Federation Commander SSD Card Dimensions

darebear · Post by **darebear** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:11 am

Question: can anyone give me the dimensions of the SSD cards?

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:05 pm

They are "half-sheets" of standard American 8.5 inch x 11 inch sheets. So, their dimensions are 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches. That's approximately 138mm x 214mm (by my ruler).

darebear · Post by **darebear** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:35 pm

Thank you very much! Most appreciated.

darebear · Post by **darebear** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:00 pm

As an addendum, I played SFB years ago but sold it all off due to lack of a player base. FC seems right up my alley, but I have a hard time justifying playing $10 for a small amount of duplicate laminated SSDs. It feels very "X-Wingy"/CCGish. Coming from SFB, with access to zillions of ships if feels like a less for more situation. It is certainly good for revenue though; that I understand and respect.

Finally, being Canadian, currency conversion is an issue for me since all of these products are at least 30% more expensive for me (everything up here is a fortune.....we can easily pay over $100 a month for an average phone plan). The 12 Booster Packs for Klingon and Romulan Border/Attack modules is $120 which would/have bought a lot of SFB products. Really hard to swallow that for things I used to photocopy en mass.

Anyway, I figured that with my home laminator and color laser printer/copier I could make those extra SSDs I need at home. Copy both Fleet/Squadron SSDs onto a single piece of 8x11, fold it over and laminate with 10 mil 6x9 pouches (10 being very rigid).

Do most people purchase extra cards or do you make your own? Just curious.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 3:00 pm

One option is combing through Communique. The first, I dunno, 80 or so, issues have reprints of published ship cards. Basically, all Klingon Border, Klingon Attack, Romulan Border, and Romulan Attack are republished through Communique. It will take a little digging to get them all, but they are definitely there. (The bonus Booster ships are not, of course, but the rest are.)

If you want to try the game out, and have no map or counters, then I recommend getting Academy. This gives you the Klingon/Romulan Border rules, a map, counters, and four ship cards. With the above mentioned Communiques, you will be able to have a full, effective set of ships to use, and you can figure out if you want to go further. Academy itself is a USD $25 purchase. (I have no idea what the shipping to Canada is for it. It could double the price, honestly.)

This all assumes that you are willing to accept paper (and B&W paper at that) ship cards. But, as a lowest-cost entry point, this should allow you to experiment with the system with a (relatively) low entry cost. If you like it, you can start buying what interests you. If you don't, at least you aren't out a huge amount of money.

Just a thought.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:53 pm

You can also download FIRST MISSIONS which is a streamlined and simplified set of FC rules without some bells and some whistles. But it's free.

darebear · Post by **darebear** » Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:18 pm

thanks gents.

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:22 pm

I might also suggest taking a look at these PDF options. Various empires have one or more ePacks available from Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, and/or Wargame Vault. (Bear in mind that the "Briefing #2" packs listed there are for Middle Years Ship Cards, which are akin to the "unrefitted" hulls in Star Fleet Battles terms.)

Also, if you want as close to a one-stop-shop as you can get for the rules needed to operate the "main era" Alpha Octant empires presently in Federation Commander, I might further recommend getting an electronic copy of the FC Reference Rulebook.

And it might be worth noting that certain Ship Cards are "double-size", for units such as battleships and starbases. I don't have the exact dimensions of those Ship Cards to hand right now, though.

Itharus · Post by **Itharus** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:31 am

darebear wrote:As an addendum, I played SFB years ago but sold it all off due to lack of a player base. FC seems right up my alley, but I have a hard time justifying playing $10 for a small amount of duplicate laminated SSDs. It feels very "X-Wingy"/CCGish. Coming from SFB, with access to zillions of ships if feels like a less for more situation. It is certainly good for revenue though; that I understand and respect.

Finally, being Canadian, currency conversion is an issue for me since all of these products are at least 30% more expensive for me (everything up here is a fortune.....we can easily pay over $100 a month for an average phone plan). The 12 Booster Packs for Klingon and Romulan Border/Attack modules is $120 which would/have bought a lot of SFB products. Really hard to swallow that for things I used to photocopy en mass.

Anyway, I figured that with my home laminator and color laser printer/copier I could make those extra SSDs I need at home. Copy both Fleet/Squadron SSDs onto a single piece of 8x11, fold it over and laminate with 10 mil 6x9 pouches (10 being very rigid).

Do most people purchase extra cards or do you make your own? Just curious.

I try to buy pdfs of materials for this game whenever I can and just print everything as I need it. Sadly not everything is available in pdf yet

I deeply wish it were.

Edit: Oooh. There do seem to be new ones since the last time I looked though, yay! I hope this is a trend

Post by **Steve Cole** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 7:52 pm

We are moving to PDFs as fast as we can BUT we cannot post a PDF of a non-updated product or we get trashed in reviews. And Steve Petrick can only revise/update one product at a time and updating old products is not his only job.

cnuzzi · Post by **cnuzzi** » Wed May 13, 2020 1:55 am

We are moving to PDFs as fast as we can BUT we cannot post a PDF of a non-updated product or we get trashed in reviews.

Why does this matter? Who cares what a few jerks have to say? As someoone who only buys pdfs (sad experience has taught me the impermanence of physical objects), I really hate the idea that the reason so many SFB/FC products are not out on pdf is because of this.

Sgt_G · Post by **Sgt_G** » Wed May 13, 2020 5:37 am

Who cares what a few jerks have to say? Well, there's an old adage "a happy costumer will tell ten people, an unhappy costumer will tell a hundred people." And with the Internet, multiply by a thousand. Those "jerks" will post poor reviews on the three main PDF download sites and also on gaming sites such as Board-Game-Geeks. Poor reviews lead to poor sales.

koogie · Post by **koogie** » Wed May 13, 2020 4:05 pm

I'm kind of skeptical about that. These are niche products on a niche topic in niche hobby. The people who are going to buy the PDF of the Module R1 SSD book are not likely going to be new customers, but old customers who want the convenience of SSDs they can simply print off, or replace worn out copies.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Wed May 13, 2020 4:16 pm

Actual sales data shows that being trashed in reviews lowers sales for every product and costs us lots of money.

We don't set policy on gut feelings. We use actual data. The last time we posted a non-updated book we got trashed so thoroughly it took months of updated products for sales to recover.

cnuzzi · Post by **cnuzzi** » Wed May 13, 2020 6:21 pm

That seems strange to me, but then I generally don't read reviews for most purchases. I know what I want to buy and I buy it. I'll read reviews if I am buying a TV, but even there I take them with a grain of salt. The people who liked the TV don't generally post reviews, so the data is heavily skewed.

Just out of curiosity, what is it they are trashing? I guess what I am really asking is, what do the updates consist of? Errata? New content?