Federation Commander

Mod: I saw what you did adding the nasty links in after the fact. Don't do that again.

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?

1. No. There are Degraded crew rules, but that is for specific purposes (if a crew has been either permanently or temporarily affected enough to harm their performance). All crews are assumed to be too-of-the line otherwise.

2. There are playtest rules for fighters. I forget exactly where. I am sure someone will post the list later.

3. That seems about right, though it should get a little faster as you get more familiar with the rules. Bigger fights will take longer, though.

4. Yes. Drones will primarily influence your opponents movement and drain firepower. They will rarely hit until the end of the fight.

5. No. Once launched their target is fixed. If the target is destroyed, the drone is removed from the board.

Welcome to the Forum!

I don't recall if these are the most up-to-date playtest rules or not, but there are provisional fighter rules in this PDF. There are sample low-toner Ship Cards of various carriers in the Commander's Circle portion of the ADB website.

Also, if you are more specifically interested in the "trivideo era" (referred to in the Star Fleet Universe as the Middle Years of Alpha Octant history), there are era-specific rules and Ship Cards for this time period in Federation Commander: Briefing #2. (The print edition of FCB2 has black-and-white Ship Cards, but there are ePacks of color Ship Cards available to purchase online.)

To put it another way, the "Main Era" (in SFU terms) laminated Ship Cards represent hulls like the Federation CA or Klingon D7 after various refits have been added to them, whereas their corresponding Middle Years Ship Cards show their earlier "unrefitted" versions.

Nerroth wrote:I don't recall if these are the most up-to-date playtest rules or not, but there are provisional fighter rules in this PDF. There are sample low-toner Ship Cards of various carriers in the Commander's Circle portion of the ADB website.

The link to the fighter playtest rules is greatly appreciated.