Tell me about Star Fleet Battles

[wingsandsword]

For Christmas a friend of mine got me a boxed set of Star Fleet Battles that was on sale down at our local Half Price Books. We typically get each other some kind of gaming book for Christmas, and we're both Trek fans, so it was eminently logical

Now, my only prior experience with this game was from almost 20 years ago. When I was in Junior High and just discovering gaming and really becoming a Trekkie I wanted to find a Star Trek RPG, and the closest thing I found at my FLGS was Star Fleet Battles (as it was several years after the FASA game ceased production, and a number of years before Last Unicorn made their game). Unfortunately, for a 12 year old that game seemed really, well, boring and dry.

So, I now have the Captain's Edition Basic Set in its entirety (I checked to make sure all the parts and pieces are there). As leftover stuff from my youthful dabbling I have the Captain's Advanced Missions SSD Book, New Worlds I: Lyran - Hydran - Wyn SSD Book, and New Worlds II: Neo-Tholian - Andromedan - ISC SSD Book.

However, I'm quite willing to give it another try and forget my fumbled youthful attempt at the game.

So, tell me about this game I now have a load of stuff for and an enthusiasm for giving a second chance. . .

 

[Jeff Wilder]

You need two people that are enthusiastic about the game. It's fun, but there are a lot of rules, and learning all of those rules can produce burnout. You need a good head of steam to prevent that.

The rules are modular, which is good. For example, there's no reason to learn about hellbores, if nobody's playing Hydrans.

You want a systematic approach to learning the game. One approach -- the one I'd recommend -- is that one person choose a race, and the second person choose an enemy race.

Start by learning the basics for your race: basic movement, almost always phasers, photon torpedos (for Feds), disruptors (for Klingons), special movement rules (Feds are better at emergency deceleration, I think), shields, reserve power, and so on.

Fight several one on one duels.

Then move into intermediate stuff: suicide shuttles, transporter bombs, and so on.

Fight more one on one duels, making sure to use the new rules even if it's not tactically optimal.

Finally move into advanced rules: ECM, mid-turn speed changes, tractor beams.

At this point, you'll be ready for small fleet actions: 2-on-2, 2-on-3, or 3-on-3.

From there, you can move out into other races and racial subsystems.

If you can manage to get your rules into a searchable form on a laptop, you'll find the process almost easy. I can only imagine how much time and effort we'd have saved on rules discussions, if we'd had such resources back in the mid- to late-80s, when I played the game. (In both Lexington and Louisville, BTW.)

My favorite race was the Lyrans, BTW, with the Kzinti close behind. It had nothing to do with either being cat-people ... rather, I like ESGs and waves and waves of drones.

Have fun. (Be alert for this thread to be moved, BTW.)

 

[Ranger REG]

So, tell me about this game I now have a load of stuff for and an enthusiasm for giving a second chance. . .

Basically, it's a starship combat wargame.

At the start of the game, you allocate power derived from your warp engines, impulse engine, and aux (just count the numbers of undamaged boxes). Allocating power determines which part of the ship is operating, from shield to life support to movement. You also need to power up weapons, be it phasers or the respective race's weapons (Feds have photon torpedoes, Klingon have disruptor, etc.)

Once you finished preparing your ship, you begin the game using the 32-impulse movement rule. After declaring your speed, you move one hex a time according to the chart.

You can fire your weapons at any time, each weapon can only be fired once and the power you allocated to it is expended. Phasers have capacitors so if you didn't fire it, it can hold over to the next turn and you only need to pay for a holding cost (usually 1 point).

 

[Wycen]

I loved playing the game, however, I never knew the rules. I wasn't even moderately familiar with them. I played with people who knew and who loved the game, (though I wonder now many years later if they really knew the rules as they claimed).

I even bought a book myself, (the Seltorans) and tried reading the rules. But the volume of info, especially when everyone wants to play other things was too much.

I'd play a computerized version, which I suspect exist, just that my interests changed. Now of course I'm playing VGA Planets 3, an old computer play by email game which shares a few of the core Star Trek races, but is another animal itself really.

 

[bobthehappyzombie]

SFB is a great game for the tactically minded.
It is essentially based on power management and tactical movement.

It does take a while to learn all the intricacies of the optional rules but an easy entry is the classic federation v klingon battle. In the beginning you will believe the feds to be more powerful, but when you get a bit more experianced at the game you will discover the ships points are pretty well balanced.
Be warned however it is not a quick game to play, and if you play more than one ship each it can take many hours to play.
The ship movement impulse chart is a great way to work out movement with varying speeds, I have long tried to replace the D&D initiative system with it... unsucessfully.

 

[jaerdaph]

I played it once many years ago with some folks I met at work who were fellow Star Trek fans. They invited me to come over to play SFB and I was naturally very interested.

It was the longest, dullest game I ever played in my life and couldn't wait to get out of there.

And once my ship was destroyed, you are left with absolutely nothing to do but watch others play, which was torture for me as well.

Of course YMMV. I can see some of the aspects I found annoying being very enjoyable to others who are in to that sort of stuff.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

SFB is a fun game, but as others have said, takes a long time to learn. Since you got it from Half Price, give it a shot. If you like the concept and general play, I'd suggest getting Federation Commander instead. It's from the same company and is a streamlined version of the original. I find it has everything I liked about SFB without the phonebook of rules. Federation Commander

 

[Rackhir]

I would avoid the Andromedans for now. Their stuff works considerably differently from anything else and you really need to know their stuff to use it correctly (or effectively).

There is in fact an online version of SFB, which might be helpful for people who can't find local opponents. It's a Java client, so it's PC/Mac/Linux compatible.

SFB Online

It is not free though, due to licensing issues they have to pay a fee for using the SSDs and such, so it runs $60 for a year's subscription, but it does give you access in electronic form to IIRC all the ships in the game.

You do still need to know the rules though, it doesn't automate everything and there is a learning curve to using it.

Jeff's advice is solid.

I found small fleet battles to be the most fun, since it lets you use a larger variety of ships and the tactics get more interesting (once you know the rules well enough). But even small fleet battles (3 ships each) will take hours to run.

It is also much, much more fun if you can get several people (4+), particularly for single ship duels. Since with just two people, things tend to fall into certain patterns. With multiple people there's a lot more variety, both in ships and tactics. Things also tend to be a lot more fluid and dynamic.

A lot of the game is essentially trying to out think your opponent and anticipate their likely behavior. If you can do this, you will crush your opposition.

If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Jack7]

Like all things the game has advantages, and drawbacks. Complication can be one depending on how you approach the game.

I like some of the advice so far about how to develop rules familiarity. But it is certainly no more difficult than gaining familiarity with a role play game.

However these are the absolutely fantastic elements of the game to me.

Once you know it the it is extremely easy to develop ship designs for new aliens, or modifications on previous designs for already existing fleets. All you need is graph paper and a good design model or process.

Same for weapon systems, electronic systems, censoring systems, etc. Over the years I developed an advanced Aegis defense system, several stealth systems, time mines, a defense shielding system based upon the transporter system, the tractor beam and the deflector grid all working in concert, various spatial and temporal displacement weapons, a probing system that allowed advanced targeting and better Intel on enemy ship capabilities, reactive armor, an active misdirection field that produced false sensor data, and assorted alien weapon systems. It is an easy system to create for.

You can play it strategically, as part of an on-going war-campaign, or tactically, as ship to ship combat.

You can play environmental obstacles in space, black holes, neutron stars, gravity wells, temporal distortion fields, mine fields, sub-space displacement fields, etc. Few things are as fun as seeing players run into wholly unexpected background situations, and scramble to try and adapt when they are not even really sure what the problem might be.

You can play with just two players, or you can use a referee.

It is the single richest tactical naval combat/ship to ship combat game I've ever seen with a whole host of weapon systems, defenses, electronic warfare possibilities, cloaking, stealth, etc. It renders a huge variety of tactical combat possibilities, and variations. I even developed a Tactical Manual, sort of like the real world Tacticon, that I used in order to fight different species. It described the best ways I had found to fight every different alien species encountered in the game. (You wanna fight Lyrans a lot differently than you fight Romulans.) And I developed a Commander's Option Sheet (I recommend developing your own, you won't forget what you can do that will cost you a fight) that I could consult quickly, and that reminded me of all of the tactical and technological ship and combat options that I could employ during any given battle situation.

It is easily modifiable in any number of ways.

You can more or less easily adapt it to any Star Trek or related RPG. We play Spheres of Influence as the ST RPG, and just use Star Fleet Battles whenever we fight ship to ship combat. So it can be easily overlain practically any Star Trek RPG. You just replace the RPG ship to ship combat system with SFB and you have a much more interesting, detailed, and tactically sharp combat system.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

So, tell me about this game I now have a load of stuff for and an enthusiasm for giving a second chance. . .

"Don't wait for Range 0."

VERY old quote from my gaming group that came from a SFB game. One player had weapons (I forget which they were - too long ago that I even played) that maximized damage at a range of 0. He wanted to wait for that Range of 0 but failed to account for certain movement and instead wound up driving his ship right through the enemy. Not much left of either vessel afterward.