Is it possible to play F&E with miniatures?

DorianGray · Post by **DorianGray** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:43 am

FedCom is brilliant for miniatures but F&E is the real grand strategic scale game determining the fate of wars.

Has anyone tried adopting the FedCom miniatures for F&E? Any system anyone thought of?

-1 ship could represent a fleet and the ship counters placed in a placeholder box
- a custom map with larger hexes?
- I got nothing.

rofl

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:12 am

I'm sure if anyone has tried, scoutdad has.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:37 pm

Dorian,

I've tried to collect enough minis to play F&E with miniatures... the only problem is one of space - and EPA regulations regarding the amount of lead one can physically store in a small space.

Our current game has just over 10,000 units in play and we haven't even gotten to the "Attrition Unit" phase of the game.

As for using minis as fleet markers and the individual counters being in placeholder boxes... that's almost the way it currently works. Each race has a series of fleet charts with boxes for stacking the counters representing units in that fleet and a larger, fleet marker that gets moved across the table.
Theoretically, you could use a painted miniature... but you'd still have to have counters on the map for the small pinning fleets, the repair depots, the base stations, and the garrisoning units. So you'd end up with a few thousand counters on the map and 6 or 7 minis per empire.
All-in-all, it's probably better to stick with the counters.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:46 pm

Yes, it is entirely possible, and the way to do it is to buy the $100 fleet boxes which are the lowest cost per ship. We offer 10% discounts to F&E players buying 25 or more fleet boxes.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:54 pm

Steve Cole wrote:Yes, it is entirely possible, and the way to do it is to buy the $100 fleet boxes which are the lowest cost per ship. We offer 10% discounts to F&E players buying 25 or more fleet boxes.

10% off!!!
<in Montgomery Durn's voice"
Ex - cellent!
</Montgomery Burns>

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:16 pm

Hey Scoutdad, didn't SVC creat this deal in honour of you?

If I have a good year I just may take him up on it...

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:45 pm

Nope... he create the "Bill-board" sized, Super-Dooper, Ulta-Mega, Extreme Sized, Large Scale Map for me.

Only $19,999.99 and you too can have your very own, miniatures sized F&E map!

DorianGray · Post by **DorianGray** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:19 pm

Steve Cole wrote:Yes, it is entirely possible, and the way to do it is to buy the $100 fleet boxes which are the lowest cost per ship. We offer 10% discounts to F&E players buying 25 or more fleet boxes.

For moral thumping authoritarian's benefit I edited the following.

Wow $2,500? It'd take a real hardcore FedCom player to invest in that much money to try to play F&E with miniatures which is sadly out of most players of this hobby's hands. 2,500 is almost 2-3 months rent for me, crazyness.

The only way I see it working is to do a major overhaul of the game itself to involve less countes... wait btw isn't a FedCom version of F&E already in the works? Hopefully a simpler more streamlined version without using thousands of counters. I heard somewhere to except a new F&E in 2010.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:59 pm

DorianGray wrote: Won't this be $2500? not to mention that will be MORE miniatures than one would ever need for a FedCom game.

Insane.

Yet again with that abrasive tone Dorian.

F&E was designed to be a sweeping grand strategic game that uses counters. Hundreds of them, all at the same time.

You asked if the game could use miniatures and received several honest and polite answers, including a detailed one from the game's designer about a discounted way to implement the game that way.

You respond with an insult, I assume because you don't like the answer.

Your comment about the potential for a streamlined strategic game in the future doesn't mitigate calling SVC or his customers insane (and yes that is what you did, even if it's not what you intended. "Internet" reads differently than speech).

junior · Post by **junior** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:15 pm

DorianGray wrote:wait btw isn't a FedCom version of F&E already in the works? Hopefully a simpler more streamlined version without using thousands of counters. I heard somewhere to except a new F&E in 2010.

All we know is that it's been considered. If you look through the archives here, you'll occasionally find SVC saying that nothing (and I do mean nothing) about the game has been officially (or unofficially) announced.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:23 pm

DorianGray wrote: Won't this be $2500? not to mention that will be MORE miniatures than one would ever need for a FedCom game.

Fed Fleet Boxes 1, 2, and 3
Klingon Fleet Box, B-10 Fleet Box
Romulan Fleet Box 1 and 2
Kzinti Fleet Box
Gorn Fleet Box
Tholian Fleet Box
Orion Fleet Box
Hydran Fleet Box (x2) - one for Fusion armed ships, one for Hellbores)
Andromedan Fleet Box
Lyran Fleet Box (x2) - one for the LDR
WYN Fleet Box
ISC Fleet Box
Seltorian Fleet box
Bases and Freighters Box...

That's 20 boxes without ever duplicating a single fleet box

Then you could add another Klingon box for use as Romulans (that's 21)
Add in another Fed, Klingon, and Romulan Fleet box (so you have more than one Fed CA and Klingon D7 miniature available) - that make 24
Then you add another box of your choice and you're at 25!

[Edit - That doesn't even go into the Battleships and Light / Heavy DNs that are only available in the squadron boxes... with I'm sure SVC and Co. would substitute for "Fleet Boxes" in this deal"]

If I didn't already have 6 or 7 hundred minis for Fed Com - I'd think this was a great deal.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:26 pm

DorianGray wrote:...not to mention that will be MORE miniatures than one would ever need for a FedCom game...

Yes. That probably is more minatures than any one would ever need in a single, Fed Comm game - but there are those among us (no names mentioned, of course) who like to play WYSIWYG Fed Comm...

In other words... it's not a D7C unless it has ALL of the weapons that a D7C has...
It's not a Fed Commnad Cruiser unless it's been modified to match the ship diagram...
and so on.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:50 pm

I tweak mine to match variants too, but I'm nowhere in your league. When my collection grows up, it wants to be scoutdad's.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:04 pm

He wanted enough minis to play F&E, so it hardly matters if 25 boxes of 24 ships is too many for FedComm. Two different games; two different questions.

Sgt_G · Post by **Sgt_G** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:52 pm

djdood wrote:Yet again with that abrasive tone Dorian.

We need to ask Eric if he can replace Dorian's avitar with a photo of a power sander.

Steve Cole wrote:He wanted enough minis to play F&E, so it hardly matters if 25 boxes of 24 ships is too many for FedComm.

Yeah, but is 600 ships enough for F&E?? Only if you're using them for fleet counters.

Scoutdad wrote:If I didn't already have 6 or 7 hundred minis for Fed Com - I'd think this was a great deal.

Reminds me of a story a firend liked to tell. When he was stationed back east someplace in the Coast Guard, a bunch of Navy ROTC cadets from the local college dropped by their gaming group one day to watch a HARPOON battle in action.

The cadets got mouthy and challanged the group to a huge battle. One of the players responded that he had access to an indoor basketball court, so he'd bring his collection to fight everything the ROTCers could bring. "No, no, that's not fair. You all can bring everything you have," they told him.

So, the next week, the ROTCers about freeked out when the guy shows up with a pick-up truck full of boxes. They were out numbered two-to-one or worse. At first, they thought he brought everyone's collection from the whole group ... until they all started showing up with piles of boxes of their own.

P.S> Dorian, ref: changing your avitar == IT'S A JOKE!