Federation Commander

Myself and a couple of friends have just begun playtesting a set of light flexible campaign rules for FC. (Inspired by SFB campaigns we played 20 years ago, and the campaigns chronicled here by other groups.)

Currently the system requires a referee to make it work and help maintain the fog of war. The ref also gets to play all the oddball encounters such as monsters and randomly encountered hostile aliens.

While it isn't in presentable form yet, and the rough drafts we're working from are in a constant state of flux, the two players sent the ref (me) their first turns last night. I can't discuss the details of the turn yet since this has to be played out and if a player read anything they didn't already know it could impact longer term play. Info is power.

Once the rules are in a much more reader friendly version I will post them here for feedback.

Briefly, here's what we're doing.

We decided to go mapless. Space is 3 Dimensional so borders in the terrestrial 2D sense don't exist. Each empire names a number of border worlds, core worlds, and a home world. Anyone can reach anyone else's border.

We're using Fleet scale SSDs.

There are rules for commerce raids, patrols, exploration, etc.

Right now the game is Gorns vs Romulans, but adding other empires is easily done.

The two players began with 750 points to buy their initial ships. They would get an additonal influx of 750 to buy more ships if other empires join the game, and those would come in at 1,500 points to start.

The players began with 5 border worlds, 2 core worlds, and a home world. Economically these are worth 10, 20, and 50 commerce points per turn. If additonal players join, each player would have 10 border, 5 core, and 1 home world.

I can say this much, the two players have vastly different ideas in their strategic thought process at this point, but you know what they say about plans and meeting the enemy.

Best of luck with your rules. Like the idea of a mapless campaign.

Only trouble is, once you've played campaign battles, non-campaign ones just seem to lack edge!

I'll be posting the latest rough draft and example turn sequence info this weekend.

Meanwhile, the game has gotten underway. The Romulans have sent cloaked ships into all of the Gorn border systems. It is now up to the players to determine if they'll be playing these encounters or if anyone will immediately withdraw.

I gave them info about this in the following manner:
Example - Cestus 3
Gorn detects minor indications of cloaked ships, Romulan detects a frigate and a destroyer of some type. Once the Romulan uncloaks, all sides know more about the ship types and names of the vessels.

Basically this gives some info without spilling everything. In this case it could indicate a small Romulan ship, and there's no knowing if the destroyer is a battle destroyer or a regular destroyer, etc, until the Romulan uncloaks. Once players decide to play it out it is assumed they'll be in sensor range to get relevant details.

Yeah - fun for the players with the improving intelligence. Won't you find that players will make their fight/flight decision when they see what they are actually fighting, or do you trap them on the board for a few turns?

Pinkfluffychicken wrote:Yeah - fun for the players with the improving intelligence. Won't you find that players will make their fight/flight decision when they see what they are actually fighting, or do you trap them on the board for a few turns?

If they want the improved intel, they have to at least begin to play and then disengage. If they are fine with what they've already received then they might decide they don't need ship specifics and names, and won't necessarily opt to play it out.

We're using location maps that float around a central marker (up to 50 hexes from the marker) so flying beyond the edge is disengaging.

If I had to guess based on what I know as the ref, we might see a mix of those options in this furst turn by the Romulan player. What I don't know is if there will be any bloodshed.

There's a really good chance that turn one will be complete by the time the weekend is finished.