So, this week... STAW, 40K Wolves, etc...

So, the Borg OP 1 event is over and done… J  I did fairly well, with a solid second place…  Still not sure what to take against the Borg frankly.  I’ve come close to getting it with Federation and Dominion fleets.  I think the Klingons have the right tricks going against the Borg if they build their fleet with ONLY the Borg in mind.  I suspect the Dominion could throw out the amount and consistent levels of damage required to simply punch through the layers of shields and ablative armor….  REALLY liking the things available to modify the dice results on the Dominion fleets.  NOT liking the lack of maneuverability that they seem to have as their standard.  Didn’t make much difference in 2 of my three battles, the “tactic” of rush right at them and shoot like you are voting in Chicago (“Early and Often”) works well enough in general against the things that I can kill in that single exchange/volley.  Borg Cubes are not among the ships that I will likely be able to do this with.  Usually there is the “Feedback Pulse” which starts by nullifying an attack, with half of the damage being redirected BACK at the firer..  Probably a bit overpowered for the game as it stands now.  8 points is a lot, but to completely negate a strong attack?  Especially since it is virtually impossible to kill anything Borg in a single attack.  So, a lot of the ways I can think of to kill off the Borg involve disabling upgrades or lots of attacks, all of which are threats, but none overpoweringly so…  Klingon ships all get to the 5-6 Attack range without issue (OK, their “modern” ships of the line, support ships not so much, nor the TOS ships), so a “swarm” of 3-4 decent Klingon ships should be able to concentrate fire on a single target and expect to throw out the 15-24 Attack dice that should be able to deal with anything.  VERY different I think than the Star Wars version where the TIE swarms seem to be the build to beat.  The Klingons are good here, but not impossible to defeat in detail as you can maneuver fairly well and frankly the Klingon ships are NOT the most resilient.   Cloak can help against Torpedo boats, but there are ways to still fire Torpedoes at a cloaked ship…  And of course, you can simply fire your normal weapons.  Cloaked ships have no shields, so 3-5 Damage kills them off for the most part…  The Dice in this game are weighted to the Attack over the Defense with one more “Hit” result than “Evade” result on the dice themselves…  So, even assuming each side gets to throw 5 dice for their attack or defense, statistically the odds favor the attack.  And far more things that modify Attack than Defense so…   A little of the “Rock Paper Scissors” that most games seem to have where the thing that kills the “rock” of the Borg is vulnerable to something that cannot itself deal with the Borg…  J  Yeah, the “deck building” aspect of the game is one of the things I find more appealing… 

So, next game will likely be at Gen Con, I am signed up for one of the 100 point events, we’ll see…  Hoping to see demos of the Dragon version of the game and maybe pick up some of the previous exclusives…  We’ll see J…  Pack of Cloaked ships coming in at $40 might be something to snag…

Missed out on this week’s 40K game…  Wiped out and just not feeling up to playing after playing Sunday…  To be honest, 750 points is hard to actually play in any case.  Too many “gimmick” armies can do too well, and just not enough on the table to cover the “oops, I lose” roll with so few dice being rolled…  Looking like I’ll actually get my Knight finished up at some point.  I DO think it will be fun to play, and really not too hard for a prepared opponent to deal with.  Titans on the other hand might be more difficult for players not playing “slightly more aggressive” Marines like me…  Really liked how my Fleshtearers worked last game, if I remember to actually fire my weapons, you know ALL of them, it would probably have been an easy victory for me…  The DC DN dropping onto the Heavy Weapon Teams and only firing the Flame Thrower was a major “oops” J  The Melta and Magna Grapple would have each likely killed another Team leaving him without weapons realistically to take me down before I moved into his Infantry…  The other lads did well, just that 6 Marines can only kill so many before the odds catch up with you between Overwatch and CC… 

Wolves are next up, and based on the rumors so far, I am completely underwhelmed.  The ONE big consistent strength they had over the years was that their lads remembered that they could bring a rifle, close combat weapon AND a bloody sidearm.  If this goes away, I have a whole bunch of non-WYSIWYG minis in my army and frankly I am not so sure I’ll bother changing them.  Hell, the 30 Legions have this option, as do the Chaos Marines, so pulling it from the Wolves would likely be a deal breaker for me.  They’ll continue to be painted in their original Legion colors, not that silly baby blue crap and I’ll use them as a Legion list I guess.  They DO get a Flier, though it looks like the Cestus Assault craft, though only a single “hull”…  Rules sound “eh” so far, but I like it better than the Storm Raven…  Saying that, my conversion for a Storm Raven I do like, and it works well enough for me J…

Did dig up my old Warmachine things, I was somewhat surprised how many I have...  I did not remember them all, but there they are I guess...  Cleaning them off, mostly dusty, not damaged really...  No clue how many points in a modern game of course, but a lot of metal there...  Time to get some MKII cards and see about setting up a game or three with Joe and company to get the initial rounds of having my ass kicked to learn the hard way out of the way :-)...  Since I left the game near the top of the standings for most leagues, etc., good I think to be starting at the bottom and learning the correct way...

Diet and exercise moving along...  Getting up early to hit the weights and elliptical while my lovely wife rides her bike and hits the weight machine...  Seems to be a VERY good thing, regaining some of the strength I lost over the last year of not working out, etc...  Silly heart attack and other stresses...  But feeling pretty good these days :-)  And getting to work out with my wife is always a good thing...