After movement, the non-moving player can also move a few limited reserves of ships to battles so as to shore up the defense of critical points.
A battleforce is the group of ships each player selects to participate in combat from the stack of starships (and other units like bases) in the battle hex.
Command points may also be expended and allocated to the battle hex, each permitting one extra ship to be added to the battleforce.
Command points reflect commitments by fleet headquarters to organize and deploy more assets to the battleforce.
Special warships known as maulers, deployed in small numbers during the General War by the Coalition (Romulan, Klingon and Lyran fleets), can inflict directed damage at a one-to-one ratio.
The purpose of such a transfer would be to replace destroyed attrition units and restore carriers and/or PF flotillas in the battleforce to their full capacity prior to the next combat round.
If so, his opponent has the option of pursuit (usually in an effort to pick off cripples which are disadvantaged in their attempt to disengage).
The main focus of the game is the General War, an 18-year-long conflict set in the Star Fleet Universe that involves all the major powers of the Alpha Octant.
The scale is extremely large compared to board games in a terrestrial setting, with each hex on the map representing 500 parsecs.
It was derived from the current working draft of what became Federation and Empire, and so can be considered an "older brother" to it, even though there are notable differences between the two.
This almost always resulted in hordes of the inferior ships of the Klingon Deep Space Fleet overwhelming the smaller but high-quality Federation Starfleet.
Federation and Empire Deluxe Edition was published in 1989 by TFG with the significantly updated and expanded "Rev-1" rulebook, a nicer-looking map and a new set of counters.
At the time, the rules mentioned an upcoming expansion, Total War which was expected to provide all the things that could not fit in the box[citation needed].
However, as new ships and ideas were still be promptly introduced to the SFU through Star Fleet Battles[citation needed], this proposed expansion quickly took on dimensions equal to the original game.
When Amarillo Design Bureau took over the publishing of all Star Fleet Universe material from TFG, they continued selling the Deluxe Edition, but soon released another large rewrite of the rules in 2000.
In addition, Captain's Log has a regular section devoted to the game, and often includes preview material for future expansions, such as the set of trial rules for the Interstellar Concordium in issue 25.
While the map and various charts are identical to the previous edition, key differences include a new rulebook and all new counter sheets.
This allowed the many carrier groups in the game to exist as individual ships instead of multi-ship counters, and the new rules eliminated the special bookkeeping this once required.