Hmm - I recognise the name (KenBurnside), so your fame echoes on through the years 🙂 As for the game itself - this game remains one of my favourites (though I no longer play so much). The truth is that this game rewards skill and experience to the Nth degree (and potentially the ability to rules lawyer a bit 🙂), and as such, an experienced player can wipe the map with a new player. As a result, introducing the game to new players where there is an established group can be difficult - and a bit disheartening. My only gripe was the fact that a lot of the imbalance in the early years (both in the future history, and the early editions) was removed, making everyone sort-of-the-same-but-not-really (the 180-point BCHs etc.). I LIKE the challenges of fighting the Kzinti with 2 disruptors, in different arcs, and slooooooow drone hehe. Now... where did I leave my D7L? (best ship in the game for me)
I love this game. The plastic miniatures & model games are so popular now nobody wants to play cardboard. Haven't played in 20 years. Thanks for the video!
I moved over to their "Federation Commander" version awhile back. It streamlines some of the old SFB rules such as cutting down on the number of impulses per turn and gets rid of the whack-a-mole ECM/ECCM power bid jockeying, to name a few. It also includes a scaled down option so you can run larger fleets more efficiently. Closer to the sweet spot between quickness of play and detail. Recommend.
This was my first "board game" back when I was ten years old. A Star Trek fan and ship to ship combat was a hook for me. First battle was Fed CA vs Klingon D7, fantastic. Great to see the coverage.
I bought it new back then and the only problem I had was finding people to play against. My background for it was the Avalon Hill, and like, games up to and through Starship Troopers modeled after the RAH novel I had so enjoyed. Yes, one can duplicate them, but even then they had page protectors and I used those with grease pencils to cut down on the delay and the need for making duplicates.
I remember buying this in 1979 when there was only one boxed version and then later in the late 1980's there had been so many expansion packs that they made three boxed versions of it in three volumes. Playing it with the miniatures was the best. We also combined it with a game called Federation Space which was ,more a grand a large scale tactical layout of the whole galaxy and when you moved your ships into a single hexagon space we would then open of Star Fleet Battles and play the full scale battle. Great times
SSI had an Apple II version on 5.25 Floppy Disc called The Warp Factor. It was basically SFB rules with zero graphics but extremely exciting. Thank you for this wonderful 35 year jump back in time to some of the best times of my life! Looking forward to more 😎
SFB is one of my all time favorites, and I've even gotten some folks into it recently. That's quite the old edition you have there! FWIW Amarillo Design Bureau is still doing frequent releases of new miniatures for use in the game (and Federation Commander) via Shapeways. The Captain's Edition does have a lot of balance improvements, but core of the game is pretty much the same.
played this in the early 80's and won a tourney at Gencon....I wax nostalgic about the Klingon B10. Had all the supplements (They wernt called suppliments but forget what they were called). I had several huge black binders full of those. There was so much to keep track of..wow
I have many fond memories of playing SFB way back in the day. I haven't kept up with it in quite a while, but now I have a hankering to check out what I have missed. A few of the nice things about SFB: --No matter how complicated it got (and boy, could it get complicated), it was so well and thoroughly playtested that just about every conceivable permutation of events was covered by the rules (and if not, the game's creator/developers would answer questions). --The impulse movement system is fantastic and eliminates a lot of problems that can occur with non-simultaneous movement. I wish more games used something similar. It looks like you got a really nice example of the old boxed set, packed with some goodies! I still have a good deal of my SFB material but some of it got water damaged a few years back. This video makes me want to replace what I had lost.
On balance I never fell in love with this game for a variety of reasons, even though I invested heavily in it hoping beyond hope to play a full fledged war campaign with the local group. It never happened. The game, pre-Commander's, started more arguments and nearly ended friendships than it ever offered genuine Star Trek space-war fun. Honestly if it wasn't questions about what phase or segment of the turn came before another, then it was misinterpretation of general or specific shield reinforcement. If it wasn't that, then it was quandries about battery discharging. If it wasn't that, then it was questions about why different races had different point value for different classes, and why each subsequent addon race got more powerful ships and so forth. I watched the TV show as a kid when it first aired, and up through the 80s every so often when it was on in re-runs. And just once I would have liked to have had some friends or a gaming group that got into the f_cking fiction the game was supposed to offer as opposed to trying to outthink your opponent in bean counting energy allocation, or to have some jerk or scum bag whip out a rule we hadn't been using the entire game and argue for its use. And if it wasn't that, then it was the game author's attitude on his forum, including but not limited to breaking his own forum rules. Between him, the arguments the game started when it was in its developmental period, or the advent of seaking weapons which adde to book keeping and cluttered the map needlessly, and then the game's author invoking lawyers to tear down all the fan created material posted on the net, I had had enough of him and his game. I understand that Star Trek is a police and health show dressed up as adventures in space. Rarely, if ever, do Kirk and Spock do any actual exploring. They're always taking on outlaws or monsters. But that's when a lot of what all shows are about in some form. Only with SFB ,because it was based on Trek, you expected, or at least I did, more Trek flavor, and mister Gene Roddenberry seemed pretty affable. Which was in direct stark contrast to the anal retentive jerk that authore this monstrosity of a creation. I had fun with SFB, but rarely. And I wanted to have more fun wth it, but the game attracted more "let me outwit you by knowing the rules and energy allocation math than you, and snicker at you when you fuck up" kind of people. It was really gauling. And to discover some cult oriented things about the TV show all these decades on, and how it was by design a kind of vetting TV show ... it really leaves a bad aftertaste in this gamer's mouth. I really do wish I could have played the game more as it was when it was first released back in 78 or 79. When good scifi was still a niche hobby, and gamers weren't yet assholes, or so I recall. More power to anybody who enjoys this game, but as far as I'm concerned you can have it.
I thought I had one called Federation Space, and not heard of Federation Commander. However, I used to play a lot of the original Starfleet Battles. Fond memories of that game.
@@seahawk8601 i remember our last game years ago. I picked the Romulan dreadnaught and he had that massive Klingon dreadnaught. I came in slow to get my plasma torpedoes ready. He came in fast and in one shot destroyed my ship. Needless to say it was our shortest game ever
Like some of the others we played it back in the early 80s. Along with car wars. It's to long of a game to find time to play it anymore. However, we do play Federation Commander. It does for S F B what Alpha strike did for Battletech.
I and my friends in Winnipeg were play testers for this game for a few years around 1982. We used to get new material and send reports by actual mail with Steve in Amarillo. I occasionally would talk to Steve on the phone and I remember we talked about the Falkland's War a bit. That was a while ago now!
House rules to streamline Star Fleet Battles for more fast and fun play: * Use the Cadet Game rules (or Introduction to SFB or the 1979 pocket game). * No fighters or carriers, just admin shuttles and suicide shuttles (no wild weasels) and each ship only has one spare small craft dilithium crystal to install in one shuttle or drone for the scenario to make that shuttle or drone warp-capable. Otherwise all shuttles are sub-light (speed 1) and the un-crystalled drones are direct-fire drones (1 warp energy to launch, hits the same as an overloaded photon torpedo, may be fired upon by phasers or ADDs (opponent selects what range in the drone's journey to roll), if tractored the direct-fire drone is instantly destroyed, and if it hits a target at range zero, the firing ship receives d6 (1-6) hits from feedback). And all drones must be launched through a downed shield facing the targeted object, like the rules for using transporters (shield stays down for one quarter of a turn and any range zero drone feedback damage goes through the downed shield). A recovered shuttle that has a dilithium crystal may use that crystal to power a shuttle or drone in the recovering ship later. Dilithium crystals cannot be moved by transporters. * Use 16-impulse turns. * Have the ships fire every turn (optional): - Disruptor Bolts: one point to arm, may fire twice during a turn, spread a quarter turn (4 impulses) apart [ex: if 4 points of power were allotted for disruptors, a Klingon cadet cruiser fires both disruptors on impulse 2 and then may fire them again that turn on or after impulse 6]. - Photon Torpedoes: two points to arm, may only fire once per turn (get rid of the arming turn rule). - Plasma Torpedoes: four points to arm. May fire a Plasma-F every turn. Or, if you do not fire the plasma that turn, you may spend another four energy points to fire a Plasma-S torpedo the following turn. * Simple turn modes: - Every ship may make a turn on every impulse it moves. It may make a 60-degree turn either before or after moving forward one hex. - If moving at a speed where the cadet turn mode is 2 (Fed, Gorn, Romulan: speed 7+, Kzinti: 8+, Klingon, Orion, Tholian: 9+), then the ship may make a turn only AFTER it moves forward one hex. - The ship may make a sideslip instead of making a turn that impulse. No turns may be made with a sideslip. - Shuttles, drones, and plasma torpedoes may make a 60-degree turn before AND after it moves forward one hex in an impulse. * Full-size ships using the cadet Energy Allocation Form (EAF): - When playing 16-impulse turns, the speed the ship's 32-impulse movement is halved, dropping fractions [ex: a Fed CA spends 19 energy points to move speed 19, but when playing in a 16-impulse game, it moves at speed 9, dropping the fraction, at the cost of 20 energy points, where an Orion Raider Cruiser with a warp energy cost of 2/3 spends 14 energy points to move at speed 21, will move at speed 10, dropping the fraction]. - If using the above easy turn mode rule, full-size ships will make a 60-degree turn either before or after moving forward one hex. - If moving at a speed where the turn mode is 3 (Fed, Gorn, Romulan: speed 9+, Kzinti: 10+, Klingon, Tholian: 11+, Orion: 13+), then the ship may make a turn only after it moves forward one hex. - The ship may make a sideslip instead of making a turn that impulse. No turns may be made with a sideslip. - Shuttles, drones, and plasma torpedoes may make a 60-degree turn before and after it moves forward one hex in an impulse. - Spending energy points to activate the shields and life support may be noted in the NOTES section of the cadet EAF. This form of SFB is simplistic, but it gets the game moving quickly and eliminates that annoying "did I move straight last impulse, or what" and the players will not have to clutter up the map with turn and slip move markers. This also makes the game even easier to explain and play with new gamers which is the whole point of the cadet game. Experienced gamers can also use these house rules to quickly fight out large fleet battles.
My introduction to this game was a bit roundabout - I started playing an old DOS game called Turbo Trek when I was young which implemented at least some portion of SFB, though I didn't learn that SFB was a thing until years later when I saw the miniatures in a hobbyshop.
Old school goodness! It's funny how that Master Ship Chart looks like a giant receipt from the store. lol You're right, it was Amarillo Design Bureau that took over the ST stuff. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the stash that you got brother!
It has a reddit channel that has a lot of information and long time players, you can get links to custom SSD's for ships and races, etc... This game has been going for 40+ years.
GMT may have introduced us to a modern version of this game in 2016 called "Talon". I absolutely loved SFB 1979+. My friends would keep playing SFB no mater how many times they lost. This is a sign of a great game when you can lose many times in a row and still want to try and try again. IMHO SFB needs to hand the game over to another publisher who partners with a Paramount and a deluxified KS campaign to revive the game (with a much more streamlined version where you don't get caught up in the pseudo-fighter, carrier, drone ship escalations at least at first. Don't even think about releasing much of those for years or decades or even never).
I have a new design where the only paper work is keeping track of speed. Easy missile fighter utility, mines, sensors, cool repair and more. Ship sheets can be a full standard page for capital ships and bases. Ships use sub-drive, hyperdrive, armor, shields, command function, heavy, medium, light and fighter weapons, hangers, cargo, torpedo launchers, mine layers, spcl sensors, hand combat, planetary assault, boarding parties, and ships can be personalized for survey/scout, intercept, heavy combat, command and control, freight, colonization etc.. All of it uses a D20 die. Easy rules but construction is a bit tedious. Rulebook about 20 pages. Use any space minis. But I make my own.
I have many fond memories of SFB. I should also mention we never actually finished a complete game. (Allocate energy, move ship, then argue over rules for an hour; next turn.)
Also the first ship I played as part of a team during a campaign battle. Along with another Saladin player, our task was to shadow and deter a Klingon F6 reinforcement from being able to join in the main fracas. I fired one Photon, in the whole game, at extreme range with a contact fuse (against the umpire's advice to use proximity) and scored a good hit. I'd been holding the thing in for several turns and like a fart, it needed to be released into the universe. Hooked on SFB from that moment.
Such a great game. Loved playing it back in the day. And if you want to go old school with another great game and one that I would really love to see you play is Renegade Legion Interceptor. That is such a cool and unique game.
@@seahawk8601 I know you do and that is why I ask. :) My ex tossed mine and still really wish that I had it. I loved playing the only computer game as well.
I have a bunch of stuff on this games in the way of ship sheets, energy scoring sheet, even a binder aitch the rule book. Ive always wanter to Learn how it works, but it was always so big...
It's alright, but as an early teen, it was incredibly ponderous and plodding. I remember thinking "I just want to fire phasers, why do I need to know what effect a positron flywheel has on a tractored ship in a gas giant's atmosphere?" The rule book when I was 13 was enormous. It had really thin paper, really small print, and was the size of several meaty A4 pads of paper. I liked the scenarios. The one about the Darwin falling through a rift and needing to be protected from the andromedans was particularly fun.
I have been playing Star Fleet Battles since I was introduced to it in high school, back in 1983. Over the ...decades, it has grown more and more complex to having a 400+ page rulebook. The Federation Commander laminated card version did much to simplify SFB, but I went back to playing the cadet/introductory game: www.starfleetgames.com/CadetTraining.shtml Playing the simple cadet game was also good for playing out big fleet battles quickly.
You can play Star Fleet Battles online at www.sfbonline.com There are tons of different ships etc that are available to play. This is a subscription service but they do have a free demo mode.
Hi Rob, you might want to try Federation Commander as well. It is basically the same game but with much simpler and streamlined rules and plays quite a lot faster.
I played the first version back in '82 and we had so much fun going through the old star trek scenarios. We started buying all the expansions over the years until it became an archive box full of rules, folders and parts and no one wanted to go near the game. It just became unplayable. Rule 118.2.3.a etc. Needed a degree to get through it and we lost interest. I dont even know if i still have that archive box.
Great game. Wished I had a chance to play it more. BTW the edition you are showing is an out of date version of the game. The current edition is the Captain’s edition. You want to start with the basic set in that version.
I used to play SFB back in the 1980's at a local wargaming club, but then other wargames came along & distracted me. I did, however, buy my own copy of the game. In 1999 the PC real time gaming version Star Fleet Command 1 came out. SFC is compliant with the 1988 Commanders Edition Ruleset Volume 3. Still popular 20 years later. It is still rated as the best Star Trek space battle PC game ever, so far, due to complexity. It makes Star Trek Legacy look like a sucky arcade game, by comparison. The SFC game also comes with the SFB Cadet Training Manual as reading it helps players new to SFB & SFC understand what the game is actually doing. It also introduces potential new players to SFB and the Star Fleet Universe. SFC operates exactly to SFB rules so having player SFB, SFC was pretty familiar except that players sometimes have to think in seconds rather than minutes to take action. Power has to be allocated, weapons charged, shields reinforced, damage control allocated, etc. Many modellers (including myself) have updated the 3D models, replacing the wrong TMP models with the correct SFB models and added more models & races into the game, including FASA ships converted to the SFB/SFC system. Also cross overs from other Sci-Fi universes. For instance Kirk's Enterprise will always win against a massive, over gunned (with primitive weaponry) but slow and weakly shielded (max speed = 1 in SFB/SFC) Imperial Star Destroyer. Actually a Klingon G2 gunboat will eventually beat it simply by sitting out of range and gradually whittling it down.
@@seahawk8601 Update...... Since retiring, I've started playing Star Fleet Battles, once again. So far, I've hosted two games at the monthly South Dorset Military Society wargames club meetings, using Micro Machines models on 6 x 4 foot 1.25 inch hex space background rubber mats, plus a game with my son, when he visited me last month. The core rules are easy to learn, for noobs, so by SDMS game #2 we had drones, anti-drones, Admin shuttles, boarding parties, transporter bombs & tractors in play. To keep the game turns short, we're still running 16 impulse turns. I've kit bashed some Micro Machines Connies into F-DD, F-TT, F-BCG, etc. plus bought & assembled a Mongoose Kzinti CVL, Gorn DD, Klingon E3, Klingon E5 & a pair of F-CL.
Nostalgic, although I always preferred Starfire - DIY ships are one thing I insist on in starship combat rules these days. I'd nearly forgotten how crappy the original SSDs were. The rules are still as clunky as ever but the modern SSDs with most of the charts the ship will need in play printed right on them certainly did streamline things.
I'm a long-time SFB developer and uncredited co-designer of Fed Commander. Good to see you enjoying this classic gem...
Very cool!
Hmm - I recognise the name (KenBurnside), so your fame echoes on through the years 🙂
As for the game itself - this game remains one of my favourites (though I no longer play so much). The truth is that this game rewards skill and experience to the Nth degree (and potentially the ability to rules lawyer a bit 🙂), and as such, an experienced player can wipe the map with a new player. As a result, introducing the game to new players where there is an established group can be difficult - and a bit disheartening. My only gripe was the fact that a lot of the imbalance in the early years (both in the future history, and the early editions) was removed, making everyone sort-of-the-same-but-not-really (the 180-point BCHs etc.). I LIKE the challenges of fighting the Kzinti with 2 disruptors, in different arcs, and slooooooow drone hehe.
Now... where did I leave my D7L? (best ship in the game for me)
I love this game. The plastic miniatures & model games are so popular now nobody wants to play cardboard. Haven't played in 20 years. Thanks for the video!
Still a favorite
Played a lot back in the very early 80s. Would love to get back into it with my son now :-)
You should!
Me too! Great memories.
Me too! Great memories.
I moved over to their "Federation Commander" version awhile back.
It streamlines some of the old SFB rules such as cutting down on the number of impulses per turn and gets rid of the whack-a-mole ECM/ECCM power bid jockeying, to name a few. It also includes a scaled down option so you can run larger fleets more efficiently. Closer to the sweet spot between quickness of play and detail. Recommend.
i love them both!!
I love Fed Com. Can’t wait until my kids are old enough to introduce them to this.
This was my first "board game" back when I was ten years old. A Star Trek fan and ship to ship combat was a hook for me. First battle was Fed CA vs Klingon D7, fantastic. Great to see the coverage.
Very cool! thank you!
I bought it new back then and the only problem I had was finding people to play against. My background for it was the Avalon Hill, and like, games up to and through Starship Troopers modeled after the RAH novel I had so enjoyed.
Yes, one can duplicate them, but even then they had page protectors and I used those with grease pencils to cut down on the delay and the need for making duplicates.
I remember buying this in 1979 when there was only one boxed version and then later in the late 1980's there had been so many expansion packs that they made three boxed versions of it in three volumes. Playing it with the miniatures was the best. We also combined it with a game called Federation Space which was ,more a grand a large scale tactical layout of the whole galaxy and when you moved your ships into a single hexagon space we would then open of Star Fleet Battles and play the full scale battle. Great times
Sure is
The miniatures were handy and added to the spirit of the game
SSI had an Apple II version on 5.25 Floppy Disc called The Warp Factor. It was basically SFB rules with zero graphics but extremely exciting. Thank you for this wonderful 35 year jump back in time to some of the best times of my life! Looking forward to more 😎
Thanks for the info!
SFB is one of my all time favorites, and I've even gotten some folks into it recently. That's quite the old edition you have there! FWIW Amarillo Design Bureau is still doing frequent releases of new miniatures for use in the game (and Federation Commander) via Shapeways. The Captain's Edition does have a lot of balance improvements, but core of the game is pretty much the same.
i have more to share very soon!!
i guess it is kind of off topic but does anyone know a good site to watch newly released movies online ?
@Jackson Parker I would suggest Flixzone. Just google for it :)
Played it for many years in SiFi Con
Glorious
Wow. I still have this game on my shelf. It was cool back in the day
its still cool to me mate!
@@seahawk8601 Rob, FYI there were also 3 expansions for this game which i have. If you want a photocopy let me know.
played this in the early 80's and won a tourney at Gencon....I wax nostalgic about the Klingon B10. Had all the supplements (They wernt called suppliments but forget what they were called). I had several huge black binders full of those. There was so much to keep track of..wow
great game
I love SFB! Looking forward to this.
just got my second load in
I have many fond memories of playing SFB way back in the day. I haven't kept up with it in quite a while, but now I have a hankering to check out what I have missed. A few of the nice things about SFB:
--No matter how complicated it got (and boy, could it get complicated), it was so well and thoroughly playtested that just about every conceivable permutation of events was covered by the rules (and if not, the game's creator/developers would answer questions).
--The impulse movement system is fantastic and eliminates a lot of problems that can occur with non-simultaneous movement. I wish more games used something similar.
It looks like you got a really nice example of the old boxed set, packed with some goodies! I still have a good deal of my SFB material but some of it got water damaged a few years back. This video makes me want to replace what I had lost.
i got more coming
That's it! I'm digging out my old copy stashed away in the cedar chest.
Lol
Love Trek, enjoy this great older game.
Classic and just old school fun
On balance I never fell in love with this game for a variety of reasons, even though I invested heavily in it hoping beyond hope to play a full fledged war campaign with the local group. It never happened. The game, pre-Commander's, started more arguments and nearly ended friendships than it ever offered genuine Star Trek space-war fun. Honestly if it wasn't questions about what phase or segment of the turn came before another, then it was misinterpretation of general or specific shield reinforcement. If it wasn't that, then it was quandries about battery discharging. If it wasn't that, then it was questions about why different races had different point value for different classes, and why each subsequent addon race got more powerful ships and so forth.
I watched the TV show as a kid when it first aired, and up through the 80s every so often when it was on in re-runs. And just once I would have liked to have had some friends or a gaming group that got into the f_cking fiction the game was supposed to offer as opposed to trying to outthink your opponent in bean counting energy allocation, or to have some jerk or scum bag whip out a rule we hadn't been using the entire game and argue for its use.
And if it wasn't that, then it was the game author's attitude on his forum, including but not limited to breaking his own forum rules. Between him, the arguments the game started when it was in its developmental period, or the advent of seaking weapons which adde to book keeping and cluttered the map needlessly, and then the game's author invoking lawyers to tear down all the fan created material posted on the net, I had had enough of him and his game.
I understand that Star Trek is a police and health show dressed up as adventures in space. Rarely, if ever, do Kirk and Spock do any actual exploring. They're always taking on outlaws or monsters. But that's when a lot of what all shows are about in some form. Only with SFB ,because it was based on Trek, you expected, or at least I did, more Trek flavor, and mister Gene Roddenberry seemed pretty affable. Which was in direct stark contrast to the anal retentive jerk that authore this monstrosity of a creation.
I had fun with SFB, but rarely. And I wanted to have more fun wth it, but the game attracted more "let me outwit you by knowing the rules and energy allocation math than you, and snicker at you when you fuck up" kind of people. It was really gauling.
And to discover some cult oriented things about the TV show all these decades on, and how it was by design a kind of vetting TV show ... it really leaves a bad aftertaste in this gamer's mouth.
I really do wish I could have played the game more as it was when it was first released back in 78 or 79. When good scifi was still a niche hobby, and gamers weren't yet assholes, or so I recall.
More power to anybody who enjoys this game, but as far as I'm concerned you can have it.
Ok
I thought I had one called Federation Space, and not heard of Federation Commander. However, I used to play a lot of the original Starfleet Battles. Fond memories of that game.
Just so good!
@@seahawk8601 i remember our last game years ago. I picked the Romulan dreadnaught and he had that massive Klingon dreadnaught. I came in slow to get my plasma torpedoes ready. He came in fast and in one shot destroyed my ship. Needless to say it was our shortest game ever
Like some of the others we played it back in the early 80s. Along with car wars. It's to long of a game to find time to play it anymore. However, we do play Federation Commander. It does for S F B what Alpha strike did for Battletech.
i have it
Rob...you, sir, are a (Starfleet) officer and a gentleman! What a classic.
thank you!!
I played this about 50 years ago.My buddy always beat me. Thanks for the memory.Great game.
Glad you enjoyed it
So your buddy played as the Gorn then??!!
I and my friends in Winnipeg were play testers for this game for a few years around 1982. We used to get new material and send reports by actual mail with Steve in Amarillo. I occasionally would talk to Steve on the phone and I remember we talked about the Falkland's War a bit. That was a while ago now!
that is very cool
House rules to streamline Star Fleet Battles for more fast and fun play:
* Use the Cadet Game rules (or Introduction to SFB or the 1979 pocket game).
* No fighters or carriers, just admin shuttles and suicide shuttles (no wild weasels) and each ship only has one spare small craft dilithium crystal to install in one shuttle or drone for the scenario to make that shuttle or drone warp-capable. Otherwise all shuttles are sub-light (speed 1) and the un-crystalled drones are direct-fire drones (1 warp energy to launch, hits the same as an overloaded photon torpedo, may be fired upon by phasers or ADDs (opponent selects what range in the drone's journey to roll), if tractored the direct-fire drone is instantly destroyed, and if it hits a target at range zero, the firing ship receives d6 (1-6) hits from feedback). And all drones must be launched through a downed shield facing the targeted object, like the rules for using transporters (shield stays down for one quarter of a turn and any range zero drone feedback damage goes through the downed shield). A recovered shuttle that has a dilithium crystal may use that crystal to power a shuttle or drone in the recovering ship later. Dilithium crystals cannot be moved by transporters.
* Use 16-impulse turns.
* Have the ships fire every turn (optional):
- Disruptor Bolts: one point to arm, may fire twice during a turn, spread a quarter turn (4 impulses) apart [ex: if 4 points of power were allotted for disruptors, a Klingon cadet cruiser fires both disruptors on impulse 2 and then may fire them again that turn on or after impulse 6].
- Photon Torpedoes: two points to arm, may only fire once per turn (get rid of the arming turn rule).
- Plasma Torpedoes: four points to arm. May fire a Plasma-F every turn. Or, if you do not fire the plasma that turn, you may spend another four energy points to fire a Plasma-S torpedo the following turn.
* Simple turn modes:
- Every ship may make a turn on every impulse it moves. It may make a 60-degree turn either before or after moving forward one hex.
- If moving at a speed where the cadet turn mode is 2 (Fed, Gorn, Romulan: speed 7+, Kzinti: 8+, Klingon, Orion, Tholian: 9+), then the ship may make a turn only AFTER it moves forward one hex.
- The ship may make a sideslip instead of making a turn that impulse. No turns may be made with a sideslip.
- Shuttles, drones, and plasma torpedoes may make a 60-degree turn before AND after it moves forward one hex in an impulse.
* Full-size ships using the cadet Energy Allocation Form (EAF):
- When playing 16-impulse turns, the speed the ship's 32-impulse movement is halved, dropping fractions [ex: a Fed CA spends 19 energy points to move speed 19, but when playing in a 16-impulse game, it moves at speed 9, dropping the fraction, at the cost of 20 energy points, where an Orion Raider Cruiser with a warp energy cost of 2/3 spends 14 energy points to move at speed 21, will move at speed 10, dropping the fraction].
- If using the above easy turn mode rule, full-size ships will make a 60-degree turn either before or after moving forward one hex.
- If moving at a speed where the turn mode is 3 (Fed, Gorn, Romulan: speed 9+, Kzinti: 10+, Klingon, Tholian: 11+, Orion: 13+), then the ship may make a turn only after it moves forward one hex.
- The ship may make a sideslip instead of making a turn that impulse. No turns may be made with a sideslip.
- Shuttles, drones, and plasma torpedoes may make a 60-degree turn before and after it moves forward one hex in an impulse.
- Spending energy points to activate the shields and life support may be noted in the NOTES section of the cadet EAF.
This form of SFB is simplistic, but it gets the game moving quickly and eliminates that annoying "did I move straight last impulse, or what" and the players will not have to clutter up the map with turn and slip move markers. This also makes the game even easier to explain and play with new gamers which is the whole point of the cadet game. Experienced gamers can also use these house rules to quickly fight out large fleet battles.
i have all of that and will be doing this slow and old school
I loved the Fed Carrier, that was my favorite ship in the entire game. I still have all my books and counters!
Love this game
My introduction to this game was a bit roundabout - I started playing an old DOS game called Turbo Trek when I was young which implemented at least some portion of SFB, though I didn't learn that SFB was a thing until years later when I saw the miniatures in a hobbyshop.
Cool
Old school goodness! It's funny how that Master Ship Chart looks like a giant receipt from the store. lol
You're right, it was Amarillo Design Bureau that took over the ST stuff. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the stash that you got brother!
Exactly! video coming soon!!!
@@seahawk8601 excellent!
It has a reddit channel that has a lot of information and long time players, you can get links to custom SSD's for ships and races, etc... This game has been going for 40+ years.
cool! i will check it out!!
GMT may have introduced us to a modern version of this game in 2016 called "Talon". I absolutely loved SFB 1979+. My friends would keep playing SFB no mater how many times they lost. This is a sign of a great game when you can lose many times in a row and still want to try and try again. IMHO SFB needs to hand the game over to another publisher who partners with a Paramount and a deluxified KS campaign to revive the game (with a much more streamlined version where you don't get caught up in the pseudo-fighter, carrier, drone ship escalations at least at first. Don't even think about releasing much of those for years or decades or even never).
cool
I also enjoyed the FASA Starship Tactical Combat Simulator
me too!
Me too. Never completed a full battle.
but there is always time!!
I have a new design where the only paper work is keeping track of speed.
Easy missile fighter utility, mines, sensors, cool repair and more.
Ship sheets can be a full standard page for capital ships and bases.
Ships use sub-drive, hyperdrive, armor, shields, command function, heavy, medium, light and fighter weapons, hangers, cargo, torpedo launchers, mine layers, spcl sensors, hand combat, planetary assault, boarding parties, and ships can be personalized for survey/scout, intercept, heavy combat, command and control, freight, colonization etc..
All of it uses a D20 die.
Easy rules but construction is a bit tedious.
Rulebook about 20 pages.
Use any space minis. But I make my own.
Sounds cool
I have many fond memories of SFB. I should also mention we never actually finished a complete game. (Allocate energy, move ship, then argue over rules for an hour; next turn.)
i will do the same for old times sake!
Saladin class destroyers - my favourite. Speaking of Starfire, I have all my original bits. Great game.
Classic
Also the first ship I played as part of a team during a campaign battle. Along with another Saladin player, our task was to shadow and deter a Klingon F6 reinforcement from being able to join in the main fracas. I fired one Photon, in the whole game, at extreme range with a contact fuse (against the umpire's advice to use proximity) and scored a good hit. I'd been holding the thing in for several turns and like a fart, it needed to be released into the universe.
Hooked on SFB from that moment.
Such a great game. Loved playing it back in the day. And if you want to go old school with another great game and one that I would really love to see you play is Renegade Legion Interceptor. That is such a cool and unique game.
i actually have it
@@seahawk8601 I know you do and that is why I ask. :) My ex tossed mine and still really wish that I had it. I loved playing the only computer game as well.
SFB is a classic. Good choice bro
and there is more!
I have a bunch of stuff on this games in the way of ship sheets, energy scoring sheet, even a binder aitch the rule book. Ive always wanter to Learn how it works, but it was always so big...
Should be getting to it soon
It's alright, but as an early teen, it was incredibly ponderous and plodding. I remember thinking "I just want to fire phasers, why do I need to know what effect a positron flywheel has on a tractored ship in a gas giant's atmosphere?"
The rule book when I was 13 was enormous. It had really thin paper, really small print, and was the size of several meaty A4 pads of paper.
I liked the scenarios. The one about the Darwin falling through a rift and needing to be protected from the andromedans was particularly fun.
I still love it
Speed is Life in Star Fleet Battles
Great call
I have been playing Star Fleet Battles since I was introduced to it in high school, back in 1983. Over the ...decades, it has grown more and more complex to having a 400+ page rulebook. The Federation Commander laminated card version did much to simplify SFB, but I went back to playing the cadet/introductory game: www.starfleetgames.com/CadetTraining.shtml
Playing the simple cadet game was also good for playing out big fleet battles quickly.
great post!
You're my kind of madman.
Thanks!
You can play Star Fleet Battles online at www.sfbonline.com There are tons of different ships etc that are available to play. This is a subscription service but they do have a free demo mode.
cool
Hi Rob, you might want to try Federation Commander as well. It is basically the same game but with much simpler and streamlined rules and plays quite a lot faster.
i have it and we will get to it!!
I played the first version back in '82 and we had so much fun going through the old star trek scenarios. We started buying all the expansions over the years until it became an archive box full of rules, folders and parts and no one wanted to go near the game. It just became unplayable. Rule 118.2.3.a etc. Needed a degree to get through it and we lost interest. I dont even know if i still have that archive box.
your dead on...it does take a lot to get thru
Wonder if you could use the Ships from Star Trek Ascendancy
too big
@@seahawk8601 The Hexes don't fit Risk sized units?
Great game. Wished I had a chance to play it more. BTW the edition you are showing is an out of date version of the game. The current edition is the Captain’s edition. You want to start with the basic set in that version.
i am!!
Rob did you ever do a follow up video on the latest Edition of the game ?
not yet
Really look forward to you play through. Will it be solo?
yes!!
I used to play SFB back in the 1980's at a local wargaming club, but then other wargames came along & distracted me. I did, however, buy my own copy of the game.
In 1999 the PC real time gaming version Star Fleet Command 1 came out. SFC is compliant with the 1988 Commanders Edition Ruleset Volume 3. Still popular 20 years later. It is still rated as the best Star Trek space battle PC game ever, so far, due to complexity. It makes Star Trek Legacy look like a sucky arcade game, by comparison.
The SFC game also comes with the SFB Cadet Training Manual as reading it helps players new to SFB & SFC understand what the game is actually doing. It also introduces potential new players to SFB and the Star Fleet Universe.
SFC operates exactly to SFB rules so having player SFB, SFC was pretty familiar except that players sometimes have to think in seconds rather than minutes to take action. Power has to be allocated, weapons charged, shields reinforced, damage control allocated, etc.
Many modellers (including myself) have updated the 3D models, replacing the wrong TMP models with the correct SFB models and added more models & races into the game, including FASA ships converted to the SFB/SFC system. Also cross overs from other Sci-Fi universes. For instance Kirk's Enterprise will always win against a massive, over gunned (with primitive weaponry) but slow and weakly shielded (max speed = 1 in SFB/SFC) Imperial Star Destroyer. Actually a Klingon G2 gunboat will eventually beat it simply by sitting out of range and gradually whittling it down.
great post!!!!!
@@seahawk8601 Update...... Since retiring, I've started playing Star Fleet Battles, once again. So far, I've hosted two games at the monthly South Dorset Military Society wargames club meetings, using Micro Machines models on 6 x 4 foot 1.25 inch hex space background rubber mats, plus a game with my son, when he visited me last month.
The core rules are easy to learn, for noobs, so by SDMS game #2 we had drones, anti-drones, Admin shuttles, boarding parties, transporter bombs & tractors in play. To keep the game turns short, we're still running 16 impulse turns.
I've kit bashed some Micro Machines Connies into F-DD, F-TT, F-BCG, etc. plus bought & assembled a Mongoose Kzinti CVL, Gorn DD, Klingon E3, Klingon E5 & a pair of F-CL.
Only the Juggernaut mounts a Type IV Phaser.
Sure
Other than bases and Starbases.
@@SmegHedd117 And the eyes of the ancient space dragons!
Nostalgic, although I always preferred Starfire - DIY ships are one thing I insist on in starship combat rules these days. I'd nearly forgotten how crappy the original SSDs were. The rules are still as clunky as ever but the modern SSDs with most of the charts the ship will need in play printed right on them certainly did streamline things.
great points
back when you used your mind and imagination
very true
I get board easy 😉
don't we all!