The Solar Federation

Solar Federation portrait from VGA Planets Nu

The Solar Federation race icon from VGA Planets Nu

The Solar Federation better known as ‘The Feds’, are based on the United Federation of Planets as found in the Star Trek series and movies. The Federation can loosely be considered the stereotypical utopian "good guys": on the side of order, morality, and government, the Feds are the slightly creepy father figure who knows what is good for you, and by damn, will force you to accept it whether you want it or not. Other, similar races in Science Fiction are the "Alliance" in Firefly, Ian M. Banks' "Culture", and the US Government in nearly everything it shows up in. They have a very nice all-round fleet of ships, ready to fulfill any purpose you might think of. In the division which is often made between 'fighter-races' and 'torpedo-races' the Feds are definitely a torpedo-race, and a good one too.

Race Characteristics

The Federation have the widest array of torpedo ships ranging from the small two-tube Nocturne Class Destroyer to the massive Nova_Class_Super-dreadnought. This race is relatively easy to play (no dirty tricks you need to master first) and is fairly newbie friendly (super refit allows you to build tech 10-everything ships provided you find the right natives, and they have quite some useful ships below hull tech 7).

Strategy Guides

These strategy guides helped inform and in some cases word much of what is contained in this article: The Federation: a guide by Donovan The Solar Federation by Conrad Lesnewski The Imperial Federation by WarriorSol Ed's guide to the Federation by Ed Robinson The Federation player in VGA Planets by Mike Haslam Feds by Rufus Aurand Playing the Federation in VGA Planets by Arend Wellmann

Racial Abilities

The Feds main abilities revolve around their ability to maximize the economic efficiency of any native race they work worth, their Engineers that are able to come through in the clutch, and their modular ship design. However, the bureaucratic oversight that gives them so many economic advantages holds them back from being able to exploit the mineral deposits on planets they colonize, causing a reduction in mining efficiency.

The main race characteristics that distinguish the Feds from other races are:

• Super Refit (50)
• 200% tax rate (50): The Federation encourages the economic development of their Colonies, effectively doubling their tax base. Because of this the Feds have about as strong of a money Economy as the Lizards and the Cyborg
• Fed Crew Bonus (40): Federation Engineers are among the most knowledgeable, crafty, and some may say downright lucky of all Engineers and they are able to increase the performance of their ships by increasing their hull mass (+50 kT), increasing fighter bays (+3), allowing Shields to regenerate in between battles (+25% per battle), and allowing all weapons to remain available
• Loki Immunity (20)

Disadvantages:

• Reduced Mining Efficiency (-40): Due to Federation environmental protection laws, they mine at 70% the efficiency of all other races, except the Lizards. If a player is not careful this can cause serious problems with development.
• 90% of the crew goes traitor when boarded by another ship

Ship List

See The master ship list for a list of The Solar Federation ships.

Important Ships

Only the most useful ships will be mentioned here.

• Nocturne Class Destroyer: This is a small and cheap torpedo ship. It is useful as a minelayer for laying small overlapping minefields to thwart cloakers. Useful for the early game, but since it only has one engine its utility diminishes.
• Bohemian Class Survey Ship: Warms planets up to 50 degrees.
• Eros Class Research Vessel: Cools planets down to 50 degrees.
• Nebula Class Cruiser: The small/medium warship and primary minelayer of your fleet. Decent mass, large cargo hold, large crew, large tank, four beams and four torptubes.
• Brynhild Class Escort: The Federation Bioscanner, which has a 20% chance of scanning planets within 200 LYs for natives and temperature when it's mission is set to 'sensor sweep'.
• Missouri Class Battleship: The best tech 8 ship around. 8 Beams, 6 tubes, high mass and a large crew.
• Loki Class Destroyer: This ship should never do any fighting for you. It's far too valuable. It will decloak those sneaky cloakers, after which one of your other ships can kill them. Beware of Lizards and Birdmen: their cloakers are immune to the Loki's tachyon field.
• Diplomacy Class Cruiser: Six torp tubes and six beams. Holds 95 torps, weighs 180 KT and has a nice big 350 KT fueltank.
• Kittyhawk Class Carrier: The Kitty is the Federation's only carrier. It has six fighterbays, holds 65 fighters and has four beams. With the three bonus fighterbays it puts fighters in the battle at the rate of a ship with 9 bays, only one bay less than the large carriers. It's main drawback is it's limited cargohold.
• Nova Class Super-dreadnought: The biggest ship in your list. Pretty good, but on it's own it still won't win from any of the large carriers or the Annihilation Class Battleship.

Strategy

Overall Strategy

Set StrategyOverall= in this page.

Early Game

Start with Nocturnes and LDSFs. Always produce a ship since good hull can be upgraded later (but be careful to let a pile of hulls be destroyed by a rogue intruder). The Eros and Bohemian can be built cheap with tech 1 beams and engines but still be useful. Engage in diplomacy since the 70% mining leaves you a little weak in the beginning.

Midgame

See if you can trade for any interesting hulls from other races (get them with tech 1 weapons and engines to save yourself money on the cloning). Produce Missouris and Diplomacys, but make sure you have enough Lokis and Merlins.

Endgame

Get all your ships upgraded, including the base hulls you built before the ship limit was hit because you could upgrade them later.

Notes

With the Feds, there is a good example of how to use a race advantage to offset a disadvantage. The 70% mining is a handicap. However, with Super Refit, the ship can be made with lesser equipment to save minerals and upgraded later when minerals are available. Another way to offset the mineral disadvantage is to be better at logistics. If you want to minimize the amount of Super Refit you do (since this requires the ship to return to a base), smaller amounts of minerals delivered just in time can be more valuable than large shipments less often. For just-in-time logistics, the MDSF is very cheap in minerals and carries a useful amount of cargo for the early to mid-game.

Alliances

Overall

Your main value as an ally is in:
1. Lokis for anyone dealing with Fascists or Pirates.
2. Bohemians and Eros, to make hot or cold planets with natives more useful.
3. Super refit later in the game, after the ship limit is reached.
You mainly want from an alliance:
1. Fighters; carriers to take advantage of the Fed crew bonus
2. Cloakers, which can be very useful for scouting since you don't have the type of heavy ships where you can just smash anything in your path like you might with, say, a Cube.
3. Neutronic Fuel Carriers, which you can't build (even though in The Wrath of Khan the Kobayashi Maru was a Neutronic Fuel Carrier)

4. Special ships (e.g. Meteor, Firecloud), since the double price of cloning is less of an issue for you. Doubly so with Super Refit -- trade for hulls with tech 1 engines to save lots of money when cloning, because you can refit the cloned hulls.

One opinion on best allies for Feds:
Best: Robots, Colonies, Pirates
Okay: Rebels, Fascists, Lizards, Birds
Not much synergy: Borg, Crystals, Empire.

The Solar Federation

This doesn't really get you anything.

The Lizard Alliance

The Lizards can provide cloakers. Lizard HISS plus your 2x taxation can generate huge amounts of cash, but otherwise you don't have a lot to offer each other since you are both torp races with mostly midsize ships.

The Empire of Birds

Birds can provide very useful information and cloakers, but otherwise you don't have a lot to offer each other since you are both torp races with mostly midsize ships. The Valiant Wind is much better with the Fed crew bonuses.

The Fascist Empire

The Fascists can provide you with Glory Device ships if you are going to have to deal with the Birds or Lizards (or amorphous natives), and he can provide you useful cloakers. The Valiant Wind is much better with the Fed crew bonuses.

The Privateer Bands

The Privateers can give you Gravatonic ships for reconnaissance. From a logistics point of view, freighters towed by Gravatonic ships with low tech beams and tubes, is valuable so the speed can help offset your mineral weakness. Then later you can upgrade them. The Bloodfang is much better with the Fed crew bonuses. However, everyone wants to ally with the Pirates so 1) they can get MCBRs, and 2) then they don't have to deal with the aggravation the Pirates cause.

The Cyborg

There's not much reason for the Borg to ally with the Feds (which is appropriate in the context of the Star Trek universe) with some minor possible exceptions. The Borg have a weakness where the Fed has a strength in mid-weight ships (e.g. Nebula, Diplomacy), so there could be some trades there; another trade could be for a probe, which would help the Fed move all of his money around. A Fed Biocide is fearsome.

The Crystal Confederation

Of course, webmines are great defensively, and that can help you early when your mineral weakness is more pronounced. Otherwise, there's really no advantage to allying with the Crystals since your ship lists are more similar than complimentary. A Fed Crystal Thunder is especially thunderous.

The Evil Empire

Imperial carriers don't have many bays; you benefit quite a bit from the Fed crew bonus bays if you can trade for those ships. Probes are useful for moving your money. The Imperials may like your Lokis, terraformers, and torpedo ships, but you probably benefit more from this alliance than he does.

The Robotic Imperium

The Feds get Fed crew bonus bays, so any alliance that brings in fighters and carriers is good. He will need cash for his mines.

The Rebel Confederation

The Feds get Fed crew bonus bays, so any alliance that brings in fighters and carriers is good. Falcons can help move money.

The Missing Colonies of Man

The Feds get Fed crew bonus bays, so any alliance that brings in fighters and carriers is good. Since the Federation has no fuel carriers, the Colonies can provide those, and/or the Cobol and/or Aires for fueling on the move.

Enemies

Overall

The Feds are not the most feared enemy, particularly in the early-middle game. Mineral production limits are a handicap against producing large ships. Once the ship limit is reached, you have time and minerals to upgrade your ships and you are stronger.

The Solar Federation

A stalemate.

The Lizard Alliance

Lizard immunity to Lokis is very unfortunate. He will come in under cloak and drop his 30x fighting clans on your planets. These guys are very difficult to deal with.

The Empire of Birds

As with Lizards, it's very unfortunate that the Birdmen are immune to Lokis. The Birds will steal your 2x cash and hit your undefended planets. Darkwings are a problem too because they are one of the few ships that can overpower the Missouri, and he can sneak them in under cloak.

The Fascist Empire

The Loki will work on the Fascist. The Fascist strength in beams is more of an advantage when he fights fighter races, so with the Lokis and your good numbers of torpedo tubes you're better equipped to deal with the Fascists than many other races.

The Privateer Bands

The Federation is more effective fighting Pirates than most races. With Lokis, you have the best non-mines tool for stopping Pirate raids. If you combine Lokis with your heavies, the Privateers will be hard-pressed to stop you.

The Cyborg

Nobody wants to fight the Borg in the late game. So use your good early game/ mid-weight ships to stop him before he gets going. Same with your mid-weight ships and the Fireclouds, destroy them before they can get close.

The Crystal Confederation

You have ships with good numbers of beams, and you can upgrade existing ships to good beams, so you are more able to counter webmines than the other races. For mine sweeping, the Diplomacy offers six beams and a pretty good fuel tank, and if attacked should be able to defeat any Crystal ships other than the Flame and the Thunder.

The Evil Empire

You have a good number of beams, which should allow you to counter the Imperial fighters especially because Imperial carriers don't have that many bays. Your midsize ships should be able to damage SSDs before then can land troops.

The Robotic Imperium

Since you have good beams ships, and you can upgrade those ships, you are relatively well equipped to deal with the Robot minefields and fighters. There are easier targets for the Robots than the Federation.

The Rebel Confederation

If you have to fight the Rebels, have lots of beams to counteract the carriers. Your effective small ships should be able to deal with any Falcons that jump onto your planets.

The Missing Colonies of Man

If you have to fight the Colonies, have lots of beams to counteract the carriers. Unfortunately minefields are not going to help you in defense, he will be able to sweep them faster than you can lay them.