Federation Commander

[smiths121]

Hi All,

I am Pinkfluffychicken's opponent in the Admiral's game we are playtesting. Thought I would post up my deployment for round 2.

2xCM off being overhauled.

Battle 1 DN, BC, 4DW
Battle 2 SB, FF
Battle 3 BC, CC, DW, FF, CM
Battle 4 BC, FF, CM, 2DW
Battle 5 SB, DN, 2BC, 3CM, 3DW, 3FF

[smiths121]

On the subject of rule changes during a campaign, I think it depends on the scale of the campaign - and how long the campaign is designed to last.

PinkfluffyChicen's campaign has had a number of phases. When the nations were small they explored neutral space around them. Slowly borders were established (or are being established), and treaties signed. Through these phases, the number of planets and ships each nation has increases exponentially. It takes secure borders to properly place bases.

Open ended campaigns starting without borders tend to go through phases, so different options are of interest to players as the campaign progresses. Also the campaigns tend to grow.

I think rule changes, introducing new options, abstracting older options to reduce administration are vital for a campaign to continue. The previous SFB campaign our club ran had half a dozen GMs with different visions, a handful of major rule re-writes but a lot of tweaking as different GMs emphasised strategic areas of interest to themselves.

As long as the changes are announced in a timely manner, and offer new options or are sensible they tend to go through without a hitch in our experience.

P.S. I was the player Pinkfluffychicken lost by not changing a rule.

[Pinkfluffychicken]

In the words of the prophet: "Oh bum."

Well, there goes objective 3. Battle 5 should be interesting though. Due to be played this Saturday.

Smiffy: Good points re campaigns.
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Famous last words #11: "That's a very big fleet!"

[Pinkfluffychicken]

Okay, battle fought today. I blew up a DW, reduced a CM to a bridge and an Aux Con and he bugged out surrendering the Starbase (counts as destroyed) so I achieved my objectives 1 & 2 and took no damage.

BUT:

It feels like a big missed opportunity. Only just learning Lyrans and I'm still reacting to drones like a Romulan. 20/20 hindsight suggests I could have just run up his drone wave and blown him away. Would have lost a ship or two, but reckon I'd have mugged his DN. Ah well. That's the fun of learning curves.

Now I've got to win six out of eight battles in open space with an advantage of two small (if good) ships. It would also help if I make slightly less of a mess of my deployment. Should be interesting...

It was a fun game, played slowly with much chatting and eating of pizza but we still managed a resolution in an afternoon and evening. Not bad for 26 ships, a starbase and x squillion drones.
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Famous last words #11: "That's a very big fleet!"

[PallidaMors]

I was asked to re-introduce the very basic concepts of the empire campaign, anyone who wants the rules, with the charts that we use can email me I will send them.

let me see if i can summarize this in an organized and clear manner.

the campaign is still running, and started back last year in June, we then started posting our campaing in Sept on the fed commander forums, we have 6 players each controlling one or in some cases two empires. then we have the Gamemaster (myself) who runs the rest of the NPE's (Non-player Empires) and storyline and events that are happening in our campaign. my campaign thread has over 30,000 views and has record of all the turns and actions that the players have taken. (thank you for providing the web site)

the game takes federation commander and adds to it a non-linear campaign environment with players running thier ships in battle and also running thier repsective empires. How does that look, let me provide an example.

when the camapaign starts we use a blank laminated hex map and each empire expands out and explores, as as results of this we do not have the historical borders and alliances this is a great change and the players really like it, we also have the option to follow the historical model as well.

First we start with a campaign turn, this turn takes us about 4-8 hours of gaming. this is the only time that the campiagn rules that I made are used, they provide the engine for allowing the players to conduct diplomacy, trade, raids, upgrades to ships, exploration, and to inevitably assign attacks and defence. during the diplomatic pahse players role play thier empires communications with other empires and they take on the role of thier diplomats or rulers as they see fit to add to the ambience of thier race. we proceed through the turn sequence in our campaign rules until the 'campaign' turn is completed. during this time the GM has been taking notes on the campign turn record form to ensure that over the next several weeks all the battles or actions get resovlved before moving on to the next campaign turn. one of the neatest features of the game is that all placement and movement is known to the players, I set this up so that we do not need to have a 'game board' set up in between games, literally we have the turn then it all gets filed and put away until the battles are resolved. during the raid and attack step players fill out thier respective empire attack sheets with what ships are going to participate then when all the players are done they all plave thier completed document on the game table, at this time battles are matched up and also players may opt out of attacks in order to defend against something that they may not have anticipated or they had over commited to an attack and needed available ships re-routed to defense.

that is a very short explanation of that step and may not do it justice, the underlying pricniple is that is mirrors federation commanders approach to announcing attacks and being able to say no, and then if conditions change to be able to say yes.

after this turn is completed then we game once every week to play out the battles, some nights we have 2 battles running at the same time and on other nights we may have only onelarge engagement. Even though players each control thier own race they still get to play all the ships in the game, example. if the Hydrans attack the Kzinti then players divide up the ships and all the players get to play and test thier skills, and each is expected to give it thier all in battle.

the GM tracks experience for each ship in all battles, the ships in the game are all unigue (they are the standard ship card) with the addition of two key changes 1. eah ship has 5 standard attributes or characteristics ( hull, power, weapons, command and general) the rating can be from 1-20 also the ships can have 1-6 legendary officers (captain, XO, Engineer, navigator, weapons and Marine commander) each of these officers raise in level based upon the experience points that ships acquire. then as the officers raise in level they can choose from a list of skills that they can add to thier officer and in turn adds to the way a ship fights and acts in battle. this is a neat enhancemeent that has really propelled the storyline in the game as these ships acquire experience they also acquire noteriety and are tough opponents given new abilites and anhancements. (they are also a great target for another brave and worthy ship)

also the GM prepares for storyline driven events and circumstances that can show up that are not a part of the standard 'war game' aspect of the campaign. in short the game is unigue hybrid between wargame and roleplaying game. the ships are the characters and the players run the empires with thier ships.

the game takes some paperwork, imagination, a large table (we only use starline miniatures and table top rules)
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Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[PallidaMors]

[img]Empire Map
Border fleet positions and Role assignments
In the space provided draw a rough outline of your empire, then name borders, then indicate which ships are on which borders in the Border fleet assignment charts, at the bottom of the form indicate which ships are in each specialty role. Your total ships assigned should equal the ships listed on your empire ship log.

Border Fleets
Empire Map and border names
Border Fleets
Border Name: Federation
1X King Eagle CC
1X War Eagle















Border Name:
Border Name: Gorn
1X KRC

Border Name:
Border Name: Klingon
1X Snipe FF
1X King Eagle CC
1X War Eagle

Border Name:
Home Fleet
1Xcondor DN
3X War Eagle CA
2X Snipe FF
1X Falcon Mauler

Repair
Exploration
Escorts
3X Skyhawk DD
Patrol/raiders
1X Light Raiding DN
1X Firehawk CA
2X Skyhawk DD

[/img]
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[PallidaMors]

OK here is some more of turn #12.

Here is the current list of active races and which ones are human controlled and which ones ar GM controlled. also who is allied with who, who is at war with who, who has trade with who...ect.

Diplomatic and empire status.

Federation: Player controlled
Allies: Romulans, Hydrans
Trade: Orions, Hydrans
War with: TSE, Kzinti, Klingons
Neutral zones: Gorn
borders: TSE, Klingon,Hydran,Gorn,Romulan,Orion,Kzinti, Tholians (ceded lvl 6 system given to them by the TSE)
Ships: 15+

TSE: Player controlled
Allies: Gorn, Kzinti, Tholians
Trade: Gorn, Kzinti
War: Federation, Klingon
Neutral zones: Kzinti
Borders: kzinti, Federation, Gorn, Tholian, Klingon (wormhole)
Ships: 20+

Romulans: NPC Race
Allies: Klingons, Federation, Seltorians (protecterate state and formally absorbed into the romulan empire)
Trade: Klingon
War: none
Neutral zones: Gorn
Borders: Gorn, Klingon, Federation,
Ships: 20

Lyran:Player controlled
Allies: None
Trade: None
War: None
Borders: Klingon,Gorn
Ships: 15+


Gorn: player controlled
Allies: TSE, Tholian
Trade: TSE
War: KLingons
Neutral zones with Federation/Romulans
Borders: Romulan,Federation,Tholian, Klingon, Lyran, TSE
Ships: 20

Klingons: player controlled
Allies: romulans
Trade: Romulans
War: federation, TSE, Gorn
Borders: Gorn, Romulan, Federation, Lyran, TSE (wormhole)
Ships: 20

Orions: player controlled, minor empire
Allies: none
trade: romulans, federation, everyone
War: none
Borders: Federation
Ships: 10+

Seltorian: protecterate state, NPC
Allies: none
Trade: none
War: none
Ships: 7

Kzinti: player controlled
Allies: TSE
Trade: none
War: Federation,Hydrans
Neutral zones: TSE
Borders: Hydran, TSE, Federation
Ships: 15+

Hydrans: NPC race
Allies: federation
Trade: federation
War:Kzinti
Borders: Federation, Kzinti
Ships: 15+

Wyn: npc minor power
Allies: none
Trade: none
War: none
Borders: klingon
Ships: 6

Tholians: npc race
Allies: TSE, Gorn
Trade: TSE, Gorn
War: none
Borders: Gorn, TSE (federation, system given to them by the TSE)
Ships: 10+


I debriefed on the political overtures. but here is a more comprehensive snapshot of current affairs as well as a brief summary of the campaign engine and how it is working for the players.

At this point the campaign is poised at a potential crossroads, the norhtern powers of the Federation and Hydran monarchy have formed a strong militray alliance that is dedicated to the halting of TSE and Kzinti aggresion. potentially joining them are the Klingons, who have gained a foothold in TSE territory when they took the TSE end of the Maelstrom wormhole that connects them together. the Tholians are still providing support to the TSE, and have moved a major battle fleet into TSE territory, rumor has it that the battle flett is comprised of their massive Neo tholian BattleSHip the Sword of the Holdfast and it's attendant escorts. The ROmulans have withdrawn from the political arena and the Lyrans are now a power to be respeceted with eh commisioning of their first cave lion class Battleship.

It is interestting to see the mjor powers parade thier new powerful battleships in thier fleet rosters, only two powers are left that have not purchased the incredibly expensive BB's (the Kzinti and Hydrans) the game though takes on so many different levels, and each way that we are playing it (which depends on the players approach to how they run thier empires) unlike other games where players are merely spending time in order to win, or conquer a certain enemy our campaign has retained and will maintain a non-linear open ended dynamic.

it was discussed by the players that there are many ways to populate the fleets, the use of fast warships and their roles, and the roles of the Light Raiding DN's adds one element, the use of raiders, escorts, marauders. Orions pirates as potential mercanaries or as brokers of your economy. spies......research, legendary officers and the unique qualities of each ship as it gains experience, or the basic construction of the ship may have made it unique.

the empires may take on the classic aggresor role with classic battle fleets arranged around powerful battleships, or these powers may opt for many more faster smaller ships, or maybe purely defeisive or escort heavy or maybe the fleet is set up around more versatile cruisers that operate in wolf packs. players choose a mix of ship types and fleet types and the empire posture is just as varied. the strategic avenues are manay the tactical avenues are just as unlimited. and as one of the players said in conversation the powerful attribitue of these tactics is that they are valid, and not merely lip service by rules that only actually support one end result of conquest. other empires have taken on powerful political roles or economic roles, others have taken on isolationism as a role or a new emerging role of a research power, influencing the game through powerful new advances. othere have allowed other races to populate key worlds inside thier own space, the tholians have built whole systems that are isolated from teh assembly and in TSE territory that are web systems and guarded passionatly against any intrusion. there may be a point that as the empires grow and they position thier fleets that the idea of 'total' war beomces very unpopular and is replaced by the tyoe of cold war that was seen in the clasic TOS series between races and thier powerful singe starships with legendary captains at the helm, and while these battle may tale place the actual governments may deny or dismiss the hostilites as recklessness or independent action to avoid warfare.

Here is the current fleet levels of each empire and thier purchases from turn 12.

Terran Star Empire:
24 ships
4 allied ships in TSE territory
total 28
Purchases: 1 new hades class Battleship, 2XAssasin class DD (saladin class) and they spent 62 pp in upgrading existing ship characteristics.


In case any of you are wondering that means that the TSE player used money to upgrade 1 of 5 standard ship stats that each ship roles when they are built. this includes the following:

Hull, Weapons, Power, Command and General, much like a character in some games has strength, agility..ect each starship also has stats.


Lyran Star Empire:
16 ships
purchases: 1X BB, 1X BCH, and 5 large freighters

United Federation of Planets:
18 ships
Purchases: 100 to pay for Orion mercanaries from turn 11

Kzinti Theocracy:
17 ships
2 allied ships
19 total
Purchases: 1xBCH, 1xCM, and repaired 1 CM that had been crippled fighting the federation on turn 11.

Hydran Monarchy:
17 ships
4 allied
21 total
Purchases: 1XLB command Cruiser, 2Xcuir FF

Tholian Assembly:
14 ships
Purchases: 2X photon armed CW

Gorn Confederation:
21 ships
Purchases: 1XBB, 1XLDN

Klingon Empire:
20ships
Purhcases: 1XB-10, 1XD-7C (given to Orions) 1XD-5 and 1X large ore freighter.

Orion Pirates:
12 home system ships
37 cartel ships
49 total
Purchases: 6x Large ore carriers

Romulan Star Empire
31 ships
Purhcases: 1XBB, 3XKR

that is the purchase history for turn 12 and the current fleet strength, including the purchases.

Note the Gorn, Klingon and Romulan BB were started on turn 11, and completed this turn. the lyran BB was just started on turn 12 and will be completed on turn 13.

Thanks!

PM
so with so many layers available for the players it is not suprising that one turn of the empire campaign at the strategic level takes 4-5 hours to complete.

PM
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[toltesi]

Well I've read through the campaign rules and they're wonderful. I'd like to start a Calgary-area campaign group meeting every two weeks on a single weekend afternoon who would resolve the resulting battles using either SFB or FC using these rules. Now I just need to get all the local area Captains interested!

[PallidaMors]

[PallidaMors]

Last night we began the next series of battles that comprises turn 12 in the Empire campaign.

We have many battles involving a few choice races that have decided to go to blows over various reasons.

As a recap of the turn 12 political events:

The Lyrans attacked the Klingon Empire, the LYrans do not bow easilty to intimidation it seems, after a rather chilly reception form the Klingons to an attemppted diplomatic overture from the Lyran Empire, teh lyrans choose to simply attack. The Klingons spread a little thin with activiites in the TSE, the Federation and they are watching thier former allies the Romulans very closely, responded with the Home fleet with a massive B-10 BB in the core of the defense. the Lyrans are fighting regardless! seeing if a B-10 can in truth be brought down.

The Kzinti Theocracy attacke dthe Hydran Monarchy in 4 places! the Hydrans gave ground on 2 points then marshalled thier home fleet to fight the Un-proven Kzinti Patriarchal fleets in the other 2 systems. At stake in these two massive battles....the fate of both empires.

The Gorn attacked the Romulan shipping machine, in several raids that has tied up Gorn raiders and the Romulan hired Orion Mercanaries that patrol Romulan shipping lanes bases upon a lucrative contract.

But in one of these battles the Gorn sent thier one Light raiding Dreadnaught into Romulan space across the Neutral zone and use the new "challenge" ability to call out the single Romulan Shrike Light Raiding DN. the challenge roll was successful and the Shrike was forced into battle.

That battle was fought last night, and it was an awesome engagement.

The Gorn LDN Scavanger VS. the Romulan Imperial Standard Shrike class.

The Romulan ship had 10 VP, from a previous battle in it's past, the Gorn LDN is brand spanking new and has no battle records. The Romulan Shrike has no outstanding characteristics, Meaning it's 5 attributes (that we use exclusivley in my campaign) Hull, Weapons, Power, Command and General are all average. The Gorn LDN has one characteristic that was a 5 so a deficient score in it's General, making the use of trac/tran one hex ( or in our case 1 inch) shorter in range.

The two ships duelled for 6 hours! with an impressive use of maneuver and tactics. the Battle at some time sfor the two captains were so intense that neither wanted to announce speed due to the fact that both captains knew that what the other captain declared would have a dramatic impact on the turn and the engagement.

At one point the SHrike delivered a salvo of Plasmas at range 5 , then he HET'd then moved away with acceleration as the Gorn did the exact saem maneuver, thoguht the Romulan then declared enggement of teh cloaking device. there were hits on both sides, the Gorn lost the #4 shield and took 22 internals the Shrike took some damage on #4 as well. 30 points and an internal. the two ships turned, the Gorn had delpyed a firewall of suicide shuttles that fored the Shrike to take a a longer turn to get back to the gorn LDN this tactic allowed a longer grace period for the Gorn to position and the Romulan was forced to have to try to gain new position. the Gorn managed to finally get behind the SHrike and both ships fired plasma F's and phasers. the Gorn lost most of shield 6, the romulans in all the firing lost shield 2, 3 and 2 internals. The romulan finally withdrew after acquiring enough VP to get a legendary officer, the Gorn technically won the battle and received 8 VP from the Game master!!

I AM SURE THESE TWO ANTOGINISTS WILL MEET AGAIN

Tip o'' the hat to my esteemed opponent

It was a thrilling battle!!

PM
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[Commodore Mendez]

Once again I vote that ADB prepare and publish a campaign engine for FC, an official one. I love this campaign and the rules that were made by Pallida, and my players do as well, we have managed to acquire 2 more SFB players who are totally engrossed into the game.


PS: the Gorn Romulan battle sounds great, I really enjoy the idea of long time foes being able to go against each other in a campaign storyline driven environment. I play magic the Gathering alot and it reminds me of building a deck, though in this case a ship with abilities and officers, it also reminds me of my D&D days when you would have a favorite character go up against a long time hated (loved) foe.....very cool.
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"thats no moon...."

[DrFaustus]

Thing is camaign engines sell so-so. Everyone has their own feelings on how they should or should not work.

I do like Pallidas rules a lot and enjoy reading how his game is going.

[PallidaMors]

A very humble thank you.

Pallida
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Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[asguard101]

I too love this system, and think it would be great to play, great work to those to created it and working on it. I read over the rules I was e-mailed and I have a few questions that poped up, if someone would like to answer them.

Do Freighters count against ship limit?


How do you randomly choose starting position?


Can Orions use repair during movement to a battle to start repairing doubled engines? I.e. if it took 5 turns of doubling to get to the battle can the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th turns be used to start repairs to damaged engines?


Are Starbases built from scratch or built off of BS or Bats?


Ship log, what does it look like?

To promote from Commodore to Admiral, do you have to gather another three captain stars or just purchase 2 command stars for a commodore, and if so how much is each?



and again love the game system, wish I lived closer to you.

[PallidaMors]