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...

400th post... 7th Ed 40K and STAW

So...  Reading over the seventh edition stuff...  Not a lot has changed.  At least not for the better.  I could easily be wrong, but being pretty good with the Math and probabilities I am seeing a lot of parallels between 40k and STAW in some areas. 

Psychic phase/Magic phase...  Pulled directly from Fantasy.  Probably needed, and it does simplify some things.  Problem is that it becomes TOO powerful is your army is built to take advantage of it.  Chaos and Demons specifically are poised to become the new power army I think.  We already had Demons with a flying circus being difficult to deal with, add in Psychics that make them even more powerful?  Yes, you CAN try to block the powers, but blocking a blessing?  Roll lots of 6's.  Not just enough to cause the power to fail, you have to block them ALL.  4's to cast, can use as many dice as you have, 6's being bad in pairs for the Perils.  So, the odds of stopping a powerful blessing or other non targeted spell are ridiculously low.  This was the one major parallel I saw, Offense focused and Defense while technically possible is with significantly lower odds...  So, in STAW the things like generic Klingon builds are really powerful...  I am seeing this trend in 40k here I think. 

As I said, only a brief reading of the rules, but I may have missed something regarding saving warp charges perhaps?  The Eldar with the Farseer ghost helm being the one defense against Perils...  Great during the Psychic phase, but what about when they get hit by the GK missiles causing Perils?  Seems like that would have been a hard counter to the Seer Star, and it looks better now...
Fliers seem better than ever, and armies without good fliers of their own are still hosed.  Everything scoring is neat, but no real major bonus to the sub standard Troops I see.  Thinking specifically of the Marine Tactical Squads.  Brand new codex, new rule set and really they are probably the worst basic troopers in the game, at least of the armies I play.

So far I am not seeing a lot to say I should come back and play 40k or even frankly buy the $80+ rulebooks.  Could I build brutal and competitive armies with what I have?  Yes.  The Eldar are still probably the army to beat IMO.  The Grey Knights I think are going to come back as a powerful force.  Guard still spam metric craptons of dice so they will still be effective.  I can now mix and match if I want to more than before...  So the powerful forces become more powerful. 

The armies I see losing in this edition are my Fleshtearers, Wolves, DA and Crimson Fists/Marines...  The change to "everything scores" eliminated the small advantage the BA had with different Troop types.  And of course, Death Company still do not score.  Wolves are once again two full editions behind and it shows.  Not that the Marines are much better off...  Yes, they do have AA options and Grav weaponry but overall pretty lackluster.  White Scar bikers I guess are pretty good, but the DA are still craptastic...  DA Terminators are still "eh" at best until they run into an Eldar force, then they are just expensive casualties...  2+ armor and to an extent 3+ armor is still vastly overcosted given the proliferation of low AP weapons and rending... 

So, locally and in a somewhat closed environment, I will still play I guess in a bit when things shake out...  Guessing that there will be some FAQ changes to hit soon, I want to see how that all shakes out....  But overall I am not finding myself all that interested in playing the game at this point...  And as I was writing this, the FAQs got released...  The Wolves got completely hosed, losing the ONE thing that made them worth bringing (Rune Priests)...  Oh well, maybe when their book gets released in a few Months...  GK and BA are "eh" still...  Really not a lot changed for my armies in the FAQ other than the Wolves dropping out of the "maybe I'll use them against the Demonic Hordes I anticipate"...


STAW on the other hand...  And now X-Wing...  Those are interesting to me...  STAW especially with the deck building aspect and loads of options.  This summer there is a big OP event, yes it will be blind buy but looking like some fun ships...  Will be a PITA getting them unless the local store can order more kits...  Betting that the locals would buy/play more events to get the ships for their faction...  Well, at least I would :-). And I would be willing to run an event if the main Volunteer were wanting to play in one or was not available...  Probably against WK policy to simply take up a collection and order more kits...  I know I am going to want to pick up the Federation, Klingon and Romulan ships at the least...  Looking like a War Eagle ("Bird of Prey" for the non SFB folks) hitting for the Romulans.  If this holds probably a Miranda class for the Federation?  Not sure for the Klingons but hoping for a K'Tinga or B'Rel class ship...  30 points for the sealed portion to go with the 90 point build supplied by the player...  Hoping the Klingon is NOT a D-7...  Lacking the Cloak, they are pretty bad in this system compared to their SFB roots at least...  In any case I have my Federation and Klingon fleets pretty well set now, and I even have a basic Rebel force for X-Wing...  Hear there is an event Saturday, but much going on at home so will be less likely to go out to play...

7th Ed 40K, STAW upcoming, etc...

Well, it seems that the bulk of the “7^th Edition” stuff has made it to the rumor circuit…  It looks VERY much like 6.5^th edition as not a lot has changed…  Assuming the rumors are true, but as people are claiming to have the book in hand now I suspect that they are not rumors, but leaks at this point.  New Psychic phase…  Good I guess, I was always concerned about forgetting some silly power or the like as they were all over the place with “must be cast at the beginning of ‘x’ phase” or whenever…  Now, no more worries about that.  And there is the chance of actually stopping other powers…  Good also.  Got a bit old if you fielded say, a race/army without Psychics at all, knowing you could not stop much of anything unless you brought something from 5^th Edition like a Wolf Rune Priest to mess with them…  ICs no longer allowed to join MCs…  Should NEVER have happened, stupid loophole/oversight that a quick errata in the FAQ would have fixed with about 30 seconds of typing 2 years ago…  But I guess they might not have sold as many Tau Riptides if people couldn’t attach Tau Commanders and drones to make mini Uber units to combine a bunch of rules (USR) and wound allocation silliness..  Whatever, that alone drove a few players away from the game locally, so I KNOW it cost the local store/GW a bit, and it kind of confirmed that GW really wasn’t interested in fixing the 6^th edition of the game. 

There are a few locals who are excited about and interested in seeing what the new edition brings…  I think there are a LOT more of us who are in the cautiously waiting mode.  And with this being an expensive rulebook to start only 2 bloody years after the last one?  I don’t know, I do not think I will be picking it up.  Certainly NOT initially.  I can wait for the small rulebook in the “rumored” new box set coming out in a few months.  Yes, I have all of the previous ones on a bookshelf in my basement of doom, but I have to say I am simply not all that interested in spending another $80+ to get a small rulebook that fixes a few things (we all hope) that should have been done as errata/FAQ entries by any other company.  Yes, I would get the “fluff” book and modeling book…  Woo hoo?  Been playing the game since 87-88, and having most of their previous stuff…  Nothing new there for me. 

Locally, 40K has almost died out as more and more of us are getting into the “wait and see” mode…  No one is dumping their stuff…  Well, one player DID dump his Marines, but going to Chaos Demons…  But not a lot of new sales for the store, and not many people playing on “40K night”…  Me, I am pretty set on playing Star Trek attack Wing (STAW), or X-Wing now, so that’s what I will likely bring out to play when I do come out to play…  Have to say I am actually enjoying the game a lot and there are no stupidly overpowered combos in the game that I have seen…  So the effect of “Well, the Eldar are just more powerful”…  The Borg are the closest thing, but even they are limited by the same mechanics that the rest of the factions use…  It does not feel rushed to market with obvious loopholes to be exploited.  Seeing the winning builds on a much smaller scale admittedly, there does appear to be a LOT more variation WRT the winning builds.  Reading the AARs from some of the bigger 40K Tournaments it really does come down to a handful of armies in the top tier battling out for the top spots and with few exceptions everything else fighting over the scraps. 

Locally, we had a Klingon fleet sweep the Tholian Web OP, beating out the Borg Spheres…  Not subtle, but the approach of “rush forward and throw a lot of Attack Dice at the problem” does seem to work here…  Looking at next Month’s event, the battle on the planet with CPT vs CPT does seem interesting, and looks like there is some “optimum” number of CPTs to bring…  Them going to the Planet starting at the end of Turn one for the highest skill one, then Turn two for the next and the rest on Turn three…  One ship builds would have only the one CPT fighting, and so even a 9 Skill would lose I think as nowhere else to put incoming damage…  Realistically, I think it would be at most 5 CPTs in a fleet…  The CHEAPEST ship being 12 points, so theoretically 8 ships but they are pretty bad and all Skill 1 CPTs?  When the Battle occurs on the Planet, playing 3 I can virtually guarantee having the only CPTs with Resources so rolling 6 Attack Dice vs the 3 of the other CPTs, and with mine hitting first, turn one should be 3 dead CPTs for him, one of mine wounded, etc…  So, by the third turn or so I suspect I would sweep the field and not lose anyone…  That assumed I do not off any of the ships before the battle.  Small ships would be vulnerable to being destroyed before the Planet battle, so keeping the numbers down that way seems a great idea as well…  Borg needless to say would perform “poorly” on the 1 on 1 battles as their CPTs are not very good overall…    My own builds will be most likely 3 ships with Picard on either the Enterprise-D or the Excelsior…  Trying to trade for a Sutherland, but J…  Ships will be Faction Pure, but a mixed or Allied fleet…  Romulans for the Cloaked Mines that I feel will be brutal to weaker ships trying to swarm me and Klingons for the “We’re just here to hit something” effect they bring…  And the Antimatter Mines on the Federation Ship or perhaps one of the Torpedoes?  AM mines are insanely good against Cloaked ships, Torpedoes could allow me to snipe away even ships of the line before the CPT battle on the Planet…  Or finish things in the end phase…  This of course assumes that the game is 100 points and that I can actually attend J…

Vacations this year!  Wandering up to MI with my amazing wife to hang out on some island (Mackinaw)…  After Fun Day in Tolono at Chappellheim…  Then Gen Con in August for that Saturday…  Should be interesting at least… 

Still selling 2 Motorcycles if anyone local is looking…   And a largish number of random old firearms as I try to get a nice 81-87 Honda Gold Wing bike for myself…  Something in the 1100 to 1200 cc range for engine size, nice highway pegs for longer rides, and hard saddlebags that I can put my laptop and game stuff into…  The trunk I am less interested in at the moment, no long road trips and I can put the seat back on with the attached backpack for additional cargo if needed…  REALLY just wanting a nice reliable bike somewhere between the Magna’s high speed/power and the Silverwing’s low power high efficiency that it has going…  The Wing is a good, solid bike but I cannot stretch out my legs nor can I safely take it out onto an Interstate near say, Chicago where the required speed would be in the 75-85 range to be safe riding there…

STAW: Tholian Web AAR

So...  Wound up playing at the Gopher last night...  My list was:

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
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Went 1-2 but wound up getting the Tholian ship prize for 2nd place or Fellowship as I was voted the favorite opponent by all three of my opponents...  Not bad.  Game one Tim had a fairly similar list with the Defiant replacing my Voyager and his Voyager replacing my Excelsior.  He ran with the Transhasic Torpedoes which are Voyager only and a one shot.  The one shot IS 10 dice, but...  My Quantum Torpedoes could be fired every turn for a potential 9 hits, so I felt it was a better build.  Essentially, his T Torpedoes whiffed on the initial and only shot they had, and my 2 Skill 9 CPTs destroyed his ship before he could react.  My Torpedoes hit well and Kirk got to range 1, so...  His Defiant was cloaked trying to lay mines, but my own mines hit him the next turn and the Fighters finished off the ship.  The AM Mines are brutal against Cloaked ships...  So, it was a VERY quick game with both of us mostly just rushing to range and shooting it out.

Game 2 was my first encounter with the Borg...  Kevin made a nice 2 sphere list, and I have to admit it was fun playing against it.  My Torpedoes whiffed this time, and the Excelsior did not survive the experience as both Spheres hit it.  The Voyager lasted a bit longer and the Fighters were pretty good, but it was a losing battle at that point of course...  BIG mistake was forgetting that the Voyager's 360 firing arc is only range 1-2, so I lined up what I thought was a good shot that might have taken down one Sphere and...  Nope, no shot because it was range 3...  Oops...

Game 3 was against a Klingon build with 3 Vor Cha class Cruisers and Hideki Fighters.  The fighters should have been my first target as I did not realize they got big bonuses as long as they had taken no damage...  But 3 Cloaked 5 Attack ships with Battle Stations via "Defense Condition One" cards meant that there were a LOT of Offensive dice being thrown, and Cloaked they could not be locked on for Torpedoes...  My ships lasted a bit longer, but in the end, Lon played quite well and destroyed my fleet in pieces...  I DID severely damage a few of his ships, catching 2 in the AM Mines and just trying to shoot through the Cloaks...

What did I learn?  The firing the Torpedo every turn trick is "neat", but honestly I think I would modify my build.  Tuvok will be replaced with Spock.  5 points for the +1 dice on a Secondary weapon is not worth it I am thinking.  Spock would have turned my whiffed shots into a significant hit (I hit the Borg for all of 2 hits on my one Torpedo shot, the 3-4 BS I rolled would have been REALLY nice).  Scott was good, and I think he stays.  The AM Mines are awesome and they will I think become a more standard loadout.  Cheat Death was "Eh"...  Every fleet I lost to had multiple ships all pounding Kirk's ship, so he lived for a brief moment longer...

So, some adjustment on the builds I think, but overall I do think I did fairly well.  The Borg were REALLY powerful, but more so with the shrinking field, keeping at range I think I could deal with Faction Pure builds for now...  The Cube coming up might present a challenge...  The Klingon builds with the overwhelming number of Attack dice?  As it happened no one that I saw brought Romulans and Cloaked Mines...  Would have made it more interesting.  The Klingons are the one that I saw defeat the Borg with simple weight of fire.  Rush to range 1, some 25 or so dice being rolled before the Borg can fire?  Battle Stations and Target Locks for re-rolls, and conversion of BS results?  Pretty brutal and straightforward :-)...

Star Trek Attack Wing Thollian Web OP tonight

So, Excelsior loaded out with:

CPT Picard
Montgomery Scott
Quantum Torpedoes
And either:
Tuvok, Lojour and the Doctor for the ability to fire a Torpedo every turn…  Pretty good, and with Tuvok it has the potential of 9 hits.  Potential, but the odds are really not that good I think.

Or:
Spock, Navigational Deflector …  With the probably free Scan action, I get the Battlestations turned over to Hits for free and since I am bound I think to find a LOT of mines in some builds.  I give up the potential for that 9th hit, but I get more actual hits overall I think…  And overall I would say no to this build, but in this one specific event with the Thollian Web being what it is?

Both lack what I think might be the critical re-roll ability…  Moving from CPT Picard to say, Sisko gives me some re-roll ability but Skill 9 and the Free Action are really quite good…


Kind of weird, making one of the older style (TOS) ships essentially my Flagship, but I am finding it to be a pretty good ship overall…  The ability to one shot a lot of other “ships of the line” is really quite nice…  I am not so sure cloaking is dead, but there are now a fair number of things that can remove it…  The Voyager is quite nice as a solid ship but I think it lacks a bit for me to make it my main ship for a fleet build.  The Reliant and Miranda Class ships are good solid second line or support ships, but I am not convinced that the swarm is the way to win a timed event…  

I have a few builds in mind, but since the event is in a few hours....  Looks like the Fed Fighters and the combo of the Excelsior and Voyager being run by CPTs Picard and Kirk...  Simple enough and I DO like the Torpedo boat thing.  Next event will likely be a swarm thing.

Signed up for Gen Con, going Saturday and playing in at least one of these events there...  Looks like it will be fun :-)

Attack Wing and 7th is official for 40K...

My current builds are based more or less on the Excelsior loaded out with:

CPT Picard

Montgomery Scott

Quantum Torpedoes

And either:

Tuvok, Lojour and the Doctor for the ability to fire a Torpedo every turn…  Pretty good, and with Tuvok it has the potential of 9 hits.  Potential, but the odds are really not that good I think.

Or:

Spock, Navigational Deflector …  With the probably free Scan action, I get the Battlestations turned over to Hits for free and since I am bound I think to find a LOT of mines in some builds for this OP event.  I give up the potential for that 9^th hit, but I get more actual hits overall I think…  And overall I would say no to this build, but in this one specific event with the Thollian Web being what it is?  In general I would go with the first and add the Flagship for free target lock or evade and Worf for the re-rolls...  But then the ship comes to over 60 points..  Fun, yes...  Competitive against a top tier fleet?  I doubt it, or at least not more than once...  I surprised the first guy I played, getting 9 hits in with the re-rolls and Battlestations, but I would expect him to be aware of this going forward...  

Both lack what I think might be the critical re-roll ability…  Moving from CPT Picard to say, Sisko gives me some re-roll ability but Skill 9 and the Free Action are really quite good…

Kind of weird, making one of the older style (TOS) ships essentially my Flagship, but I am finding it to be a pretty good ship overall…  The ability to one shot a lot of other “ships of the line” is really quite nice…  I am not so sure cloaking is dead, but there are now a fair number of things that can remove it…  The Voyager is quite nice as a solid ship but I think it lacks a bit for me to make it my main ship for a fleet build.  The Reliant and Miranda Class ships are good solid second line or support ships, but I am not convinced that the swarm is the way to win a timed event…

Oh, and 7th Edition was unofficially announced by Jervis Johnson on YouTube...  "Eh" is the best responce I have for it at the moment.  Apparently it will be much like the 2nd edition box set with the little rule book, etc...  Surprisingly I do not need more frelling miniatures and would just want to buy the damn rulebook.  Saying that, I do NOT want another $80+ coffee table book.  Just send out the $20 paperback that I can fit into the luggage of my bike...  Or an electronic copy for my tablet/laptop...  The more I am hearing about the new edition and the changes, the more I am glad I am playing STAW and will likely sit out for a bit to see how it shakes out...

Oh, and There are going to be STAW events at Gencon this year!  Looking like we will be there Saturday, so I'll be trying to get a seat in one of the events being run there...  Should be interesting at least...

Star Trek Attack Wing next week...

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

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

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

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

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…

New 40K edition "eh", Star Trek and Motorcycles...

So…  New edition of 40K coming out after 2 years.  Not sure if it is “7^th” or “6.5” or “6^th revised”, and frankly it does not matter to me.  I think I can sum up my thoughts in a single word: “Disappointing”.  Now, I am reserving final judgment of course, but for the most part my 40K stuff is going back into storage I think.  A shame, overall the game is actually quite good and the new books were balanced and decent…  I say overall because there were the few “WTF” moment things that just make the game completely broken if and only if people play those broken things.  Problem being, it really only takes one or a small number of folks taking the “optimized” lists and units to break it for everyone.  And of course when there is money on the table in the form of prize support, etc. then you really have to be prepared for the most broken things to be fielded.  We’ve seen the Allies hit and really break the game through the USR interactions with Battle Brothers as well as breaking the FOC (“Force Org Chart”, I’ll keep using those silly military acronyms) allowing many armies to field the bare minimum “Troops” and “HQ” and focus on fielding the 4+ “Heavy”, “Fast Attack” or “Elite” depending on where the actual power units in your Army lie.   Looking at my Space Marine book, it is a fun army, and the book overall is pretty well balanced.  The “Troops” selections however are at best lackluster though.  Tactical Marines are “eh”, and in this 6^th ed environment expensive casualties.  With SO many things specializing in essentially killing Marines these days the lack of that particular ability means that they start at a disadvantage.  Seems a bit odd that Marines would go into battle with the majority of their people armed with weapons that are ineffective against themselves.  I can bring the lads in a Rhino or Drop Pod, but of course those are easy to kill for First Blood or Kill Points in those missions.  So…  I have yet to field a Tactical Marine as a Crimson Fist or Dark Angel.  Scouts are Scouts…  Cheap, but craptastic.  If I HAVE to field Troops I will likely spend the minimum to field things that can actually kill things, so Scouts I guess…  So, on one hand I CAN field things like massed Centurion Devastators and Sternguard like I do now, without paying the “tax” of 2 squads of Scouts…  So, overall the Army gets no worse than it was I guess…  Just not better really.  And the game itself gets far less interesting.  How many Wraith Lords can I fit into a list if I am not concerned about anything else?  10?  And really how many other armies can deal with that?  Or perhaps an all Flier list?

Yes, you can say “Only Bound lists” or some other House rules, but really that is not an acceptable solution I think…  Good for small, local groups, yes…  But when you game outside of your local group?  A Tournament perhaps?  Killing off that scene does seem a priority for GW, but is it a good thing?  I think it is perhaps best if I simply step back and wait at this point.  My wife would agree that I have too many miniatures already, perhaps she is right.  I never really got rid of any of the 40K armies I had over the years, and with the pace they have released things in the current era I have not been keeping up with the books as I had in the past.  SO many rule changes and additions with what seems to be little regard to balance or play testing.  2++ re-rollable saves, D Weapons ignoring everything, etc…  Kind of makes even bothering to show up to play a game seem somewhat pointless… 

Eh, I have my Star Trek Attack Wing game now…  Looks like it will be a good one overall.  Think I have it more or less figured out now…  My 2 ship Federation build overpowered a fairly nasty Dominion/Romulan list in a Thollian Web test run last night…  The Torpedoes when run correctly are REALLY powerful.  USS Excelsior with CPT Picard, Spock, Scott, Lojour, the Doctor and just regular Photon torpedoes as I do not have the Defiant (yet) for the Quantum Torpedoes…  Still, hit a Cardassian ship for 8 damage in the opening salvo, destroying it completely…  Not everything went as expected in the test, but it was a REALLY good start.  And proof that as I progressed from losing my first game badly, to almost even the second game and a very narrow loss my third game to consistently winning since…  My learning curve seems about right for normal, and the locals were probably right that I’ll do fine with this game.  Inherited a few X-wing things as well, and might play a few games there as the local store has several events related to that…

Otherwise, ancient motorcycle running really well.  Still need to fix and straighten out the title for the Magna to sell it…  The Silverwing I will be selling as well, but as it is my working bike now…  Well, it works well enough for in town, etc…  REALLY wanting to get an older Goldwing to replace the 2 bikes I have now, so early to mid 80’s before they became more “luxury” vehicles than motorcycles…  I’ve heard them called “flying couches” and it seems an apt name for some of the really decked out ones…  I want something simple and reliable…  The Goldwing would allow me to stretch my legs enough to ride comfortably for longer distances and the real luggage would be less limiting than the current ones I have…  Those nagging old injuries are more a problem as I get old, so the bigger but slower bike I think would be better for me than the racing bike the Magna really is…

Star Trek Attack Wing... Thollian Web mental exercise...

So, looking at the “deck building” exercise for the Star Trek Attack Wing event Sunday.  Unfortunate that it is also Mother’s Day, so like the Easter event…  Well J…  Fun building a fleet at least. 

Looking at the scenario, I see 2 realistic possibilities:  Either a quick win or die joust or a long drawn out spiral as the web closes on the play area and the more maneuverable fleet with things like Cloaked Mines and the like seem like they’ll do well.  So, if I chose the first I would run a Klingon fleet of 2-3 ships and just do the berserker rush and hope for the best.  Too many things these days can avoid or survive that for a turn or two, so I think that something else will be the way to go.  My Federation fleet has some good survivability and if I build it right I can fire Torpedoes every turn for a fair amount of damage as things close in around us…  Maneuver and survive long enough to kill them or just kill more of them as time expires on the round.  Feds ARE pretty good at surviving, and while they are not quite up to Klingon levels of damage dealing…  Well, built right I think they can throw out enough damage to wear out others. 

Since we’re playing semi faction pure with the ships having to be faction pure rather than a whole fleet I think that is another advantage for the Feds.  Having 2 Skill 9 Captains I can almost guarantee moving last and shooting first every turn.  The Borg get less scary when I look at them not being able to run Jean Luc Picard for his free actions and Skill 9.  Still pretty darn powerful and because they maneuver on a very different “dial”, not really all that sure how to counter that other than hit them hard and often.  Ships I am looking at are:

USS Voyager:  360 fire arc for the primary weapon if I need it, powerful shields, fast…  Quantum Torpedoes have the potential for 7 dice.  Good solid ship.  Concerns me that it would be a really good second ship or something other than a Torpedo boat…

USS Excelsior:  Torpedo boat.  The big dice attack every turn.  Lojour, Torpedo, Tuvok, Spock, Picard and the Doctor hologram all combine nicely allowing for a Scan, Target Lock and the Doctor clearing all of the other disabled crew cards to keep up the rate of fire.  180 degree front arc, 90 degree rear arc gives me almost 360 degree coverage…  Still over 50 points for a ship that is good, but…  OTOH, with Montgomery Scott I can have 8 dice for a potential 9 hit attack…  No re-rolls or Battlestations  without that action somehow, but still that many dice should generate a hefty hit…  Could assign Spock over there with Flagship…

USS Defiant:  Secondary ship, maneuverable, can have a cloaking device, the Antimatter mines are brutal up close as they are an attack…  Still, it is a fairly small ship for the 45 or so points I’d need to kit it out to fight fairly defensively…

Federation Fighters vs. Flagship:  As I can have only the one Resource…  Flagship is 10 points to give 3 +1’s to stats and probably a free action along with some bonus from the text on the card in terms of an action.  The Fighters are tough as they cannot ever really take more than a single Damage from any attack.  Fed fighters have Shields and potential Evade tokens, so they’ll need to be hit for at least 3 to have a good chance of taking that Damage point…  Likely more…  Not too fast, but maneuverable and can throw out a lot of damage, so liking the Fighters at 20 points…

USS Reliant/Miranda Class:  Cheap Torpedo boat, can throw out a decent amount of damage in close if it comes to that.  Maneuverable and not bad for the price…  That however is the issue…  Even the named ship has only 3 Shields and 3 Hull, so one strong attack could potentially take out the 20-30 point ship putting the opponent ahead in a timed event…  Thinking that the swarm mentality will NOT work here as the smaller builds can kill enough to get ahead on points and run out the clock as it were...

Might see if I can either fit in the Excelsior as the Torpedo Boat, Voyager as the backup and either Fighters or Flagship and REALLY equip the ships well…  Hope for the best without an “oops I lose” dice roll…  Neat mental exercise at least…

Star Trek Attack Wing initial thoughts

So, now that I have a fair number of games in, I think I have a really good handle on the Klingons at least.  Have seen some really good builds in Dominion, Romulan and Klingon flavors...  The Federation I have been unimpressed with so far, but I'm building some fleets in that area, so I hope that they work out the way I think they will...

Have yet to face a Borg build.  I think the Klingons are in a pretty good place playing "pure" fleets against the Borg.  They have the Stasis field card, generally good but not one shot/one kill offensive power and a few other tricks.  I think the Klingon Boarding Party is one that was not used much before that will be brutal against some of the Borg/hero ship builds.  Martok and Gowron make for good support Captains and Chang seems like another one to mess with "hero" builds...  Disabled Captains going to Skill one and potentially messing with the Ship's actions.  At the very least it forces the disabled CPT to spend an action to re-enable if he is a higher Skill than Chang...  If a lower skill, then it potentially gives me more opportunity to destroy the ship before the now Skill one CPT can fire...  Seeing CPT Picard a LOT in many builds, having him disabled means that he at the very least loses the free action he provides, and it makes the target a Lot more predictable.  Concussive charges as well getting rid of tokens like say Ablative Armor or Borg Armor?  Have to check if those are tokens...

Hoping to get into one or more of the Tholian Web OPs...  Assuming the Gopher is running it next Month, but I know of a place in Indy running it...  Might be a day trip on the bike...  Have to admit I am FAR more interested in the Borg arc OP.  Wondering if the things like the Flagship and Fighters are going to be allowed going forward...  REALLY powerful Resources there, and with the rumor of Wizkids going to 120-150 points?  Well, they look even better...

But in any case, looking at running the Excelsior and ?...  Picard, perhaps Kahn?  Looking at what I have, the Enterprise-D, Voyager, Reliant?  Have the Fighters and Flagship cards too...  I can build some decent things I think, not sure it will be better than my Klingon ones though...  Different, will try to get in some games with them to learn how to use Battlestations, Scanning, etc...  Pretty sure I have Cloaking and Sensor Echo down...  Lookig for the OP2 prize pack for the Symon (?) card...  The 3 Sensor Echo is just huge, and I think it will be something to watch for...

This week's STAW game...

So, got in another STAW game last night, ran:

IKW Kronos One (K’Tinga class) with Martok

IKW Koraga (K’vort class) with Worf, Advanced Weapons and Photon Torpedoes

IRW Praetus (Bird of Prey class) with CPT, Nuclear Warhead and Cloaked Mines

Joe ran a 3 ship Fed fleet with:

NCC-1701 Enterprise with Kirk, cheat death and I stab at thee, Spock, Scotty and ?

Defiant with CPT Sisko and ?

Reliant with defensive bonus CPT, Positron Beam and ?

No torpedoes though…  That was one thing he noted as a “Feds NEED Torpedoes”.

What did I learn?  The mine layer was mostly useless as a “let’s add it into a Fleet” sort of upgrade.  It’s mines were there and DID deny a huge chunk of the field as he avoided it, but I can put them on a Klingon or Federation ship for 4 points instead of the 3 for the Romulans and not wind up with a 20+ point useless ship that will be an easy kill.  That being the problem in a timed event, grabbing the early point lead then just keeping alive to run out the clock with 45 minute rounds.  So, at 100 points it is looking more like 2 good ships, loaded out with decent crew and weapons are the way to go.  Alternately, going for a swarm of cheap crappy ships might work or the one Uber ship, but I think that 2-3 is the balanced approach.  One ship leads too much to the “oops I lose” on a bad roll or falling prey to some trick or combo that works on a single ship…  Having a few of those combos, I think that getting them to hit will be pretty bad for a single ship build.  The swarms do not concern me so much as I tend toward the more “aggressive” builds with the theory of the best Defense being a solid Attack.  Well, works well enough for my Klingons at least.  The Federation ships I am looking at running tend more toward the “Warship” end than the “Science Vessel, now with weapons”, but even so I agree with Joe’s assessment that additional weapons are needed.  Being able to Sensor Echo and keep the Kronos One at range 3 for the -1 Attack Die bonus with the +1 Defense Die for a Primary Weapon meant that more often than not when the Feds even bothered to shoot at the cloaked K’tinga class ship, he would roll only 2 dice and I would have 7 for Defense.  The odds are heavily in my favor for this, so I had no problem doing the ancient Klingon Saber Dance and cutting away his shields a little at a time before closing in for the kill.  Not to say that the Feds had bad ships overall, just that once they killed off the Praetus, he was in trouble trying to take down either of my main ships.  The Koraga did take some damage even while cloaked but even so, by that point the Defiant was destroyed and the other two ships had only 3 Hull between them, no shields.

So, going forward…  Not a lot coming out for the Romulans or Klingons frankly as wizkids releases are looking more like everything for the “Voyager” series…  Well, and a LOT of Borg stuff.  So, best learn how to fight the Borg/Bioships with the Klingons and Federation.  Feds looking like the focus of the “story arc”, so guess I’d better learn how to fly those ships…  Several Vlucan ships, wondering if they’ll be Federation, being one fo the founding races and all…  Also, still have not used an elite talent, so might need to learn about those :-)  And I think learning to play non cloaking ships like most of the Federations one will be good for me to do.  I think I have a pretty good handle on the movement of the Cloaked Klingon ones at least.  They are really quite powerful with the Sensor Echo action...

Star Trek Attack Wing...

So, looking very much like the game I'll be focusing on more in the near term.  Saw that the IG had come out, but to be honest I haven't played them in years now.  My Praetorians look OK, just gets repetitive painting essentially the same 6 figures over and over and over :-)...  Lot of bodies in a Light Rifles Company...  I don't know, they are just boring to me.  It is NOT that I could not do well with them, quite the opposite.  Having had professional experience commanding actual troops at this level, I have a pretty good grasp of the tactics and usage of the tools they bring to the table.  Mortars, massed fire, real Artillery and metric crap-tons of Heavy Weapons with effective leaders directing their fire.  Got it.  Oh, and close air support.  Yup, got it.  Just really nothing but math I can do in my head, the game is decided more or less when I have built my list and see what is across the table.  A few "power" lists that might be a challenge to fight, but most will just be going through the motions of removing the enemy from the field with the greatest precision I can manage.  I do suspect that if nothing changes, IG will be part of many of the "power" lists going forward.  Loads of scoring bodies, the ability to manage Kill Points if needed, not a lot of weaknesses that cannot be covered in some way by the book.  I know the big rumor is a revamping of the Ally system, essentially removing the "Battle Brothers" where most of the truly abusive combinations lie...  We'll see.  I'm not holding out any hope personally, I just feel the game is reaching a point where it no longer interests me.

Star Trek Attack Wing (STAW) on the other hand...  I've picked up the game and enough ships to get a really good start.  Klingons are my primary focus, they are pretty straightforward with a heavy focus on attack.  Cloaking on most of their ships and some really strong Captains and crew.  Probably not the best way to do it, but I am playing mostly Faction Pure...  At least at the ship level.  I see the Klingons, Romulans and Federation as the factions I will play and as they all fought alongside each other at various times...  Specifically against the Dominion, one of the other factions.  Event locally at the Gopher Sunday, but as it is Easter Sunday unlikely I will be going.

So, next month there is a Thollian Web event.  Looks interesting and looking at the scenario I see a few obvious things.  The basic choice is to either rush forward and kill the enemy before the web closes, so in the first 4-5 turns.  A Klingon Fleet would probably do very well here.  The other option is Cloaked Mines and a maneuverable fleet.  I have one Cloaked Mine, several other Mine cards and some decently maneuverable ships.  Does however seem to be one or the other though.  I think I will be getting in some games next week, testing a few builds.  Glad I got in on the last part of the Dominion War OP so I have pretty much all of the Resource things like Flagship, Dice, etc...  Both fighters, but as one is a Dominion one I'll not play it.  Feds though...  Flagship makes some of the things REALLY powerful for 10 points.  Think we are staying at 100 points though it looks like Wizkids is suggesting moving to 120 points...  We'll see :-)...  Getting into the game at an interesting time.

40K vs Star Trek Attack Wing, at least locally...

So, looking at the state of things now in 40k...  Looking like a real mess with the company producing more rules with seemingly no interest in fixing the previous ones.  The upper level Tournaments are dominated by a handful of armies, for the most part FMC, Seer/beast stars, Tau(dar) and White Scar bike armies?  Anything I missed there?  There is a much higher level Math discussion here , but pretty much anyone actually playing the game knows this at some level.  One reason I think that competitive play is stagnant at best, unlikely to grow in the long term.  

Casual play is fine ("fine" as long as the whole group acknowledges the giant elephant in the room and no one plays one of the problematic overpowered armies), and I have to admit that if the rumored fix to D class weapons hits, locally at least we will do well.  Knights, super heavies, etc. Are all decent and with that minor correction, we would have a fun game I think.  Right now, the D shooting attacks are simply too good, something that Forgeworld seems to have gotten at least...  GW seems to be ignoring the issue in their rush to sell more books/models...  

The speed with which the releases are hitting is dizzying, and I think that their "brand" is suffering badly because of it.  A lot feels rushed, the lack of testing and editing is obvious and the big price tag for 2 pages of supplemental rules is pretty insane.  Worse being the ebooks only releases and cutting out the local game store from the mix.  Maybe the UK has the GW monopoly, but here it is certainly not the case.  I do not now, nor will I think ever own an iPad/iOS device, nor will I make a purchase through tie Apple Store.  Likewise, limiting the releases in that fashion mean that I am FAR less likely to buy them and therefore play them...  It does seem rather like a "scorched earth" policy is in effect for GW, banning all competition for online sales, killing off any sales channel they do not wholly control, massive and rapid change to their games requiring new purchases to continue playing...  Really all seems rather desperate, like they're trying to milk out as much money before the inevitable collapse.  I don't know, I bought the Knight and the WD for the rules as I do not intend to field more than the one :-)...  Might well be my last 40K purchases for a long time.  IG codex hitting "soon", but it  looks like it is a lot of cut/paste with not a lot changing, except for the Storm Troopers getting better and taking over for the Vets in the current book.  Yea, AP 3 shots for everyone...  

Guess that is one reason I am really looking so hard at Star Trek Attack Wing...  Looks like a reasonable group of folks playing it locally, even if some of us are banned from the other store in town :-)...  At least the Gopher is having the events, and most of us are on more or less even footing at the moment WRT the ships out and Fleets we could build.  My Klingons are actually worked out well, and I'm now 1 and 3 for a record...  I know the rules and have seen the obvious traps that I think I can now play the game well enough.  Thollian Web being next then the big OP thing comes later with Borg, etc...  

Which brings me to the next thing irritating me :-)  I can look at the Wizkids page and see the next 5 full waves of miniatures out to October...  Not all of the stats or cards, but the ships at least and so a pretty darn good idea what is coming.  Contrast of GW where they send out the Inquisition to take down rumor pages, their own web page is "not great", their social media presence is now completely gone, etc...  

Right, that's about it...  Had a great walk with the puppy and my amazing wife :-)  Should be getting parts to get both motorcycles back to full operation and I may even get to actually ride again at some point...

Attack Wing AAR and some Kill Team stuff..

So, got in another Attack Wing game...  Ran:

Negh'Var (Martok, Negh'Var Photon Torpedo)
Koraga (Worf, Concussive Blasts, Advanced Weapon System)
Somraw (Koloth)

So, all fairly high Captain skills and Martok makes for a very vicious and aggressive force giving out free actions and generally attacking first with the most firepower.  did learn to my dismay that not all ships HAVE a rear firing arc, specifically the Negh'Var :-)...  Would have cloaked rather than target locking the enemy Cruiser at one point when I overran his position and lined up for a great rear arc shot thinking apparently I was in a K'Tinga or K'Vort class ship...  Oops.   Plus side, he only had a Dorsal Array to fire at me so 3 dice, and I had shields until his Battleship also fired :-)  Wound up not taking too much damage to learn that valuable lesson...   The Somraw was almost completely useless.  It did dodge the Dominion's Energy Damper or whatever they tried to use, but the less subtle approach of "Just shoot it with the damn Battleship" worked just fine.  So, the lighter, obsolete "escort" type ships really need to be more to the outside flanks of the battle.  And while I have heard some call the Cloaking device something of a "Crutch" for players, I see it as being something the Klingons really do need, at least at my low level of the game.  Thinking the K'Tinga class "Kronos One" replaces the Somraw and it more or less becomes the third point on a triangle there to be the rear guard and probably snipe away in the "3" range bracket.  Yes, management of a "fleet" is somewhat difficult, but I do think I can...  Just getting all the toys I want on the 3 ships is going to be impossible at 100 points :-)...  I do think that 3 ships is the sweet spot for me the way I play, 2 ships I would find limiting and have to load on so many extra things that I would just be concerned about the "oops I lose" sort of bad luck where with more ships I think I can at leas mitigate that a bit.  Beyond 3 I see it getting too crowded, not many heavy hitters in there, so the swarm of man, but equally bad ships I think loses in the longer run to a well balanced approach as the edge ships can be taken apart one at a time and maneuver becomes crowded to the point of killing actions that are needed to survive...  May end up with 2 unnamed ships and likely the Koraga as my fleet...  Seems to be VERY much my style of ship, the K'Vort class...

So, all in all I am extremely happy with the Star Trek Attack Wing game...  Is close enough to Starfleet Battles that it is interesting and engaging for me without bogging down in the minutia that seemed to define SFB in the ancient times when we played it...  Though that might just have been the old group I played with :-)  Including several Accountants, actual Lawyers (as opposed to Rules Lawyers), Scientists and a few of us Engineer types...  Well, it was pretty complex... :-)  Leave it at that...

Got in a Kill Team match as well...  Quick.  Felt kind of bad as I felt that I really inadvertently tailored my force to just with the Scenario and max out my points for the League...  Didn't, had no clue what the missions were really, just my Crimson Fists have always been pretty "Scout" heavy to satisfy the minimum Troop requirements in 5th edition, and as the Sniper Scouts are "OK" these days, never bothered to make any Tactical Squads...  The mission being "Rush the Camp" or some such, I got a point for every model of mine that left the field by his table edge, he got one point for every three of mine he killed...  Well, the 5 Scouts loaded up in a Land Speeder Storm meant that going first and despite not being able to Turbo Boost, well...  It was pretty much a forgone conclusion against a Tau force that set up spread out, but concentrated on the opposite Flank as my main force...  So, FAR less engaging than STAW for me, and frankly I felt like I was pretty much just going through the motions.  500 point "Apocalypse" Kill Team game next week...  Guess we'll see...  Annoying that the STAW group has an event on that Sunday I'd rather I think go to, but one night/week being the upper limit for gaming with the reality of Family life and my amazing wife ho puts up with my annoying gaming and "just a few" models and such in the basement of doom :-)...

Motorcycles are great... When they work :-)

Lost the chain tensioner on my nice shiny Honda Magna...  Heard an odd sound then lost power, so I signaled and pulled off to the side of the road.  REALLY glad I was only a 1/4 mile or so from the entrance to my neighborhood.  Pushed it home.  So, got in a really good workout it seems, but my old bike looks like it is the only working one at the moment.  And it looks like this will be the last chain driven bike I have, I REALLY like the shaft drive and will be getting an old Goldwing I think in the longer term, something from 84-87 with the 1200cc engines.  Has about the right mix for me of power and reliability without being way overpowered like the Magna is.

Gearing up for my Crimson Fists to hit the field for the Kill Team league, running a five man Tactical Squad with a heavy weapon of some sort, Missile Launcher or Heavy Plasma.  Also a 5 man Scout Squad with sniper rifles a Heavy Bolter and the Land Speeder Storm to move the lads around if needed or to get in some quick kills with either the Heavy Flamer or the Multi Melta if I need to swap...  We'll see how they do.

Star Trek is the other one I'll be playing tomorrow...  My Klingons will be hitting the field as I now have the whole fleet I intend to use...  3 ships, fairly simple, we'll see how they do against Joe's Dominion Battleships...

Codex: Stormtroopers? WTF? Oh, and Star Trek Attack Wing

So, the next Codex coming out is the new name for Storm Troopers from the IG Codex...  And it looks like that one Sno Cats/tractors are the new Chimera replacement...  So, they took a single line from admittedly the most overcrowded Codex and expanded it out for yet another $50 Codex.  Would ask "Why?", but $ talks...  Just REALLY frustrating that the Marines once again get pushed further down the "power curve" by another entire fucking army that simply ignores the best armor in the game, supposedly....  3+ armor just seems to be completely useless these days, and I know that was one of the justifications for the high point cost of the Marine based forces.  Certainly hope it was not the basic Infantry weapon.  The Bolter is by and large useless these days.  Not powerful enough to actually wound the MCs roaming the table, nor a threat to anything but the lightest of Vehicles, and even then only on a 6... Heck, it doesn't ignore most armor these days and it precludes Assault if you actually fire it.  "Eh" is the best thing I can say about it.  BS 4 that used to be "Elite Armies Only" has become the new normal.  All Eldar and now all the new Storm Trooper book?  So, BS 4, weapons that ignore armor and cheaper than a Marine?  Gee, I wonder what they were going for here...

Not really seeing the point of the Taurex  really...  The Prime I think might be useful with the various weapon options...  But the base model?  Unless they jack up the point cost of the Chimera a LOT and take away things like the 5 bloody fire points and AV 12 front?  Dunno, I cannot imagine them making major changes with the Inquisition also getting them.  Might make sense if they make the electronic Codices update automagically and reflect the new point costs.  That and of course the fact that a LOT of Guard players already have fully mechanized forces with Chimera...  Not sure how  many I would be buying if I ever intended to go back to playing IG.  My Praetorians might hit the field eventually, but let's be honest, they are overpowered now and really boring for me to play.  I doubt they will change much.  Just thinking that the way I am and having done this "professionally", I know I can use things like Artillery really well, and I have a pretty good understanding of how it is best delivered, supported, etc...  Frankly I'd rather have regular games than just win the few I get in :-)...  Just really boring game for both players if one is just shooting the other off the table without much if any risk...  So, I have a nice Praetorian force, but I only ever really play it these days when I am proving a point or just want to destroy someone.

In any case, off to play Star Trek Attack Wing this evening...  Have a few of the wee ships so looking like my Klingons will go forth and die bravely as I learn the game on the fly...  OK, was still writing this later it looks like...  Got in 3 games, played Klingons.  Worf commanding a K'Vort class ship (his) with the Advanced Weapons allowing him to fire cloaked, Gowron commanding the Negh'Var with boarding Marines and a Generic CPT on a Vor'Cha...  First game played against another Klingon, only lost the Vor'Cha, but failed to kill either of his ships...  Second game was against a 5 ship fleet...  Killed off one, failed to kill the fighters...  Those fighters are annoyingly resilient, lost out on points again as the Vor'Cha again died...  Game three was against a good Romulan fleet.  Oh, this one and the 5 ship fleet had Cloaked Mines...  REALLY annoyingly powerful.  No real defense I've seen yet, took a lot of damage from them in game one.  The Romulans offed Gowron and his ship on the last turn to take the point lead...  I did not realize how expensive the one War Eagle I destroyed early was or I might have been more cautious...  OK, no I wouldn't have been...  Still, really fun game, good group of folks to play against...  Looks like I have something else to play...

Run silent and cloaking devices...

So…  Looks like GW is back to “Run Silent” mode…  Disappointing, I had rather liked the Black Library and Forgeworld stuff on Facebook, etc…  Frankly I could do without the GW advertisement mail hitting the same time as all of the new releases go to “pre-order” status.  Probably just me, but I usually already know about the few things I am interested in, and I am not ordering through them in any case…  Silly me, I go through my local game store because that’s where I actually PLAY the game.  And with them not telling the bloody retailers what is coming out before they put it up on their own store…  Just seems wrong, but hey, I’m just a silly consumer…

Playing the 200 point Kill Team, is OK I guess…  My Fleshtearers are not horrible, but have a hard time dealing with larger numbers of things like say 10 Nurgle Marines J…  So, next week I guess I play my Crimson Fists.  I think I can get 5 Tactical Marines with a Plasma Cannon or Missile Launcher and 5 Scouts with a Heavy Bolter and 4 Snipers…  Oh, and a Speeder Storm with Flamer or Heavy Bolter.  Probably Flamer, that was awesome on the FT one I ran last week…

Star Trek stuff looks pretty darn nice…  Looking like that will be what I start up playing.  The Klingons are looking really good, and probably very much my play style.  There is OP at the store, and we’ll see if I can make it out to play…

200 point Kill Team League and Star Trek Attack Wing

So, new League starting tonight...  200 point Kill Team, with a 500 point "Super Kill Team" tournament in the middle...  Looking like I will be playing my Fleshtearers at least for the first week, probably the full League.  200 points is not a lot, so I have just a few options...

Sternguard:  5 lads with a variety of Combi Weapons and a Rhino.  Not a lot of subtlety, but with the Bolter rounds I have some options.  SMALL number of troops, so losing 3 puts me to 50%.  SGT becomes a leader, I usually take "Sniper", "Feel No Pain" and ...  Shred probably...  Re-rolling to wound with a small number of shots seems likely I'll need to make every one count that I can...  Small army, quick and decisive.

Assault Squad:  5 man Assault Squad and a Sanguinary Priest (Medic) with Jump Packs.  Melta Gun Trooper and a Plasma Pistol for the SGT, the Medic provides the bubble of FnP, and we move quickly to engage and hopefully not get bogged down in a firefight...    Again, quick and dirty.  Probably the "ignore Cover" for the Melta, Preferred Enemy for the SGT and either Rending or Fleshbane for one of the other lads...  Might swap the Medic for a Speeder to deal with enemy Armor, but in any case sticking with the "Go, Go, Go" style...

Looking at and will be picking up some of the Star Trek Attack Wing stuff...  Guess I am missing my old SFB, and since this is NOT a stupid "blind buy" game, I can actually get the Klingon ships I am looking for.  Thought about Federation, but they seem fairly bland.  Glad that there are at least 4 Factions/Armies to start with and it looks like the Borg are coming as well...  Probably the only thing keeping me from the Star Wars one was that there really are just the 2 Armies, so it doesn't matter that much.  In any case, Klingons are what I'll be playing and hopefully I am not too far behind the power curve by getting in later like I did with MechWarrior, etc...  Eventually evened out, was just a fairly steep learning curve and the blind buys were NOT helpful.  This should be better overall as I will need only 100 points of things more or less, so likely 5-6 ships to give me some choices in the longer run.  Seeing some Fleet builds with 3 ships, so guessing the Devil being in the details for all the options, etc. is where the subtlety is for this.  Starting off I am more likely to bring what I consider a "standard" Fleet build with more ships rather than trying to figure out tricks and combos...  At least until I have a solid understanding of the game play, etc...

Knights, more games and motorcycles...

So, got a few more test games in with the Knight...  Well, my Warhammer figure as I am still slowly assembling the model...  New puppy has pretty much killed my hobby time, but Angus is fun to zip about with...  With my Fleshtearers, the Melta one is quite good...  Plays very aggressive and not the least bit subtle...  Point at the target and go.  Deep striking provides the close in support that the Knight needs in order to take and hold objectives...  Eldar are still a PITA to face with their speed and massed Str 6+ fire mean that the six hull points are not something to count on.  Tau on the other hand are are less of a threat.  Just that my Wolves and Fleshtearers are so far out of the top tier that it is still frustrating at best to play out the game.  My Crimson Fists are REALLY good with the Knight so the more modern books seem to be very good with it.  Guessing Mike's White Scars would be brutally effective, not so sure with a DA bike force though...  Still, between my Praetorians and Crimson Fists, I have 2 REALLY good supporting forces for the Knight, and it even makes my Fleshtearers at least somewhat competitive against a less optimized Tau force...

Lots of new stuff hitting...  New Chaos Marine book...  Another two pages of rules, no major changes.  This is something I am not really a fan of.  On one hand, it is good getting new material, but for the price of the book?  For so very little new stuff?  Not really for me, but then nothing for any of the specific armies I play so...  Well, not a lot of new purchases for me.  The Knight itself, I think it was well worth it as it is a really nice kit, and the rules themselves are in the $4 White Dwarf magazine...  I would pick up the book if I intended to buy the 3+ to field them as an army, but one is my limit I think.  Looking like a Kill Team league for the next few months so my Knight will likely be assembled and painted in House Chappell colors...  But back to the essentially DLC we keep seeing...  The main reason I am not a fan is that while it does make the game interesting, it completely cuts out the local store.  I know GW would much prefer to sell direct, but I think that is not the model that will work in much of the US at least with our local group gathering and playing at the one local store that is nice, clean, has playing space, etc...  Yes, I could set up a table in my basement, and have at various times over the years when suitable game stores did not exist locally, or for whatever other reason...  Just that cuts the size of the group you can play against down by a LOT.  And frankly I really like the local store, so it annoys me when a company goes out of their way to cut them out.  Saying that, the greater range of options IS nice...  Seeing the Tau/Eldar combos over and over gets old and Tau/Tau or Eldar/Tau/whatever just gets really boring to play and play against.  Delicate balance there between keeping it interesting and killing it off with a flood.  Balanced would REALLY be nice as it does not look like GW has any interest in actively supporting their game or bothering to try to balance things out...  But, it is still for the moment the only really big system that I can almost guarantee finding a game of every week...

$280 would buy me a Star Trek fleet and probably a bunch of X-wing ships...  Since I inherited a pair of B-wings looks like I have that started already...  Would prefer Klingons, so if someone were to want a trade, more than happy to :-), but still, heavy fighters are fun...  Still have massive Cygnar and Circle armies, so Warmachine/Hordes is still an option...  Just do not have all that much time to actually game these days...  Still, I know there will be a few new ships adorning my desk soon...

Other stuff...  Selling my two motorcycles and looking to buy one Honda Goldwing from 84-87...  Right combination of engine power and such for me.  The Silverwing is a great bike.  But it is really good for in town and not suitable for Interstate highway travel.  Perfect for beginning riders or those of us returning to riding after a LONG break...  The Magna?  Powerful...  Too powerful for my needs.  Only a 750cc engine, but 4 cylinder engine tooled for a racing bike..  More efficient at highway speed 65-80 MPH...  Really fast, and I guess I am just too old for that to be something that I want...  Would be happy to trade of course, but...

Imperial Knights, DLC and getting too old...

Knight being assembled...  The kit looks nice, hopefully it plays well on the table.  A few test games in, it is powerful but definitely not overpowering I think.  D class weapons from Apoc just kill whatever, so the Void Shields are needed if you face a Warhound or Revenant Titan.  The 12 inch move is huge on the table, so it can close quickly or move away from slow threats...  IG is the natural Ally I think with a horde of bodies to protect the Knight for a bit, and to open up Void Shields for it with AC fire...  My Crimson Fists and Grey Knights work well, but protection proves difficult unless I use Strike Squads and go first...  I could I suppose go with Coteaz or whatever the name is...  I just really do not like playing Inquisition or what I consider overpowering characters, so have never played that one...  Lacking a lot of Intercept, a lot of those games went to the player gaining First Blood, so player one if he/she has a good first strike force like Drop Pods or the like...  Eldar have their d weapons, but other than the Wraith Knight, shorter range...  Most of the Knights I see locally are fielded with the ++ save, so not a lot of the Str 10, d weapons...  Iyanden is popular, so the Wraithguard and Wraithlord as Warlord is common...  My Knight Paladin seems the better one at the moment, but the 36" Melta is REALLY nice for an aggressive force...  Fleshtearers or GK perhaps?  30 or so Assault Marines starting around the Knight to start the rush...  On "go", we'll be in their DZ on turn 2 at the latest...  So, fast one way or the other, nothing subtle, no tricks...  Maybe.....  For the next two months we are playing"Kill Teams" for the local League, so gives me time to assemble and test I think...

Otherwise, "Codex: Legion of the Damned" hit...  One entry from the Marine Codex, and it can be your whole Army.  W T F?  So, dlc based on just cut and paste from another book with a few pages of new stuff...  Which looks suspiciously like it is not well tested...  The Warlord traits range from good to WTF are they thinking?  Seems rushed, and being digital, no real risk for the company...  Chaos gets one next, looks similarly unimpressive, especially when you consider the old Legions are being ignored...  Just seems like they are flooding the market with craptastic"content" with no particular concern about the long term effect this will have on their game and company..  Especially with so much not being available through the local game stores... Not a good situation I think, but surprisingly I was not consulted :-)... 

Was weird reading the interview on House of Pancakes with Stelek...  I know he can be a bit unpleasant, but really the stupidity of the comments there was just bad...  Shame really, I rather liked the interview.  He comes from a (what I consider at least) mass battles background..  The big bookshelf games with chits and tokens representing large units...  Neat, but I come from about the complete opposite direction...  I have commanded in combat operations units up to and including Platoon sized elements, and in war games Company to short Battalion sized elements...  Well, we were just doing a desperation defense, so the survivors of a BN, and mostly because I was the senior surviving Engineer directing the defenses my unit built...  But in any case, I do well commanding a Squad or Platoon, but going beyond that I am far less comfortable.  Why I think I like skirmish games, and I can understand why someone dealing better with the larger abstracts would prefer larger battle systems...

Random personal stuff, CPAP machine for me this week...  Apparently I failed my sleep test :-) and will be disturbing my beautiful wife's sleep for...  Well, I am given to understand this is a new permanent thing... 

Oh, and trying to sell my two motorcycles...  81 Honda Silverwing which is an awesome starter or in town bike...  Just not good on the Interstate with the 500cc engine...  The other is a 96 Honda Magna...  Other end of the spectrum with it being a 4 cylinder muscle bike...  Only 750cc engine, but REALLY fast and too powerful for my needs.  Looking for a 1200cc Honda Goldwing (so 84-87) or something in the 1100-1300cc range for a heavier cruiser...  Also have a few firearms I could get rid of if needed to get a nice bike..

Knights and D weapons locally...

After a few games against the D weapons, I think my objections are at least for me confirmed.  It turns 40K into a "short hand" game.  No point bringing anything but the cheapest, best troops you can alon g with some big Alpha Strike to try and deal with the source of the D shooting.  Warhound Class Titans are popular here as are the Baneblade variants...  I have yet to face an Eldar Revenant, so guessing only there, but with the speed that thing can move?  Hard for a lot of armies to pin down.  Drop or fliers really are going to be it...  Well, except for IG gunlines perhaps...  AC are cheap and between than and Chimeras, seems like a LOT of firepower going into the 900 point monster.  Just a boring game, and not one a lot of people can bring especially to a tournament.  So, the D class weapons do kill the Death Stars of various flavors, but in so doing how much more of the fun parts of the game do they kill or make irrelevant?  ALL of the fortifications are now completely pointless EXCEPT the Void Shields...  Those become a necessary tax in an environment with D class weapons...  Much like the Aegis line was at the beginning of Sixth facing fliers...  So, the 5th ed Fliers are not looking so bad now in comparison I think, though they may well have a new lease on life as the answer to "D Class Weapons".  The cynic in me says that this looks suspiciously like the game developers making all but the new stuff completely irrelevant and thus pushing new sales over allowing existing armies to compete...

New things coming up?  The Imperial Knights look really nice...  I plan on one certainly, maybe a second one if the new Dreamforge one is of the same rough scale...  But as good as they look and will probably be on the table, do they stand a chance against a D class weapon?  Not really.  6 Hull Points, so it might take 2 hits to destroy it, but the same NO defense possible thing really bites the Knights...  4+ inv save that cannot be used just annoys me.  Next being IG or whatever new trademarked name they come up with for the next Imperial Army iteration...  Rumors of a new edition as well..  Dunno, we are at version 6.5 now...  How much more before they kill their cash cow?  There DO need to be some fixes I think, but a new $80 rulebook?  Don't know how many of us will buy it honestly...   And having seen more than my share of good, fun games die to their developers mishandling things and pushing out new editions?  Well, I hope they do not kill 40K...  Seems a long way to go before that happens, so I am most certainly NOT saying 40K is dead, just that I am concerned about it, especially on the local level.  It just feels a LOT like Confrontation did at the 3.5 level when Rackham seemed like they were working REALLY hard to kill the game in order to have the player base clamoring for the new edition to fix it all...  Well, they killed it, and the new edition flopped...  Oops...  Le Roy est Mort, Vive Le Roy?

Locally, Eldar continue to dominate the tables even if unintentionally...  No good answers to the Wave Serpent that will work in a time frame allowing most players a chance to deal with it before they lose the game...  Not unbeatable, but just really good...  Facing 4+ is going to be difficult at best for almost any army.  Add in Wraith Knights and Jetbikes and possibly Beasts from the DE codex?  Well, even my otherwise well designed Crimson Fist list just dies...  Hard and stubbornly, but barring odd luck I do not see my last wining often in that fight. 

Hate to say it, but between the Eldar and Tau appearing massively overpowered...  Well, it is killing the new interest in the game locally.  The Tau with the Riptides and so many rule exceptions combined in a really good Codex make for a less than fun game that a majority of the locals would rather just not bother playing against.  Yes, part is due to the let's call them "hyper competitive" players using and abusing those rules/lists...  But they are technically legal lists...  Not just the Eldar locally, in fact the Eldar are by and large NOT the problem locally, despite the general feeling that they are over powered...  Lacking a real FAQ, very open to interpretation...  So, other games are becoming popular locally...  X-wing and the Star Trek version, Netruner, etc...

Rocs, Titans and Seventh...

So, looking like we are getting Knight Titans...  GMort has a really good overview here: http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.com/2014/02/knight-titans-no-longer-rumour.html
Looking good overall...  12" move, can fire at different things, move through cover, etc...  2 big problems I see are that it is armed with a D HtH weapon and that it cannot easily survive in an environment with other D class weaponry.  I'm looking more at the Paladin class with the rapid fire Battle Cannon (72" range, Str 8 AP 3, 5" blast and Ordinance).  Perhaps I am missing something with the USRs it has, but Strikedown and Smash seem to be completely wasted on something that is hitting with Str D in HtH...  3-4 Attacks I suppose could all miss, but with the silliness that Str D is, what survives?  The Warhound with 9 Hull Points seems like it is in trouble if it gets charged...  So, as with almost everything "D", hitting first wins.  So, essentially, stay out of HtH with the Knights, and 375 points for a 6 HP walker seems OK...  Well, until you run up against something D Str yourself.  Looking good and I know that there will be several seen locally...  And I AM looking forward to that...  Painting up a Knight in House Chappell colors to go with all of my Imperial forces...

Brings me to the discussion of "D" weapons...  For an Apoc game, it made sense and given the sheer size of the game, something like this that is essentially "shorthand" 40K is fine, but for actual 40K, it just does not seem like it fits.  Anything that just automatically destroys any building that it touches without having to actually defeat the armor or remove HPs, etc?  ALWAYS penetrates seems a bit much...  The same thing for most Vehicles and "normal" targets...  Seems out of place given the rest of the rules for the game.  Not sure how I feel about it really...  Locally, it looks like the death knell for the Tau Riptide overload and anything like a Deathstar.  On the other hand, it strips a LOT of the character from the game for most of the armies.  Why bother taking anything but massed grunts because it REALLY just doesn't matter when it gets hit by those weapons...  So, yes, it kills off the Eldar and Tau dominated uber armies but it also kills a LOT of the other things that make playing the game interesting...  I guess my concern is that the cure kills the patient here :-)  "The Man from La Mancha"...

Other than that, I was looking over the IA 2, second edition for stuff to bring into my armies...  The Roc pattern Storm Eagle is one that REALLY stood out.  With 7 shots/turn from the 4 weapons it can fire, all of them Str 8-9 and AP 3 or less...  The Transport capacity is almost irrelevant with the ability to almost guarantee a vehicle kill or a good chance to decimate a Marine Squad or the like...  Yeah, probably too good...  The Mortis DN is good, but not overly so I think...  Intercept is overpowered in this edition and something I think will change in the next one...  Overall, the book looked good, but really only a few pages of useful stuff, so...

On to Seventh Edition?  That seems to be a recurring rumor...  Do I think it likely in the short term?  Eh...  With the release schedule in hyper drive?  Maybe...  Honestly, the game is VERY different than when it was released, so I'd call it version 6.5 now...  Would I like a revised ruleset that actually answered things and cleared up some of the things that should have been cleared up or clarified a LONG time ago...  Right now, things are pretty much Tau/Eldar if you want to win...  A lot of other armies are "fun", but locally at least, not a lot of challenge for a well build top tier force...