Federation Commander

Hello,

It's been at least 2-3 yrs since I have been back on this site...I have a couple questions I hope some can answer.

I have Reference Rulebook v5 but noticed on the purchase section that there is a v6 out...Is there a way I can update v5 (free or small fee) or should I purchase v6 ?

In addition I also have Klingon Border, Romulan Space, and Distant Kingdoms...
Basically, I just want the bare minimum to play each major race or major class ship (and so no Attack Modules).
So, as it stands this means I would only need to purchase 'War & Peace', and maybe 'Line of Battle' (since it gives you the BB Class) ?
I would get the 'Transporters Attack' ( but it's an Attack Module )...If only there was one that wasn't an Attack module as it would give me an excuse to buy it.
Anyways, that's my logic of thinking.

Any info would be appreciated...
Joe

You seem to have enough maps to play. Purchasing the Reference Book will give you the rules for play, but you would be missing Ship Descriptions (R) Scenarios and counters for ships. Ship cards can be purchased separately as well as counters and map boards.
Whether you see that as easier than purchasing whole modules, it does give you the option of only getting what you think you would actually use.
All comes down to your preference (possible financial ability).

Yes, I already have the Basic Game: Federation Commander Klingon Border (includes rules, map, units, etc) to start playing, along with Romulan Space and Distant Kingdoms ( Modules ) to branch out from there.

To get the rest of the Galaxy and major class ships then at a minimum I would need War & Peace (essentially Distant Kingdoms part 2 if you will), and maybe 'Line of Battle' ( for the BB's ) as an option.

Still need to know wither or not I should purchase Ref Rulebook v6 or if I can use Ref Rulebook v5 with free updates to make it v6.

The main advantage of Revision 6a is that it incorporates the various rules published in FC: War and Peace, while tidying up a number of other rulings, errata items, and clarifications. If you already have the print edition of revision 5, it might be an idea to download the revision 6a Reference Rulebook PDF from Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, or the Wargame Vault. That would make it easier to keep an electronic reference of the current state of play in the FC game system.


Beyond that, I wouldn't get too caught up with the use of the "Attack" moniker. While some of those modules are "reinforcement" packs in the sense you may be thinking of, others are there to introduce new concepts into the game system - or to turn certain "cameo" factions from the core products into properly playable factions.

So, if you wanted to flesh out the current range of published FC-supported Alpha Octant empires, you may also need Tholian Attack (which provides the Tholians with an actual fleet, and also gives you the Neo-Tholians and Seltorians), and Orion Attack (which similarly expands the Orion Pirates from a "cameo" into a more well-rounded faction), along with War and Peace (for the Andromedans, ISC, and Vudar). Beyond those, a number of playtest factions, such as the "lost empires" of SFB Module C6, can be found in various issues of Captain's Log.

Since you already have Distant Kingdoms, getting Line of Battle might duplicate your set of Lyran and Hydran BB Ship Cards. It may be as well to get the "regular" Battleships Attack module instead. (Of the two, Battleships Attack came first - despite the use of the "Attack" moniker.)


On another note, if you wanted to get a different sense of how many of the Alpha Octant empires got to the Main Era of FC, there is a range of Middle Years (or "unrefitted", in SFB terms) ships in FC: Briefing #2 - with several of the "Franz Joseph" hull types which were prominent in that era published in FC: Booster Pack #91.


Also, I might note that while the Alpha Octant serves as the primary setting of FC (and of the other SFU game systems), it is but one portion of the broader Milky Way galaxy. It may be a while before we learn more of the Xorkaelian Tyranny (the ones running that massive empire over on the far side of the galaxy, and who are set to launch their own invasion of Alpha in 2610), but at least one other galactic region (the Omega Octant) has been explored in an FC playtest pack.

Outside of the Milky Way, Tholian Attack also supports battles fought in M81, the Tholian Old Galaxy; while a second playtest pack looks at the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, an island galaxy which the Andromedans used as a springboard for their invasion of our own. The Triangulum Galaxy has playtest material over in SFB, but has yet to appear in FC at this point.

These more distant frontiers may not be as popular as the "core" Alpha Octant areas; but they do allow for a host of different concepts and dynamics which, for various reasons, may not work closer to home. Plus, they also give would-be Andromedan players plenty of new targets to choose from...

I just want to add that some of the attack products would be very good to pick up. Besides Tholian and Orion Attack, I'd recommend Klingon and Romulan attack, as those products bring the Kzinti and Gorn fleets (respectively) up to the same standard as the fleets available in Klingon Border and Romulan space.

@Nerroth...Thanks for that information in regards to The FC Product Line and how it relates to the different races, Time Lines, and locations.

I want to stick with the original races from my SFB days some 20 yrs ago (don't play SFB anymore ). Think I'm pretty much comfortable with the 'Cameo' FC products I have now, but might eventually pick up all the 'Attack' Modules as time goes by.

So, for now I will get the Ref Rulebook v6, maybe Briefing #2 ( to have the early years ),
What is Briefing #1 for ? ( might pick that up, but not sure ).

To clarify, Briefing #2 covers the Middle Years (running from roughly 2525 through to around 2562, or c. Y125-Y162 in SFB Y-years).

For comparison's sake, the SFU timeline has a certain "five-year mission" run from 2554 (Y154) to 2559 (Y159), while that infamous incident at Talos IV took place in 2542 (Y142).


If you wanted to learn more about the Early Years (which covers the first "warp-refitted" starships with tactical warp and "warp-class" weapons installed on "sublight" spaceframes, as well as "early warp" ships built from the keel up to incorporate tactical warp technologies), there are three modules' worth of W- and Y-era SSDs published over in SFB. So far, there have been a handful of sample playtest Y-era Ship Cards done for FC here and there; but it remains to be seen when, or rather if, the Early Years will ever be formally published for this game system.

This file might help explain how the evolution of warp travel works in the Alpha Octant, and how that process is reflected in the various game systems.


The contents of Briefing #1 are listed here, but it does not introduce a new era the way that Briefing #2 does.

Ops...Sorry about that and meant Briefing #1 covers Middle Years...Yes, the Early Years covers Pre-Warp Sublight Ships.

Yes, I did see the page for the Briefings #1 and looks interesting.

Anyways, thanks again for the info.

Actually, with the exception of the Romulans (who failed to properly adopt tactical warp technology until the Treaty of Smarba), the "W-" and "Y-" eras covered in the Early Years modules take place after the non-tactical warp, or "sublight" era.

(SFB had once toyed with the idea of a "Module Q" supplement which would be set in the Non-Tactical Warp era, but I'm not personally convinced that it would be the best venue for that era of combat.)


To put it another way, "sublight" ships would have impulse power and movement only in SFB (or would be restricted to a Baseline Speed of 0 in FC terms); W-era ships have speed-16 warp engines in SFB (which might be equivalent to barring them from Baseline Speeds of 16 or 24 in FC); while Y-era ships have speed-24 warp engines over there (which I guess would prevent a Baseline Speed of 24 over here). Only in the "modern" era (i.e. from the Middle Years onwards) would you get ships with Speed-30 warp engines in SFB (and unrestricted Baseline Speed options in FC).

While SFB obliges "sublight" ships to move only one hex a turn, FC is a little more flexible in allowing up to four "acceleration points" to be paid in a single turn. (As it happens, this first came up not to try and model a "sublight" ship, but rather to handle an FC conversion of an SFB scenario featuring a separated Fed CA saucer.)


Sorry to drag things out a little there...

[quote="Nerroth"]

To put it another way, "sublight" ships would have impulse power and movement only in SFB (or would be restricted to a Baseline Speed of 0 in FC terms); W-era ships have speed-16 warp engines in SFB (which might be equivalent to barring them from Baseline Speeds of 16 or 24 in FC); while Y-era ships have speed-24 warp engines over there (which I guess would prevent a Baseline Speed of 24 over here). Only in the "modern" era (i.e. from the Middle Years onwards) would you get ships with Speed-30 warp engines in SFB (and unrestricted Baseline Speed options in FC).

/quote]

What we found in an Early Years campaign was there was usually no need to artificially limit the maximum speed of a W- or Y- era ship; the smaller warp engines and lower total available power did that quite nicely. W- and Y- class speed limitations were modelled at the strategic level, instead. W-class ships tended to move baseline 8 with a couple of accelerations when "weapons ready" and baseline 16 when running for disengagement. Y-class was 16 and 24, respectively. There were, of course, exceptions. Drone-users (Kzinti) tended to go faster with their lower weapon power requirement. The Hydrans could run away from a battle faster than anybody else, achieving near Speed-32 in some cases, even their W-class ships.

As Y-class ships were phased in there was a really fun dynamic of having to adjust the standard lumbering-in-and-walloping tactic of the W-class with the hit-and-run tactics of a Y-class ship.

Not to mention watching a squadron of Tholian PCs swoop in and dance at 6-8 hexes, essentially being unhittable while tearing up their adversaries with Phaser-1s.

Also, four-hex sublight speeds worked very well - just enough movement to give the Romulans hope (and a chance to keep their opponents in a firing arc for the plasma) whilst still allowing the Klingons to race in like eagles among pigeons.

On the one hand, there are cases where FC, quite reasonably in my opinion, streamlines out some of the warp speed limits imposed by SFB. For example, the "unrefitted" Kzinti CS and Hydran RN are restricted to Speed 27 from their respective warp engines in SFB (or speed 28 when including the additional hex of impulse movement) - while their Middle Years Ship Card counterparts in Briefing #2 can go as fast as their Main Era counterparts. (Of course, the lower total power amounts can still manifest itself in other ways.)

But when it comes to representing W- and Y-era warp engines in FC terms, I would argue strongly in favour of imposing "hard" limits - similar to those in place for certain "modern" unit types (such as monitors) already. Just as a monitor cannot channel its excess power into faster tactical warp movement (or towards disengagement) due to the explicit limitations imposed on the class itself, so should a warp-refitted or early warp ship not be able to "cheat" when fighting or while running away.

That would still leave a limited degree of flexibility for drone-armed warships, or for those with healthy impulse and/or reactor decks - but within the limitations imposed by each generation of warp technology.


On an operational or strategic level (where the Federation and Empire hex maps would come into play), there would likely be a different, but somewhat related, series of limitations involved - though there has yet to be a formal Early Years module worked up for that game system.

The warp factor PDF I linked to in an earlier post lists separate "cruise" (or operational) speeds for various generations of warp drive, and notes how pre-"modern" warp engines would be barred from using "dash" (strategic) warp movement. But, so far at least, many of those concepts have not been officially decided upon over in F&E.

Actually, I would be curious to see how, or if, the campaign rules in the upcoming Federation Admiral volume might handle the various differences between ships when moving tactically, operationally, and/or strategically. Even leaving W- and Y-era ships to one side, that would be a factor when re-deploying units like Monitors and "fast" ships from one star system to another - and would be of particular note for the Andromedans, given how their various campaigns are affected by the presence, or absence, of the notorious Rapid Transit Network...

We don't have an upgrade path for the rulebooks other than buying new ones or downloading the errata file (which is awkward). There is no practical way for us to know who actually bought one and who just borrowed his friend's copy long enough to answer any kind of security question. They aren't that expensive and they do wear out and the new upgrades are soooo much better and reasier to use.

Thanks again for the info guys...

Yes, I will purchase FC Rulebook Rev 6 to keep up to date, and along with 1-2 of those other products.