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I got into this game back when it first came out, I still have ships for it, but... man this game got ignored by everyone. I think X-wing alliance came out around the same time? and yeah that game was fun, but I feel like it wasn't so much more fun than ACTA: Starfleet that ACTA Starfleet should have been completely ignored.

OH well, my oldest kid is old enough that he wanted to play "daddy's space ship game with the starship enterprise" so I have gotten 2 teaching games in with him so far, and its still pretty fun. Hopefully we keep playing some more in the future.

I am still annoyed that "book 3" hasn't come out yet despite it being literally done, I did get book 2 when it came out tho.

I get the appeal. Star Fleet Battles itself is... well, very, very, VERY crunchy in the details.

But for SFB players, the crunch IS the appeal. The problem usually becomes 'having the time' to play a game with a rulebook that puts most telephone books to shame...

A Call to Arms Starfleet is perhaps even more simple than Battlefleet Gothic when it comes to playing the game.

Instead of managing your points of power like in SFB, you can issue a few special orders to the ship at the beginning of the turn, and that has a generic "power drain' effect that can be applied to the ship in different ways, like choosing to only fire phasers, or moving slower, or something else.

I mean... I taught my 7 year old how to play it. It really does deserve more attention

I don't remember at this point though I played the og B5 ACTA back when it came out at GenCon (along with Wars and Fleet Action before that). Is it built off the bones of the old b5 wars rules?

I got a bunch of this stuff when it came out, being an old SFB player. Mostly, it was for the models (which are now sadly harder to get with ADB moving everything to Shapeways, and then Shapeways imploding). I read through the rules a few times, but haven't ever actually gotten it on the table. I have used some of the models for actual SFB, though, because for me it's still one of the kings for capital ship starship duels.

I was a playtester for ACTA - B5 and Starfleet - good times.

Starfleet is based on ACTA: B5 to some degree - but has a great deal of SFB variations in the rules which makes it very much its own game.

I really enjoy ACTA as a fleet engagement system - I messed around with a 3rd ed ACTA: B5 but no-one was interested sadly

I haven't heard of that game before, but I have many Trek ships from STAW lying around and I'm searching for a larger scale game than the skirmish play that STAW offers. Would this one work? How many ships per player are there usually and are there (fan-) expansions for 24th century/ Dominion War?

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I haven't heard of that game before, but I have many Trek ships from STAW lying around and I'm searching for a larger scale game than the skirmish play that STAW offers. Would this one work? How many ships per player are there usually and are there (fan-) expansions for 24th century/ Dominion War?

ACTA is designed for games of about 5 - 20 ships - although the larger the ships the more time it takes.

Also Starfleet does have more weapons per ship than B5 or Noble Armada.

Not seen many fan expansions - there were a good number for B5 but its more discouraged by the owners of SFB

Thanks for the reply! Too bad then. I find it quite difficult to find a Space battles game for the scale I'm looking for that also works for Star Trek. Most/ all games I'm seeing are either smaller or have the usual Carrier+Fighter focus that doesn't fit Star Trek.

You like playing games with more than 20 ships? I guess its possible. For a while ADB had 7000 scale ships on shapeways, which are pretty small, you could play using CM instead of Inches with the rules for a "larger" table/board to play on as well.

I would say the rules don't really break down on a larger scale, you might want to do what "federation commander" does to SFB, where you cut everything in half, shields, hull points, weapons, etc. That way you can field more ships, each being less effective, but still everything being avaraged out the same.

BanjoJohn wrote:
You like playing games with more than 20 ships? I guess its possible. For a while ADB had 7000 scale ships on shapeways, which are pretty small, you could play using CM instead of Inches with the rules for a "larger" table/board to play on as well.

I would say the rules don't really break down on a larger scale, you might want to do what "federation commander" does to SFB, where you cut everything in half, shields, hull points, weapons, etc. That way you can field more ships, each being less effective, but still everything being avaraged out the same.

I think he is looking for rules for Dominion War era

Yeah, currently I'm thinking I might just stick to using the STAW rules I'm familiar with and just skip updates on the ships. Maybe incorporate some of the Epic battles rules from X-Wing.
And yes, 1:7000 -1:9000 is the scale I'm following for my Trek minis.

To be honest using the base ACTA arms would be fine - making ships is pretty easy

Here you go as an example:

Galaxy Class
Speed: 10 Turn: 1/45 Hull: 5
Damage: 50/12 Crew: 80/25 Troops: 2
Craft: Shuttles 4
Special Rules: Command +1, Shields 20/5, Scout, Transporter 2, Warp Drive

Photon Torpedoes F Arc 4 AD Range 30 Super AP, Double Damage
Phaser Array F Arc 4AD Range 20 Mini-beam, Precise
Phaser Array P/S Arc 3 AD Range 20 Mini-beam, Precise
Phaser Array Aft Arc 3 AD Range 20 Mini-beam, Precise
Photon Torpedoes Aft Arc 4 AD Range 30 Super AP, Double Damage

Jem'Hadar Fighter
Speed: 14 Turn: 2/45 Hull: 6
Damage: 12/4 Crew: 10/3 Troops: 2
Craft: None
Special Rules: Shields 10/2, Scout, Transporter 1, Warp Drive

Torpedoes F Arc 2 AD Range 20 Super AP, Double Damage
Phased Polaron Beam F Arc 6AD Range 20 Super AP
Phased Polaron Beam Aft Arc 6AD Range 20 Super AP

It's pretty easy to just pick any of the classes of ships that exist in ACTA and use your miniatures as proxy for the other ships. There was one other system though, I think it was.. Starmada? ADB released a version of their game in the Starmada system, and Starmada has a ship building system for making your own ships. I don't grok Starmada but other people like it too, and say it works for larger fleet battles.

Yeah, Starmada is where you want to go for your 1/7000 Trek adventures. Very easy to make whatever ship you want, and the full Starmada rules (rather than the SFB sub version) can do drones, fighters, terrain, and whatever wacky weapon the nose-of-the-week has on their ships.

I have played a couple of TNG star trek starmada games, and it is good fun, but does require some tinkering to get it just right.