I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Safety measure? The fore section contains the bridge, main crew quarters, communications & supplies. The aft holds the reactor and the engine block.

So, in case of reactor failure, the fore section can potentially be detached from the rest of the ship to save the crew?

(This is pure speculation, although amusingly, I watched Event Horizon last night, which featured a ship with a similar configuration and layout, rigged in that manner for that exact reason)

So, my understanding is that this used to have a set of rules for it on Space Rocks website for it before they got shut down.

Anyone happen to have a copy of those rules? We're thinking of playing a scenario with a frigate in it and I'd like to see what they looked like.

I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Same reason that the YT-1300, a FREIGHTER, has literally the least efficient shape for carrying cargo - a circular disc.

It looks cool.

So, my understanding is that this used to have a set of rules for it on Space Rocks website for it before they got shut down.

Anyone happen to have a copy of those rules? We're thinking of playing a scenario with a frigate in it and I'd like to see what they looked like.

I have a paper copy. There was a PDF at one point, It was even linked to these boards once. I can search.

I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Same reason that the YT-1300, a FREIGHTER, has literally the least efficient shape for carrying cargo - a circular disc.

It looks cool.

Isn't the YT-1300 designed to clamp large (external) containers in the forward mandibles?

I thought that was also why the cockpit was way off to the side, so they could see around their cargo.

EDIT: And, of course, because it looks cool...

http://media.wix.com/ugd/f7465e_df30b1ec82b047dcb9a747a9cf540cdc.pdf

Mine is newer, bit different. doesn't have the cutout and just says you can shoot out where you like. I actually kind of prefer this one.

Isn't the YT-1300 designed to clamp large (external) containers in the forward mandibles?

I thought that was also why the cockpit was way off to the side, so they could see around their cargo.

EDIT: And, of course, because it looks cool...

Wow, I've never heard that, but, uh, that would actually KIND OF make sense. Kind of.

I thought the YT-1300 was designed that way because half-eaten cheeseburger.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/f7465e_df30b1ec82b047dcb9a747a9cf540cdc.pdf

Mine is newer, bit different. doesn't have the cutout and just says you can shoot out where you like. I actually kind of prefer this one.

Thanks a million!

I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Because it was originally designed to carry TIEs, which you access from the top. The exposed mid-section is literally a giant docking rack for TIEs. The Falcon uses a docking port at the end of Episode 5.

I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Because it was originally designed to carry TIEs, which you access from the top. The exposed mid-section is literally a giant docking rack for TIEs. The Falcon uses a docking port at the end of Episode 5.

Yep. Think Gozanti, but bigger. And better armed.

I've never seen a good explanation as to why the Nebulon B has an exposed midsection that has docking facilities. Is it meant to dock with relatively large ships for maintenance? Is it supposed to carry cargo pods? Why can't the fore and aft sections be joined without a gap? Is the midsection actually more vulnerable to attack or is it wel armored and secure relative to other sections of the ship?

Same reason that the YT-1300, a FREIGHTER, has literally the least efficient shape for carrying cargo - a circular disc.

It looks cool.

Isn't the YT-1300 designed to clamp large (external) containers in the forward mandibles?

I thought that was also why the cockpit was way off to the side, so they could see around their cargo.

EDIT: And, of course, because it looks cool...

Late to the party, but the cockpit is off to the side because it was supposed to fly 90 degrees to the way we're used to seeing it. It was originally described in the concepts as flying like a sailfish, in a vertical plane, but landing horizontally, with a rotating cockpit, a lá the B-wing. At some stage Lucas saw the model on a stand and decided to change the orientation because it looked better.

Fun fact: the CR-90 was originally supposed to be the Falcon. The model was designed to be the shooting model for the Falcon, but Lucas didn't like it, claiming it didn't look fast and sleek enough (he wasn't wrong). Rather than scrap the model, they modified it and used it for the blockade runner.

I read somewhere he changed the look of the CR-90 to a hammer head because it looked to much like the Eagle from Space 1999

Could you play it on say a 8'x4' table for some extended fun? I love the idea of bigger tables, just the extra space adds extra time

It's impractical, but i'm not gonna say too big, just gotta be careful of the positioning.

It's bloody hilarious, that's what it is.

Watching that back end fishtail round when you do a bank manuever. Glorious.