Federation Commander

Well, finally got in a game of FedCom, after owning Klingon Border for almost a year now. Lotsa fun, and definitely looking forward to more games(as was my opponent). Some impressions:

First: Dang, that power curve can be strict! After paying for movement and charging one or two torpedoes, I barely have enough power left to fire phasers, and if I do, I certainly don't have much left for shield reinforcement. Also, it seems like Federation ships have a more restrictive power curve than their Klingon equivalents(though taking a heavy hit to my power grid early on didn't help things).

Second: Torpedoes HURT! They may be expensive, but spending the power to have at least one available at any given time is definitely worth it.

Third: Impulses. Impulse-based games certainly take a while to get used to if you haven't played with them before, and keeping track of which impulse you're in takes some work, but I do like the flexibility it gives you in the ability to fire at any point in your movement.

Very fun all in all, and I'm looking forward to introducing more of my local players to it, as well as moving up to having multiple ships per player, as well as squadron-scale detail.

Welcome to the forum and hope you have more games in teh future.

Weirdo wrote:First: Dang, that power curve can be strict! After paying for movement and charging one or two torpedoes, I barely have enough power left to fire phasers, and if I do, I certainly don't have much left for shield reinforcement. Also, it seems like Federation ships have a more restrictive power curve than their Klingon equivalents(though taking a heavy hit to my power grid early on didn't help things).

Look for move cost 1/4 ships and be careful around move cost 3/4 ships. In SFB there were move costs of 1/3 and 2/3 and these got adjusted to 1/4 and 3/4 so...some ships got free power and some got free...er...power problems .

Glad to see new players! Have fun!

Weirdo wrote: Third: Impulses. Impulse-based games certainly take a while to get used to if you haven't played with them before, and keeping track of which impulse you're in takes some work, but I do like the flexibility it gives you in the ability to fire at any point in your movement.

We just keep a d8 on the table and turn it to the new impulse number before starting movement.

Stephen

It's nice to see others getting into the game. I wish you good luck in finding other players .

Yeah, photons are definetly powerful. I'd suggest that you not go speed 16 on fed ships unless you intend to engage that turn, and rarely ever go 24 (unless you're facing a plasma race)

Shinanygnz wrote:

Weirdo wrote: Third: Impulses. Impulse-based games certainly take a while to get used to if you haven't played with them before, and keeping track of which impulse you're in takes some work, but I do like the flexibility it gives you in the ability to fire at any point in your movement.

We just keep a d8 on the table and turn it to the new impulse number before starting movement.

Stephen

When you need the game to speed up, make sure you use the Formula De 3rd gear die.

We use poker chips to track turns, impulses and sub-impulses. Ten blue ones for turns (a reminder that energy allocation is at the top of each turn), eight red ones for impulses (a reminder you can only fire once per impulse after all the sub-impulses are completed) and four white ones for sub-impulses.

Another thing we do is use the acronym "DOOL":

Defensive (Fire Phase)

Offensive (Direct Fire Phase)

Other (Phase)

Launch (Phase)


It helps us to remember the order of phases at the end of each impulse. Steve Brasseur (Yockbo) came up with that idea as well as the poker chip idea.

I'll try some of those ideas. I especially like the D8 one. Our main problem would occur when we'd have a few impulses with nothing but movement, then a firing one. By the time we resolved all the fire, we'd settle down to the next impulse, and completely lose track of which one we'd just finished. Our solution was to put a paper clip on the cheat sheet, and advance it at the beginning of every impulse.

Yeah, photons are definetly powerful. I'd suggest that you not go speed 16 on fed ships unless you intend to engage that turn, and rarely ever go 24 (unless you're facing a plasma race)

Oh, definitely. We were just following the book's suggestion, and keeping everything at speed 16 for our first game.