Federation Commander

[John515]

First duel last week, D7C v CA on a tournament-sized board. I piloted the D7 and managed to hold my own against a very experienced player who promised not to go too easy on me (although I think he held back a bit anyway....). I had previously played some of the solo scenarios and flew some duels using the robot rules to get familiar with the game's mechanics. The game progressed and I got some basic general advice as we went and some post-turn advice after failing to "ride the drone wave" on an early turn. After 3 or 4 turns, my ship was pretty beat up, but my forward shields were more or less intact and the Fed's shields were nearly all down, with more internals intact. It was late, so we decided to call it on account of it being so late. I think there were chances for both sides to ultimately win. Great duel-very educational!

A few observations:
The "sabre-dance" thing seems to be more or less feasible in a duel, but I have reservations as to how it would work with 3-4 ships apiece. I think it would be very difficult to avoid any kind of "crunch" against any opponent determined enough to do it. In a 1 on 1 duel on a limited size board, it seems inevitable.

Phaser 1's seem to be the best overall weapon in the game (I've seen so far). With enough of them, I see no reason why you couldn't simply "jab, jab, jab" someone to death at range. Disruptors seem to be less effective at this job and appear to be most useful when a close up fight is unavoidable or too tempting to be passed up.

I wish I had kept my batteries repaired. Every point of power counts. Especially after the first exchange resulting in real damage.

Targeting weapons and power seems to be the way to go, in general. If you miss, so what. If you don't, then bully for you. You get to hit something useful, not labs.

Overall, a great game design. Simple enough mechanics while still allowing tactical depth and variety. I am looking forward playing more and eventually playing some bigger battles. I'm hooked!

[Kang]

Welcome the the game, and to the forum Glad you have enjoyed your first game!
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[Mike]

Thanks for posting and contributing to the forum. I think just about all of us are always interested in hearing from new players who find the forum.
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Mike

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Sandpaper gets the job done, but makes for a lot of friction.

[rulesjd]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Bear in mind the sabre dance isn't necessarily something you do for an entire game. The point is to apply sand paper to tactically important shields before commiting to a closer range bracket.

You said that the Fed ship had lost most of its shield while you still had a strong number 1. Please note that the Fed weapons are almost all FA. Your goal as a Klingon is to strip the Fed #1 shield forcing him to either approach you though tissue paper or turn slightly thus giving up either his LF/L or RF/R phasers in a pass.

Conversely, your #1 shield is less important. The majority of D7 weapons will bear through the #6 and #5 shields as well as the #1.

Use your disruptors to help "herd" your opponent. Take the shots at range 15 to 18 that will hit the #1 shield. At closer ranges wait til he turns toward you which he must eventually do or else have you on the rear shield. Time your disruptor to fire on impulse 8 so that your opponent must accept another shot on impulse one on the same shield or turn away.

As a D7 you never really have a drone "wave". You usually get only two and if you launch on impulse 8/1, you might achieve four. Unless you are playing with late war fast drones, your opponent can stay away relatively easily. However, if you expect a head on pass and can stay behind the drones, this is a good way to soak up phasers. Remember to keep a couple for knife fight range when they can force an opponent to withold phasers for the threat of close range launch.

As for fleet actions, you can achieve meaningful sabre dance tactics for some time and the concentrated fire of 16 disruptors at range can seriously damage shields if concentrated on single enemy ships.

Keep playing. It's a great game.
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"Damn the torpedoes, full spe........[squarrk]"

[terryoc]

As for disruptors in fleets... you can complicate your opponent's maneuver by hitting the #1 shield on one ship, the #2 on another, the #3 on a third... so he will have trouble co-ordinating the movement of his ships without exposing a shield.

While you can jab, jab, jab with ph-1 or disruptors for a long time, closing in and hammering him with overloads is what kills enemy ships, and ensures a decisive victory. Otherwise the player on hte losing end will just disengage.
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"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West

[storeylf]

Glad you enjoyed the game.

As you have noted map size makes a huge difference in FedCom. Ignoring that for the moment though. The 'sabre dance' is not just more or less feasible, it is very feasible against most Fed ships. It is generally very hard for a fed ship to close the range against a good klingon who can deliver decent damage at range 15 and then turn away.

If we are talking D7s vs CAs then multiple ships actually make this tactic even easier. At 3 ships the klinks can deliver enough damage at range 15 to drop a CA shield and do some minor internals, at 4 ships you are doing even more internals. As they turn away they possiblly even fire some extra Ph2s into the down shield. The Feds can reinfore and/or EM, but that just slows them down even more. On the second pass the klinks will do the same to another CA etc. In a 3 or 4 ship game the Fed player is under some serious presssure to come up with something before the klinks have an insurmountable advantage, whereas in a 1 vs 1 it will take the klink quite a while to whittle down a decent Fed player.

As to map size, I'd recommend playing on large floating maps and fixed tourney maps a few times so that you get an appreciation of how different a game they can produce, and how they can unbalance the game to one side or the other. On a floating map with 3 or 4 ships I really don't fancy the Fed chances much, whereas on a tourney map the Klinks are probably in trouble.


As to phasers 1s, yes they are probably one of the best weapons in the game in a general sense, but you should account for your qualifier. It is true of many things that with enough of X you can do Y, with enough power a Fed ship will overrun a Klingon to deliver fully overloaded photons, game over in 1 volley. Phasers are not without issues, whilst they are very power efficient they can only convert 1 energy per volley into damage, whereas a heavy weapon despite being less efficient converts more energy per volley into damage, and hence provides the oomph you need. For example if the D7 swapped his 4 disruipters for 4 phasers 1s he would significantly reduce his range 9+ damage (Disrupters do twice the average damage at that range) and, given the D7 can already go speed 24 and fire all weapons he needs, he has little reason be more energy efficient at the cost of damage inflicted. He would also noticeably reduce his close range potential. Sure, at range 0 the ph1s deliver a very efficient 26 average damage but the disrupters will deliver 40 on overload. Being energy efficient is of no use if the other guy is going to obliterate you with his inefficient photon volley. The ph1s may be easier to use as you need to keep back less energy, but the heavy weapons offer more damage in return for which you need to plan energy use better.

Targetting systems is the way to go if the other ship has not taken enough damage to result in you losing a lot of the damage your about to inflict, and you are not in a position to overload weapons. If either of those apply then it is less obvious. I've miscalculated a couple of times and regretted targeting, being left with an enemy ship on the map that shouldn't have been.