I know people have mentioned it before, but in looking at things,

Thread contains spoilers.

I've found the following:

B5 and Star Wars are roughly equivalent tech wise. Both have crazy fast hyperspace. (Centauri space was to be about a 3rd of the galactic rim, per Morden and Lando's deal.) B5's ships of roughly equivalent size are actually tougher. (See asteroid impacts, in ESB: ISD can't take a hit/ITB: Hyperion (bit longer than a VSD) could, but was a bit worried about repeated impacts.) (Yes I'm aware of Saxton's figures, but can provide cases of insane abilities B5 demonstrated as well. Plus, even at the biggest size put out, the B5 equivalent to a Death Star, was a lot smaller. Though not the human's. Having killed off that sort of Star Wars has a bigger **** crap. I'm a fan of it, but the BS that a lot of SW fans spout really annoys me.)

So, for those reasons, and for the sake of having fun gaming, the rule applies: B5 ships will be roughly equivalent to similarly sized Imperial/Rebel vessels (With the exceptions of the Whitestars and Victory class Destroyers (though nothing in Armada is that big, or nasty.))

Generally, individual weapons in B5 are loads more powerful relatively compared to Rebel/Imperial ships, they mount far fewer of them. I'm proceeding from the assumption that Turbolasers are (as described in the old EU) basically packets of plasma.

Another problem is the lack of shields in B5, but they do have defensive technologies. Generally referred to as interceptors, it's basically 2 parts, point defense, and a screen/some beam scattering. The point defense can shoot down a plasma bolt, by firing a plasma bolt at it. (Something Star Wars seems to lack the capability to do.) So this is kind of a pickle. I could equate them to shields in Armada, and likely will. (After a certain point, interceptors can be overloaded, too many incoming rounds, too much energy to divert.) If I ever make the Vorlons, that could be problematic. Other ideas include, having the shield value be something which reduces damage, and drops for each attack. I think the simplest will be to use them similarly to current systems.

First ships I've made are roughly sized with the ISD, and they are pretty Omega classes, with spinning central sections (alsas, manually spinning, I haven't put a motor in them, or lights... yet, and I'm not sure they have sufficient internal space, in the non-spinning portions.)

So: How to fit into Armada.

Let's look at an Omega class: This is something that's roughly equivalent to an ISD. It's a carrier, battleship. general purpose warship. A ship of smaller size, but general design (Novas) can carry troops for planetary assault, so there's little reason to think the Omegas with a larger volume can't, but that doesn't matter much here. Point is, main scary battleship that can stand up to most potential enemy forces. There are times that there are a lot more of them shown than there are ever ISDs shown, and they command a similar amount of respect from most forces.

They carry a reasonable number of Starfury fighters. (My post will discuss them, because again some of their ability to fit into Armada and reflect things.) So I'm going with a squadron value of 4. Command value of B5 ships appears smaller in general, but due to similarities until I've played more with it, I'm calling the Command 3. Engineering is going to be 6. Though with the issue that they can't recover interceptors/shields via engineering. Defense tokens: Dual Brace. No redirects (no possibility to get them) With a pair of Evades. (To reflect the interceptors taking down fire.) Maneuverability, is hard. They are shown going a lot faster than ISDs on screen, and turning rather fast. Because of this, I'll have them as fast as an ISD (speed 3) They seldom turn quickly when going fast, so to reflect this speed 1 maneuver is 2, speed 2 is 1 1, speed 3 is - 1 - )

Weapons. Oh this is fun. On the model, there are 2 forward large laser/plasma guns. They have a range of fire to the front that's not great, as well as a pair of huge guns (though not seen in the series,) On the sides, they have 3 missile bays of 10 missile hatches each. They also have (per side) 6 medium plasma guns in turrets. (The placement is bad for firing forward or aft, but anything to the side is good.) To the rear they have 4 heavy lasers, similar to the front ones. So thinking on the lasers being a Red, the plasma guns being a blue, and the missiles being a black, as well as the large forward launchers (being 2 a piece).

I am going with an MC80 like layout with:

Forward: 2 Reds, 2 Blues, 4 Blacks.

Side: 3 Blues, 3 Blacks. (or maybe 6 Blues, with increased costs)

Aft: 4 Reds.

Upgrade slots (for now just the normal ones): Officer, Weapons Team, Offensive Retrofitx2, Turbolasers, Ordinance, Titles

Defenses: Shields, forward 2, Side 3, aft 1. (Based on the location of blues being uses as interceptors.)

Defense tokens: 2x Brace, 2x Evade

Hull: 12

Cost 110

Thoughts?

If it weren't for the "long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" bit, I could make a serious case for SW to be the distant future of the B5 universe. Telepaths, ostracized on earth, migrate to the rangers (already a quasi religious fighting order with a signature melee weapon) and develop their abilities, eventually becoming Jedi. As you mention, the technologies in the 2 universes are clearly similar, the vorlon planet killer basically IS a prototype Death Star. Oh, and apparently with the right conditions, it is possible to transform into a being of energy with no physical body, but still create a visual manifestation of your old body.

I think you are waaaaay overstating the capabilities of earth alliance technology and ships though. Star Wars tech is going to be roughly equivalent to what the Vorlons can field, or at the very minimum the Minbari. An omega destroyer is radically outclassed by the Minbari ships. In game terms, I wouldn't give the EA anything more powerful than a gladiator, except maybe the shadow destroyers that Ivonava took out.

I look at the amount of destruction that a ship's weapon deals, how much of the enemy weapons-fire they can absorb, and the size of the ship. With this scale:

The Original Enterprise/TMP era Enterprise would not stand a chance against an Imperial-I Star Destroyer

The Enterprise-D/-E could hold it's own versus an ISD-I for a time

A small federation fleet (~12 light-ish ships, or 2-3 Galaxys) could beat an ISD-II

3 Omegas would vaporize an ISD-I

an ISD-I could kick a single Omega's behind

Turbolasers of an ISD would sadly eat the Galactica alive, but not before its Vipers wiped out the ISD's TIE squadrons.

...and the Imperium of Mankind would roll right over everyone else without even noticing.

In all seriousness though, The tech of a sci-fi series depends on what that series needs. Star Trek needs astonishing technologies to use as "mundane" to give the audience a sense of awe and hope of the future. Star Wars is a space epic/fantasy, so the tech needs to be "epic" (in the aesthetic sense, not necessarily in power); its there to make the story more fantastical.

Babylon 5 uses realistic tech for the Earth Alliance to enhance the alien-ness of the galaxy, and keeps it as powerful as some of the alien tech to make it believable that humans are a big part of the galactic scheme. Battlestar Galactica (the newer version), is a dark, gritty drama, and thus the tech needs to be realistic to keep that gritty tone.

The tech in Warhammer 40,000 bests everyone else by design, mainly due to fanboying on GW's part (see: Oh, the ISD can do that? Well, mine can RAM PLANETS). However, GW doesn't realize the true potential, the true meaning of that fact: the Imperium of Man's tech is as powerful as it is, because it's the best humanity can achieve. And humanity still struggles against Chaos and any number of other alien species assailing it from all sides. Technology, while useful, isn't what's keeping humanity alive, its the Admirals, Generals, Commisars, Techpriests, Space Marines, even the weak, lowly Guardsman. Humanity struggles on because of the brave actions of heroes, bold decisions made at the right time and place, and the willpower of the Imperium's Trillions of members to stand strong and hold the line against all odds.

(Although let's be honest, they're all gonna be eaten by Tyranids )

I love both but Trek tech wins over SW tech

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/star-trek-star-wars-technologically-advanced/

Of course a counter-argument:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/

OK, before I post a long rant about that let me suggest something: I had wanted to focus on the gameplay. I equated them for the purposes of that. I gave a little reasoning behind that. (Namely that an older and weaker ship than an Omega could take multiple asteroids, similar FTL capabilities (Which Armada doesn't deal with.)) I'll address some of it, then hopefully move on, to what I was really after, feedback.

As far as the Empire being so powerful. If anything the equal seems to give them too much credit. It comes down to the power of blasters, or the lack thereof. Fighters without torpedoes are a threat to ships (Medical frigate, RotJ) and the surface of the Death Star (ANH). However, we also see them impact on droids (R2 in ANH) and people (Leia in RotJ, 2 people in TFA), and their damage isn't that much more than bullets. We also see them disabling starfighters (TFA) and attempting to with the E-web in ESB. (Why bother to set it up, if it won't do damage to the ship.) Most convincingly we see them shooting at the ground and TIE fighters in one battle (TFA) The amount of damage they do is minimal. (Thinking on it, I'd probably be far far more scared of a modern plane than an X-wing or TIE shooting at me on the ground with guns.) Also notable in this scene, the people on the ground fire at the starfighters with blasters, and in the same movie, we've seen an X-Wing get disabled by a blaster shot already, so that's not a bad idea. So the idea that X-Wing's shots for example have 60GJ of energy, or about the equivalent of 15 tons of TNT, more powerful than the MOAB the strongest conventional weapon the US has, that produces . (From one of those oft referenced sites, SD.net) At best they are equivalent to a *small* modern bomb, maybe a 250lb one. If anyone really wants to debate that, let's start a new thread.

As far as the idea about Jedi and Telepaths, not really, IMO. Basically, Telepaths are telepaths, and even a group of low level ones can do a scary good mind trick on someone who would not be considered weak minded by any stretch of the imagination (Bester) that puts any Jedi mind trick to shame. Telekinetics are rare. There's the technomages which are in some ways more comparable. Semi-religious order, but they do it with Technology. There's really no magic in B5, though there is some technology that seems that way. (Some of the older races, technomages, etc.) On the surface I can kind of see it, but not after looking deeper.

And yep, 40k is the ultimate in fanboys gone horribly, horribly wrong. I don't think anyone's willing to dispute that with a straight face.

Meh, started typing a rant, so I added it. OK. Again, I am keeping the tech roughly equal for the sake of gameplay. Minbari, Vorlons, Shadows, are above the tech. (Not by much with the Minbari.) EA and the Centauri, are roughly equivalent. Narn are bit below.

As far as Starfuries, they are more maneuverable than anything in the Star Wars they are also pretty fragile. They can carry missiles, which can do a number on things. So, I'll separate them out from the others. (Ones with missiles and those without) for right now, First, I'm focusing on the clean Starfury (non-Tbolt).

They aren't seeming to be super fast, so I'll put them at 3. Also, not that tough, so I'll put the hull at 3, but to represent the amazing maneuverability compared to any Star Wars ship, they will have a scatter token, and a counter 1 (which per the rules would be a blue, but I think I like the idea of red.). For anti-fighter, a 3 Red die. For anti-ship work, I'll give them a black die. Cost seems good at 13.

Pictures: Unpainted (but primed) Omega class with ISD and MC80 for comparison. I need to get the antennas and side turrets added. Scale is roughly correct, though the Omega is a little small, but not far off.

https://imgur.com/a/cG0Nj

Whee fun, some painting on one of the early versions and a Whitestar. EA is mostly as boring as the Empire when it comes to ship general coloring. Whitestars on the other hand... beautiful as hell. (Possibly the most beautiful ship in all science fiction TV or Movies. (I didn't say iconic, powerful, etc, etc, etc, just beautiful.)) For people who just want to look at pictures, the Omega (long one) is about ISD length. The small one (Whitestar) is to scale.

Album: https://imgur.com/a/M1fa4