05/01/00

Birth of the Federation
System: PC
Company: Micro Prose
Type: Turn based strategy

 

    When I first heard of Birth of the Federation it was when a customer was telling me about it.  He was saying that his friend didn't like it.  He said he didn't like it because it took too long to develop and grow.  He also said that it wasn't accurate with actual Star Trek history, and he didn't like that the Federation was not portrayed correctly. (They would resort to sabotage and such).
     Well if there is one thing I love it is a strategy that takes time to build up power.  I find a lot of the fun in building and growing rather than the actual fighting.  So I gave it a try.  The game is fairly easy to pick up I found my self familiar with all the commands rather quickly.  You can play as the Federation, Cardassians, Ferengi, Klingons, or the Romulans.  I picked the Federation (of course.)  It took a few games with mistakes to realize what I needed to do. (I'll spare you the strategy hints.)  After a while of playing I was suprized to get a message from the Romulans asking for peace and informing me that we would be much better off uniting against the Bog.  The BOG!?!  Oh man!  I knew this was going to suck.  I watched the map as the borg slowly made there way down and all but wiped out the Romulans and the Klingons.  I was trying like mad to build up enough forces to take on one of there Cubes.  Finally by the time they started towards me I had quite a powerful armada, and my systems were fast enough to make more ships in a relatively quick pace.  I would go in with about 15 command cruisers and leave with 5.  By the time another cube would attack I would just barely have gathered enough forces to do it again.   I lost about three systems before my science level went up and I could make Dreadnoughts.  When that happened I could go in with only 9 and still leave with 4 or 5.  By the time they stopped showing up.  The Romulans had about Three systems left and the Klingons had One.  The Ferengi however had over 20 like myself.  After stopping the Borg what thanks did I get?  They all declared war on me again!?
Fortunately I didn't have much trouble defeating them, (thanks in part to the Borg who took out most of the Romulan competition.)
    The next time I played as the Romulans.  They were easy.  Because most of there ships cloak they get to attack first.  This made battles almost too easy. (Even the Borg could be wiped out with four Birds of Prey and never have a chance to destroy even one.) This brings up one problem that I have with the game.  It would seem that the Romulans would be the ones who are the greatest threat to other races and your self.  But each and every time I have ever played the Ferengi are the ones who always seem to wipe them out and be the greatest challenge.
    The Romulans are the easiest to play and win with.  The Klingons are close behind.  These two races are easy because of cloaking ships.  The others can't do it and will have a hard time with the Borg when they show up.  (By the way they seem to have no particular time that they show up either some games it is earlier than others)  The Ferengi are not that hard to play because they grow quickly.  The Federation is well balanced.  The only race that was really hard to play was the Cardassians.  I just couldn't get a break with them.  The one time that I had a really good start and thought that this was going to be the time I win with them, the borg showed up.  Usually they has always shown up 400 turns or so in to the game this gives you time to prepare.  But this time it was about on turn 90!  To say the least I was screwed.
    Any way the game can be tough and slow to start, unless you adjust the starting level.  The technology levels are from 1-10 You can start off anywhere from 1to8.  That isn't bad at all.
The Final word.
    This is a great strategy game if you like turn based strategies and like to conquer galaxies.  If you are a true Trekkie you won't like it because of the inconstancies with the Trek universe.  But if you can get past things like the Romulans and the Klingons making an alliance against you than you can enjoy this good strategy game.

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