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October 2013
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Star Fleet Universe News
FACEBOOK: Jean continues to improve our page on Facebook, adding many new photos and other features. TWITTER: ADB has recently started a Twitter feed. We are ADBInc_Amarillo. You'll find news as well as links to pictures. Check us out and retweet news of interest to your own followers. We're excited and our first goal is to get 100 followers. Help us reach that, please. VIDEOS: StarFleetGames has taken its act to YouTube and we now have a YouTube channel. Our goal is to create a video for the new product releases during each month. We have "In the Box" videos to show you what you will see when you unpack your new game. We have also done "Spotlights" on a single product or product line. So pull up a chair and join us at the movies! Our newest uploads are: Star Fleet Marines Part 1 STARBLOG: Our StarBlog has moved to a new URL
and all links on StarFleetGames.com websites have been changed to match. The new
site is JAGDPANTHER
Custom Decals for Starline ships Tenneshington Decals is proud to now offer three new decals sets, made to fit the Starline 2500 Federation BB battleship, CB heavy command cruiser, and DNL light raiding dreadnought miniatures.
ONLINE TOURNAMENTS Rated Ace Tournament 41 is underway. All of the semifinal games are set and should be exciting matches. Andrew Koch is the judge.
Rated Ace Tournament 40 is nearly done. The final round is between Paul Scott and Bill Schoeller. Andrew Koch is the judge. The FCOL Tournament will be starting this fall. We expect that Jim Dauphinais will again organize this and be the judge.
NetKill Patrol third quarter ended with Brendan Lally repeating his win of last quarter. Josh Driscol came in second. The fourth quarter is just starting -- get in on the action on SFBOL. Richard Schirmer maintains the statistics that make this tournament possible. The Platinum Hat 2013 International Online SFB Tournament is in full swing. Five of the eight second-round games are complete. Paul Scott is the judge. GURPS Prime Directive campaign is in motion on the Federation Commander Forum. Check out the Donjebruche Campaign here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3193 The GM is Jeff Johnson. The Masters 2013 Tournament has started. Six players have advanced to Round 2. The judge is Andrew Koch. DEMOS AND CONS WITH SFU GAMES Star Fleet Battles is the name of the game at the annual convention for Council of Five Nations in Schenectady, New York. The con starts at 9 am on October 11 and runs through October 13. Join them for the largest face-to-face SFB tournament in the world. Ken Kazinski is in charge of this tournament.
CharCon will be held in Charleston, West Virginia on October 18-20. Both Star Fleet Battles and Federation Commander will be demoed by Larry Hayes, the Ranger in charge. For more information, see: http://www.charcon.org/ On October 18-20, Eric Cote will be running demos of Star Fleet Battle Force at Necronomicon in Tampa, Florida. For more information, see: http://www.stonehill.org/necmain.htm On October 26, Federation Commander will be demoed at Fair Game at 5147 Main Street, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515. Ken Krajniak will be the Ranger in charge from 1 pm-6 pm. Federation Commander, Star Fleet Battle Force, and A Call to Arms Star Fleet will be demoed at Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin, November 1-3. Dal Downing is the Ranger in charge. For more information, see: http://www.gameholecon.com/ There will be a Federation Commander tournament at the Honor Harrington Convention November 1-3, 2013 in Greenville, South Carolina. Patrick Doyle will be running the tournament. ACTASF will be demoed and games will be played at Fall-In in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on November 16, 2013. Bill Stec, part of the Mongoose Infantry, will be in charge of these events. Federation Commander will be demoed at Game On! Game Con in Avon Indiana on November 16, 2013 Sean Johnson will be running the demos from 11 am- 2 pm. The address is: 6850 E US Highway 36, Avon, Indiana 46123. Games and demos are being run in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. OKC WarS has games of ACTASF run by James Kerr. You can find them at Hampton Inn Midwest City, 1833 Center Dr., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73110-2810 http://www.okcwars.com/forum or contact them through email: okcwars@okcwars.com Games and demos are being run in Spokane, Washington. They meet every Thursday (may move to Friday) at 2:00 pm and play till 9:00 pm, games open to start every time. You can find them at The Gamers Haven, 2114 N. Pines St., Suites 1 & 2, Spokane Valley, WA 99206, (509) 443-5992 http://www.thegamershaven.net/gamers_haven.php Games and demos are being run in Jacksonville, Florida. They start at 6:00pm and play till 11:00 pm, There will always be ACTASF games open to play or you can learn ACTASF every Friday. Contact Ray at Suncoast Comics, 5509 Roosevelt Blvd., Jacksonville, Florida 32244 904.771.2776 service@suncoastcomics.com Do you want to run demos and promote SFU games? Consider becoming a Ranger! You have the advantage of "growing your own" opponents and of making new friends. Read more about it here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/rangers/index.shtml 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: The latest Communique brings you more Ship Cards, scenarios, and more news from the Star Fleet Universe! It can be downloaded from the Commander's Circle. FC Forum Recent Posts
We are very pleased to see the medals, honor bars, and ribbons awarded to players being incorporated into their signatures. It is exciting to see lots of interesting conversations about a wide variety of subjects. Get in on the activity! While for new players the Federation Commander Forum is a little easier to manage, the original (Discus-based) BBS is where most product development takes place. If you have a proposal you'd like to see worked on, don't forget to make sure it is mentioned here. It also has active F&E and SFB forums where players run campaigns, Rated Ace tournaments and other SFB tournaments are organized (most FC tournaments are organized on the Forum), SVC's "My Day" appears, along with current news and strategies dealing with Prime Directive, and each issue of Captain's Log is created. While less colorful (no avatars or sigs), it is a vital part of ADB, Inc.'s communications. F&E Strategy of the Month The Expanded Carrier Group (CVEG) under (318.43) is pretty hard to implement effectively given the limit of three attrition squadrons allowed in a battle force under (302.334). However, the Kzintis can use this much more effectively than their neighbors. How? By combining the BCS with a CVE to form the CVEG. The half squadron of fighters on each ship makes a full squadron of fighters, plus the full flotilla of PFs counts as the second of the three allowed attrition squadrons. The third squadron is added by another carrier group of the Kzinti player's choice.
(End of F&E Strategy of the Month) What makes this a viable option is the CVE itself. The CVE is a 6(3)/3(1.5) unit built on the light cruiser hull as compared to the CVEs of their neighbors, which are built on destroyer or frigate hulls and do not have the same high combat potential. To really make the force effective the Kzintis will want to use their best escorts to increase the density of the CVEG as they do not get the benefit of counting it as one less ship in the battle force like the Federation's CVBG under (502.923). CVEG example: DN (Admiral, Formation Bonus), BCS+ CVE+MEC+2xDWE, CVD+MEC+HDW-E+DWE, 2xNCA, NSC (free scout). While this is not optimized for the units available at the time of advanced combat formations (318.4), it leaves the enemy with a tough choice on what to attack, even with a mauler. The CVEG could have an extra escort added under (515.2) replacing one of the NCAs. To further reduce the ability of the enemy to maul your CVEG, you can escort your BCS as a heavy carrier by adding another ship as an inner escort that counts as a standard escort without violating (515.44) under (525.54). With drone bombardment (309.0) and the Kzinti Fast Drone bonus [(318.13) and (318.11)] the combat potential of this fleet is increased from 113 to 133 + 2.5% of effective damage. A Call To Arms: Star Fleet Tactic of the Month VOLLEY VOUS - A CALL TO ARMS STYLE When resolving the damage from weapons in A Call To Arms: Star Fleet, players may choose the order in which the damage from different weapons is resolved. This order can be important because some weapons will average more damage per hit than others when striking the hull of a ship. When rolling on the attack table, a roll of "one" will be a bulkhead hit and score no damage. Any other roll will score one point of damage. On average, a hull hit will score five-sixths of a point of damage.
Weapons with the Precise trait, however, will never hit the bulkheads and will score critical hits on rolls of five or six, averaging one point of damage. Hits from weapons with the Devastating trait (photon torpedoes and seeking weapons) will score no damage on a "one," but will score two critical levels on a "six," for one bonus damage point, assuming that they hit an undamaged system, and so should score one damage point, on average. Therefore, you should resolve any weapons damage in the following order: non-precise, non-devastating weapons (e.g, disruptors), then precise and devastating weapons. (The order in which precise and devastating weapons are resolved should not make much difference on average.) If the early fire brings the shield down, the later fire will have more effect. Of course, if the damage is not enough to bring down the shield, or there is no shield, it does not matter what order you resolve the damage in. (End of A Call to Arms: Star Fleet Tactic of the Month) Demotivationals Throughout the month our graphics director places on the website various cards called Demotivationals. These are like postcards with an image and a phrase that is often used for humor. Engagement Ring To see our previous Demotivationals click here. Mini of the Month Starline 2500 Klingon C7.
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New Releases Communique #94 has been posted to the Commander's Circle. Click here to see our previous issues of Hailing Frequencies. Recently Released To be released in 2013 PDF SALES: ADB, Inc. continues its relationship with Steve Jackson Games and their e23 Warehouse. We chose e23 because they have a philosophy that agrees with ours -- our customers are honest and honorable and wouldn't aid people who want to steal our products. Furthermore, we know from experience how devastating a computer crash can be and want our customers to know that they don't have to worry about the loss of their e-products bought through e23. What do we have there? We have created a new page that allows easy access to our PDFs for sale on e23. From here you can see what we currently have posted and have links to those products. RECENTLY RELEASED ON e23 Bridge, Lyran CW Doomward, four hours later
Captain Thr'Uule looked across the Bridge at the view screen image of the team his ship was loading from the docked fast transport Shadow of the Hunter. The special team was being transferred, along with some supplies and fuel he had taken from the other ship because he had a Critical Mission Priority voucher. For once, he didn't have to beg and trade for all the extras available. Thirty "scientists" with more baggage than usual had trooped through the boarding hatch from the docked transport. He had stripped the transport of all its probes, excess fuel, eleven head of tunni on the hoof, and some spare parts. The captain of Shadow of the Hunter did not mind, as the Critical Mission Priority voucher would allow him to replace everything he gave up at the nearest base. Such vouchers were an archaic remnant of the old times when each ship was the personal property of one of the nobles and legions of accountants settled scores in cash every month. Even now, when ships belonged to the Navy but were crewed by each county, supplies ultimately were provided - or at least paid for - by the county, not the Navy. All captains knew that a Critical Mission Priority voucher was a free pass for anything they could get, with the bill sent to some accountant light years away, and took advantage of these rare and wondrous things. The scientists had refused transporter transfer due to the supposed sensitivity of some of their equipment. In Thr'Uule's opinion, they looked more like Marines than scientists. He noted several of the team had the blue-tinted fur you get from being decontaminated for the Rux Mites found on many Kzinti planets, were burly and scarred, and they all seemed to be carrying powered boarding cutlasses slung over their shoulders. An inordinate amount of heavy body armor, armored sensors, ruggedized computer gear, and disruptor rifles all seemed out of place for a regular Naval Science and Exploration team. With a sigh, he sharpened his claws on the side of his chair and looked around the Bridge. Senior Astrophysicist Senior Lieutenant Z'orn was engrossed with Chief Warrant Officer Krr'al over the scanner station (presumably optimizing the network for the new mission), while Engineer Junior Lieutenant K'unn was working with a team of technicians on the famously balky main communications console. The Klingon, Environmental Technical Officer Kurq, was rebalancing the recycler systems to accommodate the metabolic load of an additional 31 crew and 11 big food beasts. The first of the new war cruisers, including Doomward, had gone to regular Navy officers selected for merit. Doomward was due for a major overhaul in a few months, adding refits and upgrades that experience showed should have been part of the original design. Thr'Uule would move on, probably to an admiral's staff for a year or two before he even had a chance for his next command. Regular Navy officers without noble connections would have trouble getting command of a major warship unless the fleet greatly expanded, which would happen sooner or later when another war with the Kzintis erupted. Thr'Uule would be perfectly positioned to gain such a command. David Merritt asks: Can you replace type-I drones one-for-one with type-VI drones in an A/B/C/H/or other non G-rack, if you wanted to? Roch Chartrand asks: Can someone explain or give me an example of ballistic targeting (F4.0), especially the procedure in (F4.11)? Roch Chartrand asks: I have an ECM drone that was protecting a ship moving in direction A, for an entire turn, following the same path and facing as the protected ship. On the following turn my ship went to Speed Zero and made a few warp tactical maneuvers bringing its facing to E. The ECM drone went to Speed Zero to keep pace with the ship. Does the drone do tactical maneuvers to keep the same heading as the ship? I ask this because if my ship starts moving again it will head in direction E, but if the drone is still facing A it will not protect the ship for a few impulses!
Mike Kenyon asks: On Impulse #1 a Kzinti ship at Range 12 to a Klingon ship launches four drones including a Stonefish. On Impulse #3, the Klingon launches a wild weasel. On Impulse #8, the drones close to Range 3 of the weasel. F&E Q&A
CONSTRUCTION AND PRODUCTION Q: Does the rule (450.13) prohibiting the construction of minor shipyards in the capital include all hexes of a multi-hex capital, or only the hex with the shipyard? A: Rule (511.0) defines "capital hex" to include all hexes of a multi-hex capital, so you cannot build minor shipyards in any of those hexes. Q: Can a half fighter factor be exchanged for two PFs under (442.21)? A: If the players have a methodology to keep track of fractional fighter factors, then, sure. Q: Can an empire exchange leftover free fighter factors for PFs during the fall turn production phase? A: No, it must happen in the Spring turn (422.21). Q: Does Conversion During Repair (425.2) reduce the cost of converting a CA or CC to a CX by one XTP? The CX is showing that the base hull is a CA(3) on the SITs. A: A Federation CX has a base hull of CA(3), and so does the CA or CC. As such either could be used with Conversion During Repair (CDR) at a major conversion facility with a SBX to make a CX with a CA for (6-1=5) or with a CC (5-1=4) with XTP to make a CX. Q: Are area control ships considered CVAs for build limit purposes? A: No. Area control ships count against heavy fighter carrier and scout limits only. Q: Many of the NCAs have "minor" in their conversion column (from CWs) on the SIT. Does that mean that these conversions can be done at a starbase in one turn? A: Yes! That's the beauty of the NCA concept. Even better, some of the conversions to variants qualify for a two-step conversion and still are a three-point minor conversion capable at a starbase outside a major conversion facility location per (437.21). (End of F&E Q&A)
ASK AUNT JEAN Q: Dear Aunt Jean, Is there a table somewhere that says how long it takes to build a certain type of ship?
A: That information doesn't exist in Prime Directive or in Star Fleet Battles or any of the basic Star Fleet Universe games. [SFB Galactic Conquest has data extrapolated for that campaign and that campaign only -- and as the person who ran an impoverished empire, I can tell you that some ships took YEARS to scrape up the cash to pay for them. As a rich empire, it didn't really matter as much (at least for an RPG aspect) because a ship of some sort came out of the slips each six-month game turn.] Send questions to Jean at design@StarFleetGames.com and SVC will decide which one Jean will answer next. 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. We have new images of our next game Star Fleet Marines posted on our BBS topic page. 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 Suppose you are moving at Baseline Speed 24, but only want to move two hexes. This could be to avoid overload range against a Federation ship, gain a Range 1 shot on a drone wave, etc. The most obvious method is to decelerate, but this costs energy. So how can you do this, without using energy? By using sideslips.
On your first move, sideslip. It does not matter which direction. For this example, we will sideslip left. Next move straight, and then sideslip right. The hex you end up in is two hexes from your starting point. You have managed to end up exactly where you would have if you had decelerated, added three hexes to satisfying your turn mode count, but you have not used any energy. You can now use that energy for something else. So go tease that Federation cruiser by maneuvering to Range 9 without using energy for a deceleration. His overloaded photons won't even get a chance to fire before your disruptors penetrate his shield and knock one of them out. (End of FC Tactic of the Month)
SFB Tactic of the Month A WARM DROP - Junior Lieutenant William Wilson, USS Colorado Many invasion fleets include one or more ships that are capable of landing on planets. No rule restricts the amount of crew that can be on board even a small ship for a short time. Feel free to beam a hundred Boarding Parties onto that free tanker, using it as a gigantic shuttle that never suffers from overcrowding. Even at combat rates, a ship landed on a planet can disgorge vast amounts of manpower and equipment in a short period of time, far more than can be sent down via transporters or shuttles, and more safely as well. It will take an additional turn or two to get through the atmosphere, but if the landing ship spearheads the attack, this is irrelevant.
A very busy day at S.T.A.G.S wargames club in the UK - Questing Knights
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to teach potential players some basics. 
