Tournament ships

Inari7 · Post by **Inari7** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:28 pm

Listening to FC pod-cast the other day they were talking about Tournament ships used in SFB.

So why are there not Tournament ships for Fed Com?

It seems to me that there would be a good thing to have at conventions, or introducing new people to the game.

One ship from all the races this would give new people a taste for all the races.

just an idea.

â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦Doug

edited for spelling

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:31 pm

The SFB tournament ships are the result of 20+ years of play testing and balancing, I don't think we've had that long to balance a specific set of ships for Federation Commander.

Additionally, they are only balaned against a very limited set of opponents (the other 15 tournament ships) and within a very narrowly defined set of tournament rules.

In a full-out, all rules in play SFB game, the TCCs are not so balanced.

Federation Commander has a smaller set of rules to begin with, so a narrower set of Tourney rules is a non-starter. And for what it's worth, I've played SFB since 1980... Federation Commander since 2004... I've played in many SFB tournament games... and I've played FC using the current tournament format.
The current, Squadron style game is so much more enjoyable than the one-on-one, agonize over every single move SFB tournament.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:16 pm

We will not publish FC tournament ships. FC is a squadron/fleet-level game and it's tournament will be three-vs-three ships, using standard ships from the game. the dynamics is not getting the most out of one ship, but getting the most bang for 300 points.

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:45 pm

Actually, one thing I'd like to see more of are events where duels using some of the Middle Years ships from B2 feature.

The less intense level of large-scale war between the various Alpha empires (compared to the General War) might make scenarios featuring one-on-one clashes more representative of the era, plus there are plenty of quirks, strengths and weaknesses between the MY cruisers (including the MY-specific Fed OCA, and maybe a few oddballs which clock in at a comparable point value, such as the GSC, BCE and Vulture) to make match-ups quite a challenge for those flying, and facing, them.

Plus, it would help distinguish a MY event from the 300-point squadron bouts in the later era.

(I posted about this over on the other board, but I probably won't make it to somewhere like Origins to get to try it out personally, sadly...)

Inari7 · Post by **Inari7** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:08 pm

FC is a squadron/fleet-level game and it's tournament will be three-vs-three ships, using standard ships from the game. the dynamics is not getting the most out of one ship, but getting the most bang for 300 points.

Ah... I see

I just thought with the shorter playing time with FC you could run more "swiss" or "Round Robin" type tournaments.

I undersand if you want a more fleet style game, it makes the game diffrent from SFB.

How long would a game of FC be with 300pts.

Sorry I have only played a few single ship duels.

THANKS.................Doug

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:52 pm

Inari7 wrote: How long would a game of FC be with 300pts.

It depends on the players and the ships.

Our group typically does 3-on-3 battles at squadron scale in 1 1/2 to 2 hours... but if any of the Plasma races are involved... it can go 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

Fleet scale cuts that to 60 - 65%, timewise.

YMMV.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:47 am

I still say that an amazing match-up would be a duel between the Fed DDM and the Kzinti CL. Haven't had an opportunity to do it yet, but its coming soon...