Just a brief note to those who play Federation Commander or collect / paint the miniatures.
ADB is running (and has been for almost 2 years now) a monthly painting contest for Starline miniatures. Each month is a different catagory. For example, November 2006 is Tholian Squadrons and December 2006 will be Battleships. The catagories for the 2007 contests are printing in CL #34 (which is at home right now and not handy to me).
Just got home and checked CL #34. The monthly catagories for 2007 are:
January 07: Orion Squadrons
February 07: Brothers of the "Anarchist" - West
March 07: Hydran Squadrons
April 07: Combat Damage
May 07: Andromedan Squadrons
June 07: Brothers of the "Anarchist" - East
July 07: Lyran Sqaudrons - Hurray!!!!
August through December has yet to be announced
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
For those unfamiliar with the history of the SFU, the Anarchist was a Klingon D7 Battlecruiser that was captured by the Hydrans and converted to fusion and hellbore technology.
The Brothers of the Anarchist are ships that have been captured and to foreign technology.
The West ships are captured Lyran, Hydran, Klingon, Kzinti, Wyn, LDR, and Peladine ships.
The West ships are captured Federation, Tholian, Gorn, Romulan, ISC, and Orion ships.
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
I'm mostly interested in painting Federation Commander Squadron and Border boxes so that I'll have minis to match my cards, so no topics there for me to enter in '07.
"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
Actually, you could still enter the contest. If you painted your Tholians from the various squadron boxes, you could enter those... same with the Orion ships.
Each month, ADB awards two prizes. One for the Players Choice (most votes from the forum members) and a Designers Choice (selected by the ADB staff). The Designers choice has to match the contecnts of an ADB product but the Players choice can be awarded to anyone for any size/compostion squadron. Take the current Tholian Squadron entries for example, while whichever one garners the most votes will win Players Choice... not a single one of the three qualifies for Designers Choice (for various reasons) - but we just enter them for the fun and the glory...
As for the other catagories in '07...
Combat Damage and Brothers of the Anarchist could be done with any one miniature from any of the existing squadron / border boxes.
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
For Brothers of the Anarchist, I can paint a Klingon ship in Federation colours and claim it's been refitted with photon torpedoes and phaser-1s??? "Oh that? It's a KB10F."
"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
Well, I don't know how well it would go over in FC, but in SFB (while not an official ship) - if both sides agreed, then by using the captured ship refit rules in Captain's Log, then yes you could have a D7 with Photons and Ph-1's, but it would be titanium white and not panzer grey.
Besides, if you read all the fluff (rule 4B2b - last sentence), the Phaser-1 and the Phaser-2 are basically the same weapon. The difference is the targeting sstem that enables the Phaser-1 to hit more accurately for more damage at longer ranges. I would think that the first upgradethe Federation made would be to the computer system... well, maybe the second. The food replicators and the internal toilet systems might be the first upgrade.
Also, page 24 of the FC rule book, Section 4C - last paragraph:
Note: In some versions of "Trek" Klinogns used photon torpedoes. Players may freely experiment with this idea by simply using the photon torpedo rules for disruptors.
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
If you want to use a "Federation D7", then simply swapping the disruptors for photons and upgrading the phasers to Ph-1s will do fine.
You didn't ask, but the full conversion for a D7 (or D6) is:
Disruptors->Photons
Ph-2->Ph-1
Drone->Shuttle
ADD->Federation drone rack
2xTran->2xLab (giving 3 Tran and 6 Lab)
"Historically", the Federation captured a D6 that they subsequently returned. They could have converted it as above.
And (just to be fair), if the Klingons had captured and kept the Hood, it would have been converted like this:
Photons->Disruptors
non-FH Ph-1->Ph-2
Federation drone rack->ADD
2xShuttle->2xDrone (half the shuttles)
2xLab->2xTran (giving 5 Tran and 6 Lab)
How many ships constitute a "squadron"? If it's only 2 or 3, I can get the two Squadron boxes that have Orions in them and put in a squadron of a CR, LR and SAL...
"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
