Hydrans or Feds for me.
Btw, I recently got back in to the whole SFU via Federation Commander. For those who don't know, it's essentially SFB
without the form filling.
You get a bunch of energy at the start of the turn then decide how fast you're going (0, 8 16 or 24), and load any multi-turn weapons, and that's it. The rest of the energy you spend during the turn to fire phasers, use transporters, speed up or slow down a hex, etc., etc. when you want to.
There's no ECM, carriers (except the Hydran hybrids), scouts and so forth (although these are planned to be added in the rather aptly named Borders of Madness expansion). All drones are the same (type I for those in the know), so no spending ages deciding on load out. Ships are fully refitted. Only eight impulses and hence fire decisions. Squadron and Fleet scales - sqdn is SFB ship, fleet is half size. Shields leak (1 pt per volley if it's 10+ and the shield doesn't fall, ths applies to Andro PA panels too) & DAC is streamlined (1d6 roll on table deals with 10 points damage). You can easily play a cruiser duel in 30 - 60 mins, even less if you roll as badly or well as we do. The ship cards are laminated too, so it's wipe clean rather than find a photocopier.
With the recent War & Peace expansion, all the main races are now available too.
Briefing 2 had Middle Years ships (i.e. no refits), and is now available via e23. There were no laminated cards in it (just a book) and rather than go to the expense and risk of producing them, ADB are now moving in to pdfs. Hopefully we'll see more (like the Early Years) for FC there.
Highly recommended for all old SFBers (like me).
http://www.federationcommander.com/index.shtmlIf you click the Free Demo link, you get a Fed CA and Klingon D7 and the basic rules as a pdf
Stephen
