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James Lowry
United States
Sunnyvale
California
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Just a few notes and a preview:
I finally got my copy of ISC War a couple weeks back. I haven't gone through it with a fine tooth comb yet, but it looks pretty good. And pretty massive, with six sheets of counters, it is the biggest F&E expansion yet.
One of the sheets was actually printed six years ago, when there was a spare slot on one of the single-sided runs. So, it is of the 'old style' with fewer counters per sheet, while the other five (actually, five copies of the same sheet) have the current, 'denser' layout, and use the newer white core counters that most MMP products have moved to. There's also several cardstock reference cards, including the ISC Capital Chart, a new econ form, and several fleet and battle line setup cards.
There's actually only four new rules in the product, which surprised me. One of them, Tactical Reserves, is a general use rule for kind of 'local reserves' that can be used by any power in the post-General War period (though the ISC gets it first).
There's notes (but nothing else) on how the ISC could be (ahistorically) integrated into the General War, and a mini-scenario that would have the Romulans and Gorns trying to keep the ISC from establishing their outer ring of bases while the General War gets going on the other side of the map (the combat damage that results could unbalance the rest of the war though). But the bulk of the rule book (25 pages!) is taken up with the Pacification Scenario, broken down into smaller areas for each border they tried to drive their wedge into. It's longer than the actual Pacification, since it is assumed for this version that it is not interrupted by the Andromedans.
I also blew a bunch of money on other things by ADB while I was at it. I got Module R11: Support Ships, which was also surprisingly thick. (96-page SSD book, instead of the more common 80.) In general, there's nothing really "exciting" in this one, but it still has some neat stuff, and there are a number of interesting short essays talking about several general ship types; a real boon to anyone interested in the background of the Star Fleet Universe.
And I got Captain's Log #36. (Yes, I am a few years behind on my collection, why do you ask?) It's a fairly standard issue, fiction, new ships, scenarios, and so on. Nick Blank has another set of great deckplans, this time for the Romulan Snipe frigate.
And now, a preview:
The next version of the F&E Vassal module is under way. I've re-done a bunch of stuff in the ISC extension to match the published version. Now I'm starting to tackle a complete rework of the capital charts. The idea is to only need those during a capital assault without recourse to the main battle mat or fleet boxes. Here's a work-in-progress preview (the full version would have another three systems):
The idea is to have the two battle lines in miniaturized forms right with each system display. Some of the 'bonus' slots will need stacking multiple units on occasion. I plan on making some 'tokens' that can be dropped on the defending fleet to mark if they come from the static or mobile forces. (Similar ones will be done to mark ISC Core Ships on the normal form.)
I'm still working out the color scheme and main layout, and any comments on that will be appreciated. I was originally planning for the Mobile and Attacking force boxes to go at the bottom of the form, below all the system displays. I'm wondering if maybe they should go above the systems. It would be much handier during an assault, though it would get in the way of day-to-day tracking of bases and facilities in the capitial hex.
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