[noybman]

I was serious, I want you to do a little work here too!

Here is a link with the filters set I was recommending. There are 50 ship options, but this is a great start
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

So, ships with only 2 Tactical consoles in my opinion, are scratched... I personally even scratch those with 3.....that gets us down to 26

Now, since you have said Cruiser, I personally think you are in BEAM territory. To answer you about the kinetic, you might just want to do mines on the rear. Torps are nice, but mixing damage types is hard.

On the sheet above, I have it sorted by turn rate, and (I cant speak for anyone else, but) as a Tactical captain, and looking for versatility, you want a ship with BOFF slots U (Universal) or T (Tactical) for the Commander and or Lt. Commander slots.

As a cruiser, turn rate is going to matter, beams will matter, and while front is preferred, it is not crucial. While doing all of this filtering I realized the Nihydron and the Nicor were looking very decent, then I realized, oops, lockbox....

When I fixed the filter again I now had 12 ships remaining. This is far more digestible.

Code:

<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->
[size=small][font=arial,sans,sans-serif]Odyssey Tactical Cruiser
Fleet Assault Cruiser Refit
Fleet Assault Cruiser Refit
Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser
Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit
Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit
Fleet Arbiter Battle Cruiser
Arbiter Battle Cruiser
Fleet Battle Cruiser
Avenger Battle Cruiser
Fleet Battle Cruiser
Fleet Eclipse Intel Cruiser[/font][/size]

Thankfully.... the ships the other members have listed, are in that list.

Sov mentioned the Odyssey, it has this console Its also the slowest turn ship and the Commander BOFF slot is Engineering *(swear at Cryptic)... in all fairness, the options you have limited yourself to, ALL have this stupid design limitation. Why? Crytpic wants you to splurge even more on Lobi or LB.

The only ship in the list above with something beyond a Engineering Commander is the Fleet Eclipse Intel, which allows an Intelligence/Engineer.

The Arbiter, Fleet Arbiter, and the Fleet Advanced Heavy Escort all use Engineering Commanders, but they at least have 2 Lt. Commander designs which are Tactical and Intel or Command (the arbiter actually has a Universal Lt. Commander)

I'm emphasising the BOFF slots because they are VERRRRRY important, and often overlooked. Now that we are down to 12 ships, it gets hard to choose. There are tradeoff for each.

The Avenger has a neat honorable mention console: http://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Unive...g_Armament

SO, in closing, Im going to go with the Fleet Eclipse Intel Crusier, (buy the C-store version first, get the prize), then get the fleet one.

You now have at least 3 solid recommendations, and a small list, and a link with filters already applied to go look at.

Good luck