Unlike FASA, SFB doee not use "reference stardates" but a different system where Year 1 represents the first contact between Humans and other interstellar neighbors, Year 4 representing the formation of the U.F.P. etc. Even here note how the dates are off. I therefore had to select specific years to use as reference, and slot what data didn't conflict into the Chronology. So don't lynch me if some events don't seem to progress normally going by this Y timeline. As with FASA, I've kept the original date in brackets.
Here are my references... Differential Y 4 = 2127: U.F.P. founded 2123* low date Y 46 = 2162: First (Federation-)Romulan War ends 2116 Y 71 = 2183: (United) Star Fleet formed 2112 Y 83 = 2236: D-7 Klingon battlecruiser introduced *2153* D-6 in Y 65 Y 83 = 2189: ("Caracal" class) command cruisers 2106 Y 110 = 2221: First U.F.P.-Klingon war 2111 Y 156 = 2261: Organian Peace Treaty imposed 2105 Y 159 = 2263: "Enterprise Incident" or thereabouts 2104 Y 168 = 2278: ("Ascension" class) dreadnoughts 2110 Y 171 = 2281: Organians 'disappear' 2110 --So from 2104 to 2153 is added to these Y-ears, but generally 2104-2116 which is only a 12 year differential, and an average of 2110 is added onto these years to get Chronology dates, in theory...Here are notes on the Star Fleet Battles' entries:
1. First contact between Humans and their neighbors in Year 1 doesn't hold up if the U.F.P. was founded in Year 4. Contact with extraterrest- rials occurred in the 21st Century not the 22nd: Vulcans, Tellarites, And- orians, Alpha Centaurians, Vegans, and the Kzinti stuck their head in 4 times. It doesn't matter how you view it, Y 1 and Y 4 don't hold water.
2. SFB states that Y 32 (or circa 2140) began the era of the U.F.P.'s sublight light cruisers. This is wrong since warp drive was developed almost a century earlier and the Federation has had warp cruisers for decades. Also omitted is the U.F.P.'s Cruiser design, introduced in Y 45, or about 2161. SFB's "Horizon" class, among others, preceded this date by quite a few years.
3. Within a decade after the supposed development of sublight cruisers by the Federation, the first Federation-Romulan War is fought, according to SFB, from Y 40-46. SFB says that both sides lacked warp drive and the war was fought with sublight vessels. This is one of the rare sources to disregard 21st Century warp drive development. These entries on the warp drive lag were left out of the Chronology. SFB is fixed on most races developing faster than light propulsion from Y 62-67 with the exception of the Romulans. In fact, it isn't until circa 2174 that the Federation launches the first warp-powered cruiser going by SFB!
4. In Y 63 the Kzinti are said to have developed warp power. Yet another entry bites the dust since this would be around 2175 A.D. and we know that over a century earlier they fought 4 wars with Earth, and they didn't get there aboard sublight vessels. I am ignoring the possibility that the felinoids had been using another form of faster-than-light propulsion up until now (Niven would claim they used a gravity-polarizer or gravity- planer drive). This is also the era, SFB claims, that the Federation began to convert 30 old-style sublight cruisers to warp power--again, about a century late.
5. More discrepancies with late 2170s ship launches. More like oddities. SFB claims this is when the first Klingon D-6 cruisers entered service. That seems to be several decades early, but then again we know very little about the D-6 battecruisers. The Federation puts to space her first destroyers, heavy cruisers, and other ships. This is contradicted by the "Djartanna" class destroyer and other new-build vessels, launched long before the 2170s.
6. The "United Star Fleet" founded in the early 2180s is intriguing. In fact, it could very well be the key to the whole Star Fleet founding mystery. The 2183 date given in Line Officers Requirements and Starfleet Dynamics jibes rather well, but what exactly is a UNITED Star Fleet? SFB claims that until now member planets of the U.F.P. had "national" fleets. Could it be that member worlds, or at least significant member worlds, had their own mini Star Fleets for defense until now? It would explain the earlier references to Star Fleet, as well as the possible Roman numeral 2161 date on the San Francisco Star Fleet Academy logo in "The First Duty" --the founding of the Earth/Sol system Star Fleet and/or Star Fleet Academy. The earlier FASA reference to an Academy opening on Alpha Centauri might have been the Centaurian Academy, and not this United Star Fleet, later shorted to just Star Fleet.
7. Around 2184 a cargo drone enters service in the U.F.P. I am assuming this is not the same as the "Durance" class tug introduced much earlier.
8. In the Y 70s I had to, unfortunately, crunch some together into the same years. This is the best I could do without throwing continuity off. These aren't like classic stardates, after all.
9. 2189 matches up beautifully with Y 83: the year Star Fleet's command cruiser enters service--the "Caracal" class (did these guys do their homework or is this just blind luck?). Yet the possible discrepancy here is with the Klingon D-7s entering service--something like half a century early? Well, judging by the way FASA uses the D-7 classification so loosely, we'll just chalk it up as being the earliest prototypes of this warship class.
10. Around 2193, we have the first Federation-Kzinti War. No, this isn't a discrepancy since the U.F.P.'s now formed so there's no confusion here with the four Earth battles in the 21st Century. However, Sulu did say in "The Slaver Weapon" that the last Kzinti war was two centuries ago. Trying his best to insult Chuft-Captain or perhaps this was a minor skirmish hardly deserving the title? To quote from SFB: "The numbering of wars is rather arbitrary, but generally in keeping with Federation historical texts. It should be pointed out however that some 'incidents included more fighting and destruction than some 'wars.' Several wars include periods of relative calm that cause some historians to list these as separate wars." Something like this crops up again around 2244.
11. Y 110-111 marks the first Federation-Klingon War. It's obviously very brief and clearly isn't the Four Years War of decades later. This would seem to be about the time of the first hostilities between the two powers mentioned in ST VI.
12. SFB claims that the Second Federation-Romulan War began in Y 154 and lasted a year, yet in Y 156 we have "Errand of Mercy." Beats me what's happening since a year or less prior to this episode should have been "Balance of Terror" which was The first Romulan engagement in a century's time. Another non-inclusive entry.
13. In 2262 a couple entries regarding the Romulan-Klingon alliance were crunched together. Again, there's no way out of this without disrupting the continuity of SFB.
14. This First General War is described as a very destructive war which involves almost all races and covers most of the known regions of the galaxy, and spans Y 168-185. Very significant, but exactly where does it fit into the timeline? I plot it out to begin around 2278, obviously starting off very gradually, pulling in various different races, probably on the outskirts of U.F.P. space. It may justify the militaristic turn of Star Fleet during the post-ST-TMP movie era. It might also be indirectly responsible for the stirring up of the little empires, such as the Kzinti, and certainly the large numbers of warships (frigates come to mind!) constructed by Star Fleet during these two decades.
15. The withdrawal/disappearance of the Organians is rather ambiguous. Ships of the Star Fleet Volume 2, right in the Preface, mentions "the apparent withdrawal of the Organians in the early 2280s." Applying the dating system in use here for matching SFB dates to the Chronology, Y 171 comes out to be 2281. Beautiful, ain't it? But then there's the FASA entry dated mid-2286, Morrow's declaration about the Organians no longer enforcing the Organian Peace Treaty. Maybe they left and came back and then left again? Well, it's two against one with the earlier date being favored. Perhaps the Klingons declared war in 2281 and spent 5 years building up their military? Or maybe we should tackle the definition of the terms "withdrawal" and "no longer enforcing" --it's rather ambiguous. Could Star Fleet have been keeping this little known fact a secret for 5 years and, finally, in 2285 release the sad news to the general public? You tell me...
16. The Grand Alliance, outside of the gaming universe, is unheard of just like the General War. In Y 174 (2284), this Grand Alliance is first brought to our attention by SFB. Yet years later it will be acknowledged by, believe it or not, the one source which seems to steer clear of other separate universes: FASA! The TNG Officers Manual put out by FASA tries to imply that the U.F.P., as we know it, no longer exists in the 24th Century, but is one of the allied members of the Grand Alliance. The book calls the TNG seal the "Great Seal of the Federation Grand Alliance" with the 3 blazing stars symbolizing the three principle worlds involved in its formation: Terra, Klinzhai, and Vulcan. But by any other name it's the seal of the United Federation of Planets, period! The Klingons have their own Imperial trefoil emblem and the Vulcans are rather proud to flaunt their IDIC logo. We saw this new U.F.P. insignia for the first time (chronologically) in ST VI in the president's office, before the start of the Klingon-U.F.P. alliance, so obviously one blazing star can't stand for Klinzhai. SFB described the Grand Alliance first in 2284 and it's my belief that the seal (at least as originally proposed) represented the Gorn-Federation-Kzinti alliance of fleets and was still in use by the time of ST VI. It probably became accepted U.F.P.-wide as the Federation seal and for no bloody good reason stuck with the U.F.P. for a century. An early variation of this seal also appears in Jackill's Reference Manual 2 for the Star Fleet Space Station division emblem (this second volume cannot be later than 2285). It's also possible that the three blazing stars represent the three cornerstones of U.F.P. space: Rigel, Deneb, and Antares during the territorial redefinition in the 22nd Century.
17. Because the Star Fleet Battles timeline was drawn up long before the later films, a conflict arises in the very late 23rd Century. If the Khitomer Conference established peace between the U.F.P. and Klingon Empire circa 2292, then what's with Admiral Radey and this first and final Federation attack on the Klingon capital circa 2294? Presumably the peace treaty broke down (perhaps the actions of those rigid, hot-headed renegade Klingons?). For whatever reason, shortly afterwards the Organians reap- pear and halt the war. What we know for certain is that the Klingon Empire never became an official ally of the Federation until around 2344 (if not slightly earlier going by the info in the novelization of "Encounter at Farpoint"). Obviously there was a breakdown of peace or a lack of trust between both governments in the interim period between ST VI and the destruction of 1701-C ("Yesterday's Enterprise"). A lot can happen in half a century...
Special thanks go to Roger Kuiper for providing me with updates from Companion Games and Prime Directive. Without his additional input (no less than a dozen pages worth!) this expanded Star Fleet Battles section would not have been possible.