The latest Communique brings you more ship cards, scenerios, fiction and more news from the Star Fleet Universe! It can be downloaded from the Legacy Site. Don’t forget, you have to register before being able to download the latest full color Communique!

Star Fleet Universe News

We have completed our project to merge the two websites. The "new" site www.FederationCommander.com is now a part of the "original" site www.StarFleetGames.com (although you may never know it as all of the old bookmarks still work). We are still "tweaking" this merge, and are adding things like easy ways to get outside of "FC" and into the larger "SFG" area.

We did this because the two sites had grown increasingly identical. New FC players wanted access to the rest of the SFU, and Matt Cooper's major overhaul of SFG had made that site much easier to navigate. We originally created FC to avoid confusing new customers, but the increasing similarity of the two sites was just causing MORE confusion.

Please keep your eyes open as the changes continue and report any typos and give suggestions. This is your site, let's work together to make it better!

We are looking for a few good Star Fleet Ambassadors! Our marketing director can't be everywhere and that's where you come in! Do you go to gaming forums like Board Game Geek, RPG Net, or The Miniatures Page? Then WE NEED YOU! To get complete details of the Ambassador program, please see the Federation Commander Ambassadors category on the Federation Commander forum.

FC Forum Hot Topics

The Federation Commander Site and Forum continues to grow as more gamers find it. This month’s Hot Topics include a thread titled “Evasive + Probes” located under the Rules Questions category. Another popular thread is the “Any reason why proximity photons are not in FC?” which can be found in the General Discussion category. For new players, the Legacy Discus forum can make one feel overwhelmed and lost whereas the new Federation Commander Forum is a little easier to manage as a newcomer. Come see what all the commotion is a about and join the Federation Commander Forum now!

FC Tactic of the Month
CHANGE FACING AT ZERO SPEED
- Cadet Michael Powers, USS California

A ship moving at Baseline Speed Zero can change facing and stay in the same hex without needing to use a High Energy Turn. (This could be done with a Tactical Maneuver, but you can only do that if you're "Stopped", which is not the same as "baseline zero" speed.)

Accelerate, and then use Deceleration on the fourth sub-pulse. A ship at Baseline Speed Zero is always Turn Mode 1; and if you cancel a move but your Turn Mode is fulfilled, you can still change facing. (More...)

Café Press

Café Press is an online market place that allows the Star Fleet Universe to produce unique products such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, and more with the Star Fleet logos, cover art, and other artwork used for our products. We have added tons of new shirts, mugs, and other products. Want something you don’t see? Please contact Matt Cooper (Graphics Director) with your request. Visit our Star Fleet Café Press Store for a complete listing of the products available.

SFB Tactic of the Month
PUSH THEM IN
- Ensign Marcus J. Giegerich, USS New Jersey

Here is a nasty little trick Hydrans can use with their Stinger fighters if it can be arranged. If you can end the turn with your fighters three hexes from the enemy ship and your ship close behind, tractor your fighters. Many opponents may be puzzled by this and will not be too alarmed since range three is only an "annoying" range for Stingers. Maintain your tractor over the turn break. During tractor rotation step at the beginning of the next turn, rotate your Stingers one hex closer to your opponent. As we all know, range two is no longer a merely annoying range for Stingers. It is a brutal range. (More...)

F&E Strategy of the Month
A MOBILE NETWORK
- Lieutenant Commander Craig Tenhoff, USS California

With the addition of Operational Bases, in Strategic Operations, both the attacker and defender have more opportunities to use the Electronic Warfare Network introduced in Planetary Operations (537.3). (More...)

Communique #20 has posted to the Commander's Circle.

RECENTLY RELEASED
Captain's Log #35, SKU 5735, retail $18.95
Federation Commander: Academy, SKU 4003, Retail $24.95
Star Fleet Battles Module R11 SKU $5630, retail $23.95
Federation Commander: Battleships Attack, SKU 4104, $29.95
FC Boosters #16, #17, and #18; SKUs 4216, 4217, 4218, $9.94 each

UPCOMING-AUGUST
Starline 2400: WYN Warships (CW, DW, FF) SKU 1223, $19.95
Starline 2400: Federation Operational Carrier (CVO) SKU 0299, $11.95
Starline 2400: Hydran Mohawk New Heavy Cruiser (NCA) SKU 0961, $7.95
Starline 2400: Neo-Tholian Destroyer and Frigate, SKU 0771, $12.95
Starline 2400: Base Station, SKU 0103, $9.95
Starline 2400: Orion War Destroyer, DW, 0818, $7.95

UPCOMING-SEPTEMBER
Federation Commander: Border Box #5, SKU 4405, $99.95
Federation Commander: Squadron Box #13, SKU 4313, $34.95
Prime Directive d20M (Modern), $24.95
Starline 2400: Seltorian NCA and DNL

Star Fleet Fiction
Rescue on Roon

2328 hrs, Storage Bay Four, Celotex
Warehouse #8, east of Roon City, Roon

"Down and safe, no reaction," Grissom said quietly into his communicator. His team had transported down already in a crouch, and after materializing had frozen solid for 30 seconds waiting to see if alarms went off or guards burst in. The small sensor probe that had gone before them through the transporter was sitting on top of a crate. Daneric moved to flip the switch that would send it back to the ship.
"Nothing moving, no electronic response," came the voice from one of the ship's sensor technicians. (More...)

Ask Admiral Growler
by Mike Filsinger

TRACTORS
Francois Lemay asks: On the same impulse, Ship A tractors ship B, ship B tractors ship C, ship C tractors ship D. All are friendly to each other. Is it legal to have four ships tractored to each other? Do the restrictions of (G7.91) apply?

ANSWER: It does, and you cannot form a chain in this way. Ship A tractors ship B, and ship B's and C's tractors fail, but the power for the attempted tractor links has still been used and the tractors are not available for use later in the turn. The only way to have multiple friendly ships in the same tractor chain is if a single-ship tractors all of the others.

Dale McKee asks: On a fixed map, a ship tractors an opposing ship. The opposing ship then moves in such a way as to force the tractoring ship off the fixed map. The scenario rules specify that any ship that leaves the map is considered disengaged. Yet reading the rules, it seems that shoving the tractoring ship off the map does not break the tractor. How is this resolved? (More...)

Federation & Empire Q&A
THE FOUR POWERS WAR
By Nick Blank

QUESTION: In the Four Powers War, what happens if the Lyrans never attack the Kzintis? In the Fleet Release Schedule, it says that the Kzintis can attack the Lyrans on Turn #2 if the Klingons haven't attacked them, and that the Lyrans can attack the Kzintis on Turn #3 but if the Lyrans decline to attack the Kzintis on Turn #3, can the Kzintis attack the Lyrans at any point?

Ruling: The Kzintis can attack the Lyrans on Turn #4 if the Lyrans have not attacked them.

QUESTION: The Lyrans decline to attack the Kzintis on Turn #3, leaving the Kzinti Count's Fleet (the one on the Lyran border) unreleased. They are not technically at war with the Kzintis at this point. Can they still move ships, FRDs, and money into Klingon space, repairing Klingon ships, even though they aren't fighting the Kzintis?

ANSWER: If the Lyrans are not at war, then they can't do those things. If they go to war on Turn #3 without actually attacking (releasing the Kzinti border fleet and allowing the Kzintis to attack the Lyrans on Turn #3A), then they could do these things.

QUESTION: The Kzinti Marquis fleet isn't released unless their deployment zone is violated, or on Turn #4, and only then if a SB is destroyed or the capital is attacked. Does the Marquis fleet get released before Turn #4 if a SB is destroyed or the capital is attacked before then (i.e. if the Klingons attack the capital on Coalition Turn #3, is the Marquis fleet released on Kzinti Turn #3, or do they still have to wait until Turn #4?)
ANSWER: Nice try. Wait until Turn #4.

THE ITHACA CUP

Schenctady Wargmers and Battle Fleet Ithaca (two powerful SFB clubs in the northeastern US) are having their annual battle on 25 August. (More...)