Federation Commander

I just joined the Forums today. I'm an old (early 1980's) SFB player who wants to get back into the SF Universe. I'm going to give FC a try because streamlining the system seems so appealing to me now.

I have to admit I got into FC because I was obsessed with finding the plastic Federation miniatures to add to my old 1980's fleet I've kept squirreled away. I found Squadron #91, and here I am...

It all looks so cool I really didn't know where to start! Luckily I stumbled on another thread that suggested downloading First Missions - and I did that. That's a good thread for newbies, by the way...

I also purchased a copy of the FC Rulebook to get up to speed on what's happening.

Beyond First Missions and the FC Rulebook is there another good module I should get to learn and understand the FC System?

By and by, I live in Campbell, California (San Jose) and don't know if there are any FC Players locally to interact with - is FC built well for solitary play too?

Jim

Welcome!

I'll let the guys chime in as the true authorities, but I usually suggest either Klingon Border or Romulan Border (depending on which empire you prefer) to folks who want to know where to start.

I hope we'll see you more on the Forum.

Jim, do you still have your SFB stuff? Since you have the FC rules, the ship cards are really all you need unless you want the "official" counters, hard maps, etc. Many, many ship cards are available at Commander's Circle.

Welcome, Jim.

As far as I know, Klingon Border is the most popular Core module, but Romulan Border would give you the best mix of ships with which to experiment with the different weapons systems. KB has ships which use mainly Phasers, Photons, Disruptors, Drones, whereas RB has those and ships that carry Plasma Torpedoes as well. Having said that, the Orion CR in KB can carry plasmas too.... also RB does not have many ships which carry Disruptors, so it's swings and roundabouts I guess.

There is also another money-saving route that is not always well publicised.

If you bought, say, Klingon Border, you can buy a module called Romulan Space which basically contains all the parts of Romulan Border that are not in Klingon Border. Basically, that means that Romulan Space would not include the map boards, dice, pens and paper clips.

The converse is also true: there is a Klingon Space module that complements Romulan Space in the same way.

There is also a product called Academy, which contains four ships (Gorn BC, Klingon D7, Fed CA and Rom KE) and all that's needed to play the game with those four. Then, the 'expansion' Graduation brings Academy to the level of Klingon Border in a similar way as Klingon Space would do for Romulan Border. Information on the Academy entry route is given here: http://tinyurl.com/6xd9prc

For myself, when I started playing this game, I just took the plunge on the basis of First Missions and went and bought RB and KB together.

Hope this helps

Kang is absolutely correct. After you pick the Border product you prefer, the opposite Space product is the most economic way to go.

Still, I've had people who prefer both Border products (and I do have both) simply because with that many map panels you can have ginormous battles!

And when the Space Dragon (masquerading as a cat) suddenly appears on the map, there tends to be a bit of a margin between where she lands and where the ships are! Swift action will preserve your ship from her claw, claw, bite routine!

Not to mention the extra rulebook (though I am unsure if there is one in a space product because I also have both border products). The extra rulebook is great when you are playing the game with a friend who does not own a rulebook, that way you can both look things up.

Thank you all for the advice!

Mike - yes, I still have all of my old SFB Books and Errata. It's almost like Christmas when I pull it out and rediscover the stuff all over again...