Titan Books under License from Chameleon Eclectic.

Softbound Rules Addition. 130pp. £9.95p

There always seems to be some kind of problem when it comes to Europe and Babylon 5! If the show airs in the US in September we get it almost a year later, and as for licensing of official B5 products, well lets just say that we need to get our act together. I like a lot of fans of the hit TV series waited anxiously for the release of the official B5 roleplaying game, only to find it dogged by licensing laws which meant almost a five month wait after its US launch ( something to do with the TV rights over here in the UK?) before it was picked up by UK distributors Titan Books (more famous for comics than games!). Well the day came and the Babylon Project was released, to a major out cry from many gamers. Where was the spaceship combat that made the show so popular?

Well the word got out that Chameleon Eclectic were in the process of writing a new addition to the basic rule book that would include a full blown space combat system that would allow us to re-enact the battles that we see every week. Coming along late again (a major delay with the UK printers and last minute changes!) December finally saw the release of the Earthforce Sourcebook.

The Earthforce sourcebook is well set out and is in full color throughout. A lot of new artwork has been created for the game and it takes as the title suggests an in-depth look at the history and role of the Earthforce and way that the Alliance has grown to become a powerful force in the galaxy. The background is well written and isn't to bogged down with dates or useless trivia about the show, and the facts are presented quite clearly and well laid out. The book is set out into four chapters with the first being dedicated to the history of the Earth Forces and others chapter detailing the rules for Starship combat, ships and Earthforce characters.

Earthforce and all its history and background are covered in explicit detail, from mankind's first feeble steps into the universe, to the first contact with an alien race (the Centauri!) the Earth/Minbari war and the creation of the Babylon Project. As a source book the background is first rate but however there are a few problems!

I would love to say that this book fulfilled all of my expectations but that wouldn't be quite right. The background is good and the combat system (a very much simplified version of Full Thrust) is first rate, but there are a few problems that really should have been caught before the book was sent to the printers! Mistakes in grammar and spelling are all throughout the book and I was surprised to find that Dr Franklin's father Richard Franklin (played in the show by sci-fi veteran Paul Winfield) is a clone! Well that's not true really. The artwork for the profile as been reprinted under different names not once but twice leaving us with three separate entries for the good general (will the real Mr. Franklin please stand up!). Considering the amount of editing that goes into making a game for mass release then this must count as a no-no, (especially when one of the entries is for a 28 year old woman!) these mistakes should have been sorted out long before the book went to print!

On to the other real gripe about the book. As I mentioned you get a very cool combat system to use in the roleplaying game and it allows you to fight combats between a wide variety of space craft from the Earth Alliance, Narn Regime, Centauri Republic and the Minbari. Well you could fight if you had the counters to use for the ships. To be completely honest with you, I thought that perhaps my copy of the system had been opened in the store I bought it from and that the sheets of card stock counters for the combat system had simply fallen out. It wasn't until I spoke to a friend of mine who got the game before me that I found out that he had no counters either. I telephoned the UK distributors for the game and was informed that it was a mistake at the printers and that it would be rectified in later prints. That is all well for those of us who buy the book later, but what about the poor saps who have already shelled out for the book now? Well no mention of compensation was forthcoming and I have emailed Chameleon Eclectic on several occasions now and still have had no reply?

I can only speak about the UK version of the book as I haven't seen the US version yet and I am not sure if the mistakes are the same as in the UK version. If you are reading this and live in the UK wait till the corrected book comes out before making a decision as you wont get a refund, and if anyone in the US has a copy can you mail me and let me know if the mistakes are the same.

Apart from the omission of the counters and the other mistake, the Earthforce sourcebook is a really good read and will become a useful tool to gamesmasters and fans of the show everywhere.

The ship to ship combat system is very fast and easy to learn and within a few moments you can get the hang of it. Jon did come up trumps again and has set out the Full Thrust rules here very simply and clearly (I am not going to go into great depth as I have already placed a full review of Full Thrust here on Gamers Web).

The artwork is excellent and even if you're not a gamer you could find a lot about the shows history by reading the book and looking at the way the ships have developed over the years. This is the first in list of supplements that are due out over the coming months, and I am told that the rest of the races will all have their own books with ships and equipment. Overall a good book let down by silly mistakes that could have been avoided.