Birth of the Federation
This is one of my favourite Star Trek games. It works as a "turn based strategy", which means you get to develop new starships, and buildings to make your Empire become the strongest.
This game has 5 different interfaces, one for the Federation, another for the Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi & Cardassians.
You get to lead vast armadas of starships into battle, from the Galaxy-X class, as seen in "All Good Things", to Sovereign Class (Enterprise-E), Defiant class, Constellation Class (USS Stargazer) etc.
The Cardassians even get to build DS9 Vessels.
All Empires have different ships, with different ranges and sensor capabilities. The Romulans and Klingons can also cloak.
Another good point is the Borg, Calmarians and Crystalline Entity all show up to pose problems for your Empire.
You also get to interact with smaller races, and their ships, and either wipe them off the face of their own planet, or get them to join you.
The unfortunate side-effect of this game, is that it slows down after turn 150, even with the patch, so it's better to stick to Medium sized galaxies.
Although the game says "Birth of the Federation", it only includes Alpha Quadrant enemies, and doesn’t include the Dominion or Kazon, which is annoying. The game also doesn't let you build Intrepid Class starships like the USS Voyager.
There are some interesting MODS out there, which allow you to play as THE BORG, and the Dominion, which is refreshing, and adds an interesting dynamic to the gameplay.
Another Review:-
Article first published: Issue 71, July 1999
Writer: James Flynn
The success (and eventual failure) of MicroProse as a developer throws up two consistent themes, and Star Trek: Birth Of The Federation is a great example of both. The Sid Meier-founded company did, of course, make its name with the finest strategy and simulation games ever written. Perversely, it then went on to release them all at least a year late, leaving most of them looking outdated and inaccessible. Thankfully, although their final Trek game, BOTF, exhibits these weaknesses, it emerges triumphant despite its handicaps.
It's long been a dream for Trekkies to have Star Trek's Alpha Quadrant to tinker with and this is exactly what BOTF sets out to achieve. The founding of the Federation, exploration of the surrounding space and diplomatic contacts with Earth's neighbours lies at the heart of Star Trek, but until now has never been adequately portrayed. BOTF has fixed this in one fell swoop, bringing the incredibly engrossing and balanced Trek universe to your PC and then gifting you all the power you could want to completely screw it up.
You begin BOTF with a single outpost in a huge, black void. Gradual exploration with spaceships reveals the surrounding space, complete with stars, planets, hazards, wormholes and, of course, other races. As leader of either the Human, Klingon, Ferengi, Cardassian or Romulan races, your aim is to exploit these varied resources to protect and expand your empire.
This is no easy task, however, as a state of distrust which makes Israelis and Palestinians seem like best chums exists between most races. However, and this is what marks BOTF as a game worthy of special attention, it is diplomacy, and not war, which is mainly required for success. Diplomacy naturally takes time and money and other races are more likely to respect your wishes if you are powerful, but to become dominant you need these other races to earn money and might.
Therefore, BOTF becomes a kind of galactic night-club simulator, with you and your pretend best-mate pitching for the same top girls (races) while wearing the finest fabrics (planets). Naturally the suitor who's most charming (offers security) and pretends to like the same bands (intelligence corps) will win (get laid), but if that's not you, there's always the option of getting lagered up, smacking your rival in the face (military might) and enslaving them in your cave by force. Well, there ought to be.
Unlike a club, there's little question that deep within BOTF there's a spreadsheet governing all the inter-racial actions, but the skill by which this is disguised is admirable. Each planet produces resources for your empire, new planets and systems can be terraformed and close alliances with existing civilisations brings their expertise under your control. Along with the five major races and oodles of non-affiliated races populating your variously shaped and sized map at the start. By courting enough of these clever people using money and trade, your own research and production are augmented and you'll slowly gain a technological edge (and thereby power) over your rivals.
Technologies are slowly discovered by building labs on your planet using your industry, but each planetary improvement requires workers to support it and they require food. So, a balanced spread of terraforming, farms, factories, intelligence centres, shipyards, and so on is necessary for long-term success. And when I say long term, stretch l-o-n-g out as far as you can because this is a huge, deep and immensely time-consuming turn-based game.
The other four races obviously have the same idea and will stop at little to see what you are up to. To reflect this, BOTF has a huge and detailed intelligence screen, through which you can allocate resources to infiltrate other races and protect your own from similar attack. There is also a completely separate, turn-based 3D ship-to-ship dogfighting screen for when the enemy (or you) wants to take things further.
The number of possible actions and combinations is awesome and they fit together superbly, but there is a twist; and it is this: to play your chosen race effectively, you must adapt your style. For example, Romulans make great use of intelligence, the Federation is good for empire building and the Ferengi are always rich through trade. As opponents, the AI is good enough to differentiate them but you'll need to exploit their strengths and weaknesses.
Don't even think about embarking on the chase unless you can see it through, or you might feel cheated. When you have a large empire the pace is very slow and minor mistakes can take many turns to rectify. However, if you can endure this you're in for a treat.
The Hacking Mod gives you an idiot-proof guide to altering the starships in Birth of the Federation:
Check out the following site for completed MODS:-
Play as the Borg with this MOD
The latter is a German website, but most of the wording is English, but all the programs are written in English.
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