"A" units are the best-equipped formations in a faction's military. Clan technology, advanced units, omnitechnology - all of this would appear on an "A" class unit's equipment table. "A" units also start out better-supplied than "B" and "C" units, which is something I'll get into with the Unit Improvement rules down the road.
"B" units are well-equipped but don't have the cutting edge gear. "B" units have substantially less access to Clan technology (or in the case of Clan factions, are largely restricted to second-line designs) but are still equipped with offensive, front-line operations in mind.
"C" units have some upgraded machines but have a higher proportion of Introductory-level, Retro-tech, and just older machinery. "C" units are units that have had lower priority for upgrades or that were hit hard during the Jihad and are still rebuilding; these units also tend to have less lavish supply allowances. The "C" equipment table does double-duty as the Free Militia table (the militia have lower quality rankings than line units, so a "C" line unit will still outperform militia quite handily).
Its the entry faction for everyone, even the people who've been playing this whole time. Everyone has to run through the 'training program' in the FS, before they can take another faction.
So, what you're saying, is that everyone has to sit through a mini-campaign in the FS before they can run another faction? izzatright? (Please note the tongue firmly planted inside the cheek. For this game to work, you just can't cram everyone into one faction, and have the GM running the entire rest of the universe.)
I am going to ask everyone who is a current member to run through
at a minimum the introductory sequence to ensure we are all on the same page about the combat rules. This core sequence is three modules and should require only a minimum time committment on the parts of you guys since you are already familiar with most of the core concepts of the game. The purpose fo this requirement is to avoid the problem we had in Flashpoint where the rules weren't be followed consistently (and in some cases where people were just using the FGC rules instead of the FP rules).
I have no doubt that we can complete that in a "turn zero" before launch so no one is stuck in the Federated Suns when gameplay begins. The more in-depth FS mini-campaign I've talked about with some people is geared towards folks who have either never played in FGC before or who are returning after a prolonged absence.
Proper gameplay will not start until we have at least one player in each of the five successor states, so there isn't going to be a setup where everyone is jammed into one faction while I drive myself insane trying to run every other faction. I'm dedicated to not having GM superfactions in the new campaign, and having me running 90% of the Sphere would not be condusive to that goal.
