What does everyone think of using y module ships as the next step after cadet ships.

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - 11:52 pm: Edit

I recommend starting with GW-era frigates and forgetting about cadet ships entirely. Frigates are fun (they move fast), and the games don't last too long. More importantly, new players won't feel like they are being patronized because they get to play with "real ships." Once players have learned the rules, you can go directly to cruisers without too many intermediate steps.

Early years ships don't work well unless you use early years rules, which will teach the new players a game which is almost, but not quite, SFB. (This is the same reason I dislike the "cadet's game.") If you want to use ships that look like cruisers but are worse, go with the national guard ships from R8, which use the "normal" rules but are less powerful than full cruisers. The trouble is that even national guard cruisers have the wrong amount of power, relative to most of the game.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 08:38 am: Edit

I have had success using the Cadet ships - they are great for teaching the mechanics of the game and provide enough value to let a person know if SFB is a game that will interest them. Once they have determined, through playing the cadet ships, that they want to get into SFB, then I recommend going with standard Cruisers. I wouldn't use Frigates because of all of the fractional accounting and because the RPS factors are increased. I also wouldn't use EY ships both because the power curves are so tight - most EY ships can't walk and chew gum at the same time and because the ruleset is so different (tractor ranges, EW, no overloads, etc.). EY is a better game for experienced players looking for something different than for newbies.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 11:59 am: Edit

1) You can play newbies by setting up a dynamic where you're likely to lose so as to balance out your skill.
Try taking an NCA and giving the newbie a BCH. That way he can make a few mistakes and still beat you, the large number of weapons won't be too intimidating ( unlike the rule book and the 32 impulse chart ). MC1 for both ships makes play a little easier.

2) Y ships don't have the same BOOM factor that GW ships have due to overloades and a fast game will appeal to newbies.
Also note that cruisers can handle mistakes better than FFs as one 18 point alpha will strip a Fed FFG of half her Photons all her drones and all the phasers ( 1Ph-3 & 1 Ph-1 ) on one side of the vessel...and two mizias of 27 on a Fed CARa+ might be proportionately as bad but is quite a bit less likely to happen.

By Ken Burnside (Ken_Burnside) on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 02:43 pm: Edit

http://www.starfleetgames.com/rangers/training.htm

is the method I use.

By Kenneth Jones (Kludge) on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 04:25 pm: Edit

I've always started off with dumb downed tourney rules myself. Gradually increasing the skills base. After I feel they have a handle on the ship they want to play then I start branching off into regular SFB or other tourney ships.

Plasma>Gorn (No Roms due to cloak)
DF>Federation/Lyran
DD>Klingon

Those are the general ships I recommend for learning purposes. I see what ship they are most interested in and teach from there. Such as if they want Rom I start with the basic Gorn once they get that rule I go ahead and teach the Rom after a game or two.

By Mike Burke (Mikeburke) on Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 01:39 pm: Edit

Using the smaller ships before the larger ships I would think it should just be a matter of progression, the logical course of action move up as your skill increases? But that's just my thoughts to your thoughts.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 07:50 pm: Edit

IMO the cruisers are easiest to start with. A hex of movement, a phaser-1, a tractor beam etc etc all cost 1 point of power. Easy to remember.