I've noticed that the "speed is life" axiom doesn't apply so much in Starmada. Often times it is just the opposite. Since you can only make two turns (or a single U turn) during your movement the manuver element is also much different. Finally there is the pre-plotting of movement which drastically reduces the micro-management movement system in standard SFB, making the ability to tweak a turn or sideslip in response to the enemy a meaningless idea.

In the battles we've played speeds tend to stay in the 2-5 range. The extra speed for the War Eagle allows that ship to add more uncertainty on its location when cloaked but doesn't really give the massive advantage such a boost would give in SFB. Give it a try and see what you think. It is most definately a different game from SFB but it is nice to be able to play with ships that "feel" like SFB.

Good points, but it doesn't really address the heart of my question.  In SFB the ABSOLTUE top speed of a Rom WE is 21 hexes per turn.  It literally is incapable of travelling any farther.   It's effective comabt speed (after paying for housekeeping and charging weapons) is down around 15 hexes a turn or so.  Yet the WE has an 8 engine rating, where an unrefitted Klink d7 with a far superior turn mode and 50% more power only has an engine rating of 5 or 6 (I don't have my copy of KA in front of me.) 

That is the part that has me a little confused.   Folks can argue into perpetuity whether a klink D5 should have an engine rating of X or Y.  But in absolute terms, when a slower and less agile ship has a significantly higher rating it just seems unusual.   Same thing for the fast cruisers and more efficient war cruisers - while their Max speeds and total power aren't any greater than the older ships, their power left over for movement tends to be much higher.  Again just my two cents....

You're absolutely right Dan.  And, like I said, for the most part SFB/FC players could argue forever over whether a partticular hull should have a particular Starmada engine rating.  For example, my personal opinion is that the klingon hulls, with their significantly better turn modes and better power curves, should have an edge on their feddie counterparts, but that's an opinion and could be argued infinitum and that would fall more into house rules than errata.

But the Eagle series Rom ships (and I say this as a longtime Rom player all the way back to the old Commandr's edition of SFB) can do things in. Starmada they are incapable of in the original game or in FC and that may rate being looked into when errata for RA is put out.   It wouldn't be unreasonable to cut those ratings nearly in half IMHO.

Again, kudos Dan on a great idea.  All fussing aside, I look forward to more of y'alls stuff set in the StarFleet universe...

LOL!  Indeed, and that's what I meant as far as arguing engine ratings a point here or there.  I agree it's much ado about very little.  The two Eagle ships would qualify as exactly those sorts of outliers given the drastic increase in their abilities in comparison to their SFB/FC counterparts. 

One suggestion I might make for later books *gazes longingly at the hydrans and lyrans* might be to use what we refer to in our group as the ship's "combat speed" rather it's raw power as compared to it's movement cost.  Tthough it is much more time-intensive, it will give a better reflection of a ship's relative speed in the source material.  We use a simple calc subtracting the power to arm a ship's heavy weapons and 1/2 it's phasers to get a feel for how much power a particular ship has for movement.  That will give the 'war' era ships and fast cruisers their slight edge in speed.  You could then modify that value up or down a smidge to reflect particulalrly agile ships (i.e. klingon ships) or particularly lumbering ones (older federation hulls or the poor Gorns.)  Again, just an idea...

I think before KA was relased that some hardcore SFB or FC players should have playtested the game a bit more. I to think the Klinks should be a point or two faster then the Feds. I also hosted a KA game at our local convention a month ago and found that you can have ALOT of drones on the board.

Mainly because in SFB/FC, dealing with each drone is a tactical challenge (where do I move, what countermeasures can I employ, etc.) In Starmada, dealing with one seeker is a non-issue. Dealing with a couple flights of 4 seekers each is a bit more challenging.

I understand people may disagree with some decisions made in the conversion, but there was some actual thought put into the process...

I don't disagree with you about the result, even if I would have done things a bit différently. And maybe it wouldn't have changed things a bit. But I didn't worked on that, and will play the rules and ships as they are.
However, I can understand why some things are unsettling, like when a ship is able to unload all its drones in a turn whereas it couldn't fire more than 2 of them in FC.
In the same way, phasers seem a bit too powerful at short range, but compared to FC, they don't hit automatically.
Etc. etc.
Whatever, in the end, I agree with the way ships are designed, and will continue to play Starmada as it's the best tactical space opera game I know (after having played a lot of them).

Marc

In the dozen or so fights I played through, drones were not nearly as powerful as some people think. Launched at range, an enterprising player just has to maneuver himself so that the drones will be within tractor and phaser 3 range. Using both those systems have saved my butt several times against Kzinti drone waves. And considering that most Kzinti ships can only unload 3 drones per turn, I think it's pretty managable.

Balance wise, I feel that drones in KLA/RA have a better feel than in FC. The drones in FC were horribly nerfed, to the point of making them almost not worth the extra table work of having 15-20 counters on the board and tracking their impulse movement. I also enjoy being able to close with an enemy to the point of him not being able to fire defensively against them unless they themselves want to use drones.

That would be awesome. I've already toyed around with them for an Honorverse setting, using them both for laserheads and anti-missiles.

All and all, drones retain all of their advantages from FC (battlefield control, using an enemies weapons to shoot them down, and panic factor) without the head ache that squadron to fleet size battles provide. Ever launch a Kzinti drone wave from a fleet in FC? It's terrifying and can end a game before it begins. No one wants to play a game that has 32 drones on the board, not so much because of the threat, but because the game will take forever.

Just want to say thanks for an awesome system that actually allows me to play SFU in the scale I've always wanted