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…