From: haywire@pitt.WPI.EDU (the Insane One)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: Re: Klingon Battle Cruisers
Date: 8 Oct 1992 15:41:46 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: pitt.wpi.edu

In article <BvsLG6.Kxq@news.cso.uiuc.edu> ses52823@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Sven E. Skoog) writes:
>While we're on the subject (sorry to cut short any lingering Klingon
>musical chairs discussion):
>
>Does anyone know (offhand of course) the relative sizes (crew and dimension)
>of a Bird of Prey as opposed to a Battle Cruiser?  

Bird of Prey usually have a crew of 12 (according to STIII)
According to a blueprint a have of one it has twelve photon torpedoes
I dont remember the size right now but I'll repost with the stats
of it and the newer K'Vort class battle cruiser.

(NOTE TO BE MADE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE: Anything mentioned on these blueprints
OR by FASA OR by ERTL Models are NOT considered to be exact info)  

>Obvious differences 
>include the Bird of Prey's ability to cloak, and that gnarly little photon
>torpedo port up front, but is there anything else of importance?

Later versions of Klingon Cruisers have cloaks... like thge one in the STTNG
episode where we meet Worf's girlfriend to stop that ship and tell its crew 
there isnt a war anymore.

>I thought that the last I would ever see of the original 'gooseneck' 
>Klingon Battle Cruiser was the *Kronos I* of STVI:TUC.  However, I recently
>rewatched "The Mind's Eye" (Geordi's brainwashing by Romulans) and saw that
>the Enterprise was (in a tense situation) surrounded by two Birds of Prey
>(which had, of course, been cloaked all along around the area) and, to my
>surprise, an old-fashioned cruiser (called a D-cruiser?  My memory fails
>me from the FASA role-playing and battle simulation games but I'll probably
>get into trouble for citing non-canon material so I should stop now).

>Ambassador Gorkin is assigned to (the flagship, perhaps?) the *Kronos I*
>Whereas Chang is given command of the prototype "fire-while-cloaked" Bird
>of Prey.  This leads to the questions again of superiority versus tradition
>and why Gorkin would be given a (supposedly) older vessel.  (Or, for that
>matter, why the flagship for the Klingon Empire would be a supposedly older
>vessel.)

But remember Chang was working on his own accord to DISRUPT the peace 
conferences and Gorkin was on a peace mission. Of course Chang was going
to get something that will be full battle capable whereas Gorkin just got
joe random ship of the fleet.

>One might note the symbolic references and similarities in Klingon language
>which links all their technology under the category of attack capability:

>"Choa Chu!"  -- Beam me up (fire transporter beam)
>"Choa Chi!"  -- Photon away (fire torpedo)

>(These are *not* from the Klingon Dictionary but instead from STIII:TSFS.)

>And what of other function-specific Klingon vessels?  Scout ships (for
>greater stealth than Birds of Prey)?  Surely the Klingon technology must
>warrant *some* greater diversity of ship than what we have seen.

Klingon Bird of Prey ARE scout ships.

What better need for stealth do you need than to be completely undetected
by all enemy sensors.

haywire