In the first part of a four-part series on Star Trek-based tactical starship combat games, we discuss the late Babylon 5 Wars, and how we’ve found ways to play it as a Star Trek game. I discuss a bit of the history of the game and then go into excessive detail about how the game is played, while Nate tries to rein me in from diving too deep into the details. Enjoy!
Things mentioned:
Babylon 5 on Wikipedia
Babylon 5 Wars on BGG
Babylon 5 Wars on the defunct Agents of Gaming web site
Planetside conversion for Star Trek using the B5W engine
Massive list of Star Trek ships using the Planetside Star Trek rules
Graphical Inertial Movement System (vector movement) for Babylon 5 Wars
We will cover the other three Star Trek games at some point in the future. Has anyone played this game besides us? Let us know!
Whoa! Another podcast! Can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say. : )
As someone who’s invested lots of time and money into the Star Fleet Battles nebula, I’ll say; If you’re having fun with another system, I wouldn’t worry about it…
It’s not because the system lacks depth and playability, certainly!
Given your previously transmitted opinions about the SFB-schism-reality of their version of the milieu, there’s little in there to keep your attention. I enjoy some parts of the setting, but not where they intersect the actual Star Trek canon. Strange to type that, but it’s the truth.
Thanks so much for putting the ‘cast out there – your perspective is much appreciated (at least by this old grognard)!
Hey, glad to see you guys are back! I’ve got a lot of driving to do today, so I’ll be downloading the podcast to my computer and listening in my truck. (pickup truck.) Anyway, this is always something that I wanted to do, play a space miniature game, and from what you said abou this one, I’m looking forward to it… I’ll let you know what I think in a couple days…
Thanks for the new episode! Looking ofrward to your thoughts on Federation Commander. I gave up on Star Fleet Battles in college many, many moons ago.
Keep up the good work guys!
Glad to have you guys back!
Now you WILL be at KublaCon, right???
Another enjoyable podcast. I’m glad you guys have featured another older gem. Keep them coming!
4 Part? Really? No variation at all?
GREAT episode, guys! Thank you so much! The trek humor was appreciated.
I also appreciated the discussion of vector vs. node turning mechanics. How do you do a vector turning mechanic on a hex map? I suppose it could be done, but being a miniatures guy, I’d rather it be free form.
I’ve got to say, guys, that the descriptions of the game mechanics was awesome. I may not be the rule on this, but the way I see it, the more mechanics the better. I suppose this is because I’m thinking about developing my own kind of space combat game for my friends, building everyting from the ground up (even making molds for space ships, etc.). So, I really like game mechanics.
So, keep it up! Thanks for your work, and I’m looking forward to more… Looking forward to that Fed Commander episode, so I can justify buying the game to my wife…
She’s not a gamer (yet…) 
Oh, silly me, I didn’t look at the links — the vector movement system via hexagons is up there. Thanks.
Oh darn. I just got done listening to this one and thought I’d go and check to see if the other parts were out and found the answer is a big fat No.
What happened? I wanna hear about more Star Trek games!
I just found this podcast when I was searching around for old Babylon 5 Wars sites prior to the Geocities shutdown. I am glad that you got some use out of those old B5W Star Trek conversions!
It’s too bad that your podcast lost steam after this episode, though. I was looking forward to hearing your take on some of the other Star Trek tactical systems.