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Post by thedungeondelver on Dec 29, 2009 18:42:22 GMT -5
Somehow in all my beardyness, this is one game that I never got around to playing. Anyone else?
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Post by coleston on Dec 29, 2009 20:12:56 GMT -5
Nope.
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Post by theredpriest on Dec 29, 2009 20:27:21 GMT -5
Fanatically.
Well, in the '80s anyway. This was probably our 2nd most played game behind AD&D. We started off with the basic game in 1980, and then as each supplement was released we'd snatch it up and add the new rules, ships and races. There would be as many of us around the battle table as there were around our RPG table. The hex maps that came with the game weren't nearly large enough. We'd spread out really jumbo sized hex grids and each of us would have fleets worth of ships.
The biggest and baddest scenarios were the carrier duels. Each side has 2 or 3 carriers, with the expected escort ships and many dozens of fighters to control. When the drones (missiles) started launching, there would be hundreds of pieces on the board, gatling phasers trying to knock out as many nuke-tipped drones as they could and Romulans with their nasty killah plasma torpedoes doing their best to annihilate whatever they contacted.
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Post by algolei on Dec 29, 2009 21:51:53 GMT -5
My friends and I played this a lot for a while. They would play Federation ships, and I would attack them with various Klingon vessels. I can't remember ever beating them.
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Post by Falconer on Dec 30, 2009 13:09:11 GMT -5
I’ve never played it, but I am fascinated by the “Star Fleet Universe”—a parallel development of the Star Trek universe that began before the movies and TNG and has continued to this day, i.e., based solely on TOS and TAS. Prime Directive RPG is published by the same people and uses this alternate universe.
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rflowers
Lieutenant
Beware Romulans bearing gifts!
Posts: 68
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Post by rflowers on Dec 30, 2009 21:29:08 GMT -5
I've played it - there is a level of excitement that is hardly diminished by the time it can take to push those little counters around. After you've played a few games, you get faster. I think what I liked the best was the ship diagrams, ticking off damage depending on which direction you took fire, disabling certain systems... It really made a difference in picking which ship(s) to play.!
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Post by theredpriest on Dec 31, 2009 0:42:18 GMT -5
Right on, rflowers. Recently, well, a couple of years ago, I got to teach a new group how to play SFB. There were four of us, and I setup just a free-for-all of one ship each: Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Gorn. I was the Romulan, and the other three were laughing at my puny under-powered ship as they sparred with each other dinging away at their shields. "Go hide behind your cloaking device, Romulan." "Aren't those plasma torpedoes charged yet?" Ha ha ha, they jeered at my little War Eagle. When the Federation heavy cruiser tired of dancing with the Gorn and Klingon, he decided to come at my approximate location (remember I remained cloaked) head on. I released my plasma torpedo at point blank range. It wasn't pretty. Except to the Romulan commander.
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Post by Falconer on Dec 31, 2009 18:26:50 GMT -5
Star Fleet Battles is something I’d like to get into, but it seems daunting. Where do I start? From what I have read, I can think of three ways: 1. Seek out the original “ Pocket Edition” of Star Fleet Battles. 2. Get the current edition’s Basic Set. 3. Try their newer Federation Commander game instead. Any suggestions? How well would this game interface with a RPG? Probably not so well, since in STB each player controls a ship or a fleet, whereas in a RPG all the players would be on a single ship. However, if there wasn’t an expectation of it plugging into the RPG, but rather the RPG and STB being two separate games that between them would create a satisfactory campaign, that might be fine. Any thoughts or experiences?
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coffee
Lieutenant
"My chicken sandwich...and coffee." - James T. Kirk
Posts: 84
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Post by coffee on Dec 31, 2009 23:36:45 GMT -5
I find the first boxed edition to be pretty good. I got it on ebay for about $10 or so, with all three supplements.
I like it better than the later games, because they all got very complicated. (I'd like to get the original pocket edition, but that's pretty rare.)
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Post by hedgehobbit on Jan 5, 2010 10:36:25 GMT -5
I played alot in the 80s at Texas A&M. There was a large group there but they usually played gigantic battles with at least one B-10. I prefer the smaller ships.
I would recomend getting Federation Commander. It is almost the same except it leaves out the more complicated parts: fighters, pseudo-fighters, carriers, electronic warfare, drone buidling, etc.
The main drawback with Fed Commander is that it ends up getting expensive since you don't get many ships in each set.
The basic boxed set is still pretty simple and comes with plenty of ships. There is also a simplified rule summary you can download. If you go that route, I'd suggest getting the Early Years books. This represents the ships and such before the first series. What's good about it is that these ships don't use the more complicated systems that the older ships do and you get ships for almost all the races in one book.
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Post by chgowiz on Jan 5, 2010 12:09:02 GMT -5
I have to admit, the sheer scale and amount of math geekery of SFB scared a bunch of us off... we went with FASA's Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. I have no idea if it was simpler, but it plugged into the FASA RPG and we tried it a few times. Interestingly, we always played in the TOS style era, even with the ST:TMP ships. Most of us grew up on TOS/TAS. Ugh - just read that the co-creator of the FASA RPG and creator of STCS passed away in Sept of this year. forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread.php?t=15254&highlight=tepool
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Post by Falconer on Jan 5, 2010 15:47:15 GMT -5
I’ve only heard good things about the FASA Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. Obviously, in this context, I find the ability to plug into a RPG to be a plus. They also did a Battlestar Galactica game which is supposed to be good (but it seems really rare).
But right now part of me wants to give in and try the shiny, in-print and supported Federation Commander. But that part of me that is always attracted to the “First Edition” of everything thinks I should track down as early a version of Star Fleet Battles as possible, in hopes that it is not as complex as later versions are supposed to be.
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Post by finarvyn on Jan 5, 2010 16:40:46 GMT -5
I have a couple of copies of SFB and used to play it quite a bit in the 1980's. I like the basic system of SSD templates that act a lot like hit points. It really can make starship combat interesting, as you can lose phasers, shields, transporters, or whatever.
I think I have a copy of the original Microgame for SFB before it became a boxed set, and I know that I have some of the SSD books around somewhere, but overall I haven't really looked at this for a long time.
Does bring back memories, however! :-)
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Post by theredpriest on Jan 6, 2010 13:08:51 GMT -5
I find the first boxed edition to be pretty good. I got it on ebay for about $10 or so, with all three supplements. I like it better than the later games, because they all got very complicated. (I'd like to get the original pocket edition, but that's pretty rare.) I'll go with coffee on this one. The original boxed set is a breeze to pickup, then you can add the supplements at your own speed, if ever. I believe the newer versions are more complicated, because they incorporate much of the supplemental material, and it's it just all this stuff at once. The cool thing about the original rules, is that if you play the ready scenarios, it's like a tutorial. New rules are added with each. So, you get to play right away, and learn as you go. I'd say one good solid weekend day of play ( 6 to 8 hours?) should make anyone a SFB pro. I've never gotten a look inside the pocket edition, but if it's anything like their pocket Starfire game, then it's going to be really easy to pickup.
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Post by finarvyn on Jan 6, 2010 14:01:29 GMT -5
I believe the newer versions are more complicated, because they incorporate much of the supplemental material, and it's it just all this stuff at once. Yeah, the three-volume Captain's edition was insane. They had these three large rulebooks all 3-hole punched and ready to be integrated together into a single notebook. I did this and then couldn't find anything. :-P The "designer's edition" is really cool because the rule book isn't that big, and the game seems a lot easier to play without all of the supplemental extras.
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