Federation Commander

I saw this announement on Tabletop Gaming News yesterday:

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2009/04/11/25725

Amarillo Design Bureau announce Star Trek: The Original Series Years

Amarillo Design Bureau have announced a new Starfleet product that provides details for gaming in the original Star Trek series.

It was a simpler time, when wars lasted about an hour, ships did not have the “refits� that covered their flaws and complicated their tactics, and a captain with some guts could get things taken care of before the admirals got involved (and in the way). Not that a visiting commodore couldn’t stop by and accidentally start a war now and then!

This 96-page book contains over sixty starship diagrams (in both Fleet Scale and Squadron Scale) for the starships of this era. (To save costs, these are non-laminated and black-and-white.)

Also included are eight scenarios reflecting the unique patrol-style battles, border clashes, skirmishes, and free-wheeling phaser fights that raged across the Neutral Zone (and your television screen).

So join us for a simpler time, and a cleaner fight, with ships that exploit each others’ flaws with finesse, not brute force, with maneuver instead of overwhelming head-on attacks.

Is this an actual licensed Star Trek product?

Is it a stand-alone product, or an add-on for Fedcom or SFB?

Look forward to more info on this.

Sounds like Briefing 2.

It's Briefing #2 for Federation Commander. They're just posting the press release we sent out on Friday.

Steve Cole wrote:It's Briefing #2 for Federation Commander. They're just posting the press release we sent out on Friday.

Ah, got it.

I got confused (and, yes, a little excited) by the use of "Star Trek"...

Can't wait for the EARLY YEARS.

But isn't Briefing No. 2 the MIDDLE YEARS? I want a real early years briefing or expansion and described in Captain's log 12.

Captain's Log described an early years expansion for SFB. this was published years ago as Module Y, and followed up by Module Y2. So if you want what Captain's Log #12 previewed, you already have it.

As for an early years expansion for FC.... well, it could be done as a briefing (maybe in 2010 or 2011), but doing that many color cards would cost more than anyone would pay.

And, there a small "FC Early Years" section is currently planned for the next Captain's Log. It will provide conversions of EY rules into FC, and a sampling of four (really five) ships. For any of the other ships, you can just use the "Project Z" articles from the last two Captain's logs to use the SSDs from Y1 and Y2.

Briefing 2 was the middle years.

Here's all hoping for the early years. W00t.

As a Fed Commander newbie to the timeline, can someone please define "early years" versus "middle years"?

I'm guessing that "early years" is pre-TOS, perhaps in the days of Enterprise?

I'm guessing that "early years" is pre-TOS, perhaps in the days of Enterprise?

Middle years would be the Original Series, you have it mostly correct on early years, more or less the time between Enterprise and shortly before the original series ---

In overall SFU terms, the Early Years covers the era from approximately 2460 through 2520 (using the FC dating scheme). The Middle Years covers 2520 through about 2560. After the Middle Years is the "General War" era, which covers from about 2560 through 2590 or so.

In Federation Commander, however, those ranges are shrunk down quite a bit. The main game focuses primarly on the era of about 2570-2580 (or so). There are some fudges in that, but that covers the primary focus of the main game.

The "Middle Years" covered in Briefing #2 is primarly focused on the years 2550-2560 (with a couple fudges of its own). This also roughly corresponds to the years of the Original Series. (The best estimate of the SFU time that corresponds to TOS is 2550-2555.)

This also means that when the Early Years is finally covered, it will also likely have a much shorter range which is focused on. In fact, if there is sufficient interest, there could end up being two separate EY products: one focused on circa 2490-2500, and a second on circa 2465-2475.

Enterprise doesn't really fit terribly well into the SFU. For the most part, you are probably best off just picking a date and going with it. Given that it is a saucer ship, I would drop it in right around 2480 or so, but that still doesn't really fight. Maybe slide it a little forward and say 2475-2480?