Federation Commander

brucesim2003 · Lieutenant JG Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 53

Hi guys,

My primary interest in SFB is the early and middle years 'cruisers in space'. I have no interest in fighters or pf's. I have Y1-3 modules and the early years annexes, as well as advanced missions and R10. Are there any other modules which cover the early/middle years?

Cheers

Bruce

Itharus · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 6:22 pm Post subject:

I'm no expert, so take this with a grain of salt - but I believe the middle years can be emulated just by choosing which refits to not take, as laid out by the relevant R sections for whatever empire(s) you are using. If memory serves, in the ship descriptions there are typically notes about the placement in the time line various refits take place, as well as what year they become available.

I think the reason there's a middle years briefing for FC is because the ships in FC are nominally the latest, greatest, end-of-general-war state of the art, shy of X ships anyway.

Again though, I'm new to FC and still mostly a novice in SFB, so hopefully someone with more experience can come and correct me if I'm wrong here.

Sneaky Scot · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 8:46 pm Post subject:

Itharus has pretty much nailed it I think. Y1-3 deal with the dawn of warp-powered warfare. From about Y120 onwards, the classic ships start to appear. The Federation CA is a great example, with the initial version having only 6xPh1, 4xPhoton, no warp reactors, no drone racks, no Ph3 and slightly weaker aft shields. The ships don't really change until Y160, when the Federation added a pair of rear-facing Ph1 (the "R" refit). Next was the improved CA when the aft shields were bumped up a little, the Ph3 and type-G drone racks were added, and a reactor was also added (the "+" refit). The two refits were combined to give us the CAR+. This is the ship we see in mainline FC. Finally, the Feds changed the power reactor to a warp reactor (no effect in FC terms) and increased the drone reloads (again, no FC effect). Further combat power was also added as drone speeds increased from 8 to 20, then finally to 32 (we don't see that in FC; early years have drone speed 8, middle years have drone speed 16, mainline is speed 24 and finally speed 32). This is explained pretty well for SFB with a combination of the R section that describes the ship and the SSD that shows the refits with specially marked boxes.

In short, the middle years versions (where they exist) are illustrated in the modules. Hope this helps!?
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Mike · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 12:55 am Post subject:

I'm also more of a "Middle Years" guy. Get Briefing #2. It has black and white masters of the main combat ships available to the known empires in the Middle Years.
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brucesim2003 · Lieutenant JG Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 53

Mike, SFB forum, not FC Wink

Anywho, thanks guys. Was not sure is the R modules would be suitable for middle years.

Cheers

Bruce

Dal Downing · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:20 am Post subject:

Hexadecimal buying R modules. Not all have Middle years material in them. Also be aware that the C modules contain some Middle Years materials as well.
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mjwest · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 4:35 pm Post subject:

As mentioned by Mike, in Federation Commander, you can find concentrated Middle Years in Briefing #2. While it is, obviously, an FC product and not an SFB product, it is an excellent resource for describing what all is available in the Middle Years in one spot. It is fairly comprehensive, and there are several other ships also listed without ship cards, as those ships were published elsewhere in FC, but the ships don't change between the Middle Years and General War eras.

In SFB proper, there just isn't a single product, or series of products, that describe the Middle Years. Rather, the ships are spread out everywhere. The best way to identify ships as being "Middle Years" is to use the MSC (or G3 Index) to look for ships introduced between Y120 and Y162 and use them. Typically, you will also make sure all refits are not used. (There are, however, a very few early refits that can be used.) Even then you will often fudge a bit, in order to keep things interesting. For example:
- Include the first series of warp powered Eagles and first series of Kestrels. Otherwise the Romulans are fairly irrelevant.
- Remove the one or two Hydran hellbore ships, as they will wreck both of their opponents with their crappy unrefitted shields.
- Add the Gorn DNE. It is made late, but helps their fleet match up properly.
(I believe all three of these were done in Briefing #2.)

But collecting those ships is hard, as they are found all over the place. To get the biggest share of such ships, look for the following:
- Basic Set (pretty much all of these are Middle Years ships)
- Advanced Missions (several other important ships included here, though most are focused on the General War)
- C1 (base ships for Hydran, Lyran, WYN, but again focus on General War)
After that, the number of Middle Years ships will vary a lot, but most are focused on the General War and any Middle Years ships are generally toss-ins. These three will give you the bulk of what you want. The one additional item to consider is:
- R7 (early dreadnoughts)
It provides the non-Federation early dreadnoughts, but, still, most of that module is pure General Wars ships. The only useful thing for the Middle Years is the early dreadnoughts.
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