Federation Commander

Has anybody been using the new models on the FedCom boards? If so what sort of adaptability needs to be done?

If you mean using them on the map board panels, then wow, you're in for some headaches. If you mean integrating the larger scale into your existing 2400 minis then there's a few interesting twists: The Fed frigate hardly changes at all, just more detail. The Klingon F-5 makes an interesting early-years cruiser. The Fed light cruiser could stand in for the old heavy cruiser
(or juggernaut!). The Sparrowhawk and Firehawk are just so cool, I can live with the scale discrepancy, and the C8 makes for one nasty B10.
Many of them need that enormous base, but some don't. They were designed for a hexless game system and barely fit in a 2-inch hex. I'm going to put some of the smaller ones on a traditional 2400 base, when I have the time and budget.

I was pretty much wondering if they functioned well on the boards. I have been playing ACTA for awhile (mostly Noble Armada) but have just been waiting for the StarFleet stuff to get really moving and am just now starting to dabble. I did some FedCom a couple of years ago but sold my border boxes when I couldnt really get anybody to want to play it with me. I really liked it and was wondering if the models functioned well.

The 2500 don't fit in the hexes? All the advertising was suggesting otherwise. Thx for posting that. At least I'll know to expect it now.

The 2400 minis are already somewhat difficult to use on the big hex FC mapboards. Since the 2500 minis are bigger, I would expect it to be even more challenging.

For me, I would only use minis for FC on a larger size hexsheet (at least 2") such as on a Hotz map. Alternatively, you could work with the turn gauges without a hex grid. However, when using that approach you might want to scale up the size the standard FC gauges a bit if you are using 2500 minis.

My personal goal is to evetually mount all of my large ship counters on painted wooden blocks that match the colors of the 1/2" counters as I find the minis too fragile for my taste (I have the first three 2400 FC squadron boxes). It would be sort of FC "Command & Colors" style with the blocks laying flat.

Unfortunately the 2500's don't really work that well on the panels when ships get within a hex or two of each other.

I've been shopping the Hotz mats. Printed a sample 1.5" and a 2" hex sheet to compare and I think I'm going with the 2". There's fewer hexes on the play area but the spacing is very nice. My main concern is having a 27x37 hex fixed play area with no panels to leap frog around. It's especially problematic since much of FC is played at higher baseline speeds.

Maybe I'll craft my own 2" hex panels.

We actually use two Hotz-type mats side by side. It gives us a playing area slightly larger (in hexes) than the standard 4x3 or 3x2 panel layout. Leapfrogging is possible, but cumbersome. We can also align them end to end for running battles. I've recently begun making my own mats and boards. The problem with boards is finding something portable that won't warp.

Out of curiousity, do any of the 2" hex mats have a blank starfield on the other side?

If so, one could use the hex side up for games of FC (or SFB or Starmada), or use the hexless side to play ACtA:SF.

Id love this but cant afford the shipping

http://www.kallistra.co.uk/index.php?page=37

You can get the other side blank or with a different hex pattern.

I'll probably end up making my own panels in the end. 1.75" hexes may be the best size.

I've heard most people switch to counters when ships get too close, and then back to minis when they separate.

That's my method. I actually pack the appropriate 1" counter with the mini in its case.

I have two 6' x 8' felt maps with 2-inch hexes thatI use when playing with minis.

Not a lot of problems with ST2400s that way, although sometimes the ST2500s get a little crowded. We usually just throw a 1" thick spacer underneath one of the minis until they spread out again.
Although, if need be - I have 6-inch hex that we can move the contents to when more than two ships enter a hex.

I talked to Eric Hotz about a continuous Enhanced Deep Space pattern across two half mats and he said they could do it. My thinking at the time was it would better support leapfrogging. I'm having second thoughts about that idea now.

I use an after market 2" hex map. For the ships I use the CorSec engineering stands and use both the 1" and 2" stands to put the ships at different heights. Reduces the need for substituting counters for ships to a minimal level.