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How do you normally play the game?

 
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Sean Xor
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Joined: 26 Feb 2013
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:17 am    Post subject: How do you normally play the game? Reply with quote

I am curious how others typically approach Federation Commander. Do you normally play scenarios (either published or make your own?)

Do you normally select a fleet of ships to a certain point level and fight it out?

Do you do everything in the context of a campaign?
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djdood
Commodore


Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 3412
Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the two groups I've played with, it was almost exclusively point-value "pick up" games. Published scenarios were almost never used.
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Scoutdad
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Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 4754
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 4:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

90% of our playing is play testing of "soon-to-be published" material...
Then 90% of the remainder is scenario...
Anything left over is set-point battles.

Our group much prefers to play a goal driven scenario as opposed to a fight to the death with no repercussions for losing your entire force.
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storeylf
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Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

90% of our gaming has been home brew campaigns, we don't like the fight to the death and no consequence mentality. The other times tend to be one off when we test something out (e.g test what this empire feels like before we start next campaign, or test out carrier rules).

We did try some of the scenarios once upon a time, but were quickly put off them due to lack of balance,
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Klingon of Gor
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Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 150

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We often take 450 point squadrons on a closed map using the large hex boards laid out in a 4x5 arrangement. Other times we do single ship duels. These usually take place on an open board. We do some published scenarios, but not a lot.

I've been working up the outline of a campaign involving l commerce raiding, but real life has been a bit on the frantic side recently. At the moment, that project is trapped in interspace a la The Tholian Web. It occasionally manifests in a kind of transparent, spectral form.
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Mike
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We have enjoyed playing scenarios when we could find one that matched the number of people we had playing and the empires they were familiar with.

I personally get tremendous enjoyment out of creating and designing scenarios and then writing some backstory rationale for why the scenario happens.

We have also done a limited campaign where we had two teams of players. Each team had one supreme commander who allocated from a pool of ships for ships to move to various strategic areas to advance toward the capture of the enemy home base. Battles were fought when ship encounters occurred.

We have also done progressions of scenarios along a storyline. There weren't really planned, but they liked how the results of one scenario helped determine the next scenario. Not exactly a campaign, but fun.
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rfeceo
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Joined: 09 Sep 2011
Posts: 60
Location: Seneca Falls, New York

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Campaign.

Thus far it has been an early Years campaign. Campaign battles vary from duels (raider vs. patrol) over a convoy, up to monstrous battles.

We are currently in the middle of a Romulan invasion of the last Klingon Border outpost (Mutara), before the Romulans can strike at the Klingon Core Worlds. Romulans have 5x Vulture, 6x Kingbird, 6x Warbird, all of them "warp refitted" versions. Klingons had 1xYDK (with 3xD4, 2xF4 being repaired in the construction cradles), 1xYSAM, 3xD4C, 2xT4,1 1xD3G, 3xF4, 4xF3. After five turns of combat, the Klinks have lost the YDK (and all the ships inside), the YSAM, all their cruisers,adn their tugs. They have only the frigates left. Romulans have lost a Vulture and a Kingbird, the remaining Kingbirds are all crippled (or most of them), and all of the Romulan plasma has just been spent.

Both have become suicidal in this battle, this IS the bulk of the Klingon defense force, they must win to keep the Romulans from threatening Klingzhai. The Romulans can afford to lose their entire fleet, as it represents only about one-quarter of their force, and at any rate, cannot retreat unless the Klingons allow it (which they are refusing).
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FockeWulfe
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Joined: 19 Aug 2013
Posts: 6
Location: Little Elm ,TX ,United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We usually just do (approximate) point based games, mostly due to the fact that me and my opponents are hoping to understand each Empire we currently possess, we do hope to move on to playing a campaign once we decide which factions we prefer.
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Bill Stec
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Joined: 25 Jan 2012
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am okay with the occasional points vs points battle. But I prefer to liven things up with some battle objectives rather than just kill all the enemy ships. That kind of mentality tends to encourage unrealistic tactics, with no consequences for your actions after the battle.

I'm coming from an F&E background, where you often did not want to fight to the death because you need to preserve your force to defend against the enemy on his turn. So fights to the death were reserved for very important battles like starbase assaults, or capital assaults.
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mdauben
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 92
Location: Rocket City

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:57 pm    Post subject: Re: How do you normally play the game? Reply with quote

Sean Xor wrote:
I am curious how others typically approach Federation Commander. Do you normally play scenarios (either published or make your own?)

Do you normally select a fleet of ships to a certain point level and fight it out?

Do you do everything in the context of a campaign?

While I don't hate points match games, they are far from my favorite way to play. I'm just a newbie to FC but I played SFB for years and years, and most all of that was either published "historical" scenarios, home made scenarios, or as part of an ongoing campaign.
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Steve Cole
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Joined: 11 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just personally, I play published historical scenarios. Go figure.
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Maxwell Luther
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 10 Apr 2013
Posts: 75

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a campaign guy, although I've been playing a lot of point-match games to teach others how to play and get used to the rules myself. It's easier to learn cloaking and plasma if you're not having to worry about any other objective other than sneaking up on an enemy and flinging fireballs at them.

Like Steve, I'm more interested in the historical game, and my campaign (http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5158) reflects that, Indeed, if this one works out, I'll probably do a whole series of similar ones to recreate the entire General War.

The SFU appeals to me because of its consistency, unlike canon Trek where the Klingon neutral zone is many weeks of travel away in one movie, but you can reach the Klingon home-world within a few hours, unopposed, in the next and an exploding moon can destroy the whole empire in yet another one...
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m1a1dat
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 17 Dec 2008
Posts: 99
Location: 91320

PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 1:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mostly we play basic point value fights on a location map, often tournament style. Scenarios rarely, due to lack of time for the big ones and we can't find any small ones we like. Sometimes we do weird things and will pick a class of ships that both sides have and then roll random races for each class. And we use squadron scale, tried fleet scale a couple times and didn't really like it. I would like to do some campaign games, but we don't play regularly enough for that.
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Kang
Fleet Captain


Joined: 23 Sep 2007
Posts: 1976
Location: Devon, UK

PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Steve Cole wrote:
Just personally, I play published historical scenarios. Go figure.

You actually get time to play? Wink
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