THIS IS MAYBE MY SECOND ALL-TIME MOST FAVORITE STAR TREK SHIP DESIGN.  But in official Trek canon there is no such thing as the "Reliant class" which FASA weaves a story around.  We find out in ST:TNG that these ships are known as the Miranda class, and we also see a mildly modified sub-class of the Miranda, w/o the 'roll bar', called the Soyuz.  Personally, I never liked the removal of the roll bar, especially since it made perfect sense that this is where the all-important torpedo bay would be located—along with the two phaser banks that fired forward/port and forward/starboard.
        This class is, of course, most famous as the ship that Khan uses to attack Kirk and the Enterprise in Star Trek II.  The USS Reliant, NCC-1864, is the only ship on which we ever see Pavel Chekov approach command rank; as first officer.  And the USS Reliant kicks the crud out of the USS Enterprise throughout Star Trek II and its famous Mutara Nebula 'submarine combat' sequence, before ultimately being dealt several spectacular blows by the Enterprise's phasers and torpedoes.
        The Enterprise versus Reliant  ship battle sequences have got to be among the most breathtaking and involved ship-to-ship battles we've ever seen in Star Trek's big-screen history.  The only thing that comes close is probably in Star Trek VI when Enterprise and Excelsior take on a Klingon Bird of Prey, but even then, the Star Trek II battles set the standard against which all future Trek films would be measured.  Which probably means that more STSTCS scenarios have been carried out re-enacting this big-screen melee than any other scenario possible in the game.  I would defy any experienced STSTCS gamer to prove me wrong.  The Reliant versus Enterprise fight is irresistible in gamers' terms, not only because of its on-screen analog, but because the Miranda class is almost a match for the Constitution (refit) class in terms of firepower, superstructure, shields, and engines.  A skillful gamer can defeat an Enterprise with a Reliant given a lucky roll or two during firing phases; especially if you match a later-model Reliant against an earlier model Enterprise.  The matchup is that even.
        In aesthetic terms, compared to the Anton, I kind of don't understand what FASA was thinking, because the Anton looks bigger than the Reliant in many ways.  And the Miranda is supposed to have 'evolved' from the Anton??  The warp pylons on the Anton are longer, the secondary structure behind the saucer seems to be larger and longer, etc.  The basic shape is sort of there for both ships, but looking at the two designs side by side the supposed 'evolution' from Anton to Miranda does not seem as obvious as the Constitution to Constitution (refit).  But hey, even though it is not part of official Trek canon, I always loved the FASA backstory of the Reliant having come out of the Anton in the same fashion the refit Enterprise class came out of the Constitution.
        Because the Miranda/Soyuz classes appear to have such extraordinarily lengthy operational lives—evidenced by their frequent appearances in both ST:TNG and ST:DS9—I took the liberty of fleshing out an additional range of stats, taking the design well beyond the era of Kirk and the Enterprise-A.  This does not mean the class is completely contemporary with truly advanced types such as the Intrepid or Akira, but I can't believe the design would remain unaltered for the decades-long period between the last time we see it on the big screen (Star Trek IV) and the first time we see it on the small screen (ST:TNG).

          — BRT