Federation Commander

A good post by Storelf (that not just because he is agreeing with me!)

All points I was going to make have been covered (i.e introduce weapons slowly phasers, drones then engine doubling etc)

Once Engine doubling is introduced this can mean a player can come back from a bad position.

I would also consider what your perspective players are interested in.

The WYN fish ships might be a great starter race, but your average player will not know who they are. Players will more then likely know the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and Perhaps the Orions, and maybe the Gorn.

easy way is to use the klingons. they have no extra turn arming, and less drones to take care of. In addition, if you use frigates, the power track will be easier to start with and when doing fleet scale.

Personally,I've used the W-Y-N Frigate(fish type) for teaching new players the ropes.It's possibly the best frigate in the game,with the exception of the Fed,with 2x Disr;2xDrone;4xPh-1 & 2xPH-3,with good shields and great maneuverability.

I think it's best to start with races who use easily understandable tactics, and whose ships are tough enough to take some damage. Fed tactics are fairly simple, at the end of the day. Get to range 8 or less, let loose the photon torpedoes, and hope the dice favor you. And their ships can take a bit of pounding. Hydran ships are very forgiving, as they have lots of power, and that big block of center hull. The first couple of games leave the fighters out. The intricacies of fighter tactics can come later. If they're going to take a stab at a plasma race, start them with the Gorns. Compared to Romulans, their ships are a hard kill, and they have those carronades, which are both useful and easy to use. No complicated planning required, just get to range five and start causing damage. For a disruptor race, start them on the Kzinti.

Klingons can be frustrating at first, because their strengths aren't immediately obvious, and good Klingon tactics can be more difficult to understand. At least I found them so. I learned, basically by getting blown up a whole bunch of times, either while playing Klingons or playing against them. By the way, if you want to teach a player how to play a given race, take that race up against them, and then do a detailed post mortem on what happened and why.