Publisher Description

STAR FLEET BATTLES: THE ARENA
A VGA PLANETS SCENARIO

The Metrons looked on the galaxy with despair. One entire quadrant was ablaze in conflict - some fighting for conquest, some for survival, some in a vain attempt to restore order.

The Metrons had revealed themselves to a Federation and Gorn captain in this quadrant years ago after a misunderstanding brought their respective races to the brink of an interstellar war. Setting up a personal contest between the captains on a barren planet, they were able to help them see past their small, parochial concerns.

Since then, the Metron's associates - the Organians - had held this troublesome quadrant in check for many years, suppressing several potential conflicts between races.

But recently, the Organian's mysterious disappearance had resulted in an almost immediate resumption of hostilities. The Metrons watched at first, hoping some of the more enlightened of these younger races would impose order on their own. But that slim hope failed - miserably.

Enough!!

The Metrons appeared simultaneously in the councils, chambers, and throne rooms on the homeworlds of all the warring factions. Each race had a representative colony transported to a large scale "Arena" set in a distant cluster. There, they would compete in a series of staged confrontations for the very survival of their race!

ARENA OVERVIEW

SFB Arena pits 8 players against each other in a tournament.  There are three elimination or "conflict" stages to the tournament in a map separated into 4 distinct clusters.

• Conflict #1 (8 Players) - At the beginning of the scenario each player starts in one of the clusters with one other player - the goal in this stage is to capture and control the homeworld of the other player in the cluster. (Uses VGAP's REFEREE Invasion scenario).  Conflict #1 ends when each of the four clusters have a victor - and the losers are eliminated from the game.

• Conflict #2 (4 Players) -  In this stage of the tournament the winner in each cluster is matched up with the winner of another cluster. Their two clusters are now connected via wormholes.  The goal in this stage is to kill 20,000 tons of enemy ships (Uses VGAP's REFEREE Ton scenario).  Conflict #2 ends there are two winners.  Like before, the losers are eliminated from the game.

• Conflict #3 (2 Players) -  In the final stage, all of the clusters are connected via wormhole.  The remaining two players battle it out in a all-out land grab.  The victor is the player who controls two thirds (67%) of the stars on the map.   

EVOLUTION OVERVIEW

Tied in with the Arena Tournament is the "Evolution" concept.  Using a specially tailored Star Fleet Battles shipslist, each player starts with a limited number of ships available to build.  At later stages in the game, more ships are added to each players build queue.

• Conflict #1 will be played with ships from Phase 1 and 2 of evolution.  In general, Phase 1 is light freighters, Frigates (beams only ships) and destroyers (light torp ships).    In Phase 2, the ship lists add in larger freighters / tugs, some of your lighter carriers and cruisers (medium torp ships).

• Conflict #2 will be played with ships from Phase 3 and 4 of evolution.  Phase 3 ships is where you start getting your alchemy ships, light-to-medium carriers, and heavy cruisers.  Phase 4 adds in the battle cruisers, dreadnoughts and some the earlier heavy carriers.

• Conflict #3 stars out Phase 5 of Evolution.  These are the largest ships in the game - your heavy guns.  The larger dreadnoughts, battleships and heavy carriers finally make their appearance.

Publisher Description
The remnants of the Colonies have banded together to for a ragtag fleet of military & civilian ships. Their last remaining hope is to find the lost 13th Colony known only as “Earth” and start anew, somehow destroying the Cylon menace in the process.  After the previously-thought-mythical planet Kobol is discovered, the Colonies find a map detailing the general whereabouts of the 13th Colony.  Just steps ahead of the Cylon fleet, they manage to jump to the cluster indicated by the map. All they know now is that Earth is somewhere near the middle of the cluster… and that the Cylons have followed them.
 
The Battlestar Galactica VGA Planets conversion takes place in a universe based on the SciFi channel’s new version of BSG.  This is a team-based game, with the Cylon races seeking destruction of the Colonial races.  Along the way, both sides have both developed new technology & rediscovered old. Both now seek the supposedly mythical planet “Earth”, the Lost 13th Colony of Kobol; the Colonies hope to find a long-lost branch of humanity, while the Cylons seek to eradicate all humanity, old and new.

Game Goals: The goal of this game is quite simple: be the last team left standing. The Colonies hope to find Earth and either start a new colony or, if their biggest hopes are met, find their long-lost brothers and recruit them in the fight against the Cylons. The Cylons, on the other hand, have but one thought: destroy all human life.

Which side will you fight for? Will you place your hopes in the spirit of mankind, or will you seek to crush your creators to make way for your own empire? The choice is up to you!

Publisher Description
The Awakening is a scripted VPL-Scenario with dynamically changing mission goals for all players. There are 10 players that start in an inner cluster area while a strong Borg (several enhanced features) starts in an outer cluster. The inner clusters are connected to each other with wormholes as are the two outer clusters of the Borg. In the beginning the players have the mission goal to conquer clusters to win the game. In this phase the players are not allowed to ally with each other. Also they are not aware of the Borg, because their map material only shows the inner cluster. The restricted scanning and hyperjump abilities ensure that inner players do not find the Borg clusters by accident. In the meanwhile the Borg has the task to colonize his outer clusters and build up a strong invasion fleet. The map material of the Borg only shows his outer clusters and he is not allowed to leave this area. In the case an inner player reaches the mission goal up to turn 50 he has won the game.

In turn 50 the inner players receive messages from the host that something strange is happening in the universe: ion storms are forming, large meteors are raining down on planets, and strange wormholes begin to appear that are slowly moving towards the center of the inner cluster. This is the time just before "the Awakening" of the Borg. Finally 4 one-sided wormholes open up in the Borg cluster which lead to 4 positions in the inner cluster - the invasion begins. At the time of the Borg invasion the mission goals of the players change from competitive to cooperative: they have to use their combined forces to throw back the Borg invasion. The alliance functions are enabled now. The Borg wins when he conquers 250 planets. When the 4 wormholes that are moving towards the centre meet there the game is ended and declared as a draw. The players get to the next phase of the game when they completely conquer the outer cluster of the Borg. Their first task is to find a way to the Borg by seaching for the 4 wormholes that appeared in turn 50. These 4 one-sided wormholes lead to 4 positions of one of the Borg´s outer cluster (star cluster). Then the next aim may be to establish stargates there to ensure that reinforcements of the inner cluster can be brought easily to the Borg´s outer cluster. When the players are able to conquer the star cluster they will find a wormhole in the middle of the cluster that leads to the Borg´s home cluster. When the players are again able to conquer this cluster then the last phase of the "The Awakening" begins.

Now the gaming mode again changes from cooperative to competitive for the players. After the great menace of the Borg defeated there must be a new ruler for this part of the universe. The player who is able to conquer the complete outer clusters and hold all of the former Borg planets for 5 turns in a row is the new ruler and finally wins "The Awakening".