How to play bad Federation Commander

Robert Knoke · Post by **Robert Knoke** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:00 am

Naw, you can write it. It will merely be deleted before it's shared with all the young'ens!

Then again, maybe it's better not to say anything. The colorful metaphors just keep getting more and more colorful as the years go by...

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:33 pm

But the "colorful metaphors" were exclaimed by one of the "young-uns"!!!

Robert Knoke · Post by **Robert Knoke** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:31 am

Ahhh, well! Hope them young-ens don't kiss their mama with them mouths!

justicar · Post by **justicar** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:06 pm

Sneaky Scot wrote:Rely on the dice to save you

Turning a down shield towards an opponent at long range just before you say "they'll never hit anything at that range." Three successful disruptor hits later......

A buddy of mine (who happens to be a card-carrying Rated Ace) routinely drops shields 2-6 when flying a Fed Scout. Last week a Klink plinked him on his #6 with a disruptor at range 40 the impulse before the shield was set to raise....

jmt · Post by **jmt** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:48 am

justicar wrote:
Sneaky Scot wrote:Rely on the dice to save you

Turning a down shield towards an opponent at long range just before you say "they'll never hit anything at that range." Three successful disruptor hits later......
A buddy of mine (who happens to be a card-carrying Rated Ace) routinely drops shields 2-6 when flying a Fed Scout. Last week a Klink plinked him on his #6 with a disruptor at range 40 the impulse before the shield was set to raise....

What does he gain by dropping the 5 shields?

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:28 pm

How to play Bad FC? That's easy.

The recipe is :

1 part SFB player who makes assumptions on how the rules work.

1 part lack of reading the rules in their entierty.

and finally, 1 part trying to use SFB tactics in FC.

Mix well, and bake for 1 scenario length.

creates Humble Pie, Serves 1-4 players

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:45 pm

Hehehehe. You should have seen some of our earlier games during play test / development. We kept thinking thatsince we knew SFb forwards and backwards - we were ready to play this game. Boy were we wrong.

Lack of fire opportunities and the non-transference of standard SFB tactics made for some pretty bonehead moves. :O

Crimin · Post by **Crimin** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:45 pm

Sweeper, Scoutdad, I'd love to hear some examples of the follies you've witnessed, and which tactics just don't transfer over...

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:18 pm

Well, the "only eight firing opportunities a turn" can really screw you over. I distinctly remember setting up my Impulse 1 cheap-shot and suddenly realizing that I don't get that in FC ...

Everyone getting the Positron Flywheel for free can be a kick to the head.

No quarter turn delay caught me a couple times. Which is truly sad considering I was one who argued for its removal.

DNordeen · Post by **DNordeen** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:34 am

Thinking that tractored units had SFB restrictions, I watched in horror as the KE I tractored with my dreadnought put a PL-R into my nearby destroyer.

He also put two PL-Fs into my frigate.

That was a painful lesson

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:52 am

Crimin wrote:Sweeper, Scoutdad, I'd love to hear some examples of the follies you've witnessed, and which tactics just don't transfer over...

Witnessed? Heck, that was me the 1st time I played a squad scale Fleet Action game online. I was playing Klingons and my opponent had Kzintis. The 1st turn had us approaching each other behind a big wave of drones. With creative use of tractors and phasers, I took most of his out and he, mine.

The 2nd turn, we got into weapons range with another volley of drones. Being a pretty crappy die-roller, I concentrated fire of 3 of my 4 ships on one of his frigates, (mistake 1), all but destroying it in the process, he split the fire of his ships between my D7 and F5, going past the cripple stage of my F5 and doing job on my D7 because I made the assumption that I could use any amount of energy for shield reinforcement, (mistake 2).

The end result was he had 2 undamaged ships, 1 with minor shield damage, and 1 destroyed because I used too much firepower, (Yes, there is such a thing), and myself with 2 undamaged ships, 1 cripple, and 1 all-but destroyed with more drones on the way. Suffice to say, I was spanked.

Like the old saying goes, "Read the 'Fine' Manual"

Crimin · Post by **Crimin** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:44 pm

The two things that took us the most to get used to are the reduced firing opportunities (especially when fleets are converging at 24) and the fact that you can decelerate.

I think deceleration has thwarted more than a few of our plans. "Aha! he has no choice but to move forward into the deadly hex row in front of my - wait, you're doing WHAT?"

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:34 pm

Crimin wrote:The two things that took us the most to get used to are the reduced firing opportunities (especially when fleets are converging at 24) and the fact that you can decelerate.

While I admit that the reduced firing opportunities have hurt me, I immediately took to the deceleration. I took frequent advantage of that even in my very first game of Federation Commander!

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:37 pm

The first time I tried that "accelerate-decelerate-to-fulfill-Turn-Mode" thing so I could make a tighter turn it about knocked the socks off my opponent.

DNordeen · Post by **DNordeen** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:15 am

The decelerate for a tighter turn caught me off guard a few times. Still does every now and again. "Ha...you have to move forward...what are you doing? Decelerate! AAHHH!!!"