Fed Comm/SFU Ground wars??

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:08 pm

So forgive me for being stupid and all by asking this question.. I am after all a Newb...

But has there ever been talk of an SFU ground based table top game.. ??

It would be similar to the fleet battles, only it utilizes ground troops, and tanks.. or drones and shuttles??

this would include Orbital ship support and Planetary anti-ship defenses..??

Hover tanks, hover fighters and bunkers, etc..

maybe even no troopers.. just tanks, and fighters..

Just curious..

I saw a design for the TOS it was of a Klingon Tank of sorts and a Fed tank.. I believe they were both hover tanks.. it was kinda cool..

drops hips would be cool too..

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:23 pm

It is called Star Fleet Assault. While it has never been published (if only because I never finished designing it) there are good chances you will see it next year. I do have a PDF of the draft rules. Maybe I'll put it on the site sometime if I get an Email for my Wednesday Customer Request folder.

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:26 pm

Steve Cole wrote:It is called Star Fleet Assault. While it has never been published (if only because I never finished designing it) there are good chances you will see it next year. I do have a PDF of the draft rules. Maybe I'll put it on the site sometime if I get an Email for my Wednesday Customer Request folder.

I'll email that request for sure!! where do i find that address to request to see the rules??

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 6:16 pm

There is an email button right at the bottom of SVC's post.

SVC has been teasing this "SFU ground combat" game for 20 years. It would be pretty neat to see it in print after all this time.

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:35 am

djdood wrote:There is an email button right at the bottom of SVC's post.

SVC has been teasing this "SFU ground combat" game for 20 years. It would be pretty neat to see it in print after all this time.

ahhh didn't even realize, thanks for the tip..

by the way, i told my friend we might be seeing ground combat game stuff soon, and he went absolutely bonkers!!

he's always loved hover tanks, and atmosphere ship battles, with artillery and such..

I could see the first set called "outpost War" that would be awesome!!!

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:45 am

Though I'd like to see a ground combat game based in the SFU, it seems that at least the Feds would have a tremendous advantage. Recall those "little jewels" from Arena? Just one of those seemed to completely wipe out/injure a bunch of Gorns. Those big, lumbering, thick skinned reptilians would have to be able to take a lot of punishment compared to members of other empires. How easy would it be to defeat any creatures planetside...

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:15 am

Mike wrote:Though I'd like to see a ground combat game based in the SFU, it seems that at least the Feds would have a tremendous advantage. Recall those "little jewels" from Arena? Just one of those seemed to completely wipe out/injure a bunch of Gorns. Those big, lumbering, thick skinned reptilians would have to be able to take a lot of punishment compared to members of other empires. How easy would it be to defeat any creatures planetside...

I don't think that the one episode "Arena" was indicative of how the Gorn would be in the SFU.. in fact since the SFU is a different reality all together, I can see them being more aggressive and vicious in battle..

I just can't see a federation commander type ground war consisting of troops.. I mean it just seems to me that with the technology for space travel and such, that the feds, and the gorn would most likely battle on the planets with some kind of tanks, shuttles, and artillery batteries..

space ships would be barred from ground combat since there are obvious advantages..I would think that the games would have a built in handicap against orbiting starships trying to conquer from afar..

like maybe a standardized planetary defense weapons that would make it so that ships could not get near a disputed territory without getting blown away.. so in ground warfare in the sfu, those ships would do a troop drop from afar, and the smaller shuttles are able to get through to the ground war without serious damage to the starships, which would cost their respective fleet and so on..

Post by **Steve Cole** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:52 pm

That's not really how it works.

Ground defenses exist, and if they can keep a ship out of range, they can kill shuttles just as easily.

Planetary bombardment is great for "general destruction" but if the point is to seize the farms, factories, mines, and other facilities intact, you need boots on the ground. Infantry. Marines. Storm troopers.

Supported by all sorts of things (tanks being kind of hard to move, but not impossible) to be sure, but a guy with a bayonet on the end of his disruptor rifle has to make the other guy get out of his foxhole and surrender.

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:18 pm

Steve Cole wrote:That's not really how it works.

Ground defenses exist, and if they can keep a ship out of range, they can kill shuttles just as easily.

Planetary bombardment is great for "general destruction" but if the point is to seize the farms, factories, mines, and other facilities intact, you need boots on the ground. Infantry. Marines. Storm troopers.

Supported by all sorts of things (tanks being kind of hard to move, but not impossible) to be sure, but a guy with a bayonet on the end of his disruptor rifle has to make the other guy get out of his foxhole and surrender.

hmm this is true.. and I didn't think of it from that perspective..

I was just thinking scale wise, wouldn't it be hard to produce the minis for such a table top game? If not then that kind of warfare would rival that of Games workshop!!

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:24 pm

That's if it even went down the minis-path.

There is a century-long history of ground-combat "war games" just using cardboard chits (both in the military colleges and on the home gaming table).

It could easily start there first.

If minis became a marketable thing, there is no shortage of existing infantry and grav tank miniatures out there that could be licensed (much as the Iron Crown minis are being used for some of the really, really obscure SFU stuff [like "Early Years" ISC]).

Heck, even the Steve Jackson Games OGRE/GEV minis line was some molds that might be able to be used.

On a different note - One other fun toy sometimes mentioned in SFU ground combat: transporter artillery. Death appearing above.

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:45 am

in my neck o the woods, in VA we have lots of military.. and minis are the hottest ticket..

only most of my friends are burned out on games workshop, and battle tech..

I have never been interested simply because the subject matter wasn't enough to draw my interest.. then came fedcom.. easy to learn, easy to play, no PHD in rules.. and so on.. so now I'm hooked..

PanzerTC · Post by **PanzerTC** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:47 pm

This sounds very interesting.

I would, for obvious reasons, love to see Infantry and Tanks that can assault entire planets.

What scale would miniatures be if they were involved - I say 6mm would be the best. In terms of building large armies, tank and infantry would have to built in copious amounts. I think it's a rule somewhere.

But truth be told any scale = $ spent for them.

I would also absolutely love it if miniatures were developed. I have about 30+ Starfleet personnel from the old Task Force line. I use them as a group of Trekkies (as dubbed by his grace - Roddenberry) in one of my Zombie games.

PanzerTC

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:47 pm

I have seen the proto-type rules... and have even played around with them a bit.
They are not the type of grand-scale, entire plantary assualt rules that would require 6mm.

Unless major changes are made, 28mm would be fine.

One of BGMs fondest wishes is to have a long weekend (X-mas/New Years holiday seems right) to do this:
Start off with a Fed Prime Team on an APT headed towards a Klingon colony planet.
Begin the battle in Fed Comm. APT vs planetary defenses... get close enough to drop an assult shuttle...
The assualt shuttle comes in hot, firing atthe defending Klingon marines using Star Fleet Assault...
While the assault goes on and the forces are occupied thusly...
The APT comes back around the planet and beams the Prime Tem into the main facility... using Prime Directive D20 Modern, role play the PT as they infiltrate the HQ to retrieve valuable data that must be hacked from the computer the old-fashioned way... face-to-face!

Then beam out the PT after a successful mission...
back to Star Fleet Assault to complete the diversionary raid...
Then back to Fed Comm as the APT swoops out as the Klingon reinforcements arrive...
Then it's a running battle against ever increasing Klingon forces until you meet the incoming Federation relief forces!

What a Captain's Log article that would make!

PanzerTC · Post by **PanzerTC** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:09 pm

Regardless of scale -I'm intrested.

I hope to see the system out, in whatever form if it should get published.

PanzerTC

Starsuperion · Post by **Starsuperion** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:41 am

the rules are out in the miniature extra section.. I forgot the link..