Federation Commander

On the Battle Raider ship card (#113) the Y/Z optional weapon arming tracks are obviously supposed to be photons, but the Y/Z mounts cannot hold photons. Do I take it that the 'Y/Z' on the tracks is a misprint, and that they instead refer to 'A/B'?

Also, the ship description for the Free Traitor in Orion Attack says that it was 'indistinguishable from its peaceful cousins until it was boarded or started shooting'. I take it, though, that the ship is always known as a Free Traitor by all players, since only Q-Ships have the 'secret identity' rules. Is that right?

Thanks!

In SFB, the Battle Raider has five full options. However, during playtest there was much whining* about the ability of the ship to carry five photons or five Pl-F. So, the wing mounts were "nerfed" to just be secondary mounts. The original ship cards were printed prior to the ship being "nerfed". Thus, the (5L1) rule is correct, and the ship card is not. (Unless you have the PDF Orion ePack. Those ship cards were all fully updated.

For the Free Traitor, let's just leave the ship note as a "color comment" rather than an actual rule. Sure, in the SFU, it is indistinguishable from a Free Trader, but when the scenario starts the mystery has been lost somehow.

That's all fair enough - thanks Mike. The explanation for the Free Traitor I found particularly enjoyable - well put!

mjwest wrote:In SFB, the Battle Raider has five full options. However, during playtest there was much whining* about the ability of the ship to carry five photons or five Pl-F. So, the wing mounts were "nerfed" to just be secondary mounts. The original ship cards were printed prior to the ship being "nerfed". Thus, the (5L1) rule is correct, and the ship card is not. (Unless you have the PDF Orion ePack. Those ship cards were all fully updated.

Are you refering to this product?

http://www.warehouse23.com/products/fed ... k-number-1

If so, I just bought this to validate your statement and because I want the most up-to-date Orion ship info... Orions look cool and I want to test drive a few of them.

On the Battle Raider in this PDF, I do see the omission of the Plasma and Photon weapon arming tables for Y and Z.

Interesting to note though is I see Y and Z marked as WPN on my card. However, in the PDF, they're marked at DRN. That said, they're still listed as optional points on both reference manual and the PDF file (phaser, plasma D, ADD, drone).

In fact, I think i found this in one or two other ships where DRN points are actually WPN.

I think of DRN as a drone point not an optional weapon point? What am I missing here?

In general, WPN denotes full option mounts, while DRN denotes limited option mounts. Not the clearest system, I guess, but it is what was done. So, on Orion ships, DRN does not mean "drone", but rather "limited option mount". (Which does most commonly end up being a drone.)

mjwest wrote:In general, WPN denotes full option mounts, while DRN denotes limited option mounts. Not the clearest system, I guess, but it is what was done. So, on Orion ships, DRN does not mean "drone", but rather "limited option mount". (Which does most commonly end up being a drone.)

I can live with that. Thanks.