Federation Commander

[mojo1]

Hello
Its been a while since I've been on here. I see that a new version of the rules are out. How's the game? Are people playing it? And will there ever be squadron or fleet boxes for the Starline 2500s again?
What's the future hold for the game?
Thanks
B-

[Sneaky Scot]

I can't really speak as to the future of the game - Tony Thomas is working on the next book, which will have extra ships for the existing races as well as filling out the Tholians with Web rules, introducing the Neo-Tholians with their Web Casters, and (of course), the Seltorians with their Particle Cannon and Web Breaker/Shield Cracker weapon. No doubt Tony can provide detail. Looking forward to it as my son is a big Neo-Tholian fan in Fed Cdr!

As for how it plays - I have really enjoyed the few games I have played. It works best with reasonable amounts of ships, where the alternate moving/firing rules give more options. It doesn't play quite as well with duels, but that's not really what it is for. The game is relatively straightforward and I found the rules well-written and mostly easy to implement. Haven't tried a campaign yet, so I can't really say how the ship "improvement" rules work out. There's a good choice of models, particularly if you go Starline 2400, where there is a greater variety, but I understand that ADb are working on new releases for both 2400 and 2500 scales (plus the one size does both 2425 series).

A good, fun game featuring many explosions and you can play with reasonably sized fleets in 1-2 hours. Gets a smiley face from me!


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Nothing is quite as persuasive as a disruptor pistol on slow burn and a rotisserie......

[djdood]

The 1.2 (book 1, revision 2) rules are a big improvement on the original.

Tony Thomas did a great job of making the game more-compliant to the SFU setting, while also cleaning up some gameplay issues that just didn't work (the "lumbering Gorns", etc.).

ADB has been pretty clear that the fleet and squadron boxes for the Starline 2500 minis won't be coming back (the boxes for Starline 2400 will continue, as-before).

Some folks liked them and the price-break was certainly appreciated, but there was just as many folks that grumbled about them for having ship-mixes they didn't want, etc. Mongoose pushed for ship-mixes that seemed "cool" to them, rather than anything established by actual gameplay testing - so everybody ended up with w-a-y more dreadnoughts than they really needed, not enough destroyers/frigates, etc.

In the end, it worked out that the best way to please most of the people, most of the time, was to refocus on sales of individual ships and hold the price point down as much as possible (despite the stratospheric increases in raw metal costs, etc.).

There are indeed more minis coming. If you want to see them, Jean share photos of in-development models on the ADB Facebook page frequently and those also go into the monthly Hailing Frequencies newsletter and in issues of Captain's Log.

As-noted by Sneaky Scot, the new jumbo and heavy freighters are coming for Starline 2425, which are usable with other minis in both Starline 2400 (1/3788-scale) and Starline 2500 (1/3125-scale) - they're in mold-making right now.

Also coming are the Romulan SaberHawk and Klingon HF5 heavy war destroyers, intiially for Starline 2500 and (if there is demand) they will be scaled-down for Starline 2400. Also coming are new minis for the fast patrol (PF) gunboats for all empires.
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[mojo1]

How's the quality of the 2400s? I used to have two sets of them- compared to 2500s as far as detail they were a bit lacking. Any improvements?

[djdood]

A lot of the legacy Starline 2400 minis are indeed a bit lacking to modern eyes. (In quite a few cases, the masters date back to the early 1980s).

All Starline minis being produced now are being done to modern standards, with the "sculpting" being done on computers in CAD, then the original metal master being produced with high-fidelity 3D printing.

This includes new minis for the Starline 2400 line. In most cases now, they are the same CAD model as was done for Starline 2500, scaled-down, and with details adjusted for the smaller size.

The best example of that for the new SL2400 minis is the recent Klingon D7K.


It's marketed as the "D7K command cruiser", because ADB don't do nasty things like invalidate customers' existing fleets by introducing a "new version" mandatory for tournament play (the way Game's Workshop, etc., do). It's just a nicer D-7, usable as any D-7 variant and usable with any existing D-7 minis (there have been several, over the last 30 years).
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[mojo1]

Wow! Looks pretty good! Have the older versions been cycled out yet? If I were to order 2400s would they all be the updated cad stuff?

[djdood]

The older versions are still valid and many folks still want them.

Newer versions, like this one, are added as additions and options to the line, not replacements. Folks can choose them over the older ones, if they wish.

Older minis that are not huge sellers probably won't have updated new versions made, as the new design, mold, etc. would never pay for themselves. The well-known "tv ships" (like the Fed heavy cruiser, Klingon D-7, etc.) move enough copies for it to be worth the costs.
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[Dal Downing]

Deleted by Author. Will covered it while I was typing.
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-Dal

"Which one of you is the Biggest, Baddest, Bootlicker of the bunch?"
"I am."
"ARCHERS!!! THAT ONE!!!!"

[djdood]

Now you're just being a tease, Dal.
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[Scoutdad]

Tony here.
I much prefer the new version (but I've been accused of being biased...)

Version 1.2 is much more SFU compliant.
Gorn are no longer lumbering...
Klingons, while still more maneuverable than the other empires; no longer spin around their opponents like a troupe of whirling dervishes.

Drones are no longer the strike across the board, UBER weapons they were. They're still deadly, but managable (and avoidable).
Plasma torpedoes can actually hit and score damage... etc...

Is it a perfect recreation of SFB... No. But if you want that, play SFB.
If you play enough games however; your results will fall closely in line with a 50:50 win loss ratio for most empires against most other empires.
odd things still happen from game to game, and some players are sometimes better than their opponents. But that's life... not just ACTASF 1.2.

As previously stated, we are hard at work on Book two.
I currently have over 120 ships (Tholians, Orions, Seltorians, Neo-Tholians, and reinforcements for the other empires) stated out and in play test. I doubt all of them will make it into Book 2, but those that don't will go into Book 3.

The framework for Books 3, 4, and 5 are already laid out.
Unfortunately, Tholian Webs have been a real sticking point... they are about to undergo a 3rd major revision, but i think this will fix them.
After that, the rest of the book is mostly formatting and typing.

Once Book 2 is complete, we start work on Book 3... before 2 gets printed even. Hopefully, this will reduce the turn around time nad 3 will be ready shortly after Book 2.
Lyrans, Hydrans, LDR, and WYN Star Cluster do not take a lot of new rules... so cross your fingers and hope.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[Steve Cole]

Thanks to all of my staff and customers who have handled all of the questions and left me nothing to add or answer.

Oh, wait, one thing. Those new HDWs that Will McC is doing? They'll be released simultaneously for 3788 and 3125 scales, but the story is more complicated than that. More later.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[djdood]

The Klingon HF5 HDW CAD model is coming right along. I should finish it by the end of my holiday vacation. (The Romulan SaberHawk HDW was finished a month ago).
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[Scoutdad]

So wants a Kickstarter or pre-order system for Wills new minis... so I do not have to keep checking in to see the progress... instead, I could just wait until they mysteriously show up in my mailbox!!!


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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[Myrm]

Im still eagerly awaiting the line's continuation - as a Hydran nut I cannot wait to see how you have translated Hellbores on a single shield system.

[Steve Cole]

ACTASF TWO is getting closer. Tony says he's finished, just tweaking things while he waits for me to ask for the files.

I finished the reprint countersheets (non-ACTA, just something I had to do first) today (final checks in email, should go to press tomorrow or Monday).

Next up is FC Scenario Log Two which needs to get done. No way it will take a week, but that doesn't mean it will be finished a week from tomorrow because there are other moving parts in motion. (I just spent an hour with Jean working on the Shapeways process flow, which is looking good. We have 13 of the 17 easy kills in the store, and one of the five priority kills in the store, and some other kills in the store. Once we reach August 25th, however, I may be tied to Shapeways until 2 Sept.)

So in theory about 10 days from now I will start the final format for ACTA. It shouldn't take a week but will probably take a month. That's just how things go. I'm not just doing the formatting, but proofreading it, and getting Petrick to Universe-check it and Jean to marketing-check it and spell-check it and do her style/format/capitalization/etc stuff. It might only take Petrick eight hours to do his thing but that might spread over three non-consecutive days as he has other projects. Today is the 17th and on the 25th Jean goes into Shapeways Shadow until 2 Sept and cannot work on it during that week. So maybe in six weeks or less we'll have ACTASF TWO in the PDF store.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander