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The latest Communique brings you more Ship Cards, scenarios, fiction, and more news from the Star Fleet Universe! It can be downloaded from the Commander's Circle. Don’t forget, you have to register before being able to download the latest full color Communique!
The big news this month is that the company has moved to a new office at 1504 West 10th in Amarillo. This office is SIX times the size of the current office, meaning that the two Steves will have private offices instead of sharing the conference room, there will be a separate conference room AND a separate kitchen, Mike and Eric no longer have to share an office the size of a phone booth (they share one the size of three or four phone booths) and the warehouse crew won't have to assemble, pack, and ship games in the hot/cold warehouse, but in the climate-controlled office.
Even better, it is finally possible to go in and out the front door without tripping over a Kyocera repairman! Moving the company took a couple of weeks and delayed the release of some new products, but we'll be far more efficient in the new space and get even more new products done.
Our combined and reorganized website, www.StarFleetGames.com, continues to grow and improve. You are welcome to send us your requests, comments, and suggestions.
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.
Have you missed an earlier Newsletter? Click here to get caught up!
The Federation Commander Site and Forum continue to grow as more gamers find it. We have added a new section to the Forum called Web Requests. If you have any comments, questions, or requests for our Graphics Director, this is the place to let him know.
We have added a new Star Fleet Battles section to the forum to discus everything SFB. For new players, the Federation Commander Forum is a little easier to manage whereas the Legacy Discus BBS can be a bit overwhelming. Come see what the commotion is about and join the Federation Commander Forum now!
Don't forget our original (discus-based) BBS where most product development takes place!
LYRANS ATTACK!
- Cadet Art Trotman, HMCS Ontario
Hydran Stingers are dangerous, and you should use maneuvers to avoid letting them get close. Keep your speed at 16 (with a few acceleration points) and stay ahead of the fighters.
Never engage the fighters and the ship at the same time, and if he tries to get his ship close before launching, stay away from him (to avoid playing to his strength). Stingers are expensive, and either you have a much bigger ship or you have more ships than he has. So before his fighters launch, you outnumber and outgun the Hydran. Use that to your advantage!
(Continue reading here)
Café Press is an online marketplace 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 Eric Olivarez (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
CAST BEFORE A SPACE
- Fleet Captain Ken Lin, USS Ohio
A Tholian will cast a W-shaped web between his ship and an approaching opponent. In general, the web is placed so that the opponent cannot move through it during the four impulses it takes to solidify. Even if the opponent is not moving at a high speed, the Tholian must always be aware of possible speed changes which could potentially allow his opponent to move up to four times in the next four impulses.
The Tholian should look for opportunities to cast web when the opponent does not move on the next impulse. Because speed changes occur before direct-fire weapons fire in the Sequence of Play (webs are cast during the direct-fire weapons fire phase), this ensures that the opponent will be able to move, at a maximum, only three hexes before the web solidifies.
(Continue reading here)
SETTLING THEIR HASH
- Commander Craig Tenhoff, USS California
The Capital is usually a place where many vulnerable units are located, especially auxiliaries and FRDs. While auxiliary carriers should always be escorted, to prevent their destruction during a drone raid, there is little that can be done to protect other auxiliaries and FRDs.
To stop this, you must combine the effects of rules (320.355) and (537.32).
(Continue reading here)
Every month we will feature one of our miniatures that has been painted by a fan. If you paint miniatures, submit your pictures and you may be our next Mini of the Month!
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Communique #38 has been posted to the Commander's Circle.
JUST RELEASED
Galactic Conquest Rulebook, SKU 5716, $19.95
Captain's Log #38, Doomward and the Vortex, SKU 5738, $19.95
Squadron Box #22, SKU 4322, $39.95
Squadron Box #23, SKU 4323, $39.95
Squadron Box #24, SKU 4324, $39.95
TO BE RELEASED ON 18 FEBRUARY 2009
SFB Module G3: Master Annexes, SKU 5423, Price $29.95
Federation Commander: Border Box #8, SKU 4408, $99.95
Orion Dreadnought Miniature, SKU 0826, $9.95
TO BE RELEASED ON 23 MARCH 2009
FC Reference Rulebook (5th Edition), SKU 4020, $14.95 Federation Commander: Briefing #2, SKU 4022, $19.95
Prime Directive: Federation (d20), SKU 8702, $24.95
TO BE RELEASED IN 20 APRIL 2009
Federation Commander: Borders of Madness #1,SKU 4051, $19.95
TO BE RELEASED IN MAY 18 2009
Captain's Log #39, SKU 5739, $19.95
GURPS Federation, SKU 8402, $24.95
TO BE RELEASED AT ORIGINS 2009
Federation Commander: Hydran Attack, SKU 4107, $29.95
Star Fleet Battles Module (to be announced)
SNAP COUNT Part 6 of 10
- By Stephen V. Cole
Briefing Room, USS Eagle, 2107 hrs, 17 Jan Y169
"Everybody sit down," Captain Williams said. "As you can all see, we have the department heads, the main bridge shift, the science officer, Commander Strakhorn, and Lieutenant Kezlok.
"As you know, Juggernaut Beta is headed for Arcturus, a Federation associate member planet with a population of six billion. Evacuation is physically impossible, although everyone who can leave is crowding into freighters and leaving. That won't amount to more than ten or twenty thousand people.
"I have asked Starbase Eight to send us everything they can, but space is big and in six days that's not much.
"The local defenses include a civilian base station, ground-based phaser and missile batteries, a police ship, half a dozen police skiffs, an armed auxiliary cruiser with more missiles, a fighter wing with two dozen F-4s, and a couple of armed transports with phasers and some other weapons.
(Continue reading here)
BOARDING PARTIES
- by Mike Filsinger
Walter Green asks: A friend and I are doing a planet assault scenario, I am planning on taking a Free Tanker for the GCVs and Tanks and I noticed that it is not completely full. I am assuming you could put boarding parties in the cargo bays (basically use it as a GIANT shuttle) so the vehicles would not be landing on their own but I cannot find how many spaces each would take up.
ANSWER: There is no provision anywhere in the rules for placing boarding parties into cargo boxes. For a house rule, you might apply (G25.133), which would seem to imply that each crew unit takes up about 20 cargo spaces, but I would be dubious about the life support capacity of the ship.
Follow-up question: Can two docked ships also use their transporters to move items between them, e.g., use transporters to move boarding parties to the tanker and move the GCVs to the Tanker via cargo transfer?
ANSWER: Rule (C13.474) indicates that you could use transporters as well as 'normal transfers'.
(Continue reading here)
THE MOBILE BASE THAT NOBODY KNEW
- by Nick Blank
I have a chain of questions regarding the special two-turn set-up of mobile bases in the Four Powers War, when nobody had really figured them out yet. Rules (510.21) and (510.22) define the procedure for setting up a MB. Rule (510.232) states that (in combat) if the tug is not with the MB, the MB is considered abandoned. Rule (607.16) describes the scenario rule for setting up a MB as taking two turns for Step 2 (510.22). In my case, a tug which began setting up a MB on the Strategic Move portion of its previous turn, and wants to change missions during the Economic Phase [Step 1F (509.32) Declare roles for tugs] of the current turn.
QUESTION: If the tug voluntarily changes missions is the MB lost/destroyed?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: Would the MB be considered still 'packed' since it has not been a full turn OR is it considered 'partially set-up'?
ANSWER: It is partially set-up; it has no combat factors, but can no longer move or retreat with the tug.
(Continue reading here)
These are the press releases we send to the wholesalers, retailers, and media. You can get on the mailing list for them by asking Marketing@StarFleetGames.com to add you to the list. (Obviously, they are free.) They are uploaded to the Star Fleet Alert page.
Alert 90210 We Moved
Alert 90212 Galactic Conquest
Alert 90216 New Schedule (Available 16 Feb 09)
This is the 3d computer model for the new miniature of the Federation F-18 fighter.
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