Star Fleet Battles: Difference between revisions

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Star Fleet Battles

Wargame published by Task Force Games, Amarillo Design Bureau
No. of Players	2-6
Session Time	1 hour to weeks (~ # of ships)
First Publication	1979

Still in publication after 40 goddamn years, Star Fleet Battles is based on the original Star Trek teevee series, and includes the Kzinti from the animated series (because they had the rights to it because Larry Niven recycled one of his stories in TAS). It's regarded as the most detailed simulation of ship-to-ship interplanetary combat, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. The five-inch thick starter book has rules for damn near everything, but it reads like the lovechild of your car's owners manual and VCR instructions. For those grognards that love Advanced Squad Leader, this is awesome, but for those who think of Axis & Allies as a serious wargame, these rules are impenetrable. (You won't need 90% of those rules for an average game, though.) ~~For some bizarre reason, nobody's ever tried to make a vidya of SFB, despite the fact that the rulebook already reads like a computer program.~~

Actually there WAS a video game series created based on SFB, Starfleet Command. Which is available on Steam. While SFC3 is preserved on GOG. Dynaverse sells SFC2 and Orion Pirates on their own store. It's a bit ass that not all available on the same storefront but its the best your going to get with old PC games.

The game is played on a hex-map, no terrain other than the odd planet you might be flying around, or asteroid counters for hiding behind, but there are rules for fighting near a black hole that keeps pulling all the tokens, or nebula clouds that give automatic ECM defense.

Win Factor 5

Among the win you can find in this game are:

Impulse-based turns instead of the I-go-then-You-go typical of tabletop wargames
Transporter bombs and fake transporter bombs
Using ship's laboratories to out-science monsters
Using your Tractor Beams to push another ship into a asteroid/planet/black hole
loading up one of your shuttle craft with anti-matter and ramming it into other ships
Wild Weasels ... where a shuttle gives off sensor data that fools electronics into thinking it's another full-sized vessel (this is the "Picard maneuver" that actually WORKS instead of just looking cool)
High energy warp turns with a dash of break downs and tumbling uncontrollably thru space
Boarding parties for Capturing or dishonourable Hit and Run attacks
Surprise buttsecks in the form of Scatterpack shuttles and cloaked nuclear space mines
Rules for fighters, torpedoes, mines, drones, probes, and the bestest weapon ever; the Mauler. Seriously if someone has thought of something there IS a rule for it already.
Effects of having legendary officers like having Scotty as your ship's engineer or Sulu as your helmsman
What happens when the slaves on a Klingon ship stage a mutiny during a ship battle.
Q-ships ...for those who aren't navy nuts, that's what looks like a civilian cargo ship, but when pirates show up it blows off the camouflage and all the cargo is missile-racks and phasers.
C'mon, who doesn't want Federation versus Klingons, Romulan cloaking devices and attacking starbases?
Gorn AND Tholians! And Hydrans and Lyrans and Kzinti and Andromedians and... well you get the idea
Cocaine fuelled pirates. Seriously. And it's exactly as awesome as it you think it is, until it kills you.

Play-styles

Oh yah this games got you covered fam!

How will you play? Which race best suits your style and attitude towards combat?

Will you play the noblebright Federation? The great overloaded photon torpedo salvo to the face at range zero? Turn your opponents into dust via the application of diplomacy thru superior firepower!
Will you be a true warrior as a skilled Klingon captain who must fight every turn with his fast firing but weaker weapons? Where one mistake can mean death but the victory is ever much sweeter. Honor goes to the victor remember and dying shows no honor.
Are you a sly and crafty Romulan who chucks homing plasma torpedoes at your opponent from long range and retreats into your cloak every time your opponent so much as looks in your direction? (until he get so annoyed he either makes a mistake and dies to end the game or physically picks you up and throws your ballet using ass out onto the street where it belongs)
Will you be a furry Kzinti? Throwing nuclear tipped missiles at your opponent until you overwhelm his defences and he dies in a massive explosion or you run out of missiles and bravely run away?
Or maybe your a Lyran the anti-Kzinti. Charge up your ESG feild to max and scream RAMMING SPEED as you plow into your enemies (and friends so watch out!) with frenzied laughter. Cloak? What's a cloak? just nail EVERYTHING in the same hex as you. Aiming is for monkeys.
Are you a stalwart defender of the Hydran Kingdom? Who's brave but not so bright fighter pilots will die gloriously in your opponents ships explosion after they empty their fusion beam cannons into him at point blank range because how much damage can some silly little fighters cause right?
Will you be a massive, sessile Gorn? Who tanks everything to the face until you get your opponent is locked in your tractor beams at zero range where you will beat him to death as he futilely tries to escape? You may be slow but you've got the endurance to last. And he who laughs last, laughs best.
Will you play a Tholian? Who are scattered refugees from another galaxy desperately fighting to keep your race alive? Your Webs will help you control the battlefield and dictate where and when you fight. Plus you know the frequency of the webs so your weapons are unaffected when firing on those trapped inside...your opponents? Well not so much. Sucks to be them.
Are you a cocaine fueled pirate? Who, for 4 turns, can out run, out fight and out maneuver any ship in the galaxy! But only for 4 turns as each time you double your engine output they get more and more damaged until your left with ashes and some very angry escort ships heading your way. Just remember there is no profit in dying and your green skinned Orion waifu wants her cut of the booty when you get home.
Will you play as the mysterious and unknown invaders called Andromedians? Whose bizarre and outlandish technology is beyond anything the galactic powers know. Shields? What are shields? Use the incoming fire to power your ship and move like lighting! Warp speed? Whats Warp Speed? Teleport around like a spastic epileptic on crack and never give your enemy a clear shot! Just make sure to use that power up faster then it comes in or you'll be the next champagne supernova in the sky. The locals may be primitive but they know war and your a long way from home bub.
Are you a champion of the Greater Good? Play as a ISC captain trying to bring sanity to a galaxy consumed by insanity. Fight in formation with your fellow brother captains as you try to bring peace to a galaxy forever at war. You have the best of all weapons due to sitting on the sidelines and watching your neighbors go at each other like rabid dogs for decades but now your outnumbered and your enemies will put aside their differences (temporarily!) to make sure you never see your home cluster again. Fight smart and fight together or you'll be nothing but a footnote in history.

Sequence of Play

1. Energy Allocation Phase

Your ships engines only produce so much power and it will never be enough, so how will you spend it? How far will you move and how fast? What weapons will need power to fire? What shields will you re-enforce with how much of your ever dwindling power reserves?. Will you use ECM or ECCM to shift the odds in your favor? That cost power too. Don't forget life support or your battle will be over before it starts! You want Tractor Beams? Shuttle-craft or Transporters? Pay up! Most of the game is won or lost in the EA phase as you can't spend power to react to your opponents moves during your turn, with some exceptions, it all has to be planned out beforehand.

2. Impulse Movement Phase

Ships move depending on the speed they paid for and the distance they want to travel. Slower ships move less often and speed changes are allowed if planned out during the EA phase. Ships may move at the same time and the faster ship gets to move after his opponent. Depending on your ship and your speed turning can only happen at certain times. Maneuver is the heart of combat in SFB due to weapon arcs. Just cuz your got yourself a tonne of photon torpedoes don't mean you can fire them willy nilly!

3. Combat

After the end of any impulse you may declare an intent to fire. You must say which weapons you are firing then calculate range, roll the dice and pray to the RNG gods. The catch is that most weapons, unlike in the movies, have restricted arcs on where they can fire. If your opponent isn't in the arc of the weapon all the snake eyes in the world won't make a difference.

As an example;

A FED CA (think TOS Enterprise) has 4 photon torpedoes which, if they hit, pack quite the punch but are not only energy intensive to charge up (2 points of power each for 2 turns on a ship that will have about 24 total power) but also have a limited forward (FA) firing arc. So if your opponent isn't in front of your ship at the end of turn 2 your sitting on those puppies until your lumbering Fed CA can trundle is chonky ass around to get that naughty Klink D7 into arc. Fed ships are know for decent forward shielding and heavy forward firepower but turn like overweight hippos after a night of raunchy sex. To be fair the Feds have poor turning rates but there are much worse ships out there. (Say hello Mr Gorn!)

The Klink D7 cruiser is the exact opposite. It has great arcs (some are so good they can somehow fire THROUGH the ship itself) for its Disrupters/phasers and great maneuverability but Disrupters do half the damage the photons do (but can fire twice as often) so the Klink has much less trouble keeping the Fed in arc to plink away but has to work to keep himself out of the photon's arc or he's not going to like the results when 4 overloaded photon torpedoes cause his ship to have a rapid unscheduled disassembly event.

Phasers are more flexible being mounted all over the ship to give some coverage in all directions with differing races having differing idea's about what "proper phaser coverage" looks like. Phasers are incredibly energy efficient but damage rapidly drops off with range (except the bastard ship killer PH-4 which can and will reach out to touch your no no bits at range 100! But they are only found on Starbases and certain monsters thank Jeebus)

Most ships carry Drones (think missiles) as a secondary weapon but so named Seeking Weapons have a rule set all their own and can fire in any direction but must move according to the Impulse chart and can be shot down by phasers. The Hydrans have a nifty little weapon called a Gatling Phaser that yes does exactly what you think it does. Plus they stuck it on their shuttles, fighters and bombers! Woe to the fool who ignores a incoming Hydran fighter group cuz how much damage can 1 shuttlecraft do right?

4. Damage Allocation

So you've managed to get your weapons in to arc and have put the pain train on your opponent. So now what? Well each ship will have shields to adsorb incoming damage to a limited amount. Shields trade strength for damage reduction point per point. (we're not going to talk about Andro's and PA's cuz that too in depth for a summary) Shields start the game fully charged but damage is not repaired unless you spend power to repair said shield and for various game rule reasons it's better to re-enforce said shield then repair it. As so long as a shield has at least 1 point left it's still considered to be "up" for game rules. Each ship has 6 shield each facing one of the cardinal directions. You can "knock down" one shield without affecting any of the others as each shield facing is treated independently with it's own shield rating.

So your Fed CA has successfully got that clueless Klink D7 into your FA arc and have now delivered what SFB players call the "Great Mace to the Face" (ie 4 overload photon torpedoes right in the kisser). No doubt the Klink shield you struck is now nothing more then a vague memory and your follow up phaser salvo has opened up the Klink hull like a tuna can. So now what? Well there is a chart for this! The Damage Allocation Chart in fact. You now take all the extra damage that the shield didn't manage to adsorb and roll on the DAC to see what systems were hit and so on. Each system/weapon/engine has a certain number of "boxes" on the ship to represent itself and once each of those boxes are gone the system is no longer usable until it is repaired. If you apply enough damage the ship will just explode though most players will concede once their ship has been rendered combat ineffective. No point in dragging events out to the bitter end.

Once the combat phase in that Impulse is concluded you go back to the Movement Phase and repeat until one ship either gets destroyed, surrenders or many hours have past and you both hate each other.

That's a game of Star Fleet Battles in a (very small) nutshell.

Getting Started

Well your in luck. ADB (Amarillo Design Bureau) isn't like most other game company's in the fact they're not trying to milk their player base continuously for money (unlike some other companies..GW *cough cough*). SFB is a passion project by two people who love the game and so want the most people possible to enjoy it. That said going all in will cost a fair bit as the game has continued to be updated for 40+ years with new ships, new races and even new non-galactic areas.

To this end there is the Cadet Handbook which is pretty cheap (about $10 US) that comes with a basic rule booklet that covers the necessary rules but without going very deep. You get a map, dice (2 D6's), a Federation CA (heavy cruiser) and a Klingon D7 (also a heavy cruiser) so you can test out the waters and see if SFB is for you.

Now if you like what you tasted then 1. Welcome to the Trek Nerdom 2. Get ready to shell out some serious coinage.

You will want the Captains Set for the complete game rules. This will cover everything basic from simple movement to crazy stuff like Hit and Run raids on your opponents bridge or using your transporter to lay mines.

The letter modules A-M to get you all races, ships, weapons and SSD's of said ships. (honestly you can skip the N,O,P modules as they contain the weird shit like a new extra galactic area full of new non-Trek races for bored veterans. Not that they're not interesting and fun to play around with but they're just extra and not central to the main game).

Grab any Captain Log's that strike your fancy for the fun scenarios they contain.

And do yourself a favour and pick up an extra counter set of drones, fighters, plasma torps and shuttles as once you start messing around with Heavy Carriers (CVA) and Space Control Ships (SCS) your gonna need 'em.

But that's it. ABD doesn't really change the rules very often as this game has been play-tested to hell and back over the decades and they don't introduce power creep just to sell you something new. In fact the current Captains Rule set was originally printed in 80's. So once you have the rule set and the modules of your favourite races your pretty much done buying unless you want ship miniatures (which look awesome) or fancy toys like 3D asteroids or planets to make your game prettier.

One final chunk of advice for new players. Buy the rule books unbound as you'll be best off placing them into a 3" 3-ring binder so you can slot the module rules into their respective place. The 2 Stevens (the creators) were military men so rules look like;

1.1.21.64.14 Blah blah blah see 1.1.22.23.42 to blah blah blah. Rule 1.2.3.4.5.6 also cover situations that may occur when trying to do 4.2.5.13.45. For more info on generally accepted practices see 4.2.3.56.

So you either need to integrate the modules rules with the captains rules or get used to pulling out which ever module your using anytime you want to look something up.

Factions

United Federation of Planets

The Federation CA is the original ship the game was built around and just about every new players go to. We all know it and we all love it. Nothing more needs to be said about it's history because if you don't know what the Federation is how the hell did you end up here?

In game the Feds offer some seriously solid ships armed with the supremely flexible Photon Torpedo as their heavy weapon. Backed up by a excellent phaser-1 suite, decent shields and generous hull levels as padding to protect those vital systems. In Late War games they can even boast plasma torpedoes or drones as secondary weapons bringing a lot of options to the player.

Downsides are slow turning radius, restricted forward arcs on the heavy weapons and a slightly heavier BPV cost but even with that the Feds are a solid choice for any BPV battle.

The Klingon Empire

Again nothing needs to be said; it's the Klingons. You know them. Proud and aggressive warriors ect ect. Keep in mind in the SFB timeline the Klingons were never neutered and remain an aggressive empire building race who use slaves to crew their ships.

The Klingons were designed to be the opposite of the Federation ships. Featuring high manoeuvrability, fast firing weapons and speed. They're armed with the quick firing Disrupter that is great at mid range fighting, having a decent hit chance and decent damage for low power cost. Backed up by only OK phaser-2's and OK drones until Late War when they can change in the phaser-2's for the excellent phaser-1's. Good forward arc shielding and great firing arcs allow a good Klingon captain to bring more of his firepower to bear per pass then his opponent thus wearing down his opponents ship before moving in for the kill.

Used properly the Klingons can dominate the movement phase of the fight. Taking shots at their best range and denying their opponents the opportunity to return effective fire.

Downsides are low alpha strike output and mediocre weapons, mediocre phaser suite and hull levels. If you end up trading equal blows with your opponent you will come out on the losing end. Plus you always have to be aware of a slave revolt if too many of your Security stations get taken out which can quickly end your battle.

Romulan Star Empire

It's the Romulans. You know em you love em. In SFB the Klingon-Romulan alliance holds and keeps the Federation at bay during the General War.

Romulan ships are pretty weird. The early ships are terrible. No joke. The WB and WB+ can barely charge their weapons and move at the same time. So any early year match will be interesting to say the least. They do boast the most powerful Plasma R's to help but it's still very challenging to win. However once you get access to the KR (Klingon-Romulan Hybrid) ships you go from weak to equal footing and when you get to the Hawk series you get access to, hands down, the best ships in the game.

Romulan ships are armed with the best weapon in the game; the Plasma Torpedo. As it's a seeking weapon it does 90% of the work for you and while easy to counter any mistake on the receiving players end means pain. And lots of it. A solid phaser-1 suite, decent all around shields and decent turning radius allow for the (in)famous Plasma Ballet where a Romulan tosses plasma at the opponent then retreats into cloak to rearm. Never allowing the opponent a clear shot. It's super frustrating to play against so use that to your advantage and push your opponent into making mistakes.

The cloak can be an incredibly powerful tool if used correctly or a huge disadvantage if used improperly. Learning when to cloak is essential if you want to succeed as a Romulan player. It's not a get out of jail free card and has some major downsides that you need to take into account when playing.

The downsides are high BPV cost for the Hawk series and KR ships compared to equivalent size opponents. (And if you play the plasma ballet game people WILL hate you.) Just don't play the warbird series unless you want a serious challenge.

Kzinti Hegemony

These guys are straight out of Larry Niven's Real Space novels. Basically warrior furries that look like anthropomorphic tigers who eat their captives. Somehow allied to the Federation despite this unsavoury dining habit.

Kzinti are the masters of Drone warfare. Their ships can throw out more Drones in a single turn then any other race and thanks to Drones costing no power to launch they have plenty of power for speed and EW. Their ships tend to be lightly armed with low shielding and hull levels with Disrupters as a secondary weapon. A good phaser-3 suite for defending against incoming drones round out the kit and a decent turn rate makes for a solid choice of ship.

With the Kzinti you need to master drones. Just like a Klingon captain needs to master maneuver or a Romulan needs to master the cloak, you need to master drones. Your ship can easily overwhelm opponents with wave after wave of drones all while chipping away with your Disrupter suite. The problem comes when you start to run out of drones and your opponent is still not crippled. Then your best bet is to run as you can't go toe to toe with BPV equivalent opponents and emerge victorious.

Downsides are high cost for top of the line drones, which you will need in late year battles, making your ship pretty expensive. Low shielding and low numbers of hull padding means damage really hurts and if your out of drones your in real trouble as your Disrupters lack the numbers to be effective.

The Lyran Star Empire

Think Kzinti but Lion. Like Romulans are related to Vulcans Lyrans are related to Kzinti (or vise versa) but never bring that topic up in the presence of either. Federation diplomats are ordered to never stand between a Kzinti and Lyran as violence is a certainty as the races hate each other and have been at war for centuries. Lyrans are a member of the Klingon-Romulan alliance.

Lyran ships use the Expanding Sphere Generator as a main weapon with Disrupters and Phaser-1's to complement it. Lyran ships are powerful individual combatants with great forward arc shielding and firepower but due to the ESG and it's somewhat indiscriminate nature they are much weaker in fleet type situations so they tend to suffer on the larger scale.

The ESG is a powerful tool for offence or defence and useful in pretty much any situation a Lyran captain will find himself in. Good shielding, strong Phaser-1 suite and a great power curve make for some pretty capable ships overall.

However the ESG is also your biggest weakness. As it's 100% indiscriminate in it's damage. If your ESG field comes into contact with something it will hit it (no roll needed). Friend or foe. Which is awesome sauce for hunting down cloaked ships or dealing with pesky Kzinti drone waves or those dangerous Hydran fighters but it will also hit your teammates, your own shuttles, mines, T-bombs or even near-by asteroids. Making using it in certain situations quite dicey and you know your opponent will make those situations happen. It also has a unique interaction with the Hellbore launcher (the Hellbore auto-hits because the ESG field is so damn big). This can be awesome when you want to use your ESG as an extra shield against a Hellbore armed ship and not so awesome when a Hellbore crushes the ESG field an impulse before you planned to smash into something.

Over all Lyran ships are good, solid duelists but suffer in fleets. Also the ESG interactions complicate your plans making for FUN times. BPV costs are in line with comparable sized ships.

to be continued

10 Tips for New Players

If you don't know what your opponent will be flying choose a Federation ship. They are the best all-a-rounder ships in the game. The wunderweapon that is the photon torpedo will allow you to meet any threat if handled properly.
On a Point per Point basis the Romulan Hawk series (SparrowHawk, FireHawk, NovaHawk ect) are the most powerful ships in the game. Do not underestimate them.
If your new to SFB choose to fly Klingon. The Klinks don't have the raw one turn firepower to alpha strike and win so you will have to learn to throw your ship around properly to win. Once you've master the Klinks the other ships are cake.
The cloak is not a I-win button. Your under serious tactical penalties every time you turn that sucker on and experienced players WILL know how to handle you. Cloak only if you have too, not just because it's there. If enemy fighters are on the map NEVER cloak. They will happily fly over and sit on you until you either drop cloak and they chew you up or you just rage quit.
The ESG has zero Friend or Foe discrimination. Make sure when you crank that field to max your not killing your own shuttles or teammates.
If your playing Orion think about putting PH-1's in the mounts. You'll be surprised at how effective they can be and you may not need to use your Cocaine rule until it's time for the kill.
Conversely if your playing Orion remember the Cocaine rule. If your opponent isn't at least crippled by turn 4 it's time to leave. Don't stick around with half your engines gone just because your opponent is hurt. Your not a warship you can't take hits and keep fighting.
Smaller ships are fun. Frigates and Destroyers have great power to speed ratio's making for a fun and fast moving game. Don't just focus on the big boys.
Don't listen to the manual. ISC ships CL and larger don't need to be in an Echelon they're perfectly OK on their own. Quite dangerous in fact.
Hydrans come in 2 flavors; Fusion Cannon and Hellbore and they play exactly NOTHING alike. Be aware of what your flying and play appropriately.
Know the Impulse chart. Don't let yourself accidentally enter Overload (range 8) because you thought you moved when you don't.
Know your opponents weapons. You can guess your opponents move range based on the type of weapons they carry and what stage of arming it's at. For example you know that for the first 2 turns a Fed CA will be slow as it's forced to use a lot of power to charge up those juicy photons but in turn 3 suddenly it's able to move faster as holding photons is pretty cheap compared to overloading them.
Failing to plan is planing to fail. Have a way in and a way out and a way to get out if things go wrong.
If you don't know ASK! See below
Have fun! It's a game with friends not life or death.

Gallery

Seal of Approval. Unless it's the one with an Armadillo
Babby's first Starfleet Battle
All those hitpoint boxes, and only eleven don't have special rules when you cross them off
Galaxy map. This was made in the period after TOS and before TNG, when all the books were written. Notice Klingons and Romulans aren't neighbours before TNG changed the map.