• Registered: 2011-06-22
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Noob with a dilemma FC or Starmada/Klingon armada

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for a space combat game set in the Star Trek (Starfleet) universe and I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to either Federation Commander or Starmada/klingon Armada.

My dilemma is this:

Federation commander seems to suit the size of battles I would like to play (1on 1 duels or squadron level) however I'm concerned that although less complex than SFB it could still be complicated enough to put off the people I usually game with. I've had a look at the demo version of starmada and in terms of complexity it seems to be much more what I'm after however from what i can make out seems to be aimed at larger battles between massed fleets of ships.

Can anyone with experience of playing Starmada/Klingon Armada tell me if the mechanics are capable of providing a decent game at squadron level and at a push 1 on 1 duels? (Maybe with a little moding)

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Noob with a dilemma FC or Starmada/Klingon armada

rouge2 wrote:

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for a space combat game set in the Star Trek (Starfleet) universe and I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to either Federation Commander or Starmada/klingon Armada.

My dilemma is this:

Federation commander seems to suit the size of battles I would like to play (1on 1 duels or squadron level) however I'm concerned that although less complex than SFB it could still be complicated enough to put off the people I usually game with. I've had a look at the demo version of starmada and in terms of complexity it seems to be much more what I'm after however from what i can make out seems to be aimed at larger battles between massed fleets of ships.

Can anyone with experience of playing Starmada/Klingon Armada tell me if the mechanics are capable of providing a decent game at squadron level and at a push 1 on 1 duels? (Maybe with a little moding)

Hi, and welcome. I've played a couple of games with the ships from KA and in my opinion have found that the ships are really best for larger battles, ie squadrons and up. In small actions or duels, the ships seem to go poof very quickly as the mechanics pretty much allow you to mass your firepower against an opponent because you don't have to worry about power allocation and such. I think if you wanted to play a good duel, it might be worth designing a "hero scale" version of a ship with more hull than the current KA designs, while retaining the current weapons and other kit, or reduce the weapons by roughly 1/2 while keeping everything else the same. If you really want the duel to run a little longer, try playing with damage control, and if you want more detail try using the critical damage rules. Anyway, those are my thoughts.
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-07-08
  • Posts: 44

Re: Noob with a dilemma FC or Starmada/Klingon armada

One thing I did to help Klingon Armada with duels, was take a stock ships and half their weapons. This seemed to work pretty well. It emulates the Fleet Scale in Federation Commander, without the headaches.

I play both Starmada and Federation Commander.

If I had to chose one, I would go with Starmada for Trek combat.

Don't get me wrong, FedCom is great, and I will always have a place on my bookshelf for it. My biggest problem was time and players. Even a standard duel between two people who knew what they were doing could still easily run 3 hours, and prepare to take a weekend for anything larger than 2-3 ships per side. As for players, I have a really hard time keeping players interested in the game when it takes so long to explain/play.

Starmada/Klingon Armada allow players to run a 1v1 duel against each other in under an hour. Once you get used to the rules you can run a 1v1 in under 15 minutes depending on optional rules.

Blacklancer99 is right on the fragility of the ships in a duel however, and that might need to be adjusted to suit your needs.

The biggest difference between the two game systems is Starmada allows you to change the game to your liking without breaking any mechanics, while FedCom has no allowances for changing ships or rules.

Good luck and Good hunting!