The View from the Turret

Federation Commander: Briefing #1 is Amarillo Design Bureau’s latest expansion to their Federation Commander starship combat games. Briefing #1 is basically a scenario set with some miscellaneous material thrown in. It is a 64-page black and white book with color card stock cover. The layout is typical FedCom. (more…)

Amarillo Design Bureau just released Line of Battle a new expansion for Federation Commander. It is a follow-up to their Battleships Attack product and contains nine extra 8 1/2″ x 11″ battleship cards for all the races, an additional map panel (open space), three new scenarios that feature battleships, and lastly, a short bit on tactics. The included cards are for the: Federation Battleship, Klingon B10 Battleship, Romulan King Condor Battleship, Kzinti Battleship, Gorn ‘Godzilla’ Battleship, Neo-Tholian Battleship, Seltorian Battlewagon, Hydran Monarch Battleship, and the Lyran Cave Lion Battleship.

This is a nice expansion for anyone interested in using battleships in Federation Commander. The scenarios are also interesting but we wish they had come up with something a bit more novel to include than just another map panel.

A related product is their Border Box #6 that contains nine battleship miniatures and one starbase miniature. Of course the miniatures are all available individually as well.

Federation Commander: Battleships Attack is ADB’s latest expansion for Federation Commander. Similar to the previous expansions, it includes a couple of new map panels, asteroids in this case, some new ship cards and counters, and a handful of new rules and scenarios. What makes Battleships Attack unique is that ship cards are included for all of the races, including ones not seen in FC yet (such as the Lyrans and Hydrans). Moreover, the cards are also full 8 1/2″ x 11″ in size. Considering table clutter, normally bigger would not necessarily be better, but with the huge number of weapons, systems, and shields on the various battleships it is a very welcome change. (more…)

The Game
Federation Commander (FC) is a tactical space combat board and miniatures game by Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB). The game has been out a couple of years now but we have only recently played it. FC is essentially a lighter version of the venerable Star Fleet Battles (SFB) game that has been around, in various incarnations, since the late 1980s. While we played a lot of SFB in the old days it got far too complicated over time and we stopped playing. We obviously were not the only ones and thus ADB designed Federation Commander. (more…)