Space, to boldly go where...uh...hrm...wow those are tiny

[Rhelyk]

I originally wanted them about twice that size, but now that I have them I'm quite pleased with the size! Originally I thought they were a bit simplistic in design, but with how "large" they are it actually works out just fine. I only wish the back ends of the nacelles were shaped a bit better and the dark grey tubes/fins that went on the nacelles were molded on, i painted them in and it looks good in person, though it's a bit pants in the photos. Amount of detail feels right for the size, but not if they were 2x. I plan to hopefully get the rest painted up tonight/tomorrow and will probably order a sampler pack of each of the main 6 : Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Kzinti, Gorn and Tholian, maybe ask the designer to make a double-set of all of those without the fighters and throw it on his store since he's open to it.

As for the game itself, I tentatively highly recommend it Federation Commander It's a stripped down version of the classic Starfleet Battles, but even so it's quite a bit more in-depth and slower paced than most any game you find around now. A decent sized game is a couple of ships per side, 3~4 per side will last you all night. There is a "fleet" version where everything essentially has half of everything (half the damage boxes, half the power, half the weapons) that uses all the same rules otherwise and plays a bit quicker but only by comparison. Damage accrues over the course of turns, each hit being rolled to a location and each box taking out something specific, think Battletech with less outer armor (shields) and more inside critical locations.

I haven't played mongooses Trek: A Call to Arms, but I'm a HUGE fan of their now defunct Babylon 5 game which originated the rules. B5 ACTA is hands down my favorite space game of all time, but it doesn't feel like Trek should. It's a fleetbased game whereas FedCom is more of a duel and as much as I love Dee Space 9, most every battle in Star Trek was ship-to-ship or 2-on-1 etc. FedCom does that well, albeit very slowly. Fedcom feels like you're in the captains chair, trying to outthink the other captain, ACTA feels like your in a command room looking over a tactical display and orchestrating a battle. Both are good times.

Here is a Heavy Cruiser on a sheet of the small-hexed maps from FedCom main game, same size as an A4 sheet of paper
http://s1153.photobucket.com/user/Rhelyk/media/Starships/DSCN7292_zps33123b9a.jpg.html?sort=4&o=0

The 4 ships in a standard hex (other side of tile) next to a half-size chit
http://s1153.photobucket.com/user/Rhelyk/media/Starships/DSCN7294_zps54a84416.jpg.html?sort=4&o=3

and the 4 painted ships in a standard sized hex plus a penny
http://s1153.photobucket.com/user/Rhelyk/media/Starships/DSCN7295_zpsf0b1cb4e.jpg.html?sort=4&o=2

[Rhelyk]

A little WIP photo after a couple hours with the airbrush and everything has the main colors down Everything has a subtle fade/zenith highlight. I don't want anything stark, and I doubt anyone will actually notice it, but it really adds some depth that would be missing if it was just solid colors. Now to start doing on the details

[maxxon]

I wonder if they could be printed without the integral stands and whether that would make them cheaper?

As I understand it, Shapeways sets the minimum price based on printing cost and the designer adds their profit margin on top. So yes, if you skip the base they should be cheaper to print but they will be cheaper to buy only if the designer wants to pass this onto the clients.

And no, clients are not free to rescale the prints. The designer has to do it. And Shapeways does not give clients access to the actual CAD files.

[Rhelyk]

Got the rest of the Federation painted up and detailing on the klingons started, I'll post pics in the morning. I suddenly feel the need to get the rest of the fleets. I'll have to stick to the samplers though, the seller's Fast Attack and Heavy fleets are a bit odd in that they have multiple dreadnoughts and battleships, but no battlecruisers. Odd, considering the battleships require they're own expansion while battlecruisers are a mainline ship

[nathan]

As far as I know the designer of this is very open to customer assortments of ships.  So he may also be willing to put up a standless version as well.  Can't hurt to ask!

[Varangian]

These might drag me into actually playing Colonial Battlefleet, especially after his "not Trek" supplement.

[sundayhero]

On the small hex grid, the ships are perfect ! Smaller hex grid is a good thing in my opinion, it can be played on a small table, or represent a bigger aera.

Fedcom will probably be my next scifi starships game. Is there any mods or rules for borgs somewhere ? I loved to play borgs on the pc game starfleet command 

[Rhelyk]

The andromedans are kinda Borgish in power level, and they do send over robot drones when they do boarding actions. Starfleet Battles is not actually Star Trek, the company only has the rights to use things from the original series and the cartoon, nothing from the movies or later TV series. The rights to Trek in the 70s were cheap and last pretty much forever, but current trek is fairly expensive, I believe I was told $9,000 for a 2 year contract when I asked a few years ago (before wizkidz did anything with Trek, and before the newer movies. As a result, the authors made their own history based on TOS. So no Borg or Cardassians or Dominian, but at least it means no Ferengi either I also grew up with Next Generation and was initially not very into the setting because of that, but have since watched all of TOS and the cartoon and it has a certain charm missing the later trek series.

It's also immensely more open to this style of game, after all how often do you hear LaForge complaining that they just don't have the power to maintain shields or weapons or speed. Managing power allocation in FedCom is one of the defining elements of the game. And it's pretty awesome in game where you need to decide whether you're better off reinforcing your shields or firing another phaser, deciding between tractor beaming the enemy ship or transporting Marines over for a boarding action or just overloading your photon torpedoes for a devastating alpha strike!

[The_Beast]

Sorry if this hijacks your thread, but you started it.

... Starfleet Battles is not actually Star Trek, the company only has the rights to use things from the original series and the cartoon, nothing from the movies or later TV series. The rights to Trek in the 70s were cheap and last pretty much forever...

Even more convoluted, from my limited understanding, than you've said. And I know someone will properly flame me if I err, but:

I heard the SFU was a license from Franz Joseph [Franz Anton Joseph Schnaubelt], the maker of the first 'official' blueprints and The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual , as the license for THOSE was so vague as to drive a Dreadnought though, which, if you remember, was no more TOS than the Scout or DD. Those were in the Tech Manual.

Doug

[sean_68333]

These ships look great and your paint job is really impressive. 

I've seen these on Shapeways, but seeing them painted makes me want them even more.  I'm not sure what I would use them for, but that has never stopped me from wanting miniatures. 

Thanks for sharing the pictures of your work.  I would love to see pictures of the other fleets as you get and paint them.

Sean

[Mr.Marx]

"For thousands more years, the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came  cross -- which happened to be the Earth -- where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog."

 

[sean_68333]

"For thousands more years, the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came  cross -- which happened to be the Earth -- where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog."

 

Sounds like something out of a Douglas Adams book.  Great stuff and punny too.

[nathan]

I heard the SFU was a license from Franz Joseph [Franz Anton Joseph Schnaubelt], the maker of the first 'official' blueprints and The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual , as the license for THOSE was so vague as to drive a Dreadnought though, which, if you remember, was no more TOS than the Scout or DD. Those were in the Tech Manual.

As far I know ADB confirmed that in addition to the Franz Joseph license they also have a deal with Paramount/CBS, but for nothing after 1979 or so and not for any of the characters in any Trek series or publication.  So no Kirk, or Enterprise.

I think the microfleets turned out great!  I especially like the klingons.  And that the Federation light cruisers look like Miranda class rather than Kearsarge class.

[sundayhero]

thanks for the explanations about licensing, but maybe there is also fanmade creations somewhere too ?

Concerning startrek classic as we call it in France, I watched all the episodes a few years ago, on a cable tv network wich broadcasted it each night (at 1 or 2am). Even if I really like Nextgen (not so much the later voyager, DP9 or the other one with Scott Bakula), I really like startrek classic.

It's also immensely more open to this style of game, after all how often do you hear LaForge complaining that they just don't have the power to maintain shields or weapons or speed. Managing power allocation in FedCom is one of the defining elements of the game. And it's pretty awesome in game where you need to decide whether you're better off reinforcing your shields or firing another phaser, deciding between tractor beaming the enemy ship or transporting Marines over for a boarding action or just overloading your photon torpedoes for a devastating alpha strike!

That's typically what kind of space game I would like. I tried a few other rulesets, but I didn't find this special feeling.

[Rhelyk]

If you're interested then you can get pretty much everything you need to play the game for free, although I suggest the actual print items not only to give Amarillo Design Bureau money (which you should), but because they're nicely laminated card stock.

download the basic edition of the rulebook for free here
http://www.starfleetgames.com/fc/FCFirstMissions.pdf

and the reference card/cheat-sheet here
http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/FC_Reference_Card.pdf

and all of the SSD (the ship diagrams used to mark damage) here
http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/Commanders%20Circle/sc.shtml

Klingon Border and Romulan Border are the "main" boxed games, romulan came out later and included the errata and corrected reference charts, but both include a rulebook, the SSDs, reference sheets, thick cardboard playing mats and grease pencils to mark damage and a TON of die-cut counters. There is a rulebook available for $15 that includes all the rules for the various races in the game and the ship SSDs also come in the different booster packs.

As for myself, this sunday should see the maiden voyage of these guys, I'll try to remember my camera. I also ordered the microfleet Not-Romulan heavy fleet (and a couple of small-scale Defiants, unarguably the greatest ship ever created for any setting!) Hopefully they arrive in 6 days like the last order did