S. Brittain's Range fails to make up for these failings. Hence, the U.S.S. Brittain's attributes make it inappropriate both for mission-completion decks and battle-oriented ones, or even decks which might face battle-oriented foes.
Another Bare-Bones Vessel: As with the U.S.S. Oberth, the U.S.S. Brittain's almost-nonexistant frills fail to make up for pathetic attributes. Although the Tractor Beam can be useful in some situations (see above), the lack of a Holodeck (a serious loss, since the Federation has the most holograms) and Captain's Log benefits means that it is worth thinking twice before using the U.S.S. Brittain.
Final Analysis: The U.S.S. Brittain has several interesting uses--its unusual attribute distribution (for the Federation) can make it an armada leader and the Tractor Beam can be make useful--one really has to base one's entire deck around these unusual strategies. Like the U.S.S. Oberth, the U.S.S. Brittain is useful--if one bends over backwards to make the ship so.
Next week: The Spacedock deciphers the mysteries of the Tama.
The Spacedock would like to thank Mot the Barber for bringing Tomek's Tractor Beam Strategy to its attention.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to e-mail Phalanx
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