Federation Commander

Probably Borders of Madness materiel, but I was kicking around with Module M over the weekend wondering about integrating FC with a strike-from-space ground battle.

Problem is, no-one has any troopships with large banks of transporters in FC yet.

Then I realised you don't need them. You just land your ship(s) directly on the objective and deliver the marines that way.

The prob is you can't land on an enemy ship.

The clue is in the word 'ground'...

On the ground, without transporters, the most you could do with your marines is set up a perimeter around the ship ---
Even with transporters, your still limited to line of sight to move your troops ---

And don't forget SVC's desire to produce Star Fleet Assault: Ground Combat in the SFU.

If it ever sees fruition, this game should interface with SFB/FC and with Prime Directive to provide a ground-combat option that is currently missing from the SFU (short of Module M).

Well, I'll look forward to that, and in the meantime continue using DNs as LSEs (Landing Ship, Enormous).

@ Bolo - it's science fiction. They have jet packs.

You fly into a hot LZ,
I'll walk, Thank you

LSE's...

now that's funy!
I'll have to remember that one.

There is no way I am going to put my troopers into a hot LZ. I will bombard the planet into the stone age if they do not surrender, thus the statement of Klingons, 'Surrender or die!'

But I would love to see mass shuttles assault in waves, similar to Starship Troopers, Iwo Jima, or The Longest Day, while I am transporting units to the ground from my Commando ships!

I need a glorius war! And more bloodwine!

And as your mass wave of assualt shuttles comes in, I'm going to be picking them off with my 4 Plasma-D racks (that's a little trick I learned from an Orion Pirate I once ran into...)

Scoutdad wrote:And as your mass wave of assualt shuttles comes in, I'm going to be picking them off with my 4 Plasma-D racks (that's a little trick I learned from an Orion Pirate I once ran into...)

I thought landed ships couldn't shoot in FC?

There are times you want to capture something or someone without necessarily destroying the planet's biosphere in the process (unless you're Klingon, natch).

And if you are a lone Orion pirate, you won't have the firepower to do it before the law arrives.

My Pirate Cruser is in close orbit above the planet... picking off those shuttles as they launch, but before the land...

All the better reason to land the ship!

16 plasma-Ds = very dead shuttle wave

4 plasma-Ds = mildly annoyed cruiser (or faintly amused DN)

Was the simplified ground combat module from Captain's Log #3 totally scrapped when the Doomsday edition of the rules was released?

Mike wrote:Was the simplified ground combat module from Captain's Log #3 totally scrapped when the Doomsday edition of the rules was released?

No. It forms the basis of SFB Module M. The rules are mostly the same.