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67-528: This video game is a computerized turn-based version of tactical combat simulation very similar to the Star Fleet Battles pen-paper-map-counter game. While Star Fleet Battles is explicitly set in the Star Trek universe, The Cosmic Balance is not. That said, the first (and closest to a tutorial) scenario in the game re-creates a meeting between Starship Enterprise and USS Reliant , like in

134-608: A Star Trek game. Elements of these almost forgotten fan productions shaped many aspects of the game. The Technical Manual itself decided the main functions of the Federation Heavy Cruiser, and what other Federation ships looked like. A set of blueprints (probably those drawn by Michael McMaster in 1975 ) showed the Klingon D7 as having more phasers than the Heavy Cruiser, and disruptors mounted on

201-430: A '1999' legend at the bottom of the cover to show when they were printed. The time period between the last products from TFG, and ADB's announcement that they had re-secured the rights to the system were not entirely without new material. Bruce Graw published Star Fleet Times as an SFB newsletter about ten times a year, mostly during what was afterward called 'The Interregnum'. Its run ended with issue 50 in 2000, as it

268-555: A 5 phase system) and is designed to more realistically simulate unit movement in an environment where the units can move a great distance in the time needed for non-movement functions (like weapons fire) to occur. Star Fleet Battles was based on the Star Trek universe as of 1979 and includes elements of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series . Federation elements were heavily based on concepts from The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual . Unlike

335-461: A Federation CA and a Klingon D7 fighting it out. In the brief space of an hour long re-run, I had two SSD's, the proportional movement system, and the charts for phasers and disruptor bolts. All were to change drastically within a week and were to continue evolving for five years, but the start was made. The company JagdPanther closed down before SFB was finished, but the game was not forgotten, and when Steve Cole and Allen Eldridge decided to start

402-557: A comment about the first Gorn -Federation meeting as involving “two young captains who fired first, and faced embarrassing questions later.” Other references are monster scenarios loosely based on the planet killer from " The Doomsday Machine " and the space amoeba from " The Immunity Syndrome ". Star Fleet Battles was originally published as a 'pocket-game' in a ziplock bag as "Task Force Game #4" by Task Force Games in 1979. Steve Cole later recalled: The design of Star Fleet Battles began during 1975... Jim Brown... and I were playing

469-459: A full sheet and included extra record-keeping information, such as tracks for drone ammo and shuttles, and firing charts for all the weapons on the ship. A line of nine Commander's SSD Books were produced, the first few of which were mostly involved presenting new-style SSDs for the older ships, the last several of which had all new material. During this entire period, there had been a constant stream of Errata, and later Addenda (which amounted to

536-511: A game, though they can control an entire fleet, if they can keep track of the paperwork and options involved; multiple players can play as teams, with each team splitting up the work of running a squadron or fleet, or a 'free-for-all' fight can be run. Ships represented in the game are typically starships from such classic Star Trek powers as the Federation, Romulan Star Empire , Klingon Empire, or purely Star Fleet Universe creations such as

603-503: A lot of Jutland .... One afternoon I was studying the Jutland battle that was in progress on my floor (left from the previous evening) when the [ Star Trek ] re-run of the day came on. I began to consider the possibility of doing a space game on the Jutland system. JagdPanther was in operation at the time, and I had vague thoughts that I could somehow get a license for the game. By the time Jim came by to collect me for dinner, I had

670-408: A new company (Task Force Games) Star Fleet Battles was one of several half-finished designs proposed to be published by them. While the initial format was small, and the number of ships limited, the game was still not simple . This was dictated in part by a desire to do the "definitive Star Fleet game". This meant that it included as much detail as possible from all the source material available. In

737-532: A series of Star Fleet Battles modules (and a playtest pack for Federation Commander ). Over two dozen empires have operated in this region; some remain a factor in the Octant throughout the modern era, others rise at an early time only to be crushed or sidelined, while still others only enter the scene at a later point in history. Notable powers include the Mæsron Alliance (a union of several species, like

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804-508: A simulation of Special Relativity . Chris Smith reviewed SSI's RapidFire Line in The Space Gamer No. 59, and commented that "This is a standard game of starship-to-starship combat, complete with phasers, photons, ECM, shields, and various other chrome. The difference between this game and some other comes before combat: You design your own ships." David Long reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World , and stated that "CB

871-405: A whole had been on the decline since about 1980, and Task Force Games joined the list of established gaming companies that did not survive the '90s. The decline of TFG was gradual, and SFB suffered long before the company actually folded: Ultimately, however, the publisher was battered by market forces, a few bad decisions, and perhaps a lack of focus. The game system more or less disappeared from

938-407: Is two dimensional but rather than using an orthogonal or hexagon grid , the game utilizes free movement similar to that of some forms of miniature wargaming . Ships have a speed and heading and travel only according to them. All encounters in the game are at speeds slower than that of the speed of light . After playing ten turns, players have the option to activate their warp drive and escape

1005-428: Is a subscription online client that allows a person to play SFB against other people on the internet. While it does still require a personal understanding of the rules to play, the client does contain all the record-keeping functions of the game, and provides for some easier handling of places that require 'simultaneous' decisions (which have always been difficult in normal face-to-face play). Star Fleet Battles On-Line

1072-401: Is a tactical simulation, one which plays very smoothly and, as noted earlier, almost too quickly. The shipyard. options and the number of scenarios available will keep this one out and in use for a long time. In the meantime I look forward to the strategic galactic conquest game with CB as its combat resolution interface." In a 1992 survey of science fiction games, Computer Gaming World gave

1139-847: Is home to one rather adventurous space-faring race presented in the SFB Omega -series modules... The empires of the Triangulum Galaxy come in two distinct flavors, with a handful of older realms dealing with the consequences of several newly emergent species making their mark on M33. Three of these powers (the Helgardian Protectorate, the Arachnid Worlds of Unions and the Mallaran Empire) were presented in playtest form in SFB Module E2 , while

1206-483: Is known as the " Star Fleet Universe ". There are several notable games set in this universe, including the video game series Starfleet Command (which combines parts of SFU with parts of canon Star Trek), the role-playing game setting Prime Directive , (currently available for the GURPS and d20 systems ), the card game Star Fleet Battle Force , and the strategy game Federation and Empire , as well as

1273-463: Is labeled Module x , where x is a letter (and number, in a series), along with a name, and comes as a booklet of rules and a booklet of SSDs, with a sheet of counters and a color wrapper as the cover. The new empires of Volume II and III were presented in Module C1 and C2 . Captain's Log #8 devoted a substantial amount of space to explanations of exactly what the new edition meant, and how

1340-404: Is published by Amarillo Design Bureau as Star Fleet Battles, Captain's Edition . Star Fleet Battles is a ship-to-ship warfare simulation game, which uses cardboard counters to represent the ships, shuttles, seeking weapons, terrain, and information on a hexagonal map . It is a game system for two or more players (there are some solitaire scenarios). Typically, a player will have one ship in

1407-687: The Drex Unity (A civilization of artificial intelligence who dedicate themselves by defend their creator's homeworlds against any threat), the Sigvirion Expansion (a species of living viruses that take over and use other species as their hosts), and the Federal Republic of Aurora (a collection of exiles from several Alpha Octant empires, involuntarily transferred to the Omega Octant and forced to find their own way amidst

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1474-533: The Hydran Kingdom or Interstellar Concordium. The game system uses an impulse-based turn system, which is a departure from the traditional I-Go You-Go alternating system used by most wargames. A ship's speed determines how often and when it can move based on a 32 impulse movement chart. Generally, a unit only moves one hex at a time, making 32 the maximum 'speed' in the game. Similar systems are used in games such as Steve Jackson 's Car Wars (which uses

1541-400: The 'Doomsday Edition' was released as Star Fleet Battles, Captain's Edition in 1990. The long gestation, however, did give us time to plan an all-new edition. The publisher insisted that we should reorganize the game system into entirely new products. This was necessary to present the material to an entirely new generation of gamers in a more logical format (and to make dealers notice that it

1608-431: The 'pocket' format. When 'completed' this trilogy would cover the entire system." However, the real reason for this plan was that it had been impossible to acquire boxes at an affordable price. When a source of boxes was found, it was decided to do a revised, expanded version instead. The box contained about twice as many ships and scenarios as the original Pocket Edition, and was expanded upon itself by three expansions in

1675-957: The Alpha Quadrant; in the Designer Edition the Attack Shuttle Carrier was unique to the Kzinti Hegemony. In the final years of the General War so-called 'Pseudo-Fighters' (later renamed 'fast patrol' ships; but retaining the 'PF' designation) were expendable 'attrition units' (like attack shuttles/fighters but larger with their own ship system displays) that operated from tenders, bases, or planets and hunted in flotillas of six. 'X-ships' or 'up-rated cruisers' featured altogether new technologies (like fast-loading torpedoes, overloaded phasers, oversize warp engines and high-capacity battery reserve power) based on

1742-804: The Alpha Sector to the Delta Sector, but only Alpha, Beta and Gamma (more specifically, the area covered by the Federation and Empire ) have been extensively explored by the major powers of the region. The Omega Octant runs from the Void in the Omega Sector through the Psi, Chi and Phi Sectors (though Phi is mostly off the detailed Omega map, as Delta is in the Alpha Octant), and is detailed in

1809-577: The Federation and ISC; its rise, collapse and renaissance helped define the Octant's history), the Trobrin Empire (composed of silicon-based life forms, who consider a 'Silicate Plan' to rule the galaxy as their only insurance against domination by 'carbonites'), the Probr Revolution (a species of genetically uplifted salamanders with an anarchist bent, who rose against their creators, then used their technology to forge their own empire),

1876-993: The Fringe worlds lies the Chomak Cluster, a collection of stars only recently (in astronomical terms) captured by the Cloud's gravitational field. Module C5 for SFB presented five of the Magellanic empires: the Baduvai Imperium, the Eneen Protectorates, the Maghadim Hives, the Uthiki Harmony and the Jumokian Resistance. Others, such as the ancient Chomak Community and the reclusive Yrol Septs, await publication. In

1943-535: The Hydran Fusion Beam was too weak, and so the game designers changed the rules so that charged Fusion Beams could be held over from turn to turn. Another example was the many complaints that Plasma Torpedoes were too unwieldy to use as seeking weapons, and so the rules were amended to allow Plasma Torpedoes to fire as direct-fire weapons (the Plasma Bolt). The 'Commander's SSD' (Ship System Display)

2010-749: The Imperium was previewed in Captain's Log #23 . Many other empires are noted as being present in this setting, including the Human Republic (founded by a Terran colony caravan which was displaced from the Milky Way in -Y12). The Triangulum setting awaits formal publication in a "full" published module. Hexagonal map Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

2077-505: The SFU takes place in the same continuity (other than alternate timeline scenarios), the lore is divided across several settings that have little to no contact with each other. The vast majority of products published for Star Fleet Battles is set in the 'Alpha-Octant' (sometimes called 'Alpha-Sector', but that is actually just a part of the area covered), which includes all the races known from The Original Series . Other settings include: In

The Cosmic Balance - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-701: The Star Fleet Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy is divided up into 24 sectors, each named for the letters of the Greek alphabet . Each sector extends from the galactic rim, and inwards to where star density and radiation problems cause ion storms , precluding travel. There are five 'void' sectors (Epsilon, Iota, Pi, Upsilon and Omega), where star and planet density is low, and which tend to generate large ion storms and radiation clouds, restricting travel from one set of sectors to another. This leads to

2211-914: The Tholian Will was M81 , a galaxy outside the Local Group . Before the Seltorian revolt, it was controlled completely by the Tholians, with the exception of isolated nebulae from which the Nebuline species helped support M81 piracy. In addition, this galaxy was once home to the Bolosco Merchant Guilds, later found in the Omega Octant. Adjacent to the Omega Octant of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Iridani Cluster

2278-924: The Voids separate the inhabitable portions of the galaxy are the Alpha Octant, the Sargasso Octant, the Xorkaelian Empire, the Sigma Octant, and the Omega Octant. The Alpha Octant is the primary setting of the Star Fleet Universe, being home to the United Federation of Planets , the Klingon Empire , the Romulan Star Empire , and all the other empires inherited from other Star Trek settings. It extends from

2345-399: The amount of fuel they carry throughout the course of the game. Second, after spending several turns reaching maximum speed, in the course of one turn a ship can be brought about and end the turn traveling in the exact opposite direction at maximum speed. The game does have an absolute hard coded speed limit, but this is based on a limitation to the user interface and is in no way related to

2412-784: The box (later printings labeled it Star Fleet Battles: Volume I ). The separate Star Fleet Battles Commander's Rulebook was also available for previous owners of Star Fleet Battles . Most of the material (including the new empires) from the Expansions was reorganized and released as Volume II . The bulk of the fighter rules were in Supplement #1 , X-ships (now redone not to be based on ST:TMP and divided into two "generations") were in Supplement #2 , and PFs (now renamed as Fast Patrol ships) were in Supplement #3 . From there, Commander's Edition came out with new products for

2479-411: The damage by properly re-writing and re-integrating such a large and complex system into a new edition before doomsday , especially without bringing the product line to a halt while only new versions of old products were released. For a long time the 'Doomsday Edition' was a private joke amongst the staff that worked on SFB . Then it became a public one. Finally, it became an actual project in 1987, and

2546-533: The decades prior to the Andromedan arrival, several wars were waged between the three Magellanic Powers (Baduvai, Eneen and Maghadim), most notably for control of the strategically vital Neutral Worlds. Unfortunately for these empires, the Andromedans eventually sought to conquer the Cloud outright, in order to claim it as an advanced base of operations for their full-scale invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy. In

2613-758: The engines. The latter became a common feature of Klingon shipbuilding, and the former led to the idea of less powerful phasers for the Klingons. The same blueprints also stated that an older, slightly inferior version of the D7, the D6, was what was sold to the Romulans, and the D7/D6 dichotomy has been at the heart of the Klingon fleet in the game ever since. Two of the novels gave mention of a phaser being mounted on shuttlecraft. This

2680-489: The face of this common threat, the rival powers formed the Triple Pact: a desperate, and ultimately doomed, joint bid for survival. Once Operation Unity succeeded in subduing the Andromedans, the surviving Magellanic forces (which had held out in exile among the Fringe worlds) took to re-building their fallen empires, though it would take a long time for any of them to approach their former glory. The original location of

2747-524: The film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Ship design is an exercise in resource management, with power, drives, defensive systems, and weapons all vying for a finite amount of hull space. In addition to this, the player can set the firing arc of all the direct fire weapons (the bigger the arc, the more space the weapon consumes). Unique to Cosmic Balance , the overall firing arc of any particular direct fire weapon does not need to be contiguous , and can be split into as many as four separate arcs. Combat

The Cosmic Balance - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-510: The game was based on, were supplemented by 'wartime construction cruisers' (simply called 'war cruisers'), relatively inexpensive substitutes built on light cruiser hulls yet packing the firepower of their larger stablemates. All fleets deployed 'Command Cruisers' which were heavy cruisers with additional weapons and power, and some races deployed 'Leader' versions of smaller classes, such as destroyers or frigates. Carrier starships with attack shuttles (usually called fighters) became common throughout

2881-519: The interiors, and other in-house machines do the binding and trimming. This ' print on demand ' process allows greater freedom in product releases, and warehouse storage, and all recent products use this system. Star Fleet Battles has its own background universe giving the stories of ships and empires. This started as the distillation of Star Trek lore at the time of SFB's creation, but soon started adding its own touches to fill in perceived gaps. The 'SFU' now diverges sharply from canon Star Trek , as

2948-556: The mainstream Star Trek universe, Star Fleet Battles seems to consider some, but not all of The Animated Series , as being a canon material source, thus leading to the inclusion of aliens such as the Kzinti . Since the first publication of the game, Star Fleet Battles and the Star Trek universe have diverged considerably as the authors of the game and those of the films and television series have basically ignored each other. The resulting divergent world of Star Fleet Battles

3015-673: The market by the end of 1996 when ADB was unable to design new games without being paid for the previous ones. Two years of tedious negotiations were completed in January 1999 and Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. was born. Since very early on, the publishing duties and design duties had actually been split, with the Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB) handling all of the product design, while TFG had published, and indicated what they wanted to produce. The end of TFG put everything under one house again, and ADB, Inc. spent some time picking up

3082-484: The mid-70s, this meant the original two series and a number of fan publications. Except for The Original Series itself, none of these materials are considered canon today, but at the time, they were all considered fairly authoritative, especially the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph , which had originally been blessed by Gene Roddenberry, and from whom Steve Cole got the license to do

3149-404: The new products would work. The release of 'Doomsday' was split into five phases: And the biggest change was: "We'll explain everything, but we won't change anything!" Doomsday promised an end to addenda. Loopholes might be closed, new things might still be added, but no previous rule would change as a result. The new edition was a success, but could not stop the march of time. Wargaming as

3216-900: The new versions of the Enterprise and Klingon battlecruisers seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . All races built 'Battle Stations', which were upgrades to the Base Stations deployed on territorial borders that were presented in the Pocket Edition (for their Starbases, each race used a modified generic SSD in the Designer Edition). Each race also received auxiliary units that used generic SSDs, such as police ships, freighters, Q-ships , Fleet Repair Docks and minelayers, for which comprehensive mine warfare rules were introduced. Until that point,

3283-588: The next half-decade or so. Two Reinforcements packs allowed the purchase of extra counters. Volume III added the Interstellar Concordium and the Neo-Tholians, as well as new ships and new concepts (such as heavy fighters). Nexus magazine was launched as a house organ for Task Force Games, and featured a regular SFB section which presented new material like scenarios, rules errata, and input and feedback from players. Similar material

3350-512: The only mines were the Romulan-unique “nuclear space mine” (NSM) and the smaller “transporter bomb” (T-bomb) used by all races. Many things were re-written, and each expansion included new elements that impacted how previous rules interacted, demanding a great deal of errata and making the entire system something of a jumble. "It was clear that issuing yet another 'expansion kit' that devoted half of its space to correcting previous products

3417-400: The pieces of nearly three years without SFB . The first order of business, in fact, was to reprint Basic Set and Advanced Missions which had been out of stock for about three years at this point. While they were at it, all the errata and questions were evaluated, and many sections of the rules were re-written in an effort to make the game clearer. These editions featured new cover colors and

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3484-402: The producers ignored anything from fan productions, and SFB's own license does not allow them to use any new material from more recent TV or film series. The SFU has re-interpreted several things, and in some places only bears a passing resemblance to the show that gave it birth. The SFU now has a history that covers (in various products) a span of about 130 years. While everything published for

3551-535: The races were issued a full complement of ship classes, particularly dreadnoughts, fleet tugs and scouts, which in the Designer Edition only the Federation and Klingons deployed. Notably, only the Klingon Empire built the superheavy 'Battleship' B10 class (in the Captain's Edition Module R5 the other races were presented with conjectural i.e. non-historical battleship designs). Heavy cruisers, the starship class

3618-413: The recently released Federation Commander . The license Star Fleet Battles operates under does not allow for direct reference to the characters and detailed events of the Original Series . As such, official material does not include references to Kirk , Spock or use the USS Enterprise directly, though the latter is included in ship listings. This has not prevented oblique references, such as

3685-448: The same thing). For a long time, the vast majority of the mail received was from the top few fanatical SFB players, who constantly campaigned for new rules, rules fixes, and rules changes. This became a source of discontent for most of the rest of the players, who did not appreciate a game that changed every few months, and needed a sheaf of notes along with the voluminous rules. However, it was generally believed nearly impossible to repair

3752-424: The same zip-lock format as the original (named Star Fleet Battles Expansion #1 , Expansion #2 , and Expansion #3 ), all of which were reviewed in issues of The Space Gamer . These expansions rapidly added many new ships and concepts to the system which are parts of it to this day: The Hydrans, Andromedans and Lyrans were introduced as new empires that fielded novel technologies peculiar to themselves. All

3819-599: The scenario. Each turn in the game represents 16 seconds of time and distances are measured in units call Lightmils. A conversion of Lightmils to real-world units is not given. The game simulates Newton's first law in that a ship will maintain its current speed and heading unless it expends power to change them. The game simulates Newtons second law in that the more massive the ship the more power required to accelerate, decelerate, or maneuver it. The game does not, however, simulate Newton's third law. First, every ship has its own unique maximum speed even though they have no limit in

3886-448: The sectors in between to be grouped together in (generally) sets of three, termed 'octants', as three sectors are one eighth of the rim of the galaxy, and which are sometimes inaccurately referred to as 'sectors' themselves. The Storm Zone is unoccupied, as even bases cannot exist there due to the severity of the storms, and ships cannot penetrate the Radiation Zone. The Core of the galaxy has never been explored. The five areas into which

3953-400: The title three of five stars, stating that it and the sequel Cosmic Balance II "were excellent products in their day". Star Fleet Battles Star Fleet Battles (SFB) is a tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the Star Trek setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole , it has had four major editions. The current edition

4020-500: The warring factions of Omega). So far, only one empire has been revealed as originating from M31, but it has made quite an impact on the Star Fleet Universe... The Small Magellanic Cloud (referred to in-setting as the Lesser Magellanic Cloud) is composed of three main regions: the densely populated Core (shrouded by a dense radiation shell), a ring of provinces with "standard" stellar densities, and an outer Fringe region where stars and planets are much fewer and further between. Beyond

4087-430: Was a new edition). The changes were sweeping. There were two boxed sets (in a smaller format than former boxes), the first of which, Basic Set , was roughly the same as Volume I . The second, Advanced Missions was different in that it only introduced new rules and ship types (more ships than any other single product in fact), but stayed with the same selection of basic empires as the first box. Nearly everything else

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4154-404: Was also published in ADB's in-house (but widely distributed) Starletter newsletter from 1982. Of lasting importance was the launch of Captain's Log , a continuing semi- periodical journal dedicated to Star Fleet Battles that is still running. It was noteworthy that the game developers at ADB were very receptive to input and feedback from SFB gamers. For instance there were complaints that

4221-444: Was considered that the internet served the same purpose (a regular way for the fans to keep in touch) much more efficiently. Since then, ADB, Inc. has gotten everything back in print, released a number of new products, and has seen the number of SFB players slowly grow again. This is in part due to the fact that it has a strong on-line community, encouraged by the company forum, and the existence of SFBOL . Star Fleet Battles On-Line

4288-466: Was included, as much to give a reason to use shuttles as anything else. This proved to be the wedge that allowed the introduction of fighters to the game; a feature popular with many players, but also led many to believe that Star Fleet Battles was no longer Star Trek . Later in 1979, Star Fleet Battles was re-released in a boxed set known as the Designer's Edition . The original plan had been to produce "three interlocking games, all to be published in

4355-452: Was introduced. SSDs had just been a half-sheet diagram of the ship's systems. Some combined ship classes that were differentiated using shaded boxes which were to be ignored to represent the smaller ship class (for instance the Klingon D6 and D7 cruisers were presented on the same SSD sheet with shaded boxes indicating the phasers and shield boxes that the D6 lacked). The new Commander's style SSDs (which did not appear in Volume I or II ) took

4422-404: Was not the answer." Commander's Edition was, effectively, a ground-up rewrite of the rules. The old rule-number system was discarded in favor of a completely new alpha-numeric system. The three Expansions were scrapped and re-packaged. However, other than the new (bigger) reorganized rulebook, the initial 1983 release of the boxed set was mostly unchanged from the Designer's Edition , including

4489-474: Was originally developed by Gregg Dieckhaus and Paul Scott of Online Game Systems and is currently maintained and supported by Franz Games, LLC In the meantime, ADB continues to try to serve the SFB community with new products, and new ways to manufacture and distribute products. Currently, they only have to go to a regular printing company for counters and color covers. These are then stockpiled, and when an order comes in, in-house (black-and-white) printers run

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