It does make things easier. But, it can really screw up scenarios where it is assumed that transporters are the limiting factor on marine/cargo transfers.

By Mike Bennett (Mike) on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 - 11:21 pm: Edit

Don't I know it! I've been reworking a fiction piece based on the Kripney At War scenario. I played it out in FC and another guy played it out in FC to make sure everything in the story was possible, but we had to prohibit the ships from landing on Adanerg because that's the way it's done in SFB. I even wrote two versions of the battle sequence based on whether the ships could land or not land.

In the FC version of the scenario, there is an option to not allow ships to land. But one can't write anything about a weird storm or political situation to prevent landing in a story if they can't land under any circumstances in SFB.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Thursday, March 01, 2018 - 10:48 am: Edit

Remember that, for a scenario rule, you don't actually have to explain anything. So, if you don't want ships to land in your scenario, but can't think of a good reason, just say "Ships cannot land on the planet during this scenario." Don't explain it. Just state it and move on. Not everything needs an explanation.

By Mike Bennett (Mike) on Thursday, March 01, 2018 - 10:30 pm: Edit

That is true for a scenario rule: no explanation necessary. But for a fiction story that is trying to give a rationale that works for both SFB and FC, it is more difficult.

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Friday, March 02, 2018 - 09:30 pm: Edit

Fiction rationale: The planet is a Jindarian battleship big enough to collect an atmosphere, which has been hopelessly contaminated with Sigvirions. Don't violate decontamination procedures by not using a transporter, and please tell the Marines to step gently for the duration of the mission.

By Mike Bennett (Mike) on Saturday, March 03, 2018 - 01:11 pm: Edit

Nothing to do with my story, but just the same!

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Saturday, March 03, 2018 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Sometimes humor is misplaced.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, June 23, 2019 - 11:47 am: Edit

Mike West, how much of this was in Communique or earlier rule book editions and can much of it be deleted?

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, June 24, 2019 - 10:22 am: Edit

I am pretty sure all of it has been covered in one way or another. (The 2018 conversation above was just that: a conversation.)

The only thing I ask is to keep the current cloak rules around (they are at the bottom of the most recent archive page).

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, June 20, 2020 - 02:28 pm: Edit

Just in case you missed them, there were a couple questions posted over on the FedCmdr board, one asking about Aegis and one about shuttle landing.


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, June 20, 2020 - 03:18 pm: Edit

Mike West handles those.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, June 20, 2020 - 07:46 pm: Edit

SVC: Yes, I know, and he usually answers them same-day. Just the way the search feature works on that board, it's easier for things to fall thru the cracks.


Garth L. Getgen

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 01:55 pm: Edit

Where can I find the cloaking device costs for each base type which can have one?

If it's not too much trouble, what are they all?

AFAF

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 04:22 pm: Edit

From what I can tell, bases do not use cloak, not even Romulan bases.

There are no rules on how this would happen, there are no cloak costs given anywhere. There is nothing on the ship cards to indicate that bases can use cloak. And the cloak rules (5P) specifically state "ships".

Now, if Steve wants to change this, we can. But right now, bases do not use cloaks.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 06:51 pm: Edit

Mike, I think there is a mention of cloaks on the BATS back in Communique #13. That may be prompting the question.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 07:04 pm: Edit

Mike, the question (also posted on FB) stems from 5P3f3. In the Reference Rulebook, at the top of page 85, it has"This 20% surcharge (the cost of a cloaking device) applies to Romulan and Orion bases, and to any other ship using a cloaking device."

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 07:18 pm: Edit

OK, I somehow missed that. Also, I double-checked, and the mobile base and the complat both have cloak costs. (And weren't were I expected them when I first looked. Actually, I didn't look at the complat at first as I didn't expect it to be able to have one.) However, none of the larger bases (outside of that listed in Communique #13) do. So, that's odd. That means all of us reviewers failed to catch that.

Give me a day, and I will post a provisional list of cloak costs for all currently available bases. They should have them, so let me do that. Then, Steve can update/change/verify them as he wants.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 10:24 pm: Edit

I think you need to start by asking Petrick if bases can cloak in SFB.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 11:19 pm: Edit

I already know bases can cloak in SFB. They have always been able to, which is why it was kinda surprising we missed that for most of the bases in FC. (G13.21) gives a list of all ships in the SFB Basic Set capable of cloaking, and it includes the base station, battlestation, and starbase. The full list is in Annex #7H for all base hulls, both ships and bases. Kinda.

I am still not sure on complats, though, despite the ship card having a cloak cost. I have to look that one up. ... OK, I looked it up and I have no idea. The ship description doesn't say, though the similar SAM base explicitly cannot use cloak. I think the indication is that it can't, but Petrick has to verify.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 11:21 pm: Edit

Then carry on. (I knew that, but I wanted it on the record that the first step is always "what would SFB do?")

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, January 15, 2021 - 11:57 pm: Edit

So, while I have the books open, here we go. I am going to list the SFB cost, the corresponding FC cost, and the current FC cost (if any):

Starbase: SFB=40; FC=5
Battle Station: SFB=12; FC=1.5 (Communique #13 says 2)
Sector Base: Same as Battle Station
Base Station: SFB=8; FC=1
Mobile Base: SFB=15; FC=2 (ship card says 1)
Commercial Platform: SFB=??; FC=?? (ship card says 3/4)
"FC" cost above is for squadron scale. Fleet scale is half the above listed value.

Given the above, I recommend the following:
SB: Squadron=5; Fleet=2.5
Klingon Border BATS/SB: Squadron=2 (no fleet scale)
Reinforcements Attack BATS: Squadron=1.5; Fleet=0.75
BS: Squadron=1; Fleet=0.5
MB: Squadron=1; Fleet=0.5
ComPlat: Squadron=0.75; Fleet=0.375

Reasoning for the above ...
SB and BS are easy; just translate the SFB cost to FC. They are done.
We have two different BATS in FC. The one in Klingon Border is a weird mashup, so leaving it with the cloak cost of 2 is fine. It keeps the Communique ship card correct and works. The one in Reinforcements Attack is the direct translation of just the BATS into FC, so it should use the SFB cost that results in 1.5. Keeps the whole thing fairly clean, and highlights that the Klingon Border/Communique #13 base is different.
The MB printed value is wrong, but it isn't a big enough deal to invalidate the printed laminated ship card. Let's just use it as is.
The ComPlat is probably not supposed to be able to cloak, but since it can now, it is again not work the effort to invalidate the printed laminated ship card. Let's just use it as is.

Finally, while I am hitting on these things, here are two additional ships missing cloak costs:
Monitor: The SFB cost is 15, so the FC costs should be Squadron=2; Fleet=1
Light Monitor: The SFB cost is 12, so the FC costs should be Squadron=1.5; Fleet=0.75

There are some other general units used by the Romulans that I need to see if they can have cloaks, too (e.g. Q-ship). I don't know yet, so I can't recommend anything on them yet.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 16, 2021 - 02:43 am: Edit

approved

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Saturday, January 16, 2021 - 12:01 pm: Edit

Thanks for the answers.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Tuesday, September 07, 2021 - 08:24 pm: Edit

I was reading the Federation Commander Reference Rulebook Sixth Edition and noticed that there isn't a Chapter 5 rule for batteries like the equivalent SFB rule (H5.0). Did I miss it?

It seems like everyone knows what batteries are and what their uses and capacities are without their ever being solidly defined. The words "battery" and "batteries" are used dozens of times throughout the rulebook, although sometimes in reference to weapons instead of power storage devices.

The uses and abilities of batteries are alluded to in many places. (1E1) parenthetically states "During the first turn of a scenario, the ship has additional Energy Points equal to the number of batteries on the ship, representing power stored in the batteries." which tells us the capacity of non-Andromedan batteries. (3C5) places a limit on shield reinforcement based on the number of working, not necessarily charged, batteries available. These two examples are not comprehensive.

Is there a rule restricting battery (and reactor) power from moving a unit with a non-zero baseline speed? Can a squadron scale Andromedan Viper with its 4 fully charged batteries, but no working warp or impulse engines, actually move 80 hexes over yonder (not counting any Power Absorber Panel complications)?

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Wednesday, September 08, 2021 - 08:26 am: Edit

There is no explicit "battery rule" like in SFB. The key high points are:
- (1E1) Energy Allocation
- (1E3a) End of Turn Power Phase
- (3C5) Shield Reinforcement
... and that's about it.

Note also that there are no explicit rules for any power systems. Warp, Impulse, and Reactor generate power. Batteries store power and limit the amount of shield reinforcement that is available per volley. That's pretty much all they do.

And in Federation Commander power is power, and all power not allocated in (1E1) is reserve power that can be used for pretty much anything. So, yes, that Andro ship can move full speed on battery power alone. A small freighter can go faster than expected because of its one battery. Note that some ships do have a speed cap (e.g. monitors) to reflect what their maximum speed should be.

I hope that helps!