Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition
by Interplay
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: InterplayFormat: CD-ROM
Release Date: 2000-05-25
Platform: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me
Model: FGW5811770
Publisher: Interplay
Accessories:
Video Game Reviews of Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition
Customer Review: Computer version of the STAR FLEET BATTLES boardgame
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent Star Trek tactical level wargame which tests your ability to think, not the speed with which you can click the mouse or hit buttons on the keyboard.
Star Fleet Command, and its sequel games, are a brilliantly executed computer version of the Task Force Games & Amarillo Design Bureau Star Trek boardgame, Star Fleet Battles.
If you have ever played the boardgame and enjoyed it, this has almost identical ships, races, and rules, but with the computer dealing with all the tedious Energy allocation, combat results, etc. So instead of filling in forms, rolling dice, looking up tables and trying to remember which phasers you've fired you are free to concentrate on how your starship can defeat the enemy.
This game does not require any ability to hit the right part of the screen with mouse or joystick, nor lightning-fast reactions, nor the ability to repeatedly press any computer control with RSI-inducing speed. It is a test of tactical ability and particularly of using your intelligence to set up situations where your ship's weapons will be more effective than those of your opponent. There are also a few scenarios which can be solved by using diplomacy or by appropriate use of ship systems other than weapons.
You can opt to fight single-ship battles, command a squadron of up to three ships, or fight a campaign game set at the time of the "General War." In the "Star Fleet Battles" history the Organians mysteriously disappeared in the 2260's, between the original "Star Trek" TV series and the first "Star Trek" film, and the Klingons took advantage of their absence to launch a major war which rapidly spread to engulf most of the races in the galaxy. That war provides the backdrop and context for the campaign game.
Six star nations from Star Trek the original series or the "Star Fleet Battles" universe make it into the game: you can play as the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or Gorns from the TV series, or as the Lyrans or Hydrans from the boardgame. The Orion Pirates appear as a non-player race in this first game (there is a later expansion in which you can play them.)
I personally love the campaign game, which incorporates almost all the scenarios in the boardgame, from patrol and convoy actions, Klingon civil wars, base attack/defence, and border "surprise reversed" actions. Other events in the campaign game feature various races, events, and situations from Star Trek the original series, which apart from the Organians include the Mirror Universe and "The Doomsday Machine." The campaign game knits together in the most entertaining storyline I've seen in a space wargame outside the Wing Commander serise.
The funniest scenario in the game comes if you play the campaign game as the Klingons: it is called "The Great Tribble Hunt" and you get a chance to pay back the little furry creatures for humiliating the Klingon Empire in the "Trouble with Tribbles" TV episode.
CAMPAIGN GAME TIPS
You get a degree of choice what ships to operate. You start out with a single frigate but as you score more points you can use them to buy more or bigger ships, up to a maximum of three and up to dreadnaught size. Note that your choice of ships can turn certain scenarios from difficult to impossible. In terms of specific scenarios:
1) Several scenarios include planet-killer robots like "The Doomsday Machine" from the original series episode by that name. These monsters are immune to phasers, drone missiles, disruptors, or any kind of torpedo and there are only two ways to kill them. If you have a nova bomb handy in your transporter bay you can beam it into the throat of the doomsday machine from close range. If you don't have such a bomb to hand, which you won't the first time you meet one of these machines, your only option is to use the method Kirk and Decker employed in the original Star Trek episode, e.g. ram a cruiser straight into it from dead ahead - or to force someone else to. (Hint - tractor beams!)
2) If you're playing as the Federation, you will be ordered about half way through the game to try to capture and hand over to the Klingons, Romulans or Gorns your counterpart from the "Mirror Universe" who will be flying an identical ship to yours with a full load of marine boarding parties.
The catch is that he doesn't even show up until you have previously defeated an initial force of "Mirror Universe" ships. So you will be going to action against a vessel identical to yours and completely fresh, while you are almost certain to have at least shield damage.
Winning this scenario is much easier to do if by this stage your force consists of two or more roughly equal sized ships than if you have concentrated all your available points into one big ship, because your counterpart only gets your flagship. To win you must either capture his/her ship with boarding parties, or cripple it and catch it in a tractor beam, and then hail the Kilngons/Romulans/Gorns.
3) In the very last battle, you need plenty of nova bombs to defend your homeworld, and you get three bombs for each of your ships. It is mathematically impossible to win this battle if you only have one ship and three bombs, and extremely difficult to win it with two ships and six bombs, even if the ships are dreadnaughts. You really need to go into the last battle with your full complement of three ships. If you don't have enough points for three major warships, get a couple of small ships: the last battle can be won with a dreadnaught and two frigates, and on one occasion I've won it with a dreadnaught, a light cruiser, and an almost unarmed troop transport cruiser. The transport would have been almost useless for most battles, as it had no heavy weapons and hardly any phasers, but it did have a big transporter bay with three bombs available, and was tough enough to beam the bombs where I needed to put them to win the game.
It is with some trepidation that I mention one thing missing from the game, because a letter I wrote making a joke on this subject to a games magazine generated an avalanche of hate mail from Star Trek fans.
Larry Niven's Kzinti from his "Known Space" series also appear in the "Star Fleet Battles" universe: when Niven wrote some of the episodes of the animated Star Trek series many years ago, he adapted his own short story "The Soft Weapon" as a Star Trek tale, complete with Kzinti. So Task Force games allocated them a place in the Star Trek galaxy complete with a unique set of ship types and tactics. Larry doesn't seem to have been at all bothered by this, he certainly never sued TFG or the Amarillo Design Bureau, but for legal or contract reasons the people who put out this first version of the computer game decided that having the Kzinti in it was asking for trouble.
However in the second version of the computer game, they put a new race in the same part of the galaxy which the Kzinti occupied in the boardgame, flying exactly the same ship designs which the Kzinti used in the boardgame, and the same pattern of alliances and enemies as in the boardgame, so the wargamers who loved having those ships in their games were happy, but they called the replacement race the Mirak, and the graphic of a Mirak captain doesn't look like the Kzin in Larry Niven's books, so the lawyers were happy.
Because Paramount was one of the sponsors of this game, the creators did not have legal problems referring to Star Trek characters, so Jim Kirk is one of a number of figures from the TV series who are referred to by name if you read the messages and briefings carefully.
For reference, there are currently four "Star Fleet Command" computer games
1) This game, "Star Fleet Command" set in the general war
2) "Star Fleet Command II, Empires at war" set about a decade later during the attempt by the Interstellar Concordium (ISC) to impose peace on the galaxy. Adds the ISC and the Kzinti (oops, sorry, Mirak!)
3) Star Fleet Command II "Orion Pirates" which is a free-standing expansion for the second game, and you can play as any of the eight empires from that game or as one of eight clans of Orion pirates.
4) Star Fleet Command III, set a century later in Picard's time, and you can play as the Federation, Klingons (now allied to the Federation), Romulans (still enemy) or Borg.
So if like one of the previous reviewers you want to play a version of this game which includes the Borg, get Star Fleet Command III.
Description of Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition
The Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition has 26 new missions, featuring three Federation missions, three Klingon missions, 10 Hydran missions, seven Gorn Missions, and three Romulan missions. Similar to the original Star Trek: Starfleet Command, the Gold Edition offers you the starring role as a captain in any one of six star empires. You start out with command of a frigate, then take on missions, such as Convoy Escort and Courier. Depending on your success with the missions, you gain prestige. With prestige comes rank, larger ships, multiple ships, and more experienced officers.Action Games
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