For those who haven't tried Federation Commander (perhaps frightened by its Star Fleet Battles pedigree?), you'd be doing yourself a favor by trying it out. For those who played or flirted with playing Star Fleet Battles back in the old days but ultimately found it too slow, too rules-heavy or requiring too much paperwork, FedCom is definitely worth a look.
Check out:
Federation Commander: Klingon Border | BoardGameGeek
and/or
Federation Commander: Romulan Border | BoardGameGeek
For the unitiatived, Federation Commander is set in the Star Fleet Universe, a universe in which a United Federation of Planets TREKS to the STARS with ships like the USS Enterprise. And fights guys like "Klingons" and "Romulans". Yes, it's an alternate universe of the popular sci-fi show of yesteryear. The maker of the game, Amarillo Design Bureau, has a limited license from Paramount to use elements of the original TV series and the animated series (but not the movies or anything later)... and so over the decades the Star Fleet Universe has gone in a different direction from the other properties. The focus here is on the military aspects of the future, and the alliances and warfare with familiar races such as the Klingons (old school, Soviet-style Kinks), the Romulans, the Tholians and the Gorn. Also familiar are the Kzinti, who showed up in the animated series. There are also a bevy of new races, such as the Lyrans, Hydrans, Seltorians and others. Each races has signature vessels and tactics, and a few possess "wonder weapons" with which they terrorize the other races, such as the Romulan Cloaking Device and the Lyran Expanding Sphere Generator.
The game plays differently than the old Star Fleet Battles game, which is still around and as highly-detailed as ever. In SFB you had to fill out a form for each ship showing how you were allotting your ship's energy to its various systems. In FedCom, you simply "pay as you go", spending energy out of your pool as you use it. This makes things go much more quickly and is less fiddly. The rules in FedCom also streamline away a lot of the more complicated options, while still allowing you to use all the ship's systems effectively (different firing modes for weapons, use of shuttles, tractor beams, etc.).
The production values are nice, too. The ship cards, which indicate ship's systems and which are marked off as they are damaged, are full color and laminated for ease of use and re-use. You just mark things off with an eraseable marker or grease pencil.
I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often around here, actually. It is related to Trek, is a great boardgame (optionally with minis) in its own right, and probably has the best balance of speed and depth of any space wargame I've seen.
There is a downside, though: it ain't cheap! The Border boxes (you only need one to play) are 60 USD each. Granted, that one box is enough to play with, but there are a bunch of expansions that are also quite fun. I don't allow myself to buy all of them, but a given enthusiast will find ones that he cannot resist. And you can buy the improperly-named "booster packs" which contain extra ship cards (in case you don't own a laminator)... obviously you might want more than one of a given class of ship at one time. Also, the "boosters" contain (*sigh*) some ships which, though non-random, only appear in boosters. They're generally not important, but anyone with the "completist" gene had better watch out.
Here's the official site:
Federation Commander
Check out:
Federation Commander: Klingon Border | BoardGameGeek
and/or
Federation Commander: Romulan Border | BoardGameGeek
For the unitiatived, Federation Commander is set in the Star Fleet Universe, a universe in which a United Federation of Planets TREKS to the STARS with ships like the USS Enterprise. And fights guys like "Klingons" and "Romulans". Yes, it's an alternate universe of the popular sci-fi show of yesteryear. The maker of the game, Amarillo Design Bureau, has a limited license from Paramount to use elements of the original TV series and the animated series (but not the movies or anything later)... and so over the decades the Star Fleet Universe has gone in a different direction from the other properties. The focus here is on the military aspects of the future, and the alliances and warfare with familiar races such as the Klingons (old school, Soviet-style Kinks), the Romulans, the Tholians and the Gorn. Also familiar are the Kzinti, who showed up in the animated series. There are also a bevy of new races, such as the Lyrans, Hydrans, Seltorians and others. Each races has signature vessels and tactics, and a few possess "wonder weapons" with which they terrorize the other races, such as the Romulan Cloaking Device and the Lyran Expanding Sphere Generator.
The game plays differently than the old Star Fleet Battles game, which is still around and as highly-detailed as ever. In SFB you had to fill out a form for each ship showing how you were allotting your ship's energy to its various systems. In FedCom, you simply "pay as you go", spending energy out of your pool as you use it. This makes things go much more quickly and is less fiddly. The rules in FedCom also streamline away a lot of the more complicated options, while still allowing you to use all the ship's systems effectively (different firing modes for weapons, use of shuttles, tractor beams, etc.).
The production values are nice, too. The ship cards, which indicate ship's systems and which are marked off as they are damaged, are full color and laminated for ease of use and re-use. You just mark things off with an eraseable marker or grease pencil.
I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often around here, actually. It is related to Trek, is a great boardgame (optionally with minis) in its own right, and probably has the best balance of speed and depth of any space wargame I've seen.
There is a downside, though: it ain't cheap! The Border boxes (you only need one to play) are 60 USD each. Granted, that one box is enough to play with, but there are a bunch of expansions that are also quite fun. I don't allow myself to buy all of them, but a given enthusiast will find ones that he cannot resist. And you can buy the improperly-named "booster packs" which contain extra ship cards (in case you don't own a laminator)... obviously you might want more than one of a given class of ship at one time. Also, the "boosters" contain (*sigh*) some ships which, though non-random, only appear in boosters. They're generally not important, but anyone with the "completist" gene had better watch out.
Here's the official site:
Federation Commander
