New Games for Christmas 2008

Santa left me two games under the Christmas tree this year and I tore into them on Christmas morning.

 

Manoeuvre is a quick playing low counter density game using a variable map and cards. There are eight nationalities in the game: France, Britain, Russia, Spain, Austria, Turkey, Prussia, and the US. Each nationality has their own deck of 60 cards tailored to the characteristics of that nations fighting style and leadership in the time period (Napoleonic Era) the game is based on.

 

Brood War is an expansion to StarCraft: the Board Game. I got Star Craft last Christmas. Brood War adds new unit types for all six factions in the base game.  The Terrans get two new unit types, Medics and Valkyries. The other factions each get three new types; the Protoss have Dark Templars, Dark Archons, and Corsairs; the Zerg receive Lurkers, Devourers, and Infested Terrans. Each faction gets 17 or 19 new combat and technology cards to add to the base game. The new combat cards provide attack values for the new units, while the technology cards provide new techs for the new units. Some of the new abilities include "Collateral Damage", "Recharge, and "Mind Control".

 

Brood War comes with 4 sheets of new goodies; Six more "planets", Installations that are placed on planets like Bases but provide new abilities to the faction that can build them, three new module types, a new "Defend" order, new Building tokens, Hero tokens, and more.

 

What I really find interesting and can't wait to try out are the new Leadership Cards. At the start of the game and at the start of each turn that begins a new stage players will select from their hand of Leadership cards one of them to play for that stage. Since there are three stages, players will get a chance to play 3 Leadership cards during the game. Each faction's Leadership cards are specific to that race and some of them seem to be pretty powerful and cool. No longer is a special victory condition automatic during stage 3 of the game. A player will have to select the Special Victory Condition Leadership card at the beginning of the game otherwise the only way a player can win is by the Conquest point method. There are three stage I Leadership cards for each player, one of which is its special victory condition. In addition, each stage I Leadership card has a different starting force mix. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

Galactic Emperor - Saturday 11/15/08

Played Galactic Emperor (GE) at Mark Bausman's house today with Mark Bausman, Mark Simonitch, Mark Woodson, and Robert(Bob) Woodson. Mark had hosted GE before but this was the first time I was able to make it to his house.

Galactic Emperor is a space exploration and conquest game from CrossCut Games and their first foray into boardgames. I give their first attempt two thumbs up.

On first playing, it reminds me of Twilight Imperium III (TI3) "light". This isn't a bad thing in my opinion as is seemed to play faster and I don't think the turtling that seemed to be more apt in TI3 is present. I have not played TI3 with the Shattered Empire expansion, but I heard it fixes some of the problems with turtling in TI3.

Being the newbie to the game I consistently came in last in the scoring rounds through most of the middle game so lucked out by not being a threat. In the turn before last I was able to score 3 points for destroying 3 Empire tokens and then scored 9 more VPs in the final turn scoring round to come in second, 1 point behind Bob's 39VPs.

Half way through the game, it appeared to me that having a good supply of Food producing planets is a good idea as Bob was never strapped for money. In the end this was the margin of victory as the player with the most money at the end of the game is awarded 2VPs.

More Reading

It was back in August of last year when I started reading the Honor Harrington series of novels by David Weber. Good books if you like military sci-fi. Right now I started reading War of Honor after starting back at the first of the series and reading On Basilisk Station, The Honor of the Queen, The Short Victorious War, Field of Dishonor, Flag in Exile, Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, Echoes of Honor, Ashes of Victory, and Worlds of Honor (three short stories based in the Honorverse).

Wow, I didn't realize how many I've read since August until I wrote them down.

February 2, 2008: 4-player Starcraft: The Boardgame

This saturday, Mark Bausman hosted a 4-player game of StarCraft: The Boardgame from Fantasy Flight Games. A random draw allotted the factions and turn order thus.

Queen of Blades (Zerg) : Tarsonis : Mark Woodson
Arcturus Mengsk (Terran): Antiga Prime : John Boone
Jim Raynor (Terran) : Bhekor Ro : Mervyn Dejecacion
Tassadar (Protoss) : Dylar IV : Mark Bausman

Antiga Prime, Home world of the Terran Arcturus Mengsk Faction:
[Admiral, Naval Intelligence, (ANI)]"What will we do my Lord? The latest intel briefing confirm the Tassadar are on Dylar IV in strength."

Arcturus Mengsk sat in his personal booth at his favorite restaurant. He had finished his meal when the ANI joined him and had just finished reading the fortune in his cookie - You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course. How appropriate Arcturus Mengsk thought but then he realized these things were always written generic enough to apply to anyone and a brief smile crossed his lips at the Admiral's question.

[Arcturus Mengsk, (AM)] "What we have always done - survived. We will prepare our defenses and defend our home world as we always have. What is the latest intel on the Zerg on Tarsonis?"
[ANI] "My Lord, the latest intel confirms the Queen of Blades is expanding toward Helios. Raynor is also on Helios."

[AM] "Raynor! Has that been confirmed?"

[ANI] "Yes my Lord."

[AM] "Good. That may be to our advantage. Let them fight each other for a change. Does the Committee agree with my view of staying out of Helios?"

[ANI] "The Joint Chiefs do but the Production Ministry says we need to expand. If the Tassadar are on Dylar, and it seems that they are, we will need to expand our production for defense but we are limited by the cystal resources we currently have. Gas will not be a problem until we start ramping up production on our heavy units."

[AM] "I realize that but sticking our noses in Helios is asking for too much trouble. I don't want the Zerg and Raynor on our backs along with the Protoss. No, I want to stay out of Helios for now. Besides if Raynor and the Queen of Blades are both on Helios we should be able to go into Braken unopposed."

[ANI] "Yes my Lord, but Helios would definitely help out with our resource shortages and allow us access to Bhekar Ro, Pride Water, and eventually Abaddon."

[AM] "A true statement and the benefits are tempting but just don't outweigh the risks right now. Have patience Admiral. Once Raynor and the Queen have depleted each other's forces on Helios we can "liberate" the system. Besides Tassadar may clean up Helios for us and if he does Dylar IV may open up for our "liberation" forces. I've made my decision. I'll tell the Committee we stay out of Helios - For now. I'll inform the Production Ministry to start transitioning to a war status at the next Committee meeting. I want our Marine and Firebat forces as close to 100% operational as soon as possible."

[ANI] "As you wish my Lord."

Antiga Prime, Palace of the Capital, Committe Meeting Room (Mid-Game):
[AM] "Status of the Fleet deployments?"

[Admiral, Joint Chief of Fleets (JCF)] "My Lord, we have not opened any transport routes to Tarsonis, Helios, or Dylar IV and the enemy has not been detected in any of the routes between those planets and Antiga Prime or Braken for that matter. Fleet transports have been reinforcing Braken routinely and we have enough reserve capacity to bring back ground forces from Braken to the the Capital if the need arises."

[AM] "Secretary of Production, what about our manpower and equipment levels?"

[Secretary of Production, Production Ministry (SPM)] "My Lord, our factories are at 80% production levels but we are limited by our work force and crystal resources. Even so our isolationist policy has given us time to attain and maintain light ground forces readiness levels at 100%. Wraith levels are now at 66% readiness."

[AM] "And status of heavy ground forces?"

[SPM] "With our crystal shortage we are at our limit just keeping the light ground forces at 100%. As you know we still have only one Ghost Battalion. Work on converting the civilian factories to military use has been delayed and the starport is still only able to produce Wraiths. Landing on Dylar would help out a great.."

[AM] "That is enough Production Minister! We are not landing on Dylar! You will have to do the best you can with what we have on Braken and Antiga Prime!

[ANI] "But Lord Mengsk, the latest intel reports confirm the Protoss have only two battalions of Zealots on Dylar IV now. If you strike now the JCF assures us of a victory!"

[AM] "And did they forget about Helios? Didn't the JCF predict Raynor and the Zerg would annihilate each other on Helios 6 months ago? Tell me Admiral the latest intel on Helios?"

[ANI] "Regrettably my Lord the Queen of Blades and Raynor seem to be happy to share the planet. There were a few skirmishes at first but they are both in force on the planet now and seem happy to maintain the status quo. Raynor is also reported to have landed on Pridewater but the initial reports have not yet been confirmed. If he is there then Raynor's economy would be very strong."

[AM] "Isn't Tassadar on Pridewater?" What does this guy have on the Queen and Tassadar that they let him run wild all over this sector? The Zergs and the Protoss should be eating him for lunch!"

[JCF] "It seems he has been very good at the negotiating table my Lord. There have been a few battles between Raynor and the Zerg and Raynor and Protoss but not any full scale war. Regretable indeed my Lord."

At this time the Queen of Blades is leading Arcturus Mengsk by 1VP with Tassadar third and Raynor last. The Zerg have satisfied their special victory conditions as have Arcturus Mengsk. Raynor needs one more territory and the Tassadar are far from satisfying their special conditions.

Antiga Prime, Palace of the Capital, Committe Meeting Room (Near End-Game):
[ANI] "The Zerg and Protoss are fighting on Abaddon and there were reports of fighting on Pridewater but the current troop deployments are uncertain. Raynor has finally been confirmed to be on Dylar IV and I'm afraid that suggests they have some type of alliance. Additionally, space sensor command confirm enemy activity on the space routes from both Helios and Dylar IV"

[AM] "Very well. I hope someone here has good news."

[JCF] "If I may interrupt the ANI, I do have some good news my Lord. The final tests were completed last week and the Admiralty and I both concur that the space defense system is ready to be activated for full operational status."

[AM] "That is good news. I don't like the fact Raynor is still on Helios in force and now on Dylar with the Protoss. Something is cooking and I don't like the smell of it."

[SPM] "My Lord, the Wraith fleet is also at 100% operational status but one of your Wraith battalions is on Braken."

[AM] "JCF I want to be able to recall that Wraith battalion immediately if need be and I want to open up the transport routes to both Helios and Dylar IV just in case we see an opening for attack into those systems."

[JCF] "Yes my Lord."

The End Game
Both Jim Raynor and the Tassadar stacked orders (presumably mobilize) on Antiga Prime so I placed two mobilize and a research order on Antiga Prime waiting for the inevitable attack. Jim Raynor did attack Antiga Prime destroying a Marine and Firebat (with ground splash damage) but the Wraith survived. I had a mobilize order on Antiga Prime but decided to pass and draw an Event card trying to get to the Third Stage and was successful. Tassadar had a mobilize order on Antiga Prime but only two Zealots that could land on the planet so would be unable to defeat my Wraiths. Arcturus Mengsk won the game by completing his special victory conditions at the third stage. The Queen of Blades lost her third VP space during the fighting on Abaddon and Jim Raynor lost resources earlier on Pridewater.

This was the second time in a row Arcturus Mengsk won with its special victory conditions. If the other players are not careful I think this faction has the easiest chance of victory in a multi-player game. I had the rather boring, military wise, strategy of arquiring one more planet adjacent to my starting planet then building up on both of them and not going anywhere else. The last three turns my four orders were a build order and a mobilization order on both connected planets. That allowed me to build then counter attack if one of my planets was invaded.

Incidentally the fortune cookie was real. Mark Woodson was eating Chinese food when I arrived and he gave me his cookie. That was the fortune inside it.

Six-Player Starcraft, Saturday 1, 2008

We had six people show up for Starcraft: the Board Game on Saturday. A random draw assigned the factions.
1. Queen of Blades (Zerg) - Troy Adlington
2. The Overmind (Zerg) - John Boone
3. Tassadar (Protoss) - Mark Bausman
4. Aldaris (Protoss) - Mervyn Dejecacion
5. Jim Raynor (Terran) - Mark Simonitch
6. Arcturus Mengsk (Terran) - Nevin Ball

Once the Third Stage deck showed up Nevin had satisfied his faction's special victory condition, controlled every area on two planets, for the win.

Saturday Sept 29, 2007 Saganami and Twilight Struggle

I went over to Joseph Acker's house and played a three player game of Sagnami Island Tactical Simulator. Joseph and I each took a People's Republic (Peeps) heavy cruiser against two Silesian Confederacy heavy cruisers commanded by Joseph's son, Benjamin. We rolled for crew ratings. My ship had an average crew all around, Joseph had a poor crew, and both of Benjamin's CAs had an Elite Electronic Warfare Officer giving them a +2 ECM modifier. This would make our already less capable missiles less chance of penetrating the Silesian cruiser's missile defenses.

Both sides started with their respective cruisers in the same hex on opposite sides of the map with vectors in the general direction of the opposing forces. Benjamin decided to start +20 levels above the map plane. Benjamin did not want to allow the Peeps to get into energy weapon range, which we never did. The Peeps spent the whole game climbing to get to the same level as the Silesian. The Silesians had the better missiles and it showed as Benjamins first few salvoes pounded on his dad's cruiser eventually causing him to rotate his ship to present his "wedge" to the Silesians. Benjamin then switched his attack to my cruiser heavily damaging my starboard sidewall and taking out 8 missile salvoes on my starboard side missile magazine. Fortunately for me I rolled well with my damage control parties and managed to fix all my magazines and two of three sidewall hits. At this time the Peep missile attacks were practically ineffective only penetrating a couple of times for relatively minor damage.

As the range continued to close it appeared the Silesians were going to be able to pound the Peeps with its missiles but then Benjamin made an error. At the end of one turn he had presented his bow toward our broadsides. Because of the range this would allow us to fire twice at his open bow which we did concentrating all missile salvoes for two consecutive attacks on one of his cruisers. The CA blew up during the second salvo and the remaining Silesian CA surrendered.

Joseph and I then played a game of Twilight Struggle. We randomly chose sides and I ended up playing the US against Joseph's USSR. It seemed to be going OK the Russian's had the lead in VPs but they always get a lead in the early game but it seemed manageable. Then turn 4 started and Joseph's Soviets steamrolled over the US. I had to score Europe (-5VPs) then he scored SE Asia (-7VPs) and a couple more VPs from events gave him the -20VPs for a USSR Auto-Victory.

Nexus Ops

Nevin came over on Saturday, 8/25/07 and we played a 3-player game of Nexus Ops by Avalon Hill. The players represent corporations competing for control and thus the Rubium ore discovered on an un-named moon in some remote un-named planetary system. The corporations were played by the following players.

Cody Boone - Black Helix Enterprises (Blue) = 12 VP John Boone - Zyborg Technologies (Green) = 11 VP
Nevin Ball - Galactic Syndicate (Red) = 7 VP

Cody won the game at 12 VPs scoring his last two VPs needed squeaking by his dad.

The Object of the game is to be the first player to attain 12 victory points. As soon as one player reaches 12 victory points during their turn the game is over.

For those not familiar with the game, there is no difference between the different player sides other than the name and color of playing pieces. All sides can build the same type of units during the game. This was the first time Cody and I played the game but it seemed like it would be more interesting if the different corporations had a special ability ala Twilight Imperium. None the less it was a fun game.

We rolled for sides and I came up as first player. The first player starts with 12 Rubium to begin the game and each subsequent player gets 3 more Rubium than the preceding player so Nevin was second with 15 Rubium and Cody was third with 18 Rubium.

Nevin Contemplates His First Unit Purchases

Turns are not simultaneous; each player completes the steps of the turn sequence and then the next player takes his turn. The steps of a turn consists of a number of phases conducted in the following order; 1) purchasing new units, 2) move units, 3) conduct attacks, 4) collect income, and 5) draw a secret mission card (if you control the Monolith draw two Energize cards.

An Evil Plan Formulates!

Purchase New Units
During this phase, the the active player purchases new units paying for them with the Rubium they have collected from their mines or due to non-played discarded Energize and Secret Mission cards. Purchased units are placed in any of the players three home spaces. You can place units in your home spaces even if they are occupied by enemy units.
Note: You may discard Energize and Secret Mission cards from your hand anytime during your turn to gain 1 Rubium per discarded card. Discarded cards go face up next to the appropriate deck.

Move Units
After all newly purchased units have been deployed, the active player may move any of their units on the board at least 1 space. I say at least one space because some units have special abilities which increase their movement allowance and certain Energize cards increase the movement allowance of a specific creature type.
1. The Rock Strider can move two spaces if one of the spaces moved to or from is a rock plain.
2. The Lava Leaper can move two spaces when moving from a Lava Pool.
3. The Rubium Dragon, when starting from the Monolith, may move to any space on the map.
If a unit starts in a contested space, the unit may only move into a non-contested space. This move is called a Retreat. Additionally some spaces are off-limits to some unit types. For example, humans, fungoids, and crystalline units may not enter the monolith space.

Conduct Attacks
After moving all of your units you wish, any of your units in a space with an opponent's unit must conduct an attack. Similar to Axis and Allies, each unit has a hit number that must be rolled, on 1D6, to cause 1 hit. And like Axis and Allies, units attack in a specific order so it is possible that a unit is taken as a casualty before it has had the chance to fire. Within the same class, all units attacking and defending fire simultaneously. Losses are chosen by the owner of the unit hit, unless the hit was scored by a Lava Leaper with a die roll of 5 or greater. After all units have fired and losses taken, if both sides still have units occupying the space it is considered contested. If only one side remains in the hex it is considered owned by that side. Note that some Energize cards can be played during this phase. In fact, even players not involved in the battle may play Energize cards to help out one side or the other. The loser of the battle draws an Energize card as compensation for their loss. Some units have enhanced or degraded combat abilities depending on the terrain they occupy.

Collect Mine Income
Once all battles have been resolved the phasing player collects Rubium from all his mines that 1) are occupied by one of his humans, fungoids, or crystalline units and 2) that mine is not contested. Each mine will produce from 1 to 3 Rubium. Note that only the three weakest units can operate the mines to collect Rubium.

Draw Cards
After collecting your mine income the phasing player draws one Secret Mission card. Additionally if the phasing player has sole control of the monolith they also draw two Energize cards. This ends the phasing player's turn and the next player then takes their turn.

Energize Cards
Energize cards give the side playing them special abilities, that may break the normal rules when played, last for a specific amount of time either during your player turn or a battle, or award an instant effect, ie. "Destroy 1 Fungoid". Energize cards are divided up in to two types, ones that are played at the beginning of your turn and ones played during a battle. Of the ones played for battle some are required to be played at the beginning of a battle and some may be played during the battle after seeing the result of a die roll.

The Game Gets Interesting

How to Win
As stated previously, the first player to reach 12 victory points ends the game and is declared the winner. Victory points are awarded by play of Mission or Special Mission cards during the player's turn whenever they satisfy the conditions of the card. Mission and Secret Mission cards can only be played during your turn so if you satisfy a condition of a Secret Mission card during someone else's turn your out of luck. All Mission cards and most Secret Mission cards involve winning a battle. For each battle you win, you can play only one card with the victory point total listed in red.

The game also ends when one player is eliminated, ie. losses all of their units on the map. As soon as this happens the winner is declared from the remaining players with the most victory points.

All Mission Cards have their victory point total listed in red, are worth 1 victory point, and all are awarded by winning a battle.

The majority of Secret Mission cards are awarded during battle, but not all. Some require dominating, having more control, a terrain type, ie Rock Plains. These type of Secret Mission cards have their victory point total in white.

A fun game I would play again.

Current Reading Influences Current Game Interest

No gaming this past weekend as we dropped off the kids at the grandparents this Saturday.

After finishing reading Fire in the Sky, covering the World War II air campaigns in the South Pacific, by Eric Bergerud, I've been reading some SciFi. The last two books I read are from the Star Trek universe, original series timeline specifically, Harbinger and Reap the Whirlwind, both by David Mack. Harbinger is the first book in the Vanguard Series and Reap the Whirlwind is the third book. Vanguard is a Watch Tower class Starbase in the unexplored Taurus Reach which lies between the Federation, Klingon, and Tholian Empires.

Continuing with "David" authors, I picked up Echoes of Honor, by David Weber at Half Price books this Sunday. This book is part of the Honorverse and the first one I've started reading and yes, again like the Vanguard Series, I'm jumping out of order. I also found that some of his books are available online here.

The SciFi theme influenced me to pull out the old SPI game Sword and the Stars from the closet and I have been reading the rules. Sword and the Stars exports the older SPI Empires of the Middle Ages (recently re-published by Decision Games) game into Space.

Sunday, 7/22 - Star Trek: the Adventure Game

Cody and I played an older game from my collection on Sunday afternoon - Star Trek: the Adventure Game from West End Games, 1985.

It is a two player game; pitting the Federation and Klingon Empires against each other as they try to increase their presence and influence within the Treaty Zone established by the Organians. Because the Organians prevented any outright hostilities between the two empires there is no direct military conflict between the two players in the game. Each side explores the planets within the treaty zone and attempt to sway the inhabitants to become members (Federation) or satellites (Klingons) of the respective empires. Each side starts with a Heavy cruiser and three small cruisers with which to explore the treaty zone.

The game went down to the wire with Cody winning by the slimmest of margins with the Victory point marker on the zero space, Federation side up.

Latest Aquisition - Federation Commander: Romulan Border

I expanded my Federation Commander collection with Romulan Border. The second module in the Federation Commander series from Amarillo Design Bureau.

This module adds the Romulans and Gorns along with some new Federation ships that served on the Romulan border. In addition a new "monster", the space dragon, is also included along with the standard 6 map panels. The updated rulebook includes rules for plasma torpedoes and the infamous Romulan Cloaking Device(Wikipedia, Memory Alpha).


Federation Commander is a simplification of the old Star Fleet Battles system. What is interesting is that it includes two different scales, fleet and squadron, for each ship. Fleet scale is if you want to control a lot of ships, ie fleets, or run quick battles, and the squadron scale is the same as the scale of the original Star Fleet Battles. I've attached an overview/review of the system I wrote when I first purchased the first module, Klingon Border.

Federation Commander: Klingon Border Review
I played Starfleet Battles (SFB) way back when and enjoyed it immensely. Between it and the Squad Leader series it was the most played games in our game group in the 80's but as both systems started adding weight in the rules department it became more of a chore and less fun. The game system has been trimmed down to make the playing time much shorter which is a good thing in my book. The ~1.5 in thick game box is packed full. There is no extra space in this puppy with 16 double side ship displays, 6 double sided thick map panels, 2 counter sheets, two 6-sided dice, a grease pencil, 52 page rulebook, two player aid charts, two sheets of miniatures movement templates, and a plastic baggie with paper clips to use on the ship system displays.

COMPONENTS
The component quality is a mixed bag. First off on Amarillo Design Bureau's own site they say Federation Commander "uses the best concepts from the best-selling space combat game of all time with Euro-Game production values and ease of play". Euro-Game production values are high so some of the component decisions by ADB do not support this statement. "Ease of play" is greatly increased over the original Star Fleet Battles and Star Fleet Battles was/is probably "the best-selling space combat [board] game of all time" so 2 out of 3 is not all bad; or is it?

Two ~3/8 inch six sided dice are included; functional and nothing bad or good to say about them. I like a little more heft in my dice so would have liked them to be a little bigger. [Edit: the Romulan Border package contained larger dice; bump up my rating to 6.]
Euro-Gamer: 5, Wargamer: 5

The rulebook is your typical wargame black and white print with some nice illustrations and a good index. The downside is the paper feels a little thin for your typical rulebook. The Euro crowd would be disapointed expecting a full color rulebook. [Edit: The Romulan Border rulebook has a thicker cover. It is your standard SFB blue cover with black ink. The rulebook edges have been trimmed to be even, but it is still black and white.
Bump up Wargamer rating to 6.]
Euro-Gamer rating: 4, Wargamer rating: 5.5

There are two different sizes of ship counters included in the game, 1/2 inch and 1 inch. For the wargamer this would be a thumbs up to ADB for including both sizes of counters. The typical Euro-Gamer would be asking where are the plastic ship bits? In this day with game companies like Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, and Eagle Games [Edit: now out of business] making games that come with 50, 100, or 200+ plastic miniatures the Euro crowd has high expectations The 1/2 inch counter graphics for the most part look better than the graphics from the original Star Fleet Battles(SFB) games, as they should, but the 1 inch counters while they look good do not look as nice as the 1 inch counters that came with the SFB Megahex module H1 I bought way back when. The graphics on my old H1 module counters appear more realistic and crisper.
Euro-Gamer: 3 (Where are my plastic miniatures?), Wargamer: 6 (thanks for including the two different scales of counters but the graphics are so-so)

The mapboards consists of six 8.5x11 inch double sided thick (~1/8 inch) map panels. One side consists of 1/2 inch hexes and the other side uses larger hexes to accommodate the 1 inch counters. The map background is no longer your basic black from the original SFB; it consists of a photo quality starfield interspersed with small galaxies - a nice touch. If you're going to make a game board for a Euro-Gamer it better be mounted and it better not have valleys in the folds so ADB satisfies here but the production quality could have been better. There are two problems with the map, (1) the mapboards were slightly warped (concave/convex depending what side you're looking at) and (2) there is a visible gray border on the larger hex sized side. This is due to the map panel graphics not lining up between the two sides. The rulebook specifically mentions problem (1) and how to remedy it and (2) is more of an aesthetic nit but since they took the time to print such a pretty galactic background on the mapboard it is a shame it is broken up by a thick gray line on some of the panels. [Edit: ADB has fixed the registration problem but my Romulan Border map panels now have another problem. All along the edges the graphic is flaking off on the large hex side. It looks like the die cutter may have been getting dull on this batch of boards.

Click on each image for a larger view. The first picture is of the six board panels I received in Romulan Border. As you can see the edges are quite ragged - at least to me. I sent ADB an email with pictures and include their reply below.

"What is happening is that the boards are so thick that the cutting blade doesn't get all the way through before the thickness of the blade forces the panels apart. Not much to be done about it; the only cutter that had a special narrow blade belonged to a company that went out of business and sold the cutter to Argentina.

I have seen this produce a slightly rougher than normal edge but haven't seen any exposed cardboard.

I can send you more maps but they'll be the same as what you have."

The second picture is a comparison of a Klingon Border map panel on the right, showing the gray printing on the edges due to the registration error and the Romulan Border map panel on the left. Note: that on the KB map panel this side is where the cutter first touched the panel unlike on the RB map panel which is where the cutter exited but I have looked at all of my KB panels and the two panels I got with Klingon Attack and the the cutter exit side looks no where near as bad as the Romulan Border map panel edges do.


I would have bumped up my rating for fixing the board warp and the registration problem but the flaking graphics killed that. Lower my rating to 4.]

[Edit 07/09/07: After an exchange of emails with Steve Cole of ADB to clarify what I was un-happy about, Steve sent me some map panels (twelve, woo-hoo!) which I received on my return from out July 4th holiday. These are first edition boards with the grey borders but the smoothly cut edges. I'm now a happy camper. To be fair to ADB about their map panels Steve informed me that they have tried out different vendors and are still looking for the one who can produce them to ADB's satisfaction. I wish them good luck in their continued search. Thanks Steve and ADB for the great customer service! Customer Service Rating: 10]
Euro-Gamer: 4.5, Wargamer: 5.5

The double sided ship system displays are where the game has made the most improvement over SFB. The displays are color coded and laminated. Each ship included in the game is represented by two different versions, the "squadron" and "fleet" displays. The squadron display side would be equivalent to the normal old SFB ship system display (SSD) while the fleet side represents the ship with half the values from the squadron side. The rulebook says you can use either side to play, player preference. The fleet side can be used for players who want a quicker game, those just learning the game, or those playing larger fleet battles.
Euro-Gamer: 7, Wargamer: 8

There are two identical player aids included with the game. Most games these days will usually include player aids for all players so this is expected by both the Euro and Wargamer crowd. What makes these nice in terms of the wargamer is that they are both in color (expected by Euro-Gamer) and laminated. The play aids are double sided and include the sequence of play, the weapons tables for the starship weapons included in the game, and the damage allocation chart. [Edit: Romulan Border includes a plasma torpedo playaid. One side contains info for Plasma torps and the other side has a summary of the Impulse Procedure, the Phaser-4 table, and a log for keeping track of drones.]
Euro-Gamer: 7, Wargamer: 8

The package includes a single Grease Pencil [Edit: Newer editions substitute a white board marker for the grease pencil.] used to mark on the ship system displays during play. Boxes are crossed off to indicate damaged systems, fired weapons, and damaged drones and shuttles among other things. It is nice that they included the grease pencil but if you are going to include it you might as well go all the way and at least include two of them since your going to play this game with at least one other person.
Euro-Gamer: 4 (Where is the other pencil?), Wargamer: 6 (Wow! they even included a grease pencil) .

To round out the package ADB included a baggie with standard paper clips and two card stock sheets of movement templates. The paper clips are an alternative means to recording energy expenditure of your ship during the turn. Each ship system display includes a numbered track(s) on the right side of the ship card where you can use the paper clip, grease pencil, or tokens to indicate how much energy your ship has remaining. The movement templates are for ship miniatures use for those who like to play the game on the table top sans hex map. The templates are scaled to 1 inch per movement point and the rules state you can download other scales from the ADB website.
Euro-Gamer: 4 (Where are my plastic ships), Wargamer: 5.5

GAME PLAY vs Star Fleet Battles
ADB says this game is not meant to be a replacement for Star Fleet Battles as they are still supporting and making new products for SFB but the comparisons are inevitable for a game that is based on SFB and still shares many mechanics and game history with it. What did they do to make it play faster than Star Fleet Battles? Short answer, a lot! If you want the whole list you can go to ADB's website here, http://www.starfleetgames.com/fc/ . If you've never played SFB before you don't need to bother going to the above link as some of the acronyms and rules references will probable confuse you. In fact if you've never played Star Fleet Battles before you can just skip this paragraph and be glad ADB did make these changes in Federation Commander. The biggest short cut ADB did was to make the energy allocation process a whole lot easier from Star Fleet Battles. Basically the Energy Allocation Phase in Federation Commander consists of deciding what your base ship speed for the turn is going to be and, if you have them, how much energy you are going to put into charging photon torpedoes [and plasma torpedoes]. That's it; all other energy allocation expenditures are decided on the fly during the Impulse Segments of the turn. Deciding how fast you are going has been made simpler further still by limiting you to four base speed choices, 0, 8, 16, and 24 hexes per turn. The second major change to speed up the game is a new Damage Allocation Chart (DAC) and procedure on how to use it. Long gone is the method of rolling two dice for each hit obtained on the DAC; it has been replaced with 1 die roll for each group of 10 hits that get past the shields. This definitely cuts down on the wristage on those 50 to 100+ internal hit salvos! These two changes greatly reduce the time to play and as stated above if you want to shorten the time even further use the fleet ship system display. The sequence of play has been changed to quicken the game also. Although there are still basically 32-movement impulses they have been grouped into 8 Impulse segments with 4 sub-pulses of possible movement in each. Firing of weapons and use of other systems happens after the four sub-pulses for movement have been completed cutting down your firing, tractor beam, and transport use decisions to 8 times per turn vice the 32 times in SFB.
Euro-Gamer: ? (Who cares! I probably would not play SFB anyway) Wargamer: 8

In the next section I will describe the turn sequence of Federation Commander.

Federation Commander Turn Sequence
The turn starts off with Energy Allocation; all players determining how much power each ship will have for the turn and then decide what the "base" speed of their ship(s) will be moving at this turn. Note that during the Impulse Procedure portion of the turn the player can increase or decrease the speed of the ship from this base value. After announcing your base speed players can begin "preloading" multi-turn arming weapons; for Klingon Border this only applies to Photon Torpedoes. Players then decide if they wish to spend energy to regenerate damaged shields and then finally decide if they wish to power tractor beams that were powered last turn. That completes energy allocation; all other energy point expenditures occur during the Impulse Procedure segment of the turn.

The Impulse Procedure segment of the turn is where all the good stuff happens. It is divided into 8 Impulses. At the start of each impulse players will have to decide if they are going to accelerate or decelerate from the base speed they chose during energy allocation. This happens at the beginning of every impulse so a ship can theoretically increase or decrease its ship speed by +/- 8 hexes per turn from its base speed. This flexibility in speed does not come without a price; each increase/decrease in speed costs the energy equal to move one hex. After deciding whether or not to change speed there are 4 sub-pulses of possible movement. Ships moving at a speed > 24 hexes/turn will move every sub-pulse while those only moving 8 hexes/turn will move only in the 4th sub-pulse. So, although there are only four base speeds a ship could move anywhere from 0 to 32 hexes per turn. After all four movement sub-pulses have occurred ships that have been intercepted by seeking weapons may defend themselves during the Defensive Fire Phase.

During the Defensive Fire Phase ships may use Anti-Drone Defense (providing this system ia on the ship), fire phasers at the drone(s), and finally use a tractor beam on the drone. These steps are taken in the order listed. If a drone does survive the defenses it hits the ship and does damage to the shields and possibly causing internal damage to ship systems. Finally, ships that will use evasive maneuvering are announced and paid for during this phase. Offensive fire then takes place.

In the Offensive Fire Phase all ships can fire on other enemy ships, shuttles, and seeking weapons that are within range and firing arc. All fire must be predesignated, simultaneous, and paid for when used.

After the Offensive Fire Phase is the Other Functions Phase where ships can drop/raise shields, use Labs, Tractor Beams, and Transporters. The last phase of the Impulse Procedure segment is where ships can launch seeking weapons and launch/recover shuttle craft. After the Impulse Procedure is repeated eight times the End of Turn segment is performed.

During the End of Turn Segment players can carryover unused energy equal to the number of undestroyed batteries to the next turn. All other excess unused energy is lost. The players can then conduct repairs to damaged systems using the ships damage control rating. Depending on the rating and the repair cost of a system it may take more than one turn to complete a repair.

That is a complete turn. It sounds like a lot going on but it goes by relatively quickly as some phases can be skipped because nothing is happening then.

Amarillo Design Bureau emphasizes these Key Points:
A typical duel takes one hour, not four hours.
The largest fleet battles take four hours, not four days.
Energy is spent "on the fly" via a marker on a sliding scale.
Damage allocation involves 95% fewer die rolls.
Each turn has 75% fewer decision steps.
Ship diagrams are laminated (multiple use, no photocopies!).
The rulebook is 5% as big; they can learn it in 30 minutes.
Expansions include more fun, not complex new rules.

Overall I like the new Federation Commander.
Euro rating: 6. Wargamer rating: 7.5

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the artwork for the box cover is really first rate. All of the covers I've seen so far are really nice.