Federation Commander

What exactly are X-ships. I've never played SFB but I've played with them in Starfleet Command and was wondering, aren't they just ships with more powerful weapons and more energy? Why would this require addditional rules.

They are not only more powerful, their batteries hold 3 power, their multiple turn weapons charge more quickly, Romulan X - ships can use carronades, it goes on...

Think along the lines of the changes to the Enterprise between the classic series and the first movie (but run through an ADB/SFU filter). Massive changes and improvements to the technology of the ships systems, pretty much across the board. They might look like their General War-era counterparts, but under the hood they are nothing alike.

X-ships end up very superior to their GW-counterpart hulls (an X-cruiser could eat a non-X cruiser for lunch, then snorfle up any remaining crumbs while looking for milk to wash it down). They would seem like magic compared to Early Years counterparts.

Another analogy would be with airplanes (particularly military ones). When the F-15A first start flying in the 1970's, it was a state-of-the-art mean machine. Now, thirty years later, it has been upgraded several times to keep it competitive (and is still dangerous in capable hands), but it can't hold a candle to the "sea change" brought about by a machine like the new F-22. To an untrained eye (like, say, my mother's) the F-15 and the F-22 don't look much (if at all) different. The difference in capability is staggering though. F-22's were designed to do tricks that the F-15 will simply never be able to do and tricks win fights.

The X-ship battery trick pinecone points out is a pretty good X-tech toy, but only one of many.

I'd be afraid of X-stuff requiring a lot of pages to implement in FedCom or in BoM (much like the bizzaro Tholians did, or the Andromedans are likely to if they ever turn up). I'm sure if/when it happens, it will have the typical FedCom gloss, polish, and refinement.

i am sure when the time comes SVC will have the rules well in hand. whether this will be a briefings or BoM does not matter to me.