The next match is the Federation Heavy Cruiser "Constellation" vs the ISC Star Cruiser "Lawgiver". This will be a much more even match than the last one, with a slight edge to the ISC ship. The Federation Heavy Cruiser is the standard that Star Fleet Battles is built upon; the baseline cruiser that all other ships were designed to scale with. The "Constellation" is a refit, with an extra pair of rear firing phaser-1s and two Atomic Power Reactors for a bit of extra energy. It still relies primarily on its four photon torpedo launchers and forward-firing phaser-1s for its offensive power. It has good all around shields and relatively good internals, able to take quite a bit of damage before losing a lot of its edge.

The Inter-Stellar Consortium (ISC) is a federation of planets much like the Federation. In the SFB Universe the ISC occupies the Eastern edge of the known galaxy, and pretty much kept to themselves during the General War. After the General War, the ISC decided that the best way to bring peace was to enforce it themselves, so they set out to patrol and conquer the other nations. Since everyone was exhausted from the war, the ISC were able to subjugate the known galaxy, at least partially. Mostly they spent their time keeping their territories pacified and making sure that unconquered races didn't start any wars with each other. This allowed the other races to rebuild, and focus their enmity on the ISC.

Some dozen years later, the Andromedan Invasion started full-force, catching the ISC unprepared. As the Andromedans wiped out the ISC fleet, the other races took this time to band together to defeat the Andromedans, which they successfully did after a few bloody years. By then the ISC had fallen back to a policy of isolationalism.

ISC ships are, class for class, more powerful than most other races ships. Slightly more power, good internals, good shields. Their primary weapons are the plasma torpedo and the plasmatic pulsar device (PPD). The PPD is a long range weapon that fires four pulses, one per impulse. Once one pulse hits any remaining pulses automatically hit, so the PPD has a gppd chance of doing some damage to a target. It can't fire at a range closer than four hexes. The ISC Star Cruiser is equipped with two plasma S torpedos, a PPD, and eight phaser-1s, all of which can fire forward. A formidable opponent.

Basic Federation tactic is to close, fire the photon torpedos, then run away to reload. It works against a wide variety of opponents and is also applicable in this match. You don't want to stick around and let the ISC hit with the plasma torpedoes. The ISC plasmas fire off-arc, so they have a harder time staying together, although they can both fire forward, unlike the Gorn CA. If the Fed can keep it to a photon vs PPD duel, they can probably win.

The ISC tactic is to use its superior firepower to pound the Fed. You have good internals so don't be afraid to take damage. Use the PPD to weaken a Fed shield, then forget about it and depend on the plasma torpedoes. You have more phaser firepower than the Fed and more shuttles too (6 vs 4). The shuttles can be an independent ship, albeit a slow one with short-ranged weapons.

I think the battle will come down to a bit of luck for the Fed to win. A good exchange of firepower (say 20 internals) will probably only destroy one photon launcher, leaving the Fed with 3 launchers. On the other hand, the ISC will likely lose its PPD and a plasma torpedo, leaving it with just one plasma torpedo. Chances are that the ISC will do more damage than the Fed, if it gets to fire both plasmas at close range. So stay at range, or at least try to splash the plasma torpedos on two good shields, leaving you half shieldless but with a good bite.