Star Fleet Battles

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) but it spins off it's own Timeline (warning there are 20 pages of timeline data, welcome to SFB) where a great war happened between all the galactic powers (cuz how can you have a wargame without war?)

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.)

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, a nebula clouds that give automatic ECM defence or a pulsar that fires out massive damaging beams.

Just a FYI for you. If your looking for Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise crew you won't find them here. Due to licensing agreements ADB got the OK to use the setting but not the named characters. (Heck the only time you even see the name Enterprise is in a brief blurb about it being the name for the first Federation CX Advanced Cruiser).

Vidya Games

In current year most SFB games are played on SFB Online because lets face it your LGS is has been over run by fat and greasy WH40K fans and while you may be a nerd, your not that much of a nerd.

With SFBOL your able to find a match when you have the urge+time. SFBOL has a very decent playerbase with varying levels of skill to accommodate both veterans of the game and new players. In fact there is a new player channel if your looking to learn in a forgiving environment and many tournament are held by both ADB and player leagues if your ready to play with the real men and win yourself a Rated Ace ticket for the big tourney at Gen-Con.

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. The first game 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. All except 3 take place in the TMP era. As that was when Star Fleet Battles was first published. While the former is set in the TNG era before Star Trek Nemesis.

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 loudest.
• 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 (man that sounds familiar for some reason). You have the best of all weapons due to sitting on the sidelines and watching your neighbours 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.

Common Abbreviations

Ship Classes

• BB - Battleship
• DN - Dreadnought
• CVA - Heavy Carrier
• CVS - Strike Carrier
• SCS - Space Control Ship (super carrier)
• BC - Battlecruiser
• CX - Advanced Technology ship
• CC - Command Cruiser
• CA - Heavy Cruiser
• CL - Light Cruiser
• CR - Commerce Raider
• LR - Light Raider
• CW - War Cruiser
• DD - Destroyer
• DW - War Destroyer
• DDH - Heavy Destroyer
• DE - Escort Destroyer
• FF - Frigate
• FFV - Escort Carrier
• FFB - Battle Frigate
• FFE - Escort Frigate
• PC - Patrol Corvette or Police Corvette
• PF - Fast Patrol Ship

General Game Timeline

A very very brief overview of the timeline of the StarFleet Universe by ADB.

• Y -7,000,000,000 - The universe is created. This is generally thought to be a bad idea by those involved.
• Y1 - The humans discover warp travel and meet the Vulcans. The galaxy will never be the same.
• Y4 - The Federation is formed by the Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellerites.
• Y36 - The 1st Gorn/Romulan war starts. It ends in Y39 with a Gorn withdrawal and ceasefire.
• Y40 - The 1st Federation Romulan war starts, fought with lasers, rail-guns, armor and limited warp drives. War ends in the Federations favor in Y46
• Y62 - Tactical (modern style) warp drives are developed by all races changing the nature of warfare forever.
• Y68 - The Lyran-Kzinti "war" officially starts and goes on and on and on and on...
• Y71 - The Starfleet is formed by the Federation. After lesson learned in the 1st Romulan war the Federation goes from each planet providing it's own style of ships to a unified design and supra-planetary permanent force.
• Y76 - The Klingons meet the Hydran's and attack but quickly suffer a major defeat and withdrawal from Hydran space. Oddly enough the Klingon High Council doesn't execute the Admiral in charge but instead asks what went wrong. This results in the creation of the D series of warships.
• Y79 - The Tholian refugee's arrive in galaxy after 800 years of inter-galactic travel and settle in space the Klingon consider theirs but go unnoticed and create the Holdfast.
• Y83- The Klingons discover the Tholians and launch an attack but suffer badly due to the Tholain web technology. In return the Tholian's attack and wipe out several Klingon civilian colonies enraging the Klingons who announce a blood vendetta.
• Y84 - The first Andromedian scouts arrive in the Milkyway
• Y85 - The Federation encounters the Klingons and after 3 losses to new cultures the Klingons decide to not attack and rather to send in some ambassadors and diplomats to try to get a better idea on Federation strength. Some trade and treaties are signed but both races start competing for prime colony spots along their shared boarder and tensions start to rise.
• Y87 - The Klingons launch a attack on the Hydran's using the new D4 warships and smash the Hydran forces in days and force a surrender of 90% of the Hydran worlds. The few remaining Hydran warships retreat to the "old kingdom" which lies inside a large nebula and thus goes unseen by Klingon forces.
• Y88 - The Kzinit's attack the Federation over boarder issues and the Klingon's offer tactical knowledge as well as placing Klingon officers onboard Federation ships as advisors in an attempt to better understand Federation capabilities and tactics.
• Y90 - The Gorns and Romulans renew their war which goes on for 5 years. Both side deploy the new Plasma Torpedo to great effect.
• Y92 - The Klingons launch a massive attack on the Tholain Holdfast to wipe the species out but it ends in disaster after 10 years of fighting. Winning no territory but draining away Klingon resources. This is part of the reason for the oddly friendly Federation-Klingon relations. Unknown to the Klingons the Holdfast was on the verge of collapse at the time of the withdrawal.
• Y94 - A Sunsnake life form infests the star of the Pavarian home world, who are the honored ancestors of the Gorn race, it goes nova destroying the solar system and eradicating the Pravarians. The Gorns are overcome with grief/rage and blame the Romulans and declare that they will repay the Romulans in kind no matter the cost.
• Y110 - Recovered after the disaster of the Tholian war the Klingons decide now is the time to finally attack the Federation and launches a surprise attack on Federation forces on the boarder. History repeats as the new Federation weapon, the Photon Torpedo, proves to be a massive success and the Klingon quickly suing for peace after a series of defeats claiming it was all a "misunderstanding".
• Y119 - The Orion Cartels are officially formed, well as official as a group of pirates can be. The galaxy is cut up into zones of control by the Pirate Council to limit internal conflicts. But like all good pirate the rules are treated more as suggestions then rules so if you can get away with it, it's yours. Profit is Profit after all.
• Y123 - The Klingons attack the Kzinti again and place a squadron permanently on harassment patrol on the Tholian boarder.
• Y126 - The famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) Constitution class Heavy Cruiser is introduce by the Federation.
• Y135 - The Hydrans of the Old Kingdom surge out of their protective nebula and launch an assault to retake their world from the Klingons. Armed with new Fusion technologies and the powerful phaser-G the new Hydran ships overpower the Klingon's forces who fall back to the old boarders in disarray. Tied up with the Kzinti war,the Tholian issue and heavy Federation presence on their boarders the Klingons admit defeat and withdraw all their forces back to their own boarders. The Hydrans reclaim all of their worlds and celebrate independence.
• Y137 - The Lyrans and Klingons sign a mutual aid pact to off set the growing power and size of the Federation.
• Y145 - A Kzinti taskforce attacks a Federation world without permission, slaughters and consumes the 3,000 colonists. The Federation is horrified and a vote is cast for war. The Kzinti Emperor, not wanting war, captures and executes all 1,500 of the individuals involved in the attack and turns their heads over to a Federation diplomat as a peace gesture. Oddly enough this event marks a thawing of Kzinti attitudes towards the Federation which results in a mutual defense treaty.
• Y154 - The Romulans return to the Federation boarder in force and launch an attack on colonies in the neutral zone. War is avoided but the Romulans see this as a weakness on the Federations part.
• Y155 - The Andromedians arrive in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud and begin construction of their Devastator starbase as a base of operations for the conquest of the Milkyway.
• Y156 - The Kzinti and Hydrans sign a mutual defense pact to keep the Klingons at bay.
• Y157 - The Federation and Gorns almost come to war as two captains come to blows but cooler heads prevail and a odd but fruitful alliance is formed.
• Y159 - The Organians disappear without explanation.
• Y160 - Tensions across the spiral arm start to increase as most major empires start a military build up program.
• Y161 to Y171 - many, many small diplomatic incidences across the galaxy happen as military forces start to encounter each other on a regular basis. War is coming and most races are getting ready for it. All that is needed is the spark to set it off. (main setting of the game)
• Y166 - The first sighting of an Andromedian ship is confirmed by a lone surviving crew member of a Federation Destroyer that it attacked without warning.
• Y171 - The General War kicks off with yet another Lyran Kzinti war which drags in the Hydrans and the Klingons due to mutual defense pacts. Knowing that the Federation will be drawn in the Klingons prepare a full fledged assault. The surprise attack by the Klingons catches the Federation off guard and many Starfleet ships are lost in the lopsided duels as the Klingons drive deep into Federation space. The Gorns honor their agreement and declare war on the Klingons and launch a small series of raids into Klingon space.
• Y172 - A joint Federation Kzinti team develops the first "fighter" from a shuttlecraft using miniaturized warp engines. Unknown to them the Hydrans have been using fighters for years. Several heavy cruisers are quickly converted into carriers and launched into the war. The fighters are a surprise to the Klingons whose drive into Federation space is slowed and eventually stopped by the powerful CVA groups.
• Y173 - The Klingons woo the Romulans into attacking the Federation by delivering them old Klingon D6 ships which are refitted into the powerful plasma armed KR series of ships. The Romulans attack across the full breadth of the boarder once again driving deep into Federation space.
• Y173 to Y186 - The war drags on with every major race involved in massive fighting. Most pre-war ships are lost by now in the fighting and a new War Series of ships are introduced to speed up production by the Empires. Ships designed to be cheap and fast to produce to help offset the immense losses everyone is suffering. The age of attrition warfare begins.
• Y178 - The Neo-Tholian ships arrive in galaxy just in the nick of time to save the Holdfast from the final Klingon assault. The original Tholian ships were civilian ships repurposed for war but the Neo-Tholians are warships from the old Tholian empire and after some quick refits are more then capable of throwing the Klingons out of the Holdfast territory but due to them being utterly irreplaceable the Tholians refuse to send them to assist in the General War.
• Y181 - The Federation launches Operation Remus and scrapes up a huge coalition force to assault the Romulan homeworld consisting of one of the few remaining Federation CVA's; the USS MacArthur. The assault is successful but the task-force suffers massive losses in the final battle with the MacArthur itself going down above Remus, striking the planet causing millions of Romulan lives to be lost. The planet is devastated rendered almost uninhabitable. The Romulans are crippled emotionally and economically by this event and while the war isn't over the Federation Romulan conflict peters out. The Federation is horrified over this incident and offers to assist in the rebuilding of Remus after the war, easing Romulan feelings and starting a detente period.
• Y182 - Operation Calvary is launched by the Alliance against the Klingon homeworld but after much fierce fighting the losses on both sides are immense and while all of the Federation territory is reclaimed the Klingons stop the task-force before it reaches it's goal.
• Y182 - The Lyrans introduce the Fast Patrol craft to combat the fighters of the Alliance bringing the attrition warfare to a whole new level. All races quickly deploy PF's to bolster dwindling military forces. PF's are cheap to produce and train and are capable of taking down ships when in packs but have limited range and very limited survivablity.
• Y184 - The Pleiades Turkey Shoot happens as the Klingons try to destroy the last operational Federation CVA group but fail and suffer the loss of much of their remaining fighting strength on the Federation front. All major powers are pretty much exhausted by this time with combat reduced to PF's raids and small scale battles. No power is willing to risk their few remaining capital ships without urgent and immediate need.
• Y185 - The Organians return and put and end to the fighting. Most Empires are secretly happy for this enforced peace as they are exhausted by the decade of fighting and are at the limit of their endurance. This Organian Decree allows a "peace with honor". After 10 years of brutal fighting and billions of lives lost no territory is gained by any power. The war has been futile.
• Y186 - The ISC begin their "pacification" of the galaxy by creating no go zones on the boarders of all the galactic powers. The ISC had sat out the war protected by distance but watching the destruction of the General War then decided that the galaxy was insane and had to be protected from itself. For their own reasons the Organians do not interfere and may indeed have aided the ISC.
• Y190 - Out of no where the Andromedians begin appear in great numbers and catch the ISC forces scattered all across the galaxy quickly making short work of the isolated fleets. The Andromedians use technology that is complete foreign to the galactic powers and are almost impossible to stop due to the lasting effects of the General War. For the next 5 years the Andromedians rampage across the galaxy almost at will.
• Y195 - The Federation survey ship "Essex" discovers how the Andromedians are able to move about so quickly and they freely spreads the knowledge to all galactic powers who move to attack the so named Rapid Transit Nodes and start to disrupt the Andromedains combat operations.
• Y196 - X-ships are introduced to help combat the Andromedian menace. These ships feature new technologies and are extremely capable warships but due to high cost and complexity they are available in very limited numbers but are able to finally hand defeat to the invaders on a one on one basis.
• Y199 - All galactic powers come to realize that unless they co-operate the Andromedians will not be defeated so Operation Unity is created.
• Y201 - Operation Unity launches an assault on the Andromedian Devastator class Starbase in the Lower Magellanic Cloud and after much fighting they succeed in destroying it and the last Andromedian presence in the Milkyway galaxy. Aside from a few scattered survivors the Andromedians cease to be a threat.
• Y202 - End of SFB game timeline.

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. There are different types of power being; warp, impulse, reactor and batteries. Each has uses and restrictions (as an example photon torpedoes need warp power while phasers can draw upon any energy source. Movement faster then speed 1 always requires warp power)

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.

Super Basic Tactics

Here are just some very very VERY basic tactics to help you get started. Each Empire will have it's own unique heavy weapon and thus their own preferred tactic to employ but most of them will be a variation of these bellow 3.

Oblique Pass

This is the standard opening tactic for most races. You approach your opponent at a angle off the main #1 shield (usually #2 or #6) then reach the range you want to fire at, fire and turn away to reload.

This is the Klingon's favorite tactic to wear down their opponents before they move in for the kill.

Differing races will have differing preferred ranges to exchange fire. The idea here is to set up a range where you can hurt your target but take minimal return fire but not to commit to a knife fight at short range by turning in. Hydran Hellbore ships love this tactic as their ships are designed around it; get to range 14 where your Hellbores have a solid hit chance and where for anyone but a Klink returning fire will be wasteful, dump some PH-1's to scratch a shield (preferable the #1) dump the Hellbores and watch the now weaken shield get crunched. Turn away, reload and repeat until your opponent cries enough and dis-engages.

The main catch to this tactic is your ship needs to be fast enough to get away from your opponent while charging it weapons, as you just shot your wad so your opponent is free to close to what ever range he's likes (most likely 3 or less) and dump his overloads on you without fear of reprisal. As well as be nimble enough to able able to turn around and re-engage without giving up too much ground.

Luckily the ships that tend to use this strategy are able to do this. The Klinks, the Hydran Hellbore ships and the Andro's all have the speed and turn rate (Andro's have the DD to literally teleport away) to get in and get out while pulling away. Don't forget the fancy Klingon phaser arcs if your getting followed! They can be a nasty surprise. If you have to delay rearming to speed up then consider it. Also fun tip you can roll a T-Bomb (or Nuclear Space Mine if you got one) out the shuttle bay as a nasty surprise if your opponent follows right behind you. Fun fun!

Many plasma users will aim to have their torpedo's meet you at ranges 18 to 14 to stop this tactic but if your smart you'll hit range, dump your shots then speed change and zoom away. Watch as the poor Gorn player weeps as his expensive torps fade away in your rear arc. Remember it takes 3 turns to re-arm a plasma launcher but your Disrupters can fire every turn and your Hellbore only take 2 turns.

Battle Pass

A battle pass has a lot in common with the oblique approach with the exception that the engage ship wants to get into close range (4 or less) and stay there. In SFB a close range slug out battle with overloaded weapons is called knife fight and ships with heavy 1 turn firepower (ie alpha strike) tend to use this tactic. Sometimes called the Fox and Hound style.

A Klingon is a great example of a Fox ship, they want to control the range and the timing of the fire exchange because they do not have the alpha strike to win one on one. They need to soften up the enemy for a few passed first because even if they overload their Disrupters they will typically come out of the exchange worse off then their opponent and even worse they will then be stuck at low speed and close range for a turn or two due to the power demands of overloading their Disrupters. A Fox wants to end his turn at around 15 to 20 range so he has the space and time to get his shot in and maneuver away without the Hound getting to overload range (range 8).

A Hound ship is a ship that wants to get in close and duke it out. A Federation ship is typical of this style. They have the alpha strike (few ships can eat a overloaded photon salvo and follow up PH-1 barrage and be in any combat effective state if not be outright destroyed). The "Anchor" style ships (Gorn's and Kzinti mostly) also like to use this approach as they tend to need to get to Tractor range to lock down their opponent. At close range your powerful weapon's suite will quickly knock down shields and savage your opponents internal before he can do as much damage to you. After that it's a down and dirty fight at close range typically with slow speeds, lots of ECM and HET's.

Of course this is easier said then done as the Hound must chase and catch his opponent before any of this happens. Fox ships will tend to be faster and more maneuverable then Hounds and and experienced Fox player will control the flow of the battle using his superior turning radius and energy curve. Hound users have to be able to read their opponents energy "state" to know when to dumping everything into a speed burst to get into killing range. Remember as a Hound you can exchange equal fire with a Fox and come away the victor. You can't afford to let the Fox pick away at you until all your forward shields are in tatters and you've lost a heavy weapon or two.

A Hound ship will tend to want to end the turn within 6 to 8 hexes with weapons fully overloaded. Then you'll boost speed for the first 8 impluses to get into and keep in range while you blow your load. After this you'll use your superior close in weapon suite to savage your opponent. If done right you will get hurt but he'll get crippled.

For many players the Fox style is very rewarding as it takes practice, timing and skill to dance around your opponent properly to get that win. But one mistake, just one, and it's all over.

Over-run

The over-run is exactly what it sounds like. Your goal is to run right thru the hex your opponent is in. This will allow an exchange of fire at zero range and the ability to zoom past him and get away (theoretically as most fights will end at the over-run with one or both ships going boom).

When you think of an over-run ship a Fusion Beam or ESG ship should pop into mind. The Hydran Fusion Beam ships and the Lyran ESG ships all want to get right up into your grill and do you seriously harm. A Fusion Beam ship at range zero will kill you, no if's and's or but's. You might be able to cripple them in return but that's small consolation to your dead crew and the burn out hulk that was your ship.

An over-run is fairly straightforward in theory but much more challenging in practice as any semi-experienced player will do everything to keep you at range. A Hound ship will try to dump his overloads on you at 4 to 6 hexes and attempt to either HET (High Energy Turn, a snap turn that costs movement power) away or turn and run. A Fox ship will try to keep you at 9 hexes, fire and dance away. (sabre dancing)

Again the knowledge of your opponents energy state and power curve are necessary as you need to know when you can afford to charge those weapons and fire or shove everything into speed and run him down. Luckily the ESG has a capacitor that you can charge up before hand and holds for free. And the Fusion Beam is a one turn weapon that can be armed and fired but then has a cool-down timer. Both of these weapons types allow for high speeds either before charging or before firing to allow the ship to get into position.

A successfully executed over-run is usually a game ender. If you've got a fusion ship sitting on you at range zero, well you might as well throw in the towel rather then drag it out to DAC rolls and spend 30 mins coloring your ship red.

Miza Effect

The Miza effect is named after a early SFB player who realized that the way the Damage Allocation Chart was arranged meant that the first few hits are always the worst. Having a high chance to land on WEAPON, PHASER, SENSOR or ENGINE. This means that the best way to degrade your opponents combat capability is to launch small 5 point damage volleys every impulse rather then one large damage volley (this effect is so pronounced that the ISC PPD is designed around it). Now this isn't always possible but if you can spread out your fire over several impulses and stay on a down shield you will hurt your opponents ability to fire back at you more then if you hit him with one big blast. In game this is seldom a real opportunity as anyone with a brain will do anything to get that down shield away from you but it is something to keep in mind when deciding how much of what to fire.

Shuttles

Use your damn shuttles!

An Administration shuttle is a useful tool that many players don't bother using, much to their detriment. At the worst it's a free PH-3 shot at it best it's a killing blow to your enemy. Most Gorn ships have the shuttle track system that allows them to store their shuttle ready to launch on the wings so they can dump them off all at once.

• Basic - free 360 arc phaser-3 shot once a turn. It's better to get out as it takes 8 damage points to kill rather then dying just a single internal point.
• Scatter-pack - load your shuttle up with 6 drones and give your target a surprise! The most common way to get a drone wave going.
• Suicide - charge it up before hand and ram into your opponent. Great to deal that killing blow after an alpha exchange or you've got your opponent in a tractor beam. Think of it as your 5th heavy weapon.
• Wild Weasel - Those seeking weapons getting you down? Pop out a weasel and watch those fancy plasma torps go bye bye! A super useful tool in any players kit just keep in mind the downsides before you weasel.
• Boarding Party - Are you a Klingon? If yes then cram a bunch of warriors into a shuttle and send it over to create havoc on your enemy's ship.

Now on the opposite side anytime you see a shuttle try to kill it. You never know what in the bloody thing and it's best to be safe rather then hope it's just a admin and not a scatterpack.

Alpha Octant 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?

The photon torpedo is an incredibly flexible weapon being able to be fire close range for massive damage, medium range for sold hit chance and solid damage or as a proximity charge at long range for decent hit chance and low damage. But still some damage; a proxy fired photon can reach out and do damage at 30 range with a 50% chance to hit (that's amaze balls trust me). All on the fly, which allows you to adjust your plan to your opponents actions. Photons also have a fixed damage if they hit which is nice for calculating your attacks. All around the photon torpedo can meet any other races heavy weapon equally.

Pro tip: never ever EVER narrow salvo your photons. I know that having every photon hit is tempting but remember if you roll bad every photon in the salvo will miss. Then your opponent laughs as he over-runs your unlucky ass. (Ok OK Ok...you can narrow salvo photons at an Andro at mid-range. That way you either do damage or nothing to avoid feeding him more power to kill you with (but I wouldn't recommend it. Even if you hit your then allowing the Andro the ability to then close to range 4 and savage you with it's TR's.))

The Feds have access to one of the most OP (wargear) shuttles in the game called the SWACS, yes it's an AWACS but in spaaaaaaaaaace. (I wonder if anyone here is old enough to get that joke?). A SWACS is a powerful tool but is usually restricted to only CVA groups and costs as much as a frigate but it's worth every point. A SWACS can operate drones on behalf of the fighter group (allowing them to go erratic for defense and not lose the drone strike), can offer EW points to it's carrier group or against an enemy ship (at no power cost) and best of all it can "go wild" an act as a wild weasel (again for no power cost) once per turn drawing all enemy seeking weapons on the map towards it (just make sure you have some way to deal with the dozens of drones now targeting your precious). All in all a very powerful tool for handling a CVA groups massive drone waves and dealing with incoming waves just as easily. Just make sure to protect it and keep it safe as it's going to be a primary target the second it hits the map. One trick is to stay near a FFE and after going Wild get the FFE to scoop up the SWAC and book it too out run the incoming drones, just remember that a seeking weapon attracted by a wild SWAC cannot lose it's lock by any other method. You'll need to either kill the drones or outrun them.

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, poor power curve, 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. The Klinks are one of the hardest races to play well simply because they lack the 1 turn punch of most other races so any mistakes will probably cost you the game. As a Klink you have to dominate the fire exchange, you cannot let your opponent trade equal fire with you so you must always keep control of the range and ensure you come out ahead in the exchange. Your Disrupters are great for firing at 9 to 14 range, cost almost no power to use and can fire every turn. Sure when overloaded they hit like a wet noodle compared to other races overload but the whole point of the Disrupter is to NOT allow your opponent to fire off those costly overloads. Played right you can deny him any real chance to hit you with more then nuisance phaser fire as he'd probably rather hold onto the heavy weapons and try to catch you all the while your Disrupters are chewing away at his shields. Then after several turns of unequal exchange his shields should be severely weakened and you can turn in and go for the kill.

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.

I know I've made the Klinks sound terrible but they're actually really fun ships to fly but they are tricky cuz if you charge in guns blazing your gonna lose and lose badly. Plus they have the single largest ship in the game; the monstrous B-10 a up-sized battleship. (Think Yamoto vs Iowa)

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 WE can barely charge their weapons and move at the same time with the cloak being the only thing saving them. 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 his 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 or it will be your undoing. Remember the cloak doesn't make you invulnerable, it breaks sensor lock-on's and makes most weapons pretty useless as once fully cloak you use the (current range x 2) +5 formula to calculate firing range so 99% of shot are going to miss. But your handing the initiative to your enemy as your cloaked speed will be pretty slow and you know your opponent will trundle over and sit on top of you until you decloak then light you up one impulse before you can fire. In some ways your ship is designed for this as you can fire your torps even after the launcher has been destroyed. Honestly most KR and Hawk series ships don't even need to cloak to win. One small tip make sure to post a guard on your cloak, while it can't be destroyed by incoming damage it can be attacked via Hit and Run's.

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.

On a personal note I always felt that the Rommies were done dirty by the Dev's. Yes we know the Feds are the good guys and the Klinks are the heroic bad guys but only the Rommies for some reason got shit on. There are several hero Klingons but nary a Romulan with a name let alone a legacy. Hell by the end of the General War most Empires are back to square one cuz status quo but not the Romulans. They get butt fucked royally. Not only do they lose most of the Empire to the Feds but in the final climatic battle over Remus they not only barely win but the Fed CVA MacArthur gets crippled and somehow ends up smashing into Remus itself. Killing millions and irradiating much of the planet. Sucks to be them I guess.

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.

More than two meters tall and tipping the scales at nearly two hundred kilograms, the Kzintis resemble nothing so much as a tiger in humanoid form. Don’t let their massive muscles fool you; these cats are fast, supple, and smart. They are also fearless, and even the Klingons think twice before going to war with the empire they refer to as “the Tigermen”. Once enemies of the Federation the Kzintis eventually ally with the Federation against the Klingons.

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.

Drones really need their whole own section but lets do a quick breakdown. Drones are an incredibly flexible weapon. They come in 3 parts (drive,hull,warhead) so a Drone user can customize their Drones to their needs. Facing off against a Hydran, whose PH-G's make a mockery of your Drone waves? Put phaser capacitors in the warheads and punish that Hydran for waiting until range zero to fire. Make him spend power to kill exhausted Drones. Facing off against a Gorn or ISC? Don't waste points on fast speed save BPV and buy the medium speed and put the points elsewhere. Planning on a Anchor attack? Buy a set of slow speed Drones and fill the scatterpack with fasts. Is that ESG getting you down? Buy a few slug drones (all armour) and crash that ESG. Do you have an opponent who math-hammers every wave? Invest in a few fast drones with armour and mix them in with the medium speed waves and watch him rage as his phaser barrage fails to kill them all. Low on power? Buy a ECM Drone or two and have them follow you and force your opponent to spend power for a clear shot. Keep in mind a smart opponent will use his Labs to identify your Drones but even knowing what they are isn't always the answer.

Drones are your main weapon so tailor them to your tactics and more importantly to your opponent.

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.

An offshoot of the Lyran Empire is the Lyran Democratic Republic, a part of the empire that broke off for a few years and somehow aligned themselves with the Hydrans who where kind enough to give them Gatling Phaser technology. Now that ESG overun is doubly scary. Sadly the LDR only lasted a limited time before getting munched by the Andro's in Y195.

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.

Hydran Kingdoms

The Hydrans are a strange little people who resemble mini-Cthulhu's who breathe methane with 3 tentacles for arms with a trinary social structure. Mirroring their physical structure they have 3 sexes (don't ask) and 3 life stages. As to an empire they are squashed between the Klingons, Lyrans and the Kzinti and border the Federation and have fought wars with all 4 to stay independent but are part of the Federation Alliance for the general war. Their ships are split between the knife fighting Fusion Beam, fighter carriers and the sniper style Hellbore Cannon ships. Meaning if you want to master Hydran's you've got to master two opposing fighting styles. But played properly each style of ship, while super specialized, are powerful in their niche.

All Hydran units from Battleships to the lowly admin shuttle is armed with the dangerous Gatling Phaser (PH-G) which fires multiple times in a single impulse (if you want) so drones are much less dangerous and it turns a shuttle in to a ship mangler and when paired with fusion beams of a Stinger class fighter it turns a shuttle into a ship killer.

Hydran ships are built around very specific tactics but in that niche they do tend to dominate. No ship can put out the raw damage a fusion ship can and the Hellbore is one of the supreme snipers in SFB. While a Hydran heavy carrier can strike fear into the heart of the doughiest warrior.

The fusion ships are armed with the Fusion Beam weapon. A weapon that does massive damage at short range (it will out damage any other weapon when overloaded) but is useless past range 5. Fusion ships are very simple to play, they win, hands down, if they get to range 1 or zero with their fusion beams intact. The ships have heavy forward protection to assist with this and are very speedy after they fusions are charged. These ships will also carry Stinger class fighters who are also armed with the very same fusion beams as the ships so a Stinger squadron coming at you is quite scary. So the typical fusion tactic is to protect your forward shield while closing with the enemy. Your fighters can either serve as a back up killing blow to be shat out just before you strike or out in front as a "shoot at me and the ship kills you or shoot at the ship and we kill you" deal. Fusion ships are simple to play with a very specific play-style that the ships are literally built around. Fun times if you like straight forward punch you in the face style.

The other style of ship is Hellbore Cannon armed.

The Hellbore is an odd weapon; it's a great sniper weapon that damages all the targets sheilds while having a deadly secondary effect, it does extra damage to a weak or down shield facing so once you have a down shield those hellbores will really start to hurt as all the maneuvering in the world won't mean dick as the hellbore will still pour in the internals. However the hellbore lacks killing power so you can easily chase off your opponent but getting in a killing blow can be challenging. A typical fighting tactic is a turn 1 oblique pass with phasers to damage the #1 shield then keep range open and sandpaper away until your opponent flees due to you stripping away his weapons, engines and sensors. Hellbore ships tend to be vulnerable to damage as the cost of a hellbore per BPV point is fairly high so you'll have less heavy weapon then your opponent and the loss of a single hellbore launcher can be fatal.

Hellbores also have a unique interaction with ESG fields (they auto-hit at any range and the range is calculate to the edge of the ESG field not the ship) so if your opponent is a Lyran and puts up his ESG at anything other then zero width...punish him for it as any extra damage you inflict on the ESG field goes straight to his #1 shield. One of the few times an overloaded Hellbore can be useful. On the down side an Lyran can use that ESG as an extra shield vs you so plan accordingly, otherwise you'll end up trading Disrupter salvo's with ESG damage only and come out on the losing end as he can re-energize that ESG easily but you cannot refill those holes he put in you.

Over all the Hydran ships are powerful in their niche but suffer due to their specialization against non-historical opponents.

The Gorn Confederacy

The Gorn Confederacy is made up of two identical species that somehow evolved on separate planets from a precursor race. The Gorns believe that some great power moved their ancestors to different planets for mysterious reasons. All Gorns honor their less evolved ancestors which they named Pravarians (who are sub-sentient). Gorn space borders on the Federation who they are friendly with having never fought a war with them (despite a rather...rocky first contact), ditto for their other neighbor the ISC (who are pacifists) but the last neighbor is the Romulans with who the Gorns have had many conflicts with since first contact.

Physically Gorns are 8ft tall 500lb walls of walking muscle that resembles a upright dinosaur. While they may be ponderous in movement they are actually quite intelligent and inventive with a rich culture belying their outwardly dull appearance. Their ships have a reputation of being slow and having a poor turning radius but this is somewhat undeserved. Gorn ships can be quite fast once they are done charging their plasma's and all ships are equally bad at turning at high speeds so this "handicap" isn't all that much if an issue if handled properly.

Gorn's use the Plasma Torpedo as their primary weapon with a strong suite of PH-1's on generous firing arcs to back them up. With good around shields and decent hull levels for padding, not quite up to Federation standards but generous by any other comparison. A solid power curve rounds it out making Gorn ships quite a dangerous opponent. The plasma's seeking ability can do much of the maneuver/chasing for you but you need to known its limits and remember big plasma launches can be easily countered and despite those big juicy numbers at close range most plasma torps weaken quickly with range so firing at a rapidly moving away target is pointless.

Key point: always remember that your plasma's take 3 turn to armed so never fire them lightly as you will be giving up the initiative to your opponent once they're on the map. Use your Psuedo-plasma's sparingly bu DO use them, baiting out that Wild Weasel is a major priority as there is nothing like a WW launch to mess up your day.

Gorn players need to understand the tactic named, fittingly, the Gorn Anchor. Where a seeking weapon user closes to 3 hexes and locks his opponent in a tractor beam. This stops the enemy from running away allowing those plasma torps to hit hard. Of course this is much easier said then done with many different avenues to get your ship into tractor range in one piece. Also know the wild weasel rules clearly as you will face players who use them.

In the end never forget Captain S'Thresssh's famous words;

"I fire one hundrrred points uf plasssma...you die".

The Tholian Assemby

Tholians are not a native species to the Milkyway. They are intergalactic refugees from a unnamed galaxy where they once had a massive empire that was overthrown in a revolt so large that the Tholians had to flee their own galaxy to ensure their survival as a species. In fact in Y178 some former Tholian vassal race calling themselves the Seltorians contacted the Klingons looking for assistance in tracking them down. And of course the Klingons were more then happy to point these newcomers in the right direction.

Their "home planet" of Tholia is actually a small Dyson sphere that once served as a provincial capital. In a remarkable feat of engineering, they managed to bring it with them when they fled from the other galaxy.

After an unknown amount of time in intergalactic space they eventually found refuge in a hospitable solar system near the edge of our galaxy. Sadly for them it was space that the Kligons had claimed long ago. It was years later that the Klingons would discover their new tenants and react predictably. The Tholian group that made it to our galaxy were a small unit of civilians so they lack the ability to build any real warships (relying on the small Patrol Class corvettes) and so never venture away from the Holdfast where they are safe behind their massive Web network. Tholians are renown for being arrogant to the point of ridiculousness to the other races of the galaxy which they see as lesser primitive species. Even after the Federation gave them photon torpedo technology for nothing they still asked the Feds to thank them for the opportunity to serve. Gee I wonder why their subjects rebelled.

Tholians are unlike any other galactic species as they are silicon based and resemble a man sized red crystal spider (and you thought the Hydrans were strange).They live in comfortably in temperatures that would melt steel beams and at radiation levels that would cook a lobster in seconds. Which makes the Klingon territory issues rather pointless as neither race inhabits the same type of planet or has the same physical needs but Klingons will be Klingons.

Tholian ships are broken into two types; the old Patrol Corvette style ships which are under gunned and out matched anytime they're forced to fight on equal terms. Lacking shields, internals, and armed with only Phasers and a Web Generator they are only able to hold their own behind preexisting Web networks. They eventually are given Photon Torpedoes by the Federation to help combat the Klingons and salvaged Disrupters technology from Klingon wrecks but no matter how many PC hulls the Tholians weld together (the Tholian CA is 3 PCs literally welded together) they are no match for any equal BPV ship.

The second type of Tholian ship are the Neo-Tholians. Who arrived at the height of the final attack by the Klingons in the Holdfast to save the day. They are a remnant of the old Tholian Empire space fleet and so were deigned for combat and they reflect this but in lore, since they are unique and irreplaceable assets, are never seen outside the safety of the Holdfast's Web network. Neo-Tholian ships are warships that are more then capable of winning battles with their Web Caster/Fist, photons and powerful phaser suite. Good power curves, middle of the road manoeuvrability and good shielding makes for a solid combat ships.

The primary weapon of the Tholians is the Web. Which is a tractor beam based technology (kinda, the galactic powers don't really understand it and the Andro's TR beams and DD's laugh at it) that act like a spiders web. If your ships (non-Tholian, Tholian ships ignore Webs) movement power is less then the strength of the Web in your hex you ain't going no where. In fact if your going too fast and hit a extremely strong Web your ship will suffer the effects of a HET breakdown. Now Webs do need to be powered as their strength decreases every turn. Webs also block direct fire weapons and degrade plasma torpedoes quite effectively, all in all the Web is a great defensive tool.

A good rule of thumb to remember about firing through webs is; "in to or out of but not across".

The Neo-Tholians have a device called a Web Caster that allows them to lay web anywhere within a certain radius of their ship. No more shitting out webs behind you as you go whoohoo!. This is a very powerful tool to control the board and restrict the movement of your opponent. A typical stratagem is to lay a web straight down the middle of the map and force your opponent to choose a side to go down. You fly down the opposing side and use your phasers to snipe the enemy while remaining pretty much immune to return fire (remember only Tholian phasers can fire thru webs without penalty). Just be aware your opponent may dive into the web to take a shot at you (remember in to or out) but then he's stuck sitting there until he can power his way through the Web hex. The Web Caster can also fire a strand of Web directly at the opponents ship doing high damage but is usually more useful to cast web to control the map.

Tholian ships are only really effective when fighting behind pre-set Web networks and suffer from low power curves, low firepower, low shields and decent manoeuvrability. When fighting behind Webs your at least dangerous but your opponent will usually dive into your Web, chase you off and then allow the Web to decay. Repeat ad nauseum until your out of Webs to hide behind and your forced to fight a warship in open space. Not good times. The Neo-Tholian ships are powerhouses. Great map control through the Web Caster, good power curves and good weapon arcs with solid shields and decent manoeuvrability. The heavy phaser-1 suite and photon torpedoes make for a great and flexible knife fighter. Just remember only your phasers can fire through Webs without penalty. Those photons need to be planned for. The Neo-Tholian ship are supposedly restricted by being irreplaceable but in game who cares about lore issues (unless it's part of the scenario) so that's not really a negative.

Overall the Tholians offer a very unique play-style but be warned they do suffer a lot more then other races at the hands of the Andromedians. As the Andro DD allows them to literally hop over a Web without a pause or happily slamming right into a Web hex to drain it's power into their PA's then use said power to chase you down and kill you. Oh those wacky Andro's!

Orion Pirate Cartel

The Orion Pirates are the Star Fleet Universe's premier criminal organization, heavily involved in piracy and smuggling throughout most known areas of the galaxy. Due to their historical origins they are collectively given the label "Orion," but members of almost any known starfaring race can be found in Orion crews. Orions themselves are basically humans with green skin and loose morals.

In the early years of the Federation members each fielded their own fleets and ship designs. When joint action among these disparate fleets proved unworkable, Earth began pushing for a unified Federation Starfleet and a common ship design. In exchange for supporting the proposal, the Orions received the right to keep using their own ships in a separate Planetary Guard fleet that would be responsible for patrolling their own space. In Y113, shortly after the Orions decommissioned their last deep space fleet, there was a mutiny in the Planetary Guard; 16 ships disappeared from anchorage along with over 9,000 veteran fleet personnel. These mutineers became the core of the Orion Pirates.

Being a loose association of criminals, the Orion Pirates do not have one centralized government. Raiding and smuggling operations are controlled by independent cartels. Each cartel has its own territory and fleet of ships, as well as its own shipyard and other hidden bases where their ships are built, outfitted, and maintained. A cartel is usually run by a crime lord or powerful family, who exclusively authorizes and controls all pirate activity within its territory. As of Y175 there were eleven major cartels that collectively covered the entire map except for Tholian space. The Tholians being more then capable of keeping out everyone including those few pirates brave enough to try a blockade run.

In game Orion ships are primary commerce raiders (CR's and LR's) first and warships second. While the Cartel Lords do have "Enforcer" (CA's and BC's) ships that are primarily warships first, to keep the other pirates in line, even these enforcer ships are smaller in size then your typical galactic warship which means anytime your going into a fight you'll be outclassed but not out gunned because... well the Orions have a trick or two up their sleeves to even the odds.

Any Orion ship may choose to double the output of any or all of it's engines. This allows any Orion ship the ability to overwhelm their opponents by mimicking the power curve of much bigger ships. But there is a catch and it's a doozy. Each time the engine is overloaded it suffers damage and after enough times the engine becomes useless. It's called the "Cocaine Rule"

Math-Hammer time:

Say a Orion ship has 2 warp engines each outputting 10 power per engine under normal circumstances for 20 total warp power. If you double the output of both you'd end up with 40 power for the 1st turn. Next turn your engines take a damage point each so you now have 2 warp engines with 18 output. Doubling again (turn #2) you get 36 power and next turn (turn #3) you take another damage point so they engines now have 16 output with 32 power and so on. By the start of turn #5 even with doubling your engines your only sitting at about 24 total power. Next turn (turn #6) with doubling your back to your original 20 power.

This is why it's called the Cocaine rule; one you start you can't stop and eventually it kills you. However without engine doubling the Orion ships can't compete with actual warships so your caught in a vise. The rule of thumb is to only overload one engine at a time and only if you need it for that turn. Also plan to exit the fight be the end of turn 5 while you still have the power to disengage before the opposing warship's superior durability allows it to overcome you. Remember your a lover not a fighter.

The other trick up your sleeve as a pirate is weapon choice. Ever wish you could have Photon Torpedoes and Disrupters? Well now you can. Orion ships feature weapon mounts where you the player get to choose what weapons go where. Want drones and a ESG? You can do that! (I don't know why you'd want that but hey to each their own!) You want some Plasma-F's and Hellbores? Go right ahead. Technically in Lore pirate ships are limited to the weapons in their operating area but in practice you can take what ever weapons you like. They don't even have to be paired. Want 2 Photons upfront, a Disrupter on the left and a Phaser-G on the right? You can do that. Want a cloak? Be my guest!. BPV costs must still be paid but you have the choice to tailor your weapon suite to your tastes. The only limit is no Andromedian tech, sorry no Displacement Device or Power Absorbers for you.

Orion ships tend to be smaller per BPV point then other races and so they suffer from lower shield strength and lower internal volume in comparison. Which mean any internal damage start to add up real fast and each warp engine hit is extremely detrimental. The idea around the Cocaine rule is to allow you to win the fight fast by over whelming your opponent and keeping damage out by using that extra power to reinforce your shields and maintain superior speed and EW levels.

One last advantage is the inherent +1 ECM stealth field Orion ships get anytime they're not doubling engines. It's not much but it's there so don't forget to use it.

Over all Orion ships are extremely powerful combatants but suffer from being under the clock. You can out fight just about any opponent but you have to do it quickly as each turn that passes your getting weaker. If your opponent isn't on the ropes by turn 5 definitely consider getting out of there. Your not a warship you can't trade blows and expect to win. You have to hit hard and overwhelm your opponent and take no damage in return or your career will be over before it starts.

The Interstellar Concordium

The Interstellar Concordium or ISC, are very similar to the Federation in that they are a conglomeration of races unified under an overarching interstellar government. The worlds located in what is now the home sector of the Concordium, Veltrassa, Pronhoula, Rovilla and Korlivala, gave rise to a range of sentient races which eventually discovered each other and set a course of peace and common cause by founding the Interstellar Concordium on a Declaration of Ideals of 'peace, order and good government', with Veltrassa established as the capital world and location of the main fleet shipyards.

The ISC spread throughout the neighboring sectors of space, incorporating several additional alien races, colonizing worlds and protecting several worlds populated by pre-warp races, to allow their natural development to interstellar travel – and the eventual prospect of Concordium membership. The ISC expected that any race capable of warp drive would be similarly inclined to peaceful – and profitable – means of conduct, yet this illusion would not soon last once the Concordium began to venture towards the borders of the Gorn Confederation and the Romulan Star Empire.

The ISC first came into contact with the Gorn and Romulans and were disturbed to find the two races at war with each other (the ISC found it hard to believe any sane race of advanced spacefarers would resort to warfare) and were even more shocked upon learning that all of the other major powers of the region, from the far distant Hydran Kingdoms to the Klingons and Federation, were involved all in a war which was devastating known space. In the eyes of the people of the Concordium the rest of the galaxy was filled with violent psychopaths who simply could not be trusted to act in a civilized manner so plans were drawn up to enforce a peace to save the savage races of the galaxy from themselves. However before the ISC could launch their so named War of Pacification the Organians returned and ended the General War. After much internal consultations the ISC decided that both the Coalition and the Alliance were merely biding their time and rebuilding in order jump at each other's throats again in another ten years. (a not entirely unfounded accusation, we're looking at you Klinks!) So when the Organian Peace was in place the ISC decide to now was the time to move and separate the savage races from each other for their own protection. The launched their War of Pacification on the 14th of February of Y186.

During the years of the General War the ISC fleet was designed and built specifically to outgun any matching "savage" warship and by the end of the General War the ISC fleet were a match for any three of those of the belligerents of the General War combined and unlike those races the ISC had not had their considerable economy, the only one in known space which could rival the size of the Federation's, exhausted by nearly 2 decades of war. With the development of the new weapon and Echelon tactics the ISC was ready to bring peace to galaxy whether the other races wanted it or not.

In game terms ISC ships are true powerhouses. They were designed specifically to over-match their "savage race" equivalent class ships. A ISC CA is thus more then a match for any other races CA and you should always consider a ISC ship one class higher. Thus a ISC CL is a match for a CA and so on. The exception to this is the ISC frigates who are designed to operate within the Echelon and are designed weaker but still a match for the other races frigates. Now this doesn't come for free as BPV costs are still inline so as an ISC captain you must always expect to end up fighting larger ships in duels but thankfully you have the tools you need to come out ahead in just about any fight with the savages.

During the General War the ISC carefully studied the fighting and developed both weapons and tactics to counter thier expected foes. To this end they developed the powerful Plasmatic Pulsar Device (PPD) which fires several "pulses" of plasma at it's target over 4 impulses which splash across 3 shield facings. Backed up by class S and F Plasma torpedoes and a strong, forward focused Phaser-1 suite and strong forward shields the ISC ships can take on all comers.

The second part of the ISC tactic is the Echelon where ISC ships move in a chevron formation facing the enemy. The smaller ships guard the flanks and the heavies pound away at the enemy with multi PPD's. The ISC ships are specifically designed to work in this formation with weapon arcs designed to spit large volumes of fire at PF's or fighters trying to flank the formation. The ISC ships also feature Plasma D multi-racks on the rear arc, who do have special restricted firing rules, that will quickly devastate any small craft attacking from the rear. In game terms the Plasma D's can only fire once at ships larger then PF's but can rapid fire at PF's and shuttle. Any PF squadron thinking that they can rush in from behind and overwhelm a ISC ship is in for a bad time.

The ISC ships are very strong in fleets when in Echelon as that's how they were designed. While the CL,CA and BC's are powerful duelists. The ISC DN is a monster of a ship that really only works well inside a fleet but in that role it's a beast with it's 6(!) PPD's that can and will rip smaller ships apart in a single firing. In duels ISC ships they will always be out "classed" because of BPV costs but don't let that bother you as a ISC CL is really a CA in disguise. The PDD will rip down the entire front shield arc of it's target then your Plasma-S's and Phaser-1's can finish the job and any flankers will meet with a wave of Plasma-F's and D's if they attempt to close.

Overall the ISC ships are very strong but that ability is reflected in their BPV costs.

The WYN Star Cluster

A small side faction the WYN Cluster is a group of refugee's comprised of many races and some Orion pirates who settled into a small stellar proto-cluster near the Klingon/Lyrans/Kzinti border. They used mostly converted freighters as warships and one super up gunned Lyran DD they convert into a, no joke, "Pocket Battleship" to defend the cluster from outside forces. The stellar nebulae helps to hide the home world from the outside but it makes for desperate fights as your home-world is only a few minutes away by warp and any loss spells the doom of your people.

The WYN Star Cluster stands as a huge (50 parsecs diameter) beacon marking the point where the Klingon, Lyran, and Kzinti borders meet. The rich planets are surrounded by a thin shell of intensely radioactive dust. A Kzinti captain who plunged into the radiation shell to deny the Klingons his badly damaged ship found instead a bountiful planetary system rather then certain death, as the shell was only a few light years thick, but it blocked all outside sensors. Over time more and more refugee's came to the system and after offering assistance and trade some Orion Prirates started to call it home as well. Eventually all the worlds were settled and the WYN Cluster announced itself to the galaxy so of course the Klingon's immediately attacked but thanks to the effect of the radiation shell their ships were disabled and after a ferocious defense by some pirate ships who were near-by and what ever forces the WYN's could scrape up the tattered Klingon survivors retreated.

The WYN position is perfect for defense for two reasons. First any ship coming through the radiation belts would be disoriented for a considerable period. Until the effects of the radiation wore off, invading ships would suffer continuous computer and electronic malfunctions that drastically reduced their effectiveness in combat. The small WYN fleet, which would have been blasted to dust in high space, could easily handle intruders disoriented by the radiation. In game ships attacking the WYN cluster start the battle with major penalties that decrease every turn. This allows the WYN players slow and under gunned ships to get some hurt in before the real warships can fight back but it only lasts a few turn so make the most of it.

The second reason for WYN defensive success was that none of the bordering empires could afford to see the others gain control. The WYN Cluster was richer by far in rare minerals and metals than any other region of space. Time and again, Kzinti ships prevented the Klingo-Lyran alliance from overwhelming the cluster, and more than once Klingon or Lyran ships helped keep the Kzintis at bay.

I would consider the WYN's to be a sub-faction of the Orions but without the engine doubling. They have weapon mounts for flexibility and the larger Armed Freighter is rather dangerous with it's cargo being replaced by a huge power reactor and Phasers. Still a freighter though and it can't really take punishment and keep on fighting. The captured Lyran ships are some of your best warships but due to all the overhauls their BPV's are quite expensive but if your facing a real warship they'd be your go to with the Pocket BB being a ridiculous ship that has a battleships firepower and the maneuverability of a destroyer. The in lore explanation is that all WYN are designed to be used for a limited time as they only fight to defend the cluster and never have to leave their home space so things like crew space and science station are a luxury they cannot afford.

Over all the WYN's are an interesting race with some fun ships but they are very limited in their selection and play-style as freighters, no matter how many guns you strap onto them, are still freighters and the converted ships are overpriced for their size and only Lyran's. You can grab a Orion Pirate ally if needed as well.

The WYN slogan is "If you save the Cluster then today IS a good day to die."

So play like it. The armed freighters are 100% disposable and every battle might be the end so fight hard and never give up.

Historically the WYN Cluster did survive the General War but it's fate after the Andromedan Invasion is unknown. Given the radiation belt I'd guess the Andro's would stay out as their PA's would overload before they made it through to the cluster. But that's not official cannon just my opinion.

The Andromedan Invaders

Overview

oh boy where to start

The Andromedans are just one big unknown. No one knows where they came from, what they want or even what they look like. No Andromedan has even been seen dead or alive and their ships seem to have a built in auto-destruct device that triggers before capture. Hell even their boarding parties are just combat robots. They do not communicate, accept surrender or offer terms, they just destroy. Some military intelligence officers have even theorized that each ship is operated by a single individual. With the Andro's you just never know.

No evidence regarding the physical appearance of the Andromedan race has been catalogued by an Alpha Octant government. Andromedan boarding parties are comprised entirely of robotic combat systems. While Module C3 includes data on Andromedan ground stations, established for a number of uses on conquered planets, no concrete link between these activities and the Andromedans' true nature have been determined - though from the evidence uncovered at Andromedan agricultural depots, it has been postulated that if the Andromedans are organic, they must be capable of ingesting anything which could even remotely be considered organic.

Information on the holdings of the Andromedans in their home galaxy is unknown, although it has been hinted in Federation Commander that the Andromedans hold sway over M31 (or at least the portion where a Tholian exodus fleet arrived, after fleeing M81 in the wake of the Seltorian Revolt). Over the course of the Invasion, their holdings included the LMC, as well as significant portions of the Alpha and Omega octants during the War, yet their success in other regions of the galaxy are currently unknown.

Technology

Andromedan starships are divided into three main categories - Motherships (BC's or DN's analogues, thankfully the Andromedans never completed their Battleship sized Demolisher class of ships). Cruiser sized solo ships (CA and CL's) and Satellite Ships (escort analogues). Each kind possesses Tactical Warp engines - allowing them to fight at FTL speeds - yet Satellite Ships are transported by Motherships for strategic deployment and usually operate in tandem with the parent vessel and in fact are often deployed in the middle of combat by use of the Motherships Displacement Device as a surprise assault or in fast attack mode.

Andromedan warships operate on quite different principles to those of races in the Alpha Octant or Lesser Magellanic Cloud. Instead of shields, their vessels are protected by efficient power absorption panels, which are able to absorb incoming fire and use it to power their own systems.

In terms of weaponry, Andromedan vessels were armed with Phaser-2 analogs as well as Tractor-Repulsor Beams. A terribly powerful beam weapon capable of tearing a target warship apart. In addition, they used the formidable Mauler cannon on one of their Satellite Ships to attack enemy installations.

Perhaps the most prominent example of superior Andromedan technology, the Displacement Device allows an Andromedan Mothership to literally teleport itself several thousand kilometres instantaneously - or do the same to a target starship. (you think your safe by saber dancing? Get over here!) However this technology is also a strategic weakness as no more than two Displacement Device-equipped Motherships can safely operate in the same sector of space as sub-space just cannot handle the abuse of physics the DD causes.

In all, a combination of an Andromedan Mothership and accompanying Satellite Ships are a threat to even larger squadrons of Magellanic or Galactic vessels, with fleets of Andromedan ships a danger to heavily fortified systems.

In game the Andro's were designed to give players a new and alternative play style and to shake up the game meta which had become to be dominated by the plasma races. The Andro ships play nothing like anything else in the game and can be a tonne of fun to play if you can master all the added rules and strategies.

History

The Launch from Andromeda

There is no direct information regarding the initial deployment of Andromedan forces. Year after year, successive waves of Andromedan warships were launched from Andromeda, heading for the Lesser Magellanic Cloud - the springboard for an invasion of the Milky Way. Included were the components necessary to construct the first Desecrator - the starbase which would provide the hub of Andromedan operations in the Cloud.

War in the Cloud

The LMC had been home to several star-faring races unfortunately, these races could not stand against the onslaught of the Andromedans, and were crushed, one by one, as the invaders used the Cloud to gather resources and launch raids into the Milky Way. The Eneen and Baduvai fell first, and the Uthiki Harmony (a semi-autonomous state within the Baduvai Imperium, composed of a race of squid-like invertebrates) was destroyed, and the Uthiki themselves virtually exterminated as a race. The Maghadim held out behind their radiation shell, along with a number of Baduvai and Eneen colonies, until the Andromedans swarmed into the Core of the SMC in Y183. The Chomak Community, the last Magellanic faction left standing, was conquered in Y185. While elements from these races struggled for survival out in the Fringe of the Cloud, these scattered groups were only saved when the Unity races arrived in Y202.

Preparations for Conquest

Once established in the Cloud, the Andromedans prepared a chain of Satellite Bases linking the LMC to the Milky Way, which served to establish a Rapid Transport Network into (and within) the galaxy proper - which allowed their vessels to travel at superior strategic speeds. (Their vessels could use the Network to travel between nodes at Warp 15, far in advance of what their enemies could achieve, but were slower than Alpha Octant warships of the same period without the RTN.)

The first official contact with the Andromedans for the Federation and Klingon Empire came in Y166, when an Intruder was engaged by Galactic vessels. Over the next decades, further sightings and ship classes were encountered, yet the fires of the General War swept these accounts from the minds of the Alpha races.

In the Omega Octant, the Andromedans were first uncovered by the Chlorophons, who spent the years of the Superpower Wars and most of the Second Great War investigating the mysterious race. However, most of the Omega races were too pe-occupied fighting each other - and the ancient Loriyill Collective was too concerned with their search for their ancient nemeses, the life-draining Souldra.

In Y186, the ISC Pacification Campaign began, and the Alpha Octant races were primarily concerned with the buffer zone created by the Interstellar Concordium, while the Omega races fought the Second Great War to a conclusion. Neither octant's inhabitants were prepared for what was to come.

The Onslaught

In Y188, the Andromedans launched their first currently-documented full-scale operations against the Milky Way Galaxy.

In the Alpha Octant, the ISC bore the brunt of the initial attacks - as it was the largest power, and was spread across the octant in its peacekeeping role - taking severe losses to the invaders. The most serious moment came when the renowned Echelon of Judgement - a powerful squadron of ISC X-ships - was rushed all the way from the Klingon-Federation border back to defend the capital world of Veltrassa from an Andromedan deep strike. Over the coming years, the War spread to other races in the Octant - the Federation was assaulted by the Invaders in Y192 - and former enemies were forced to co-operate for mutual survival. Most of the Alpha powers were forced into defending their core provinces, but had learned of the effectiveness of X-ships in the fight against the Andromedans. However, the Lyran Democratic Republic was unable to hold out from the Invaders, and was crushed in Y195 - a bitter lesson for the Alpha powers in what to expect should their own efforts prove insufficient.

In the Omega Octant, which was less advanced technologically than the Alpha races, the Andromedan invasion commenced with the occupation of the abandoned Ryn Nebula and the destruction of the Iridani New Kingdom in Y191, and went into full swing in Y192. As if this was not unfortunate enough for the Omega races, the Andomedan assault corresponded with a Souldra expansion into the octant, which smashed the Bolosco and Singers as star-faring races, and left scores of vessels and colony worlds drained of life. Each invading force inflicted great losses on the Omega races, with the prospect of eventual defeat looming. (It should be noted that despite the concurrence of the invaders' actions, the two races were just as likely to fight each other as anyone else, and were not co-belligerents.) While the Loriyill managed to defeat the Souldra, the only bright spot in the war against the Andromedans was found in the successful liberation of the Iridani Cluster from Andromedan control, which was followed by an Iridani Crusade into the Milky Way to aid the Omega allies. However, without external assistance these efforts would not have been enough to hold back the tide.

At present, nothing is known regarding the Andromedans' fortunes in other regions of the galaxy.

Operation Unity and Operation Concerted Strike

Things looked bleak for the Alpha races until the discovery of the RTN in Y195 by the famed Federation Galactic Survey cruiser Essex, which was soon realized to be the Achilles' heel of the invasion force. Over the next few years the Alpha races severely disrupted the Network, facilitating a rolling back of Andromedan successes. The Magellanics had long known of the RTN, and the Iridani had made a similar discovery in the liberation of their Cluster, but neither were able to fully capitalize on their findings - unlike the allied Alpha powers, who took to the destruction of the RTN with great effectiveness.

Finally, in Y201, the allied races of the Alpha Octant launched Operation Unity, a three-pronged strike against the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, where in Y202 the Unity powers and the remaining Magellanic fleet assets destroyed the two remaining Desecrator starbases, breaking the back of the invasion.

(Recent data presented in Module C5 indicates that there were three Desecrators in total present in the Cloud. The first was built in Y145 and destroyed by the Magellanics in Y154. The second was built in Y152, but remained undetected for several years. It was crippled by a Magellanic assault in Y163 and destroyed in Y202 while attempting to build a Devastator battleship. The third Desecrator was completed in Y158 and was also destroyed in Y202. In addition, the Andromedans had been attempting to build a new Desecrator in Iridani space, but these efforts were reversed when the Iridani re-took their home worlds.)

Afterwards, the Andromedans remained a nuisance for the Galactic and Magellanic races, but the specter of full-scale war was finally removed.

In Game

I have to stress once again the importance of properly understanding the unique rules of the Andromedans. Without the handicaps of the proper rules the Andro's are stupidly OP and playing them so is tantamount to cheating and very unfair to your opponent. Don't be that guy.

Remember it's common courtesy to hand your EA sheet to your opponent after the game, it's a good way to keep everyone honest and helps you learn from your defeats. Again don't be that guy, be honest and upfront and you'll be invited back to play.

Types of Andromedan ships

Andro's come in 3 flavors.

You have your Motherships which are equivalent to a BCH or DN and tend to carry at least one smaller Satellite ship in a interior hanger but the chonky boi's can carry up to 6. These guys are named with aggressive verbs like; Intruder, Invader, Aggressor, Imposer, Dominator, ect ect.

Next you have the "solo" ships which are CA or BC equivalents who may or may not have a Displacement Device but never have a hanger and tend to work alone or in pairs at most. Names after snakes like Cobra, Krait, Asp, Mamba ect ect.

Lastly you have the Satellite ships which fill the escort role. The neat thing about Sat ships is that their Mothership can use the Displacement Device for launching and recovery. They are fully functional ships in their own right and a group of 3 Sat ships will chew a CA pretty handily.

Systems

Andromedan ships are unique in the fact that they have a closed power generation loop. In an Andro ship all power must be used, it cannot just be discarded like a galactic ship. This is super important to know and understand as it's the core of Andro gameplay.

Andromedans primary defense are their Power Absorbers (PA's) which fill the role of shields but unlike galactic ships PA's don't just negate damage they turn it into power for the Andro ship to use. Any damage done to a PA panel can be moved into the ships batteries at the end of the turn. NOw there are many "tricks" to moving power around before the end of the turn but each one comes with risk of course. Also Andro batteries are vastly superior to galactic ones as they can hold 5 points of power each compared to the single point of a galactic ship so most Andro ships will have anywhere from 25 to 100 points of battery power storage. (Good luck trying to tractor them or win a EW war).

Contrary to popular belief Andro ships do suffer from power shortages. In fact most of the time an Andro ship struggles just like any other ship. A good opponent will only fire at a Andro if they know they are going to some damage past the PA's so for most of the game your forced to rely only on what power your ship has (which is typically lower then galactic races). Small tip; start the game with your batteries full, I know it sounds counter intuitive but trust me for the first few turns you'll be glad to have that power to use.

Ok lets talk about the most complex part of playing an Andro; the Power Absorber panels. They are the primary defense of Andromedan ship and are both better and worse then galactic shields. PA's banks are split into two on a Andro ship. The forward bank which covers shield arc 1,2,6 and the rear bank which covers 3,4,5. So Andro's have more more shields per facing then galactic ships but lower total shielding levels. PA's also cost a lot more power to use then shields but this isn't usually an issue as you can keep them at lower levels to save power and boost them up if needed. The real strength to PA's is how fast you can regenerate them, which is much faster then a galactic ship can repair it shields. However unlike galactic shields the PA's can be destroyed by internal damage or Hit and Run attacks. Plus of course you can move the power stored in the bank into your batteries at the end of the turn and use it to overwhelm your opponent.

Which brings us into the real issue with Andro's in the fact that your power system is closed. You cannot just dump the power you have. They typical death of an Andro is a where you get a PA panel or battery blown up but unlike galactic ships that power just doesn't vanish it has to go somewhere because of the closed power system. If the Andro player doesn't have room to store the power it turns into internal damage which then in turn has a good chance to blow out more PA's or batteries and then even more damage goes internal which in turns blows out more PA's and so on until the Andro goes supernova. This is called a "Cascade Failure" in game terms and is the standard way an Andro ship will die. Sometimes all it takes is that one battery hit at the wrong time and BOOM!

There are many different tactics to handling PA panels as you can raise and lower them at will to shuffle power around and help you re-generate them. Also as PA panels absorb damage their capacity to store power get lowered, this is called degrading and allows galactic ships in sufficient numbers to sand away at you until your PA panels are useless. In game turns 10% of the incoming damage registers as degradation. (This does NOT subtract from the total damage absorbed btw).

example:

A typical tactic is to oblique approach with panels at standard levels, yes you can switch to re-enforced levels before fire hits see the sequence of play, lash out with your TR's at what range you think best, crunching a shield with luck and then announce intent to Displace. If the opponent fires (if he doesn't you save power and keep the PA's at standard) take the return fire on your now re-enforced front bank then Displace away and zoom off. When at a safe range drop the front panels entirely (which are not exposed to enemy fire...hopefully) and the power now flows into the rear panels with excess moving into the batteries. The turn ends and you move power from the back panels to the batteries and your back PA's vent what your allowed (if needed) and bring the front panels back up to standard. Now your front panels are clear, except for the degradation (which your working to fix of course). You now zip around at high speed and run your ship off the batteries to make space while recharging your TR beams, next turn your repeat. During this same time period your opponent has been able to repair exactly 3 shield strength. Scary huh?

I do want to point out that PA's have to obey a lot of the same rules as shields which means you do have to wait 8 impulses between changing panel levels so do take that into account when planning your power dumps and don't get caught with down panels or you'll be sorry. Watch out for weapons likes Hellbores and enveloping plasma torps which can definitely screw up your power management schemes.

One last note for PA's is that they "leak". Disrupter damage can sneak past the PA panels cuz Disrupters have a disruptive effect right? (it's a fudge for game balance as Disrupters just don't have the 1 turn punch to get through PA's) In game for every 10 points of damage done 1 point will "leak" past the PA's and do internal damage. Now this actually really sucks because chance are that that damage will knock out something important so it's in the best interests of the Andro player to cut down on the number of Disrupters firing at them as quickly as possible or your ship will be leaked to death in short order.

Next up in the line of weird Andromedan tech is the Displacement Device (or DD for short). It's basically a teleporter which moves a ship or object directly from one location to another instantaneously. The Lore catch is it abuses physics so hard you can only ever have two on the map at anyone one point in time, if a third DD is activated a miniature black hole opens up and swallows all three ships instantly. The laws of physics will only take so much abuse I guess but of course the real reason is game balance and the DD is a very powerful tool so have a Andro fleet with 6 or 7 DD's would be a nightmare to fight against. The DD can be used on yourself, an ally, a seeking weapon or an opponent and all 3 choices have conditions applied.

Most commonly a DD is used after a battle pass to GTFO out a Dodge without letting the opposing ship get a clean shot off. The catch is that you have to announce "intent to displace" as part of your weapons firing sequence so your opponent will know that your going to jump away before he makes his choice to fire or not. You can also announce your going to displace but plan to cancel said displacement (technically you do need to note this but most casual games don't care) however you do suffer some penalties that can complicate your next few impulses, the biggest being you can't displace again for a minimum of 8 impulses. So you close to your range of choice, announce intent to fire and displace then your fire off your TR's and PH-2's and (hopefully) jump out 8 hexes. Normally you will either fire at 9 hexes to avoid any overloads or fire at 3 hexes where your TR's have an excellent damage bracket but the galactic races only have a OK chance to hit depending on the weapon, then displace away to avoid a Phaser barrage at range 1 or 0. Some new Andro players will think to close to range 4 announce then displace OVER the target into it's #6 shield arc so they can savage a weaker and hopefully not re-enforced shield. This can work but most players only fall for it once and will have a HET ready to counter this. The final use for a DD is as a "free" HET as after you displace you get to select your heading so you can instantly do a 180 and turn the tide on a ship chasing you whose hoping to get some fire into those smaller, probably full, back PA's. Suddenly he's now closing Andro's center-line and wishing he was anywhere else.

When you instead choose to displace a enemy ship they will also suffer some penalties for 8 impulses. The biggest one being they can only fire at the displacing ship due to "fire control being disrupted". So this to a typical tactic of displacing the largest ship towards your Mothership, whose PA's can handle the incoming fire, allowing the Sat ships to open up with no fear of return fire.

Now the DD isn't all roses as it does have a major thorn in the fact it has a 1 in 6 chance to just not work. After anouncing intent to displace and exchanging fire you then roll a D6 and if you land on 6 you aint going nowhere bub. Good Andro players will have

work in progress

Fleet Action

Ok so with all I've said so far your probably thinking that Andromedan Fleets are probably massively dangerous right? The Lore builds them up to be an almost unstoppable force that required the whole Alpha octant to put aside their differences and work together to over come. They came within a hair's breadth of conquering the galaxy and their ships on an individual level are extremely powerful so a Andro Fleet must be something to be fear. Right?

Well...no actually. While in the Lore the Andro Fleets ran roughshod over the galaxy in the game Andro Fleet are extremely weak believe it or not. How you ask? That Intruder and Cobra thrashed our little 4 ship, 500 BPV fleet! Well your almost on target there. Little is the key word. In any battle under 700 BPV (give or take) Andro's are still very strong but once you move up into the 800+ range you start seeing DN's supported by either CA's or BC's and suddenly you have enough 1 turn firepower to brew up any Andro ship, motherships included.

The Andro's advantage, which they do pay heavily for, is their ability to rapidly regenerate their defences. But what use is that when there is enough firepower on the table to blow you up in 1 turn. It actually turns out that Andro Fleets are fairly weak to any galactic power fleet of appropriate size. Andro's have to pay the PA tax (just like the Rommies have the cloak tax) so you will always be out numbered in a equal BPV fight which means after that 700-800 BPV range your ships will die no matter what you do once a turn due to the sheer number of shots coming your way and if your enemy has more ships then you...well I'm sure you can guess the rest. Now this has always been a sore spot with the Andro players, given how the Lore treats the Andro's but the Dev's have come out and plainly said they have no real way to balance the Andro's for both small scale battle, which the game was designed around, and the large scale fleets some players like to use so we just have to accept that Andro Fleets are going to be just speed-bumps to the galactic powers. It sucks but you can't have everything.

If this really gets your dander up you can play the conjectural "Demolisher and Devourer" classes of Andro battleships which are stupidly OP because they were never meant to be played in game and were created for a scenario in Operation Unity. They are present in game but only as half completed hulks that the galactic powers have to try to destroy and the Andro's have to try to save. But really they're not balanced in the least so use at your own risk.

The Omega Octant

As time went on the creators of SFB decided to spice things up and develop a whole separate sector of the galaxy, just as big as the main area in the 'Alpha' Octant. In comparison to the Federation, the timeline and borders are a lot more dynamic, with powers expanding and getting pushed back and being wiped out.

They have the Mæsron Alliance, an alliance of three mammalian species like a more aggressive Federation, the Federal Republic, made up of some humans and Klingons swept over by spacial anomaly who decided to band together and form an enclave that's often but not always surrounded by Mæsron territory. The aquatic Koligahr Solidarity, silicon based Trobrin Empire, the Sigvirions, an infectious alien species that controls others and allies only with the immune Trobrin. The Alunda's grown living ships and their rivals the Branthodon Regime, who attach cyborg parts to space dragons the size of starships to fly the stars. The Drex Unity, AIs who took over all military and expansion duties to protect their raccoon-like creatures. The Chlorophon Association, giant space trees, and Hivers, tiny space bugs. And a lot more.

The writers really went all-out with the weirdness in Omega and ship designs that are more radically different than Alpha powers for players who want to try something different, and the timeline even extends 20~ years further than in Alpha.

Sigvirion Collective

The Sigvirion Expansion is comprised of a species of highly advanced viruses which has adapted a collective intelligence. The Sigvirion Expansion relies upon a vast array of organic host creatures to run its civilization. Each individual virion may be used to store information, to control native cells, to combat rival (non-Sig) viruses, or to perform numerous other functions. Whenever possible, Sigvirion society operates as a sort of information oligarchy, with those possessing host bodies best capable of storing and processing data providing a leadership role. The process of Sig infection destroys the original personality (if any exists) of the host creature; hosts provided with an anti-Sig retrovirus devolve into mindless vegetables on the spot. In addition, certain species, such as the silicate Trobrin or the plant-based Chlorophons, are immune to Sig takeover.

The Sigvirions evolved on the fourth planet of their home star system, in a hostile biosphere teeming with single-celled creatures. This drove the proto-Sigs to adapt in order to survive and, in time, to achieve dominance. They had reached an Industrial Age level of technology when they encountered the Ashani, a species which emerged on the third world of their home system. After a series of fatal misunderstandings led to a disastrous First Contact between the two species, the Sigs determined to conquer and control the Ashani species which, to their surprise, was not being driven by a viral intelligence, as they had hitherto expected. This experience, coupled with the infection of the squirrel-like Cortlizan in another star system once the Sigs developed warp travel, led them to adopt an aggressive stance aimed at subduing all non-viral life. The Sigvirion capital was eventually relocated to a water world along the Galactic Rim, where the Je’shar, a marine behemoth approximately 20 times the mass of a Terran blue whale, provided almost supercomputer-like thought processes for its occupying Sigs.

The Sigvirions developed warp travel independently, along with a series of unique offensive and defensive technologies. Their primary phaser-equivalent was the pulse emitter, a short-range weapon capable of firing three shots per turn (almost akin to an Alpha Octant phaser-G). Their plasma-like kinetic-wave generator, which had both heavy and light types, was unusual in that it was able to build upon itself in order to increase its warhead strength before falling off again. Sig ships possessed a flexible secondary shield system, though these shields did not bock transporter operations in either direction. During their time in the Nucian Cluster, they developed an improved pulse emitter type, while also adopting wide-angle phasers for use on their new ship designs. Notably, Sig ships rely almost exclusively on ground attack shuttles, so as to better spread Sig infection, though they (along with the Sig-infected Nucian Treska Clan) were the first in the Omega Octant to develop multi-role shuttles. All Sig ships are nimble and can land on planets.

10 Tips for New Players

1. 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.
2. 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. Don't bring a SparrowHawk-J to a friendly match or it won't be friendly very long.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Hydrans come in 2 flavors; Fusion Cannon and Hellbore and they play exactly NOTHING alike. Be aware of what your flying and play appropriately.
11. Know the Impulse chart. Don't let yourself accidentally enter Overload (range 8) because you thought you moved when you don't.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. If you don't know ASK! See below
15. Have fun! It's a game with friends not life or death.

Gallery

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  Seal of Approval. Unless it's the one with an Armadillo

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  Babby's first Starfleet Battle

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  All those hitpoint boxes, and only eleven don't have special rules when you cross them off

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  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.

See Also

• Amarillo Design Bureau, current publishers of the game, plenty of free *.pdf files for download.
• The Star Fleet Battles Open Community, Open and uncensored discussion about Star Fleet Battles.