Federation Commander

[Sebastian380]

The Fed Comm players of Battlegroup Toronto finished Operation Cavalry yesterday. It was the final of three great sessions played at our FLGS.

The Coalition was victorious.

Both sides opened cautiously and the approach battle was managed well by both fleets. One of the most interesting things about Fed Comm is the challenge in maneuvering for range. I've learned that the perfect shot just isn't going to happen in most cases and players had to make careful decisions about taking the best opportunity for fire. Naive Federation captains hoping for the perfect photon firing solution will be disappointed against capable opposition. We probably spent more time on the approach than we did on the battle sequences.

The highlight of the game was a brilliant diversionary flank attack by Art
Trotman's coalition. Art pushed a D7 a D6 and a D5 up the left side of the board in what appeared to be a suicide mission.

The flank attack was played in the spirit of a bishop sacrifice in chess. The
'piece' had to be taken but the capture came at a price. I over-allocated forces to take out the left flank squadron and my fleet was divided in front of a coalition force that was waiting patiently for me to take the bait.

With my forces divided Art moved in Klingon and Lyran ships to attack my divided fleet and it was all downhill after that.

Besides the scenario objectives we wanted to put the Fed Comm game system to the test. We had two questions in mind: First, how well does Fed Comm handle large scale battles and second does every scenario have to end in a 'murderball' in the centre of the board or can the game acommodate a more colourful strategic palette?

On the first point: Fed Comm played beautifully with the larger scenario. The game played smoothly in squadron scale even with all the ships on the board and space full of drone swarms. The only snag we ran into was in the game set up after a one-week break in play. Other players have provided solutions to that problem.

On the second point I'm convinced that Federation Commander provides an excellent backdrop for wide open strategic play. My opponent, Art, demonstrated how well this can be done even if I didn't. Operation Cavalry is a great scenario with lots and lots of playability. We plan to play it out as a yearly event.

The scenario also looked great. Over the three sessions we had a good deal of attention from the other gamers in the basement. Art's miniatures looked sharp and the map was wide-open and very interesting to look at.

It was a great session. My congratulations and thanks to Art for the game.

New players are welcome to join Battlegroup Toronto at Dueling Grounds in Toronto

on Thursday evenings. Contact me here or on the ADB bulletin boards for info.