Vulcan Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Fusions take some practice to use well, I concur, but when coupled with Hellbores they make a decent ordinance set. And, IIRC, the power cost is really low, comparatively speaking, so you can get away with overloading them on a more regular basis compared to Photons or Disruptors. The trick to using Hydrans correctly is to stay flexible, use pack tactics, and ruthlessly concentrate your Hellbore fire on any target you can hit that has at least one breached shield. And the Hydran small craft draw enough fire that the capital ships often survive longer than you'd expect from their SSDs. That's why I specified the fusion Hydrans. Having to get to range 1 (at most!) in a smaller ship (assuming an equal BPV battle) is tough! Of course, all those fighters make a great equalizer - if you can keep the other guy from crippling them before they get close enough... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles That's why I specified the fusion Hydrans. Having to get to range 1 (at most!) in a smaller ship (assuming an equal BPV battle) is tough! Of course' date=' all those fighters make a great equalizer - if you can keep the other guy from crippling them before they get close enough...[/quote'] That's usually the thing. As was already said, pack tactics are often the way to go for Hydrans. If at all possible, never give the other guy oppurtunity, time or room to chew up your fighters at his leisure (sound advice, actually, for ANY carrier group in SFB). Ideally, one arranges things so that the enemy has a very simple choice. He can either kill most of the fighters RIGHT NOW, and the mother ship will blow his doors off as he does so; or .... he can chew up the mother ship RIGHT NOW, whereupon whatever is left, plus the fighters, will blow his doors off as he does so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperPheemy Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I hung tough with SFB for years. Though after a while, the weight of more and more Carriers, Fighters, and Drones stripped away all of the Trek feel for the game to me. I ended up duelling more and more (which brought back the "Queens of the Line" feel to the combats). My little brother and I played each other so often that regardless of which ships we threw at each other every battle ended up with two burning hulks struggling to fix one last Phaser 3 to finish off the other at range one. My favorite ship will forever be the IKV "Blood Debt" a C8K Dreadnought and scarred survivor of countless duels, task forces and fleet actions. She's won more than she lost, and always managed to get at least the Boom section back to a friendly starbase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I used to be a fan of SFB, but then I discovered Attack Vector: Tactical. I was a fan of that, until Squadron Strike came out, which is easier to play and comes with ship contruction rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I got to play a Squadron Strike Demo at Winter Wars, interesting game, but I had a really hard time with all the funky vectors and 3D angles, while kinda cool it just didnt seem to add that much to the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrdbil Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I picked up a copy of Starmada, and I'm really liking it. It's about as complex as I want a space game to be. I thought about trying a demo of the Honor Harrington game put out by ad astra, until I read a gameplay description...blech. Makes SFB look like tic-tac-toe in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theltemes Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Yeah, the combination of Starmada and VBAM make for some really fun wargaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles here we go Klingon Armada: Amarillo Design Bureau and Majestic Twelve Games are proud to announce an agreement has been reached to develop Klingon Armada: a Starmada supplement set in the Star Fleet Universe. Tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2009, Klingon Armada will contain all of the rules options, additions, and starship designs necessary to allow players to pit forces of the Klingon Empire against their perpetual enemies, the Star Fleet of the United Federation of Planets. Future products of the Star Fleet Armada series will expand the scope of this partnership to include the Romulan Star Empire, the Tholian Holdfast, and other combatants of the Star Fleet Universe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I've been curious about Starmada, but I can't get people to game lately. I couldn't convince someone to try Full Thrust last weekend, and he used to love starship battles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles That's usually the thing. As was already said, pack tactics are often the way to go for Hydrans. If at all possible, never give the other guy oppurtunity, time or room to chew up your fighters at his leisure (sound advice, actually, for ANY carrier group in SFB). Ideally, one arranges things so that the enemy has a very simple choice. He can either kill most of the fighters RIGHT NOW, and the mother ship will blow his doors off as he does so; or .... he can chew up the mother ship RIGHT NOW, whereupon whatever is left, plus the fighters, will blow his doors off as he does so. Made worse by the Stinger's ability for 3 of them to blow up any crusier in the game... once they reach range 0, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted June 7, 2009 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I picked up a copy of Starmada' date=' and I'm really liking it. It's about as complex as I want a space game to be. I thought about trying a demo of the Honor Harrington game put out by ad astra, until I read a gameplay description...blech. Makes SFB look like tic-tac-toe in comparison.[/quote'] I haven't played that one myself, but my friends who have assure me it's nowhere near as complicated as it seems from the descriptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Labrat Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles OMG SFB! Great thread, buddy! I was always the Lyrans. Anti-missle shield and drones baby. Can't remember the details but I was in from the 1st edition and totally bought up all those suppliment books the day they hit the shelves (prior to the internet by at least a decade). I remember using the grease pencils to allocate power from the batteries to the main shields, letting the opposition unload their ordinance and then letting those drone fly. Great times. Simple, yet so engaging. Rep for the memories.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles the guy who created the Hyrans(Andy Robinson) also created Primus and Demon and has been on a few other books for Hero way back during 2nd and 3rd editions yeah, the same thing killed it for me. I played because I enjoyed the tactical challenge, not to see who can win using the most obscure trump card rule... for the record I have to say... Go HYDRANS! Stubby li'l green dudes FTW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles the guy who created the Hyrans(Andy Robinson) also created Primus and Demon and has been on a few other books for Hero way back during 2nd and 3rd editions I didn't know that, but it's very cool to hear. I sometimes think more recognition should be given to how much influence the Austin gaming scene has had on the greater gaming community as a whole... Lots of really influential members of the community seem to have been come out of there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles OMG SFB! Great thread, buddy! I was always the Lyrans. Anti-missle shield and drones baby. Can't remember the details but I was in from the 1st edition and totally bought up all those suppliment books the day they hit the shelves (prior to the internet by at least a decade). I remember using the grease pencils to allocate power from the batteries to the main shields, letting the opposition unload their ordinance and then letting those drone fly. Great times. Simple, yet so engaging. Rep for the memories.... While Hydrans were always my hands down favorites to play, Lyrans tied the Gorn for second place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAge Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles No love for the ISC? I really enjoyed those splashing PPDs!!! Has anyone tried a game online? - http://www.sfbonline.com/index.jsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted June 8, 2009 Report Share Posted June 8, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles The Gorn... yeah, they can be fun too. Any time you can waddle up to another ship, slap a tractor on, and force-feed them one hondred pointsss of plasssma is a good time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawangaKid Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I picked up a complete set of the old Commanders Rulebook edition for 5.00 at a con auction a couple of years back' date=' I havent played since that version, there are some great simple sets out there besides SFB, I really like Full Thrust, A Call To Arms, and Starmada. I remember reading somewhere that there was going to be a joint Starmada/SFB project actually.[/quote'] I think I saw that too. Supposed to come out this year, I thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawangaKid Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles here we go Klingon Armada: Amarillo Design Bureau and Majestic Twelve Games are proud to announce an agreement has been reached to develop Klingon Armada: a Starmada supplement set in the Star Fleet Universe. Tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2009, Klingon Armada will contain all of the rules options, additions, and starship designs necessary to allow players to pit forces of the Klingon Empire against their perpetual enemies, the Star Fleet of the United Federation of Planets. Future products of the Star Fleet Armada series will expand the scope of this partnership to include the Romulan Star Empire, the Tholian Holdfast, and other combatants of the Star Fleet Universe. Oh noes! That'll teach me to reply without reading the entire thread first. Yeah, I'm reading through Starmada myself, and trying to see if I can play it against someone locally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Great game. I've enjoyed the Starfleet Command series of computer games. I've got Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War and Starfleet Command Orion Pirates. They do a really good job of simulating the SFB rules with a big bonus - the computer takes care of the details. No more tracking a ton of plasmas and drones, no more checking five weapon charts for a round of firing followed by damage charts - which can be fun, granted, but it's certainly faster with the computer doing it. Tractors, converting shuttles, t-bombs, HETs, boarding actions/hit&run raids, shield facings - it's all there. I heartily recommend it to any SFB fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I've played Empires at War. It is a nice implementation of SFB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaft Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Any fellow fans of the Star Fleet Battles RPGs? GURPS made an awesome version of Prime Directive that would make a great reference for an *ahem* enterprising Star HERO GM wanting to run this with FRed. Task Force Games also had a cool, but complicated system as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Going tangential: my favorite Trek RPG setting variant was FASA's. Those folks could never do game mechanics worth a damn (for any game; e.g. Shadowrun), but they did wonderful settings (e.g. Shadowrun again); their Trek RPG was no exception to either. OTOH, if you are a fan of the SFB setting, the fluff in Prime Directive (and GURPS usually gives good fluff) sets you up to do a rousing SFB special operations campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Going tangential: my favorite Trek RPG setting variant was FASA's. Those folks could never do game mechanics worth a damn (for any game; e.g. Shadowrun)' date=' but they did wonderful settings (e.g. Shadowrun again); their Trek RPG was no exception to either.[/quote'] I agree. The FASATrek rpg had good ideas for Character generation and skill usage, but the overall mechanics were very clunky. The background stuff was first class, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles I agree. The FASATrek rpg had good ideas for Character generation and skill usage' date=' but the overall mechanics were very clunky. The background stuff was first class, though.[/quote'] Personal favorites: The Orions. The whole two-book supplement. Awesome alien race description which is, IMO, portable to non-Trek settings if you take the history prior to contact with the Klingons and the Federation. Klingon-fusion races. Kudos to John Ford for the idea (which explained the differences between TOS Klingons and Movie and later Klingons); FASA ran with it. Kzinti. Yeah, they're not Trek canon; Niven borrowed them from his own Known Space setting for the TAS episode he wrote. Big deal. Me likey. Little to no TNG and later content. FASA published a couple of TNG sourcebooks when the series first came out, but lost the license shortly thereafter. Paramount then proceeded to crap all over FASA's work. Thus FASATrek is uncontaminated by the Voyager/Enterprise crapfest. So be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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