Ok this has all gotten to on a trip down memory lane. Star Fleet Battles Universe is an exceptional setting, and by that I mean its more than just a "Trek" game. SFBU in may ways is a complete history of warfare. Now I like the new Noble Armada, but let me say this. SFBU makes it look like a shallow puddle when compared to a swimming pool. Let me give you a handful of examples about just what we are looking at.
Ships: In SFBU Starships are viewed as swiss-army knives. Rather than just moving and shooting and getting shot, in SFBU you can expect ships to engage in Science missions, launch probes, launch and recover shuttle craft, flood space with Electronic Warfare, transport marines away on special missions, and generally pull fun tricks out of a hat, on top of shooting a slew of weapons and your all important shield strengths. And all of this from every single ship, the specialty ships just do one or two jobs that much better! Of course in SFB's this meant the rules got pretty involved, something they tried to fix in Federation Commander.
History: SFBU is a history. The General War ranges over a thirty year period. During this time there are numerous major campaigns, upsets, defeats, advances in technology, Alien invasions, changes in tactics, and plenty of Drama! Most of this is played out through a very very large number of historic scenarios. Now were talking specific scenarios here not generic set up battles! All of this easily sucks you into this rich world.
Systems based in reality: SFBU is much more than just fluff. The weapons and systems used while fictional, are often based on current military technology being deployed today. Your fleet of ships is much more than just an assortment of individual ships, they enhance each other becoming more than the sum of there parts. For Example: The Drone missiles deal with many of the issues real missile systems do. You can expect to fire your Drones, have the enemy engage in evasive maneuvers, Use point defense weaponry, Electronic Jamming, Wild weasels, Tractor beams and even teleported mines to stop you from hitting him.
Fluff: SFBU doesn't lack for fluff ether, while its game system was originally an extremely hardcore game the designers none the less invested a great deal of time to giving detail to the game. Everything from Ships to famous captains and battlefleets often have there own unique fluff and flavoring in the game. I can think of few games that have developed there setting as much as the SFBU. Of course were talking 30 years of gaming here!
The bottom line is I think you are are going to be very pleased with this game.
