COMMUNIQUE #5

STARDATE 2006.05
NEW SHIPS
Included in this issue are two new Fleet Scale ships to use FEDERATION
with your Romulan Border or Booster Zero rules. These include
the Romulan SparrowHawk and the Gorn Battle Destroyer. COMMANDER
SCHEDULE UPDATE Organized League Play
We shipped Boosters #1, #2, and #3 on 6 March.
We shipped Klingon Attack and Squadron Boxes #4, #5, The on-line forms for registering your store as a site for
and #6 on 29 March. Organized League Play are live on the web site. Also available
We shipped Boosters #4, #5, and #6 on 10 April. is the form to register your completed games, and you can even
We shipped Booster Zero on 26 April. Booster Zero includes use the same form to register future games as a means of invit-
ships and rules from six new empires: the Romulans, Gorns, ing people to attend and join the fun.
Lyrans, Hydrans, ISC, and the WYN Star Cluster. You will find these forms at www.federationcommander.com
We released Border Box #2 in early June. along with everything else for this game system.
We released Romulan Border at Origins. Many stores have already signed up, and the first round of
We expect to ship Booster 7, Booster 8, Booster 9, Squad- prizes (a series of six “bonus cards” used to give ships a spe-
ron Box 7, Squadron Box 8, and Squadron Box 9 during July. cial ability) are being mailed out to those stores.
We expect to release Border Box #3 in August. The scenario of the month for May is:
We expect to release Romulan Attack in September. (8KF) THE RAID ON RUKYVERK
This scenario is in Klingon Attack.
REVISION-4 RULEBOOK RELEASED
Romulan Border included a rulebook based on the Rev-3
Klingon Border rulebook. This included several rules updates NEWS FOR COMMANDERS
(listed on the next page) and constitutes a Revision-4 rulebook.
After that, we rebuilt the Klingon Border rulebook into a FEDERATION COMMANDER VICTORY AT ORIGINS 2006
new Rev-4 rulebook. If you bought Romulan Border, you al- Propelled by the success of Federation Commander: Ro-
ready have all of these rules updates but may not have noticed mulan Border, Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. set a major sales
them. We want both Borders to be “entry gateway products” so record at Origins of over ten thousand dollars. This was our
that either one of them will support all other products. This means best Origins ever, and was 80% above last year’s sales.
that the Klingon Border Rev-4 rulebook now includes the plasma Dozens of players took part in the first-ever Federation
torpedo and cloaking device rules that it originally did not. Commander National Championships, and Commander Patrick
You can obtain the latest revision of the rulebook for $3 Doyle won the event in a dramatic victory over Vice-Commander
plus postage on our shopping cart: Clint Beck.
http://www.starfleetstore.com/MERCHANT2/
merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_ Our Apologies for the Delay
Code=4001-2 This is supposed to be the May issue, and it was sent to
The rulebook is priced (as a spare part) at $10, but you the webmaster for uploading on 12 July. (The June issue will
can get the “trade-in” price (without actually trading anything in) be along in about a week, the July issue in another week.)
by using “special instructions” to tell us that you are upgrading Communique #4 explains why that issue was late, and the
a rulebook you bought. This trade-in offer is (obviously) avail- delay in #4 of course delayed everything else.
able only to people who bought the game (or a rulebook) in the
first place. You need to either have bought the game from us THE BBS: KEYS TO COMMUNICATION
(tell us this so we can confirm you actually bought a rulebook in The BBS (www.starfleetgames.com/discus) can be con-
the first place) or give us the complete name, address, and fusing at first sight, as it has hundreds of topics, used daily by a
phone number of the store where you bought it. thousand players. Registration is free, but we do require all par-
ticipants to use their real names. (This not only improves the
PUBLISHER’S INFORMATION overall tone of civility, but makes sure you get credit for any
FEDERATION COMMANDER: COMMUNIQUE #5 is pub- suggestions you make.) When you register, you will see topics
lished and copyright © 2006 by Amarillo Design Bureau, for each of our product lines. Feel free to venture into the broader
www.starfleetgames.com, PO Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114. universe as you get more comfortable with the system.
Elements of the Star Fleet Universe are the property of
Paramount Pictures Corporation and are used with their per-
mission.
 used it on a previous volley of the same or a different
RULES UPDATES impulse. A shield that is down cannot be reinforced
by batteries.
The rulebook in Federation Commander: Romulan
Border is an upgrade from the Revision-3 rulebook now (4F5c) Counter-weapons: You can target a seek-
shipping in Federation Commander: Klingon Border. It ing weapon on the enemy seeking weapon. The impact
includes a number of minor but important rules clarifica- of any drone or plasma torpedo on another drone will
tions, which are quoted below for those who have FCKB3 destroy that drone. Seeking weapons will damage (and
rulebooks. We expect to produce (in a few days) a new possibly destroy) any suicide shuttles or suicide freight-
FCKB4 rulebook incorporating these upgrades and in- ers. No seeking weapon can target a plasma torpedo.
clude it in new copies of FCKB. Suicide shuttles cannot target drones.
If seeking weapon A is targeted on seeking weapon
(1E2c) Defensive Fire Phase: STEP 1. If the seek- B, and B impacts its target before A reaches it, then A is
ing weapon is a drone which impacted on the current removed and B is treated as an impact. If A and B both
impulse, it could be engaged by an anti-drone (4E) if reach the target of B on the same sub-pulse (or if B
the ship has that system. hits A, which previously impacted and was stopped
by a tractor beam), BOTH impact that shield of the
(1E3b) Weapons Records: Erase any marked let- target and BOTH cause damage (and either or both
ters on the “weapons used” track so those weapons can could be stopped by defensive fire). (Tactical note,
be used again on the next turn. This procedure is used drop tracking to your seeking weapon before allowing
because each weapon can only be used once per turn this to happen.) If A hits B before B reached the target, A
(once per impulse for anti-drones). At this time, calcu- and B are destroyed and the target is unaffected.
late lab points gained (5B3). If a lab was disabled dur-
ing the turn, count the closest point the ship was to the (5L1) ORION OPTIONAL WEAPONS
target when the lab was active. Orion ships have their main heavy weapon marked
WPN instead of what kind of weapon it is. This is be-
(2D4a) Energy Cost: At the end of the Defensive cause pirate ships operate across the galaxy and their
Fire Phase (1E2c) of any Impulse, you may announce captains outfit them with whatever weapons are avail-
Evasive Maneuvers. You may only do this once in any able. The Orion player may, before each scenario be-
given turn. gins, decide (and announce) if a WPN box holds a pho-
ton torpedo (FA), a disruptor (FA), a drone rack (360°),
(2D4d) Termination: Evasive Maneuvers continue fusion beam (FA), hellbore (FA), ESG (360°) or a phaser-
until the end of the turn or until the player controlling the 1 or G (FA), or other weapons. Each WPN box can be
ship decides (during the Speed Change Phase of a sub- given a separate identity.
sequent Impulse) to cancel Evasive Maneuvers. This The Orion player could experiment with changing
cancellation cannot be made until two impulses after the the drone racks on the Salvage Cruiser and Raider
announcement, so a ship which announced it on the Cruiser to phaser-1s (LS on the left wing, RS on the right
Defensive Fire Phase of Impulse #3 could cancel it on wing) or plasma-F (LP on the left wing, RP on the right
the Speed Change Phase of Impulse #6. (It could not be wing). The wing mounts cannot hold other types of weap-
cancelled on Impulse #5 since at the time of the Speed ons. The Fleet Scale CR uses a 360° phaser and FP
Change Phase in that impulse the required two impulses plasma tracking are for its wing box.
had not elapsed.) Evasive Maneuvers do not continue The Light Raider (in Klingon Attack) is a special case.
into the next turn (unless power is spent in the En- It has two “wing” option mounts (one in each wing) and
ergy Allocation Phase of that turn, which counts as these can hold drone racks (360°), Plasma-Fs (LP and
the one time you can adopt Evasive Manuevers for RP), Phaser-1 or Phaser-G (LS and RS), anti-drones
that turn). (360°), Disruptors (Range 15, FA or L+LF and RF+R),
Photons (FA or L+LF and RF+R), or Fusion Beams (FA
(3C5) SHIELD REINFORCEMENT or L+LF and RF+R).
Shields can be reinforced. Whenever a volley of The same rule applies to an Orion base but all of its
damage strikes an active shield, the player who controls weapons are “hull mounted” not “wing-mounted”.
that ship has the option to use a number of his remain- Orions never used phaser-4s and any phaser-4s on
ing Energy Tokens (up to the number of working batter- the base card are replaced by phaser-1s when it is used
ies) to absorb some of the damage. Each Energy Token as an Orion base.
blocks one point of damage. See the rules below on
Damage Allocation (3D). Note that while batteries limit
the amount of power used on any given volley, you can
use that much power against every volley, even if you
FEDERATION COMMANDER SCENARIO

(8C3) THE BATTLE OF (8C1C) OBJECTIVE

Allies Mission: The mission of the attacking force
JUGGERNAUT ALPHA
is to destroy the Juggernaut. Any other result is a failure.
Having determined what kind of enemy they are fac- Ship losses suffered by the allies are not relevant.
ing, captains from four races (none of which are friends) Juggernaut Mission: Score 300 points of damage
forge an alliance to destroy the extra-galactic ship be- on the planet, and destroy (or force the disengagement
fore it attacks any of their colonies. of) all four of the ships. Any other result is a failure.
This scenario was published in Captain’s Log #33 Time Limit: This scenario has no time limit.
and reflects the battle against the first Juggernaut, which
was portrayed in a story published in Captain’s Log #1 (8H4) SPECIAL RULES
in 1983. Yes, the Star Fleet Universe has been around Any allied ship which moves to a hex more than 25
for that long, and in fact even longer. It started in 1979. hexes from the Juggernaut is considered to have disen-
gaged. Such a ship is removed from the scenario imme-
(8C1A) NUMBER OF PLAYERS diately and takes no further part in the battle.
Two, the “Juggernaut” player (who controls the Jug- The Orion CR has a cloak (costs one energy token).
gernaut) and the “allies” (who are here to destroy it).
The “allies” (temporary allies of convenience) include (8H5) FORCE DYNAMICS
Federation, Klingon, Tholian, and Orion ships. The balance of the scenario can be adjusted by giv-
ing the allies a stronger or less effective force.
(8C1B) INITIAL SET UP You could replace the Federation Command cruiser
Lay out the six map panels three wide and two high, with a Dreadnought (vastly stronger) Battlecruiser (stron-
using the small size hexes. For convenience, call these ger), New Heavy Cruiser (marginally stronger), Heavy
A (upper left), B (upper center), C (upper right), D (lower Cruiser (marginally less effective), New Light Cruiser
left), E (lower center), and F (lower right). You can use (somewhat less effective), Light Cruiser (much less ef-
the larger size hexes if you use more panels (three high fective), Destroyer (from Communique, much less effec-
by five wide). tive), or Frigate (much less effective).
The map will float in any direction. You could replace the Klingon D7C with a C8 (vastly
Set up the Juggernaut in the center of the map (Panel stronger), C7 (stronger), D5W (marginally stronger), D5
B, hex 0715) facing in direction B. or D6 (slightly less effective), or F5 (much less effec-
Set up the Federation Command Cruiser Excalibur tive).
(from Booster #1) in Panel D, hex 0115. Set up the Klin- You could relace the Tholian Heavy Cruiser with a
gon D7C Command Cruiser Darkslayer (from Booster War Cruiser from Communique (slightly less effective),
#2) in Panel C, hex 1401. Set up the Tholian Heavy with a Destroyer or Patrol Corvette (much less effec-
Cruiser Arraak (from Booster #3) in Panel A, hex 0101. tive), or with a destroyer and a patrol corvette (about as
Set up the Orion Raider Gossamer Phoenix (from Klin- effective).
gon Attack) in Panel F, hex 1415. All of these ships will You could replace the Orion CR with two LRs (about
face the Juggernaut. as effective) or one LR (much less effective).—Steve Cole
There is a planet 200 hexes in direction B from the
Juggernaut. The Juggernaut wants to destroy the colony
on this planet.
In
your
Store
Now!

FEDERATION
COMMANDER:
ROMULAN
BORDER
 on the same down shield is going to be tough. You need
FED COMMANDER TACTICS
to really learn maneuvering, specifically closer-quarter
battle tactics, if you want to get that followup shot. Of
Initial Tactical Thoughts course, you can still move, turn, sideslip, and even do a
— Fleet Captain Sandy Hemenway high energy turn, but you can also accelerate or decel-
SFB players will have a certain amount of trouble erate, which gives a whole new dimension to maneuver.
adjusting to the new tactics in Federation Commander,
perhaps enough time for new players to get ahead and Run And Gun
stay ahead of them. Here are three specific points which — Cadet Dave Adams
caught my eye. Federation Commander is a high-speed game in
Federation Commander is more like Chess and less more ways than one. You need to get the job done in
like Stratego. Out-guessing your enemy still exists in your record time!
tactics and maneuvers, but not in Energy Allocation. Stay fast, since you can always “decelerate” and
Since everything is (more or less) reserve power, and faster speed means you get to move last.
this is always public knowledge, you will always know if Flying your Klingon D7 into overload range of a Fed-
your opponent can overload his weapons (or already eration ship before his photons get hot is not just a sur-
overloaded his photons). Your opponent can no longer vival move, it’s a winning move.
“brick” (put a huge amount of unknown shield reinforce- Stack the drones. Pile them on. Launch, move with
ment in one shield) because of the battery rules. There them, launch some more. There are no transporter
will also be much less surprise in tractor auctions; you bombs and no wild weasels, so you don’t have to stag-
may decide to give up but you will know before it starts if ger them out. Pile them high! Keep them in close forma-
you cannot win (unless he gives up trying, which in some tion so the same shield and the same defensive weap-
cases he might). ons have to deal with the whole stack.
Without Wild Weasels to block, closing in for an “an-
chor” attack isn’t that necessary (unless you just don’t
want him to run away from seeking weapons). With a what ships do you want?
range of only one hex, tractors will be limited to drone
defense and towing friendly ships. Here is your chance to get what you want. Whether
“It’s the Phasers, Stupid!” In a game where the you are a veteran player of Star Fleet Battles and famil-
enemy’s energy is always known, efficient use of power iar with the thousands of starships in that game system,
will be critical. In that regard, phasers (especially Phaser- or a new player of Federation Commander and just have
1s) will become the primary weapon system. Torpedoes a vague feeling that some ship of some kind is missing
will fall to second place and will be armed only when you from your fleet, tell us what you want and we’ll consider
know you have power for everything that you want to adding it viaCommunique or in a future expansion.
do. Two points in a disruptor will get four damage while This issue includes an updated and corrected ver-
those same two points in two phaser-1s will get twice as sion of the Federation Destroyer from Communique #3.
much (if you’re close enough). There will be times when While we have re-uploaded that issue, it is easier on
the all-or-nothing firepower of a heavy weapon is prefer- you players to just include a copy here.
able, but in general terms and with limited power, phasers Players requested “fleet scale small freighters” and
are always going to be your “go to weapon”. those were included in Romulan Border because we
could not figure out how to make fleet scale versions of
Hack And Slash just got a lot tougher the tiny Armed Priority Transports. Of course, we did fi-
— Ensign Robert W. Eldridge nally figure out how to do those and have put them in
One of the most significant tactical changes from Romulan Attack on the back of the Squadron Scale
SFB is that with four “movement sub-pulses” for each Heavy Freighter (since the Squadron Scale Large
firing opportunity (and the acceleration rules will always Freighter works nicely as a Fleet Scale Heavy Freighter).
let your target use more of them than he thought he would Players have asked us to include the original Franz
need), there are no more “drop his shield on one im- Joseph dreadnought and the Klingon F5W War Destroyer
pulse and hammer him on the next” shots. SFB was al- in a future issue of Communique and we’ll get them done
ways so much fun because you could use those leftover as soon as we can.
phasers on Impulse #32 to weaken a shield, then use Now that Romulan Border has made the decision
Energy Allocation to load up the heavy weapons for the on Fleet Scale plasma torpedoes, we plan to do new
crippling blow (since there were few ways to turn a new Fleet Scale versions of the King Eagle, K7R, and ISC
shield in Impulse #1, and those all came with drawbacks CA and put them in Communique.
so nobody wanted to make a habit of using them). Captain’s Log includes Fleet Scale War Cruisers for
The target is always going to be able to move (per- the Hydrans, Lyrans, WYNs, &ISC published in Booster
haps as many as four times!) and getting a second shot Zero. We can always do more ships for these empires.
REVISED SHIP CARD

POWER
FEDERATION COUNTER TRACK
DESTROYER POINT VALUE: 55
13
FLEET SCALE DAMAGE CONTROL: 1

PHOTON
ARMING USS
SHIELD #1
10 12
Name
A B
P P #6 #2 11
L L
+4 +4
+8 +8 PHOT-FA
10
F F A B
PROBES BTTY PH-1-FH
1
TRAN 9
LS RS
DRONE RACK Z PH-1 LAB BRDG REAC PH-1
2 3 8
9 AUX TRAC 9
DRONES C HULL C HULL
1 SHTL
7
2 PH-3 DRONE
MARINES 4
360
IMPULSE Z
6
FRAME The publisher of
DAMAGE C WARP
5 this game grants
permission to
WEAPONS ANTI-DRONES
USED IMPULSE USED 4 players to make a
reasonable number
TURN MODE D #5 1 2 3 4 Z 4 1 2 3 4 #3
MOVE COST 1/4 of photocopies of
8 5 6 7 8 8
BASE SPEED 8 3 this page (up to 25
TURN MODE 2 per month) for the
SPEED COST 2
personal use of the
BASE SPEED 16
TURN MODE 4 8
2 player. Reproduc-
SPEED COST 4 tion for sale is not
authorized.
BASE SPEED 24
TURN MODE 5
1
SPEED COST 6

ACCELERATION
COST 1/4
SHIELD #4
8
0
DECELERATION
COST 1/4
HIGH ENERGY Some variants of the Destroyer
replace Photon B with a drone rack B F
TURN COST
1+1/4 or type-F plasma torpedo.
RACK B B DRONES PLASMA B
EVASIVE
MANEUVER 3
COST 1+1/2 4

FEDERATION COMMANDER: Communique #5

C5 REVISED FLEET SCALE SHIP DIAGRAM FRACTIONAL POWER
Copyright © 2006 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.
0 1/4 1/2 3/4
REVISED SHIP CARD

POWER
FEDERATION COUNTER TRACK
DESTROYER POINT VALUE: 105
25
SQUADRON SCALE DAMAGE CONTROL: 2

SHIELD #1
24
PHOTON
ARMING USS
Name 20
23
A B C D
P P P P #6 #2
22
L L L L
+4 +4 +4 +4
PHOT-FA
A B C D
21
+8 +8 +8 +8
F F F F
BTTY PH-1-FH TRAN 20
LS 1 2 RS
PROBES PH-1 LAB BRDG REAC PH-1 19
3 5
DRONE RACK Z 4 TRAC 6 18
C HULL
AUX PRB
C HULL
17
DRONES
1
16
PH-3 EMER SHTL DRONE PH-3
2 7 Z 8 15
MARINES LS IMPULSE RS
18 18 14
FRAME
C WARP 13
15
DAMAGE #5
16
#3
16
12 The publisher of this
WEAPONS ANTI-DRONES game grants permis-
USED IMPULSE USED 11 sion to players to
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
TURN MODE D
MOVE COST 1/2 5 6 7 8 Z 5 6 7 8 10 make a reasonable
number of photo-
10 5
BASE SPEED 8
TURN MODE 2
9 copies of this page
(up to 25 per month)
SPEED COST 4
8 for the personal use
BASE SPEED 16
of the player. Repro-
TURN MODE 4
SPEED COST 8 1 2 7 duction for sale is not
BASE SPEED 24
TURN MODE 5
6 authorized.
SHIELD #4
SPEED COST 12
16 5
ACCELERATION
COST 1/2 Some variants of the Destroyer
replace Photons C and D with drone C F 4
DECELERATION racks or type-F plasma torpedoes. D F
COST 1/2 RACK C DRONES PLASMA C
3
HIGH ENERGY
TURN COST 2.5
C 3
4
2
EVASIVE
MANEUVER
RACK D DRONES PLASMA D 1
D 5
COST 3
6 0
FEDERATION COMMANDER: Communique #5
C5 REVISED SQUADRON SCALE SHIP DIAGRAM FRACTIONAL POWER
Copyright © 2006 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.
0 1/2
NEW SHIP CARD

ROMULAN COUNTER POWER

TRACK
SPARROWHAWK POINT VALUE: 83
18
DAMAGE CONTROL: 2
WAR CRUISER
FLEET SCALE RIS
17
Name
WEAPONS
USED
A 1 2 3 4
16
SHIELD #1
PROBES
15
15
#6 #2
FRAME MARINES PH-1 PH-3
360°
14
FX

DAMAGE 1 2
BRDG EMER 13
SHUTTLES F HULL
12
12
L+FA
PH-1 PL-S-FP
FA+R
PH-1 12 11 The publisher of this
game grants permis-
#5 3 HULL A HULL 4 #3
sion to players to make
CLOAK COST 12 REAC R BTTY R BTTY 12 10 a reasonable number
=1
of photocopies of this
TURN MODE B
MOVE COST 3/8
LAB IMP TRAN IMP TRAC 9 page (up to 25 per
month) for the personal
BASE SPEED 8
TURN MODE 2
SHTL
8 use of the player.
Reproduction for sale
SPEED COST 3
is not authorized.
BASE SPEED 16
TURN MODE 3
LEFT
WARP
CENT
WARP
RIGHT
WARP 7
SPEED COST 6 4 4 4

BASE SPEED 24
6
TURN MODE 4 SHIELD #4
SPEED COST 9 12 5
ACCELERATION FEDERATION COMMANDER: ROMULAN ATTACK
COST 3/8
DECELERATION
FLEET SCALE SHIP CARD #58 OF 49-64
Copyright © 2006 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. 4
COST 3/8 PLASMA A

HIGH ENERGY
3
TURN COST
1+7/8
EVASIVE
2
MANEUVER PLASMA ARMING
COST 2+1/4 A G S 1
FRACTIONAL POWER 0
58 0 1/8 1/4 3/8 1/2 5/8 3/4 7/8
REVISED SHIP CARD

GORN BATTLE COUNTER POWER

TRACK
DESTROYER POINT VALUE: 49
13
FLEET SCALE DAMAGE CONTROL: 1
GCS
WEAPONS
USED
Name SHIELD #1 12
A B 10
1 2 3 #6 #2 11
PROBES PH-1-FX
1
10
MARINES TRAN
BRDG
TRAC
9
BTTY
L+LF RF+R
8
FRAME PL-F SHTL SHTL PL-F
DAMAGE 10 A B
10 7
PH-3
IMP HULL HULL IMP
SHUTTLES C
3
360°
C 6
#5
10 LAB
#3
10
5
REAC REAC
LEFT
WARP AUX
RIGHT
WARP 4 The publisher of this
TURN MODE B
MOVE COST 1/4 PH-1 3 game grants permis-
sion to players to make
2 a reasonable number
BASE SPEED 8
TURN MODE 2 RX 2 of photocopies of this
SPEED COST 2 page (up to 25 per
BASE SPEED 16 SHIELD #4
1 month) for the personal
TURN MODE 3
10
use of the player.
SPEED COST 4
The Weapons Used track records that a weapon was fired during the current turn.
0 Reproduction for sale
BASE SPEED 24 is not authorized.
TURN MODE 4 PLASMA A
SPEED COST 6
ACCELERATION
COST 1/4 PLASMA B
DECELERATION
COST 1/4

HIGH ENERGY
TURN COST PLASMA ARMING
1+1/4
A F
EVASIVE
MANEUVER B F
COST 1+1/2

FEDERATION COMMANDER: ROMULAN ATTACK FRACTIONAL POWER

55 FLEET SCALE SHIP CARD #55 OF 49-64
Copyright © 2006 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. 0 1/4 1/2 3/4