Well, to be fair, it has 38 power 'cause it was the one of the first TC's designed and used as the basic measuring stick for all the rest of them, and the regular Fed CC has 38 power.

As time went on (and tactics developed and people figured out the environment), it became apparent that the Fed was not actually that good overall. So folks still would like to see it get a minor upgrade. 2 extra power is one that a lot of folks like. The severely restricted G-rack is the other possibility. I mean, like, I'm not holding my breath for either of these to become official, but if we picked one and went with it, and collected a lot of playtest data, we might be able to get somewhere.

Personally, I don't think that the Fed would be overly potent with either upgrade. I prefer the G-rack (2xIM, 4xADD, no changes or reloads), as it is more interesting for my money; a couple drones in flight or the potential for killing 6 drones will make the ship a lot more competitive in games where it is currently *way* behind the curve (Kzinti, WAX, GBS) and make it a bit more viable vs the Romulan (not a ton, to be sure, but something extra for an overrun in either direction). And it always protects an important phaser.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 12:01 pm: Edit

What the Fed needs is to replace the 360 P3s with gatling phasers. I mean the Feds have gatlings, right? Heh, heh. Then you'd be cooking with gas.

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 01:21 pm: Edit

Cooking with anti-matter.

By Clayton Krueger (Krieg) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 01:38 pm: Edit

40 power is good but forget the g rack. My suggestion is to add 2 more phaser 3s FH right behind the phaser 1s, expand the side phaser arcs to FA/L and FA/R and limit the 360s to RX (both ph1s and ph3s). 8 ph 1s and 4 ph3s will then be able to fire down the forward obliques, taking some of the burden off the #1 shield and bringing phaser caps up to 10.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 01:59 pm: Edit

The regular Fed CC has 36 power.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Clayton: Your suggestion would definitely turn it into something other than a Fed CC with such firing arcs and weapons. Something like that will _never_ fly.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 02:33 pm: Edit

Oh, heh. Yeah, that is true. So the Fed TC *already* got extra power stuck in...

By Clayton Krueger (Krieg) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 03:23 pm: Edit

yeah...just dreaming...but it would be nice to see it chosen more often in the tournaments.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 03:51 pm: Edit

Fundamentally the Fed will always be weak due to inconsistent photons dice.

The Fed TCF, however, will be less vulnerable to photon dice since it only has two photons....

By Troy Williams (Jungletoy) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Narrow salvos for Feds only. Narrow salvos! Narrow salvos!

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, August 26, 2011 - 10:36 pm: Edit

Replace the four standard photons with eight mini-photons. You can still completely whiff but it's less likely.

By Brook J. Villa (Brookie) on Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 11:42 am: Edit

Hey, you may be on to something there....what about like 6 photons that can only have a few settings. Standard and a 9 or 10 point overload for firing at close range (range 0-1). This would also make the fed more durable once it started taking internals.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 01:33 pm: Edit

Terry:

Well, an FRA BC has three standard and two light photons; not quite as much as you'd ask for, but still.

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 01:34 pm: Edit

I rarely lack photons after damage. It's the phasers that always seem to disappear too quickly.

By james lee boyce II (Postalpanzer) on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 01:35 pm: Edit

What is the reasoning about not giving the fed a g rack is it really thought that it would be too powerful with it? Every other race has a secondary system many of these are defensive in nature ph-g add esg web snare cloak the only other race that does not have a secondary system is the gorn. Another way to put it is are disruptors so inferior to photons that a disrupter armed ship has to have other weapons to be on par with a photon armed ship.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 04:32 pm: Edit

The Fed has been the measuring stick by which all other TCs has been measured since day one. As it is the basic building block ship of the game.

Historically speaking, the Fed has held up its record through odds--yeah, every once and a while, the Fed loses outright due to horrible photon dice, but every once and a while, it wins outright due to incredible photon dice. So it all kind of tends to even out in the long run. And as such, the Fed tends to appear, on paper, to have reasonable win/loss statistics (I think, in the grand scheme, it is a little under 50% win/loss).

As anyone who has ever played the Fed knows, yeah, how you roll on that first photon volley tends to win or lose the game right there (you get to R4, fire--you hit with 2 photons, you lose. You hit with 4, you win. You hit with 3, it is a game), and everyone who has ever played the Fed has had the experience of "I got a R8 shot and took it. And hit with all 4 and won." or "And missed with all 4 and lost." It is very dice dependent. Which means that every individual game tends to be won or lost based on minor statistical variance. But in the grand scheme, again, it all kinda evens out.

As as the Fed, on paper, seems reasonably balanced, the designers aren't real easily convinced that it needs an upgrade.

By Ken Lin (Old_School) on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 10:27 pm: Edit

The ph-g is by no means "defensive in nature." It's the most effective offensive weapon in SFB.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 07:21 am: Edit

That depends entirely on the the ships general weapon suite, however.

By Troy Williams (Jungletoy) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 01:19 pm: Edit

The Fed needs an 'afterglow' follow up weapon(s). If it whiffs it invites a corner mugging and force feeding of drones or hack-n-slash. But if it traded 2x 360 P-3s for a single 360 P-G or the addition of a G-rack, one might be less motivated to close with a Fed after it whiffs. The Fed is the only ship that has to wait with phasers only during rearming. Plasma gets four torpedoes that it doesn't have to fire all at once and EPT, PPT, Bolt etc. The Feds rearming turn is its downfall in a whiff scenario, that would seem to be the rub.

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 02:43 pm: Edit

Fed doesn't HAVE to blow its wad all at once. It rock its torps 2-2 every turn if it felt like it.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 03:32 pm: Edit

Troy wrote:
>>Fed doesn't HAVE to blow its wad all at once. It rock its torps 2-2 every turn if it felt like it.>>

That isn't really the issue--sure, the Fed could fire 2-2, but:

A) That is a really good way to get killed a lot of the time.

and

B) Still just as susceptible to dice variance.

The difference between firing 4 photons at R4 and hitting with 1 of them and firing 2 photons at R4 and missing with both and then firing two more and hitting with 1 is very small.

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 08:52 pm: Edit

True, but Jungletoy was comparing Feds to BP. BP can whiff with all 4 bolts or have someone weasel all 4 torps and be in the same boat as a Fed. BP doctrine is that you don't fire all your big guns in one turn. Why should the Fed be any different?
Would flying a Fed as if it were a bolt-only Gorn lead to a viable strategy? Or just another dead Fed?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 09:31 pm: Edit

Troy wrote:
>>BP doctrine is that you don't fire all your big guns in one turn. Why should the Fed be any different? >>

'Cause plasma ships can win games like that and the Fed can't, really.

>>Would flying a Fed as if it were a bolt-only Gorn lead to a viable strategy? Or just another dead Fed?>>

What is a "bolt-only" Gorn? Oh, wait, a dead Gorn.

The Fed can sometimes get away with not firing all its torps at once. But, like, saving 1 or 2 torps as overrun deterrence doesn't really work--holding two torps to hit a different shield instead of firing them to go through the shield that all the other guns hit is generally a losing plan. Sometimes, like, saving a torp for a mizia shot if you can get it is viable. But in general, if the Fed gets a shot? It should take the shot.

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 10:14 pm: Edit

I've played the Fed as a 2+2 ship a couple of times but only with the goal of achieving a hack n' slash. To wit: Fed flies with 2 overloads on turn 1 (using free overload energy) and two standards. Extra energy can go to movement, reinforcement, tractors for drone defense, etc.

The goal is to set up an I32 shot with the two overloaded photons plus P1s on 1.32, then follow with the other two overloaded photons on 2.1. This actually was quite effective the few times I did it, though it certainly would not mitigate poor dice rolls.

Also you still need to get at least R5 to be reasonably certain of knocking down a shield with only two photons and 6-8 P1s, R4 obviously being better. This is not as hard as it sounds if you put your energy into movement- by the second half of of the turn your opponent will have figured out you aren't packing full overloads and may be more willing to close with you.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 09:52 am: Edit

The Fed is rarely helped, and is usually badly harmed by the Mizia effect.

Most opponents will rarely allow the Fed to get in a position where he can safely, on the first volley, attempt to Mizia volley his Photon Torpedoes and phaser barrage.

He can't afford to try to close to range 2 to a Klingon or other disruptor armed ship, as a R4 disruptor volley will probably drop a shield and kill a photon and maybe some phaser 1s.

The Fed generally needs at least 1 or 2 photon torpedo hits plus 6 phasers to punch a shield and start doing internals. In the first volley, the Fed must take care not to expend all his phasers defensively and just fire photons - this is a losing proposition. Even in combined volley at R4, against say 10 reinforcement, the target is taking 40 off, and 3 hits without phasers is just 8 damage points. With phasers its like 32 points. Since the Fed can't get that 32 points as Mizia, he will kill only 1 torp, 1 drone, and 3 phasers (if that) - and 2 of those ph3s killed will back on turn 3. If he gets only 2 hits, he better hope he hit a 24 point shield with no reinforcement. If he does get blessed with 4 hits, he'll probably start hitting batteries, shuttles and power sufficiently to crimp the target enough.

But on average, on turn 2 (photon reloading), the Fed won't be able to punch through a shield with phasers alone - particularly as they are his only defense vs. drones, shuttles, fighters, plasma torps. And then likely as not he will suffer from a turn 1 and turn 2 volley of internals (from disruptor ships) with Mizia stripping his phasers. Even when he did hit with 3 full overloads on turn 1.

So when turn 3 rolls around the Fed, now starved for power, will have 3 sub-overloaded photons and hopefully 5 phaser 1 s to bear. He is starved for power and not moving. If he doesn't hit to make good with this, its over.

Against a relatively immobile opponent,the Fed may have some time drift out and delay his 2nd volley until turn 4, avoiding some turn 2 damage.