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Federation Commander A NEW fast paced board game of starship combat!
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:37 am Post subject: Origins 2011 - AAR |
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Well, another Origins has come and gone. It was a great event, but it came with a bittersweet ending [More on that later].
we [Battlegroup Murfreesboro] arrived 5 strong on Tuesday afternoon - about 16:00 hours. The con doesn't officially open until Wednesday mornign, but we usually get in early and start setting up for Federation and Empire.
By the end of the evening (roughly midnight or so...), we had 22 people in the same room discussing and/or playing 5 differnet games of F&E. Steve arrived in Columbus near 23:00 hours and stopped in to visit and chat.
Wednesday morning, the con kicked off in full force. All 5 F&E games were rocking
[and yes, the rumors were true. I did indeed command the Hydran forces in the Winds of fire scenario - but these were a special sub-species. They were good guy, methane breathers ]
and people were having a blast. At roughly 10:00, SPP called for ground support and Operation: Rolling Lightning began.
[In it's infinite wisdom, GAMA has decreed that all vendor may pull to the loading dock for 30 minutes, unload what they can and then retreat to the back of the que to await an additional opportunity to unload.]
When Rolling Lightning commenced, 20+ F&E players and 3 rolling carts performed a blockade run, entered the dealers loading dock province, and beamed all the ADB merchandise off the transport in less than 10 minutes. The goods were then staged at the secret location of hte ADB sales booth for eventual dissemination.
Wednesday afternoon, all the F&E players broke for lunch and advanced to the North Market wher each member species obtained their preferred viands. Nearly one entire wing of the upper dining area was garrisoned by an large occupying force and many, many tales of past and future glories were spun. And some actual discussion of future F&E projects also occurred.
SFU members continued to arrive throughout the day. The Sing-Along commenced at 20:00. Pre-order goodies were distributed and good times were had by all. The entire Sing-along can be downloaded as a podcast from Paul Franz' Talkshoe archives. After the Sing-along, we all retreated to the F&E warroom and continued our gaming until early Thursday morning.
Thursday morning saw the opening of the dealer room where many hundreds of starships were salvaged just before going into the fiery furnace. [Your's truely adopted 100 additional ships during the week.]
After the breif interuption, F&E resumed and continued until 01:00 Friday morning.
Friday was more of the same... F&E, dealer room for the latest demotivational postcard, lunch with the guys, and then more F&E, until the minis seminar. Rob Glass, the Mongoose employee who designs the 3D computer models that eventually becoime the Starline 2500 range stopped by and showed us the images of the Federation CA and the Klingon D7 models. The level of detail intended in these is amazing. [I can see a very real ebay sale in my future with the proceeds of my ST2400 line being usedto buy ST2500 minis.] Several details abouthte forthcoming line were mentioned...
Mongoose intends to cast the entire line in resin, although for various reasons; some models may be cast in white metal.
Mongoose will cast separate models for many of the variants. There will be two differnt models forhte D7/D6. The Federation CC model will be different than the CA model and so on.
Repeatable portions on the models will be saved as separate files to facilitate prodection of later models using these parts.
When the initial release date arrives, there will be models availabe for every empire.
Once the F-Ca and the K-D7 are completed, Rob intends to work on one of the non-canon empires next.
He intends to make subtle design tweaks to several of the empires ships to capitalize on the flexibility of 3D modeling and to bring the base designs out of the 1960s.
All in all, it sounds like a great thing and I can't wait.
i did forget to ask a few things though. Such as; why the change in scale and will the new minis be based on the round bases currently used by mongoose? Since ACTA is a hexless system and Mongoose already uses the round bases, i cna't see them doing otherwise. But rest assured, SVC will continue to supply the standsard hex bases as spare parts and I foresee a need for me to purchased them in bulk quantities.
The minis seminar was also recorded by Paul Franz and can be found on Talkshoe.
Saturday was a bit different. We played F&E until 19:00 then began recording positions of all the units in our game so that we may continue it next year or online. The F&E seminar began at 20:00 and lasted until 24:00. Once again, it's available on Talkshoe.
Sunday saw everyone packing up tubs of cardboard, boxes of miniatures, and reams of paper... both loose-leaf and laminated. The SFU seminar began at 10:00 (alos available on Talkshoe) and people departed at various times throughout the day. Hopefully, we'll all get together again next year, but with GAMA's decison to move Origins to the end of May - it may not happen next year. Many vendors have expressed disatisfaction with this desciosn and since school will still be in session - many of the SFU regulars will not be able to attend [Including Scoutdad, most likely]. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:44 am Post subject: |
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Several other events of note occurred throughout the week:
Somewhere around a dozen players participated in the Federation Commander tourney. The final was held Saturday evening between Patrick Doyle and Taras Toporowych. Patrick won the match.
Stephen Petrick ran several well-attended SFB events: Combat Rally, Nowhere to Hide, Death Race 3000.
12 memebrs of the SFU attended the TerrorWerks event on Friday at 15:00.
Stephen Petrick, Steve Cole, Mike Curtis, Joshua Whicker, Tony L. Thomas, Chuck Strong, Roger Reardon, Ryan Opel, Thomas Masters, Kentaro Watanabe, and Bill Stec. Rest assured that this year, SPP survived.
Rumors of a Hydran wanfering the event were grossly exaggerated, as no such creature would be allowed to exist for longer than it took a phaser capacitor to warm up!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150232981689618&set=oa.158857624184873&type=1&ref=nf _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF |
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terryoc Captain
Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 1386
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:56 am Post subject: |
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IIRC I heard Rob Glass say that some "parts" may be cast in metal, which I thought implied that some of the models may be hybrid metal-resin items.
Now, if only SVC could cut a deal with GW's Forgeworld subsidiary...! You really COULD get a Kzinti BC with hatches that open to show the nosecones of the missiles! _________________ "Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
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wedge_hammersteel Commander
Joined: 27 Sep 2008 Posts: 578 Location: Lafayette, LA
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:54 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the round-up report Tony.
What ships comprised the final battle and do you know if anyone used a plasma race? |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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@Terry: I think you're right Terry. I think that maybe it was some "parts" mightbe made of metal.
@Burt: I played Patrick in my first game (and conceded after the first turn), so I know what he was flying.
Patrick had a Kzinti NCC, NCA, NCA combo.
Taras was flying a three ship Vudar squad IIRC, but since I didn't play him - I do not know the exact composition.
I do recall seeing one Hydran squadron (Ranger, Knight, DW), one Orion squadron (DW, DW, DR, Dr with Ph-i, Ph-G, and 3x Photon on each ship), a Romulan squadron (KE, KE, BH, SN - I think it was), and an Andro squadron (Int, Cob, Cob), and I had aLyran squadron (DNH, DW, DW) _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
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wedge_hammersteel Commander
Joined: 27 Sep 2008 Posts: 578 Location: Lafayette, LA
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks. I look forward to seeing Patrick's write-up of the tourny in the Captain's Log. |
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Scoutdad Commodore
Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 4754 Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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The one thing I forgot to mention was Jeffr0's Prime Directive games.
Jeff spent much of Wednesday learning to play Federation and Empire, but he also held a GURPS PD event on Thursday, one on Friday, and a third on Saturday. Each event wassold out and he was turning away participants.
So much fun wwas had by all that mnay players gave Jeff their email addresses and asked for advance notification of upcoming convention appearance to enable them to get in early and gaurantee a seat.
Great job spreading the word, Jeff. _________________ Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
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rexbinary Lieutenant JG
Joined: 25 Dec 2010 Posts: 46 Location: Plano, TX USA
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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Great stuff. I wish I could have been there. Maybe next year. _________________ EDIT: I seldom post without an edit. |
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Patrick Doyle Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 208 Location: Norfolk, VA
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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Taras had a Vudar CC, CA, AND CW. He opened fire at range 5, hitting one NCA with 7 overloaded ion cannons and 4 phaser-1s, reducing it to 3 power. The other NCA was hit with 4 ol ion cannons and 8 phaser-1s reducing it to 20 power. Each NCA replied with all weapons causing a total of about 40 internal hits to his cc. It was a sluggfest from there, but all 3 of his ships were destroyed in the end. It lasted four turns. _________________ Once again I have proven that even in the future, your photon torpedoes are built by the lowest bidder.
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leathernsteel Lieutenant SG
Joined: 07 Jun 2011 Posts: 196 Location: Orlando, FL
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:28 am Post subject: |
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Fantastic AAR, Scoutdad! My veins burn with envy that I was not able to attend! Perhaps someday, if my plans work out, you will all have to contend with the Orlando battle group! |
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