Archive through September 05, 2021
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB General Discussions:
Archive through September 05, 2021
Klingons may want brillo sheets instead of disgustingly soft silk...
Brillo sheets and starships are on different tech trees, no civilization can ever have both.
(It's amazing the number of pirate raiders that specialize in basic housewares such as bed coverings and accent pillows taken from rural farmhouses. It's so hard to just buy something to tie a room together when your civilization doesn't use money.)
Checked the books, Stewart. Average distance from the Sun: 888 million miles.
(I could claim, "Split the difference?" but you were closer. Makes me glad I qualified my earlier statement with "IF I remember correctly..." 
)
At any rate, it puts Saturns orbit at about nine to nine and a half feet in diameter at the one trillionth scale. Even Neptune, to this screwball scale, would still be in the average office (Average distance from the Sun: 2.8 billion miles, translates to about fifteen to sixteen feet worth of radius) and the distance to Alpha Centauri, again to this scale, is about twenty four miles.
Handbook of Physics (53rd Ed) has it at 1.427 G km (semimajor axis) so close enough ...
Terra/Luna is ~ 38 hexes apart so a PH-4 could fire and hit a target near the other (50%) and one 42x30 map can hold both (corner to opposite corner) though it takes 6 maps (84x90) for the entire system (and 4 of 5 Lagrange points, think its L2 that's beyond the moon) ...
The Campaign Designer's Handbook contains four SSDs. One, the Warp Gate (WG), is explicitly labelled as conjectural.
The other three are construction docks (the SCD, MCD, and LCD). These are not explicitly labelled as conjectural.
Are they conjectural? They feel conjectural, especially when compared to the Construction Dry Dock (CDK) from R11.
My instinct says that everything from the Campaign Designer's Handbook is conjectural, but the fact that 1/4 of the SSDs are explicitly labelled as conjectural, and the other 3 aren't makes me question that instinct.
They are needed to make the CDH work. I don't know that anyone ever thought about whether they are real. If they aren't, Steve Petrick needs to create some that are real.
We've got another game scheduled for 9/12 here in Frisco, TX. The current plan is a 2-sided fleet action with Paravians vs. Romulans or Gorn in the Y era. Let me know if you're interested and we can chat more about time and place. It's at my house so I onr just throw the address out willy nilly.
I'm posting here and in the Prime Directive topic. I'm looking for the information on the Lyran sub-species that had tan fur, an unusual religion and was persecuted by the gray fur majority. Can anybody help me out?
A question - back at Commander's edition level ADB/TFG released two reinforcement packs of counters etc etc (approx late 80s I guess)
The counters have obviously been replaced over the years by Commander's releases.
However the two packs also included some standard size (not the Megahex) planet overlays (5+3=8 in total) - did these ever get redone / rereleasd in a later product?
I am looking to sell off my old 1980s (Designer's/ Commanders) gear to make room and these seem to be the only thing not accounted for.
I think they are in Module A.
I've just noticed that the Module A+ Captain's Yeoman has some planets that can be cut out from the front cover but nothing the size of what came in reinforcements #1 and #2
Unless somebody can say otherwise looks as if I will be selling the complete Designer's and Commander's Editions minus a few planet cut outs.
Send me an email and I'll see if I cannot create some planet cut outs in various sizes. I will have to speak with Jean about how to market them, maybe some kind of PDF bundle.
That's fantastic!
I'd love to download (or purchase) some planet cut outs.
Currently I am using a scan of Module W's cover that I resized in paint.net and printed out then cut and glued to cardstock for my larger than 1 hex planets. It works, but I'd definitely prefer something a bit more robust and less DIY.
There are the planet panels in FC, of course.
FC's a different scale entirely though, no?
How does a planet panel made for the megahex scale (I think FC is megahex, correct me if I'm wrong) look on the SFB map?
FC is the same time and distance scale as SFB. It has both standard size hexes (sane as SFB) and larger size (which are also used for SFB megahex and minis).
So, if I order this:
https://www.starfleetstore.com/map-panels-c-9_51/fc-distant-kingdoms-gas-giant-map-panels-p-598.html
Is this the 1/2" or megahex scale or both?
both, one on each side of the panel. (1/2 inch is the counter, 5/8 inch is the hex)
Added to cart
I wonder if there would be interest in reviewing the organization /structure of various Planetary Defense battalions?
We have (PDB) planetary Defense battalions, and there was a captains log that illustrated the various ground bases and troops assigned to then, and a few points were made as to how it changed over time in the SFU.
We also had a captains log revision that added options points items to PDB via commander options points purchases combat engineers, trucks, tanks trans-howitzers etc.
I guess, where I am going with this, is, are there enough “pieces” to cut and paste some additional battalion types than the original PDB?
Unit types might include:combat engineers, medical services (think a battalion sized M.A.S.H. Like the popular trvido program of the same name), artillery battalion? Transport ? Tanks?
If a enemy deployed a bacteriological agent on a populated world, could you deploy a PDB, swapping out the 3 GBDP phaser 4 units with 3 scientific outposts?
If it’s not too far a reach, if you replaced the three GBDP phaser 4 units with operations bases (three of them) and swapped the skiffs out with Landing Boat variants, you get enough troop “lift” to deploy assault troops on a planetary scale.
Just a thought.
Jeff Wile:
There was an article in Captain's Log, I think it was #37, which provided for some units such as engineers and tank companies for most of the empires. Basically you could purchase these as part of your forces. The problem is that SFB is largely a space combat game, and having a tank unit on one hex side of a planet that is going to have a raid does not help if that is not the side of the planet that is raided. And engineers might not be able to deploy.
If you have "marine assault" then you have opportunity to have many such units as part of the planetary forces and engage in combat with landing forces. You could assemble the units of both sides from the tables.
PDUs are planetary defense units able to affect the action in space. A M.A.S.H. unit is basically a target for some empires and can be largely subsumed into the background of the planetary infrastructure. If you want to set up the target, you can do so. You might even have special scenario rules that requires the attacker to seize the facilities. But that is about it.
The point is that if you are not playing a ground assault, the units are basically just background and other than so many damage points for the bombardment are not represented by counters.
Potentially a very quick one:
What were the counter colours for the Borak?
Mike: to the best of my knowledge, they've never been defined (because -- and again, to the best of my knowledge -- the playtest product did not include a countersheet). They (and the Peladine, for that matter) are not defined in Annex #7A in the G3 Master Annexes.
You know, I'm going to ask a question that has been plaguing me here.
\
Why are AU's in SFB such a hard sell? Because in general wargaming, things like "What if Germany knocked Russia out the war" can be pretty popular.
Is it just a matter that the total fan base for SFB is smaller and thus even if the percentages are the same, you have a small number of customers who would be interested, or something else?
My custom homemade Borak counters are light blue on dark blue. It feels right to me for some reason.