BRAD'S COMMENTS: In any other fleet, this brute would classify as a dreadnought.  But in the Dominion navy of the Jem'hadar, it's the middle child of the family, somewhere between the small, agile destroyer and the truly huge battleship.  Its edge lies in its superior power production combined with its superior shielding and polaron beam hardpoints; the details of which are discussed below.  Size-wise, this ship is roughly about that of the Federation Galaxy Class or the Klingon Negh'var; though in playing terms this ship is superior to either of those classes.  Really, there isn't any ship in the inventories of any of the Alpha or Beta Quadrant governments that can match this beast.  Not one-on-one.  Oh, maybe with a few lucky shots, a Sovereign Class might do it.  Otherwise, a player facing off against the Jem'hadar heavy cruiser is going to have to rely on his numbers.
     Artistically, I think all the Dominion ships are quite creative; a combination of beauty and menace.  Each retains something of an insect-like motif, though this is much more obvious with the Jem'hadar destroyer than its larger cousins.  I think what really does it with the cruiser is the forked bow, which viewed top-down lends the appearance of mandibles.  One also wonders about the secondary set of "nacelles" perched above and behind the primary set (the primaries are mounted on the "wing" tips.)  Fan/player Jason Abbadon caught up with Trek artist John Eaves at Wonderfest and asked John about those second "nacelles", and John confirmed that the dorsal structures are indeed a second set of warp nacelles, which means quadruple warp redundancy and quadruple power output!

* Denotes completely hypothetical model number and stats, devised by Brad R. Torgersen.
^ Next to the Borg, the Dominion fighting force is the most formidable yet encountered by the governments of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.  As we see from early episodes of ST:DS9, even the smallest of the Jem'hadar war vessels possesses superior shielding and weaponry when compared to the finest Starfleet has to offer.  Now, in gaming terms, this presents a dilemma.  Making the shields of the Dominion impervious to Alpha Quadrant races eliminates the Dominion ships as viable playing pieces--they could last forever on the battlefield, against opponents of any number or potency.  Just the same, it seems clear to me that the Dominion ships do have superior shielding.  Rather than simply over-inflate the raw maximum shield power, or the power-to-point ratio, I have chosen to improve the Dominion shields with an unusual twist.  When attacking a Dominion craft, the attacking player must make one additional dice roll, assuming his strike roll yields a hit on a shielded side of the Dominion playing piece.  If that side is unshielded, then don't worry about it.  Apply damage as normal.  But if the side is shielded, then the attacking player rolls a ten-sided die (or a six, or a four, or a twenty, it does not matter) to see if the shot had any effect on the Dominion ship's shielding.  An even number means the strike does full damage.  An odd number means the strike has been deflected totally, with no loss of shield strength.  This means an attacker has a fifty percent chance of getting a solid hit--which I think somewhat reflects the fighting action seen between Alpha and Beta Quadrant warships, and the Dominion fleet.  Especially in the early phases of contact, when the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are still unsure of what they are up against.
** The Polaron Beam weaponry presents an inverted version of the shield problem, in that the Dominion weaponry seems capable, on occasion, of totally penetrating Federation or Klingon shielding regardless of how much energy is dumped into the shield generators.  As with the Dominion's superior shields, presenting the Dominion's superior beam weaponry in a game setting is problematic.  Making all Alpha and Beta Quadrant shielding 100% porous to polaron beams is unfair, I think, so in order to reflect the polaron beam's potency while still affording a defender some protection, I'm introducing another dice roll.  Any player being attacked by a polaron beam gets to roll a ten-sided die (or four, or six, or twenty; as with the shields, it does not matter) and if the result is an odd number, that player's ship's shields have no effect and damage is taken straight to the ship.  It's important to note that, in this case, the shield power is not reduced!  The shield is still up, at whatever power it happened to be at during the strike.  The polaron beam has simply passed through the shield, and has hit the hull directly.  Now, if the die roll is an even number, the shields are in full effect, and the polaron beam damage translates directly to the shield power.

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