SciFi Saturday – Sathar Ship Profiles

In the Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks game materials, there is a bit of inconsistency in how the different Sathar ship types are portrayed. Let's take a look at respectively: (1) the original counter sheet (Sathar capital ship section), (2) the "Enemy Silhouette Recognition Card" (from the Tactical Manual p. 7), and (3) the official metal miniatures box (back cover).

Now, what you'll see above is that there's an obvious contradiction between the counters & recognition card -- what are identified as the "Frigate" and "Destroyer" are clearly reversed in those two depictions. Traditionally I thought that the counters were correct, because there at least the Frigate is shown as smaller than the Destroyer (as per their game statistics).

But there's yet another problem if we look at the back of the miniatures box -- look closely at that "Heavy Cruiser" miniature and compare to the recognition card above it. The number of knobby bits (weapons batteries, I presume), overall placement, and the surrounding ellipsoidal side features really more closely match what the recognition card calls a "Destroyer". The miniature lacks any diagonal "V-neck" feature as shown on the recognition card. And it would be really most consistent for the Heavy Cruiser to have the greatest number of weapons knobs on display, of any of the ship types.

So my best guess at this time is that: (1) it's the miniatures box that has the correct identification of the "Heavy Cruiser" and other ship types, (2) the recognition card needs the names of all the top three ship types rotated clockwise, and (3) the counter sheet may have had the illustrations for the Sathar "Destroyer" and "Heavy Cruiser" reversed.

Who's to blame for this terrible mix up? Well, obviously I blame a campaign of deception and misinformation by nefarious Sathar saboteurs; probably they broke into a computer system somewhere and scrambled the files to sew confusion. Egad, I hate them so much! [Shakes fist]

Anyway, it's easily corrected if you're of a mind to so. A side-benefit is certainly that the graphically largest illustration now represents the largest and most powerful ship type, which should make it easier for new players to intuit which is which. Below you'll see a corrected Sathar counter sheet for Destroyers & Heavy Cruisers (print at 300 dpi, paste to some thick cardboard, and cut out), and also a corrected recognition card, as noted above. Don't let those slimy Sathar get away with their scurrilous schemes!

[Thanks to StarFrontiers.com for the counter-sheet and recognition card scans.]