Purchased SFB Volume 3 a long, long, time ago as I was impressed with the cover art (the Fed CA Hood getting pummeled by 3 Klingon cruisers...ouch) and the details on the back panel. I was surprised to find that I had missed the note about needing Volume 1 and 2 and hurriedly picked them up. Played a bit here and there, then ran into a group at university around the time that Doomsday came out and we played extensively for many years. I remember the chaos of playing "The Cavalry Charge" once, and writing up detailed SITs for F&E for our group and getting totally depressed for the first few years (of F&E turns
) playing the Federation in the General War.Fell out of the game for many years after that and (eegads) went clubbing instead. Up to then, I had collected a lot of SFU stuff and on one insane evening decided that I needed the space being taking up by all my board gaming stuff and gave it all away (this was way before Ebay).
The release of Star Fleet Command made me whoop for joy as my favorite board game of younger years made the leap to the computer...followed by Star Fleet Command 2 and the fantastic Orion Pirates.
Many more years passed, relocated a few times, changed jobs a few times, then settled down a bit and found myself slowly returning to the hobbies that fascinated me in the distant past...war games and astronomy. This was a stroke of luck as I had not known it but several friends in our lanparty group were old SFB and F&E players too. We've formed a small group here in Montreal and are already playing some Federation Commander (with the old timers planning on getting back into SFB too), and are on turn 3 of the 4 Powers War in F&E.
Anyways, glad to be here and I am very happy to see that the SFU continues after my ~15 year hiatus from it and very happy to see that the community is very much alive and well.
-Andrew
