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May 2022
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Star Fleet Universe News THE BIG NEWS: The biggest news is that Steve Petrick can see again. He had the first cataract surgery on Tuesday 10 May and by the next day was able to read normal book-sized type. He will have the second eye done on the 17th. We hope to see him back in the office before the end of May.
The almost as big news is that this issue you get FOUR play-value extras comprising the heavy cruiser of the new PRAX empire for four different game systems: SFB, FC, ACTASF, and STARMADA.
WEBSITE:
Our website, www.StarFleetGames.com, continues to grow and improve. You are welcome to send us your requests, comments, and suggestions. Simone Dale, our graphics director, continues to update the website, do covers for the new products, shut down pirate websites, help out around the company, and learn more about the game business.
TWITTER: VIDEOS: Star Fleet Marines Part 1 DOING VIDEOS OF THE SFU
A customer asked about posting "tutorial videos" for our games. We like it when people do that (and even give commendation medals) but you need to have us check the videos to make sure you aren't violating something somehow (or that you didn't make a rules error). Doing such videos to make money is not cool. Please drop us an email before you post the videos.
STARBLOG: STAR FLEET'S LEGIONS EXPAND: This month we feature Battle Group Hampton Roads, headquartered in Hampton, Virginia. CO William Phillips reports they play Star Fleet Battles and Federation & Empire. They also enjoy attending gaming conventions. Read more here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/battlegroup/battlegroup_HamptonRoads.shtml
Do you have a battle group? Be sure to report your activities here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/battlegroup/report.shtml
Do you want to see if there's a battle group near you? Check out the map here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/battlegroup/gather.shtml#US
Facebook Fan Pages
So join us on Facebook and get a fix of your favorite game there, too! As announced in Captain's Log #54, Jean Sexton Beddow's husband, Al Beddow has been appointed to take over the day-to-day of running the SFU Ranger demo team. He comes with a bit of experience both teaching various types of games as well as having been in quite a few demo teams (and ran/helped run a few). He is most familiar with GURPS Prime Directive but early on played ACTASF and spent Gencon 2012 demoing it in the Mongoose Publishing booth there. So, we are asking each of you to email Al at the address below with the following: - Name Al will add you to the Ranger group on the forum once he has this info, which will let you access our area there. He is looking forward to working with all of you to spread the news of the Star Fleet Universe! Current stats: We have heard from 22 of our Rangers and have three new ones! We are excited to see the Rangers becoming active as playing in person and cons once again start up. Jean Sexton Beddow Al Beddow Ranger Email: adbrangerhq@gmail.com FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/517647465103651/ ADB Forums: http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/index.php ADB BBS: http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/
JAGDPANTHER
Custom Decals for Starline ships Tenneshington Decals continues to provide custom decals for all currently produced Federation Starline 2500 miniatures. For more information or to download the order sheet, check them out at www.tenneshington.com. Or if you prefer, email Will McCammon at: will@tenneshington.com or Tony L. Thomas at: scoutdad@tenneshington.com.
Jupiter IV Decals is a source of decals for the 2400 line and will do custom decals as well as all official SFB names. In the near future Jupiter IV will move into the 2500 line and will work to get every listed name on the Starfleet registry completed in both scales.
Their website is: JupiterIvdecals.com
ONLINE TOURNAMENTS Update to Sapphire Star IX: With Sapphire Star tournaments IX and X finished, XI is now running. The second Sapphire Crown tournament will kick off on 1 June with the four most recent winners.
DEMOS AND CONS WITH SFU GAMES Due to the COVID-19 virus, many conventions have been cancelled. We encourage you to check out Star Fleet Battles Online where there is a free demo version. It is a good way to hang out with others who play Star Fleet Battles and Federation Commander. Check it out here: https://www.sfbonline.com/index.jsp Star Fleet Battles games are played regularly in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday afternoons at the Soldiery. Lee Hanna is the contact person. Download Transmissions HAILING FREQUENCIES: This is our newsletter and will let you know all the news for all our games. You can subscribe here. Have you missed an earlier newsletter? Click here to get caught up! COMMUNIQUE: This monthly magazine repeated much of the same information that Hailing Frequencies does. December 2019 was the last month it was published. Old issues can be downloaded from the Commander's Circle. Mini of the Month Tholian Heavy War Destroyer painted by Kent Ing
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New Releases EXTRAS FOR THE MONTH: PRAX Heavy Cruiser
You can look at Hailing Frequencies Extras here.
Click here to see our previous issues of Hailing Frequencies.
Recently Released
SHAPEWAYS:
We’re now offering some of our miniatures and some new designs on Shapeways. You can check out the store here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc?sort=newest
PDF and EBOOK SALES:
RECENTLY RELEASED ON Warehouse 23
Ask Admiral Vanaxilth DRONES
Francois Lemay asks: Can drones just launched be involuntarily transferred if the drone-launching ship is placed in stasis on the impulse of drone launch?
ANSWER: I sent this one to Kommodore Ketrick who replied: Yes, per (F3.41). The fact that a ship guiding drones is placed into stasis is as much an involuntary release as if the ship were blown to Hades or any of a number of other involuntary release conditions occurs during a given impulse. Francois Lemay asks: A Klingon C8 at Speed 31 has a Kzinti battlecruiser (Speed 20) in a tractor at Range 1; both are heading in the same direction. The battlecruiser also has a Speed 20 ECM drone following it. The C8's pseudo-speed is now 19 and battlecruiser's pseudo-speed is eight. It is Impulse #4 and Speed 8 and Speed 19 both move. The C8 moves forward. Does the battlecruiser's ECM drone move as well? ANSWER: Yes, if the battlecruiser leaves its hex, the ECM drone will immediately speed up to 20 and seek the hex of the battlecruiser. Follow-up question: On Impulse #5, the battlecruiser will move as required, will the ECM drone move again? If so, the Speed 20 ECM drone is basically moving at Speed 27. ANSWER: Speed 20 moves on both Impulse #4 and Impulse #5, so the ECM drone will move both those impulses if it needs to in order to keep station with the battlecruiser. Now, if both ships keep moving the same direction, the ship will eventually leave the drone behind. However, it should be noted that the ability of an ECM drone to change speed, instantaneously, as many times as it needs to, can lead to it moving more hexes in a turn than its rated speed under certain circumstances. Follow-up question: The battlecruiser has launched four Speed-20 drones at the C8 while tractored on Impulse #6. On Impulse #7, Speed 19 and Speed 20 move. The C8 can do a sideslip or even turn. How are the four launched drones handled? According to (G7.9433), the drones are carried along when the C8 moves whether it is a sideslip or turn. Do the drones then move or must they wait until Speed 20 is called for and not Speed 8 or 19? ANSWER: The drones are carried along in the tractor tunnel when the C8 moves. They will move again, advancing along the tractor tunnel, when their movement is called for. They do not miss their move just because the tunnel moved.
F&E Q&A
THE KESTREL SUPPLY SYSTEM Q: There is confusion about rule (442.8), the one about the Romulans getting more KR spare parts. The wording of the rule is said by some to imply that the Romulans can only obtain one turn of parts per turn, while others insist that there is no reason that the Romulans cannot obtain multiple "turns" of supply during each game turn.
A: Multiple deliveries can be made each turn, but each delivery requires a separate ship (KRT, SPH, 3FE, Klingon/Lyran tug) and each ship can make only one trip by Strategic Movement per turn. (The "singular nature" of the rule implies one trip, not one ship making one trip.) Obviously, Strategic Movement delivery is limited by available ships, Strategic Movement capacity, and a valid pathway. You can also deliver spare parts by Operational Movement, but this would be much slower and might take multiple turns for each ship used. You cannot "daisy chain" one load of spare parts on multiple ships, each making one six-hex part of the journey, because all movement is (in reality) simultaneous.
ou can also use blockade running, which has its own rules and limits. KR parts can certainly be stockpiled beyond the original six turns of parts listed under (442.82). Once the parts are delivered to the Romulan capital, they can be moved to any other Romulan supply point by any of the means noted above. This might be done to supply KR-type ships in separate grids, but in that case, each grid would use one "turn" of supplies each game turn. Cool Stuff on the Website In this section we will provide links to various web pages and items that we think you will find "cool". We have also uploaded new Xander wallpapers to our Wallpapers section on the website: Wallpapers STAR FLEET ALERTS These are the press releases we send to the wholesalers, retailers, and media. You can get on the mailing list for them by asking Marketing@StarFleetGames.com to add you to the list. (Obviously, they are free.) They are uploaded to the Star Fleet Alert page FC Tactic of the MonthTHOUGHTS ON THE HYDRAN HACK-AND-SLASH One of the limitations of the Hydran hellbore cannon is that it's hard to get the primary damage element to hit the same shield as your ship's phasers when overrunning the enemy. Unless you're facing his one weakest shield, the enemy will choose a different shield to take the primary hellbore damage, spreading your damage over multiple shields and preventing you from doing significant internal damage. This is a real nuisance in a typical heavy-cruiser duel when flying a hellbore-armed ship without Stingers. The usual method of getting around this is to damage the shield on one impulse with phasers, then fire the hellbores on a later impulse. However, this gives the target time to use Evasive Maneuvers, try to get out of the arc of your weapons, or even disable your hellbores with weapons fire or hit-and-run raids.
(End of FC Tactic of the Month)
One solution is to declare directed targeting with the phasers. Hellbores cannot use directed targeting, and so are resolved as a separate volley. Since you choose which order the volleys are resolved in, you can resolve the phasers first ("dinging" the shield to make it the weakest) and then the hellbores. The limitations on this are that the hellbores cannot be overloaded, because this prevents directed targeting from being used, and it also gives the target multiple opportunities to reinforce the facing shield. This tactic is probably most useful for the Hydran command ships, which have fusion beams as well as hellbores; these ships have the close range firepower to knock down a shield without overloading.
When fighting outside their transporter-link network, Ryn vessels suffer several serious disadvantages, not least of which is disrupted fire control for two impulses after each quantum transporter jump. Not only does this cut firing opportunities in half, but a jumping ship cannot control transporter-emitter missiles while its fire control is offline. Here is how to get at least partial use of these secondary weapon systems when "off the grid."
Let's say we have two heavy cruisers, Acinonyx and Bastet's Pride. On Impulse #1, both ships launch all their transporter-emitter missiles at an enemy. On Impulse #2, Acinonyx transfers control of its transporter-emitter missiles to Bastet's Pride, then jumps forward with its quantum transporters. After Acinonyx's fire control comes back online on Impulse #4, Bastet's Pride transfers control of all the transporter-emitter missiles to Acinonyx and jumps forward itself. On Impulse #6, the process can be repeated, with each ship retaining control of the transporter-emitter missiles while the other recovers from its jump. In this way two ships can combine their seeking weapon control channels to handle up to six transporter-emitter missiles at a time. It is not as many as could be controlled inside the transporter-link network, but half is better than none. (End of SFB Tactic of the Month)
Beginning in Y174 Romulan carrier group density can be increased by converting SparrowHawk-Bs to FireHawk-Bs or NovaHawk-Bs and in Y175 SparrowHawks can be converted to FireHawk-Ms.
The SparrowHawk-B to FireHawk-B conversion gains you two points of combat potential and two points of command rating for three economic points and does not cost you any carrier production slots because the fighter group(s) of the carrier(s) converted do not increase. The same applies to the NovaHawk-B giving you three additional combat potential and a command rating nine ship over the FireHawk-B's command rating of eight, but at the cost of four economic points. The SparrowHawk to FireHawk-M gains you six points of combat potential for four economic points. The SparrowHawk is treated as an ad-hoc escort under (515.34) meaning that it loses four points of offensive combat potential. The conversion of the SparrowHawk to a FireHawk-M means the FireHawk-M is now a true escort with the added benefit of being a minor two-step conversion under (437.0). As you can build four to five SparrowHawks a turn and up to two more with minor shipyards, you can convert one or more of these ships during construction depending on the location of your war cruiser minor shipyards and minor conversion facilities under (450.0) and (431.34). Both the FireHawk-B and FireHawk-M can be repaired at a battle station. Also the NovaHawk-B can be repaired at a battle station as it qualifies for the plasma repair exception under (420.423). Obviously, this paper builds on the ideas presented in the two previous papers of the same name.
(End of F&E Strategy of the Month)
A Call To Arms: Star Fleet Tactic of the Month The largest bodies of terrain usually encountered in ACTASF, planets can range in size from moons as small as 1 inch in diameter to huge gas giants of 12 inches in diameter or more. They will typically only be one planet on the map at a time as they orbit their stars at great distances and the typical gaming table would need to be a mile or so long to include two planets, although a large planet may have several moons in orbit around it and many of these may be on the map. As with other types of terrain, planets block line of sight. Ships may however fly "over" planets without penalty, although if a ship is on the planet template, the line of sight to that ship will be clear to any ship within range.
Planets in ACTASF have a unique feature: the gravity well. The depth (or size of the gravity well is based on the size (diameter) of the planet itself. A larger planet has a deeper gravity well. The gravity well can be used by wily captains to gain a great movement advantage. Ships that begin their Movement Phase inside the gravity well and parallel to the planet can "orbit" the planet. So long as the ship stays at the same distance from the planet's surface, it may be moved forward around the planet. For all intents and purposes, this movement will be considered straight-line movement as centripetal force and the planet's gravity keep the ship in orbit. Gas or ice giants often have a planetary ring around them. Planetary rings are typically 3" wide and located 1d6+6 inches from the planet's surface. These are treated as either dust clouds or asteroids fields (50:50 chance of either one).
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