Federation Commander (FC) is a tactical hex and counter scifi wargame published by Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB) that is set in the Star Fleet Universe, a licensed offshoot of Star Trek based on The Original Series and the Animated Series. Players select and set up a scenario or set up their forces using a points system and try to achieve their goals, which may be to rescue (or capture) freighters, destroy or study space monsters, capture, cripple or destroy enemy ships, or a variety of other missions. Ship counters are placed on hexboards as described by the scenario (which may be empty space or may include 'terrain' such as planets, asteroids, comets or other objects) and then the game begins. Ships are represented by "Ship Cards", which are literally laminated cards that show the layout of the ship and contain boxes that represent the ship's systems such as shields, weapons, warp drive, reactors, and transporters. These are like a 'character sheet' for the ship - when ships take damage, these boxes are marked off with dry-erase markers and then the card can be cleaned and re-used for a later scenario. (see picture below)
The Game - The game itself is pretty solid. The (reference) Rulebook is in at least its sixth edition. so pretty much all the errors and ambiguities have been ironed out or cleared up. There are a lot of rules, but it's very well explained and the language is clear, which is somewhat refreshing in the wargaming world. 336
If you want to know how to fire a weapon or use a system there is a step-by-step explanation of the process that's easy to follow and generally not hard to remember, and most situations should be easily resolved by looking in the relevant section of the well-organised rulebook. Just pick a scenario, place your ships, and away you go - once you're familiar with the system you should be able to finish a small scenario at least in one evening (the first game or two may take a bit longer as you get the hang of things, but it should speed up, especially if you start with the more basic empires first).
The impulse-based movement system may take a little getting used to, but isn't actually that hard to learn. The turn itself begins with an initial Energy Allocation phase, in which the players determine how much energy is available to their ships and decide how much to allocate to movement and how much to keep for powering weapons and other tasks during the rest of the turn. This is followed by eight Impulses in which the ships move and take actions. In each Impulse, ships move zero to four hexes (as determined by their speed and movement choices) and then may use Defensive Fire, then Offensive Fire, then other systems, then may launch seeking weapons and shuttles. After eight Impulses are completed, the Turn ends with some Repairs and book-keeping and then the next turn begins. This is all explained very clearly in a Sequence of Play sheet provided with the starter sets.
With eight opportunities to move and fire in every turn, the fact that ships are limited to the energy available to them at the start of the turn means that many interesting decisions have to be made: how fast do you want to go for the duration of the turn, given that going faster means less energy available for other things? Do you want to set aside energy to accelerate or decelerate during the turn? Which weapons do you want to fire, and in which impulse? Do you want to use energy to reinforce shields (each point of energy spent negates one damage point)? Do you want to keep enough energy to make a High Energy Turn or perform Evasive Manoeuvring at some point in the turn? This actually gives FC a bit of a euro-like feel, in that you often end up wanting to do more things than you actually have the resources (energy) to do in a turn.
Damage is what you’d expect from a game based on Star Trek – break down the shields, then inflict damage on the ship itself. A few good hits will usually bring down a shield on one hexside, and then it’s a matter of getting more attacks through on that side (which is where maneuvering on both sides becomes so important). The damage table itself is fairly simple – for every group of up to 10 points of damage that get through to the ship, roll a die and then just read across that row marking off one box from the system listed there. If you do 8 points of damage, you’d knock off boxes from the first 8 entries shown in the table (which will be a variety of systems) – if they’re already completely destroyed then mark off the alternate system shown in the table entry. 697