Amarillo Design Bureau

Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB) is a privately operated American tabletop-game publisher and developer based in Amarillo, Texas. The company specializes in tactical and strategic board wargames, with a product portfolio centered on the Star Fleet Universe, a licensed science-fiction setting derived from the broader Star Trek concept but developed as its own game universe under licensing arrangements associated with Paramount Pictures. ADB is the successor to Task Force Games, the earlier publisher connected with the development of Star Fleet Battles. The company’s best-known product line is Star Fleet Battles, a detailed tactical space-combat game in which players manage starships, weapons, energy allocation, damage, movement, and fleet engagements. Its rules and supporting material have developed into a substantial setting covering multiple interstellar powers, ship classes, historical periods, and campaign situations. The company has expanded the same fictional universe across several game formats. Federation Commander offers another tactical fleet-combat system using the Star Fleet Universe setting, while Federation and Empire operates at a strategic level, allowing players to manage larger-scale conflicts and political or military campaigns. Star Fleet Battle Force adapts the setting to a card-based tactical format, and Prime Directive presents it through a role-playing game framework. These products allow ADB to address different play styles while retaining a common setting and body of fictional material. ADB also produces physical and supporting products, including Starline 2400 and Starline 2500 miniatures, which represent spacecraft and other units from its game universe. The company publishes Captain's Log, a periodical released twice a year that supports the games with new material, scenarios, fiction, commentary, and other resources. This combination of core rules, expansions, miniatures, periodicals, and reference material reflects a specialist tabletop publishing model built around long-term support for a dedicated gaming community. The brand’s market position is that of a niche hobby-game publisher rather than a mass-market entertainment company. Its products appeal particularly to science-fiction fans, tabletop wargamers, miniature gamers, and players interested in rules-intensive tactical or strategic play. Publicly available reference material identifies the company’s owners and location, but does not establish reliable information about revenue, employee count, capitalization, founding year, or detailed geographic sales distribution.

Amarillo Design Bureau’s identifiable corporate history is rooted in the development and continuation of specialist tabletop wargames associated with Task Force Games. The company is described as a successor to Task Force Games and is based in Amarillo, Texas. Rather than operating as a broad entertainment conglomerate, ADB has concentrated on maintaining a focused line of strategy and science-fiction games for the hobby market. The company’s central creative and commercial achievement is the Star Fleet Universe. Developed under license from Paramount Pictures, the setting supports games about interstellar civilizations, starship fleets, and military conflict. Its principal tactical title, Star Fleet Battles, established the foundation for a detailed game system emphasizing ship operations, weapon systems, power management, movement, damage, and fleet tactics. The line has been supported by additional rules, scenarios, ship data, and setting material. ADB subsequently extended the setting into multiple formats. Federation Commander provides a distinct tactical approach to space combat, using the same broad fictional environment while presenting a different rules experience. Federation and Empire broadens the scale from individual engagements to strategic-level conflict. Star Fleet Battle Force translates the setting into a card-based tactical game, while Prime Directive adapts it for role-playing campaigns. This multi-format approach allows the company to reuse and develop a shared fictional framework without limiting the brand to one type of game. Physical and editorial products have also been important to the company’s business. The Starline 2400 and Starline 2500 ranges provide miniatures for ships and units associated with the game universe. Captain's Log, published twice annually, functions as a continuing support publication for the player community, carrying additional gaming content and related material. These products help sustain the setting between major game releases and reinforce the relationship between the publisher and its long-term customers. The available reference material identifies Steve Cole and Leanna Cole as owners and operators, with Steve Petrick as a partner. It does not provide a sufficiently documented founding date, a complete succession chronology, financial history, employee figures, or a detailed account of individual product launch dates. Accordingly, the company’s history can be described reliably in terms of its succession from Task Force Games, its Texas base, its licensed Star Fleet Universe work, and its continuing development of games, miniatures, and periodicals.

• Successor to Task Force Games

  [1]Amarillo Design Bureauen.wikipedia.org

  Amarillo Design Bureau emerged as the successor to Task Force Games, inheriting a connection to the Star Fleet Battles line and continuing the development of specialist tactical and strategic tabletop games.

• Expansion of the Star Fleet Universe

  [1]Amarillo Design Bureauen.wikipedia.org

  ADB developed a broad family of products around the licensed Star Fleet Universe, extending beyond tactical combat into strategic gaming, card play, role-playing, miniatures, and periodical support.

A specialist tabletop wargame publisher serving science-fiction and strategy-gaming enthusiasts through a connected universe of tactical games, strategic games, role-playing products, miniatures, and ongoing periodical support.

• Tactical science-fiction tabletop wargame

  Star Fleet Battles

  ADB's signature tactical space-combat game and the foundation of the Star Fleet Universe product family. It models engagements between starships and fleets through detailed rules for movement, weapons, power allocation, ship systems, damage, and tactical decision-making. Its extensive supporting material gives players access to numerous spacecraft, factions, scenarios, and periods of conflict.

• Tactical science-fiction tabletop game

  Federation Commander

  A tactical fleet-combat game set in the Star Fleet Universe. It offers a different rules framework from Star Fleet Battles while retaining the setting’s focus on starships, interstellar powers, and fleet engagements. The product broadens the audience for the universe by providing an alternative way to play science-fiction tabletop combat.

• Strategic board wargame

  Federation and Empire

  A strategic-level game in the Star Fleet Universe. Instead of concentrating primarily on individual ship actions, it represents larger-scale military and political conflicts involving interstellar powers, territories, fleets, and campaigns. It complements ADB’s tactical games by presenting the same fictional setting at a broader operational and strategic scale.

• Card-based tactical game

  Star Fleet Battle Force

  A card-based tactical game derived from the Star Fleet Universe. It adapts the setting’s fleet-conflict themes to a more card-focused format, giving players another way to represent starship combat and tactical choices without relying exclusively on the detailed tabletop systems used by the larger wargames.

• Science-fiction role-playing game

  Prime Directive

  A role-playing game set within the Star Fleet Universe. It shifts the focus from fleet-level combat toward character-centered adventures and missions, allowing groups to explore the setting through player characters, scenarios, and narrative play while remaining connected to ADB’s wider science-fiction game line.

• Tabletop miniatures

  Starline 2400

  A range of miniatures representing spacecraft and other units associated with ADB’s science-fiction gaming products. The line supports tabletop play by providing physical representations for fleets, scenarios, and collection-based hobby use.

• Tabletop miniatures

  Starline 2500

  A miniature range connected with the Star Fleet Universe. It provides additional physical models for players and collectors and extends ADB’s product offering beyond books and game rules into the miniature-gaming segment.

• Tabletop gaming periodical

  Captain's Log

  A periodical published twice a year by Amarillo Design Bureau. It supports the company’s game lines with continuing game material and community-oriented content, helping maintain the Star Fleet Universe and related systems through an ongoing publication rather than only through standalone core releases.

1. 1Amarillo Design Bureauen.wikipedia.org