Federation Commander -- Intro and Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Welcome to Federation Commander, the faster, modernised younger sibling of Star Fleet Battles! In this video I show off the contents of the main introductory products, and recommend some follow-on purchases for new players to help them get the most bang for their buck.
FC is a wonderful game, and a great introduction to the Star Fleet Universe. I highly recommend it, though as I mention in this video, the PDF offering is confusing and not particularly great value. Even with that downside, the game is well worth checking out, particularly if you're a Star Trek fan, and the sheer complexity of SFB seems like a step too far.
For more info, check out ADB's site. In particular the Booster Pack details page is helpful: www.starfleetga...
For a LOT of free ships, get the Communique issues here (all 168 of them!), and be sure to watch for new goodies in the regular Hailing Frequencies newsletters as well: www.starfleetga...
I have been out of SFB for maybe 30 years now... But with the right group, this set sounds like it would be a good re-start for the classic game.
I originally picked this game up many years ago (maybe around 2010?) I have an earlier edition of Klingon Border with much poorer components.. mapboards are warped and misaligned and the manual is about the quality of a poor photocopy. My subsequent copy of Klingon Attack has the famous misaligned map boards with the huge grey line through them. The card for the Strike Cruiser literally has a note printed on it including the text "This note to be deleted". I also bought some of the minis with it at the same time and I was astounded at how poor quality they are for the cost (they remind me a lot of ancient Ral Partha minis). Really turned me off the game for quite a few years and it just sat collecting dust on my shelf. Even comparing it now to games in my collection from DVG and GMT, and the cost:quality ratio is not in FedCom's favour. Its only in about the last year I've pulled it out and have decided to try and get back into it.
Good call on the counter storage.. I was trying to figure out how to store mine.. seems obvious in hindsight! I'm hoping to get this game on the table more. Despite my annoyance with the quality of the components (in the earlier editions -I understand these have been fixed in the more recent ones) it's a very fun game and WAY easier to play than SFB. One of the few hex-and-counter games you can play as a serious long game or a simple beer-and-pretzels pickup game. The fact I can have it on the table and playing under 10 minutes is a much bigger incentive now than it was 10 years ago.
Great vid too, bth. Completely agree on the PDF products. I remember being somewhat excited when SVC posted that they were considering them considering how difficult FC is to get around these parts, and then they appeared and I couldn't make heads nor tails of them -content or cost-wise. The only one I picked up (yesterday, as it happens) was the Scenario Log. Disappointing to hear that the newer cards don't wipe clean. I liked these cards for the express reason I didn't need to put them in page protectors like BT, Saganami Island, and other games I play.
I too miss some of the rules from SFB.. proximity photons and the different types of drones chief among them (I also miss scanner and sensor damage). I remember reading a post by SVC on the ADB forums though explaining his reasoning behind removing the proximity photons. Made sense, but I still miss having them. Luckily this game is "close enough" to SFB in some ways that houseruling some of it back in isn't hard if you're not concerned about razer-sharp balance.
Thanks for watching! I'm really sorry to hear you got such a sub-par printing of FC, that's really terrible :( Out of interest, did you try contacting ADB about the quality problems? They're usually good about fixing such things. I recently had a copy of Module R12 with a misprinted rulebook, and they immediately sent out a fresh copy of the rulebook to me here in the UK at no cost. Even though it's been awhile since you bought it, maybe you could ask if they'd sell you some spare replacement parts at a discount or something? Worth a try.
Regarding the ship cards, I recently was told that the very latest printings use UV coatings instead of lamination, and should wipe off fine with dry-erase markers! So if you're buying any fresh physical product you probably don't need sleeves after all.
Totally agree about houseruling stuff too. A major balance issue that the strong FC tourney players have brought up is that plasma is underpowered in FC (it's even mentioned in the Tactics Manual). One way to help with this is to bring Enveloping Plasma Torpedoes back in, so in my games I use EPTs and have brought back Plasma Shotguns as well. As you said, the rules are close enough to SFB that porting SFB rules back in is really easy. The tougher rules are things like varied drone types and pseudo plasma torpedoes; FC is very much designed around the idea of no hidden information, so bringing back that stuff goes against the feel of FC. I'm working on a system for having different drone types in FC but it's hard to get it to feel right without the seeking weapon guessing game aspect!
@@djthorsilver I recall at the time there were no map board replacements (ALL the ones they got from the manufacturer were misprinted), and I didn't really look into it again until years later.
Doesn't matter at this point though.. placed an order yesterday with their Montreal retailer for the 6 booster packs to complement the products I have, plus the deluxe map boards (my normal space ones are fine other than the slight warp, so this will give me 12 empty space boards, great for playing with the bigger hexes). Took some time and organized all the components and printed out the Scenario Log and put it in a binder so everything is ready to go.
I agree about the drones.. as much as I liked the drone options and Kzinti drone swarms I get why they took them out. I'll have to look at adding EPTs back in. In the couple of games I did play I didn't play Gorns or Romulans and neither did my friends (we're boring classic "Fed vs. Klingon" people lol) so I never noticed. I think my next purchase will be the Hydran stuff. Always liked them. Thanks again for doing this vid. Hearing someone enthusiastically talk about this game really motivated me to pull out my collection.
I thinm, that fio they had bought out just the Fleet Scale FedCom it would have been a different gamne. But Squadron scale FedCom is just SFB Light in my opinion. You have practically all the same options as SFB.
Not sure why the OP makes a big deal about dry erase marker use in FC. 🤷🏼 Back when I played SFB in '82-'92 we used sheet protectors and grease markers. Each ship was comprised of a sheet protector, which contained an energy allocation chart facing one way, and a Xerox of the SSD facing the other. We marked these up during the game, and then wiped the grease marker off the sheet protectors when the game was over. Some people used Vis-A-Vis markers, but like some dry erase markers, they were easily smudged.
Simply put: new player acquisition. People like us who grew up playing complex wargames where we had to rig up extra bits to make things convenient to play may not care about dry-erase ship cards, but players of modern games expect convenience and durable components. FC's dry-erase cards make it possible to show a player the basics and plop down a few ship cards and play immediately, with little prep required. Plus they look much nicer than black-and-white SSDs that have kept the same visual style for four decades. These presentational elements and convenience factors make a big difference when trying to get newbies interested in playing in the SFU.
What Sleeves and dry erase markers do you use? Can you provide a link?
Great, comprehensive review of this game system. Federation Commander is one of my all-time favorite games. SFB was just too daunting for me to get into and I never was able to get through the rules. Federation Commander fixed that and allowed guys like me to game in the Star Fleet Universe.
Did you try the Cadet Training Manual for SFB?
@@jej3451 yes. I sold it off once I got into Federation Commander.
@@warlord9759 Did you try meth? j/k
@@jej3451 lol...
I don't know if you're still checking comments on this video, but do you have any plans/interest in doing a "faction overview" type video for FC/SFB? Something where you give a basic rundown of each of the playable factions in the game, what their ships/playstyle is like, strengths and weaknesses, maybe going into the lore/background of some of the species that aren't in the main timeline, etc. You seem to go into this a little bit in some of your other videos, but it would be nice to have an all-in-one resource for people who are curious about the game to get a sense of what their options are.
I was never super interested in Star Fleet Battles, I'm not very familiar with that style/era of wargame (the closest I've gotten is Battletech, but that's not quite the same thing) and found it kind of daunting, so a more approachable version of the game is really appealing to me.
I really like FC although I have both games and like a bit of SFB too. a very good review,thanks.
I guess Federation Commander isn't Federation and Empire.
Nope, Federation and Empire is a strategic-level wargame based on the 'General War' that engulfs the whole galaxy in the SFU timeline (obviously not in the canon Trek timeline). It involves a huge hex map, ideally 5 players or so and takes many days to finish the whole war, so it's basically the polar opposite of FC in terms of accessibility :)
I picked up Federation and Empire about a week ago and I’ve been thinking of how amazing it’d be to play that game, but fight battles in Federation Commander. The game would take years to play, more like an RPG than a board game, but I bet it’d be sweet with the right people.
Great video again. You have helped me so much. Thanks. Might I request a tutorial battle for SFB with the classics fed heavy cruiser vs Klingon D7?
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video :) I'm considering doing an SFB tutorial, but there's a few obstacles -- probably it would take a few videos to introduce the rules gradually, as diving straight into a 'full' cruiser duel in SFB would be quite a lot to take in. That would mean planning things out quite meticulously, and making sure the rules progression makes sense.
In any case, I'm looking into it, and hopefully will produce something, but it may take some time :)
@@djthorsilver Much appreciated.
@@djthorsilver Also, any plans for Federation & Empire?
@@zombietotseater3894 I don't have F&E, but I do plan to get it someday :) There is a channel called New Worlds which is doing an extended 4X F&E campaign, and they have some tutorial vids as well -- be sure to check them out!
@@djthorsilver Perhaps, rather than doing a "full" cruiser duel, just do a carefully choreographed cadet cruiser duel, along the lines of the A5.0 Sample Game in the Captain's edition? It would be really nice to have something on TH-cam showing that the very basics of _SFB_ are not too hard, as opposed to a opposed to videos showing how thick the rulebooks are and how small the font size is they use in them. :-)
Now, that was just what I was looking for :) As it happens, I ordered a copy of Romulan Border yesterday, I wanted to just pick up one of the starter sets to get an idea of the game. I should received it before the weekend and once played I will need to try and decide in which direction I should go with expansions.
The slight problem is trying to find the game in the UK! I noticed where you purchased your Booster packs from and that's where I found a copy of Romulan Border (LG's last copy it seems). Klingon Border, both "Space" expansions, the Klingon and Romulan Attack expansions are all currently out of stock. Apart from those, LG does have a lot of other expansions available and I guess I can always ask them to order from ADB for me.
So many thanks for the video. I've been searching around on YT for similar content and you produced this, perfectly timed and spot on for my needs. You've given me an excellent heads-up on the way forward. Being new to Star Fleet Universe, I think FC is perfect for what I'm looking for, maybe a good "gateway drug" to SFB :) but just as good as a standalone game within the SFU. I'll look forward to your new content.
Fantastic! :) Glad I could help! Leisure Games is indeed the best UK stockist to reliably get FC stuff (and SFB). I saw on Facebook the other day that ADB is currently getting a large restock ready for Leisure Games, so hopefully you'll see a big influx of stock there in a few weeks.
I'm working on more videos to dive deeper into each of the major expansions and their associated boosters, so look out for those! I tried to do it all in one video and it was too much of a stretch, so I'm re-shooting as a short series instead :)
Thanks for watching, and I hope you have a great time with Romulan Border!
Yep, I’ve ordered SFB and FC product from Leisure Games in the past. At least once they didn’t have something I wanted, so I contacted them and they added it to their next order from ADB. They’ve been great!
@@giskard000 Thanks. I phoned Leisure Games and then followed up with an email (requesting a back-order) last Thursday lunchtime but still haven't heard back from them after 5 days.
lfg