How to play bad Federation Commander

[terryoc]

Here's some deadly mistakes I've made while playing FC. Please feel free to add in your own...

Run out of power.
Running out of power is a great way to play bad FC. Every time I run out of power, and my opponent has power left, I get trashed. The opponent launches drones that I can't stop or run from, or just accelerates and overruns me with phasers. It seems to happen in other peoples' games too.

The biggest temptations for wasting power seem to be shield reinforcement and overloads.

Lose track of the other guy's power
While flying an Orion CR against a Federation CL, I'd managed to get in behind him at range 2. I was drooling over the prospect of firing a close range alpha strike without taking any damage in return. On sub-pulse 4, he does a high energy turn, ending with me on his forward centreline...

Two overloaded photons and six phaser-1s later, the CR is crippled.

The moral of that story is, don't get so hung up on your own plan that you forget how your opponent may respond. Keep track of his power so you'll know what options he has.

[sinister]

Not watching my opponet's use power (I think one was cheating). Not using turn mode markers (we WILL be using these from now on)

Not keeping track of an opponet's photons or other large charging weapons.

always being prepared for a high energy turn alpha strike.

[MikePowers]

Forget to power a tractor that had been used for Drone Defense. This was a bit embarassing.

[jmt]

Forgetting about hit-and-run raids (really bad if you happen to be a Romulan).

Forgetting about tractor beams and getting pulled into an asteroidfield.

[mjwest]

Lose track of the other guy's power

Be aware that energy use is "open". If at any time you have a question on your opponent's energy use, you have simply to ask.

[terryoc]

Yes, but I forgot to even ask. I knew he had enough power for an HET, but wasn't thinking about what he could do.

[TJolley]

Forgetting that your opponent can CANCEL his movement..very bad when you have a worse turn mode than your opponent, move first..thinking he HAS to move and forgetting he can cancel..very bad when he is a Lyran at RANGE 0 with fully powered ESG's and P-1's..buh-bye Battle Cruiser...sigh

[anarchy]

I forgot to preload my photons once.

I didn't turn and run from plasma fired at close range (hey, I can phaser it down a little bit!)

Purposely didn't phaser a suicide shuttle and grabbed it with a tractor so I would have more weapons to fire only to see the tractor destroyed when we traded alpha strikes. Ouch!

[TJolley]

See this a lot:

People call directed damage all the time and forget that you lose all 'skipped' damage points....DOH!

[MikePowers]

See this a lot:

People call directed damage all the time and forget that you lose all 'skipped' damage points....DOH!

Or you could do what I invariably do, and forget to call directed damage until you've already rolled to hit...

[trooper]

After knocking down the front shield on a War Eagle during the Offensive Fire phase you drop your front shield to do a hit-and-run raid to take out the cloaking device, BUT you forgot that the Launch phase comes later AND that the War Eagle has had time to have a R torp ready to go.
Fortunately, I was the raid-ee in this situation and JMT, who posted earlier, was the raider. That R torp made a mess of his pretty Fed BC.

Cheers,
Brian

[jmt]

Always know the status of your opponent's multi-turn arming weapons. Specifically, don't end an impuse at range 1 infront of a Hydran with fully loaded Hellbores.

[terryoc]

...and when your Gorn or Romulan opponent will have his plasmas loaded next turn, plot speed 24 in energy allocation. Or die.

[mjwest]

... and don't forget that turn two on Pl-G and Pl-S (and Pl-R) count as "loaded". If you give him a tempting target, he will take it with quick-loaded Pl-F shots.

[terryoc]

Forget that you're playing Federation Commander and not Star Fleet Battles. This is a common mistake for players who also play SFB. As Steve Petrick pointed out in his Command Note on basic FC tactics, things just don't work the same in Federation Commander. FC and SFB are similar enough that it's easy to learn one from the other, but it's also similar enough to get easily confused.