WELCOME, FUTURE STARSHIP COMMANDER!
The product you have in your hands is more than mere words on paper. It is a device that will place you in the command chair of the Federation Starship Constellation and transport you across the galaxy. Visualize now the challenge that awaits you: locked in warp-speed combat with a deadly enemy, perhaps a Klingon battlecruiser or the devastating Planet Killer. But you must learn much before you can face such challenges.

This product is a complete game in itself. You can play the battles within it with the rules it includes, and you will probably find this quite enjoyable. This product includes more than enough material for several dozen hours of playing.

However, Cadet Training Handbook is also the gateway to a vast universe of games with hundreds of ships and battles and extensive rules to cover challenges and opportunities you cannot yet imagine. However, whether this game is the only one you ever play, or whether it becomes the first of many such games, one thing is true:

YOU WILL COMMAND A STARSHIP!

Within a few minutes from now (an hour at the most), you will be in the command chair, maneuvering a starship and firing its weapons. Command of such a powerful vessel is not granted lightly. It is the most complex and important job in the galaxy, and it must be learned, then earned. Starship commanders are not born, they are trained, and the training program begins now.

WHERE DO I FIT IN?

You are probably in one of the following groups:
1. An experienced player of Star Fleet Battles (SFB). In your case, Cadet Training Handbook can be used to train your friends as new players so that they can compete with you. This game will make an excellent gift for anyone you want to introduce to SFB.
2. An experienced game player, but one who has never played Star Fleet Battles. You will find Cadet Training Handbook to be an excellent sampler of what the SFB game series has in store for you. You can skim over the Glossary of Gaming Terms and proceed directly to page 3.
3. Someone who once tried to learn Star Fleet Battles but could not grasp the more complicated features of the game. Cadet Training Handbook will put you on the right path; thanks for trying again to learn the game. We suggest, however, that you put your SFB Basic Set game back in the box and ignore it until you finish all of the scenarios from Cadet Training Handbook.
4. A science-fiction fan unfamiliar with simulation games. We have a special section for you (see "HAVE YOU PLAYED..." in the next column). We think you will find that commanding a starship is considerably more fun than reading about one.

Regardless of your group, after playing Cadet Training Handbook you'll be ready to meet experienced SFB players on nearly equal terms.

WELCOME, LADIES
There is no reason whatsoever why women cannot command starships. (Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!) While women make up only a few percent of the people playing games of this type, they can hold their own against any mere male (and probably beat him). Your only limitations are how well you know the rules and your skill at applying them.

HAVE YOU PLAYED SIMULATION GAMES BEFORE?
Games such as Poker (or most card games) are purely abstract. The basic principles are based on probability and mathematics that have no particular relation to the real world.

Then there are the "pure skill" games such as darts or horseshoes, and there are competitive skill games (such as baseball) where you must not only out-think your opponent but also out-play him. None of these games have any particular relationship to anything outside of themselves.

Some games are based loosely on real events. But even such classic games as Chess, Monopoly, or Stratego are so abstract that their relationship to reality is largely cosmetic.

Finally, there are the "simulation" games, which are intended to reproduce, to various levels of accuracy, events in the real world, or in a realistically defined universe. Probably, no Earth-descended humans have commanded starships before, but we can (through engineering, science, and physics) define what such a vessel could do. This is used as the basis of this game. Everything in Star Fleet Battles is based on what a real starship (as we are able to define it) could actually do. If such a ship were to move a distance of 500,000 miles and, during the time that this movement took, could fire its weapons three times, then the game rules will reflect this.

If you have played "simulation" games (sometimes called "wargames" or the commercial derivative "adventure games") before, you are probably familiar with terms such as "hex," "counter," "combat results table," and so on. If this is the case, skim the general section on page 2 and start with Star Fleet Terms on page 3. If you are not familiar with these terms, we have prepared a brief introduction for you on the next page.

GLOSSARY OF BASIC GAMING TERMS

CHARTS: This term is often used interchangeably with "tables." Either term indicates a set of information placed in a grid
for easier access. See Cross-Index below.
CAPTAIN'S EDITION: The complete SFB game system, including several boxed products and other modules; a term often used to mean only the Captain's Basic Set.
COUNTER: This is the name of each 1/2-inch square playing piece. Counters include "units" (starships, monsters, shuttlecraft, drones, and plasma torpedoes) and "markers" (turn, step, impulse, planet, cloak). Counters are provided in graphic format. Store your counters in a ziplock bag.
CROSS-INDEX: The act of obtaining information from a chart or table. Each chart has a series of names, titles, or numbers along the top and the left edge. To cross-index a chart, you determine which item on the top applies, and then move straight down that column until you reach the row determined by the appropriate item on the left. Look at the chart below:

To determine now many feet cats have, first find "cats" in the top row, then look down that column until you reach the row dealing with "feet" (you just cross-indexed), and there you find the answer (of course, four).

FORMS: The only form associated with this game is the Energy Allocation Form, which is used (after the first scenarios) to determine how much energy your ship has and how you are using it. Two versions of this form are provided, one for scenarios 4-6 and the other for scenarios 7-12. Do not mark on these, but use them to make photocopies. When you play the game, write on the photocopies, not the originals. Some players prefer to enclose the forms in plastic page protectors and use grease pencils to record their game, erasing and reusing it each time.

HEX: This is short for HEXAGON. Look briefly at the playing maps printed in the centerfold. You will note that a playing grid is printed on the maps, dividing them into several hundred hexagonal areas, each of which is called a hex. These are much like the squares on a chess/checkerboard. The basic purpose is to define exactly where a particular spaceship is at any given moment. (Carefully remove the maps from the book.) On each map, each hex has a number (assigned in a grid pattern) identifying it as different from every other hex. This allows the instructions for each battle to say where each ship starts. Ships are placed inside the hexes; see page 4 (C1.1). Note that the maps are blank (except for the hexes). They can represent any area of space. (For that matter, they could represent ocean for a naval game or sky for an airplane game.) If there is a planet in a particular scenario, we'll add it to a map by using a counter to show where it is. Each hex represents an area 10,000 kilometers or a bit more than 6,000 miles across.

SCENARIO: Literally a "scene" (as in a play) or a plan, in game usage this refers to a particular battle or tactical challenge. Scenarios can be "historical" (the exact units that were actually there) or "generic" (representing a type of battle rather than any specific incident, often with a choice of units). There are also "variations" or "variants" in which different units are put in the given situation (for example, what if British troops had invaded Grenada instead of the US?) or in which the situation is changed (what if the 700 Cuban construction workers on Grenada had been combat troops, or if they had been Russian Marines?). These are often called "what if?" scenarios. The point is that with a paragraph of additional info you can use the same playing pieces and rules to play another battle. The 12 scenarios included in this Handbook can produce several hundred different battles simply by changing what ships are included.

SPEED: A speed of one hex per turn equals the speed of light. A speed of eight hexes per turn equals Warp 2 (8 times the speed of light). A speed of 27 hexes per turn equals Warp 3 (27 times the speed of light). Starships do not fight at faster speeds due to the high power requirements.

TABLE: See Chart.

TURN: Specifically game turn (as opposed to change in direction). Each scenario is played as a series of game turns. Some scenarios have a pre-set number of game turns. Other scenarios have no limit, and the battle can continue until it is resolved. Each game turn represents a few minutes of subjective time, but will take a bit longer in real time to play (since you don't have a crew of 430 people to help you). Each turn is divided into impulses, and each impulse is divided into steps, much as days (scenarios) are divided into hours (turns) which are made up of minutes (impulses) that are divided into seconds (steps). The important point here is that there is no "my turn, then
your turn" in Star Fleet Battles. Both players move and fire simultaneously, going through the steps, impulses, and turns at the
same time.

A WORD ABOUT DICE AND PROBABILITY

A pair of dice is necessary and required to play this game. Due to the packaging, it was impossible to include dice. We assume that you have a pair you can borrow from some other game. If not, they are available for a nominal charge from your hobby or game store. You can make do without dice by taking a pack of playing cards, setting aside everything except the 1 (Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of each suit, and then shuffling the pack of 24 remaining cards. To be strictly accurate, you should reshuffle after turning up each card, but in practice you can turn up about three or four cards without affecting the probabilities too much. Dice are used in simulation games to generate random numbers. They have nothing to do with moving the playing pieces. (How far a starship moves in a given turn is based on how powerful its engines are and on how much of that power is being used for movement.) Also, the dice (as used in this game) have nothing to do with gambling but only with probability. In most cases, only one die is required for any given function. According to "Games Theory," simulation games are based on an analysis of actual (or projected) events. In theory, we have analyzed records of several thousand times that phasers were fired and have resolved this analysis (of how much damage each shot did) into probability groups. Each group has been assigned one or more numbers. When the number for that group is produced (by rolling a die), then the event associated with that number is assumed to have happened. For example, let's play an imaginary game about the weather. You have consulted the records for February over the last 20 years and determined that (during February) 17% of the time it was snowing, 33% it was raining, and 50% of the time it was sunny. With a 6-sided die, there is a 16-2/3 chance of each number appearing. We will assign the "1" to snow, the "2" and "3" to rain, and the other three numbers to sunny weather. So, in our game, we can determine what the weather was on 14 February by rolling a die and seeing which number came up. Whenever we need to know something that we cannot control (within the imaginary game universe), or which has not already happened, we will use a "table" and a die roll to determine which of several possible events has actually taken place.

GLOSSARY OF STAR FLEET TERMS

DIRECT-FIRE WEAPONS: Weapons which strike the target when they are fired, such as phasers, disruptors, and photon torpedoes. In modern terms, a police officer's pistol is a direct-fire weapon while his attack dog is a seeking weapon.

IMPULSE: This is a fraction of a turn. All game turns in Star Fleet Battles are divided into a number of impulses. The turns in the first three scenarios are divided into 8 impulses; the turns in scenarios four-six are divided into 16 impulses; and in the final scenarios, the turns are divided into 32 impulses. The term impulse also refers to the ship's sublight ion(impulse) engines. It will always be possible to tell, from the context in which the word is used, which is meant.

POINTS: A method of counting. There are energy points, movement points, and damage points. The warp engines of most full-size starships produce 30 units of energy, which are termed "energy points." Some of these may be spent to purchase "movement points," each of which will move the ship one hex. Weapons (most of which use "energy points") produce "damage points," each of which cause one box on the SSD (Ship Systems Display) to be marked as destroyed.

PROPORTIONAL MOVEMENT: In SFB, all units move constantly during the turn. The proportional movement system directs some units to move during each impulse of a turn; faster units move more often, that is, proportionately faster.

RACE: This refers to a political entity or "power" in the galaxy. The terms "Empire," "country," and "side" are synonymous. Races include the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Orion Pirates, Gorn Confederation, Kzinti Hegemony, Hydran Kingdom, Lyran Star Empire, and Interstellar Concordium. Some of these are, indeed, distinct biological races (the Romulans and Gorns, for example) while others are empires (the Klingons and Romulans, for example). Note that the counters are color coded, with Federation ships shown as black on blue counters, Orions white on blue, Klingons as white on black, Romulans as black on red, and Gorns as red on white. Other races colors are defined in their rules.

RULE NUMBERS: Each rule in Cadet Training Handbook and in the Captain's Edition is assigned a rule number. For example, rule (C1.2) deals with which direction your ship is facing at any given time. These rule numbers are assigned in a specific pattern. The pattern is read from left to right, with each succeeding number defining more closely the specific point. The rule number consists of three elements, the letter at the first, the number or numbers to the left of the decimal (1 in our example above), and the number or numbers to the right of the decimal. The letter defines the specific topic. A and B cover general rules, C covers movement, D covers combat, E covers direct-fire weapons, F covers seeking weapons (FD drones, FP plasma torpedoes), G covers general systems, H covers power, J covers shuttlecraft, P covers planets, R covers ships, S covers scenarios. The designation SC means "Scenario, Cadet." The numbers define specific items. For example, (E2.0) deals with phasers, (E2.1) says that there are several kinds of phasers, and (E2.13) deals with the kind of phasers that are installed on shuttlecraft.

SEEKING WEAPONS: These weapons are represented by counters. They are launched by a ship and follow their target, eventually hitting it and causing damage (or running out of fuel or being destroyed by defensive weapons). There are two types of seeking weapons: drones (missiles) and plasma torpedoes.

SHIP: A ship is a large manned space vessel. The term is not applied to shuttlecraft or seeking weapons. SSD: Ship Systems Display, a representation of your starship. Each box on the SSD represents a particular piece of equipment which can be used. If enemy weapons destroy the  system, an " X " (or checkmark, or slash, or whatever you prefer) is marked in the box indicating that the system can no longer be used. Note that each box on the SSD is separate; a single warp engine hit destroys one box from the warp engine, not the entire engine. Note that many obvious abbreviations are used, and that not all systems of a given type are located together. The SSD sheets, while not tabular forms, are also used to record game information. Do not mark on the original SSDs; use them to make photocopies. When you play the game, write on the photocopies, not the original. Some players prefer to enclose the forms in plastic page protectors and use grease pencils.

UNIT: A man-made object of some type represented by a counter. This includes ships, seeking weapons, and shuttlecraft (the small spacecraft used to move between larger spacecraft or down to the surface of a planet).

A WORD ABOUT THE BACKGROUND

As anyone can tell by a brief examination, the background for this game relates to classic Star Trek. Amarillo Design Bureau (which designed these games) is licensed to use this background by Franz Joseph Designs, the company which produced the STAR TREK * STAR FLEET TECHNICAL HANDBOOK. Wehave only the greatest of respect and gratitude for the hard work of the creator (Gene Roddenberry) and those who have added to his work in both the literary, theatrical, and gaming fields.

TRAINING PROGRAM CONCEPT

Welcome to STAR FLEET ACADEMY. Here you will learn the skills you need to become a successful starship captain. The training program is divided into two sections. The first six scenarios comprise the "Cadet Game" (as in West Point Cadet, not Space Cadet). The next four scenarios comprise an introduction into the "Standard Game" using an abridged version of the Standard Rules from Star Fleet Battles. Finally there is a Graduate Training section which introduces the rules for three other races.

The rules for Cadet Training Handbook are presented in a system known as "programmed instruction." You will learn the rules in a series of "scenarios," each providing a different challenge. Before each scenario begins, you will be provided with the rules necessary to play that scenario. You will read these rules, then use them to play the scenario, thereby learning their applications. Learning how to fire a phaser is easy; learning when and at what to fire a phaser is the skill you must master.

Each scenario builds on the rules from the previous scenarios. In each case, read the rules, then play the scenario (usually several times), before going on to the next scenario.

The most basic principles of starship combat are firepower and maneuver (often referred to as the ability to "shoot and move"). In fact, these are the only principles of starship combat. Every rule in the game boils down to another way to shoot or move, or something to improve your own use (or restrict the enemy's use) of those two principles.

You are, of course, anxious to get started with your first scenario. There is, however, a lot involved in moving a starship and firing its weapons. We'll begin with the most basic concepts. It is suggested that you read these rules carefully both before and after playing scenario #1.

Before you start, however, let us introduce you to your most important officer, the Chief Engineer. For the first three scenarios, he will make sure that there is enough energy to move the ship and fire your weapons. After you reach the fourth scenario, you have to give the orders for this yourself.

Ready? Then go to the next page and take command!