Federation Commander

Combat inside a starship could be handled as Prime Directive or Battlestations. Module M for SFB also has rules for dividing starships up into areas for more detailed boarding actions. There was some talk a while back about adapting SJGames' FRAG engine for something like this, but it was not suitable in the end.

Starfleet Marine uniform question -

The Marines on the cover of SFB Module M are depicted as wearing BDU-type cammo uniforms.

What would ship-duty UFP Marines wear as their duty uniform ? Are they redshirts, as per the unfortunate general security personnel depicted in the TOS - or perhaps would they have a different color of shirt ? Dark blue or an OD or dark green would be cool.

Nobody ever said that this had maps of the insides of starships.

The one with maps of the insides of starships is KRAG (Klingon Rapid Assault Group).

I think Star Fleet Marines acting as a ship's security complement are red shirts. According to Prime Directive, standard Star Fleet uniforms offer a lot of protection because they are made from a super-tough cloth-like material. That's why away teams in the original series did not wear special clothing.

If combat is expected, Marines would equip themselves with appropriate protection, so for example if Star Fleet marines beamed onto a Klingon ship to raid it, they'd be wearing armour of some sort.

Steve Cole wrote:Nobody ever said that this had maps of the insides of starships.

The one with maps of the insides of starships is KRAG (Klingon Rapid Assault Group).

KRAG ? What's this ? A reference to the PD Gurps G-1 Klingon Gunboat plans ? Sounds intriguing !

Steve Cole wrote:Nobody ever said that this had maps of the insides of starships.

The one with maps of the insides of starships is KRAG (Klingon Rapid Assault Group).

Yes, I was just noting what you said since many folks (myself included) weren't sure how the scale of Star Fleet Marines would compare with full-size ships.

Your comment about ships landing on the map quickly cleared all that up, and also made me wonder what kind of maps we might see for the game in the future. Would we see huge starbases of some kind, big urban areas, wildly varying planet terrain? Maybe even special maps for battles on the homeworlds of the main empires?

Your comment about ships landing on the map quickly cleared all that up, and also made me wonder what kind of maps we might see for the game in the future. Would we see huge starbases of some kind, big urban areas, wildly varying planet terrain? Maybe even special maps for battles on the homeworlds of the main empires?

For Battletech I made a base map with no terrain, then printed out pages of heavy woods, light woods, lakes, hills, etc. I then cut up the full pages of terrain into smaller sections so the map could be customized. Using the same idea, ADB could sell map packs and/or other terrain modules. This might even be a good PDF product.

I think if you read the Captain's Log story, "Mutiny on the Demonslayer", then KRAG is meant to cover combat within a ship like the action in that story. At least, that's my impression of what it's about.

Maps for Star Fleet Assault: I adapted a couple of maps for SJGames' G.E.V. game for SFM, and worked fine. You could probably use maps for Battletech and about a bajillion other ground combat games if you wanted to, without even changing them.

A battle on the homeworld of an Empire is not going to involve battalion-sized units like SFM will. Those worlds have billions of inhabitants and entire armies of soldiers. Most ground combat in the SFU involves much smaller conflicts, on less heavily populated planets.

As much as I love the SFU, me being a former ground pounder does cause to me to lean toward my Marine cousins than that the Squids, (hey, I'm the son of a Seaman. I can get away with saying that. ). So, I am looking foward to SFA or whatever it's going to be titled upon release.

I do have some questions about the game:

1) Juding by the photo of the prototype countersheet I saw on FB, The game will be squad scale and single vehichle per counter. Is that correct?

2) What scale are the maps going to be in? I'm really getting into AP's most excellent Panzer Grenadier seiers and those maps have a scale of one hex being 200M across. If SFA matches, we could expand play with those maps (just sayin' )

3) Will the combat values be on the counters or will they require a Unit Status Display (USD) for record keeping?

4) ...and finally; have you decided on a price?

Thanks in advance

I think I can accurately answer some of these questions.

1. Yes. An SFU squad is about 5 beings though, which as I understand is a bit smaller than a modern squad.
2. 100 meters/hex I believe.
Yes, you could use Panzer Grenadier maps, I've even used G.E.V. maps, which are about 1km/hex. Just pull out your hex map, agree with your opponent on what each type of terrain represents in SFA terms, and you're good to go.
3. It doesn't use a CRT with attack strength vs defense strength, you correlate the attacking unit vs the defending unit.
4. I have no idea. SVC will have to answer this one.

Ahhh, speaking of maps, here are links to some Battletech-based free map generators:

http://www.pryderockindustries.com/dl_boards.php

http://megamek.sourceforge.net/

Standard .5" hexes then. Time to dig out the maps and Campaign Cartographer.

1) Juding by the photo of the prototype countersheet I saw on FB, The game will be squad scale and single vehichle per counter. Is that correct?

YES

2) What scale are the maps going to be in? I'm really getting into AP's most excellent Panzer Grenadier seiers and those maps have a scale of one hex being 200M across. If SFA matches, we could expand play with those maps (just sayin' )

100m, but I have found that you can pretty much grab any tactical game map and play the game.

3) Will the combat values be on the counters or will they require a Unit Status Display (USD) for record keeping?

The game system doesn't use combat factors. Read the above description.

4) ...and finally; have you decided on a price?

No, because I have yet to make decisions like box/folio and maps (color, mounted, whatever).

Somebody remind me to include those free map generator links.

Jean has posted a blown-up picture of a counter from SFM:A on the facebook page. (That's blown up as in large-size, not blown up as in 'KABOOM'.) She also let slip that -- WHANG! -- aaargh! I think Jean wants you to go to the facebook page for that detail. You should probably go there anyway if you are on Facebook, lots of cool photos and tidbits.

On a completely unrelated note, Mike Curtis' facebook page has a photo of a smiley face painted on the top of his head.