Federation Commander

[cnuzzi]

I had posted this on a Facebook group but Will McCammon replied and told me that it would not be seen by SVC there, so I'm reposting it here. I'd like to make a Federation Commander ship request for a future issue of Hailing Frequencies: a Middle Years Federation Battle Tug.

The reason I'm requesting it is that I recently bought all of the Middle Years pdf packs from w23, and I'm really enjoying them. It's like the SFB Designer's Edition for FC! The Fed BT was my favorite ship from those days, both for the punch it packed and its backstory, the one that began "In a controversial program..."

I understand if you aren't into doing any more Middle Years ships, but I thought I'd take a shot.

[mjwest]

The General War battle tug was published somewhere. (uh ... hold on ... ah!) It was Captain's Log #44. So, that's already out there somewhere.

I would hesitate to do a true Middle Years version of the tug, as the FC version would work totally differently than the SFB version. The reason is because in the Middle Years, there is no AWR. This means that the power provided in the battle pod cannot actually power its own photons. So, powering the photons requires power only from the tug's engines, which slows it down even more, making the battle tug almost immobile. In FC, "power is power", so that restriction wouldn't be evident. This would make the FC battle tug basically as useful as the GW version, which should not be the case. So, I'd recommend just sticking with the already published battle tug.

However, you're in luck! You don't need to convince me, only Steve! Good luck!
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Steve Cole]

I don't have a problem doing middle years ships.

I don't have a problem doing ships on request (although i can only do about one request a month as it has to have somewhere to go, CapLog, Newsletter, ePack).

Mike is right about the battle tug, however. The only way to do it would be to include a rule saying that the reactors on the pod cannot be used to power to the photons, that power must come from the tug, but that means nothing as you would just use the reactor power to move (which technically you cannot do but FC let's you get off easy.) Doing the middle years battle tug would require a bunch of unique power limitation rules that are anathema to FC. No other ship in FC would use them. Sadly, there really is no way to make that happen.

BTW, this is the first time I tried the new emoticons that appeared on my browser with the W10 update. Wish me luck.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[cnuzzi]

I see. That makes sense. I hadn't considered the power issue - thanks for explaining it. I have the GW version from the Battle Tugs Ship Card Pack, so I'll stick with that.

BTW, the emojis look good!