Federation Commander

Every so often I make a plea for submissions for the Tactics Manual and that is my purpose here. This is your chance to contribute to the FC community and pass along your knowledge to help make others better at the game.

I have a lot of the basics done. The bulk of what I am missing are the Empire Specific Tactics. My purpose in asking is that I cannot make myself an expert on all 14 empires currently included in the game in time for this to be complete before the next century....ok decade.

I will accept complete articles (gratefully), rough drafts, or small individual tactics. I will even take small paragraphs on important points that you feel should be included in a given topic. If multiple people contribute in a meaningful way on a single topic, all will be credited as though it were a group project. I will act as editor, and ADB's submission policy will be in effect.

Naturally, if your article/contribution is used, you will be credited for it. I will use my own judgement and consult with other trusted tacticians to decide if an article/tactic warrants inclusion. Complete articles on topics are preferred, there are lots of individual TAC Notes out there. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee your submission will be used, so the better written and more insightful it is the better. But, don't let let that stop you from sending a hairbrained idea, it might just be so crazy that it will work...maybe.

Here is a list of topics that the Tactics Manual Still Needs:

AEGIS TACTICS
NEW Anti-Drone Tactics - I've played a couple games using them, but thats all.
SPECIAL SENSORS
CLOAKING TACTICS
TERRAIN TACTICS - planets, asteroids,comets, Wyn Radiation Zone, Pulsars, nebulae, Black Holes

EMPIRE SPECIFIC TACTICS:
ROMULAN
GORN - (Note Gorn Anchor article is complete, but that is more of a tractor beam tactic and a Gorn specific tactics depite the name)
KZINTI
THOLIAN - Webs, and Webcasters
SELTORIAN - Got it, Thanks to Terry O'Carroll
HYDRAN - Hellbores, Fusions, Stingers
ORION
WYN - How they use the radiation zone would be a prime consideration.
ANDROMEDAN - PA Panels, TR Beams, Displacement Device, Other systems
ISC TACTICS - PPD, Rear launching F torps
VUDAR TACTICS - Ion Cannon, IPG

In General here is the structure I am looking for in an Empire Specific Article:

Intro - What are you going to talk about.
Special Equipment for that Empire - Cloaking Device etc.
Strengths and Weaknessses of their Ships
Specific Tactics - Klingon Sabre Dance
Tactics and Considerations against Historical enemies
Conclusion - Sum it all up.

Thats about it. You can post them here under this topic or send them to me directly (preferred) at :
commodoredoyle@gmail.com

Thanks in advance.

Patrick Doyle

Are you only interested in the ships and empires that have laminated ship cards, or are slots open for entries about the Middle Years ships presented in Briefing #2, or for the new empires shown in Captain's Log and/or e23 (such as the Frax and M81 Pirates)?

I'd add the five playtest Omega empires to that list, but they'd probably need to be formally published, in one form or another, before they'd be up for consideration.

Middle Years : I would not be opposed to including some comments on middle years capabilities since they were published in briefing #2. I beleive those cards are being published either in lamination or thru E23.

Frax/Omega/M81 etc: I would rather stick to the published races since Omega (et al) has been finalized/published.

Thanks for bringing this up, I hadn't though about these subjects yet as I have been away from FC for a while.

Pat

The Middle Years ships from B2 are already available on e23.


As far as I'm aware, the three Frax packs on e23 are considered to be formally-published files; they are fair game for the current version of the FC online tournament (while the likes of the M81 pirates are not).

That should be an important distinction; for example, the OGR and OGD are only in Captain's Log #40 for the time being (though there are counters for them in War and Peace), but were they to be included in a formal ePack, that would then make them as "official" as the Frax are (if I'm not mistaken, which I may well be).

In That case Frax would be a viable Empire. I'll have to check and see what is on e-23. Thanks ~ Pat

Don't take my word on it about the Frax thing; again, I could be mistaken.

Patrick, Let me see what I put together and I'll get back to you.

My two cents: First, I am a Frax lover. My fave race right now (and more exciting that the axion is being added to FCOL). However, you have to make a choice of content or the project will never get done.

I think the main tactics book should be just the main SFU races. Sim empires (Frax) could get a nice article about tactics in Captains Log. Omega should either have its own book on e23, or articles in CL, which might help to promote it more.

Tony,

Thanks.

Eric, I'm open to the idea of sim races, but if book space becomes a consideration then they would certainly fall to a lowr priority. Bottom line is that I have to think about anything beyond the published 14 main empires.

Open map or closed map? A lot of tactics would change depending on map.

This is another thing I'll have to give some more thought to but for now I am not going to worry about the distinction. My personal preference is for now Closed Map or location map. Open maps also negate plasma ships as plasma needs to be played on closed/location maps. Submit it and I'll see.

When it comes to the Andromedans, I tried to translate the combat example from Module C2 into FC terms, over in this thread.

I'm not sure if you'd have any use for it, but you did say not to hold back with hare-brained ideas...

Got it, I'll look it over and see if I can glean some lessons.

Thanks.

I don't think that either Frax or Omega should included in a Tactics Manual - stick with the core races as I guess these would appeal to more players (but happy to be proven wrong).

What has been happening with this project, is it still likely to see the light of day?