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Ok its not a miniatures game, more a card counters game, but at least no need to paint anything

Not played seriously in 20 years (had one game about five years ago)

Does anyone still play this? SFB specifically but also Federation and Empire, a game for people who thought a full fleet action in SFB just didn't have enough counters on the board.

If so are any of you anywhere near Wolverton UK....

Spent ages playing this at college, probably taught me more about probability than my mathematics teachers ever did, still have the captains edition around here somewhere.

They're still releasing products, so people are still buying.

You might want to also consider Federation Commander. It's a more streamlined and faster version of the game. A lot of the fiddly bits were removed, you only have eight firing opportunities per turn, no ECM, etc...

Have seen FC.. didn't actually see the point, never found SFB to be slow with unfinished games.

Mind you didn't always play to the death, single ship games played until it was clear who was winning, then restarted, fleets one side was crippled and left the cripples to hold the enemy while the rest pulled back.

Scenarios were good as well, specially the 'historical' ones with unbalanced forces.

ECM/ECCM wasn't hard to use, indeed could get a massive advantage burning power into ECM (thus an enemy burning power into ECCM to counter, then dropping it at a critical moment to gain advantage, secret of comedy and SFB.. Timing)

Weird thing was, the fiddly bits only came in if you actually wanted to use them, was perfectly possible to play without fighters/Interceptors/PFs or drone cruisers. Indeed playing pre-war without refits was a whole new game really.

Only really two rules that slowed it down:

Tactical Intelligence (D17.0?) - great fun but worked best in team games where one player on each team kept track of it, otherwise good to drop once you got to a set level so it impacted the opening turns but not much beyond that.

Energy Balance Due to Damage (D23.0?) - this basically changed the dynamics of the game totally, only used it in small games and then not often as it changed the local meta a bit too much for some of the players. Amazing concept though (essentially you can force enemy weapons to power down through damage to the power generation system before they fire)


God remembering rule numbers... thats like knowing the serial numbers on the bus you travel on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Side point, was going to get some of the miniatures to try and kick off actually playing this again a bit more visually at my local club..

Typically mongoose no longer sells them and not ordering from the states.

these things, like judges, are sent to try us