This Ship has Issues, The Steamrunner Class 

John Eaves and Alex Jeager concept blog link: johneaves.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/alex-jeager-and-the-ships-of-first-contact/

the steamrunner class always gave me the "quiet kid" type vibe

I remember I learned about the Steamrunner Class from Star Trek: Armada. I think they were like siege units or something. Firing tricolbolt torpedoes at long range. I enjoyed the heck out of the game as a kid.

I always liked the steamrunner, its small and unconventional. it definitely comes across as a tough little but odd looking warship, kind of like a monitor or pocket battleship.

I'd like to see those Steamrunner concept designs as full ship classes for background shots.

One of my favs. Loved the fact it used Tricobalt torpedoes out of a sniper totpedo launcher in Armada 2, and came with a verteron burst to shutdown other ships engines. Honestly the tactical operations escort description with the surveillance duties really does fit without weapons setup too, that just makes the thing scary.

According to an on-screen graphic depicting the fleet formation in Picard season 3, a USS Appalachia was present. Production designer Dave Blass posted a render by artist Pundus citing it was indeed the Steamrunner class that appeared in First Contact.

I really like the design of this thing. Interesting note, apparently every Steamrunner class after the NX name ship of the class was named after an earth mountain range.

The RTS game Star Trek Armada had the Steamrunner as an artillery platform firing, I believe, tricobalt devices (or possibly something else entirely, but definitely not photons or quantums). For some reason, that particular interpretation of the ship has stuck with me.

I miss the Armada 2 warcrimes version that let me blanket enemy fleets in tricobalt devices.

I love the Steam class it can do pretty much anything and it's a great modern design for a starship while still looking very Starfleet

These things were amazing in Star Fleet Armada 2, they were basically your artillery ship that used to hurl torpedos that caused huge splash damage over long distances. You could cheese any mission in it with a huge blob of steamrunners just nuking everything.

This immediately became one of my favorite star ship designs when I first saw it.

In Star Trek Armada, the Steamrunner had long range proximity torpedoes. They were really good and destroying orbital defense platforms and stations. Kind of a demolition style unit for structures. Then again, Akira class ships had bouncing torpedoes that would hop from ship to ship, damaging them more with each impact. I enjoyed the variety of purpose that game gave to these ships. I primarily used Romulans.

I captain a Steamrunner in STO, it's a pretty cool little ship I love it's design

The Steamrunner has been my favorite ship since the moment I first saw it. It's definitely unique, but in a really cool way. I've got the eaglemoss model sitting on my desk.

I always liked the steamrunner class, always looked more practical than the standard nacelle pylon designs, with the long necks.

I liked these on ST: Armada II as they had tri-cobalt torpedoes. Although the Romulan equivalent ship was better.

I like this ship, reminiscent of the NX01 to me. I was thinking the federation needed a quick little gunship to do hit and runs whilst the big battlecruisers slugged it out, and I think this would fit the bill, although I would have a cloak on it. Ymmv. 😊

Always liked the Steamrunner. I always thought it looked like it would be a fantastic smuggler's vessel.

I used these in ST Armada to just launch waves of torpedoes at the enemy. I loved them. Great fun.

These kinda grew on me, but they mighta been cooler with the deflector pod mounted high rather than looking kind of extraneous. I always saw em as kinda cool little tankey 'fast turtles' that could get in and mix it up close. The sensor angle actually kinda meshes, (ie, don't get caught, but if you do, punch through the situation. ) For an escort, detecting threats to a convoy further out really does make sense, and then you can hopefully engage at whatever range you can manage.

I remember the steamrunner from Star Trek Armada. I didn't realize that I'd already seen it on First Contact until years later when watching scene breakdowns. In the game it was basically the engineering/spellcaster type.

In Star Trek Armada 2, they were ideal hit and run artillary siege ships, especially when paired with venture class ships with fully upgraded sensors.

This design has "grown on me" over time. The concept is great and the profile is awesome! Thanks for another fantastic video!

Inalways loved the Steam Runner design.

Even with it's questionable design, it's still my favorite (Non hero) Starship in Star Trek, and if I had to choose which ship to captian, I would pick the Steamrunner Class

At 0.9c 1 year ship time would be about 2.3 years rest frame. Or a factor of about 2.3:1. Time dilation is a factor, but only for absurdly long sprints.

I love the steam runner ship. I’d love to see a scaled up version (like akira or voyager size) as a hero ship. It’s sleek and the profile looks like a mean sports car. I know it’s small size / compact design is a asset for anti borg but I think a larger hero version would make sense because it has a Enterprise E vibe that other anti borg ships (minus the Norway my other favorite hehe) don’t have.

While not the standard Starfleet configuration, I do like this ship's look.

7:00 The idea of having the gaping great hole in the back part of the ship, it’s called a twin boom design and brings to mind the TX-204 Target carrying aircraft from Thunderbirds and the NX class from Star Trek enterprise. There is a ton of real life aircraft that have a similar rear section design, the P 38 lightning to name a famous one.

I’m glad to see this. I was gonna suggest the rest of the Borg busters, they’re not covered so well online

The biggest question I have for these anti-Borg ships designs is if any that were still in service around the 2400s were internally retrofitted to be more Starfleet-wholesome. I could see the Steamrunner and Sovereign classes being well-suited for it.

When Picard S3 first came out, I thought Dr. Crusher’s ship was Steamrunner class, but it turned out not to be. Although, it could be a variant.

Attaching the nacelles directly to the main hull is my preferred design choice, which makes me love this class.

The Steamrunner appears in Activision's Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II as a long-range artillery ship firing tricobalt torpedoes.

The Akira is obviously the star of the ST:FC background fleet ships, but I always liked the Steamrunner quite a bit too. It looks practical and dangerous and wish it had gotten more screentime in some of the battle sequences in DS9. Incidentally, back in my ‘writing fan fiction that no one read but myself’ days, my crew started on a Steamrunner-class ship. It struck me as completely natural that a ship like this would be a type of deterrence cruiser, or patrol ship, so that’s what I had them doing when the adventure started, post-war deterrence patrols of Cardassian and Breen space. Love to see my headcanon backed up by your lore!

I've never taken a long look at this class, but now that I have, it sure is pretty!

This ship reminds me, vaguely, of the Enterprise era Intrepid class

Steamrunner has always been my favorite canon Starfleet ship. Everything is so pulled in, close and slim, the forward profile being SO small for a ship with THAT hard of a punch.

I like the vibe of the steamrunner. The best example of the ship I can remember was the USS Orion from the SCE books, from Wildfire under Captain Tsu. That was one of the best Star Trek stories I think Pocket Books ever put out and was written by David Mack.

Im sure I read somewhere that the steamrunner and sabre classes where meant to work together, each one having strengths to cover the others weaknesses.

I love the concept in the Star Trek Armada 3 Mod. In Armada 3 is the steamrunner a light "artillery" torpedo ship and doing very well in early and midgame vs the borg. Love them there.

...Man! The Steamrunner Revamp & the 4-nacelle version are pretty badass! Even the Criterion - though a bit Yu-gi-Oh Cartoon World-y for my taste - looks fairly decent. Could we get those in STO, please? Even if only has skin options for the Steamrunner & Steamrunner T5 ships.

In star trek lower decks season 4 finale. Mariner used the ship for most of the episode! I was not expecting this ship to be so focused on and I'm happy it got some attention. I personally remember this ship from star trek armada 2.

I like the steamrunner class. its a nice design and unique....definitely deserves more screen time

I have a new appreciation for this ship now. Always thought deflector way in the back was odd though.

Shoutout to the Tholian Dreadnought just chilling in Earth orbit in the background 😏 Damn, the ver we got does look cool, but wow that more streamlined version with inverted bussards and deflector looks so cool! I want that version!

My absolute favorite class. Many thanx 👍👍

I knew about this ship from LUGTrek's TTRPG, where the Steamrunner was introduced (for me at least) in the Price of Freedom supplement (ie, the Starfleet sourcebook), along with the Sabre, Norway, and Akira. While I prefer the Norway's design, I do like the Steamrunner's overall profile.

Always liked the understated nature of the Steamrunner. But one thing that was on my mind, star-trek related was the missed opportunity of the Galaxy Class. After the Dominion War started and the Federation began to field gun-boats and even fighter type craft.. the perfect role for the Galaxy was as a Fleet Carrier/Command Ship. No other ship in the fleet has the internal space, let alone crew space, or even, most importantly, arguably the single largest shuttle-bay and maintenance space of any large ship in Starfleet. The absolute nutty size in cannon of the Main Shuttle Bay on the Galaxy Class ships basically screamed gun-boat/runabout/fighter wings should be there. Just going by the cannon dimensions of main shuttle bay, you can put about 30 of the Federation's fighters in there, on top of at least 10 gunboat sized craft, maybe even a few runabouts can fit on top of everything else. It would have been wicked smart for Starfleet to have refitted the spaces in the Galaxy to enlarge that capacity, increase the service areas for light craft, plenty of room for the air-wing crews. Hell, take out cetacean ops and use the space for more light craft, light craft service and maint, and flight crews. In scale, it really is the floating island/city and I think when the designers were drawing her up for the show the ridiculous sized shuttle bay was because they were thinking.. aircraft carrier. No other ship design dedicates so much space to one gonzo of a shuttlebay. From an FX perspective, that would have been an awesome scene to order fighters and gunboats launched and just have a stream of ships flying out of the galaxy class command ship at the start of the battle. Kind of like the missed opportunity of one of the most over-phasered ships never firing all of it's phasers at once. Galaxy Class, Deathblossom mode...

I got a Steamrunner/Appalachian class in STO and made it into a torpedo boat. Lots of fun!

I actually love this ship because it is so unique

Also, now you have to do videos on the Saber and Norway classes. If you haven't.

Yeah, i've seen some lore saying that she doesn't have a cloak but has "warp dispersion" capabilities allowing it to scatter warp fields to make them harder to track. Powerful EM Jamming systems, allowing it to present itself as a much larger target then it is... Now this would draw borg attention to it, meaning it would draw fire away from other ships, BUT the larger profile, also made it harder to hit. Picture seeing a ship 2-3x larger then it is. So when you aim at it. say its warp nacelle, wel that could be as much as 1 full ships length away from where you aimed because of its size bloom. Combined with sensor suppression where it could go dark, and lower its sensor silhouette made it much harder to find and detect when doing covert ops. its an interesting concept and a way around the whole "can't have a cloak" thing.

Great video, Thou I was surprised there was no mention of the earlier versions of the class working in tandem with a Saber class which is mentioned in several expanded universe sources. I would assume like you mentioned post war and expansion of science facilities, the need to work together vanished.

Thank you for the informitive video Rick

loved the steamrunner and akira classes best and wished i had seen them used more or the legacy passed on into the future thanks for the video

Good video, although you forgot to mention the steamrunner class has a large torpedo magazine in some beta content.

I made a mod in armada or armada 2 that renamed it the barfbag class, because the game physics caused ships that were turning to go into a spin when hit with the engine disabling torpedo. The ship names were barfbag, nausea, blow chunks, etc.

I always liked this little ship, and loved that it was in Star Trek: Resurgence.

Upon my first foray into STO, this was a nice change from the basic Miranda I found myself unfortunately captaining. Although i then realized i should spec into something and i chose BIG SHIP SO COOOOOOOL when i ran into the Akira and eventually SOVEREIGN.

the Steamrunner is my favourite class

I laughed when you said "It could bite back before escaping". Says small but terrible🤣🤣

Already liked the design, then loved the quad nacelle concept art 👌🏻

I was introduced to the Steamrunner class through Star Trek: Invasion on PS1; a mission where you have to rescue the U.S.S Discovery's escape pods from the event horizon of a black hole before they all get pulled in.

Very Informative!

LOL love the ship personification dialogue

Love the Steamrunner, Defiant, and any other class of ship that integrates the nacelles directly into the hull for a more streamlined, sleek, and compact look. It's probably the only way the NX-01 could look any better than it does. Also love the cyber warfare aspect of the ship.

I like it. In Armada they made it a long sniper of sorts. A few volleys and that target was scrap.

Would love to see videos dedicated to the whole first contact fleet! At least those you haven't done yet. Like the Norway class, also the Prometheus and Nova if they haven't been done yet.

The first time I saw the California Class, I thought I had to be a design predecessor of the Steamrunner Class from before the breakthrough necessary to run the nacelles through the saucer section. I didn't know you had just done this video when I made a similar comment on the California class.

In my head canon the unorthodox design of the Steamrunner was a direct reaction to the weaknesses of the New Orleans class. The NO clearly began life as a down scaled prototype of the Galaxy class and was a bit of a glass cannon which would suffer terribly when it’s shields failed. The Steamrunner’s rugged space frame and armored hull seemed aimed squarely at providing Star Fleet with a ship which could survive the loss of its shields.

y'know, it may be a kinda visual/rolling retcon but I kinda like the thought that the Steamrunner was a Borg/Dominion War era translation of the California class design language. Smaller, of course, but taking a lot of the same cues. Perhaps you could envisage the design teams of different 2360s era ships being pulled in and told 'we want what you did before, but tough as nails and cheap to build'. Perhaps by the time of the Pic version of 2401 they've been pulled from front line/glamorous duties in favour of cargo running and logistic duties.

I like the Steamrunner class. Although it breaks from the traditional design aesthetics, it still feels like a Federation design, compact but capable. Although introduced at the same time as the Sovereign, Akira, Norway and Sabre Classes, the only one I paired it with was the Sabre because of the sharp edges.

I remember reading somewhere that the steam runner was a torpedo boat with a very large magazine of 200 torps. supposed to be used in conjunction with the Norway which intern was a more phaser oriented ship. love the design though it looks mean lol

One of those designs that says I'm strange yet beautiful.

At the 1:48 mark, for a split second, it looked like a Battlestar Ship from Battlestar Galactica. I was taking a quick glance at it and that’s the first thing that came to my mind.

Steamrunner, sabre and Norway classes are still my favourite designs...

another awesome video sir congratulations ! maybe you in the future could make a video about chimera class! thanks in advance!

Steamrunner is just such a baller name. I think it’s stocky design fits the name well

Uh. Fast sensor platform packing a puch... basically SR-71 armored like an A-10. Pretty cool!

I use them as moveable heavy torpedo launchers since they can fire far distances, before other starships can get close enough to them. Also they are able to cause other starship's warp engines to overload, especially if they don't want the other starship to keep following them. They are quickly made, but cost a lot in material to build them compared to other starships, making them a higher cost. The only real problem I have with the Steamrunner class is that it is not very quick, about half the speed of its contemporary starships, making it easy for other starships to catch up with them. If I am going into a heavy battle I use these to protect homebase while I use the Sovereign class to attack other fleets or solar systems. I also add a few Nebula class starships to go support all starships home and abroad since they are able to quickly get damaged starships back up to top fighting and warp speeds quickly. ☺

This was a fun TNG/DS9 era ship design

The name ''Steamrunner' is rather bad ass as it is a direct reference to the warship that takes down a Martian Tripod in War of the Worlds. and what does she do she stands in a final stand against Alien Invasion of Earth too just like her class namesake did nearly half a Millenia earlier.

I've always loved this hull.

today i was in my new hysperian intel battlecruiser on sto with a defiant class next to it, it was twice the length of the defiant class so it 340m long if sto has the same measurements with seven decks but no unquie interior i wish they did a bridge,engineering&mess hall like we see in lower decks but for not,the dragons breath is a hugh inguling flame that if right destorys everything in it path,great vid i love these ship at where build to face the borg and that they learned form wolf 359 and the intresting creation of the first contact ships where the new ship that star trek came out with because use the older models for fed ships in tng with the nubula & ambassador class the only one see in tng

Huh, I had always figured that the intelligence, scouting, and EW duties would be good for a Nova refit, but it makes sense that Starfleet would design a purpose built ship for this mission

Good job!!!

Pretty-much my favourite starship design. The first Eaglemoss model I bought. I do feel like 18 decks is a bit much for such a “flat” profile, though I suppose that if there are decks in the deflector pod it becomes more feasible, with a deck height (including under flooring and overhead) of approx. 3m, that’s a total height of at best no more than 60m… but I’m not sure the proportions allow that with a 350m length…

Love this ship design.

The Steamrunner class makes me think of it as being Defiant's bigger, more well-rounded brother.

Ive got an eaglemoss of a Steamrunner, this a treat!

Must say, I doubt the deck count. As Intrepid is a similar sized ship, but with greater height and it was 15 decks. Besides that we don't get a lot on Steamrunner. But it does give the impression of being well armoured, like it could wade into a fight and take a pounding while other ships brought the firepower.

I 1st encountered this ship in the game Dominion War. And in Armada as a ranged attacker.

I would rather see these really shine than never ending new classes

I always thought, given they were constructed so quickly and cheaply, they were less resilient and durable than the Akira and Norway. A lot like the Defiant, they were too much trouble to keep in service for long after the war. Not immediately recalled, as they were still useful while they worked, but just that they stopped bothering to fix them up as soon as something serious broke. Like a problem car you'll fix the bumper or seatbelt for, but if the gearbox or engine goes you just write it off.

Hey I saw that ship in First Contact .It was a background ship ,That was at the Battle sector 001 .Where the Enterprise E kicked ass .

If we were to think of military purpose, availability (quick construction), and crew operational needs I’d say these ships have a lot in common with destroyers that the US was able to mass produce during WWII.

Good video as always. One nitpick, I wouldn’t use “battleship” as a generic term for a warship, battleships are a specific thing.