Federation Commander

[pinecone]

This one is a combo of the Fed and Klingon saber dances and only works on a ship with some Distruptors and some photons (if only distruptors, use Klingon saber dance and if only photons, preload, load, overload, Maximum overload, and Fire!). The Tholians don't have great arcs, but they do have good manuverability. fire both distruptors and one standard photon each turn with your last photon fully overloaded. That will discourage any attempt he makes to rush in. It can only be use once every two turns, but if you get good rolls, you can do more damage to him than he can do to you.

[DNordeen]

Pinecone...I highly recommend getting out of the habit of overloading photons. There are times to do it, but for the most part wait until you fire to overload them. Having overloads reduces your options and forces you to reach range 8. You need to be flexible. I've had people hold overloads for over 4 turns trying to fire at me. Because they couldn't reach range 8 they couldn't fire and they didn't want to waste the energy by discharging them. While they were holding them, I made big holes in their ships for minimal damage to mine.

Recommend you check out the SFB Tactics Manual (Stock #5703). There are some tactics that don't work, but a lot of them are sound tactics. Even some of them that don't work can give you ideas are building sound tactics for FC
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[TJolley]

And remember, the primary weapon in Fed Com is the phaser 1, hands down. Point for point, it delivers the same or more average damage at all ranges out to at least 15 (I haven't run the numbers past range 15) over all weapon systems.

At very close range, you are better off firing phaser-3's over any weapon system int he game, hands down.

The only time you should even consider using heavy weapons is if you have power laying about that you won't need for phasers, transporters, tractors, etc.

[Scoutdad]

I have won many a game against Federation opponents who immediately overloads their Photons (for that shield crunching blow) and then hold them nigh onto forever as I refuse to close range with them. Then when they finally get fed-up an discharge them into space to start reloading standards, I sudenly decide it's time to get "up-close and personal" with them.


Although, I have to admit that this tactic only works once against any given opponent.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[Mike]

Oh, great...another fantastic pun by Scoutdad.

The Fed-Up Tactic: Overload your photons on Turn 1 against an opponent who refuses to close the range.

[Scoutdad]

LOL - I like it. It wasn't intentional, but it is still funny.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[DNordeen]

The Fed-Up tactic. I'll have to remember that for the next time. I'll just yell across the table "It's the Fed-Up Tactic!"
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[pinecone]

The things that abbriviations lead to.......

[Mike]

lol

[DNordeen]

[TJolley]

DNordeen;

At range 9-15, the disruptor and the phaser 1 are statistically identical. There is no difference between the damage the weapon systems cause over time.

At 9-15 a phaser 1 averages 1 point of damage for 1 point of energy used

At 9-15 a Disruptor averages 2 points of damage for 2 points of energy, so that is one point of damage per point of energy used.

They are the same.

A disruptor does 3 points of damage, but only hits 2/3 of the time. Statistically that is 2 points of average damage per weapon over time. Since a disruptor costs 2 points to arm, that comes to 1 point of damage per 1 point of power.

A phaser 1's damage is 3/2/1/0/0/0. So to figure up the average damage, add together the potential damage of all range brackets for the weapon and divide by 6. For the P-1 at 9-15 this comes out to 6/6=1 point of damage per point of energy used..

In an individual volley, or in an individual game, the results can be all over the place. If you are on a streak and rolling a lot of 1's and 2's, power up the phasers. If you are rolling a lot of 3's and 4's, power up the disruptors. If you are rolling a lot of 5's and 6's..I'd put the power into phaser 1's to double my odds of getting some damage.

Remember these are statistical averages over time.These weapon systems will create the exact same amount of damage over 1000 or 10000 games if the exact same amount of power is put into each system and they are both employed at range 9-15.
[/i]

[junior]

Personally, I'd go with the Disruptors in that case. Yes, the overall damage is the same. But the Disruptor tends to do more damage when it hits, which means a higher chance of getting those burn through points on a shield that's still up.

[pinecone]

If you've got the energy, you fire whatever you've got.

[TJolley]

[pinecone]

.....but keep battery power