Gunboats Attack, an expansion module for Amarillo Design Bureau's Federation Commander game system, was recently released in PDF form at Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, and Wargame Vault.
In the Star Fleet Universe, gunboats, or fast patrol ships, are more akin to a miniature starship than they are to an enlarged attack shuttle. They are designed to be attrition units: powerful, yet fragile - and eminently expendable.
This module includes gunboat Ship Cards for 14 Alpha Octant empires (the Romulans get two types of gunboat: the Centurion and the StarHawk), plus a "monster" Ship Card for a swarm of "deep space life forms" known as Banshees.
The Federation get their Thunderbolt PF, which over in Star Fleet Battles is conjectural in the "standard" timeline - but which was turned to in desperation over in the Star Fleet Galactic Survey Cruiser/Light Carrier's Darwin's "dark future" timeline, as outlined in SFB Module C3A.
Speaking of Module C3A, that volume introduced SSDs for the conjectural Andromedan Adder PF. This unit has been brought over to FC in Gunboats Attack also.
One thing which has been removed from Alpha Octant gunboats in the process of conversion is their warp booster packs - which in SFB provide additional warp power to a gunboat, yet make their "hot warp" engines more susceptible to damage in the process. On the other hand, since an SFB PF's Move Cost of 1/5 does not quite fit the FC ruleset, the WBP-less gunboats here have a Move Cost of 1/8 instead.
Each Ship Card has a lone gunboat presented in "portrait" form on the front of the Ship Card, and two gunboats presented in "landscape" mode on the back.
Also, most of the gunboats offered here have flotilla sprues available over on ADB's Shapeways storefront.
In the Star Fleet Universe, gunboats, or fast patrol ships, are more akin to a miniature starship than they are to an enlarged attack shuttle. They are designed to be attrition units: powerful, yet fragile - and eminently expendable.
This module includes gunboat Ship Cards for 14 Alpha Octant empires (the Romulans get two types of gunboat: the Centurion and the StarHawk), plus a "monster" Ship Card for a swarm of "deep space life forms" known as Banshees.
The Federation get their Thunderbolt PF, which over in Star Fleet Battles is conjectural in the "standard" timeline - but which was turned to in desperation over in the Star Fleet Galactic Survey Cruiser/Light Carrier's Darwin's "dark future" timeline, as outlined in SFB Module C3A.
Speaking of Module C3A, that volume introduced SSDs for the conjectural Andromedan Adder PF. This unit has been brought over to FC in Gunboats Attack also.
One thing which has been removed from Alpha Octant gunboats in the process of conversion is their warp booster packs - which in SFB provide additional warp power to a gunboat, yet make their "hot warp" engines more susceptible to damage in the process. On the other hand, since an SFB PF's Move Cost of 1/5 does not quite fit the FC ruleset, the WBP-less gunboats here have a Move Cost of 1/8 instead.
Each Ship Card has a lone gunboat presented in "portrait" form on the front of the Ship Card, and two gunboats presented in "landscape" mode on the back.
Also, most of the gunboats offered here have flotilla sprues available over on ADB's Shapeways storefront.
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