Federation Commander

Hi,

I am along time SFB player but, a new FC player and I had a couple of questions that came up in a Kzinti vs. Andro game that we just finished and I couldn't find an answer to them.

1. When you allocate internal damage and score a "drone" hit which, goes to PA panel, can the Andro player choose to disable a forward panel even if the damage came through the rear panel or does he have to disable a rear panel box?

2. If a person takes a phaser or torpedo hit can he take any phaser or torpedo box or does he have to take one that can fire out of the arc where he took the damage?

3. If the Andro transports an Energy Module into space on Impulse 8 does it dissipate energy at the end of that turn or is there a delay until the end of the next turn?

4. A Displacement Device is disabled on every 2nd Control Hit but, how many Repair points does it take to repair one, is it the same as a control box or more?

Thank You!

1. I think when allocating internals, the Andro player could choose a panel from either bank.
2. Player can choose any phaser or torp, direction is irrelevant.
3. Yes it would dissipate.
4. Four points, since they are red/pink on the ship card and are a "weapon."

Krellex nailed it in one!

I was swinging for the fence.

Thank you very much and great job!

I think the problem we are having is separating legacy SFB knowledge from FC.

One more quick one, the rules indicate you can reload drone racks but it doesn't say how many reloads you get. Is it one full set of reloads or infinite?

I realize it shouldn't come up often but, the Andro spent the entire game running around the outside of a location map at speed 24+ doing small amounts of damage to one ship and none to the other so, we had plenty of opportunity to reload.

Thanks again!

Capt Disruptor wrote:Thank you very much and great job!

I think the problem we are having is separating legacy SFB knowledge from FC.

One more quick one, the rules indicate you can reload drone racks but it doesn't say how many reloads you get. Is it one full set of reloads or infinite?

I realize it shouldn't come up often but, the Andro spent the entire game running around the outside of a location map at speed 24+ doing small amounts of damage to one ship and none to the other so, we had plenty of opportunity to reload.

Thanks again!

The rule you are looking for is: (48G)

(4G8) RELOADING DRONE RACKS
When a drone rack is empty, it cannot launch more
drones. To reload a drone rack, use the Repair rules
(5G5). Four Repair Points reloads one drone rack. A
rack which is not completely empty can be reloaded in
this way but there is no reduction in repair cost.

There is no limit to how many reloads you can do, they are infinate.

Just remember, the drone rack can't be reloaded during a turn it's fired ---

It is infinite, but your definitely doing something wrong if game goes long enough to reload twice (totally empty racks) ---

It wasn't so much that we had time to reload full racks more than once but with the Andro moving 24+ we were in a situation where on Turn 2 my NCA could only launch 2 drones and was at capacity for drone control until the end of Turn 4 which, meant I could reload one rack on Turn 2, 3, and 4. Our Kzinti NCC launched on Turns 1, 2, and 3 and then could control no more drones until the end of Turn 4. So, we didn't launch on 4 and he was reloading too. So, it was really a number of rounds of partial reloads more than anything.

I think the whole game we hit with one drone but our swarms did keep him from ever getting a shot in the 0 - 3 range with his Heavy TR beams

Eventually, by Turn 10, we did enough (9 - 15 range) damage with Disruptors and Phaser-1's to his rear panels that he was pretty much crippled. Our NCC had a few points of shield damage and my NCA had almost no shielding left with the exception of half a #1 shield and most of my #4. I had about 35 internals after some repairs along the way.

As an old SFBer and new to the FedCom system, how do you like the new shield rules? In SFB you could brick-up a shield, but in FC you can move up to 5 boxes from an adjacent shield to repair shield damage.

To be honest, I didn't like it at first, it seemed to me to take the art of moving and presenting new shields out of the game but, now I love it. Now not only do I have an opportunity to out maneuver my opponent but I can do it more effectively than I could before by moving shield damage to the other side of my ship. Fed Com seems to be more of an alpha strike game than SFB because you don't get to fire every impulse and dribble damage through a down shield to maximize rolls on the DAC. Both you and your opponent have the opportunity to move 4 times between firing opportunities so holding back a few phasers usually means a new shield so you might as well fire them now. Also, with only a 4 impulse delay instead of an 8 impulse delay for firing over a turn break you kind of need a little more shielding.

From an offensive standpoint this has been the hardest thing for me to unlearn. I still want to fire at a certain point only to look down and realize that I can't fire for three more sub-pulses and my opponent may be out of my arc or range in those three sub-pulses. In my first Fed Com game I had to burn my HET on the first turn just to get to fire my Disruptors because my opponent got out of my arc between firing opportunities.

Have you read about the "poor man's HET"?

Pay to decelerate and not move during sub-pulses when you are supposed to move. This keeps your ship in place, but counts as hexes moved toward fulfilling your turn mode requirement. When you have fulfilled your turn mode requirement you can turn one hexside.

That tactic will make an opponent think twice about zipping past you in close quarters. He just might end up with you out of arc so that he cannot fire (if he has weapons left) while you have a better firing solution on one of his weaker shields.

That would be one you should write up and sent to Petrick for publication in Captain's Log.

I am pretty sure the "Zero-cost HET" has already been published as a Command Note. It was one of the early ones.

I have heard of the "zero-cost" HET but mostly from my old SFB days but, admittedly I hadn't thought of it when I performed the HET I referred to in my earlier post. Although, I am not sure it would have worked since he ended up way out of my forward arc and circling around behind me so 60 degrees may not have helped.

In any event, I just realized today that the Andro I was playing this past weekend wasn't paying for his PA panels. So, I guess our marginal victory turned out quite a bit better than I thought - LOL.