Federation Commander Forum Index Federation Commander
A NEW fast paced board game of starship combat!
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Fighters in SFB and FC
Goto page Previous  1, 2
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> General Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Kohanavich
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 15 Aug 2015
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I would add revised gunboat rules to FC before fighters in my games for sure. Since the fighter expansion is coming out first we will just have to be patient
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Paul B
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Posts: 240
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
So if the Federation can bring Gunboats to a battle without a tender, then why can't the Andromedans bring extra satellite ships? Because if I'm not mistaken Andromeda ships currently require a mother ship in order to be brought to a battle but those Satellite ships are for all intents and purposes Gunboats except in name are they not?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mjwest
Commodore


Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 4072
Location: Dallas, Texas
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Paul B wrote:
If SFU PFs are similarly limited in endurance then shouldn't they require a conveyor or tender of some sort? Why could PFs be put onboard without a tender while Fighters would require a carrier?

Because, in the SFU any ship can carry a pair of gunboats, but only purpose built carriers can carry fighters. That's what makes gunboats awesome for Federation Commander: you can sprinkle them in, or commit to a full six (as long as you have three ships to "carry" them). Fighters are always a hefty commitment. Oh, and don't forget that pretty much any ship can carry a pair of gunboats. That means normal warships. Only purpose built carriers get to carry fighters. Which means, especially for smaller carriers, you are blowing Points on toothless ships. (Sure that Heavy Carrier or Strike Carrier has the full weapons compliment of the base hull. But anything smaller than that starts to quickly lose weapons in comparison to the base hull.)

Also, don't forget those escorts. Gunboats and whatever carries them require no escorts. Fighter carriers require at least one escort per carrier. While some escorts are pretty cool, most are very short ranged and uninspiring. And taking one of those cool combat capable carriers will require you to take more than one of those extremely short ranged escorts.

So, yes, gunboats are short ranged. But, for casual gunboats, the whole fleet is their "tender". No toothless or compromised ships are required to deliver them into combat. In addition to that, "coastal" in the SFU is a pretty broad range. Gunboats are definitely able to make forays that are very short in a strategic sense, but still cover a massive amount of distance. Gunboats are extremely versatile (as I have mentioned before).
_________________

Federation Commander Answer Guy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
mjwest
Commodore


Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 4072
Location: Dallas, Texas
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Paul B wrote:
So if the Federation can bring Gunboats to a battle without a tender, then why can't the Andromedans bring extra satellite ships? Because if I'm not mistaken Andromeda ships currently require a mother ship in order to be brought to a battle but those Satellite ships are for all intents and purposes Gunboats except in name are they not?

Actually, the Federation itself doesn't get gunboats. Every other empire (other than the extremely odd Andromedans) does get gunboats, however. SFB provides "conjectural" (i.e. "what if") gunboats for the Federation, but I don't know if ADB would be willing to let those into Federation Commander. So, the Federation could be screwed in that regard.

From what I can tell, I think satellite ships and gunboats don't really have that different of a range of operations. And both have to be carried to cover long distances. The big difference is size. For a satellite ship to be carried, the carrying ship has to have a lot of space for the satellite ship's hangar. It requires a full cruiser to be able to commit that much space to carrying a satellite ship. A gunboat, however, is relatively dinky. Pretty much any ship can be modified with one or two "mech links" to carry gunboats. So, instead of requiring ships with dedicated hangar space, pretty much any ship can be modified to slap on one or two mech links and carry one or two gunboats.

Thus the difference between deployment of satellite ships and gunboats.
_________________

Federation Commander Answer Guy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Paul B
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Posts: 240
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
So PFs are neither fighters nor Satellite ships but require an entirely new subset of rules to operate?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
storeylf
Fleet Captain


Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Paul B wrote:
So if the Federation can bring Gunboats to a battle without a tender, then why can't the Andromedans bring extra satellite ships? Because if I'm not mistaken Andromeda ships currently require a mother ship in order to be brought to a battle but those Satellite ships are for all intents and purposes Gunboats except in name are they not?



No rule says you must have mother ships for satellites. There is a section about how they need mother ships for strategic movement, but FedCom doesn't cover strategic movement. You can play pure sats if you want. The only restriction on what ships can be in a FedCom battle are the ones regarding displacement devices.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Steve Cole
Site Admin


Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 3828
PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Good lord, I am going crazy trying to manage the same conversation in three places (and explain why Gary doesn't understand something multiple times).

Doing FC-FA and FC-GA at the same time would be VERY difficult. We'd basically have to finish one, then start the other and finish it, THEN print the countersheets. Which would also delay the other two products on the sheet which is a no-go deal. Nice try, Gary, but then, if I don't have a use for that fourth sheet I may have to go with a plan to finish one of the FCs, print the four counters, then start work on the other FC while its expensive counters sit in the warehouse and I don't get a paycheck.

Andromedans cannot bring extra satellite ships because they are carried internally. Gunboats are carried externally, and you can attach one or two of them to a few ships. We don't even need PFTs for FC and most players would consider them wasted cards.

Just DO NOT discuss gunboats in the fighter topic. Go start a gunboat topic.
_________________
The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> General Discussion All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group