STAW and 40K... Which will last?

So, looking at the local scene it would appear that 40k is pretty much dead.  Again, this is just locally at the one store I go to.  Lots of us HAVE armies, but not a lot of new folks coming out to play, and not a lot being purchased.  This is more important to the Store of course with the realities of running a business and all... Our normal Monday night for 40k would appear to be dead or dying, so it will likely become something else which presumably draws more business for the store.  Miniatures night perhaps?  I find myself playing STAW pretty much every week now...  Will probably break out the old Warmachine minis and see how Cygnar plays these days...  Might be a few weeks though as off to Chicago this weekend and next week is Tolono Fun Day followed by a trip to some mysterious island in Lake Michigan the next week...  Of course there is some big couch thing arriving at some point in there...  

So a few weeks off at least, but it does seem that Warmahordes is taking the empty slot that Warhammer used to fill...   Looks like PP's game is growing rapidly again, and the big groups of people playing it seem to point to that being the longer term success of the system.  Now, I do not know if GW has killed 40K or not, but with the really expensive rulebook right after a bunch of other expensive books that did their level best to unbalance and destroy the system?  So far it is looking "not so good" for GW...  But then this has happened before locally.  There was a time when no Warhammer of any type was played, Confrontation and Warmachine were huge and things looked pretty good.  Not to say there were no problems.  I was the "Press Ganger" for PP at the time here and my first Tournament for Warmachine saw 12 players...  Not bad for a small local event in a new system.  Problem was 9 of them had the same Warcaster and essentially the same army.  9 Khador forces led out by Sorsha ?  So, it only took a little time before the sheer unbalance of that particular character became obvious, and to PP's credit, they fixed it...  

Looking over my STAW stuff, I have a few more ships I'll likely pick up...  Liking the Cardassian ships overall, but the Vulcans look amazing...  We'll see, unfortunately one of the 2 Vulcan ships is a prize next month...  Been pretty darn lucky and ended up with most of the prize ships for the months I have played.  So, yes, figured out the game pretty quickly.  It is a lot of fun.

Motorcycles...  Still need to straighten out the title for the Magna then sell it.  Then the Silverwing...  The Wing is running well, but really wanting to swap up to a Goldwing...  Most likely next year at this point though.

Star Trek Attack Wing event Sunday

So, narrowing down the fleets to run on Sat for the "Arena" event...  Essentially there are two games going on here.  Starting on turn one, your highest skill CPT gets teleported to the Planet to fight there in a bit...  Turn three all remaining Captains go, and the Space battle is suspended.  You can gather resources on the Planet if you have a ship able to stay close and expend actions before the Space battle suspends...  So, your first 2 Captains might have tokens they can spend to roll more dice each round of the Arena fight.  Big advantage rolling 6 dice vs 3 dice...  Captains can take damage equal to their Skill, so Jean Luck Picard takes 9 to kill while the Generic ones take only one point...  This continues until one side is left, and they get to reset the Space battle, placing every Ship, etc...  Mines however do not carry over, so the Cloaked Mines are less terrifying.  My initial thought was to run a big Torpedo boat, a second small ship and Fighters all Federation...  Jean Luck, Kirk as Captains to max out at 18 damage points...  Still might, but the Fighters do not have a Captain, so I would be in danger of conceding that part of the battle with only the two Captains.  I suppose it is not all THAT much better with 3 Captains fighting, but I am looking at the lists below with 20-24 points.  And I need to have a Fleet that is able to take on all comers.  The swarm of 4-6 of the smallest ships just to win the Captain's Battle?  Not really as much of a thing now that the rules have been updated to not completely screw over any non Borg that loses the battle on the Planet...  But still, I think a "swarm" of 3-5 decent smaller ships loaded out with high Skill CPTs might be a thing.  The Klingon "we shoot things" fleet like one I am considering is always a good one.  And of course the Borg.  So, first I have a Faction Pure Klingon fleet:

List Name "We Shoot Things"

Resource: Flagship Klingon (10)

Vor'cha Class (26)
Koloth (4)
Ship SP: 30

K'T'Inga Class (22)
Martok (5)
Flagship (0)
Ship SP: 27

Negh'Var (30)
Worf (3)
Ship SP: 33

Total Build SP: 100

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Nothing really subtle.  Martok's ship being the Flagship and his own action gift for the first turn should get me up 4 straight at the enemy while Cloaking.  Probably do a Sensor Echo to maneuver a bit as needed, but doubtful anything will be in range unless someone brings a 6 forward ship...  But I intend to park in orbit and own the Planet from the beginning.  I WANT to be at close range with my ships to punish anyone trying to support their Captains while I spend actions supporting mine.  Barring some really odd "uber" DN type build, and frankly even that...  I have some 15-18 dice of Attack in the fleet, with re-rolls and modifiers to get more Hits...  Should be able to damage severely or destroy just about any single ship with a coordinated attack.  Cloaked fleets, either a swarm of cheap Romulan vessels or a mirror Fleet?  Guess it comes down to rolling as I should be attacking near the top of the turn...  But 5-6 Attack dice/ship should get enough hits to cause concern for even the best Cloaked ships...  Using the named Negh'Var for the potential free shot to bring down a few Shields with it's Action...  NOT an Attack, so does not cause me to lose Cloak and while it only Disables Shields (roll 3 Attack Dice, hit/crit disables shields)...  Hitting just before the Shooting phase?  Works for me, as I am just trying to kill their ships, this is like a Mine attack in the short term.  And with this much firepower, short term is pretty much it...

List Name: Random Stuff

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Antimatter Mines (5)
Ship SP: 46

IRW Gal Gath'Thong (18)
Toreth (4)
Plasma Torpedoes (5)
Ship SP: 27

K'T'Inga Class (22)
Martok (5)
Ship SP: 27

Total Build SP: 100

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

More random, the Voyager being the "Heavy Cruiser" here with Picard and Scott to provide actions and boosts.  360 arc and the AM mines are a huge threat to Cloakers or people trying to swarm me...  The Gal Gath'Thong with its ability to fire a Plasma Torpedo without a Target Lock is just there for damage potential and survivability.  Since a Lock is not required, I find a lot of folks counting on Cloak to protect them are surprised that the Plasma Torpedo can be fired at them...  The Torpedo provides it's own re-rolls and the CPT turns a hit to a critical...  Pretty rough on a Cloaked ship as they have no shields up.  The K'T'Inga with Martok are just there to provide more support and it is a pretty decent if fragile ship.  With 24 points for the Captain's Battle, I should do fairly well, even if I do have to be a bit more cautious...

Not sure what I will end up bringing.  The winner of last Months event ran a 3 Vor'Cha Klingon build for the application of the maximum firepower effect...  Worked against everything, even the Borg.  Guessing he will bring something similar.  The 2 Borg spheres are going to be tough if they show up...  Federation builds I think are pretty severely hampered in this one, though you CAN have a large number of high Skill CPTs.  But the ships themselves by and large are not suited for a toe to toe slugfest.  Dominion might be a challenge with the rules revision...  Romulans do not appear overly popular locally other than the TO and myself :-)...  Guess I'll see what comes up and probably won't make a decision until then :-)...  Heck, my "Standard" Fed build with the tooled out Excelsior might even be fun to play...

40K Seventh seen in action, more STAW...

So...  I have not played seventh edition 40k yet, but watched several games of it played out.  Looking pretty good so far.  Super heavy vehicles and Titans roaming the field.  So, very much like the last edition at 5he end really.  Psychics seemed good, not overcosted or overpowering...  Should note however that while I did see several Psychers on the tables, no one was bringing anything like a Demon force set to summon more hordes...  Guessing that will be game breaking.  Also, no good answer for the fliers, especially MCs...  So, not bad really, but still no fixes for some of the things I had concerns about in the old edition.  So, sticking with the wait and see...

Played out a few more STAW games...  Traded a Tholian ship for the USS Sutherland.  Neat, but I found myself wanting to have the fire arcs of the USS Excelsior...  The Sutherland is decent, but lacking the rear arc and wide front arc...  And of course, turning like a tug boat :-)....  Destroyed ships of comparable size in a single shot several times, then died or almost died trying to line up a second shot.  Montgomery Scott onboard helps immensely though...  Shields repaired on turns I did not have a shot lined up kept the ship in action much longer than it should have been...  Neat, but had I been able to shoot, the need for repairs would not have been there with Quantum Torpedoes boosted by Mr Scott's ability.  Not going to destroy a Borg ship or a Battleship with a single shot, but the potential for 8 hits each turn is nice...  Got to see the Helmsman card in action as well...  REALLY nice on the Dominion Battleship.  Tight turn and while you lose a turn or two of actions, but range one with 7+ dice on the attack and passive abilities to make more hits, etc.?  Brutal, and well worth it I think...  Well, for those ships at least.  Not so sure it would work for my ships...

Going forward, the Gorn Arena is in a few weeks...  100 points, no other real limits IIRC...  Guessing that my Fed fleet will do fairly well.  USS Miranda looks good, USS Excelsior perhaps?  Maybe a third ship?  Stripped down probably, I like the old Romulans War Eagle with Plasma Torpedoes...  But need a way to take down other cloaked fleets...

On the Home front...  the living room was painted over the weekend before the delivery of the uber TV tomorrow...  Couches "soon" I guess.  So, having to get rid of older couches etc...  Fixed one bike, need to fix and get the title straightened out on the Magna to sell them both.  Annoying seeing lots of nice Goldwings for sale pretty cheap, but stuck with the poor decision that the Magna was all around.  Ah well.  Lesson learned.  And need to find someone who knows the legalities of title transfers, etc...  Mostly just want the bloody thing gone at this point, no room for the 2 bikes really, and getting a "new" (yes, 81-87 Goldwing) bike cannot happen until I get rid of the current ones...