So, with the Thollian Web OP being moved from this Sunday
(Mother’s Day) to next Sunday… J I get to play without risking my amazing wife’s
wrath for going out to play with my wee toys on that particular day…
So, playing Federation I think… My Klingons are REALLY good at maneuver and
fire, hitting hard and moving away. This
particular scenario however being one that has a shrinking playable area as the
Web closes, finally getting to a 12”x12” area.
I could I suppose go for the “kill them by Turn 3 hope with the
Klingons, but killing 120 points of ships if they are not also rushing right at
me might be problematic. And the Cloaked
Mines are going to be absolutely brutal to any ship relying on Cloaks and the
defense bonus they grant. As it will be “Ship
Faction Pure”, I cannot put the Cloaking Mines onto a non Romulan ship, so that
limits what I will potentially face I think.
The ONLY real defense against the CMs is either a Scan action or the Navigational
Deflectors the Federation has… Klingons
and Romulans for the most part cannot Scan, so that would be one of the likely
matchups that I think would go VERY poorly for the Cloaking Fleets.
The other big problematic matchup would be the Borg. Honestly I do not really have a particular
plan for this or a realistic clue what to do having never actually faced them. Big, expensive ships. No real Defense, just hard to
kill/damage. And of course they have
things that can take your upgrades and use them against you. Ablative Shields being one of their upgrades
for an additional 4 hits being eaten without actually damaging the Sphere… 10 points, and eats up one of their 2 “Borg”
upgrades. Good, I would think but
nothing that would survive long against an equivalent ship. Plus side for them is they get to keep their
impressive Shields up (7 for the named ship, 6 for the generic) and the 7 Hull
before being removed. Can regenerate as
well, so damage must be quick and fairly massive to kill them before their
impressive attacks kill you… They do also
have a Feedback card that completely negates one attack… Oh, and half of the damage rounded down hits
the Attacker. Only the Named Borg ship
can carry it, so really only have to worry about it there I guess. Defense against a nasty Alpha Strike, and
would suck for my kitted out torpedo boat (USS Excelsior) if I hit them with
the fully boosted Torpedoes for 8-9 hits…
Wouldn’t kill it outright, but guessing the follow-up attack from the
Sphere would. So, will I think have to
change my fleet build, or at least be aware of this possibility.
Looking at either:
List Name: Torpedoes
Away!
Resource: Federation Attack Fighters (20)
U.S.S Excelsior (26)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Tuvok (5)
Lojour (2)
Quantum Torpedoes (6)
The Doctor (3)
Ship SP: 53
USS Voyager (30)
James T. Kirk (6)
Cheat Death (3)
Pavel Chekov (3)
Antimatter Mines (5)
Ship SP: 47
Total Build SP: 120
Generated by STAW Builder
Or:
List Name: Federation Swarm!
Resource: Federation Attack Fighters (20)
U.S.S. Reliant (20)
Rudolph Ransom (2)
Photon Torpedoes (3)
Ship SP: 25
USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Ship SP: 36
U.S.S Enterprise-D (28)
James T. Kirk (6)
Antimatter Mines (5)
Ship SP: 39
Total Build SP: 120
Generated by STAW Builder
With the second build being one I am still mulling over the
pieces… NEED Chekov to run the Voyager
at full effect, so that will definitely change and therefore be a target for
the Borg Assimilation Tubes to steal him…
The Reliant I am also not sold on here for the cost… Could I think bring a Klingon or Romulan ship
as a dedicated Torpedo boat/minelayer…
So the second one is really just the first draft…
With either, I have the Voyager for its forward 6 move to
get me close enough to the center to make the best placement of the Cloaked
mines impossible for Turn 2… Still will
be possible to put one in the Web so I will have to be careful, but I will not
be hitting them every damn turn. The AM
Mines might get swapped for the Navigational Deflectors, dunno… The Defense bonus IS nice, but dropping the
AM Mines onto a Cloaked ship has a decent chance to outright destroy the
smaller ones… Really only the bigger
Romulan ships with their 6 Hull not in danger of outright death there. So, overall the Offense is more powerful I
think.
Kind of a running theme with the whole game if you look at
it. Many of the ships have the ability
to throw 5+ Attack dice with even the weakest throwing 2 (3 at range 1)… Most ships have only a single Agility to
dodge for the 1 Defense die. More agile
ships have 2 and of course Cloak grants +4 and Range 3 for Primary Weapons
grant another +1… So, I HAVE had a
Klingon ship throwing 7 Defense dice and dodged a lot of incoming fire. That is very much the exception. And now there are things that either outright
remove Cloaks or ignore them to worry about…
But essentially, Offense FAR outweighs Defense in this game in
general. Why the Klingons were the more
powerful faction for a bit there hitting harder and not really relying on many
tricks. Now I think the Borg are that
obviously powerful faction. Only one
ship at the moment, so hard really to say, but given the fictional universe and
their place in it… Guessing they will be
a difficult one to face. So, I am mostly
focusing on more offensive minded Federation builds myself, seems to be working
well enough for me…
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