Communique #112 Stardate 2015.04.11
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
COMMUNIQUE #112 STARDATE 2015.04.11 THE BIG NEWS: NEWS FLASH: captain’s Log THE PELADINE GO #50 RELEASED DOWN FIGHTING This month’s big news is that CAPTAIN’S LOG #50 The Peladine Republic was conquered by the Lyr- has been released. By the time you read this, we will ans before it could reach its full power. Their basic ships have finished shipping all of the initial orders. A few people are in Captain’s Log #50. They don’t really have any new and stores already have their copies. Detailed contents rules as they use drones and plasma torpedoes as their were in Communique #111 and are listed on the website. primary weapons. This is their frigate. Something we always do when we finish an issue of #6 SHIELD #1 #2 Captain’s Log but which players rarely understand and 18 may not even notice is the FLAP list. FLAP means “Fin- ish Like A Pro” and is our reminder that “it’s not over when it’s over.” The list was recently reoganized for maximum efficiency and was completed in record time. Besides such mundane items as putting it on the shop- LP TRAC RP ping cart and sending out press releases, we post lots of PL-F AUX EMER PL-F stuff on the website (the table of contents, the cover, the A BRDG B Star Fleet Battle Force page, and the input guide), up- PH-2-FA BTTY TRAN PH-2-FA date various indexes (the F&E and FC ship charts, the 1 C HULL 2 FC scenario chart, the index of every article ever printed, 14 IMP IMP 14 the online catalogs), and many other things. #5 DRONE PRB #3 12 LEFT Z RIGHT 12 WARP SHTL PH-1-360° REAC WARP 6 3 3 3 6 LAB PH-2-RX 4 5 SHIELD #4 12 PUBLISHER’S INFORMATION FEDERATION COMMANDER: COMMUNIQUE #112 is published and copyright © 2015 by Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., www.StarFleetGames.com, PO Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114. Elements of the Star Fleet Universe are the property of Paramount Pictures Corporation and are used with their per- mission. Communique #112; Copyright © 2015 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. Index FOR 2015 NEWS FLASH: • Communique #109: Federaton DN+, Scenario FIGHTER RULES— 8CM96 Chasing Q. • Communique #110: Klingon D6D, Scenario A FIRST LOOK 8CM97 Fox in the Henhouse. • Communique #111: Romulan Queen Eagle, Sce- These rules are designed to allow fighters (from SFB) to nario 8CM98 Bonfire of the Peladine. be imported into Federation Commander (at least, an advanced version of it) without slowing down the game system. What • Communique #112: Kzinti DWD, Scenario 8CM99 you see here is no more than an untested outline. Ghost Ship. (5QP3) FIGHTERS: Fighters operate from carriers. (Hydran RULES QUESTIONS Stingers may or may not be brought under these rules.) (5QP3a) A carrier can operate a number of “flights” of fight- There have been no rules questions in the last 30 ers, each up to six fighters. (Each carrier is limited to the mini- days but here are some other questions of interest to mum number of flights to handle the onboard fighters, so a players of Federation Commander. carrier with 7-12 fighters could have two flights.) Each flight must leave the carrier on the same impulse, remain intact as a Q: Do the Peladine have any more ships? single unit in a single hex, and return to the carrier as a single A: Yes, they have the full range of hull types and unit all landing during one impulse. Fighters on board a carrier variants that most empires have. These are in SFB Mod- may be reorganized (e.g., combining the survivors of two flights ule E4 and it’s not that hard to convert SFB SSDs into into one). All fighters must be of the same type. If one fighter in workable FC ship cards. We might also create an elec- a flight is crippled, the owner may voluntarily destroy it or re- duce the speed of the entire flight to the speed of crippled fight- tronic ship card pack including a couple of extra ships. ers. A given carrier may launch or land one flight per impulse Q: What about the Paravians and Carnivons, which (not both). each got two ships and some rules in Captain’s Log #48? (5QP3b) Enemy fire at a flight of fighters is handled one A: We may do more ships and sell them in e-packs. weapon at a time (for both direct-fire and seeking weapons). Q: Are there other empires that could be added? The enemy (before the die is rolled) may specify if the priority is to go to the most damaged or least damaged fighter. Any A: Yes, there are. The Borak are in the Hydran Old damage points from the weapon in question are then applied Colonies region. The Yitlians didn’t build their own ships in that order; if two fighters have an equal number of damage but who is to say they couldn’t? Many more empires exist points the owner may select the one to take the damage. in the Omega Octant, including a new one (Zosmans) which just appeared in Captain’s Log #50 for SFB for (5QP4) FIGHTER DIRECT-FIRE WEAPONS: An individual fighter within a flight may fire its direct-fire weapons indepen- the first time. If it’s new empires you want, we have plenty. dently of the other fighters in that flight at the appropriate point Q: How about new monsters? in the Sequence of Play. A: We just did space spider in Captain’s Log #50. Thanks to Mike West, our FC Division Commander, (5YQP5) FIGHTER SEEKING WEAPONS: To minimize map for keeping up with the rules questions. clutter, a given flight of fighters may launch seeking weapons during any one (and only one) impulse of the turn. (5QP5a) All of those seeking weapons must be of one type (drones or plasma torpedoes). They are grouped into a BATTLE GROUP REPORT single “swarm” of seeking weapons. That swarm moves to- by Jean Sexton, Battle Group Facilitator gether as a single unit in a single hex until reaching the re- We are already getting reports from battle groups lease point. The swarm may move in any manner the owner and registrations of new battlegroups. See the special chooses so long as it gets closer to an enemy unit; the “tar- web page at StarFleetGames.com/battlegroup.shtml for geted unit” may be re-selected each impulse. (In most cases there will not be a need to designate a specific target. As long more information. Once your group starts holding regu- as an enemy unit is in the swarm’s tracking arc the swarm can lar events, you can report your exciting activities (demos, move.) Whenever the weapons in the swarm have reached playtests, conventions) to us for posting on that page. the end of their range, the swarm is removed. (5QP5b) If a swarm of seeking weapons starts an impulse within a number of hexes of a legitimate target that would al- RANGERS LEAD THE WAY low the seeking weapons to reach the target in that impulse (e.g., the swarm is within three hexes of an enemy cruiser and Jean Sexton has reorganized the contains drones with a Baseline Speed of 24), the owning player Ranger Demonstration Teams, sent ET may split off individual drones from the swarm, declaring the LE RA Rangers their long-overdue rewards, F N target of each seeking weapon. Thereafter the weapons oper- R G and is recruiting new Rangers. The A E ate normally. T R Rangers recruit and train new players S (5QP5c) Enemy units can fire (or target seeking weapons on) a swarm. Use the procedure in (5Y1b). by means of demos conducted in game stores and at conventions. See the Ranger page for more info: http://www.StarFleetGames.com/rangers/index.shtml Communique #112; Copyright © 2015 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. Universe News STARLINE 2400 This almost-forgotten product line will see a resur- Federation Commander is only one of the games in gence in 2015. New ships including the Klingon HF5, the Star Fleet Universe. All of our games use a common and Romulan SaberHawk are in development, and more historical background and technological database. new ships are in the CGI design shop and should be This part of Communique has news on our other released later this year. The Klingon D7K failed in Mas- games. Our opt-in email newsletter Hailing Frequencies ter Mold Two and will have to be done over. goes to fans of all our games; each issue includes links to information for each game. STARLINE 2500 The latest news is in red (previous month in blue) We finally got Master Mold #2 and the news was for quick access. Earlier news is in black for context. mixed. The Klingon SD7 was great and a production mold has been ordered. The Kzinti NCA and Orion DN worked CAPTAIN’S LOG and will be produced next. We are still waiting for pro- Captain’s Log #50 has been released. It has four duction molds from the new mold company. The com- new ships (from a new empire) and four new scenarios pany we were using has closed down. for FC. It includes the usual features as well as some special items we have listed in the previous issue of Hail- STAR FLEET MARINES ing Frequencies. Star Fleet Marines: Last Stand has been released. New units include outposts, heavy-weapons vehicles, STARMADA and heavy shuttles.