Federation Commander

Hi everyone, I'm diving into FC and have thus far played only with the Academy starter set. I've just ordered a ton if new stuff, thats on its way.

I'm a huge space nerd, mostly I play Star Wars X-wing and Armada. I opted to skip Star Trek Attack Wing, mostly because I'm more interested in TOS/Starfleet era. I'm very familiar with the PC game Starfleet Command, so when I heard about Federation Commander I just had to try it. so far, its very interesting.

So far i'm about 90% certain I understand the movement rules. Turning, slipping, HETs, EMs...etc.

I'm about 100% on direct fire weapons and drones.

I havent yet tried Shuttles or Plasma weapons.

I have a few questions going foward.

1. Does federation commander have rules for Crew Quality/Veterancy?

2. are there rules for fighters? if so, which expansion are they in?

3. what is the average playtime for most scenarios? its hard to gauge, but it seems a Fleet Scale 1 v 1 takes about 1.5 hours.

4. Drones seem pretty easy to shoot down. in 4 games of CA vs D7 i've not seen 1 strike a target yet. Is this normal?

5. can drones be re-tasked/re-targetted in flight?



that's all I can think of for now, thanks in advance!

1 Crew Quality: Yes, but the SFU assumes starship crews are the cream of entire multi-planetary populations. A default "typical" crew in the SFU would be "excellent" in most other games. There are rules for degraded crew quality for special circumstances (crew incapacitated by outside influence, etc.)

2 Fighter Rules: Yes. They were originally published in the Distant Kingdoms expansion, which added the fighter-loving Hydrans.
The test version of rules for general use of fighters by all empires were literally just published in the free Communique newsletter (#128) and are being discussed both on the legacy bbs and here.

4. Drones: Yes, it's normal. In the SFU, drones are mostly intended to be tertiary weapons, essentially launchable "mobile terrain" to influence your opponent's movement and soak up some of his weapons. Exceptions would be the Kzintis and specific-ships tailored to launch large waves of drones.

5. Retargeting-drones: No. Other games in the SFU get into all kinds of crunchy rules to handle stuff like that, but FC is intended to be as streamlined as possible.

1. Not really, other than the rare "degraded crew". We had such rules once but nobody wanted them and they disappeared from SFB and were never in the other games. And won't ever be. You dont need them.

2. As Will said, we just published a set of playtest rules.

3. Sounds about right.

4. Correct, drones rarely hit the target, but they soak up phasers and drive the enemy out of areas you don't want him in.

5. Changing the target of a drone (or any seeking weapon) which is in flight is not allowed in any of the SFU games.

I have a vague recollection that some of the Omega races can re-target seeking weapons in flight (Probr HEAT and late-model Tachyon Missiles if memory serves) in SFB but I don't think that has been ported across to FC. Gary Carney is our resident Omega Sector expert, and can undoubtedly confirm or deny!

Remember, vyrago has no SFU games experience. Bringing up Omega, Magellanics, Triangulum, etc. just muddies the waters for someone just starting out.

By way of explanation: There are dozens of expansions for Star Fleet Battles (the game that's been around since 1979), some of which are set in areas on the other side of the galaxy (and other galaxies) with completely different empires, weapons, etc. Things behave different there and have different rules in some cases. None of that has any bearing on mainline FC, unless you choose to introduce it via the playtest e-packs for Omega, etc.

No intention to confuse you vyrago - enjoy the game, it's a blast!

Will is right on with his answers, but allow me to expand on #4 just a bit.
In one on one duels, drones rarely hit. They are typically used as mobile terrain (to either keep him out of an area, or to guide him to a specific area) - or as SVC said, they are there to soak up phaser fire.
When you graduate to squadron sized events (say 4 to 6 ships per side), then you begin to see drones impacting more frequently.
4 Kzinti ships with 4 drone launchers each can put out 16 drones a turn...
Or 12 a turn (3 racks each turn, reload the one that didn't fire). With the ability to control 24 drones (more if one or more of the units has double drone control) - then it gets harder for the intended target to shoot them all down.

As for duration... That's a good estimate, but YMMV based on who's playing.
We have some guys in our group that can do 4 on 4 in a couple of hours and some that need twice that long.

Either way, its time well spent, so enjoy the game and welcome to the family.

About the only thing I can add to the answers here is that in Fedcom, drones and seeking weapons take some skill to use well, and until you get a little experience with the game, you likely won't get a lot of use out of them. So I'd say that your experience of drones is probably about par for someone starting out. With practice, you'll get good with them, and you'll find that even if they don't hit, they can still serve you well.

Playing time for a one on one dual can vary according to the races involved. Some weapons have more complicated rules. Seeking weapons can end up putting more markers on the board, and there can be more to keep track of, but an hour and a half for a one on one isn't a bad as a general rule. But all general rules have exceptions