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:

- 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


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!

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!

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