Star Fleet Battles (SFB)Kevin’s favorite “wargame,” Star Fleet Battles (SFB for short) was created in the late 70s, based on ships from the Original Star Trek. Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Tholian, etc. Since then, SFB and Star Trek have gone in different directions, as the company that does SFB didn’t get the licences to do more modern ST stuff. As a game, it rates very high on complexity. To the extent that there is a conflict between realism and playability/balancing, SFB errs on the side of playability. Although the game is called “Star Fleet Battles,” in my humble opinion it doesn’t work very well for “fleets.” The level of detail and amount of attention needed for each ship can cause a fleet action to rapidly grind to a standstill, and resemble filing the income taxes of a typical city block. However, for one-on-one dueling, it is, quite simply, the best wargame out there. Nothing else comes close. Kevin plays exclusively “Tournament SFB”, which involves dueling with standardized ships. Because there are 18 types of ships, there are a total of 324 different matches you can play, meaning you never get bored. The rules take a little while to learn, but the real game is in the tactics and the maneuvering. To learn more about SFB, go to the Star Fleet Battles Home Page,. Kevin also hangs out a lot on the SFB Discussion Board. SFB players are a great group of people, the only sad bit being that there are too few women who play. Much of the good SFB these days happens on SFB Online. Kevin is on the “staff” of SFBOL, a volunteer position. In addition to playing a lot (callsign Sir_Starfurry), he runs the biannual Flying Deuces Tournaments on SFBOL—the only tournaments reserved exclusively for new/casual players. Kevin also ran Doubles, the first tournament featuring teams of more than one player. Flying Deuces IV completed in June, 2002. Flying Deuces V completed in February, 2003. Kevin has been playing serious tournament SFB since January 1994, and has picked up a few honors in that time. For a list of the major ones, click here. Places to find Kevin’s SFB articles: Other articles may be posted here in the future. If you are an aspiring player, or an experienced player with a question, feel free to send Kevin a message |