Just a quick follow-up to my post earlier this week after playing in my second OP3 event of the "Dominion War."
With my Klingon fleet not performing as well as I'd hoped I decided to make some modifications for my second event by shuffling captains around to get access to another action. I replaced the 9-skill Martok with the 8-skill one, and swapped Nu'Daq out for Gowron. Not a surprise to anyone who plays Klingons, and also fairly reminiscent of the fleet I used in OP2.
The first game was against our resident Romulan player with two Valdores and two science vessels packing cloaked mines. I was much more careful about my ships flying in formation in this event and was largely able to avoid the mines he dropped on either side of the planet. We fought over the planet but I was again hampered by my dice, although it was much closer.
Martok's barrage of fire damaged Donatra's Valdore down to no shields and one hull, but her return volley punched through his cloak and vaporized him. Gowron and Krell were now outnumbered and I misplayed a maneuver in the last turn of the game. If I'd been able to kill one of the Valdores I might have won this game, but I just couldn't land the last hit I needed so I lost on points. It was a really good game though, very close!
Game two was against some new players, father and son just getting into the game. They were sharing a Federation fleet of Enterprise D w/ Picard and Defiant w/ Sisko. I was helping them with the rules and nuance of selecting various actions over others and when. Their lower manueverability coupled with lack of experience was against them though and I successfully pulled off an 11-die attack on the Enterprise with barrage of fire. They really enjoyed the game despite the defeat and I sent them home with lots of goodies for coming out. I'm hopeful that they'll return for OP4.
The last game was against a two ship Dominion fleet built with a 5th Wing and the Gor Portas. Like in game two I was able to take the planet but didn't use an action to my advantage near the end to actually take control. However, my formation flying, cloaking and high attack netted me a lot of unanswered attacks. I was able to destroy his entire fleet without suffering much damage.
After three rounds our Romulan player was undefeated taking first place with TEN battle points! I was tied for second on battle points, but had far more fleet points under my hat to take second. One of the three Federation players placed third.
I think I'll try out some Federation or Dominion builds in the next event. I've enjoyed playing Klingon ships, but I'm ready for a change. I've still not used my two 5th wings ships, or the Defiant and I'm sure there is a lot of stuff there to explore. I can't wait for the second wave release next week as well because the Dominion and Federation both get some great new ships and cards.
The prizes for OP4 also look excellent. If you haven't seen the spoilers online for the flagship cards and USS Sutherland you owe it to yourself to go have a look!
November 28, 2013
November 26, 2013
Star Trek: Attack Wing - Dominion War Month 3 Klingon Squad
The Plan
So far in most of my games of Star Trek: Attack Wing I've stuck to in-faction builds wherever possible because I find that to be more fun than min-maxing across factions. So far I'd have to say that it's working out fairly well, as I've been able to come in second and take home a prize ship in the three organized play events; even giving away my second Ch'tang to a fellow player.
Admittedly I have mixed Dominion and Ferengi ships just so I could use my month 1 prize Krayton in a game, but it didn't prove very successful in my first test attempt. I haven't given up on the Ferengi yet though! Otherwise I've played faction-pure squads in all my other games. Ok, ok you caught me. I did sneak one Federation talent into my Romulan build last time, but in my defence I didn't use it in any of my games.
I really enjoyed playing my Klingon list from last month. Cloaking ships with high attack values were very useful in the Month 2 event of the Dominion War campaign. In that scenario I found sensor echo actions to be extremely good for that last bit of maneuvering! Playing Klingons netted me a prize ship to add to my collection, so I spent some time building a 100 point fleet around my new "IKS Ch'tang" B'rel class cruiser:
So far in most of my games of Star Trek: Attack Wing I've stuck to in-faction builds wherever possible because I find that to be more fun than min-maxing across factions. So far I'd have to say that it's working out fairly well, as I've been able to come in second and take home a prize ship in the three organized play events; even giving away my second Ch'tang to a fellow player.
Admittedly I have mixed Dominion and Ferengi ships just so I could use my month 1 prize Krayton in a game, but it didn't prove very successful in my first test attempt. I haven't given up on the Ferengi yet though! Otherwise I've played faction-pure squads in all my other games. Ok, ok you caught me. I did sneak one Federation talent into my Romulan build last time, but in my defence I didn't use it in any of my games.
I really enjoyed playing my Klingon list from last month. Cloaking ships with high attack values were very useful in the Month 2 event of the Dominion War campaign. In that scenario I found sensor echo actions to be extremely good for that last bit of maneuvering! Playing Klingons netted me a prize ship to add to my collection, so I spent some time building a 100 point fleet around my new "IKS Ch'tang" B'rel class cruiser:
- IKS Ch'tang w/ Martok (skill 9), Defense Condition One, Barrage of Fire
- K'T'Inga w/ Nu'Daq and Drex
- Vor'Cha w/ Krell
- Elite Attack Die
- Elite Attack Die
The Ch'tang gets 4 base attack dice and can re-roll any or all of them when attacking while cloaked. This saves me from needing to spend an action to acquire a target lock. I essentially get it for free, when cloaked. I can thus use Martok's action to target all my friendlies and give them an extra die and 1 re-roll. Barrage of Fire lets me steal one of the other two ship's attack dice. When lining up Martok's target I cloak then trigger Barrage of Fire (preferably adding the K'T'Inga's attack) for 9 attack dice...maybe 10 if I'm in range 1. These dice are added to the Ch'tang's attack, so the ship's re-roll ability should apply. Very likely immediate death to my target.
As a follow up on the next round I would use Defense Condition One. Coupled with my other two captain's abilities I can get some use of all those Battle Station tokens. Similar to Barrage of Fire, I'd like Defense Condition One a lot better if it were a disable instead of a discard. Nu'Daq's ability to convert a Battle Stations into damage is useful on its own, but having more than one token could prove handy if I also have to defend.
Martok uses Defense Condition One, and Nu'Daq uses his action to activate Drex for a little insurance. Piling up the Battle Stations tokens should be a powerful follow up to Barrage of Fire. Krell only re-rolls one of his Battle Stations when attacking, so he won't be using the token for his attack, but if for some reason he does take fire during this round, it might be the difference between him surviving to fire himself or not, so it certainly won't be wasted. Krell's role is really to use his attack to activate the ground troops on the planet. Finally I added the Elite Attack Die to give me the best chance to hit, and hit hard. It essentially is a guaranteed hit with all those battle stations tokens lying around!
Martok uses Defense Condition One, and Nu'Daq uses his action to activate Drex for a little insurance. Piling up the Battle Stations tokens should be a powerful follow up to Barrage of Fire. Krell only re-rolls one of his Battle Stations when attacking, so he won't be using the token for his attack, but if for some reason he does take fire during this round, it might be the difference between him surviving to fire himself or not, so it certainly won't be wasted. Krell's role is really to use his attack to activate the ground troops on the planet. Finally I added the Elite Attack Die to give me the best chance to hit, and hit hard. It essentially is a guaranteed hit with all those battle stations tokens lying around!
Unlike the last scenario where cloaking at the start of the game was fairly obvious, this time we are gunning for the planet first to drop off some ground troops. From there I want to maneuver into position so that I can attack with all three ships, the cheaper two acquiring target locks or using their sensor echoes to stay behind the enemy. Martok uses his actions to coordinate the fleet as described above. If I can gain control of the planet early then harry my opponent's ships for a few rounds victory should be mine in a matter of minutes.
The Execution
My plan was a good one. Sadly the dice weren't with me. In my first game I was able to get most of my mines and troops on the planet early. My attack rolls were less than stellar and I was outgunned, losing control of the planet after only a few rounds. Conceding that I went on the offensive, destroying my opponent's Reliant. We went to time and the Defiant and Enterprise were both damaged but still operational. A win for me, but only 21 fleet points and I lost the planet.
Game 2 was up against a Dominion fleet. The early turns played out almost the same way; troops and mines on the planet, shit dice rolls in attack and defense there. Having to concede control of the planet I lined up for a Barrage of Fire run, then mopped up without losing any of my ships.
The final game and I was the only player with a natural 2-0 record. The other players that had the same were decided by dice rolls. I was up against a four ship Klingon fleet: three 1-skill captains and Gowron. During the first round I put some troops on the planet and feinted to see if I could line Gowron's ship up for Barrage of Fire. With four ships to my three I was again outgunned on the surface and lost all my troops. I landed some really good hits on two enemy ships but extremely lucky evasions kept them both in the fight for several rounds longer than they should have. Three enemy ships concentrated fire on the Ch'Tang and wiped it out. I was able to take out the two damaged ships with my remaining two, but it took far longer than it should and my fleet was quickly destroyed.
My opponent in game 3 won the tourney, and I ended up with just the participation prize. Two players were also 2-0 but each had taken the planet it two games, giving them 7 battle points to my 6. I had more fleet points than both of them combined, but the planet control won it here. The organizer gave each of them the other two ships, he being the organizer taking the third. Quite honestly I was a little disappointed at having the best record, but losing out because of the battle points. As I said, my strategy was sound, I just didn't have the dice on my side. It was still good fun though and it was great to see a full complement of eight players come out for the event!
The Execution
My plan was a good one. Sadly the dice weren't with me. In my first game I was able to get most of my mines and troops on the planet early. My attack rolls were less than stellar and I was outgunned, losing control of the planet after only a few rounds. Conceding that I went on the offensive, destroying my opponent's Reliant. We went to time and the Defiant and Enterprise were both damaged but still operational. A win for me, but only 21 fleet points and I lost the planet.
Game 2 was up against a Dominion fleet. The early turns played out almost the same way; troops and mines on the planet, shit dice rolls in attack and defense there. Having to concede control of the planet I lined up for a Barrage of Fire run, then mopped up without losing any of my ships.
The final game and I was the only player with a natural 2-0 record. The other players that had the same were decided by dice rolls. I was up against a four ship Klingon fleet: three 1-skill captains and Gowron. During the first round I put some troops on the planet and feinted to see if I could line Gowron's ship up for Barrage of Fire. With four ships to my three I was again outgunned on the surface and lost all my troops. I landed some really good hits on two enemy ships but extremely lucky evasions kept them both in the fight for several rounds longer than they should have. Three enemy ships concentrated fire on the Ch'Tang and wiped it out. I was able to take out the two damaged ships with my remaining two, but it took far longer than it should and my fleet was quickly destroyed.
My opponent in game 3 won the tourney, and I ended up with just the participation prize. Two players were also 2-0 but each had taken the planet it two games, giving them 7 battle points to my 6. I had more fleet points than both of them combined, but the planet control won it here. The organizer gave each of them the other two ships, he being the organizer taking the third. Quite honestly I was a little disappointed at having the best record, but losing out because of the battle points. As I said, my strategy was sound, I just didn't have the dice on my side. It was still good fun though and it was great to see a full complement of eight players come out for the event!
November 19, 2013
Tannhauser custom character: Rasputin
Jeremiah over at Front Toward Enemy has a ton of great content for Tannhauser. If you've ever had any interest in the game itself, check out the extensive video collection he's put together. If you're looking for custom content for the game the most notable creation of theirs is, in my opinion, the excellent Mercenaries team and accompanying mummies put together using the figures from The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus board game. However, I noticed that he used all of the Adventurers figures except for Rasputin! So I set about trying to create some statistics, objects and a scenario.
Thanks to Jeremiah for the help and feedback. Please feel free to give the profile and scenario a try and let me know if you have any feedback. I'll be putting together proper tokens and card images for download as soon as I paint my figure.
Operation: Fallen Son
Competing factions have been courting the Matriarch’s son to use his occult knowledge to their advantage. Unbeknownst to each other, the young Rasputin has arranged to meet them all at the same place and time. Whoever can offer the most gold will gain his loyalty...for now.
Setup
Required Materials:
Use the Castle Ksiaz or Tesla Priory map.
This scenario pits the Reich against the Matriarchy. Players may choose their squad from Reich, Matriarchy or Mercenary factions. If playing the Reich or Matriarchy you may not add any mercenaries to your squad. If playing a Mercenary squad you may only field mercenary characters and troopers.
Each squad must bring three characters and two troopers. Each player receives 2 Command Points.
Reinforcements may not be used.
Give each squad a set of gold tokens (one each of 1, 2, and 3 gold). Each character in the squad is given one gold token placed face down on their card. Gold tokens do not occupy an inventory slot.
Characters may only carry one gold token at a time. If a character is killed while carrying their gold, place the token face down on the circle they died in; it may be picked up by a friendly or enemy character. Troopers may not be given or pick up gold tokens.
Rasputin is placed on the center of the West board edge, equal distance from the two squad’s entry points on the North and South board edges. He is equipped with Mauser C95 and Ceremonial Dagger.
A third faction can be added to allow the scenario to be played as a three-player game. In a three-player game, squads only bring 3 characters each and no troopers may be included in any squad. The third player will enter the board on the East side, opposite Rasputin’s starting area.
Finally shuffle all available crate tokes and place them on each empty Action circle and Objective circle.
Special Rules
After initiative is rolled each turn the loser may move Rasputin up to half his movement value if he has not yet joined a squad.
Characters carrying a gold token may pay Rasputin by spending an action while in a circle adjacent to him. Place that character’s gold token face down on Rasputin’s character card.
The first player to pay Rasputin 4 or more gold gains his loyalty and he will join their squad. He may then be activated and given actions by that player.
Victory Conditions
The squad that recruits Rasputin must move him safely off the board through their entry circle. The other squad(s) can win by killing Rasputin, or recruit him through force by killing all of the other figures in his squad.
If no player is able to pay Rasputin at least 4 gold, the squad who eliminates all other opponents without killing Rasputin wins.
Thanks to Jeremiah for the help and feedback. Please feel free to give the profile and scenario a try and let me know if you have any feedback. I'll be putting together proper tokens and card images for download as soon as I paint my figure.
Aleksandr Rasputin
Aleksandr is the disgraced son of the Matriarch and her husband Grigory Rasputin. When it was found out that the young man was dabbling in the occult the Matriarch disowned him, removing all of his ranks and privileges. His father did not feel as strongly and occasionally communicates with his son in secret, even going so far as to hire Aleksandr as a ‘specialist’ in operations for the Matriarchy forces.
After being cast out by his mother Aleksandr continued his work with the occult, and it has cost him dearly. Following a particularly dangerous summoning ritual he appeared to have aged twenty years in mere moments! Since then he is frequently ill, which has only increased his lust for knowledge in the dark arts, with the hope that he will some day discover a means to eternal life.
Rasputin is a Matriarchy character who may also be hired as a Mercenary by the Reich or a pure Mercenary squad.
Statistics
4 - 4 - 7 - 7
4 - 4 - 7 - 6
4 - 4 - 6 - 6
6 - 3 - 3 - 3
Tokens
Ceremonial Dagger (Weapon, Hand-to-Hand) - Once per turn, when attacked by a Hand-to-Hand weapon or an unarmed attack, Rasputin may make a counter attack without spending a command point.
Commanding Presence (Rank) - Add +4 to your Initiative Roll.
First Aid Kit (Hardware) - As an action discard this token to dial up your health indicator token, or an adjacent character’s health indicator token, by up to two rows.
Mad Prophet (Ability) - Once per turn, if Rasputin has not activated he may re-roll any roll made by any player. The new result must be used and cannot be modified by any game effect or ability.
Turn this token face down when used, then turn it face up during the Refresh Tokens step.
Mauser C95 (Weapon, Pistol)
Power of Suggestion (Special Object, Ability) - Enemy characters must win a mental duel against Rasputin to enter a circle on his path, or attack Rasputin while on his path. If Rasputin wins he may move the enemy character one circle.
Prayer to the Ogdru Jahad (Occult, Ability) - As an action discard this token and roll 5 dice using your mental statistic. Each figure that shares your path must complete a mental duel against that roll. If they fail the duel they suffer one wound.
Weak Constitution (Penalty) - At the end of his activation, if Rasputin has moved a total of 5 or more circles and taken an action, dial his health indicator token down one row. If this would cause him to die, instead he can not take an action during his next activation.
Equipment Packs
Combat Pack: Weak Constitution, Mad Prophet, Ceremonial Dagger
Command Pack: Weak Constitution, Mauser C95, Commanding Presence
Stamina Pack: Weak Constitution, First Aid Kit, Ceremonial Dagger
Bonus Pack: Weak Constitution, Mad Prophet, Prayer to the Ogdru JahadOperation: Fallen Son
Competing factions have been courting the Matriarch’s son to use his occult knowledge to their advantage. Unbeknownst to each other, the young Rasputin has arranged to meet them all at the same place and time. Whoever can offer the most gold will gain his loyalty...for now.
Setup
Required Materials:
Use the Castle Ksiaz or Tesla Priory map.
This scenario pits the Reich against the Matriarchy. Players may choose their squad from Reich, Matriarchy or Mercenary factions. If playing the Reich or Matriarchy you may not add any mercenaries to your squad. If playing a Mercenary squad you may only field mercenary characters and troopers.
Each squad must bring three characters and two troopers. Each player receives 2 Command Points.
Reinforcements may not be used.
Give each squad a set of gold tokens (one each of 1, 2, and 3 gold). Each character in the squad is given one gold token placed face down on their card. Gold tokens do not occupy an inventory slot.
Characters may only carry one gold token at a time. If a character is killed while carrying their gold, place the token face down on the circle they died in; it may be picked up by a friendly or enemy character. Troopers may not be given or pick up gold tokens.
Rasputin is placed on the center of the West board edge, equal distance from the two squad’s entry points on the North and South board edges. He is equipped with Mauser C95 and Ceremonial Dagger.
A third faction can be added to allow the scenario to be played as a three-player game. In a three-player game, squads only bring 3 characters each and no troopers may be included in any squad. The third player will enter the board on the East side, opposite Rasputin’s starting area.
Finally shuffle all available crate tokes and place them on each empty Action circle and Objective circle.
Special Rules
After initiative is rolled each turn the loser may move Rasputin up to half his movement value if he has not yet joined a squad.
Characters carrying a gold token may pay Rasputin by spending an action while in a circle adjacent to him. Place that character’s gold token face down on Rasputin’s character card.
The first player to pay Rasputin 4 or more gold gains his loyalty and he will join their squad. He may then be activated and given actions by that player.
Victory Conditions
The squad that recruits Rasputin must move him safely off the board through their entry circle. The other squad(s) can win by killing Rasputin, or recruit him through force by killing all of the other figures in his squad.
If no player is able to pay Rasputin at least 4 gold, the squad who eliminates all other opponents without killing Rasputin wins.
November 15, 2013
Addicted to Attack Wing
Since the release of Star Trek: Attack Wing, any regular visitors to my blog has probably noticed a rather high frequency of posts by me about the game. If anything, that should tell you simply that I think it's a good game. A very good game in fact.
There are several things that I think it has going for it:
1. The universe - Star Trek has been around for decades and has a rich history to pull from, which makes it extremely good for gaming. With new releases every two months, it would still take YEARS to cover off all the ships we've seen on screen, let alone ships like Riker's USS Titan.
2. The engine - WizKids decision to license a proven system for the game was a good one. I feel that this has allowed them to concentrate on building on a good system by truly embracing the subject matter when making changes.
3. The factions - Directly linked to the universe, Star Trek offers numerous factions to explore. Mixing and matching factions is allowable (which I think is not true of X-Wing?). Playing mixed faction or pure, the gamer is provided with near infinite options to customize their experience. Sure it's sort of odd to have Kirk, Khan and Sisko captaining ships together, or Gul Dukat commanding the original Enterprise, but let's face it...stranger things have actually happened in the show.
4. The customizability - As I've touched on above, the sheer number of options available to players is already high, even though we've only seen a single expansion wave following initial release. This will only continue with the release of each wave.
5. Organized Play - The scope of the organized play program for Attack Wing is epic. I've never seen a six-month long plan that offers not only excellent winner prizes, but fantastic participation goodies. In some cases I could and would argue that the participation pieces far outshine the prize ships in terms of utility.
I could go on, but really I think you get the picture.
I'm off now to go troll the internet for more people's strategy, thoughts on fleet builds and custom paint jobs while I wait for the next Wave 2 preview to get posted!
November 14, 2013
Painting Dreadball - Female Corporation team #1
I already wrote this article once and lost it due to some very odd incident where an article I had edited just before coming back to this one overwrote all my text with its own and then saved itself. Hitting undo did...nothing. So here I am writing it again, in a much briefer form.
Here's the brief painting step-by-step:
First I primed the figure with Vallejo airbrush grey primer, then the faces were painted with GW Elf Flesh.
The rest of the figures painted grey with a mix of 6:6:2:1 of GW Skull White, water, AP Ash Grey and AP Deep Blue. I then added AP Dark Tone ink to the above paint until it was a slightly darker colour than the ash grey and used it as a wash on all of the grey base coat.
The metallic pink base colour is a 2:2:3:3:4 mix of GW Skull White, AP Alien Purple, Vallejo Metal Medium, water and AP Pure Red. Not only was this team an experiment with white, but also creating metallics out of regular colours and some more aggressive mixes to obtain unique colours.
On top of the washed grey base coat I added a first highlight of 6:3:2:.5 mix of white, water, grey and blue. At this point I had a very nice three-colour gradient to work for shadows and depth to the white armour. I finished this off with a pure highlight of white.
The pink armour looked good, but I felt it could use some more depth as it looked rather flat against the white. First off I started with a purplish colour for shadows by mixing 2:1:2:1:2 of purple / AP Dragon Red / water / black and / metal medium. At first this didn't look very good, but I was patient and didn't freak out.
Finally I added a highlight to the pink with a 3:1:1:1 mix of white, purple, pure red and metal medium.
Once all of that was done I painted the visors with some P3 blue, and a highlight of P3 Frostbite. I touched up their lips with a coat of a P3 red/purple colour I can't remember. The skin got hit with a quick GW wash of Devlan Mud.
At this point I realized I had a problem. I'd painted half of the back plates pink and the other half white. That wouldn't work with my white number transfers, so I had to paint the yellow stars on their backs so that the numbers would show up. (Note: the pictures are crap. The foam I used as a backdrop picked up most of the camera's focus.)
This is the only team so far that doesn't fit my Masters of the Universe theme. Laarni wanted a pink team, but since I already had plans for my female corporation and had a second female team pack, this is what we did. She watched a lot of Jem as a kid, so I thought I might as well keep the animated references going and present to you: the Synergy City Holograms!
Here's the brief painting step-by-step:
First I primed the figure with Vallejo airbrush grey primer, then the faces were painted with GW Elf Flesh.
The rest of the figures painted grey with a mix of 6:6:2:1 of GW Skull White, water, AP Ash Grey and AP Deep Blue. I then added AP Dark Tone ink to the above paint until it was a slightly darker colour than the ash grey and used it as a wash on all of the grey base coat.
The metallic pink base colour is a 2:2:3:3:4 mix of GW Skull White, AP Alien Purple, Vallejo Metal Medium, water and AP Pure Red. Not only was this team an experiment with white, but also creating metallics out of regular colours and some more aggressive mixes to obtain unique colours.
On top of the washed grey base coat I added a first highlight of 6:3:2:.5 mix of white, water, grey and blue. At this point I had a very nice three-colour gradient to work for shadows and depth to the white armour. I finished this off with a pure highlight of white.
The pink armour looked good, but I felt it could use some more depth as it looked rather flat against the white. First off I started with a purplish colour for shadows by mixing 2:1:2:1:2 of purple / AP Dragon Red / water / black and / metal medium. At first this didn't look very good, but I was patient and didn't freak out.
Finally I added a highlight to the pink with a 3:1:1:1 mix of white, purple, pure red and metal medium.
Once all of that was done I painted the visors with some P3 blue, and a highlight of P3 Frostbite. I touched up their lips with a coat of a P3 red/purple colour I can't remember. The skin got hit with a quick GW wash of Devlan Mud.
At this point I realized I had a problem. I'd painted half of the back plates pink and the other half white. That wouldn't work with my white number transfers, so I had to paint the yellow stars on their backs so that the numbers would show up. (Note: the pictures are crap. The foam I used as a backdrop picked up most of the camera's focus.)
This is the only team so far that doesn't fit my Masters of the Universe theme. Laarni wanted a pink team, but since I already had plans for my female corporation and had a second female team pack, this is what we did. She watched a lot of Jem as a kid, so I thought I might as well keep the animated references going and present to you: the Synergy City Holograms!
November 12, 2013
Star Trek Attack Wing - I'll Take the Federation for 100 Alex
With this squad I'm thinking about a few changes. First being that I'm looking at taking two ships instead of the normal three. The second change is actually trying to load up most of the available ship slots without wasting too many actions. That's much easier to do at 100 points with three ships because the load outs are much more minimalistic.
With the release of the Defiant, I've only played against it once and it didn't fare so well. I came up with the following 100 point TNG/DS9-era Federation squad to see if I could do better:
- Enterprise D w/ Picard and Engage, Photon Torpedoes, Data, Geordi and Worf (core set)
- Defiant w/ Sisko and Attack Pattern Omega, Cloaking Device, Quantum Torpedoes and O'Brien (core set)
- Elite Attack Die
Not having to be concerned about those evil orbital weapons platforms from month two's event, high defence values (such as those provided by cloaking) aren't nearly as important. That's not to say good defence is secondary; I'm full aware that with two ships I'll likely be heavily outnumbered as it sounds like a lot of folks are opting for a FOUR ship build for Month 3's "The Siege of AR-558." Since we are dealing with retrieving Federation crewmen from the planet in this event a squad made up of two stronger ships, even if those ships have more utility, might not be feasible. Losing that third ship / action may be imposing too much of a handicap on my squad.
I've struggled with interesting builds using the Enterprise D simply because having Picard, Engage, and Data appears like a no-brainer. It's even better if you swap in Spock and Sulu for Data, but that would break my TNG-era theme! After that it was a toss-up between including Jadzia Dax or Geordi. Using Dax is pretty good, but Engage gives almost the same movement utility without negating my attack for the round. With the Enterprise rolling higher attack dice more often than the Defiant (unless using their 360 degree attack ability), Worf makes more sense there. Picard's extra action also means Worf can be used more often during the game.
I haven't used the Defiant yet. I'm not particularly thrilled with Sisko's ability though it seems to have more utility than Riker's for the same captain skill. Attack Pattern Omega feels like the best talent to use, especially when my squad is very likely to be out-numbered.
With the Federation cloaking device I gain more defence dice, perhaps enticing opponents to go after the Enterprise instead. This might expose them to an attack from the Defiant while chasing the Enterprise. The cloak isn't strictly necessary and I could certainly spend the points on something else; it just feels thematic to include it. I'd say the same about O'Brien. I like both versions, but can't afford the DS9 card so opted for the single-use, but still very good, O'Brien from the core set.
As the Defiant's captain only has a single action available to him each turn I didn't want to include many upgrades requiring an action to use them. Sadly the best ones (like the cloaking device) seem to need them. In order to maximum my attack I like the Quantum Torpedoes. They're slightly better than Photons so one could argue including them on the Enterprise instead but I wanted to even out the firepower so that both ships feel like they could be your primary target. If my opponent can't decide which one to focus on, or decides a round or two too late, I may have a chance.
With the release of the Defiant, I've only played against it once and it didn't fare so well. I came up with the following 100 point TNG/DS9-era Federation squad to see if I could do better:
- Enterprise D w/ Picard and Engage, Photon Torpedoes, Data, Geordi and Worf (core set)
- Defiant w/ Sisko and Attack Pattern Omega, Cloaking Device, Quantum Torpedoes and O'Brien (core set)
- Elite Attack Die
Not having to be concerned about those evil orbital weapons platforms from month two's event, high defence values (such as those provided by cloaking) aren't nearly as important. That's not to say good defence is secondary; I'm full aware that with two ships I'll likely be heavily outnumbered as it sounds like a lot of folks are opting for a FOUR ship build for Month 3's "The Siege of AR-558." Since we are dealing with retrieving Federation crewmen from the planet in this event a squad made up of two stronger ships, even if those ships have more utility, might not be feasible. Losing that third ship / action may be imposing too much of a handicap on my squad.
I've struggled with interesting builds using the Enterprise D simply because having Picard, Engage, and Data appears like a no-brainer. It's even better if you swap in Spock and Sulu for Data, but that would break my TNG-era theme! After that it was a toss-up between including Jadzia Dax or Geordi. Using Dax is pretty good, but Engage gives almost the same movement utility without negating my attack for the round. With the Enterprise rolling higher attack dice more often than the Defiant (unless using their 360 degree attack ability), Worf makes more sense there. Picard's extra action also means Worf can be used more often during the game.
I haven't used the Defiant yet. I'm not particularly thrilled with Sisko's ability though it seems to have more utility than Riker's for the same captain skill. Attack Pattern Omega feels like the best talent to use, especially when my squad is very likely to be out-numbered.
With the Federation cloaking device I gain more defence dice, perhaps enticing opponents to go after the Enterprise instead. This might expose them to an attack from the Defiant while chasing the Enterprise. The cloak isn't strictly necessary and I could certainly spend the points on something else; it just feels thematic to include it. I'd say the same about O'Brien. I like both versions, but can't afford the DS9 card so opted for the single-use, but still very good, O'Brien from the core set.
As the Defiant's captain only has a single action available to him each turn I didn't want to include many upgrades requiring an action to use them. Sadly the best ones (like the cloaking device) seem to need them. In order to maximum my attack I like the Quantum Torpedoes. They're slightly better than Photons so one could argue including them on the Enterprise instead but I wanted to even out the firepower so that both ships feel like they could be your primary target. If my opponent can't decide which one to focus on, or decides a round or two too late, I may have a chance.
November 07, 2013
The Zombie Apocalypse is Truly On...at my house
On Tuesday I arrived home to find two parcel cards in my mailbox. Having forgotten that I'd received tracking numbers from Cool Mini Or Not a little over a week earlier, I wasn't expecting these massive things. I missed out on the first Zombicide campaign on Kickstarter, so for their second one I went all in, not realizing quite what I was getting into.
Oddly enough, the second package was exactly the same as the first. Even down to the zombie dogs and dog companions boxes being slightly squashed. As far as I can tell I was only charged for one set... Double the zombies double the fun? Not sure what happened, but I'll not complain too loudly about it.
"What did you order THIS time?"
"Ok, let's see what's in box number one..."
"Cool artwork. Gross, but cool."
"Wow, that's a LOT of zombies."
"So that's everything in box 1. What's in the other one?"
Oddly enough, the second package was exactly the same as the first. Even down to the zombie dogs and dog companions boxes being slightly squashed. As far as I can tell I was only charged for one set... Double the zombies double the fun? Not sure what happened, but I'll not complain too loudly about it.
Star Trek: Attack Wing - OP2 Romulan Follow Up
If you stopped by yesterday you read my plans to try out a Romulan build in my second month 2 Dominion War event. We played that tonight so here's the quick run down.
Round 1 was against another Romulan build, two Valdore-class and an Apnex. He had cloaked mines which really did a number on me. I took out the Apnex and the named Valdore in turn 4, but was utterly unable to avoid the combined firepower of the weapons platforms, mines and the lone enemy ship and be able to maneuver myself into decent position after the initial fly-by. I lost this game due to those damned mines!
Round 2 pitted me against a two-ship Enterprise build of the Defiant and the Reliant. My opponent's rolls were not good, and we both suffered from loss of action due to poor planning. I was able to take out the Reliant quickly. The Defiant was destroyed the next turn with a well-placed Muon token but Cheat Death, O'Brien and Scotty kept it alive a little longer. My three ships gave chase and mopped up fairly quickly after that. I have to say that I haven't seen anyone roll dice more poorly over the course of an entire event than our poor Federation player!
Round 3 was against a pure Dominion fleet. I flew slowly up the side as did my opponent, allowing all my ships chance to cloak and try to see what he would do. Initial hits against the Gor Portas were transferred off to the Kraxon, so I gambled a bit and ran the Apnex up right in front of his ships and dropped the Muon token on it.
A few rounds later my opponent had largely forgotten about the token and planned a 5-ahead maneuver. With no shields and some prior hull damage the muon ripped the ship apart. Some concentrated fire from Toreth and Donatra took out his 5th Wing. The Gor Portas destroyed my Apnex (but not after suffering from the ship's ability), and after several turns of tiresome maneuvering I was finally able to kill the last Dominion vessel.
The second victory put me in second place with a 2-1 record, so once again I won a Ch'Tang. However, since one of the players seemed uncomfortable voting for fellowship (we had a total of four tonight), I gave him my prize ship and let the Federation player take the last one. While I would have liked a second copy of the prize ship, it seemed like the best way to send everyone home relatively happy.
Personally I'm glad that month 2 is over. The scenario wasn't particularly fun to play. It would have been nice if the weapon platforms were destroyable, of if there had been some kind of objective on the planet that would allow the players to take control of, or disable them. I'm looking forward to month 3.
As to my fleet, I had some wasted equipment. I never used either of my elite talents, nor the tactical officer. That's not to say the option to wasn't good, it just never seemed the best choice. I'll have to give Romulan builds some more thought before I try them again.
Round 1 was against another Romulan build, two Valdore-class and an Apnex. He had cloaked mines which really did a number on me. I took out the Apnex and the named Valdore in turn 4, but was utterly unable to avoid the combined firepower of the weapons platforms, mines and the lone enemy ship and be able to maneuver myself into decent position after the initial fly-by. I lost this game due to those damned mines!
Round 2 pitted me against a two-ship Enterprise build of the Defiant and the Reliant. My opponent's rolls were not good, and we both suffered from loss of action due to poor planning. I was able to take out the Reliant quickly. The Defiant was destroyed the next turn with a well-placed Muon token but Cheat Death, O'Brien and Scotty kept it alive a little longer. My three ships gave chase and mopped up fairly quickly after that. I have to say that I haven't seen anyone roll dice more poorly over the course of an entire event than our poor Federation player!
Round 3 was against a pure Dominion fleet. I flew slowly up the side as did my opponent, allowing all my ships chance to cloak and try to see what he would do. Initial hits against the Gor Portas were transferred off to the Kraxon, so I gambled a bit and ran the Apnex up right in front of his ships and dropped the Muon token on it.
A few rounds later my opponent had largely forgotten about the token and planned a 5-ahead maneuver. With no shields and some prior hull damage the muon ripped the ship apart. Some concentrated fire from Toreth and Donatra took out his 5th Wing. The Gor Portas destroyed my Apnex (but not after suffering from the ship's ability), and after several turns of tiresome maneuvering I was finally able to kill the last Dominion vessel.
The second victory put me in second place with a 2-1 record, so once again I won a Ch'Tang. However, since one of the players seemed uncomfortable voting for fellowship (we had a total of four tonight), I gave him my prize ship and let the Federation player take the last one. While I would have liked a second copy of the prize ship, it seemed like the best way to send everyone home relatively happy.
Personally I'm glad that month 2 is over. The scenario wasn't particularly fun to play. It would have been nice if the weapon platforms were destroyable, of if there had been some kind of objective on the planet that would allow the players to take control of, or disable them. I'm looking forward to month 3.
As to my fleet, I had some wasted equipment. I never used either of my elite talents, nor the tactical officer. That's not to say the option to wasn't good, it just never seemed the best choice. I'll have to give Romulan builds some more thought before I try them again.
November 05, 2013
Star Trek: Attack Wing - Romulan 100pt Build For OP2
Tomorrow is another Star Trek: Attack Wing Dominion War Month 2 event at one of the local shops. In OP2 event a few weeks ago I played a pure Klingon build. For this event I wanted to use something different. Here we have a pretty bare-bones 100pt Romulan squad with one out-of-faction upgrade:
- IRW Valdore w/ Toreth, Counter Attack and Tactical Officer
- IRW Khazara w/ Donatra, Attack Pattern Delta and Polarized Hull Plating
- RIS Apnex w/ Mirok and Muon Feedback Wave
The Valdore will always be firing 4 or 5 attack dice (sometime even 6!) and Toreth can convert one normal damage into a critical hit. Her tactical officer will be allowing extra re-rolls when spending a target lock, so the strategy for the Valdore is essentially: cloak, target lock, fire...repeat. I expect this ship to be my opponent's primary target if they want to take out my heaviest hitter.
If I'm in a position where I feel the Valdore is going to come under fire, opting to use Counter Attack can come in handy especially if I can manage to make her the only target in the opposing ship's firing arc. Do they attack anyway and risk the counter attack, or waste their attack completely for fear of taking a hit with a minimum of four attack dice? Tough choice.
Most players are well aware of what Donatra brings to any fleet, boosting other ship's attacks up by +1 when in range 1. It's been suggested that I swap she and Mirok around, but I actually want Mirok on the Apnex so that I can use his low skill to use the Muon Feedback Wave.
With Donatra boosting Mirok's attack, and him repairing his shields after moving within 1 of a friendly, the Apnex moves up from minor annoyance to potential threat. Not a large one, but enough of one that ignoring it could bite you in the ass. There's still the chance that the Apnex will be destroyed in a single volley, but that means my opponent is wasting an attack to remove a ship that might not get to fire anyway with its skill 3 captain. Admittedly the muon feedback wave isn't great in OP2, but the ship and tech choices for Romulans are quite limited if you're looking for variety.
Finally I decided to put Donatra on the Khazara. The Polarized Hull plating protects her a little bit if she takes a critical damage while cloaked. While I do prefer to keep everything faction-pure most of the time, in the case of the talents it doesn't feel as bad to bend the rules a little bit. Perhaps "Attack Pattern Delta" is a little trick she learned from the Federation while fighting together in another battle. However, being able to use it to make up for a bad defence roll seems like a good utility to have.
I'll report back after tomorrow's games and let you know how it goes. Maybe I can pick up a second Ch'tang to add to my Klingon fleet!
- IRW Valdore w/ Toreth, Counter Attack and Tactical Officer
- IRW Khazara w/ Donatra, Attack Pattern Delta and Polarized Hull Plating
- RIS Apnex w/ Mirok and Muon Feedback Wave
The Valdore will always be firing 4 or 5 attack dice (sometime even 6!) and Toreth can convert one normal damage into a critical hit. Her tactical officer will be allowing extra re-rolls when spending a target lock, so the strategy for the Valdore is essentially: cloak, target lock, fire...repeat. I expect this ship to be my opponent's primary target if they want to take out my heaviest hitter.
If I'm in a position where I feel the Valdore is going to come under fire, opting to use Counter Attack can come in handy especially if I can manage to make her the only target in the opposing ship's firing arc. Do they attack anyway and risk the counter attack, or waste their attack completely for fear of taking a hit with a minimum of four attack dice? Tough choice.
Most players are well aware of what Donatra brings to any fleet, boosting other ship's attacks up by +1 when in range 1. It's been suggested that I swap she and Mirok around, but I actually want Mirok on the Apnex so that I can use his low skill to use the Muon Feedback Wave.
With Donatra boosting Mirok's attack, and him repairing his shields after moving within 1 of a friendly, the Apnex moves up from minor annoyance to potential threat. Not a large one, but enough of one that ignoring it could bite you in the ass. There's still the chance that the Apnex will be destroyed in a single volley, but that means my opponent is wasting an attack to remove a ship that might not get to fire anyway with its skill 3 captain. Admittedly the muon feedback wave isn't great in OP2, but the ship and tech choices for Romulans are quite limited if you're looking for variety.
Finally I decided to put Donatra on the Khazara. The Polarized Hull plating protects her a little bit if she takes a critical damage while cloaked. While I do prefer to keep everything faction-pure most of the time, in the case of the talents it doesn't feel as bad to bend the rules a little bit. Perhaps "Attack Pattern Delta" is a little trick she learned from the Federation while fighting together in another battle. However, being able to use it to make up for a bad defence roll seems like a good utility to have.
I'll report back after tomorrow's games and let you know how it goes. Maybe I can pick up a second Ch'tang to add to my Klingon fleet!
Dead Games and New(ish) Games
Part 1: More New Sh...er Stuff
Two more packages showed up last week. Both unassuming little parcels shipping via Royal Mail. With all the Kickstarter campaigns I've supported lately they could have been any number of things. It turns out these are the shipments for season 3 of Dreadball and the one and only package for Empire of the Dead: Requiem.
I've had a chance to go through the Dreadball stuff in detail and everything I ordered was included minus a few extras. The packing manifest and included note explained why they were missing and I'm fine with it. I know they'll be sent out to me as soon as possible. Besides, I have so much Dreadball stuff to work on now the extra few missing bits won't even be noticed for a few months at the very least!
The very next day another box was waiting. Once again I was stumped as to what it could be...there didn't seem to be a return address on it anywhere. I did find the little sticker on the side after I'd cut into the packing tape, now excited to look through all of my new Empire of the Dead figures.
At first glance everything seems in order, although I'll need to open up all the packages to ensure everything's inside. It's nice to get a package that actually has some retail-looking packaging for a change. As cool as it is to receive buckets of figures, sometimes a little logo here or there makes it feel more special. I guess all those marketing folks who create logos and packaging designs are onto something after all! In the end though, I know I'm more interested in the contents than the packaging, so whatever!
I was going to take photos of this stuff, but who wants to see pics of unmarked baggies full of model parts?!
Part 2: The Old-But-New-To-Me-Stuff
Less than a month after my dive off the deep end into Tannhauser I've apparently proven myself wrong about not needing to buy more stuff. Need isn't correct, it's definitely WANT. I should just admit the fact that I'm totally addicted to collecting tiny little people & vehicle toys and lock myself in a room with no internet access, no phone and no windows. At least if I did that I wouldn't keep finding more useless shit that I want, but totally don't need.
I got into miniature games with Warhammer 40k, just before 5th edition came out. I bought the starter box and some paints, learned that my one tactical squad was about 10% of a required army and waited until the Black Reach box was released to buy more. With those added Space Marines I actually had almost enough toys to play small battles with my Obsidian Fists.
Around the same time as this was happening Rackham Entertainment was releasing their two new pre-painted games AT-43 and Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok. I'd seen some of the Confrontation figures on clearance but not AT-43, until last week.
Some of gamers on a board for local events had been discussing AT-43 so I looked it up and really thought the figures looked good. They were amenable to showing me the game and I really dug it. The figures and books are excellent looking and the fluff and artwork are really nicely done. At first glance, the game rules are also quite solid.
Back in 2009 and 2010, both of these games were essentially on clearance and could be had for cheap. Sadly now that I'm interested in acquiring some they've become more difficult to find seem to cost retail prices again. That doesn't mean I won't go questing after some, it will just temper how much I buy and how quickly. I can see how a lot of folks would have been priced out of the game when it was originally released as it can be very pricey to build a good size army.
One of the aforementioned local folks was super kind and gave me an excellent starter UNA army. I'm pretty sure the base points for them would be around 2000AP, and with added weapons and commanders I'm pretty sure could scale up to 3000 no problem. So a huge thanks to Rick for those spiffy toys!
With a very nice UNA army I needed someone for them to fight. Sentry Box had a few Cogs items available (for around 30% discount). I picked up the Army box and three hero boxes, as well as the Operation: Frostbite campaign box, and a large addition for the UNA. It was fairly pricey even with the discount. However, I've got another new game to play with some good sized armies, and will continue looking for Therian, Red Blok and Karman armies to add to my newest collection.
Two more packages showed up last week. Both unassuming little parcels shipping via Royal Mail. With all the Kickstarter campaigns I've supported lately they could have been any number of things. It turns out these are the shipments for season 3 of Dreadball and the one and only package for Empire of the Dead: Requiem.
I've had a chance to go through the Dreadball stuff in detail and everything I ordered was included minus a few extras. The packing manifest and included note explained why they were missing and I'm fine with it. I know they'll be sent out to me as soon as possible. Besides, I have so much Dreadball stuff to work on now the extra few missing bits won't even be noticed for a few months at the very least!
The very next day another box was waiting. Once again I was stumped as to what it could be...there didn't seem to be a return address on it anywhere. I did find the little sticker on the side after I'd cut into the packing tape, now excited to look through all of my new Empire of the Dead figures.
At first glance everything seems in order, although I'll need to open up all the packages to ensure everything's inside. It's nice to get a package that actually has some retail-looking packaging for a change. As cool as it is to receive buckets of figures, sometimes a little logo here or there makes it feel more special. I guess all those marketing folks who create logos and packaging designs are onto something after all! In the end though, I know I'm more interested in the contents than the packaging, so whatever!
I was going to take photos of this stuff, but who wants to see pics of unmarked baggies full of model parts?!
Part 2: The Old-But-New-To-Me-Stuff
Less than a month after my dive off the deep end into Tannhauser I've apparently proven myself wrong about not needing to buy more stuff. Need isn't correct, it's definitely WANT. I should just admit the fact that I'm totally addicted to collecting tiny little people & vehicle toys and lock myself in a room with no internet access, no phone and no windows. At least if I did that I wouldn't keep finding more useless shit that I want, but totally don't need.
I got into miniature games with Warhammer 40k, just before 5th edition came out. I bought the starter box and some paints, learned that my one tactical squad was about 10% of a required army and waited until the Black Reach box was released to buy more. With those added Space Marines I actually had almost enough toys to play small battles with my Obsidian Fists.
Around the same time as this was happening Rackham Entertainment was releasing their two new pre-painted games AT-43 and Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok. I'd seen some of the Confrontation figures on clearance but not AT-43, until last week.
Some of gamers on a board for local events had been discussing AT-43 so I looked it up and really thought the figures looked good. They were amenable to showing me the game and I really dug it. The figures and books are excellent looking and the fluff and artwork are really nicely done. At first glance, the game rules are also quite solid.
Back in 2009 and 2010, both of these games were essentially on clearance and could be had for cheap. Sadly now that I'm interested in acquiring some they've become more difficult to find seem to cost retail prices again. That doesn't mean I won't go questing after some, it will just temper how much I buy and how quickly. I can see how a lot of folks would have been priced out of the game when it was originally released as it can be very pricey to build a good size army.
One of the aforementioned local folks was super kind and gave me an excellent starter UNA army. I'm pretty sure the base points for them would be around 2000AP, and with added weapons and commanders I'm pretty sure could scale up to 3000 no problem. So a huge thanks to Rick for those spiffy toys!
With a very nice UNA army I needed someone for them to fight. Sentry Box had a few Cogs items available (for around 30% discount). I picked up the Army box and three hero boxes, as well as the Operation: Frostbite campaign box, and a large addition for the UNA. It was fairly pricey even with the discount. However, I've got another new game to play with some good sized armies, and will continue looking for Therian, Red Blok and Karman armies to add to my newest collection.
November 04, 2013
Strange Aeons: The Tournament?
I'll keep this one pretty brief.
On Saturday we played a day-long tournament of Strange Aeons at Imaginary Wars hosted by Uncle Mike. It was a three-round custom Black Dossier set up. Each player started a new Threshold list at the standard 15BP. Each round was composed of two games where you played once as Lurkers and once as Threshold.
Due to the random pairings I only played one game against a new opponent. It would have been nice to play against some new people.
I was not one of the folks who took home a prize. I'll blame it on the dice for at least one game, but I really wasn't fully engaged in the games. Snowy Saturday weather, not a great night sleep etc etc. All that said, it was pretty good fun and very nice to see so many players come out for the event. We did finish early which was a nice bonus. I generally don't do well playing the same game for a full day, but with a break for lunch after the first two rounds I managed to survive.
I forgot to take any photos of my last game, but here are two from the first and second rounds. Each of the six tables available to play on were excellent looking.
On Saturday we played a day-long tournament of Strange Aeons at Imaginary Wars hosted by Uncle Mike. It was a three-round custom Black Dossier set up. Each player started a new Threshold list at the standard 15BP. Each round was composed of two games where you played once as Lurkers and once as Threshold.
Due to the random pairings I only played one game against a new opponent. It would have been nice to play against some new people.
I was not one of the folks who took home a prize. I'll blame it on the dice for at least one game, but I really wasn't fully engaged in the games. Snowy Saturday weather, not a great night sleep etc etc. All that said, it was pretty good fun and very nice to see so many players come out for the event. We did finish early which was a nice bonus. I generally don't do well playing the same game for a full day, but with a break for lunch after the first two rounds I managed to survive.
I forgot to take any photos of my last game, but here are two from the first and second rounds. Each of the six tables available to play on were excellent looking.
Round 1
Round 2
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