[Review] CEE Earthforce Sourcebook

Hi all. Two things to keep in mind for this review:

(1) I play lots of FT, but I don't know half as much about B5, so while
I
can comment on whether things make sense for gaming, I cannot tell you
if
it's right for the B5 universe.

(2) I'm only going to review the bits that are of interest to FT
players,
namely the Space Combat Section.

Those caviats aside, lets get down to brass tacks.

General Layout:
	As with all of CEE's B5 material, the entire book is glossy
color
with illustrations about every 4th page on the average. It has a very
nice
cover and two identical card sheets of counters bound into the rear of
the
book. Supposedly, some people have had difficulty with ink smudges or
other
misprints, but I didn't find a single one. CEE will replace any
defective
book anyway, so I don't really see any problem.
	My only criticism about the layout is the four "grooves" across
the
text portion of the page. Though not too distracting, I found the lines
of
text that shared space with them to be slightly harder to read.

Turn Sequence:
	If you've played FT (and I assume that all of you have) then
this
will seem extremely familiar. In fact, other than a slight difference in
layout (i.e. 4a & 4b instead of 4 & 5) it's virtually identicle to FT2.

Orders:
	Same here. They're called slightly different things in some
cases
(i.e. RP = rotate port instead of TP = turn port), but are otherwise
identicle to FT3. It also includes things unique to the B5 milieu (JP =
jump point, LEM = launch energy mine).

Movement:
	This is identicle to the FT3 vector system (for reaction drives)
with the exception that rotation works differently. Instead of 1
thruster
point turning your ship any number of facings, it's one thruster point
PER
facing. I assume that this reflects the enormous mass and momentum of
these
leviathans.
	The "Older" races, as they call them, also have what's called
gravimetric drives. The movement for these drives is similar to the
cinematic system from FT2&3, but the drive itself provides turning
power.
So a drive rated at 4 could have an acceleration of 2 and turn 2 points
(60°), but that would use up its entire rating.
	One thing that they do that I think should also be applied to
FT3
is the breaking down of drives into discrete units. So a thrust 4 ship
has
two drive units, each supplying 2 thrust and 1 thruster point. When
threshold time comes around, each unit makes a roll. So, in an extreme
case, a thrust 10 ship might loose only 2 points to a threshold check,
but
then again it might loose all 10. This makes much more sense to me than
the
current FT method of halving the rating [Hint, hint Jon].

Combat:
	The arc system used is a sort of hybrid between FT2&3, there are
only four arcs, but they correspond to 30° increments, sort of. Fore
and
Aft are the same FT3 60° slices, but port and starboard are bigger
120°
chunks. It makes sense for the milieu, but I wish they'd represented it
differently on the SSDs. Looking at the SSDs as a FT player, they make
me
want to get out my FT2 firing arc "rings." I would rather that they had
made the SSDs more like those in FT3 and graphically depict the arcs, as
opposed to the "nubs" pointed in one of the four cardinal directions.
	Fire control is similar, but one is needed for each seperate
target. Defensive systems and weapons, including anti-fighter systems,
do
not require a fire control.
	Pulse batteries act in almost every way like FT3 beam batteries,
except the ranges are divisions of 10 instead of 12. Also, they may be
countered by defenses, as if their rounds were tiny missiles. Normal
"Beam
Batteries" are like powerful, short range FT3 beams, with dandge reduced
every 6" (MU). Also, they have a master capacitor that can project to
any
battery on the ship, which is recharged at a variable rate at the
beginning
of each turn.
	One interesting addition not present in the FT rules is the
catastrophic damage and chain reaction rules. If, over one turn, a ship
takes an entire row of damage, the ship makes an additional check. If
this
check fails, the entire next row of damage is filled in and another
complete threshold check is made. This represents chain reactions and/or
magazines exploding. I like the concept, but I don't think it would work
as
well with FT, especially with smaller ships.
	Point Defense is called Interceptors, which threw me off at
first,
being more familiar with the FT fighter variety, and they only cover one
arc each. So full coverage calls for four of them. They can act against
either fighters or pulse battery fire each turn, but not both. Against
pulse fire, they act as FT screens; against fighters they act as PDSs.
There are also regular anti-fighter batteries, which act just like FT
PDSs.

Fighters:
	Other than launch rates, half of the ship's compliment per turn,
and slight differences in movement distances, the fighter system is the
same as FT2. Scrambling and screens (the fighter variety) are also
included.
	One notable difference, which I think is a big improvement,
particularly if you're using the vector movement system in FT3, is
movement
of the turn of launch. Launch occurs before ship movement. Move the
fighter
group 6" (MU) along the ship's HEADING, and then move it the ship's
velocity along its course. I think that this should become a standard
for
FT3 [Should I bother hinting again - nah].
	Fighters are obviously pivotal in this game, and their
management
will make or break the battle. Fighter screens are essential, and
dogfights
will be much more common than in FT.

Small Craft:
	There are also rules for shuttles and small craft, which are
essentially fighters with two damage points. Seeing as how there are now
shuttle figures for FT (FT-320, GF-12, GF-14, GF-15), they should be
adapted to FT3