Subject: Re: Star Fleet Battles:Any Good?
From: pdb6@aol.com (PDB6)

Mad Hatter wrote:
"For Christmas I was thinking of purchasing a Star Fleet Battles game. Could
someone explain what its like. Also, what do you suggest I purchase to begin?"

Let me preface this by saying thet SFB is my favorite game in the world, but it
is definitely not for everyone.

Star Fleet is a very large and very complex game that has been developing and
growing for about 20 years now.  There are _lots_ of rules, but most of them
are extra optional detail and weird stuff, so don't be scared away by all the
piles of books and binders you might see Star Fleet players dragging around.

The game is based on old series Star Trek, so it has Klingons, Feds, Romulans,
Tholians, Gorns, as well as many other "made up" races, like the Kzinti (from
Niven through an old ST cartoon), the Hydrans (tripodial methane breathers),
the Lyrans (more cat aliens), and the Andromedans (the SFB eqivelant to the
Borg, but predated them by about 10 years).  It is a very detail oriented
tactical war game, that while is playable with multiple ships per player, is
usually best with one ship per player.  At the beginning of each turn, each
player allocates their ship's available energy among various systems like
movement, weapons, and sheilds.  Each turn is divided into 32 "impulses" in
each of which a ship might move a single hex and/or fire some weapons.  While
the length of a particular game is always dependant on the players and the
scenario, a generic one on one duel will generally run 2 or 3 hours.

Star Fleet has a great deal of tactical depth, as each ship has many individual
weapons (the Fed Heavy Cruiser, of The Enterprise fame, has 6 Phasers and 4
Photon Torpedoes, each of which is armed and fired indiviudally), 6 different
sheild facings, and the level of detail reaches down to individual tractor
beams, transporters (for boarding party actions), scientific labs, and shuttle
craft.  Again, the game has lots and lots of rules, but the rules are presented
in such a way that you only need to use what you are comfortable with, like
using, or have read.

All you need to play for ever and ever with is the Basic Set, which usually
runs about 25 bucks, and includes the basic rule book, map, counters, and about
6-8 ships each (frigates to dreadnaughts) for the Federation, Klingons,
Romulans, Kzinti, Gorn, Tholians, and Orion Pirates.  With this, you can play
forever and have a great time.  After getting this and deciding you enjoy it,
however, there are plenty of rules suppliments and add ons if you want to use
them, the most notable of which are:

-Advanced Missions:  More ships and more complex rules.
-New Worlds 1 and 2: Introduces new ships and rules for the Hydrans, Lyrans,
Andromedans and a few other minor races.
-Module T: Star Fleet has a very active tournament scene (as these sorts of
games go), and module T explains which rules are in use for these tournaments
and has all the Tournament Cruisers.

Currently, sadly, the game company that makes Star Fleet is on kind of a hiatus
from production, so some products might be difficult to find (although the
Basic Set is pretty easy to find at any game story or through mail order), but
the game has very strong support in terms of plenty of fan web pages, good
active list serves, a monthly official newsletter, regular tournaments all over
the country, and this here newsgroup (rec.games.board).

Peter D Bakija
PDB6@aol.com

"I'm a street walking cheeta with a heart full of napalm.
I'm the renegade son of a nuclear A-bomb."
-Iggy Pop