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June 2018
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Star Fleet Universe News BIG NEWS: SHAPEWAYS at 797
Our store on Shapeways continues to expand with 44 new ships released on 1 June (total 797 items!).
Ships released for both 3788 and 3125 scales include: Federation Old Light Cruiser (grid and plain), Klingon C5 (Aztek and plain), Kzinti Battleship, Gorn HDD and CM (scaled and plain), Romulan NovaHawk and KillerHawk (original and refit), Hydran Overlord and Lion Hunter, Lyran Military Police (plain and Aztek), Souldra Heavy Cruiser.
Omni scale ships included in this release are: Hydran Hellion gunboat and Stinger-H fighter, Lyran Bobtail PF, Souldra Shards (fighters), Death Probe (three sizes).
Ships released for 3788 scale: Lyran Wildcat BC Aztek.
You can check out the store (797 items!) here:https://www.shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc
285 FIGHTERS 20 JUNE
We plan to release the first 20 of the new 1/285 scale fighters on 20 June to celebrate one year of Shapeways. These will cover all current empires and more 285s will be added every month. These will be good for any future fighter dogfight game that somebody writes for us.
WEBSITE:
Our website, www.StarFleetGames.com, continues to grow and improve. You are welcome to send us your requests, comments, and suggestions. Simone Dale, our graphics director, continues to update the website, do covers for the new products, shut down pirate websites, help out around the company, and learn more about the game business.
TWITTER: VIDEOS: Star Fleet Marines Part 1 DOING VIDEOS OF THE SFU
A customer asked about posting "tutorial videos" for our games. We like it when people do that (and even give commendation medals) but you need to have us check the videos to make sure you aren't violating something somehow (or that you didn't make a rules error). Doing such videos to make money is not cool. Please drop us an email before you post the videos.
STARBLOG: STAR FLEET'S LEGIONS EXPAND: This month we feature Battle Group Tacoma, WA. CO William Z. Cohen reports that this group is active, playing Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander, Federation & Empire, and A Call to Arms: Star Fleet. They are an active group, playing frequently and painting minis. They also have three Rangers in the group and page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Battle-Group-Tacoma-Star-Fleet-Battles-197549980818347/
Do you have a battle group? Be sure to report your activities here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/battlegroup/report.shtml
Do you want to see if there's a battle group near you? Check out the map here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/battlegroup/gather.shtml#US
Facebook Fan Pages
So join us on Facebook and get a fix of your favorite game there, too!
JAGDPANTHER
Custom Decals for Starline ships Tenneshington Decals continues to provide custom decals for all currently produced Federation Starline 2500 miniatures. For more information or to download the order sheet, check them out at www.tenneshington.com. Or if you prefer, email Will McCammon at: will@tenneshington.com or Tony L. Thomas at: scoutdad@tenneshington.com.
Jupiter IV Decals is a source of decals for the 2400 line and will do custom decals as well as all official SFB names. In the near future Jupiter IV will move into the 2500 line and will work to get every listed name on the Starfleet registry completed in both scales.
Their website is: JupiterIvdecals.com
ONLINE TOURNAMENTS Our seventh Internet SFB International Championship Tournament is underway. This is a single-elimination tournament using a standard tree. One semifinal game is yet to be played before we find out who is flying in the final game.
Fleet Captain Bill Schoeller (winner of the 2016 tournament) is the judge for this tournament. As we did in Platinum Hat 2016, Tournament Marshal Steven P. Petrick will also "ride herd" on the tournament to ensure that games are played on schedule and the event does not drag. There will, inevitably, be some delays near the end when re-entries have to "catch up" to the initial entries. A firm hand on the helm will ensure that these are as minor as possible. People who do not get their next game completed in a set number of days will be disqualified and the player they beat (or a wildcard selected by the judges) replaces them. Deadlines may be adjusted by the Judge or Marshal to allow for a player's serious real life unexpected problem or issue.
Masters 2018 is in Round 1 for the most part. About half the matches have been decided. Andy Koch is the judge in this "just for fun" tournament. Rated Ace Tournament 48 is finishing up signups. Rom Brimeyer has volunteered to be the judge.
DEMOS AND CONS WITH SFU GAMES
Are you going to Gen Con in August 2018? Make plans to play Star Fleet Battles with Randy Blair as the Ranger in charge. He'll be running six games there. August 2 at 10:00 am, August 2 at 4:00 pm, August 3 at 10:00 am, and August 3 at 4:00 pm is Survivor. August 4 at 9:00 am is Western Plight. August 4 at 4:00 pm is Eastern Plight. Each game is stand-alone. Gen Con is held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Star Fleet Battles games are held weekly in Tempe Arizona each Friday at Game Depot from 2:00 -7:00 pm. Eric Phillips is the person to contact.
Star Fleet Battles games are held regularly in Indianapolis, Indiana at Family Time Games. Anthony Harding is the contact person. For more information see: http://www.meetup.com/Star-Fleet-Battles-Indy/. Star Fleet Battles games are played regularly in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday afternoons at the Soldiery. Lee Hanna is the contact person. Games are held in Spokane, Washington on an irregular basis. Contact them to see if there's a game scheduled. They meet at The Gamer's Haven, 2114 N. Pines St., Suites 1 & 2, Spokane Valley, WA 99206, (509) 443-5992 http://www.thegamershaven.net/ Download Transmissions HAILING FREQUENCIES: This is our newsletter and will let you know all the news for all our games. You can subscribe here. Have you missed an earlier newsletter? Click here to get caught up! COMMUNIQUE: The latest Communique brings you more Ship Cards, scenarios, and more news from the Star Fleet Universe! It can be downloaded from the Commander's Circle. FC Forum Recent Posts
F&E Strategy of the Month In the middle to later years of the General War, Coalition players find themselves facing a significant electronic warfare (EW) disadvantage against Federation fleets, especially when backed by adjustable-electronic warfare starbases. The starbase assault is bad enough without running up against crippling minus-two electronic warfare shifts, but the situation is even worse when a negative electronic warfare shift is also applied to your Special Attack Force. What can you do?
Let's begin by analyzing the Federation starbase defense strategy. He will undoubtedly deploy a CVA group in the line (as his flagship), freeing up his formation bonus for something other than a command ship. To raise his electronic warfare (EW), he will likely place a scout there, increasing his baseline EW from the nominal four points (from the scout in the scout slot) to eight points. Since SWACs are never far from a CVA, we must also assume that two SWACs will be deployed, increasing the electronic warfare by two more points to 10. Add in the nominal starbase electronic warfare of one point, and we come to a staggering baseline electronic warfare rating of 11 points. That 11 points can then be adjusted up to 16 points by trading off some of the starbase's firepower. Let's imagine our Coalition player preparing for this assault by building Special Attack Forces. The Special Attack Force has significant advantages over the FTL and FTS, let alone the other ground units. Uniquely in Federation & Empire, the Special Attack Force is the sole unit capable of inflicting more than one Starbase Incremental Damage Step per battle round on a starbase. Nor can the starbase's own ground defenses (or those in the support echelon) provide any defense, since the Special Attack Force is technically not a Marine unit at all. Essentially, it is a bunch of freighters packed with explosives on a suicide mission. Another advantage of the Special Attack Force is that although it can be disrupted by enemy directed fire, that disruption neither destroys the Special Attack Force or permits an additional directed damage attack during that battle round. Hence, the Federation player will be obsessed with disrupting a Special Attack Force on each battle round where you deploy one. Accordingly, you had best bring between four and six to this hex. A disrupted Special Attack Force suffers another loss when the electronic warfare shift is negative, namely a minus one to its die roll. Such a die roll shift increases the odds to 50 percent that the Special Attack Force will explode harmlessly in space, providing the Federation with a glorious fireworks show at horrible expense to you. So, we must neutralize that electronic warfare advantage! Let's organize our Coalition fleet around the Special Attack Force attack with Special Attack Force neutralization as our objective. Since we are imagining this battle occurring in mid-to-late years, the Klingons will finally be able to deploy their C8V. This offers them the same double-protected-scout strategy as that employed by the Federation. Those two D6Ss will offer the Klingons a baseline EW rating of eight. To offset the SWACs, we place a single D6D in the line, bringing the Klingon fleet to 10 EW points against the Federation's 11. At this point, neutralization has occurred. In addition to our fully escorted C8V group, two D6Ss, and our single D6D (a total of six ships), let's add an interdiction carrier for a total of three more ships and a fighter total of four squadrons. Since the Federation player must used directed damage on the Special Attack Force for 12 points, the Coalition can now absorb 36 total damage without crippling any unit (24 fighters plus the 12 Special Attack Force points). Since our Klingon player is not stupid, he obviously brought along an admiral, and if there is any time to use a command point, it is against a starbase. Thus, our Coalition fleet has only used nine of its 12 possible ship slots (assuming the interdiction carrier deploys only two escorts). The other three must now be used to preempt the starbase's own EW defense, since it could increase its EW rating to six points by sacrificing firepower.
The solution to this problem is a D6D squadron of three ships. These beautiful ships have a combat potential of seven points plus an EW rating of two points. Three of them increase your fleet Combat Potential by a respectable 21 points, while increasing your EW rating from 10 points to 16 points. By reducing your C8V group to its minimal escort complement, you could slip in an additional D6D for a total EW output of 18 points! Let's face it, there is nothing quite like hearing the Federation player smugly announce his nominal EW rating as 11 and watching his jaw impact the pavement when you announce yours as 18 points. This is one situation where the ever-present Federation hospital ship will have a real world duty to care for the player. But his shock will turn to horror when he then realizes that not even sacrificing the full firepower of his starbase will make a dent in your electronic warfare protection for your Special Attack Force, because although he can negate your negative-two electronic warfare shift against him, there is nothing he can do to gain a negative-one electronic warfare shift against you and your Special Attack Force. With multiple attacks from the Special Attack Force plus your fleet's one-Starbase Incremental Damage Step per turn from its own attacks, you can achieve anywhere from one to three Starbase Incremental Damage Steps per turn with your disrupted Special Attack Forces, turning an eight turn slogging match to a much more respectable three-to-four turns. Of course, the Federation player will be wise to your D6D strategy by the second round. He may well place a scout of his own into his line. Not to worry, because you always have the option of replacing your interdiction carrier either with one of the later-year scout-carriers or just dumping the carrier altogether and adding an additional squadron of three more D6Ds! The key to this starbase attack strategy is to bring along around 10 D6Ds and four or five Special Attack Forces, plus plenty of fighter reserves. Even if forced to cripple a D6D or two (if the Federation rolls high), the extra D6Ds can be drawn from these reserves or even from your echelon drone ships to maintain electronic warfare parity. Finally, if the Federation player is low on his own scout reserves, it may be wise to target one of his SWACs or even one of his triple-protected scouts on your first attack (destroying rather than crippling it to prevent the starbase from using its rapid combat repair capability to bring it back to health).
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New Releases Communique #150 has been posted to the Commander's Circle Click here to see our previous issues of Hailing Frequencies. Recently Released To be released in 2018
A new Starmada book for both editions.
Federation Commander Reference Starship Book
Traveller Prime Directive Core Rulebook
New starships for the 2500 (1/3125) range including Klingon B10
New starships for the 2400 (1/3788) range including heavy war destroyers and the jumbo freighter.
SHAPEWAYS:
We’re now offering some of our miniatures and some new designs on Shapeways. You can check out the store here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc?sort=newest
PDF and EBOOK SALES: RECENTLY RELEASED ON Warehouse 23
West of The Town, Delta Pavonis Colony, 9 Aug Y171
The shimmer of a Klingon transporter appeared in an open field. When it stopped, six humans were standing there. "Do we need to move?" one of them asked. "Probably not," Lieutenant Evans replied. Another shimmer, this one fifty meters away, deposited the other five crewmen of remote warning station K64. The Lieutenant waved for the ensign to bring the others to him. "We could meet him half way" Crew Chief Andresson said. "I am still in command," Lieutenant Evans smiled. "He can walk over here. Besides, we're closer to the road." He gestured to his left, where they could just make out an unpaved road about a hundred meters away. "At least we're not on that Klingon ship," one of the crewmen said. All 11 of them had spent the last week in a room only three by four meters. Klingon rations, gray bricks of something that was more or less digestible had become boring very fast. "Reporting, Sir," Ensign Stone said. "What's the plan?" "First, we're going to walk over to that road," Evans said, heading off that way at a brisk walk. Two minutes later, they were standing on what was clearly a hard-packed dirt road. "Which way?" someone asked. "We're going to start by looking to see what we can see," Evans said, shading his eyes as he looked one way, then the other. Crew Chief Andresson turned and looked back toward the place they had arrived. "More arrivals," she said, gesturing as another group transported down. She waved them over. "I thought there had to be people from other stations on board." Before the first group arrived, two more groups landed. They were, as Andresson had suspected, the crews from other remote stations. The officers, Lieutenant Barnes and Ensigns Collingwood and Beaufort were all junior to Evans. "Five officers, including yourself," Crew Chief Andresson said, and 23 enlisted crewmen, including myself. Two people have minor injuries, but they can walk okay." "Very well," Evans said. "I'm in command, and the first mission is to get the group to some local habitation before it gets dark. Has anybody seen anything? I didn't." No one had. "This road obviously goes from one place to another place, and there will obviously be people in both directions, but if we pick the wrong one, we'll have a longer walk. We'll start by sending two people each way to get a wider view. Volunteers?"
Most of the hands went up. Evans picked two of his own petty officers and paired them with two of the more athletic-looking crewmen. "You two, go to the top of that hill. You two, go to where the road turns left beyond those trees. Let us know if you see any signs of habitation. If you do, we'll all go that way. If you don't, half of us will go each way. Whoever finds someone can send a truck for the other half of the group." (Continue reading here)
Ask Admiral Vanaxilth Phaser Capacitors
Francois Lemay asks: Say a ship has four phaser-1s and powers them all. During the turn, it fires two of them, but then the other two are destroyed before they fire. My understanding is that the phaser capacitor is now at zero and the ship would need to apply two points of power to fire the undestroyed phasers on the next turn. But I just learned tonight that the capacitor still has two points of power and so the ship does not need to apply any more power to be able to fire the remaining phasers next turn. Yikes, if this is true, I have been playing this all wrong the last 35 years or so and my ships just got stronger! ANSWER: This is indeed the case. The power in the phaser capacitor is not associated with any particular phaser until you fire the phaser. If phasers are destroyed, the maximum capacity of the phaser capacitor is reduced (and power in the capacitor above the new maximum would be lost), but otherwise, damage to phasers does not affect power in the phaser capacitor. In your example, if the ship had not fired phasers, or had only fired one phaser, before losing two phasers to damage, its phaser capacitor would still be reduced to two energy points. (End of Admiral Vanaxilth) F&E Q&A
RETREATING Q: The Hydrans are on the map fighting in the 01xx row in a hex adjacent to their off-map area. There is an adjacent hex also in the 01xx row and also adjacent to their off-map area with no enemy forces in it. Do they have to retreat to the off-map area since this is their supply source or could they retreat to the open hex on map thus staying on the map and still being 0 hexes from supply?
A: Let's refer to the rulebook. (302.733D) Of the remaining available retreat hexes in which his force would be in supply, the player must select the one with the shortest supply path to a supply point. In this case, the off-map area is the supply point, and is one hex away. Therefore, if a retreating unit is adjacent to both its off-map area and an empty (non-supply point) hex that is also adjacent to the same off-map, then the retreating unit must retreat to the off-map supply point. This is because, after the unit retreats, the shortest supply path to the off-map area is "zero" (since you are now in that area) and the empty (non-supply point) hex is still one hex away from the off-map supply point. Q: An operational base can retreat as a slow unit, but it can withdraw when towed by a tug. Since the only point you can withdraw from the battle is in Phase 5-1 the only way to tow an OPB out of combat is to withdraw before combat. Is this correct?
A: No. Let's refer to the rulebook, which allows you to evacuate the OPB with the tug from the battle itself. (537.232) A rescue tug can, instead of rescuing a crippled ship in the pursuit battle, rescue one slow unit (avoiding pursuit entirely). This can only be a "single ship" so it could rescue an auxiliary or monitor but not a convoy (or LTF or SAF). FRDs cannot be rescued in this way as they have their own overriding movement rules. The rescued ship may be from an allied empire. This is done during the formation of battle lines for the pursuit battle (End of F&E Q&A)
ASK AUNT JEAN
Dear Aunt Jean, Will there ever be rank insignia for the Lyrans? A: Absolutely! Steve Cole got right on this and created them. The file can be found here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/historicaldownloads.shtml#hg along with many others.
Send questions to Jean at marketing@StarFleetGames.com and she will answer as soon as she can.
(End of Ask Aunt Jean ) Cool Stuff on the Website In this section we will provide links to various web pages and items that we think you will find "cool". We have also uploaded new Xander wallpapers to our Wallpapers section on the website: Wallpapers STAR FLEET ALERTS 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 FC Tactic of the MonthDIRECTED COLLATERAL DAMAGE The clever use of the Directed Targeting rule in Federation Commander can offer a very significant advantage ‹ a relatively small number of internal damage points that will hit power and weapons systems can hurt your opponent tremendously.
Sometimes, though, a scenario is about more than simply reducing the opponent's combat capabilities. An escort, rescue, or scientific mission can require systems just as critical to success as engines and guns, and a careful study of the Damage Allocation Chart to see what the enemy ship has next to its engine- or gun-rooms can be rewarding. So if you need to knock out your opponent's transporter systems and expect to cause four or five points of internal damage, do not target power. You would have a one-in-six chance of hitting the key system compared to a one-in-three chance if you used undirected fire or if you used Directed Targeting against weapons. However, if you are going to be scoring six-to-eight points of internal damage, using Directed Targeting against power is best: the odds are then two-in-three. If you will score more than eight points of internal damage, then the best chance switches back to using Directed Targeting against weapons. Don't forget to look at the alternate hits. To kill tractor beams, you usually want to be aiming for weapons systems. However, if your target has no labs (he is an Orion Pirate Raider holding one of your freighters, for example or they have all been disabled), then any volley likely to score six points of internal damage should use Directed Targeting against power systems. There is no padding for tractor hits on the alternate damage row. For other systems:
Shuttles are best killed if Directed Targeting is used against weapons at any level of damage (and once gone, this increases the vulnerability of transporters to repeated weapons-directed salvos). To reduce scientific capability, labs are best killed with undirected fire if the volley scores four points of internal damage or less. (Directed Targeting against weapons is as good for one-to-three points of internal damage, but worse for four points of internal damage.) Directed Targeting against power systems should be used for larger volleys of internal damage. To destroy a probe launcher, undirected fire is the most effective means of stripping away the rear hull padding, and then Directed Targeting against weapons boosts the chance of hitting the launcher. Any Directed Targeting lessens your chances of taking out control boxes, so undirected fire should be used.
Drogues can provide considerable self-defense or even offensive capability to what is often the weakest ship in the fleet - the scout. Because they do not blind sensor channels, heavy weapons drogues are the ideal firepower supplement to scouts, especially plasma-armed scouts. Instead of having to protect your scout from flanking enemy ships, a scout can use drogue-mounted plasma-F torpedoes for self-defense. The flanking ship may suddenly find itself on the defensive. The scout's plasma-F torpedoes can also be used to finish off a damaged enemy ship, or just as a surprise to throw off your opponent's planning.
Drone-armed and phaser-armed drogues can be used as well, of course, but the low firepower of the phaser drogues, and the fact that drone-armed scouts can already use drones without blinding themselves, makes the difference in capability less pronounced for these ships. (End of SFB Tactic of the Month)
(End of A Call to Arms: Star Fleet Tactic of the Month)
Facebook Highlight of the Month Played a great game today of SFB with some awesome people. We introduced the Vudar and they are simply fascinating to employ in the game as a whole.
Mini of the Month Kent Ing painted these Federation F-14s
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show our games and to teach potential players some basics. 
