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Rulebook consists of: Bound book numbering 280 pages containing rules, warship display forms for all ships, and counters. Does it do what it says on the tin? Well, yes and no. The game itself comes from the school of tactical space combat ideology and there's probably more thought put into the game's aspects of the ships than ever was in the animated series. Breaking it down to bare bones, the game is played on a hex board map, each ship is represented with both a miniature and a warship display form, as players alternate actions through 1-15 steps in the beginners game and 1-26 steps in advanced game cover the conflict in the game. Fleet Battles, well you probably won't be sailing mighty fleets across the cosmos on those first few games. The game reminds me of a streamlined and efficient running Star Fleet Battles that dropped a lot of the fiddly bits that slow down Star Fleet Battles. None of this 32 impulse phases in Star Blazers. Still, there's a fair amount of upkeep in the game and it's a game that rewards persistence as it can take awhile to really get the rules understood and moving smoothly so that you can have fleets facing off with battlecraft darting between the capitol ships on strafing runs.

People do ask the same question every time about the game, "Doesn't it just end with the Wave Motion Gun being fired and all the bad guys being blown up?" Once again, for balance's sake the Wave Motion Guns of the Earth Defense Command are still very potent and powerful weapons but they take time to bring on line and have their limitations, they are not scenario ending weaponry by any stretch. For that matter, all for contenders for galactic dominance have their tricks up their collective sleeves be it Gamilon SMITE weaponry, White Comet Empire Anti-Matter Missiles, or Dark Nebulian Energy Absorbing Armor. Keith Johannsen, the designer, has gone to great lengths to design the game as being both faithful to the animated series, but balanced for an enjoyable gaming experience. The game uses a myriad of polyhedral dice D4, D6, D8, D10, and D12 but mostly relies on percentile dice in the majority with other dice mostly used for damage resolution from the variety of weapons carried on the vast number of ships. The game follows a basic structure of allocating power for movement, allocating weapons for ship's defense, movement, missile launch declaration, missile resolution and ship defense, direct weapons fire, special weapons fire, critical hit resolution, repair, and morale. Breaking the turn down to brass tacks, that is. Of course adding battlecraft adds quit a number of steps to the game turn as they do require a bit more management in terms of mission declaration, battlecraft to battlecraft combat, and whatnot.

So, yes, Star Blazers Fleet Battle System is not a sit down and shake some dice, have it down pat in two turns kind of game. In particular, my personal experience in teaching new players keeps it very much in the Introductory Game Sequence with no battlecraft on the table at all. Although I'll admit the entire dynamic of the game shifts with the introduction of battlecraft to the game and does give an even better experience and tactical depth to simply having the capitol ships slugging it out. It takes devotion to the game and building of experience and rules knowledge game upon game to get their however. Like I said, the game rewards perseverance to the rules. Advice is to start with one capitol ship each and get used to the basic turns. I'd suggest using an EDF ship, most likely the Argo/Yamato, against a Gamilon ship. I tend to usually use the Battle Carrier despite it being a little weak sans battlecraft. Working into using a flotilla of escort ships with the capitol ships, basically taking it step by step to work into the full game. Introductory games tended to last about two hours with four ships on the table whereas full games with multiple ships and battlecraft with knowledge of the rules lasted into the four to six hour mark. Course people I play with tend to enjoy several fine drinks between turns and plenty of conversation as we're relaxed gamers and seldom under a time crunch to finish a game. So, the games can range from two hours being a minor skirmish, basically it's about an extra half hour of game time per capitol ship added.

The game is of moderate complexity and take multiple games to get everything understood and works best on a gradual ladder. I've personally debated running it at conventions but put the idea out as the rules don't lend themselves to getting explained quickly and getting players moving lots of ships on the table and into conflict. Very much what I'd call an old school philosophy to the rules design that they're written for tactical depth in most cases versus the beer and pretzels fun of shaking fistfuls of dice and bemoaning the incompetence of Gamilon commanders. It's a game of tactical depth and moderate complexity, probably the sequence where the game slows down the most is battlecraft stages and missile fire, as with fleet skirmishes missiles have a lot of salvos streaking across space and tracking how many get shot down, miss, hit, we've had to use a calculator at times to keep track of them especially when the White Comet Empire is involved as their ships can put a lot of missiles on the field. The game has book keeping, deep rules, exceptions, there's a lot to track but it's still light years lighter than Star fleet Battles by comparison. The game does capture the flavor of the series and offer a great game to those persevering to get the rules down pat.

The miniatures are beautifully cast ships, accurate to the series, and generally cleanly cast. Very little clean up was required of the minis I've received over the years and I've yet to get a badly cast model with any noticeable defects. The ships are a bit fiddly with the attention to detail going in to include photoetched parts for the various fins and wings that adorn the ships. I personally give the ships I high value for price match up and have always enjoyed painting the ships up to get them on the table.

Overall the game is enjoyable, with a slightly above average learning curve, tactical options, and miniatures true to its anime roots. Well worth checking out if you're a fan of the series or a fan of tactical space combat rules that are more complex than Battlefleet Gothic but not as fiddly as Star Fleet Battles.