Federation Commander

My 8-year old son Edward (9 in May) is on spring break, the in-laws are visiting, and so we had some time off yesterday to play FC.

We decided to take 125 points each. He took Romulans (War Eagle and SeaSparrow...at least I think it was a Sparrow...some sort of modern Rom ship) and I took Feds (Battle Frigate and a cruiser).

During the initial (and slow) approach I launched a couple of Drones (too early!) which made Edward turn away. I also think he intended to get around my flank since his ships had better firing arcs. I was at speed 8 hoping to arm my photons before we got too close, Edward was at 16 looking to out-maneuver me while arming his Plasma torps.

He shot down both drones but I managed to get on his six with fully overloaded Photons! Woohoo! And then...

"Dad, I'd like to try a High Energy Turn."

Doh!

Well, at this point my CA is a little ahead of my frigate which I let lag behind since it has a harder time getting its photons fully overloaded (less energy). Both of his ships are in the same hex at range two from my CA. We come to offensive fire phase...and I roll double-sixes with my photons!

!?&*%$!#@?!

In the ensuing exchanges of phasers, longer range photon fire from my frigate, drones, and plasma torps (Plasma Type S at 1 impulse = 30 damage points...each!) my CA is annhilated, his Seahawk/Sparrow is mostly destroyed, and both of our smaller ships are damaged (mine more so). In a following turn I finish off his Seahawk/Sparrow while his War Eagle does more damage to my Battle Frigate.

At this point his War Eagle is better off than my Frigate which is basically down to a couple of phasers and 2 points of energy with multiple shields down. He manages to limp away (5 energy) and turn around for another pass with his phasers.

Now, before I describe Edward's statement, I'd like to explain why I posted this. I wanted to let Stephen Cole know that after all of these years his game design still has the power to grip the imagination of little kids (of all ages).

So, to STEPHEN COLE:

My son then exclaimed, "I can't continue, it's just too tense!"

He was completely enthralled by the game. He had picked his own ships and after a close call against multiple overloaded photons he was on the verge of victory. With so many of my shields down we then tried out the marine raid and boarding rules but in the end it was a phaser volley which finished my Frigate.

It was a very close game and the outcome may have been even closer or different except for my double-6 roll when firing my photons at range 2 (well, that and my other tactical mistakes...I comfort myself that while I'm a mere mortal Edward's IQ is in the top 1% of the population).

But most importantly I'm so very pleased that in the age of ultra-realistic video game graphics an 8-year old can become SO intensely, emotionally involved in a game with little cardboard counters!

Tim

PS During our later conversation I described to Edward some of FC's and SFB's history and evolution. Note: he agreed that while more realistic ships should NEVER be allowed to "roll" in FC since it would ruin the maneuver aspect of the game.

But after some quick mental calculations of the number of potential counters involved Edward thought that fighters and such would be a bad idea for FC! So, beware of BoM! It may well divide the FC community!

Congratulations on the game with your son! I wish mine went as well all the time.

MajerBlundor wrote:So, beware of BoM! It may well divide the FC community!

I know you were only joking, but that is a point I want to stress here.

BoM is not really intended for the "FC community". Intead, it is intended as a bridge to the SFB and F&E community to get them into the FC community.

So, it isn't an expansion of FC, so much as a trojan horse to get others into FC.

That's awesome to hear about another youngster putting down the game-controller for a while and sitting across the table from Dad (or Mom). Very cool!

Wow, even younger than me! And I bet he would have won too in that situation, assuming I got the same bad photon roles. I wish all kids could grasp and enjoy a game like this...

Yeah, those sixes on photons will kill ya. Don't ask me how I know

Empty threat. With such bad roles on photons how'd you hurt me if I asked you?

He means from the FED side, if you continue rolling sixes you're likely to get massacred ----

Seems he's in the expanding crowd that has those days when the dice you roll are your enemy not your friend ---

mjwest wrote:
BoM is not really intended for the "FC community". Intead, it is intended as a bridge to the SFB and F&E community to get them into the FC community.

So, it isn't an expansion of FC, so much as a trojan horse to get others into FC.

That's interesting. As a new comer/returning player I've been mining the forum for information. I seem to remember several posts by what appear to be FC "veterans" asking specifically for features which will be part of BoM.

Based on those posts I would think that some segment, perhaps a significant segment, of the existing FC community will flock to BoM and adopt it as part of their standard FC gaming experience.

Personally, I prefer the original FC concept of keeping things as clean as possible and so have no interest in BoM. In that respect, as an existing (if new) FC player I fit your intended profile perfectly! But I can easily see existing FC players adopting BoM just as much as new players.

I was just kidding about the "divided community" thing (my son noted the potential for such division) but since groups seem fairly isolated I think this would only be an issue for a tourney organizer ("Do I include BoM or not?")

Tim

mjwest wrote:BoM is not really intended for the "FC community". Intead, it is intended as a bridge to the SFB and F&E community to get them into the FC community.

Really? And here I thought it was to get Fed Cmdr players into SFB.

Did your son like the game or dislike. He says it's too intense but what does that mean for him. And did he really not continue or what?

Congratulations.

USS Enterprise wrote:Did your son like the game or dislike. He says it's too intense but what does that mean for him. And did he really not continue or what?

Congratulations.

He absolutely loved it! The "tense" comment was due to the fact that he knew he was on the edge of a win but my remaining FF could still fight (a little anyway).

In fact, today we played FC at Hobbytown USA (Kennesaw GA, just north of Atlanta). He had his heart set on going but the in-laws are visiting. So, mom said he needed to stay home while grandma and grandpa were here. He agreed and mom promised to play the scenario once G&G leave on Monday.

Tim

Oh yeah, if you can get the kids inspired, they're in for life.

About ten years ago, I remember recounting, to my then 11-yr old son, how much fun I'd had with this game called 'Star Fleet Battles'. I'd had the game from the Designer's Edition, the Expansions and Supplement, then the Commander's Edition. Stupidly, I'd then sold it all; along with loads of other bits, some lucky sod got a bargain at FIASCO in Leeds in 1989

But who'd have thought that my regaling him with our adventures in space would re-inspire me? Before I knew it I'd resurrected my old starship design folder [self-designed SSDs] and bought the Captain's Edition main sets, and it went from there. It inspired him too; Dave became a great SFB player, over the few occasions we actually managed to set up a game - but then when FC came out, it was a natural progression for us.

On reading and digesting the 'First Missions' booklet, I was hooked. The beauty, simplicity and logic of the system, while capturing the flavour of SFB and Trek, were so attractive in themselves. So I went out and bought it. And Dave caught it straight away; he is simply a brilliant player. Ok, he was inspired somewhat later in life than were than Piney and Edward, but the principle holds that if you can inspire 'em young, you've got a fan for life. Davec_24 is now one of the most prolific contributors on this forum and he's collecting the sets himself as well. He's got his wife and friends playing too.....

And word has it that he's now inspired his brother too.... [using my set]

Borders of Madness will let FC players see some more rules, but keep those rules in another box, one you never HAVE to open.

Borders of Madness will let SFB players speed up their games while using more of the SFB rules.

Borders of Madness will let F&E players use FC/BOM to play out scenarios, something impractical with SFB (too tedious) and impossible with FC (does not have key ship types).

Steve Cole wrote:Borders of Madness will let FC players see some more rules, but keep those rules in another box, one you never HAVE to open.

Well, that's not quite true if another FC player insists that he always uses BoM as part of his standard FC game experience.

For some FC players BoM will be an integral part of their FC gaming. Other will have zero interest (like me). Yet others will fall in between. And so the FC community will naturally segment between the extremes of "BoM is standard" and "I have zero interest in BoM".

This will be true regardless of designer/publisher intentions. It's just human nature as demonstrated by the many related threads on this forum!

Tim

I am on the fence abot BoM. I might want to play with some of the rules on occasion, but by and large I don't think the added complexity will add enough "fun" for me.

FC with fleet and squadron scale offers about the level of game play I'm after. SFB is definitely more involved than I currently want. I loved SFB when I was younger and had more available brain cells to devote to gaming.

BoM may have a mixed reception among FC players, but that pales to the diversity of SFU gamers. Prime Directive RPG (currently 3 different sets of game engine) F&E, SFB, FC, SFBF is at least 5 different SFU games currently in print. SFU gamers may play one, all five, or some individual subset. BoM is just another option.