The "faction ship card packs" aren't related to any products. They're just a way to acquire printable versions of (eventually) all of the cards.

No, there hasn't been any thought to that. The Reference Rulebook requires a LOT of stuff from the boxed games to be of any use. I don't see putting all of that stuff into PDF files as a practical matter. Printing maps would be gigantically problematic for the players. Just as easy for you to download some free PDFs from the newsletter section.

By John Williams (Johndw) on Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Just the way I see it, you need the rules of the game (this is in the "FC Reference Rulebook", but also in academy and other books),

a map(hex map pack#1) (or a board and convert the game to inches/cm instead of hexes),

tokens/counters (the original box, maybe other sources?) or minis(the metal minis, or shapeways for 3d printed),

and the stats for the ships themselves(available in the original books, captains logs, ship packs, some free in comminuques).

So it seems like there are multiple entry points into the game to get what you need to start playing, I decided to get the FC reference rulebook, I have minis, I have a hex map from other games. I guess I just don't have ship cards so I'm looking into what my options are for that. But maybe I'm missing something else that I need?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - 05:49 pm: Edit

You can buy the physical laminated ship cards from our store on a one-by-one basis. Plenty of free PDFs in the newsletter archives.

Time is not infinite. Lots of things could be useful to small numbers of players, but everything I do means I did not do something else.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - 04:19 pm: Edit

All of the ships in Klingon Border, Klingon Attack, Romulan Border, and Romulan Attack are in the various Communiques, at most one per issue. Yes, it takes time to go through each one to get that ship, but it is there and available. Plus, you also get at least one other ship each Communique, too.

If you like slightly older, less refined ships, go buy the physical copy of Briefing #2. It has like 70 or so "Middle Years" (i.e. without upgrades) ships. The fighting style is slightly different, but still the same game.

Or you can buy individual ship cards like Steve describes. There are plenty of ships there, they just aren't served up on a platter.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - 06:51 pm: Edit

The reason they aren't on a platter is no two players want the same platter. No matter what package we did, somebody/everybody would want something else.

By Nick Sandberg (Savedfromwhat) on Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 07:58 am: Edit

Good morning Steve,
I am wondering if costs have come down at all on laminated ship cards? Seeing that Xships attack may probably be the first Attack product that is PDF only (at least for a while) I am wondering about the cost of one off laminated ships. Or that is what it would cost to get a non mass produced product laminated (say the middle years ships for example).
The exact counter has never bothered me but the laminated ship cards are one of my favorite aspects to FC. Of course someone else may be just the opposite.

Tldr; Is the lamination of cards possible for ‘near’ print on demand?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 09:43 am: Edit

I have never seen a print on demand system for laminated cards.

They are expensive and we did not sell enough of the last ones to make the concept sustainable. There is no economical way to print the quantity that sells.

By Nick Sandberg (Savedfromwhat) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 09:25 pm: Edit

That’s a shame but it makes sense. I figured it was cost prohibitive. Thanks for the reply SVC.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 10:44 pm: Edit

I am working on a possible solution.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, October 03, 2020 - 02:05 am: Edit

SVC / Jean / Mike ... just so you'll see it, there is a question posted over on the FedCmdr board under a topic "Game Boards".

---

Quote:

From: Ludoquist
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 1:05 pm

Before I start unfairly hassling a retailer, a friend and I just got Romulan Border and Graduation.

On the large hex size side, 4 of the 6 boards have the ABCDEF and 123456 on them, which is really distracting.

On the small size, 4 boards have the Square in the bottom left, two have the Star.

All the boards have the same hex numbers on them.

Is that the correct board allocation, or should they all be different?

---

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 03, 2020 - 03:34 am: Edit

The answer is that the allocation of the boards doesn't matter. They all have the same hexes. The ABCDEF thing is needed for game play, and it really doesn't matter if you have one of those or six.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Saturday, October 03, 2020 - 11:27 am: Edit

Honestly, I didn't answer, as I was waiting for an official answer and Steve seems to hit the Forum pretty frequently.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 03, 2020 - 01:44 pm: Edit

I go there every day (almost, 360 a year anyway).

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 11:34 am: Edit

I don't know if this is a wanted thing or even a good idea. I also don't know if it has been suggested before. I'm looking at the Planet Killer ship cards I have and the one card I have of the large and ancient Space Dragons.

Could a 500 point value Planet Killer ship card be officially made? This would make a Squadron scale ship card against Squadron scale ships equivalent to the 250 point value Planet Killer against Fleet scale ships, and would be a difficult to kill monster against Fleet scale ships.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 01:23 pm: Edit

It could be done. Email me and I will put it on my list.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Will do. Thanks.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - 11:47 am: Edit

John Christiansen: so you just want me to take the 250 point planet killer, double the number of boxes, rearrange them on a bigger card, and that will get this done? (Seems easy but I dont want to do it and discover I did the wrong thing.)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - 10:09 pm: Edit

Done and scheduled for Hailing Frequencies 182 on 10 Feb.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - 10:41 pm: Edit

Steve, like a good carpenter, you hit the nail on the head.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Saturday, January 23, 2021 - 04:00 pm: Edit

Where can I find the rules for playing dragons?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, January 24, 2021 - 09:33 am: Edit

Romulan Border

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Sunday, January 24, 2021 - 01:43 pm: Edit

Thanks.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, January 24, 2021 - 07:05 pm: Edit

I don't need anything else to do right now but someday it might be fun to do an ePack of dragons of different sizes. Since we have all of those miniatures and all.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Thursday, March 04, 2021 - 08:26 pm: Edit

Thanks for publishing the Jupiter Killer.

I have straight forward scenario ideas to use it with, but not enough familiarity with the FC rules to write them into a publishable scenario. 2-3 players. Small ships, big JK.

For 2 players, 1 JK against 500 points of fleet scale ships with a qualified command ship. Adjust the 500 points up or down for balance. Last player with a ship standing wins.

For 3 players, half of the points of fleet scale ships to each of 2 players, preferably bordering neighbors. If the JK is destroyed, any fleet player with surviving ships on the map wins; the one who causes the final damage point wins the glory of the kill, a better result. A tie is possible. Allow, or disallow, fleet players' shooting the other's seeking weapons or ships depending on the level of antagonism between the empires. If the empires are antagonistic and allowed to shoot the other's ships, the last one with ships on the map wins even if the other caused the last JK damage point. The history is written by the victor.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, March 04, 2021 - 11:56 pm: Edit

500 points vs 1 Jupiter Killer: This is just a traditional point scenario. Works in either scale, nothing really worth writing up.

The three player one looks interesting.