"Best Rules for Star Trek Games" Topic

I used to play the FASA version of Star Trek games in the 80s. I've never played anything by ADB.

I'm looking for opinions, what is the best rule set for Star Trek? FASA, ADB (which rule set of theirs), something else entirely.

Thank you.

Klingon Armada, easy to play.

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Board game geek entry for the game
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Which era of Trek? TOS/movies? ADB's version is based on TOS and deviates in a totally different direction.

I like and use the ADB 'A Call To Arms Star Fleet.' If you go to ADB's website, you can still pick up the original version of ACTA Star Fleet for cheap.

It's set in ADB's version of the original series with a lot of additional info and ship types. Easily adapted to the Movie and Next Generation era's.

Depends on what you want from the game? I've played the FASA game and Klingon Armada.

Probably an popular opinion, but I would pick Star Trek Attack Wing. I use that as my default ship game now. You can quite easily run multiple ships either side and there's range of factions. More importantly you can pick it up cheap and it's up to you to decide what you use.

If Attack Wing doesn't work, how about 5150 Fleet Commander and 5150 Star Navy. As I ask, depends on what you after in a game?

Don't know about "best", but I've enjoyed Federation Commander for star ship duels.
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Half way down that page, look for "First Missions", free starter pdf that you can look over.

It's slow, but there's lots of crunch. You allocate energy to ship's systems (shields, engines, charging torpedoes, etc. Remember to leave some for weapons to be used later). Movement in 1 turn is broken into smaller pulses. If your ship is moving 24 and mine is 12, you move 2 hexes, I move 1, repeat until we get to the end of the turn.

So lots of long term planning is needed. "Do I fire now, or will I need that energy for later? How many pulses are left before energy recharge? Should I energize shields or boost engine speed?"

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The 5150 games are better suited to story telling. Not so many details to keep track of, but suitable for larger battles.

I agree with Fergo113, A Call To Arms Star Fleet is fun, fairly fast and gives a good Trek feel. The bits I don't like I just don't use (drones mainly).

As well as th FASA game I've used a few variants of Full Thrust with good effect. ore recently I'e used "Engage" with a few house rules. Also a decent game

It depends on what ST era you want to play. ADB is only licensed for the pre-movie shows so you will not get the new series or movie ships.

Another vote for A Call To Arms:Star Fleet. Working on playtesting book 3 right now. Great for large battles. But I vote for the new version of the rules not the original. Better flavor and harder to break.

Federation Commander is great for single ship duels, for up to 3 ships per side. It still plays fast but way simpler than Star Fleet Battles.

Federation Commander is okay, though bit detailed- flies about a squadron.

Personally I also like Star Trek conversions for Babylon 5 Wars.

Great answers all. Some of your questions I just can't answer other than to say that I like the idea of versatility so that I can play either TOS of the post 70s era. I also like the idea of ACTA because it can be used either with Trek or B5. I recently picked up the Full Thrust GZG box, so I can look to that to see about its portability to what I'm looking for. Thanks to all. :)

My favourite space ship game by far is Full Thrust with vector movement. I did some ship stats for Star Trek here link but others have done them too. Post what you decide to try and how it goes.

Still playing cinematic FT with Star Trek ships; most vector players suggest it matches the 'swish' of ST.

Claiming that the simplest representation of a curve is an angle, I think it's vector, but I'm a minority of one.

Simple game, downloadable for free, up and playing quickly, and you can go on to something else if you want that 'more crunch.'

Only issue is you have to hunt down some ST ship playsheets. Haven't looked lately, but assume Star Ranger's are still there.

Doug

The best rules involve swapping the borg out for Cylons, the enterprise for Galactica, shuttle craft for vipers and Kirk/Picard/Janeway for Adama . Replace anti-matter powered warp drives with Tylium fueled jump drives and phasers and photons for rail guns and nukes and ditch the touchy-feely prime directive for an all out, no holds barred fight for the survival of the human species.

That should get you off to a good start. 😉

Several folks have made ST conversions for Full Thrust. Star Ranger did some. Also, check this site out for weapon conversions.
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The old Designers edition of Star Fleet Battles for smaller actions because you get a real feel of the ships capabilities and it can be taught quickly It doesnt bog down into subvariants of every class of vessel like the Captains and Commanders editions do.FASA,s STSSTCS allows a very good to excellent game and is very teachable.The FASA system allows for decent fleet battles in realistic real time that SFB could never do.

FASA's game also has much cooler looking ships.