Federation Commander

I think I have a good handle on the rules for this, but ran into a different view of things with the group I recently played with.

When a volley of damage is resolved, and the chart calls for a phaser hit, the owner of the ship being hit can take that phaser hit on any phaser box they choose to, correct?

I re-read the rules and couldn't find any reference to specific phasers needing to be destroyed. You take a phaser hit, you mark off a phaser box on your ship (and a clever player will take the hit on an out-of-arc or previously fired phaser).

The group I played with are mostly all old SFB-hands and were pretty insistent that the phasers to be disabled had to be those facing (in-arc of) the firing ship. My understanding is that this is indeed true in SFB, but is one of those "gritty rules" that was dumped to streamline FedCom.

Mike - please confirm my thinking? Thanks!

That's an SFB-ism..but it cuts both ways, as you are not limited to only being able to lose the number of phasers in arc during a volley.

There is no rule in Fed Com that requires you (or limits you) to only marking phasers that are in the arc the damage came from as damaged.

That's what I thought, but I wanted to get some second-opinions before I challenge people with 20 years more playing experience than me.

Funny, I did the same thing after our last game as you did. I re-read the rules about phaser facing and couldn't find a thing. Way too much bleed through effect from SFB for our own good.

Yep, sorry DJDood, Will C and I have SFB stuck in our heads!

It's gonna happen. It's inevitable given the relationship between the two.

Just be familiar with the rules, and don't be afraid to dig your feet in when you think you're in the right. And feel free to give the rulebook to your opponent and tell them to find it for you in the rulebook.

FedCom is a different game. There's a lot in common with SFB, but you should never feel the need to secondguess your understanding of the rules based on what someone who has only recently come over from SFB has to say about the rules. That doesn't mean that you might be wrong and he or she might be right. But pull out the rulebook right then and there and look it up if you have doubts about something.

Oh, I was right in the same boat as Howie and WillC.

I have 20+ years of *reading* SFB stuff behind me, so it seemed logical. This is my first time out of the shipyard actually *playing* any of the games, so I was more than willing to defer to experience. The back of my brain was itching on it, but it wasn't worth bringing up at the time.

I figured I'd suggest it as a "house rule" if people were more comfortable having it

Thanks for helping me settle it once and for all guys!

I Have seen old SFB players take the phasor hit the SFB way even after I as the opponent told then they didn't have to. They couldn't make them selfs not do it. Same with the having to take hit on P1s instead of P3s. funny how ingrained the SFB play can be. Seams to be the worst for the guys that haven't played many other games.

BTW, forgot to post the confirmation here.

No, there is no directional phaser hits in Federation Commander. You are playing it correctly (or at least trying to).

Thanks Mike.

... are hard to break...

We had a new player (old SFB player) play with a couple of us this week and he felt compelled to use die rolls to choose which phaser he'd mark out. We assured him it wasn't necessary, but that's how he preferred to do it...

djdood wrote:...I have 20+ years of *reading* SFB stuff behind me, so it seemed logical. This is my first time out of the shipyard actually *playing* any of the games....

That's really interesting. I wonder how many others on this forum are 'in the same boat'? I too have had SFB for years but only played a handful of games becasue of the hassle of setting up. Now FC comes along and we can't get enough of it - playing, not just reading. However the SF Universe reads like Tolkien in that it's a coherent and internally-consistent universe with solid, consistent storylines and a whole mythology and backstory behind it. There are in addition solid in-game 'physics' principles that cannot be broken within the Universe itself. I have spent ages just reading the history in the Star Fleet universe. I'ts darn good reading and excellent science fiction to boot.

junior wrote:.....pull out the rulebook right then and there and look it up if you have doubts about something.

We have found that our first few games have seen a lot of that. Plus we keep a notebook and pen handy to jot down any perceived ambiguities or rules questions, so we can hit Mike and everyone else with them on the forum. Hence my recent rash of rules queries....

Yeah, I also find that Federation Commander is much easier to "pick up and play" than SFB - coupled with it being quicker to play, I find time for a game of Federation Commander much more easily and have taken to that in place of SFB now. I've probably played almost as much Federation COmmander in terms of games played rather than time spent in the last few months than in years of SFB, mainly because of the time required for a game.

I've taught a few friends how to play Federation Commander, and it seems that they've got he hang of it easier than trying to teach people SFB. I think that may be partly due to the "lighter" feel of Federation Commander, that it's easier to dip into and faster paced. One of those guys had played a couple games of SFB years ago, and I think that having a bit of SFB experience does help you to learn Federation Commander, but maybe too much SFB experience has the opposite effect.

I have noticed "hangovers" from SFB myself; I had to read the damage rules a couple of times and make myself get the hang of the non-directional phaser hits. Also shield-boundaries are done at player choice now (unlike SFB if I remember right), which is also quicker and simpler. I suppose that's not too "un-realistic", in that you might well not have your ship pointing on an exact 60-degree heading and so in a "real life" (rather than a board game) situation, the enemy wouldn't necessarily be on the shield boundary anyway.

I had a guy at one of our games a few weeks ago that refused to just pick any phaser he wanted. He was an old SFBer also and instead of doing the directional damage, he rolled a dice and picked the phaser that way. It was bizaar but it somehow made him feel better I guess then just taking a phaser 3.

You know I've also been playing the directional phaser hit way, too - so it'll come as no surprise that I also used to be an SFB-head . Guess we'll correct that from this point on!