The most important thing I can tell you about the playtest is...there's a lot of cat hair in deep space, judging by Cricket's battlemat. (Actually, it was a lovely mat, although the galaxy airbrushed in the middle kept making me think there was light shining on it from an overhead skylight, but there wasn't.)

ENOUGH ABOUT THE MAT!

Okay, if you insist. Klingon Armada was a lot of fun. It was a four-hour convention slot, and we played 4 Klingons vs. 3 Feds, with a mix of ships on either side, taking about 2 hours per game (we switched sides, reset and played again.) The first time, the Klingons tried to flank the feds, and wound up getting cut to pieces. The second time, they tried a head-on approach and came closer to victory, but were ultimately defeated. (If Dan posts pictures, I'm in the one where the Federation ships are "mating.")

Rules. Really there wasn't a lot different from AE, it's just how the rules were implemented, which bodes well for the whole venture, methinks.

Shields. Shields were faceted per Iron Stars (which I don't own, yet, so it was new to me.) There was a slight issue with the number of boxes on the "Total shields" track not matching up with "Facets" track, but I'm sure that'll be ironed out by the time Klingon Armada goes to press. (Although I gotta ask, if destroyed Shields sometimes have to come off the side facing the attack, why not weapons? Would seem to make logical sense.) Otherwise, they felt like Shields in Trek, and players did have to pay attention to issues like facing and manuever to get the best shot (or avoid one.)

Drones. They really didn't bother me all that much. I'm not a Fed Commander/SFB player, and have advocated for a style that leans more towards the movies/tv show...but y'know, the drones weren't all that distracting. When I play, I'll probably leave the drones alone. (Hey, wasn't that a movie?)

Energy allocation rules. Not here. I know that's a big part of sfb, but I had to agree with Dan that there's no way to include 'em without changing Starmada. No armed shuttles, either (bleagh!)

Movement. This was my first time playing the "official" movement system, so that took a bit of getting used to. Space travel in Trek doesn't seem very Newtonian (sometimes), so the Optional/Classic movement would probably work fine, too. However, I now "get" the new movement system, and it's actually kinda cool...Towards the end, my ship was disabled (no engine power). It would have been nice if I still could have used reaction control thrusters to change facing and still have some kind of impact on combat.

Sadly, no boarding actions were attempted, so I can't tell you about transporters.

Overall, the ships, weapons and shields "felt" right for both sides, capturing the flavor of a Contitution, D-7, etc., so good job, Dan! I'll definitely buy it when it comes out, tho' I'll probably cook up some house rules for heroic characters, (Scotty, I need warp power in seven minutes, or we're all dead!)