Federation Commander

Hi all!
I am new to Federation Commander - in so much as I have ordered Federation Commander Klingon Border but it still in the mail!!!

I played Starfleet Battles for years - but about 20 years ago we stopped. I did not even know that this game existed!

I am rather excited if you can't tell.

So what I want to know is after playing Klingon Border - where do I go from there?

Thanks!

Do you absolutely require laminated ship cards? If not, then you can get the Reference Rulebook and start downloading Communiques to get a ton of ships to use.

For the main game components, you can start with Klingon Attack, Romulan Space/Border and Romulan Attack. That gives a good spread for the main empires, the get whichever Attack modules that strike your fancy. Fill in with any Boosters that give you something you want or need.

Indeed.

FedCom is every bit as modular as SFB ever was. Perhaps even more-so as most of the expansion "Attack" modules tend to focus on one empire.

If you're not really keen on Tholians and all the extra rules for their webs, etc., there is nothing really compelling you to buy Tholian Attack. You can just skip it and won't be "missing" anything for empires you do like.

Another up-side for FedCom is that nothing is "conjectural". If a ship gets added to the game, then it is valid for play, with no restrictions. There is no "timeline" or limitations on refits, etc. Actually, there are no "refits" at all - a ship is usually introduced as its final, fully-refitted version. In the rare case where a later even more-refitted version is brought into FedCom, then it is treated as a completely new ship card (ex. the Kzinti FF was in the game for years and years before the much-refitted FFK was published as the "killer frigate" ship card).

FedCom has expanded to introduce some different "eras" (Middle Years, etc.), but any card in the main game setting is always good to go.

Welcome to the game and to the board, by the way. I think you'll love it. As another lapsed SFB player, I certainly did.

thanks for the time you took to respond to me!

I am looking forward to trying this out now that I have Klingon Border (received yesterday!)

How is solo play?

Other than the "Robot Opponent" rules posted online, there isn't really any solo play. The robot opponent can give you something to shoot at that will maneuver and shoot back, but it's not very smart (nor could it be).

Some of the monsters work in solo play.

There is a world of solo wargaming out there. Check out The Lone Warrior (a magazine dedicated to solo wargaming) or the solo wargaming group on Yahoo Groups and that's just to start. The great Donald Featherstone wrote a book on solo wargaming and more recently William Sylvester wrote The Solo Wargaming Guide.
On the Yahoo groups you can find a solo wargame narrative and a solo wargaming guide (free to download) both by Bob Stewart. They are very, very interesting.
The ideas in the books can be translated to Fed Comm with a little work. For me the most important thing to remember about solo wargaming is that it's not a competitive game--it's a form of story telling. If you can get into that frame of mind there is no limit to what you can do with Fed Comm or SFB in solo play.

Just looking through the scenario database at Commander's Circle, here are solo scenarios for FC:

Briefing #1 - Raid on a Mining Planet, Rescue the Cherenkov
CL#50 - Space Spider
Communique#9 - Cruise Drones
Communique#42 - The Dakota Incident
Distant Kingdoms - Moray Eel of Space
Hydran Attack - Energy Monster
Romulan Attack - Space Amoeba

The robot opponent rules I mentioned up-thread are in the Commander's Circle, HERE.

Add to Mike's list: Communique #119, The Drone of Tribbles.

Speaking of solo play, i have actually started a career for a Federation Starfleet officer going from Midshipman to Fleet Admiral and i am playing these games out in a solo fashion using FedCom.

Where would i post these very interesting battles im getting in a first person story-telling format on these forums?

For instance, I had two Federation Police Cutters try to capture a stolen Federation Frigate in earth's orbit. Which forum do i use?

The best fit that I can see would be the Campaigns thread.
http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... m.php?f=40

I agree. Create a new thread in Campaigns and post in there.

Thank you.