Star Fleet Battles is a tabletop tactical Starship combat game set roughly in the original series Star Trek Universe. The game allows players to take command of one of several Star Trek fleets (such as Federation, Klingon, or Romulan), or one of a few of Star Fleet Battle's own design (such as Lyran).
It should be noted that the original license for Star Fleet Battles does not come from either Desilu Inc., or Paramount Inc., but from Franz Joseph, the creator of the Star Fleet Technical Manual, though they have now a limited license to continue from Paramount. As such, the universe presented within the game is based not on the television show, but on Franz Joseph's work. This limitation is why Star Fleet Battles cannot use designs found in later official Star Trek ventures, such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture or TNG.
Star Trek: The Stoneship Files (given its Lyran roots), RIS Bouteina and Star Trek: Unity are (at least partial) attempts to reconcile SFB with TNG-era Star Trek.
RIS Bouteina[]
Although the series itself bases heavily on SFB, there is an episode where a spin-off of SFB (adjusted to the shipboard realities of the day) was played and even was one of the major highlights of the galactic gaming world: the battlefest, based on a SFB game and popularized by the TOS video games Starfleet Command (game) I and II. All variants of the battlefest share common rules: players respawn with a larger ship upon destruction of their current ship and when one's largest ship was destroyed, the player was eliminated. It could be played as a free-for-all or as team contests. A Kzinti two-member team became the vice-champions of a battlefest tournament. (RIS Bouteina: "Toy Dream")
Playable factions[]
- United Federation of Planets
- Klingon Empire
- Romulan Star Empire
- Gorn Hegemony
- Tholian Assembly
- Cardassian Union
- Breen Confederacy
- Lyran Star Empire
- Interstellar Concordium
- Kzinti Patriarchy
- Hydran Kingdom
Battlefest playing order[]
- Frigate
- Standard Battlefest starting ship
- Battlefest Lite starting ship
- Extended Battlefest starting ship
- Destroyer
- Battlefest Lite second ship
- Extended Battlefest second ship
- Light cruiser
- Battlefest Lite final ship
- Extended Battlefest third ship
- Heavy cruiser
- Standard Battlefest second ship
- Extended Battlefest fourth ship
- Slugfest starting ship
- Battle cruiser
- Extended Battlefest fifth ship
- Slugfest second ship
- Dreadnought
- Standard Battlefest final ship
- Extended Battlefest final ship
- Battleship
- Slugfest final ship