Federation Commander

Hi,

I'm new to the Forum. I have a few questions about the miniatures and which games they can be used for.

I played some of the FASA stuff a few years back. I have a few of their miniatures. (In storage stateside.)

I played one of the ADB games (don't recall which one) and kind of liked it. Recently I got a few miniatures for these as well.

Are all the miniatures from the various lines all compatible with each other? (Same Scale.)

Also - I've seen the Micro Machines for TOS Star Trek - are they compatible also?

As for the games - I've ordered the Klingon Border and Romulan Border (as I understand it in the Federation Commander line) and Federation & Empire games. I know the miniatures are good (if the are compatible between the lines) for the Border Games. Are the miniatures used in the Federation & Empire games?

Final question - Are the miniatures good for use with Star Fleet Battles? and the last part of this is - Do I need both the Basic and Advanced Sets - or does the Advanced cover both systems?

Thanks for any help that can be provided and please forgive my ignorance - I'll learn faster once I get the games.

V/r,

PanzerTC

PanzerTC wrote:Hi,

I'm new to the Forum. I have a few questions about the miniatures and which games they can be used for.

Whoo... that's a lot of questions, but I'll try my bestto help you out.
First off, Welcome aboard!

I played some of the FASA stuff a few years back. I have a few of their miniatures. (In storage stateside.)

Where are you currently at? There are several members of the military on this forum who are stationed in various locations. Perhaps one of them is close enough to hook up with and play a few games?
As for the FASA stuff... a lot of those ships were created by FASA and as such do not have exact counter-parts in the SFU. Not that you can't use them for a game of FEderation Commander (as long as both players are aware that the FASA Reliant miniature is representing a Federation NCL or that the Romulan Winged Defender is representing a Romulan Condor, or what-have-you.

I played one of the ADB games (don't recall which one) and kind of liked it. Recently I got a few miniatures for these as well.

ADB only has two Starship Combat Games... Star Fleet Battles (SFB) and Federation Commander. Both of which are quite enjoyable...

Are all the miniatures from the various lines all compatible with each other? (Same Scale.)

More or less.
The ADB Starline miniatures are 1:3788 scale (long story told in other postings... )
I'm not sure what scale the FASA ships are in, but if it's not the same, it's very close. I have some of the FASA miniatures that I mix in with my ADB stuff and they are very close in size.

Also - I've seen the Micro Machines for TOS Star Trek - are they compatible also?

I also have sme of thesethat I use for demo games. They are considerably larger (10 to 15%) than the 1:3788 scale stuff, but are much more durable in small or in-experienced hands than the stuff I spent hours and hours painting.

As for the games - I've ordered the Klingon Border and Romulan Border (as I understand it in the Federation Commander line) and Federation & Empire games. I know the miniatures are good (if the are compatible between the lines) for the Border Games. Are the miniatures used in the Federation & Empire games?

Federation is a strategic lever game spanning the entire General War and covering the whole Alpha Octant. Later in the war, you will have counters for 10's of thousands of ships on the board. While ADB would love to sell you that many minatures, you'd need a football field (or more) to play in.
You're much better off playing that one [Fed & Empire] with counters only.

Final question - Are the miniatures good for use with Star Fleet Battles? and the last part of this is - Do I need both the Basic and Advanced Sets - or does the Advanced cover both systems?

Yes, the same miniatures that you use for Fed Comm can be used for SFB... with the same, previously stated caveats regarding FASA miniatures.
Basic Set / Advanced Missions are two differnt sets. They are exactly what they sound like. The Basic Set gives you the basic rules needed to play SFB along with a selection of ships from each of the 7 maor empires.
Advanced missions adds more rules / ships to the same setting from Basic Set.
Then you have New Wolrds (Modules C1, C2, and C3) that add additional races / weapons / systems / ships to the mix.

Thanks for any help that can be provided and please forgive my ignorance - I'll learn faster once I get the games.

V/r,

PanzerTC

Feel free to ask away anytime you have a question.

Scoutdad,

Wow and thanks.

I am stationed in Schwienfurt, Germany. I saw a few members listing Germany as the Base of OPS also.

I have plans to play once I return from Iraq.

PanzerTC

Good Luck in Iraq PanzerTC, and I hope you return safe my friend..and patriot...

welcome aboard from a new member as well..

I look forward to conversing with you on the message boards some time..

SWO_Daddy is stationed in Germany and is one of the best and most prolific SFU minis painters.. Germany is a big country though.

scoutdad gave pretty much any answers I would have, so I'll just say welcome to our little corner of this BBS. We're all minis freaks here.

Any mini works for anything, as long as everyone at the table understands what is representing what. Some of the old FASA minis are quite cool (the D-10 is personal favorite). ADB would love you to buy theirs, but no one is going to tell you to not use a cool mini (and MicroMachines do make great "indestructible" demo-day minis).

You mentioned that you ordered both FC:Klingon Border & Romulan Border. If you haven't opened them yet and your retailer allows returns, you could consider returning one of them.

They are both "gateway products" for entry into the system, and as such are box-sets that include map panels, reference cards, etc. There is some duplication between them - the truly unique bits (ship cards, "fluff" text in the rules describing ships, etc.) can be had much cheaper by buying either Romulan Space or Klingon Space (for whichever box got returned). Not everyone needs or wants a lot of duplicate "open space" map panels and reference cards.

Me, I can never have enough (especially when doing demo-days, etc.), so I ended up buying both box-sets, and other add-on products to give me even more duplicates...

Scoutdad wrote:[
The ADB Starline miniatures are 1:3788 scale (long story told in other postings... )
I'm not sure what scale the FASA ships are in, but if it's not the same, it's very close. I have some of the FASA miniatures that I mix in with my ADB stuff and they are very close in size.

The FASA minis are 1/3900... so as you say, they are very close. (I'm not sure FASA strictly stuck to that scale in all cases, but that's another discussion) .

I wasn't sure what the FASA scale was, but I knew it had to be a bit smaller than the ADB stuff.

Hi guys thanks for the responses.

All of them have been very helpful to help me dive into this Wargame and Community.

Starsuperion

Thanks for the well wishes. This is my third Iraq tour - things are a lot safer. My first and second ones were both very scary and long. This one is more like a Balkans tour with a few iditos shooting here and there. (Still dangerous but the Security Forces have grown and matured a lot.)

I look forward to seeing you around the boards.

djdood

I saw SWO_Daddy 's profile and sent him an email yesterday. He is stationed about 200km (120 mi) from where I live. Germany is a big country with wonderful Autobahns. My best time to Stuttgart was 53 mins - normally 2 hours. (Had to pick my wife up from a train station and get her to an Airport. Normally I don't drive too fast, but when I do I drive to win!)

We're all minis freaks here.

My kinda people.

Any mini works for anything, as long as everyone at the table understands what is representing what.

I find this to usually be a universal truth - but ocassionally there are exceptions.

You mentioned that you ordered both FC:Klingon Border & Romulan Border. If you haven't opened them yet and your retailer allows returns, you could consider returning one of them.

I'm thinking about it - but I will probably get them both anyway. Must have both Klingons and Romulans to war with!

Me, I can never have enough (especially when doing demo-days, etc.), so I ended up buying both box-sets, and other add-on products to give me even more duplicates...

DUPLICATES - Homer Simpson Duff Beer Smile

Thanks,

PanzerTC

PanzerTC wrote:

You mentioned that you ordered both FC:Klingon Border & Romulan Border. If you haven't opened them yet and your retailer allows returns, you could consider returning one of them.

I'm thinking about it - but I will probably get them both anyway. Must have both Klingons and Romulans to war with!

Just to double-check that I got my meaning across, the Romulan Space product includes everything from Romulan Border that doesn't duplicate Klingon Border (so you would get all the ship cards, the different rulebook "fluff" text, etc.). Klingon Space does the same thing in reverse (if you had bought Romulan Border as your entry point.

But, like I also admitted, I bought both and I find duplicates a good thing.

Roger All. I understand thanks for the explaination.

Like I said:

Me, I can never have enough (especially when doing demo-days, etc.), so I ended up buying both box-sets, and other add-on products to give me even more duplicates...

DUPLICATES - Homer Simpson Duff Beer