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Thank you for the interest. Since this is still in playtesting, a lot of things can (and most likely will) be changed before the release. I will try to answer any questions as best as I can.

This will be a local level campaign between the evil Federation (Dan) and the valiant Klingons (me).

What is a local level campaign? There are three different campaign scales. Local, Regional and Grand.

Grand is the biggest scale. Think Federation and Empire. If you ever want to replay the General War, then this is the scale for you.

Regional is the medium scale. An example would be the entire Federation / Klingon border. While you are not in charge of your whole empire, you still control substantial assets.

Local is the smallest level and the one we will explore. There are quite a few changes compared to normal play as you are not very influential compared to the other scales. You are not in control of overall diplomacy and your annoying superiors will dare to assign you actual missions to accomplish. Additionally bigger ships will be relatively rare. One turn will represent one week of real time.

To be continued...

Here is a look at the map. You will notice immediately that it features hexes instead of the more common nodal design used in most campaigns. A ship can move into any of the neighboring hexes and there are units that may travel more than one hex per turn. You can also use dash movement to increase your movement speed but that may lead to problems later on.

This design change also will have an impact on trade and supply but more on that later.

To be continued...

Another new concept used during local campaigns is "tension". Tension is the measure of conflict in the region. If it ever goes beyond a certain value, it will be assumed that both sides are arming for war. It will be up to the players or the CM to handle what exactly will happen then.

Tension will increase after battles (doh!) or if a shipyard is discovered along the border. Seizing colonies is also a surefire way to increase it and there are also several other ways to influence it. While capturing a small outpost is possible without too much trouble, it becomes really dangerous when attacking a large colony world. It will also decrease if you are peaceful or if you cooperate against a common enemy.

As shipyards will increase tension, typically you only have bases available to build new units. They are limits in place for them (they can only build smaller hulls) but it is possible to request bigger ships from "home". Just don't expect to have multiple dreadnoughts running around in a quiet sector of the border.

To be continued...

Now let's take a look at the starting position of my Klingons:

(all values may still be subject to change)

Name Size Census Morale Raw Prod. Capacity Output Notes Coordinates
Korrandi Prime Colony 7 4 3 4 8 12 5,12
MloTo Outpost 0 0 3 0 4 0 10,8
Ge'rin MColony 3 2 2 1 6 2 11,6
Ghunkeri Colony 6 3 2 3 8 4 12,9

There is also a small squadron available:
3 F5 Frigates
2 F5W Destroyers
1 D6 Heavy Cruiser
2 Transport Fleets
1 Mobile Base


Finally I have access to the following ship classes:
1: General Starship: Small Freighter
1: Cutter/Frigate: F5 Frigates
1: Destroyer/War Destroyer: F5W Destroyers
1: Light Cruiser: D5D Drone Cruiser
1: Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser: D6 Heavy Cruiser
0: Battlecruiser/Dreadnought
0: Battleship
2: Installation: Mobile Base, Supply Depot

More ship classes will become available as time progresses but currently I am stuck with these.


To be continued....

What time period is it?

Also, stuck you with D6's? Wow I am surprised they did not give you a D6J Penal cruiser...

The thing to remember with Federation Commander is that this is not Star Fleet Battles. FC is ADB's streamlined SFB, and each hull represents the best, most popular, or most used iteration of each hull.

Also, there are no In Service Dates, refits, variant loadouts, etc.

For us, this has made some things easier, and some things harder. [shrug] This is definitely a fun project, but we've had to be careful not to slip into an SFB mindset.

Nope that's a good point. Would the D6 be an example of the ship you have to request? Up to what size can the bases build?

Do the Klingons have any special attributes (like a race from the Menagerie might have)?

The tension level sounds interesting but I'm not sure what it does... Does it mean more resources from 'home' become available? The things you describe as increasing the tension level sound a lot like things you might do in wartime.

logan400k wrote:Nope that's a good point. Would the D6 be an example of the ship you have to request? Up to what size can the bases build?

I need to check the stats but I think I can build the D6 myself. Anything larger though will have to be requested from home. Note that I will also have to spend prestige (victory points) to get ships transferred from another sector in addition to the economic cost.

The other alternative is to build a shipyard but that option has its own risks.

MadSeason wrote:Do the Klingons have any special attributes (like a race from the Menagerie might have)?

Yes. The plan is for every faction to get some special traits but I don't think we'll use them in this game.

The tension level sounds interesting but I'm not sure what it does... Does it mean more resources from 'home' become available? The things you describe as increasing the tension level sound a lot like things you might do in wartime.

No, an increased tension level does not mean you'll get more resources. You could have an objective to increase your tension level which would net you victory points but apart from that there is no benefit.

While military actions (among other things) increase the tension, you could be forced to create a border incident to complete one of your objectives. You can get away with a few skirmishes or seizing an unimportant outpost in the middle of nowhere but it effectively stops outright attacks on major worlds.

In fact the most likely outcome of a campaign where war is declared is that both players would technically loose so having a very high tension value is dangerous.

Rainer wrote:
The other alternative is to build a shipyard but that option has its own risks.

Right. In the SFU it is pretty well established that most border areas, which is what this particular campaign emulates, have no major construction facilities for a variety of reasons, partly from a weak economic backbone and fear of such costly construction near the enemy.

Starbases can build ships, but is limited by the size of that vessel, which we measure in DV at the moment.

Rainer wrote:
Yes. The plan is for every faction to get some special traits but I don't think we'll use them in this game.

Quite right! I am simply not done testing those myself. I am, of course, happy to hear some ideas

That Klingon Commander Rainer wrote:
In fact the most likely outcome of a campaign where war is declared is that both players would technically loose so having a very high tension value is dangerous.

We are still toying with other means to use it, but it is a measure of how the player's actions are effecting tension in the area. If things get bad you may drive both sides to war, and thus making things horribly interesting and put a big political bullseye on you. A lot of that will depend on the scenario because even the warrior Klingons were not always anxious to go to war. Most of the tension on that border was the Federation territory declaration. Another good way to raise tension is bring in a few serious warships, and really make your neighbors nervous.

-Jay

So, ships of X size or larger being built or requested will also raise Tension by some amount? It that variable by hull size as well? Will Tension make intel ops harder to accomplish? Do discovered Intel missions also raise tension?

Emiricol wrote:So, ships of X size or larger being built or requested will also raise Tension by some amount? It that variable by hull size as well?

That is currently tied to the prestige cost of a vessel. So building a few F5s will do nothing while asking for a DN from back home will.

Emiricol wrote:Will Tension make intel ops harder to accomplish? Do discovered Intel missions also raise tension?

You can manipulate tension via intel. At the moment it has no influence on mission success.

Also the orders from the Chancellor have arrived:

My main tasks in the beginning are to increase my productivity, find and exploit new resource-rich systems and intimidate the Feds a bit.

This should be interesting.

Additionally there is a chance that minor objectives will be revealed during the campaign which should keep my small squadron busy.

To be continued...

Rainer wrote: That is currently tied to the prestige cost of a vessel. So building a few F5s will do nothing while asking for a DN from back home will.

The tension does not go crazy but the appearance of some larger fleet control vessels can make the opposite number start to wonder why the enemy brought in a dreadnought, or battleship. Those are generally more rare in a remote border sector. These little things can add up over time.

Rainer wrote: You can manipulate tension via intel. At the moment it has no influence on mission success.

Right! Tension has no real effect on the game mechanics except as a measure of how nervous this sector is of a real conflict brewing, or for some victory conditions. It is only used in these smaller campaigns (Local) where the focus is more on a commodore's sector and his/her ships than grander fleet operations (Grand and Regional).

-Jay

Rainer wrote: Additionally there is a chance that minor objectives will be revealed during the campaign which should keep my small squadron busy.

To be continued...

Those will be along shortly. I am in the process of writing out all of the missions I tested. I think we have given your fleets enough to do for now .

-Jay