First of all, in answer to the original question. I have a web page which introduces the basics of SFB if a newcomer is interested, at: www-e815.fnal.gov/~jhkim/fun/sfb/intro.hmtl. This includes some of my opinions on the game (problems and strong points). The game is rather hard to get now, and it is quite complex (more than it needs to be). If you are interested in Next Generation stuff, look at: www-e815.fnal. gov/~jhkim/fun/sfb/nextgen.hmtl This links to Donald Miller's Next Gen rules and ships. It will have comments on other options in the future, I hope.

First of all, there is plenty of SFB without fighters. While many products are hard to get these days, there are hundreds of ship designs which bear no relation to fighters. I have played SFB for many years without encountering a non-Hydran fighter (I think I dealt with Federation fighters maybe 7 or 8 years ago).

Fighters (along with PFs) do come to dominate fleet combat in the "official" timeline, but that doesn't mean you have to play with them in your own games. Only a fraction (maybe 25% ?) of the published scenarios involve fighters, for example.

As for whether they belong: Personally, I think that a Star Trek boardgame which sticks *only* to what is shown on the movies/shows is going to be very limited in scope and tactically boring. I don't agree with all the choices which SFB has made, but I think that expanding to new units in general was necessary to keep the game interesting.