Improving Shield and Firing Arc Diagrams for Miniatures

[terryoc]

If you're using the Free Movement system for miniatures (1F), you need to put each miniature on a shield and firing arc diagram (see picture on page 7). The trouble with these is, they're black and white, which doesn't really fit the colourful look of Federation Commander.

There's an easy fix!

Colour the firing arcs to match the firing arc diagram on the large reference card. Not only does it look prettier, it makes it more obvious which firing arc the enemy is in. There's two ways to do this. One is with a transparent marker (if you can get the right colours). Another is to copy the diagram into a paint program, colour it in, and then print it on a colour printer.

You can also do the same thing with the rulers provided. For a nifty "photon torpedo rangefinder", take one of the inch rulers. Colour the first two squares red. The next is coloured orange. Squares 3 and 4 are yellow. Squares 5-8 are coloured blue. The last two are coloured green. You can now instantly tell what range bracket your enemy is in. Red is "dead", automatic hit. Orange is hit on 1-5. Yellow is 1-4. Blue is 1-3 (and the edge of overload range). Green is 1-2.