Federation Commander

[Iorwerth]

Thinking of buying into FC. Always like Klingons, so thought the Klingon Border would be the best - I presume that is as good a place as anywhere to start?. Anything else I need to get with it? Do I need to buy the Reference Rule book as well, to get uptodate rules? What about Booster packs? Also, if I did get miniatures, which set would I need to get?

Any advice much appreciated.

[Blammo]

Yes, buy it...BUY IT ALL!!!!!!

Just kidding, but seriously: Klingon Border is a good place to start. It is what I started with. I then branched out and bought Romulan Space (it was more economical than buying some duplicate stuff in Romulan Border), the Reference Rule Book and all the attack series (except for Battleship Attack). I have started working through the boosters now. Once I get the boosters, I will get Battleship Attack, the briefings and then probably start on the miniatures, unless my CFO (read: wife) cuts me off.

[Iorwerth]

[Jean]

Iowerth, if you were at Origins and said to me what you wrote here, I would say start with Klingon Border. Romulan Space is nice to add on, although if you were playing with a group, I might suggest Romulan Border to get all the extra reference cards to share and to be able to make a ginormous map.

Then you can buy everything else! I like the Boosters and the attack line. Hmmm.... I like the Briefings, too. I even like our challenged starships (available only at Origins as we must verify they will be happy in their new homes and Petrick needs plenty of time to housebreak them ).

Jean (who is wearing her Marketing hat)
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Business Manager/RPG Line Editor
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

[mjwest]

Klingon Border is an excellent place to start. It will provide a smattering of ships from the Feds, Klingons, and Kzinti, plus a single Tholian and Orion ship. The next logical purchase after that is Klingon Attack, which provides more ships from the same group of empires. (Then, you have the Booster Packs for each of those, if you so desire.)

The Klingon Border rulebook (and Romulan Border rulebook, for that matter), will give you the rules needed for the Federation, Klingon, Kzinti, Romulan, Gorn and Orion ships. Tholians won't have their web, but do get their snares. If you get the Master Rulebook, then you get the rules for all of the other published empires (Tholian, Hydran, Lyran, ISC, Vudar, ISC).
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Iorwerth]

Thanks for all the replies - looks like it is Klingon Border then! Do I need to get the Master Rulebook for the most uptodate rules?

[mjwest]

In theory, no. All of the other rulebooks should be updated to the same revision as the Reference Rulebook. You can tell by looking at the revision number for the rulebook. The most recent revision is 'rev6'.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Scoutdad]

Let me stir the pot even more...

Fed Comm has many purchase paths that can be customized to suit the desires of the end use comsumer.
I, for example; am an Ultimate SFU fan. I buy everything - just 'cause it says SFU on it.
Fed Comm, SFB, F&E, SFBF, Prime Directive (both flavors - GURPS and D20Modern) nad will buy Star FLeet Marines when it comes out.
But for a professed Klingon afficianado such as yourself...
I too would recommend starting with FC: KB followed by FC: KA. That gives you many of the Klingon ships and a sampling of the other powers in that region... Kzinit, Orion, and Tholian.
After that is when the options begin:
Next you could purchase Boosters 1,2,3,4,5,6 and getextra copies of the ships cards from KB and KA plus a few bonuses only available in the boosters...
Or you could expand your horizons and go for Romulan Border (or Rom SPace if you don't want an extra rulebook and 6 more map panels) followed by Romulan Attack. This would give you the eastern powers... Romulan and Gorn, as well as a few more Feddies.
Or option 3: Get the Reference Rulebook. This will give you the rules for all the empires... including expanded Orion Pirate rules, Tholinas, Hydrans, Lyran (and LDR), ISC, WYN Star Cluster, Vudar, and Andromedan. That combined with all of the free ship cards available on the ADB website will provide hours and hours of fun as you experiment with the various factions availble and attempt to determine if the next purchase shoule be Romulan, Tholians, Orions, Lyran/Hydrans, or ISC/Andromedans.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[mike_espo]

My first purchase was the Reference Rulebook. Even though I played SFB for a decade back in the '80s.

To date: 1. RR
2. Klingon Border
3. Romulan Space
4. Briefing 2
5. Briefing 1
6. Booster 91
I might add that the Klingon Border rules were not as up to date as the RR.

[Krellex]

Once you accept the truth that the grand Romulan Empire will dominate the galaxy, you will be much better off than you will with those silly Klingons.
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[Jean]

Remember that unless you buy directly from ADB, we cannot guarantee the rulebook has been reprinted and is the most current version. If you do buy from us, then be sure to ask Leanna if the rulebook has been updated yet.

When you buy from a game store, they may have had the game sitting there for a few months -- the same is true of distributors. Still, the CRUL will bring any rulebook up to date.
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Business Manager/RPG Line Editor
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

[Kang]

Also, buying the PDF version of the RRB makes good sense. That way you always have the latest version.
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[Iorwerth]

[Kang]

Consolidated Rules Update List. Grab one here:
http://tinyurl.com/c6babf

If you have a Rev.5 Rulebook, the one you want is the 'CRUL for Revision 5 Rulebook' and so on.
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[Mike]

The latest CRUL available is not up to date.
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Mike

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