Federation Commander

Hi.


According to the FC rules from CL41, Shriek missiles are considered to be self-guiding (for now) in this game.

Over in SFB, Shrieks require seeking weapon control; however, Juggernauts have half of the number of seeking weapons they can handle at any one time (so, even the likes of the missile dreadnought can only maintain three Shrieks, or two Shrieks and a suicide shuttle, on the table at once).

Is there a particular reason why the change was made to FC?

Indeed, in light of the other Juggernaut Empire ships which await conversion (not least the aforementioned DNM) would it not be worth having FC Shrieks require drone-like control, and obliging Juggernaut ships (of whatever size class) to only handle three seekers at a time?



Further, the details for Juggernaut Beta only mention the two Shrieks it had ready by the time of its engagement; yet the later Juggernaut Empire ships (such as the BB) are permitted to replace all of their shuttles with Shrieks, should they so choose.

Now, while Beta in particular would have the limit of two, would a post-Beta (or in the conjectural Fire in the Deep context, post-Secundus) FC Juggernaut be able to replace as many of its shuttles as it can manage?

Is there a particular reason why the change was made to FC?

At the time it was written, as you point out, only two could be used. So, instead of giving limits that just didn't matter, it was easier, simpler, and cleaner to just say they were self-guiding. If, at some future point, that needs changing, it needs changing.

Now, while Beta in particular would have the limit of two, would a post-Beta (or in the conjectural Fire in the Deep context, post-Secundus) FC Juggernaut be able to replace as many of its shuttles as it can manage?

I have no idea. That is a future design decision that needs to be made in the future.

When the Juggernaut fleet is included into Federation Commander, that decision can be made. The additional rules given in CL41 are only really to allow you to transform your J-Alpha into J-Beta. Anything more than that is outside the scope of what the article was trying to accomplish.

I understand what you are getting at, but I guess the timing of publication was unfortunate; since the same magazine included so much for the SFB Juggernaut Empire.

(I was thinking of how the M81 pirates appeared in both systems back in CL40; though I guess there wasn't the same degree of overlap this time around.)


Hopefully the JE can be on the table sooner rather than later, but we'll see...