History YMMV / StarFleetBattles

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: As mentioned in TournamentPlay below, you use specially written and tested ships in such games. One empire's ship turned out too powerful one year, and had to be rebalanced. One of that empire's main players took one look at the new ship just before a tournament and said "I have to fly this crate into combat?" This led the ship to be renamed to what it is STILL called today... the Krait.

* BigNameFan: Walter Mizia and Ken Kaufman. Both of them codified very successful SFB tactics in the early 80s - the Mizia Effect and the Kaufman Retrograde - that not only bear their names, but are still used by high-level SFB players to this day.

* PoesLaw: It's hard to tell if [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GFy3LyGBprI/T_QVLZwYjlI/AAAAAAAAAdI/sSRO8uP5_M8/s1600/Starfleet_Battles.jpg this SSD]] is real or a parody.

* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: Traditionally, the classic scenario ''The Surprise Reversed'' could not be played in campaign using the Federation as the attacking force. This is due to the sentiment that the Federation, despite their very well rounded ships, [[MoralEventHorizon would never launch a surprise war on anyone]]. Also, the Tholians are not eligible as the attacking force due to their nature as a refugee race from another galaxy that keeps to itself and never attacks anyone outside of their space[[note]] Also, their only method of creating larger ships was to weld two smaller hulls together. The Tholians who escaped to our galaxy have shipyards which cannot build anything larger than the Patrol Cruiser.[[/note]]
** In some of the single player scenarios where a starship fights a space monster, if your lab research eventually determines (via established communication) that the monster is friendly, you will lose the scenario if your ship scored any damage on the monster.
** The ''Star Fleet Command'' scenario Kobayashi Maru really can't be won. Even if you survive, you didn't (and wouldn't have been able to ) rescue the Maru. If you elect not to break the treaty and cross the neutral zone, you lose, because the Maru isn't saved. This was the whole point of the scenario to begin with, as stated in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.

* DoorStopper: The master rulebook, with all the rules in it, is almost 2 inches thick. A running joke in the community is 'Never show the newbie the rulebook.' That said, it's highly organized, and covers just about any interaction that might come up in the game.

* ShoutOut: The General War and the ISC War of Pacification were brought to an end by the Andromedan Invasion, an extra-galactic race that causes all of the galaxy's races to form loose alliances and coalitions against a threat. This is right out of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' which also had an invasion by an extra-galactic race called the Andromedans, causing Blake and Servalan to [[EnemyMine temporarily join forces]].

* ShoutOut: The General War and the ISC War of Pacification were brought to an end by the Andromedan Invasion, an extra-galactic race that causes all of the galaxy's races to form loose alliances and coalitions against a threat. This is right out of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' which also had an invasion by an extra-galactic race called the Andromedans, causing Blake and Servalan to temporarily join forces.

* ShoutOut: The General War and the ISC War of Pacification were brought to an end by the Andromedan Invasion, an extra-galactic race that causes all of the galaxy's races to form loose alliances and coalitions against a BiggerBad. This is right out of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' which also had an invasion by an extra-galactic race called the Andromedans, causing Blake and Servalan to temporarily join forces.

* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: Traditionally, the classic scenario ''The Surprise Reversed'' could not be played in campaign using the Federation as the attacking force. This is due to the sentiment that the Federation, despite their very well rounded ships, [[MoralEventHorizon would never launch a surprise war on anyone]].

* ShoutOut: The General War and the ISC War of Pacification was brought to an end by the Andromedan Invasion, an extra-galactic race that causes all of the galaxy's races to form loose alliances and coalitions against a BiggerBad. This is right out of BlakesSeven which also had an invasion by an extra-galactic race called the Andromedans, causing Blake and Servalan to temporarily join forces.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: As mentioned in TournamentPlay below, you use specially written and tested ships in such games. One empire's ship turned out too powerful one year, and had to be rebalanced. One of that empire's main players took one look at the new ship just before a tournament and said "I have to fly this crate into combat?" This led the ship to be renamed to what it is STILL called today... the Krait.

** [[http://web.archive.org/web/20041017034814/http://www.smileylich.com/sfb/ssd/rom-scim.gif It's real, all right]], though it's anyone's guess whether it's ever actually been used in a game.

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: The original design for the Federation New Light Cruiser had the warp engines below the saucer, suspended by a boom that crossed over the top of the ship. [[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Sound familiar?]] When Paramount threatened a copyright infringement suit over this clear imitation of the ''Reliant'' design, they quickly changed the pictures for the NCL to show its warp engines sticking out ''above'' the saucer, and no boom.
** When they first appeared, the Klingon X-Ship battlecruisers had ''photon'' torpedo launchers in their nose and tail. No other Klingon ship before or since has ever mounted a photon torpedo launcher. Why this weapon? Because the K't'inga-class Klingon warships shown at the opening of StarTrekTheMotionPicture were shown firing photon torpedoes from their nose and tail. Subsequent editions replaced the photon torpedo launchers with Klingon-standard disruptor bolt launchers.

* CrackIsCheaper: "StarFleetBattles Basic Set"? That sounds like fun; I'll try it out. "Advanced Missions" with more rules and more ships and more scenarios? Neat! Modules with extended rules for fighters, boarding party combat, and small gunboats? More empires far beyond Federation space? Books full of dreadnoughts, battleships, fast cruisers, and still more ships for all of my favorite empires? Must have them all!