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Author Topic: Federation Commander  (Read 16539 times)

bbmike

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Reply #15 on: March 04, 2019, 10:44:03 AM
I always used SFB for ship combat when I played FASA Trek and have never tried the FASA starship combat rules. It sounds awesome.

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mirth

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Reply #16 on: March 04, 2019, 10:48:53 AM
I still have all the stuff packed away. Including those awesome ship technical manuals for each race. This thread has made me want to break it out.

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Bison

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Reply #17 on: March 04, 2019, 10:51:04 AM
I thought FASA had a Star Trek RPG too.



mirth

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Reply #18 on: March 04, 2019, 11:01:54 AM
Back in the 80s they had a Star Trek RPG and a Starship Combat game. They ship combat was a standalone and could be played as a straight tactical game, but it was easy enough to incorporate it into the RPG. We played both a ton when I was in high school/college.

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #19 on: March 04, 2019, 11:14:07 AM
Basically a streamlined version of SFB.


so.... merely Campaign-for-North-Africa-level complexity?

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Bison

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Reply #20 on: March 04, 2019, 11:17:02 AM
I don't think they had to account for extra water rations to boil pasta. The replicator rules streamlined that process.



mirth

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Reply #21 on: March 04, 2019, 11:20:07 AM
SFB was a chore for certain. Had a copy of that in the early 80s and maybe played it once. Man, they had rules for everything.

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Bison

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Reply #22 on: March 04, 2019, 11:32:53 AM
It seems I can download free starter rules and scenarios to test out Federation Commander.

http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/FCFirstMissions.pdf

Very cool.



mirth

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Reply #23 on: March 04, 2019, 11:45:48 AM
It seems I can download free starter rules and scenarios to test out Federation Commander.

http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/FCFirstMissions.pdf

Very cool.

I came across that a few days ago. Haven't read it yet.

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bbmike

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Reply #24 on: March 04, 2019, 04:40:51 PM
SFB was a chore for certain. Had a copy of that in the early 80s and maybe played it once. Man, they had rules for everything.

Energy allocation and all those rules were a nightmare. We ended up creating house rules for a lot of things and basically tossed energy allocation out the window.

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mirth

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Reply #25 on: March 04, 2019, 04:51:43 PM
I don't recall energy allocation being as onerous in the FASA game. The charts were pretty intuitive, but it has been 25-30 years since I played it (damn I'm old).

SFB always felt like a bookkeeping exercise.

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Martok

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Reply #26 on: March 04, 2019, 05:17:22 PM
Damn.  That game looks/sounds pretty fun.

 :o YOU'VE never played Star Fleet Battles?  :o

For better or worse, no I haven't.  I heard so many horror stories about its apparently-insane level of complexity over the years (going back to when I was in college, which is when I first heard about the game), that I shied away from it entirely. 

I appreciate complex rules in the spirit of recreating "realism", but I have my limits.  :P 



That being said, I'm wondering now if I didn't end up playing a "pick-up" match of Federation Commander at a con in Wisconsin several years ago (and just didn't remember what it was called at the time).  Looking over the content and reading the overview/description on the official site, this is starting to look a little familiar. 

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Silent Disapproval Robot

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Reply #27 on: March 04, 2019, 06:10:43 PM
I played a lot of SFB back in the 80s.  the base game was fine but as more and more expansions came out, the complexity ramped up to the point where it was no longer fun to play.  I remember attending a con in Spokane, WA and signing up for a game of SFB.  They were using a bunch of expansions and the people who organized it thought it would be a good idea to give every player a ship whose main weapons were drone racks.  Having to track and move 30+ drones plus everyone's ships, plus all the anti-drone drones over 32 sub phases was ridiculous.  I recall firing all my weapons early in a turn and, as I was going speed zero, there was nothing left for me to do.  I left, had lunch, sat down and watched a bit of another game being played, and game back.  They were still only about 2/3rds of the way through the same turn.  I think that was when I stopped playing SFB and sold my copy.




Bison

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Reply #28 on: March 04, 2019, 06:34:53 PM
Expansions...the curse of adding needless rules and clutter to games.



bob48

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Reply #29 on: March 04, 2019, 06:38:24 PM
Not that that has ever stopped us........................

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