Federation Commander

Picked up starmada the other day, the base game (nova edition). Looks good, and had 1 go at it yesterday.

I then picked up Klingon armada (nova version) to see how SFU stuff was converted over. I can probably do my own conversions no problem, and indeed already have been playing around with some. But was intrigued in what the 'official' conversions looked like.

However, I have a couple of questions about KA so far.

1) I note some Fed ships show photons with Diffuse, and some don't. Presumably some of them are in error. Diffuse makes sense to me for the photons, better up close and not so good at long range, so I assume that is right.

2) Any reason why overloaded disrupters and photons are slow when the non overloaded versions are not? The disrupter in particular feels odd like that.


For those who have played (or seen) both the older Admiralty version and the newer Nova version how different are the 2 systems. I get the idea they are quiet different and not just a minor tweak. If so which version do people prefer (either starmada generally, or the SFU conversion).

For those who have played (or seen) both the older Admiralty version and the newer Nova version how different are the 2 systems. I get the idea they are quiet different and not just a minor tweak. If so which version do people prefer (either starmada generally, or the SFU conversion).

I've only had a chance to read over the designer's notes for Nova, but I've played a few games of Admiralty edition.

Nova is made for large fleet battles, where individual ships are relatively unimportant and your real focus is on maneuvering squadrons at a time.
If you really want to play battles with a hundred ships on each side and be done in a couple of hours, this is the one for you.

Admiralty, which I find much more interesting, gives each ship enough detail that you can work them as individual entities. It's good for squadron-level engagements or small fleets. I've run games with 10 or so ships on each side, which - including the time spent to teach the rules - lasted under 3 hours.