BRAD'S COMMENTS:  Not until the ultra-powerful ships of FASA's TNG Officers Manual does the STSTCS start to see vessels capable of matching the likes of the Z-4.  During game play, these outposts are hard to wield, if only because they are miserable offensive weapons thanks to their ponderous movement ratios.  Creeping at a snail's pace, the Z-4 is usually best left orbiting a planet or perhaps minding an asteroid field; the literal 'big stick' under the table that can be taken out and used to wallop aggressors who stray too close to a highly-protected area.  The Z-4 is also something of a space station, and might be thought of as a dual-role model (like all defense outposts) in that it can, in theory, repair starships in the same fashion as mobile repair facilities, like a Spacedock.  However, it should be stressed that this is merely my opinion, and there are no official game rules that I have ever found confirming my belief.
        Best advice to the player taking on an opponent with a Z-4: assault in numbers.  Single ships, even an Excelsior class, can usually not combat the Z-4 ship to ship.  And even then, with multiple attackers, expect heavy losses during an assault.
        The most interesting, and lengthy, scenarios I have ever played with this class have involved posing two forces against each other along the Klingon neutral zone: a Starfleet Alamo outpost and its contingent of ships, versus a Z-4 and its contingent of Klingon vessels.  Attrition almost always kills off all the other ships until both outposts are forced to creep towards each other from opposite sides of the starmap, lobbing shots and hoping to score lucky strikes before they each close to killing distance and mutually annihilate one another.
        In relation to the movies and TV series themselves, one always wonders if the Z-4 and other outposts like it are the equivalent of the huge Earth Spacedock or the Nor class Cardassian stations, aka: Deep Space Nine?  What about the older Deep Space Station K7 from ST:TOS?  Also, could defense outposts be thought of as actual starbases?  My only answer to these questions is that I think the defense outpost, as built for the STSTCS, is a pint-sized version of a Spacedock, not as large or as heavily armed, and probably not capable of all the same functions.  And as for outposts being equivalent to starbases, well, it seems to me having seen the vast majority of Star Trek episodes on TV and in film, a 'starbase' is a planetary installation that may or may not  have a companion space station orbiting overhead.  So a defense outpost might function as part of a starbase, without actually being the starbase itself.
        Again, this is just my speculation. (see more of my comments on space stations and defense outposts at the Federation Alamo, R-1, and Spacedock pages!)  I also speculate that large space installations like these have extraordinarily lengthy service lives, so I have added stats to keep the Z-4 current with technology well beyond the time of Kirk.

* Denotes completely hypothetical model number and stats, devised by Brad R. Torgersen.

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