Anyone else play Birth of the Federation?

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2002-08-25 01:43am

Good game. I've been playing it, on and off, for years. You choose a side to play (Federation, Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, or Ferengi) and start out controlling that side's home system and a couple of basic ships. From there you expand, colonize new systems, develop your technology, meet new races, form alliances, fight wars, and so on. The gameplay resembles a streamlined version of Civilization II, with 3D ship combat thrown in that is nothing special, but still more than you expect from a strategy game.

The thing I like is that there are up to thirty minor races, each controlling a single star system, that are dropped onto the map to make things more interesting. Each can be persuaded to join you of their own free will, or conquered and subjugated. (Or rendered extinct by orbital bombardment! Fuck those retarded Pakleds!)

Anyone else here play this? Personally I'm always the Cardassians. They have a morally "flexible" population that will put up with almost anything I choose to do. I usually suck up to one of the other main empires toward the beginning of the game, most often the Federation, and get on their good side. Then I roll over the others, occupying those systems inhabited by races that are useful to me. All other populated systems are bombed into lifelessness and recolonized. Once I've crushed everyone else, I carefully choose the best places to hit my "ally" for the most effect, position my fleets, and Pearl Harbor the shit out of them. Fun fun. Heh heh heh.

Sothis · Post by **Sothis** » 2002-08-25 09:17am

I tend to be the Federation. It's easier to get the minor races on your side, so you can get more dilithum-worthy worlds into your grasp more quickly.

Then it's a rush of ship-building, for the inevitable Borg invasion

I hate the Cardassians. They always, without fail, try to use their intel forces against me. I get tired of capturing courier ships, sigh.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2002-08-25 09:44am

Yeah I've played it for years. The only race I play as is the Klingons, who I have perfected. I can now destroy a Borg cube with 5 K'Vorts and 1 B'Rel thanks to crew training and cloaking. Against mulitple fleets of this setup, none can oppose.

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2002-08-25 12:35pm

Never heard of the game, sounds cool though.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2002-08-25 12:43pm

I like the Federation by far, I simply colonise everything in sight and get those minor races and then beef up the technology.

This tends to leave me a bit over extended since my fleets cant defend my systems well enough but since I concentrate on getting a healthy economy and good reasearch I can often overcome enemy fleets with better tech.

By the time all the races have fleets capable of waging mass warfare I am usually out ahead in tech and have an economy close to the ferengi level this is usually enough to deter attack.

The only downside of the federation is that war kills your empire just because the morale drops so much.

A good tip as he Ferengi or Feds is to finance one of the poorer more aggresive nations (Romulans or Klingons) this way you can keep your enemies off balance and engaged in warfare for a minium cost.
I once had the Romulans cripple the Ferengi economy with sabotage and I then bribed their minor races before manipulating the Romulans/Klingons/Ferengi into a 3 way war while I consolidated my position.

That game was fun

.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2002-08-25 01:05pm

I almost without fail play the Romulans... decent diplomats, powerful cloaked warships, and an intel capability that only the Cardassians really match. I do like the Cardassians as well: the Federation has good ships and a strong advantage with science and diplomacy, but you just can't play aggressively with them and I favor an aggressive approach to space conquest games.

I was disappointed with the lineup of races for Master of Orion 3: they dropped the Elerians and they were my favorite from MOO 2.

SCVN 2812 · Post by **SCVN 2812** » 2002-08-25 01:27pm

I love playing as the Romulans because of the first strike capability that cloaking gives you. Gotta love having a squadron of Warbirds decloaking and wiping out half (if not all) an enemy fleet and they can't even touch you until the next round. Then there's the intel, it's pretty fun to cripple somebody without even firing a single shot.

Although when you play as the Romulans it's too easy, so when I'm looking for a challenge I play as the Federation because you gotta watch your population closely since they get pissed easy.

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2002-08-25 09:55pm

The Romulans are the best, overall. Cloaking devices on every warship are a HUGE advantage. You have to be either SERIOUSLY outgunned or else just really incompetent in order to lose a battle.

Tebrak'aun · Post by **Tebrak'aun** » 2002-09-07 05:36pm

great game most replayed game ive ever bought. I love the romulans but the cardassians are probably the best race. They have the biggest homeworld the best ships for orbital bombardment the most morale improving structures and a highly flexible morality. Oh and good espionage if you use a well structured slow expansion damn near impossible to beat. But they dont have warbirds.

Feds morale modifiers screw them bombard a planet unhappy citizens...declare war unhappy citizens whats the use of having total control over the media if you cant use it to justify unwarranted acts of agression?