Federation Commander

If a ship launches, say, 4 drones at once, should all those drones be represented by a single counter? Will they all hit the same shield, or could some be steered to hit a different shield? Finally, does the answer to these questions apply to plasmas as well?

Sorry for all the questions - I'm an old-time SFB player (Designer Ed through Commander's Rulebook) but hadn't played in 20-some-odd years. Earlier this year I started playing around with the SFB Cadet game, then I bought Fedcom, which really got me back into SFU gaming only about a month ago, so I'm a bit rusty. Thanks for your help!

How you represent drones on the board is up to you (there are counters that represent multiple drones).

Just my take, but since targets are known, if all are directed at one target then a single counter would be fine. If multiple targets then would use a counter for each target.

As long as the drones meet movement requirements (have to move closer to the target), you could direct them to separate shields (drones going to separate hexes would need separate counters).

Drones/Plasmas launched from a single ship should be able to operate that way. Long as everyone knows how they are represented.


FC vs SFB, be very aware that many tactics (habits you acquired in SFB) may operate very differently in FC than you were used to in SFB. Way movement operates causes much of this.

While you are free to (and encouraged to) use a single counter to represent the multiple drones, do not forget that they are still independent drones. This means that you can (within the seeking weapon movement rules) move them however you want, which could potentially spread the drones out into multiple hexes.

When the drones impact the target ship, if they are still in a single stack, then they will all hit the same shield. You would have to spread them out (again, within the seeking weapon movement rules) well prior to impact to have a chance to hit multiple shields.

And, yes, this is all "seeking weapon" movement issues. So, the answers apply equally well to both drones and plasmas.

Ok, so then 3 simultaneously launched drones could either all hit shield 2 or spread out and hit shields 1, 2, and 3. I thought that perhaps the rule that seeking weapons had to follow the shortest path to their target meant that they all had to hit one shield (there being only one "shortest path"). Thanks for clearing that up.

Just to be clear, I keep saying "within the seeking weapon movement rules" because you *do* have always try to move closer to the target (4F3d). However, when doing so, there is often a choice of two hexes to move into to accomplish that. Doing so then splits up the stack. Now, depending on how the target moves, they could be forced to reintegrate into a stack, or could be permanently separated. It is highly variable.

But, my answer was not to say there is an exception to (4F3d). It is just to say that there is more flexibility that you seem to be giving it credit for.