Federation and Empire
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Federation and Empire (F&E) is a strategic-level board wargame set in the Star Fleet Universe spinoff of Star Trek, currently published by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. (ADB). It is a stand-alone product, but has sometimes been considered the official campaign generator for Star Fleet Battles.
[edit] Overview
The main focus of the game is the General War, an 18-year long conflict that involved all the major powers of the Alpha Octant. The scale is vast, with each hex on the map representing 500 parsecs, which as the rules point out, reduces the Milky Way Galaxy to a two dimensional object, as only the core would be thicker than a hex across, and it is not shown on the map. On the other hand, units are typically individual ships, each with its own combat rating. Each of the interstellar governments or "races" can have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ships, leading to a game that possibly tops the largest monster games for number of counters used, on a map that is only as large as "small" monster game.
In outline, Federation and Empire is fairly typical for a grand strategy game. Players take alternating turns, managing the resources of their side to build ships and defences, and maneuver their ships (or fleets) to attack the enemy and then resolve the resulting combats; his opponent then does the same on his turn. In detail, it is a bit more sophisticated. During movement enemy ships can react a short distance onto moving ships. There are rules for the interaction of these forces, which may force some or all of the moving ships to stop, being pinned by the reacting enemy. After movement, the non-moving player can also move a few limited reserves of ships to battles so as to shore up the defense of critical points. After combat, the moving player gets to move ships that were in combat back to source of supply or repair, and move a limited number of ships vast distances to prepare for the coming enemy turn.
While essentially a two player game, each race's record-keeping is kept separate, meaning that is easy to run each side with teams — one person per race. Technically, this could be up eight people (three for the Coalition, five for the Alliance), but it is not common to have a separate player for each of the smaller powers in play (and especially so for the Tholian Holdfast, which is included in this total, but is neutral for most of the game, and a very minor force when it is active), so that typical team play is probably four to five players.
The map also includes the provinces, starbases, battle stations and planets of other races in the region, such as the neutral Lyran Democratic Republic and the WYN Cluster, as well as the Interstellar Concordium, which in the main rulebook are considered neutral powers, but the inclusion of these races on the map allows for their use in game expansions, such as the impending ISC War expansion pack.
The main boxed set has a series of scenarios that can be played individually, but together outline the play of the General War, as well it also allows for non-historical free campaigns to be played, with historical orders of battle for each of the stellar empires. The expansions typically have a number of scenarios, which may be a focused treatment of a particular part of the General War, or an alternate way the war could have begun. There are also a limited number of scenarios that show other conflicts in the region, such as the Four Powers War.
[edit] Editions and supplements
Federation and Empire itself was originally published in 1986 by Task Force Games (TFG). The rulebook has been revised four times since then, one of them coinciding with a change in the overall components. All editions come with 'fleet charts' (sheets of off-map holding areas for excess counters) as well as 'capital charts' (to detail the contents of the capital systems of the various races), and the main map.
TFG's first strategic level game for the Star Fleet Universe was Federation Space, released in 1981. It was derived from the current working draft of what became Federation and Empire, and so can be considered a "brother" to it, even though there are notable differences between the two.
Federation and Empire Deluxe Edition was published in 1993 by TFG with the massively updated and expanded Rev-3 rulebook, a nicer-looking map and a new set of counters. The original set included 10 numbered sheets of double-sided counters for ships as well as two sheets of single-sided counters for markers and the like. Deluxe Edition retained the two single-sided sheets, but had three identical sets of four double sided counters (referred to as A, B, C, and D), providing two extra sheets at the cost of a couple unique units.
After ADB took over the publishing of all SFU material from TFG, they continued selling the Deluxe Edition, but soon released another large rewrite of the rules in 2000. The Rev-4 rulebook is usually called "F&E2K".
In 2004, the countersheets were again changed, from ABCD to One and Two. (Current sheets are twice the size of old ones.) In total, the number of counters are the same, but the counters that players may want extras of have been segregated onto Two, so that they can be bought separately. Once the counters are punched out, there are no differences between "F&E2K4" and the previous version.
- Carrier War was the first module, or supplement offered for F&E in 1993. Originally, it was to be 'Total War', but the project quickly grew too big, and this product mostly concentrated on the carriers and escorts of the General War. In 2004, this was replaced by an updated and expanded product, Fighter Operations.
- Special Operations was a smaller module published in 1993 that brought in several new rules, such as Klingon Stasis Field Generators.
- Marine Assault was published in 1995 and featured extensive rules detailing the use of ground troops and marines in strategic operations.
- Combined Operations was published in 2003 as a revised replacement for both Special Ops and Marine Assault. It included all the counters and (updated) rules of those products as well as some new content, such as police ships.
- Advanced Operations, published in 2003, focuses on the later years of the General War with X-ships, heavy war destroyers, as well as more sweeping rules like raids and battlegroups.
- Planetary Operations, published in 2004, features more ways of producing and repairing ships, like planetary repair docks.
- Strategic Operations, is currently (December 2006) the latest expansion. It includes rules and counters for hospital ships, sector bases, diplomatic teams, and other additions to the game system.
In addition, Captain's Log has a regular section devoted to the game, and often includes preview material for future expansions, such as the set of trial rules for the Interstellar Concordium, found in issue 25.
