Federation & Empire

Federation and Empire is a strategic-level board game first published in 1986 by the now-defunct Task Force Games. It is now published by the original designers of the game, Amarillo Design Bureau. It is based on the Star Fleet Battles game 'universe' however knowledge of Star Fleet Battles is not required to play the game. The game operates under the same limited license granted to Amarillo Design Bureau that Star Fleet Battles has and is restricted to the original series, the animated series and Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual without mentioning any of the principal characters of the show or the Enterprise itself. It is based on the same source material as Task Force Games' previous strategic game Federation Space and the two games are more appropriately "brothers" than "father and son" although Federation and Empire is a vastly superior product.

The game involves running the economy and combat forces of seven intergalactic empires; the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Gorn, the Kzinti, the Lyrans and the Hydrans, through an eighteen-year conflict known as the General War which takes place starting 168 years after the founding of the Federation. There are involved and detailed rules for combat at a fleet level, ship construction and conversion and economics.

The game has undergone two major revisions, first in 1993 and later in 2000. There are numerous expansions to the game which provide more detailed rules and additional types of ships. Further expansions are in progress which will provide rules for conflicts outside the time frame of the General War and several scenarios have already been published in editions of Amarillo Design Bureau's magazine Captain's Log.

External link

• Official Federation and Empire site