Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
Posts: 1470

Narn G'Quan vs EA Nova

OK, I thought I'd lighten the mood with a debate on which of the two of these ships would win in a standard combat situation, either with or without fighter escorts (your choice as you wish). The combat would be set roughly in season two of B5 so the EA Nova would have the relevant sensors and weapons and the G'Quan would have a relatively combat experienced crew.

Don't forget to remember:
-Manouvrability
-Acceleration
-Number of weapons
-Type of weapons
-Armour
-Hull strength

And if using fighters:
-Fighter complement
-Fighter types
-Anti-fighter weapons

Have fun

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Registered: May 2001
Location: Stelring, VA, USA
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heh, the Narns would kill the nova. Simple as that
Ok, had to go back and make sure which ship the G'Quan ship was... The G'Quan is more on a level of an Omega class... It's fast, has more armor than most other warships, and has centauri weaponry. I just think it could take all that the Nova could dish out, and take it out in one or two hits...

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Last edited by Krytor on 06-02-2002 at 10:01 PM

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Registered: Apr 2001
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G'Quan is technically a Heavy Cruiser while the Nova is technically a Dreadnought. By Season 2, the Nova is relegated to providing support in planetary operations.

In an even fight, I'd say that the G'Quan probably has the advantage with a more diverse number of weapons. But....if the Nova were to close the range and open fire with a number of its guns, then the G'Quan would just fall right apart despite the strength of its hull. Infact, if a Nova were ever able to broadside a Sharlin it would do some pretty serious damage too....but that doesn't happen so often

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Registered: Aug 2000
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I'd say the G'Quan hits harder, but has fewer weapons. So it would have to outmanuever and outrange the Nova. If the Nova got in close, one good broadside and the G'Quan would be screwed.

Adding fighters, the Nova most likely carries a lot more, and Starfuries are - correct me if I'm wrong here - more manueverable and the like than than their Narn counterparts, right? So assume the superior numbers of Starfuries beat their Narn counterparts, then they can work to disable the G'Quan so that the Nova can get in close and hammer it.

I'd say fighters are really what matters. No fighters, I'd probably give the win to the Narn, assuming the captain's smart.
With fighters, the Nova.

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Registered: Dec 2001
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Oh dear god. Not a versus thread. Please, no, ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Probably gonna have to go with the Narn on this one.I doubt the Narn give a Nova a chance to close the distance and broadside it.

Since we are on the subject of the Nova, I was wartching In the Beginning today and noticed you have the color of the pulses fired by the cannons on the Nova in the mod is the wrong color. In Londo's "The war" scene you can see a Nova fire a few orange-red shots into a Sharlin. The Nova also fires a shot that color in the first battle scene of the war where that huge line of EA warships is wiped out.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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Flakbait: Heh. In moderation, they're not the most horrible thing ever.
Now, if this was a "G'Quan vs Starship Enterprise" it'd get locked instantly. But keeping it within B5 isn't neccessarily a bad thing.

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Registered: May 2002
Location: Estonia
Posts: 1024

enterprise would whipe out the g'quan depending on what ent you mean the first one the sovgrein class or the galaxy class sovgrein would make short work of it first enterprise would get blown up galaxy would take some damage but still stay on top

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
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Everyone just ignore Ashrak :rolleyes (please contribute something useful or don't contribute at all - this is only a bit of fun, if you don't want to see it then don't read the thread).

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 96

i have to say the Nova wouldnt really stand a chance as the narns weapons are more powerful than a nova's send it up against an Omega and thats a diffrent story

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Registered: May 2002
Location: Estonia
Posts: 1024

depends on what the nova is equpid with if its got some x-ray lasers mounted on it and if the narn ship was side tword the nova no more narn ship if they went head on no more nova if the where side by side the narn ships would loose..... is that intelligent enuf trigs

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
Posts: 1470

It is indeed

As far as I can recall Novas were never armed with laser cannons in the show but were in both Lady Rose's campaign and in AoG's B5W. I know that the G'Quan has more powerful main weapons but the Nova has more of them and probably a tougher hull too. I don't know who would win but tactics would definitely be a major factor.

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Registered: Dec 2001
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Am I the only one who remembers the VSD vs. Sharlin debate?

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
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In simple knife fight:
Well Both The g'Quan and Nova have very different abilities.
The G'quan has Probably longer range due to its meams. They apear to be somewhat better than the basic ones carried even on Omegas. However the Nova has lots more guns, plus its interceptors (Do they have any? I think yes, Most EA ships do have) would prevent most narn plasma hits, a full voley of all Novas guns would pulverize a G'quan very quickly.
In other hand if the narn ship got some distance would be able to criple the Nova in a couple of shots, making it ripe for its plasma guns. I would be a close contest, too close to give a certain judgement in advance. I highly depends of the tactical scenario of the fighting arena.

With fighters:

This is where EA has the biggest advantage. If both deployed all ist fighters ( I would say the nova carries more of them) The starfuries could take advantage of their maneuverability to outmanuever the Frazis, and once these taken out, it could be easely be donne, a cirurgical strike on the G'quan disabling its beams, would prove be fatal once the Nova came into the arena.

this is realy silly to argue since JMS would script anything as he likes, giving these 2 ships capabilities.

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Last edited by haderak on 06-03-2002 at 01:55 PM

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Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:

---

Since we are on the subject of the Nova, I was wartching In the Beginning today and noticed you have the color of the pulses fired by the cannons on the Nova in the mod is the wrong color. In Londo's "The war" scene you can see a Nova fire a few orange-red shots into a Sharlin. The Nova also fires a shot that color in the first battle scene of the war where that huge line of EA warships is wiped out.

---

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 77

Easy answer: Nova wins.
The weapoms of the Narn ship can only be fired straight forward (expr.?). So the Nova has the advantage of fire arcs.
Not to forget the much more and much better fighters and the non existing AA guns of the g'Quan.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:

---

Originally posted by FlakBait
Am I the only one who remembers the VSD vs. Sharlin debate?

---

No. And this one will get locked much faster than that one did, if it goes down the same path (which it will, because they always do )

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Nottingham, England
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Actually in one battle sequence you see at the start of an episode (where a G'Quan rescues some refugees) and possibly in "And Now for a Word" you actually see Narn interceptors firing. They also are armed with energy mines in addition to the main beam cannons seen in most of their battles. In contrast the Novas are armed with a vast array of guns with some of the upgraded Novas carrying beam weaponry. The Nova doesn't have enough power to fire all of its weapons continuously but against one ship this is not a problem. According to AoG (not canon but I know of no concrete source) the G'Quan can carry 12 Frazi fighters and the Nova 24. Even if these figures aren't perfect, they do show that the Nova carries significantly more fighters.

Just updating people on the ships' armaments.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Transylvania, ROMANIA
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well with GQuan Energy mines ..Nova will be dead in space long before it will be in heavy plasma firing range...Nova is a lugish beast ... but if Gquan got in the firing range..that is another story

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Registered: Sep 2001
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I've never seen a Nova fire in the show or in ITB, ever. Of course I probably need to watch ITB a third time in two days. Also, I've never seen the turrets of a Nova ever point in any direction other than what is normally seen in the show and ITB.
Now the G'Quan, I've seen it fire and know some of its armorments. The ship doesn't appear to take damage well (of course after watching the battle of Gorash[sp?] 7, the ship's armor seems like nothing, but the weapons appear potent enough).

If it was a straight our capital ship fight to the death, a Nova would get blasted by energy mines befor entering range of the G'Quan. If a Nova ambushes a G'Quan, I'd go with the Nova if it came from the rear, and the G'Quan of the Nova was stupid enough to pop up in front of the ship.

With fighters, I'd think that the G'Quan would get its ass kicked by the Starfuries well before the Nova can move in and deal the finishing blows. The Narn fighters would get whipped out quickly by the Starfuries before being able to infict significant damage to the Nova or to its Starfury escort.

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