Editing Star Fleet Battles (section)

==='''United Federation of Planets'''===

The Federation CA is the original ship the game was built around and just about every new players go to. We all know it and we all love it. Nothing more needs to be said about it's history because if you don't know what the Federation is how the hell did you end up here?

The photon torpedo is an incredibly flexible weapon being able to be fire close range for massive damage, medium range for sold hit chance and solid damage or as a proximity charge at long range for decent hit chance and low damage. But still some damage; a proxy fired photon can reach out and do damage at 30 range with a 50% chance to hit (that's amaze balls trust me). All on the fly, which allows you to adjust your plan to your opponents actions. 
Photons also have a fixed damage if they hit which is nice for calculating your attacks. All around the photon torpedo can meet any other races heavy weapon equally. 

Pro tip: never ever EVER narrow salvo your photons. I know that having every photon hit is tempting but remember if you roll bad every photon in the salvo will miss. Then your opponent laughs as he over-runs your unlucky ass. (Ok OK Ok...you can narrow salvo photons at an Andro at mid-range. That way you either do damage or nothing to avoid feeding him more power to kill you with (but I wouldn't recommend it. Even if you hit your then allowing the Andro the ability to then close to range 4 and savage you with it's TR's.))

The Feds have access to one of the most OP (wargear) shuttles in the game called the SWACS, yes it's an AWACS but in spaaaaaaaaaace. (I wonder if anyone here is old enough to get that joke?). A SWACS is a powerful tool but is usually restricted to only CVA groups and costs as much as a frigate but it's worth every point. A SWACS can operate drones on behalf of the fighter group (allowing them to go erratic for defense and not lose the drone strike), can offer EW points to it's carrier group or against an enemy ship (at no power cost) and best of all it can "go wild" an act as a wild weasel (again for no power cost) once per turn drawing all enemy seeking weapons on the map towards it (just make sure you have some way to deal with the dozens of drones now targeting your precious).  All in all a very powerful tool for handling a CVA groups massive drone waves and dealing with incoming waves just as easily. Just make sure to protect it and keep it safe as it's going to be a primary target the second it hits the map. One trick is to stay near a FFE and after going Wild get the FFE to scoop up the SWAC and book it too out run the incoming drones, just remember that a seeking weapon attracted by a wild SWAC cannot lose it's lock by any other method. You'll need to either kill the drones or outrun them.

In game the Feds offer some seriously solid ships armed with the supremely flexible Photon Torpedo as their heavy weapon. Backed up by a excellent phaser-1 suite, decent shields and generous hull levels as padding to protect those vital systems. In Late War games they can even boast plasma torpedoes or drones as secondary weapons bringing a lot of options to the player.

Downsides are slow turning radius, poor power curve, restricted forward arcs on the heavy weapons and a slightly heavier BPV cost but even with that the Feds are a solid choice for any BPV battle.