Why do the Klingons use cloaking devices?
It makes perfect sense for the Romulans, since their entire gimmick is being sneaky and unfair, but even ignoring how Klingons are all about honor, since they're also all about strength, their ships should logically just be gigantic warships, shouldn't they? Instead, it's acknowledged that Birds of Prey are basically just slapped-together pieces of shit, and that the Enterprise outguns a Bird of Prey massively.
>In war, there is nothing more honorable than victory.
I agree with you, but that's basically the reason given. Plus, it's more or less canon that Klingons are massive hypocrites.
Klingons are more like Viking raiders, which requires a fast hit and run style ship, which the Bird of Prey fits perfectly.
Plus, they do have massive warships memory-alpha.wikia.com
they're about personal honor and victory over your enemies, if it means that you have to hide to take out a ship 4 times your size so be it. they're klingons, not orks
also, they're also not dumb/orkoid enough to make every single ship they make gigantic, just like in real life they have multiple niches to fill. it wouldn't make sense to have something designed to outflank larger ships be gigantic
Better question:
Where do you fit whales in that thing?
In the Whale Pod, right next to where they keep the nuclear wessels.
Because just like in real life, you don't build one class of vessel for every job. The Bird of Prey is a scout vessel/pack hunter/skirmisher. Sure the Enterprise can beat it 1v1. How about 1v20?
they're russian submarines, it's a cold war analogy.
that was the extent of klingon based plots in star trek up till next generation, when they started integrating into the protagonist culture. (post cold war analogy)
Every ship in their fleet has a cloaking device on it, it's standard equipment because being invisible helps you win and winning is the only thing that matters.
In canon reason?
Klingons main opponents were the Romulans who used cloaking tech, and the Federation who I believe outnumbered or could out produce/resource them.
Putting aside some of your rules of honour when need be is part of being a clever warrior.
Couple that with the Romulan/Klingon alliance resulting in a technology trade (maybe joint operations?) and all the non-combat tasks a cloaked ship can do especially in reconnaissance and you can see why they would use them.
Straight up ambushing and firing on ships while cloaked however would probably be looked upon poorly except when a last ditch thing though at least by traditionalists.
The real world reason is that in Star Trek III the villians were supposed to be Romulans, hence the "Bird of Prey" with red wings on the underside like the old TOS Romulan ship of the same name.
When they were replaced with Klingons (as more visually striking and "similar to cold war soviets") they kept the ship and the story went on.
Your notion of Honor is not that of Klingons.
It goes along the lines of:
If I'm winning, I'm earning honor.
If I'm losing, it's because enemy is a dishonorable wretch.
>Why
Klingon honour isn't about winning a fight - it's about winning a GOOD fight. If a BoP commander finds himself outgunned and can use a cloak to even the odds, then a cloak shall be used.
>firing on ships while cloaked
Save for a few exceptions, ships can't fire when cloaked. It gives them away and cloaking means your shields are down, so if you are spotted you are dead.
More a less this OP, however, if the odds would be close to even then the Klingon captain would forgo the use of the cloak. Because in the ways of war the Klingon's are usually better then their counterparts.
Romulans never fight strait up so that never happens. The Federation however will, so instances of Fed Vs Klingon 1v1s have happened. Plus the Klingon's didn't always have cloak (see pic).
Honestly, it'd be stupid to have any of their ships not have cloaking capability at this point.
It's such a tactical foundation and hardware commonality that klingon ships without the ability to cloak would be almost tactically incompatible with working with any other klingon ships. If a task force of ten birds of prey, three vor'cha battlecruisers, and one 'ship that can't cloak' tried to work together, or even TRAVEL together to a combat zone...the non-cloakable ship would give away the operation and their position to everybody else, even if they didn't know the other ships were there, giving away the element of surprise, at the very least.
Why do you think stealth is dishonorable?
Or the one ship without cloak could be dead sneaky and send out badly encrypted messages to the nearest system implying they were on their own with valuable cargo and then BOOM AMBUSH HONOUR IN VICTORY etc
Well, yeah, I thought about decoy value as I was typing that out, but decided to pretend not to acknowledge it existed.
You got me, you pa'taq.
>Being an honourable warrior-race means you must have Imperial Battleships with two hundred meters of armour plating
That's how tropes are born, user.
These Klingons have no honour.
Seriously, Worf was fucking hilarious. He's like a Japanese guy raised by Americans and actually buys into every word of weaboo crap, and then he talks to actual samurai, and they think he's a fucking retard. It's never stated outright, but it's perfectly done.
That's what I love about his character too, especially once that hit me. Because he wasn't raised by Klingons, he idealizes them and believes they're all perfect, honorable, stoic warriors.
It's like that exchange Worf and Winn have.
>Klingons do not laugh.
>Yes, they do. Absolutely, they do! *You* don't.
In actuality, Klingons have just as much variety as any human. You've got the honorable ones, who seem to be in the minority, and then you have the opportunists, the glory-hounds, the ones that are as underhanded as Romulans. None of which match Worf's Wikipedia page.
This is not unique for Klingons, other warrior races/cultures have thing for stealth/invisibility like Mandalorians or Kilrathi.
Also, just because Klingons are warrior culture, this don't mean they are not sneaky too, especially since they started as sneaky (less that Romulars but still) warlike space russians in TOS.
Worf is not that stoic, he still love to sing, drink and be agresive. Just that he is contrasted with others who made him look like always serious kiljoy.
He is more aware how Klingons are in reality than this.
Dax calls him out on it a bunch of Times as well. She acts more Klingon than him on some occations usually involving other klingons because he's so awkward around them. Those eps are always fun.
>cloaking is dishonorable
I've never understood this.
No form of combat is more honorable than a duel, and how shit would you be at duels if you didn't allow yourself to feint or decieve your opponent?
>Klingons are all about honor
And what is more honourable then victory?
>Worf is not that stoic
He's more stoic than most Klingons. Hell, you'll have a hard time trying to get them to shut the fuck up.
The Klingon Empire has a Feudal culture focused on personal glory and familial honor. Deploying a vast fleet of small vessels, with small crews, maximizes the opportunities for Klingon warriors to earn glory and bring honor to their houses. The cloaking device helps make this strategy viable, and is acceptable under the honor codes of Klingon culture. The Klingons respect guile as much as courage and strength, and there is nothing dishonorable about taking an enemy by surprise.
Well first off, the Klingons DO have fuckhuge battleships that are probably an even match for a Galaxy class.
But the Bird of Prey is seen more often because a smaller ship means more personal glory for each crewmember. Being one of the 50 torpedo bay loaders on a Vor'cha that scores a major victory isn't as glamorous as being THE gunner on a B'rel that scores a smaller but still decisive victory.
As to cloaking devices:
>Commander Riker: You're outmanned, you're outgunned, you're outequipped. What else have you got?
>Lieutenant Worf: Guile.
