A non-debater's comparison of Trek, Wars, Bab5 and 40K

[Dabat]

I first joined this forum two days ago, up until then I considered Wars vs. Trek an interesting intellectual exercise, but one that other people wouldn't be that interested in. Being the analytical type of person that I am, a while back I made a list of comparisons of my four favorite sci-fi realities, Wars, Trek, Bab5 and 40K. To cover discrepancies within the realities themselves I had to decide just what information I would use. I decided that the closer they were to the original author/creator, the more 'official' they were (what I now know is called Cannon). And I tried to only use stuff from books (EU and the like) to fill in what the movies/tv/etc.. did not already show.


To reiterate, I am new to the debate at large. I have never participated in any online discussion on the abilities of Wars-vs-Trek until two days ago, and it seems unlike most people I have no driving desire to see one or the other win. I am a fan of all these sci-fi realities, which is the only reason I bothered making this list of comparisons in the first place.


I also made this list a while back, in the last few days of putzing around this forum and others like it my mind has been changed on a few things. But when I mentioned making a list like this, JediMasterSpock said he was interested in seeing the views of a non-debater. So I left my original comparisons as-is.








(unless the list is a simple yes/no, then the list is in order of best to worst, largest to smallest, etc..)






-Abilities of the ships:

--Warship Sizes
40K - Bab5 - Wars - Trek

One of the more simple comparisons, how big are they? And while the ave Wars 'warship' may only be 100-250 meters in length, Trek doesn't have anything to compare size-wise to an ISD or an SSD, so they were put in last place.



--Damage Sustainable
40K - Bab5 - Trek - Wars

This is a category that basically boiled down to size, with a few exceptions. While an ISD can take more damage then a Constitution class, most of the ships in Wars can not, and so this time Wars got bumped down to last.



--Shields common?
Bab5 (Never) - Trek (Always) - Wars (Always) - 40K (Always)



--Do the shields always block solid and energy?
Bab5 (No) - Trek (Always) - Wars (No) - 40K (Depends)



--Overall Shield Strength
40K - Wars - Trek - Bab5*
*A few races in Bab5 have systems that act like shields (Humans and Abbai mostly) but are not (at least for the purposes of this comparison), but because such systems exist, Bab5 made it on this list. One race, the Drak, actually has shields, but as they never deal with anyone else in a friendly manner, they were not included in the list.


This section seems more telling then it actually is. 40K is at the top of nearly every list, while Trek and Wars are almost always near the bottom. But that is a simple factor of size. Things will begin to even out later on.





-Weapons
--Main Gun Strength
40K - Bab5 - Wars - Trek
Don't start flaming yet. Size and strength are, well the Strength of the Imperium of Man. While finesse is the realm of several of the others. It doesn't matter how big and powerful your gun is, it matters how well and how often you hit with it.

I should also note, based on what i've seen on the shows/movies. THat I rate most of the guns in tonnes or tens of tonnes of firepower, not kilotonnes or even megatonnes.



--Number of Main Guns
Wars - 40K - Trek - Bab5



--Torpedo Strength
40K - Trek - Bab5 - Wars



--Number of Secondary Guns
40K - Wars - Bab5 - Trek



--Max Weapons Range
Trek - 40K - Bab5 - Wars
Here is the first point at which we begin to see Trek dominate the list. They will end up taking first place nine out of twenty slots for capitol ships (four others are either yes or no).



--Rate of Fire
Trek - Wars - Bab5 - 40K



--Firing Arcs
Trek - Bab5 - Wars - 40K



--Accuracy/Targeting
Trek - Bab5 - 40K - Wars




-Speed
--FTL Max Speed
40K (Rarely, and that is often seen as a terrible omen) - Wars - Trek - Bab5
Interaction with the Immaterium warps time in a malicious manner. It is quite possible for craft in 40K to arrive before they set out, but that normally only occurs so in that some disaster may befall them.



--On charted Routes
Wars - Trek - Bab5 - 40k



--Off Charted Routes
Trek - Bab5 - 40K - Wars
While speeds in Trek, Bab5 and 40K remain relatively constant weither they know where they are going or not. Wars needs the charted routes to keep up their speed. Even short one second emergency escape jumps that would not even take them out of the solar system are seen as to hazardous to attempt due to interactions hyperspace has with gravity.



--Combat Speeds
Trek (FTL) - Bab5 - 40K - Wars



--Maneuverability
Trek - Bab5 - Wars - 40K




-Other
--Ship Reliability
Trek - Bab5 - Wars - 40K



-System Redundancy
40K - Trek - Bab5 - Wars
Just what it says. If a 40K ship didn't have so many redundant systems, the whole thing might never work at all. In Trek their redundant systems are part of why their ships are so reliable. While Wars seems to have never even heard of the term.



--Sensors
Trek - 40K - Bab5 - Wars
I don't want to see Wars at the end once again, but for example in RotJ an entire fleet of capitol ships couldn't tell that the Death Star still had it's shield up.



--Planet Destruction
Bab5 (No) - Trek (Yes, Very Rare) - Wars (Yes, Unique) - 40K (Yes, Very Rare)



--Capability of killing all life on a planet
Bab5 (Yes, Very Rare) - Trek (Yes, Rare) - Wars (Yes, Rare) - 40K (Yes, Uncommon)



--In Atmosphere Capability?
Bab5 (Some) - Trek (All) - Wars (Most) - 40K (Most)



--Planet Landing and Liftoff?
Bab5 (Rare) - Trek (Most) - Wars (Some) - 40K (Cargo/Landers Only)



--Total Fleet Size
40K - Wars - Trek - Bab5



--Speed of Fleet Reaction (How long it will take the to assemble and dispatch a reactionary battlegroup)
Trek - Wars - Bab5 - 40K





-Fighters (+Craft <60 meters)
--FTL?
Bab5 (Yes) - Trek (Yes) - Wars (yes) - 40K (No)



--FTL in Combat?
Bab5 (No) - Trek (Yes) - Wars (No) - 40K (No)



--Speed in Vacuum
Trek (FTL) - 40K - Bab5 - Wars



--Demonstrated Maneuverability in a Vacuum
Bab5 - Wars - 40K - Trek



--Speed in Atmosphere
Trek - Bab5 - 40K - Wars



--Maneuverability in Atmosphere
Trek - Bab5 - 40K - Wars



--Anti-Warship Capable?
Bab5 (No) - Trek (Some) - Wars (Some) - 40K (Some)



--Weapon Strength
Trek - 40K - Wars - Bab5



--Weapon Accuracy
Trek - Bab5 - 40k - Wars



--Weapon Range
Trek - Bab5 - 40K - Wars



--Shields Present?
Bab5 (No) - Trek (Yes) - Wars (Yes) - 40K (Almost Never)



-Shield Strength
40K (When they rarely appear) - Trek - Wars - Bab5 (Never)