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Star Trek: Birth of the Federation

by James315

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Original Thread: Just pray the Romulans don't show up... STAR TREK: Birth of the Federation

 

Introduction


Star Trek: The Next Generation: Birth of the Federation is a turn-based empire-building game in the classic "4X" model: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. It was released in 1999 and made by the same company that developed the "Master of Orion" games. "The Next Generation" is in the title because they bought the TNG license rather than an overall Star Trek license. Essentially this means you see everything except the Dominion.

Long story short, you play as one of five major empires and try to conquer the galaxy. Let's meet the players!


The Romulans are secretive, crafty, and use invisibility cloaks on almost all of their ships. They prefer to build in the shadows while their opponents wear each other down. Romulan ships are powerful because the cloaks give them a first-strike capability, but once revealed, they become vulnerable. We will be playing our first game as the Romulans.


The Federation is comprised primarily of the self-righteous hypocrites known as Humans. People throughout the galaxy are inclined to buy into their nonsense, so the Federation is superior at diplomacy. Its people hate fighting, but the leaders of the Federation are just as determined to conquer the galaxy as everyone else, so they must manipulate the populace into war.


The Klingons, on the other hand, love war and hate peace. They are an honorable race of warriors whose honor makes them concerned about honor above all else. As a practical matter, this means they start wars for no reason that linger on until the Klingons embarrass themselves too much.


The Cardassians are Nazis in space.


The Ferengi are hideous and have an entire civilization based around capitalism and trade. Their ships are inelegant and look like insects, but they tend to swarm like insects also because the Ferengi's superior economy allows them to buy so many. The Ferengi are often underestimated.

Guest Appearances by:


Various Minor Races populate the galaxy as well. Some of them can build ships, but unlike the five empires, they cannot conquer or colonize new worlds and are thus restricted to one solar system. They can sign treaties with the major empires and can join them voluntarily (or involuntarily). Each Minor Race has a special feature that can be used to assist the empire that takes control of them.


Occasionally Random Events will occur, and sometimes intergalactic travelers will pass through the galaxy. Many of them are relatively harmless. But one must always be wary of the possibility that the Borg might show up, because they'll kill everything. (They're so game-breaking that a patch was released including an option to disable only the Borg random event.)

Now for the game.

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