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Briefing #1 rules update file

 
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Steve Cole
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:17 pm    Post subject: Briefing #1 rules update file Reply with quote

Rules Updates
From briefing #1

This is a compilation of all of the rules updates, clarifications, and new rules published in Communique, along with many others not previously published. This section does not include updates to FCDK playtest rules as those will be covered in that product. This constitutes the complete file of rules updates for Rev-4 through February of 2008.

(1) GENERAL RULES.
(1D) The records on Ship Cards are not secret, nor is the amount of energy a ship has remaining at any given time.
(1E4) The point of this rule is to eliminate "secret written decisions" of the type common in the more complex game Star Fleet Battles. The firing of each weapon is a unique decision (overloading can be a separate decision), but having decided to fire (or overload) a weapon, a player cannot reverse that decision. (You can reverse a decision not to fire it if your opponent makes some decision.)
(1F2) If you cancel a point of movement, leave the ship where it is and rotate the miniature around the center post (stand) to the point where its cross-section is parallel to the next mark on the turn guage.

(2) MOVEMENT RULES.
(2A5) A unit which has decelerated twice during the current impulse is treated as going slower than a unit that decelerated once, and a unit that has decelerated three times is treated as being slower still, but in both cases the unit is faster than a unit going at the next lower baseline speed. In the event that a unit has accelerated during the impulse and has decelerated (once) during the impulse, the effects cancel each other out and the unit is treated as having the given baseline speed. A unit which has decelerated twice and accelerated once is treated as having decelerated once. A unit which has decelerated three times and accelerated once is treated as having decelerated twice.
(2B2b) Movement cancelled by deceleration does not count for sideslip mode.
(2D3) A unit moving in reverse would receive twice the reinforcement energy as it had paid twice the movement cost.
(2D4d) Spending power to continue Evasive Maneuvers over the turn break counts as an "Announcement" for the purposes of Termination. Consequently, if Evasive Maneuvers are continued over a turn break, they may not be terminated until Impulse #3.
(2D5c) Landing Shuttlecraft: Shuttlecraft (and fighters) can land on friendly ships by either of the methods below. They cannot land, or be forced to land, on enemy ships. A ship can land one shuttle per impulse (one total, not one by each method) and cannot do so on an Impulse in which it launched a shuttle. The ship must have an empty undisabled shuttle box to land a shuttle, which then occupies that box.
Self-Landing: The shuttle lands under its own power (5H4). To accomplish this, the shuttle must end the impulse in the same hex as the ship, and the ship must not have traveled more than one hex during that impulse (for an admin shuttle; two hexes for a Stinger fighter). During the Landing-Docking step, the owning player simply declares the shuttle to have landed.
Assisted Landing: The shuttle lands with the assistance of a tractor beam (5D5). To do this, the shuttle must end the impulse in the same hex as the ship, or in an adjacent hex. The ship must not have moved more than two hexes during that impulse (for an admin shuttle; four hexes for a Stinger). The ship must use a tractor beam (pay for the power, and cannot use that tractor again during the turn).

(2) COMBAT RULES
(3C6c) The term "enemy" refers to each individual ship which is firing, not the entire enemy force. A new decision on which shield was hit can be made each impulse, even if the ships did not "move" to new hexes. A decision for a given impulse covers both weapons and transporter operations.
(3D4b) Any "skipped" points are lost immediately and there is no option to take them on Frame.
(3D4c) The "first die" mentioned is the first roll to see if the weapons hit the target, not the Damage Allocation roll.
(3D6) Damage to Bases: In the case of all bases (starbases, battle stations, base stations, mobile bases, and others to be added later), any "warp" or "impulse" damage points are scored on "reactor" boxes.
(3E1d) You can take as many frame hits (to protect the last box of a type) as you have frame boxes, but you cannot voluntarily score a frame hit under this rule if doing so would result in the destruction of your ship. The last box of a given type refers to the entries on the DAC; the last "phaser" is just that, not the last phaser-1 or the last phaser-2.

(4) WEAPONS RULES
(4A1) Phasers and anti-drones can be used in the Defensive Fire Phase. Other direct-fire weapons cannot.
(4A3) Fighters (e.g., Hydran Stingers) are under the same restrictions as "ships" for the purposes of this rule. In effect, a Stinger counts as a ship, so two fighters and one ship would be a maximum firepower unit.
(4A4) DIE ROLL MODIFIERS
Die roll modifiers caused by Orion Stealth, Evasive Maneuvers, and Asteroids are cumulative; if more than one applies, add them together. For phasers and fusion beams, if the modified die roll is greater than six, move to the next column to the right (one column per shift; seven moves one column, eight moves two). Moving "off the right end of the chart" is a miss. For "hit or miss" weapons (photons, disruptors, plasma bolts, web fists, shield crackers, particle cannons) a result of "7" or more is simply a miss. (For hellbores and PPDs, modifiers affect the total die roll; a miss is a miss.) For the plasma carronade, move one column to the left (and anything "left of 1" is a miss). For probes fired as weapons, the modifiers reduce the die roll; they do not increase it. Web breakers are not affected by these die roll modifiers as their targets are too big to miss.
(4E) Anti-Drones: Every anti-drone system has two "tracks". One (in green) lists the ammunition. The second, in pink, lists the Impulse of the current turn in which that anti-drone system fired the one anti-drone it is allowed to fire in each impulse. Every time you fire an anti-drone, you mark one from each track. The pink track is erased at the end of each turn; the green track is erased when reloaded.
(4F2f) If a shuttle is targeted by a seeking weapon, and the shuttle lands on a ship or base before impact, then the ship or base becomes the target of the seeking weapon. If the shuttle were to subsequently launch before the seeking weapon impacted the ship or base, the ship or base will remain the target of the seeking weapon.
(4F5e) A player can "drop tracking" of one (or more) of his own seeking weapon(s) at any point in the Sequence of Play, causing drones or suicide shuttles to be immediately removed from the game.
(4H2) Suicide freighters can only use tractors in the Defensive Fire Phase.
(4J4b) A plasma tracking arc of FX has a bolting arc of FH.
(4J4c) Only the Federation, Gorns, and Orions use this rule.
(4J5) Plasma-D racks are disabled on "torpedo" hits.
(4P2d) Delete the second paragraph ("If a die roll of 6...").
(4Q3a) The statement that "Each point of energy generates 10 points of strength..." is incorrect. The chart is correct.
Two webs cast in the same hex (or which overlap by one or more hexes) by non-allied ships cancel each other out and do not become active.
(4Q3b) This rule forms an exception to (4Q2a), allowing the Web Caster to work at range zero only if the ship is using itself as an anchor.

(5) SYSTEMS RULES
(5D5) The limit of 16 on the speed of the ship (i.e., two hexes per Impulse) applies to fighters and shuttles.
(5D5c) If Ship A tractors Ship B which has already tractored Unit C, a tractor auction is held and only the stronger of the two beams survives. In this case, ignore negative tractor used by Unit C. Ship B could use negative tractor against Ship A or increase the strength of its tractor hold on Ship C with equal effect. Ship B wins any ties.
(5D6b) If the towed ship is twice the movement cost of the towing ship (or more), reduce the baseline speed by two. The baseline speed may not be reduced below a baseline speed of zero (2B1b).
A ship operating at a reduced baseline speed uses the turn mode of the new, lower speed.
If two tractor-linked ships both accelerate, or both decelerate, neither moves. If one ship accelerates and the other decelerates, the ship that decelerated cancels its movement and the other ship moves the linked pair one hex. You cannot decelerate during an impulse when you are not scheduled to move, so this combination would not always be possible. If Ship F (moving foward) is tractor-linked to Ship R (moving in reverse), then Ship F would pay the normal cost of acceleration (for the combined movement costs of the two ships) while Ship R would pay double that amount (since it is moving in reverse). For purposes of calculating "power actually paid for baseline speed" ignore the double cost for reverse movment.
(5D6c) Friendly ships in a tractor cannot launch weapons.
(5E2) Base stations, battle stations, and mobile bases pay one point to operate their transporters; starbases pay two points. This is for Squadron Scale; Fleet Scale requires half as much energy.
(5F1) Hit-and-run raids cannot be conducted against "living" monsters (e.g., space dragons), but can be conducted against "machine" monsters (e.g., Juggernaut).
(5F2) Monsters cannot be captured or boarded by Marines unless explicitly allowed in the monster’s rule.
(5F2a) A ship which is landed on a planet can send six Marine units to the surface each Marine Phase.
(5F2b) Casualty points cannot be voluntarily resolved by the defender by giving up "control" boxes.
(5F2c) In the event two (or more) non-allied players sent Marines onto another ship, the resulting Marine combat is resolved as follows:
1. Each player assigns some (or none) of his troops to fight the troops of each of the other players.
2. Each pair of players resolve combat as per the rules.
3. Any casualties scored by one player against another are deducted from the Marines assigned by the targeted player to oppose the player scoring the casualty points.
4. Any "overkill" points are used to capture control spaces held by the targeted player, and if there are any more, these disable other Marine units of the target player. If there are more casualty points than things (Marines, control spaces) to resolve them against, the over-over-kill is lost. In the event two (or more) players have "overkill" and would capture more control spaces from the third player than are available, they each capture as many as they can and any "overlap" is held by whoever held it before.
(5G4) You can stop a repair in progress (presumably to start repairing something more important) but if you do so, all of the points spent on the first repair are lost.
(5H5) A shuttlecraft can carry two Marine boarding parties.
(5H6) Suicide shuttles have the same explosion in Fleet Scale and Squadron Scale. Your ship has less power and fewer shuttles in Fleet Scale, so it all works out. The launch of a suicide shuttle counts as the launch of a shuttle, not as the launch of a drone.
(5J) Frame damage cannot be repaired during a scenario.
(5L1) Orion wing-mounted drone racks are, in effect, limited option mounts that can hold drones (360°), phaser-1s (LS/RS), plasma-Ds (LS/RS), or plasma-Fs (LP/FP).
(5L2) Orion bases do not receive the +1 stealth modifier.
(5M1d) If a ship using Evasive Maneuvers enters a web hex, the maneuvers are terminated immediately. A ship that has accumulated enough movement points to leave the web does so on that Movement Sub-Pulse. Webs with a strength of one block weapons fire but do not stop movement.
(5M2a) Web is laid (and reinforced) in the Other Functions Phase of the Impulse. At the time you begin laying a web strand, you need not announce (or even decide in your own mind) if the web you are laying is linear or globular.
(5M2d7) As long as a unit is eligible to be a web anchor, the unit may only change its anchor status once every 8 Impulses. However, a ship which is serving as an anchor which moves in such a way that makes it ineligible to be an anchor any longer causes an "involuntary" change of its anchor status. (Yes, the move was voluntary, but the change in anchor status was not.) A ship which moves in such a way as to involuntarily lose its anchor status will cause any web segment for which it is the sole end anchor to collapse, and will not be able to become a web anchor for another full 8 impulses.
(5M2e2) A ship serving as a web anchor can move in such a way as to cancel its own web anchor status and cause the web segment it is anchoring to dissolve (assuming there is not another anchor for that segment).
(5M2e7) A "full turn" here means eight consecutive Impulses.
(5M2f2) The ship recovers the web anchor buoy as per the assisted landing procedure in (2D5c).
(5M2h) Tractor beams cannot be used to shove a ship through the web. The beam would be broken by the web long before the ship got all the way through it.
(5M2j1) The shuttle is launched in the Launch Phase like any other shuttle. The six points of energy merely change the shuttle into a web anchor buoy. Creating a web hex on the buoy will require another six points of power in the Other Functions Phase of the next Impulse.
(5P1) A cloaking device disabled by a Marine raid cannot be repaired during the scenario.
(5P3d) The cloak becomes active again during the Other Functions Phase of that fourth impulse.
(5P3f) This 20% surcharge (the cost of a cloaking device) applies to Romulan and Orion bases, and to any other ship using a cloaking device. Stealth and cloak effects are not cumulative; the ship uses whichever is more beneficial.
The baseline speed is limited to 16 for the remainder of the turn, even if the ship uncloaks. This baseline speed (not the higher speed of 24) is used for all subsequent calculations, including tractor beams, towing, etc.

(6) TERRAIN RULES
(6A1b) Any ship can land on a planet. This is different than the rule in Star Fleet Battles.
(6B4e) This rule (on towing asteroids) was corrected in Battleships Attack. It costs 8 energy points to move a medium asteroid one hex in a turn, 16 energy points to move a medium asteroid two hexes in a turn, and so on. This is regardless of the movement rate of the towing ship as the asteroid’s mass overwhelms the ship’s movement rate.

(7) DATA ON SHIPS
Armed Cutters used by plasma races replace the drone racks with LS/RS plasma-D racks. Races with neither drones nor plasmas replace the drone racks with LS/RS Ph-2s.
Drone Damage Tracks: The number of "drone damage tracks" on a Ship Card does not define how many drones the ship carries or can control, but is mostly a matter of the number that will conveniently fit.
Orion Ships: Orion photon arming tracks do not have the "F for fired" box because they list that weapon in the general Weapons Used boxes.

(Cool SCENARIOS RULES
(8B2b) You score points on each target in only one category, so crippling a ship does not also score the points for damaging it. You do not score points for "forcing" the disengagement of a ship if the victory conditions for that ship require it to disengage.
(8B2b) If two non-allied players each score damage on a target ship, divide the points received for damaging, crippling, or destroying the ship (or forcing it to disengage) by the number of points of internal damage each player scored. Ignore any of these points which were subsequently repaired. However, if one player captures a ship, he gets all of the points for that capture, and the other player gets zero.
(8F) The Planet Killer is subject to hit-and-run raids, but cannot be captured by Marines.
(8RD) Damage to a Dragon is resolved one point at a time.

NOTE: These updates are for the Revision-4 rules. If your rulebook is Revision-3 or earlier, we will send you a Revision-4 rulebook for for a nominal handling-shipping charge.
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Steve Cole
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NO REPLIES IN THIS TOPIC.
Somebody figure out how to turn them off.
We already have Q&A topics and I don't want to duplicate them or clutter this post.

[Edit: MJWEST: It is now locked.]
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