' Wrote:"But Chris, with such destructive potential, and such huge energy drains, the ship would need to be big enough to house a thermonuclear reactor". Perhaps, but again, we're One Thousand (1000) years after Sol. We've already sent small nuclear reactors called RadioIsotope Thermoelectric Generators into space since the 1960s on spacecraft. It's reasonable to assume that this technology would have been enhanced and built upon to be able to put a small fusion (thank you HFuel) reactor into all ships
Then why do my fighters run out of juice so fast when firing their guns? :laugh:
To fire an SN requires a massive amount of power, that's where the size difference should come in.
As far as WWII analogies it's simple, that's the "flavor" of the game. If we based the game on reality we couldn't dogfight and fighter/bombers would be killed long before they got to hurt a cap ship.
Back to the point, we could come up with a reasonable way to weight the ships, tying size and maneuverability to mass (derived from armor and power plant output). I think that would be worthwhile, although having a somewhat level playing field might upset some people who now fly ships with advantages.