First 7th Ed Escalation League and STAW Borg OP1...

So, guess I will be playing in the 40K League starting up tonight…  Something to kill time I guess.  Overall it does not look bad, but it is essentially the 6.5 version of the game that not only did not fix some of the VERY major issues, it introduces another set of “WTF” issues.  As long as no on brings the stupid broken crap, it will be fun, but I have to admit to having FAR less enthusiasm for this.  Tim is using the BAO rules verbatim, so…  Well, honestly not entirely sure WHAT that means at this point.  Not really seeing any major restrictions.  I guess I could put together my Spartan and run a few Land Raider class tanks across the table.  Playing Blood Angels (Fleshtearers), so I can bloody well drop my tanks right into their DZ.  So, looking at the 750 point level for the first few weeks I’ll likely bring:

Reclusiarch (Jump Pack)

Death Company (x5, Jump Packs, 2 with Power Weapons)

Death Company DN (Not sure which weapons, guessing the standard “I Don’t Care” CCW vs the “Claws of Eternal Combat”, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod)

Storm Raven (MM, TL LC)

So, LOW model count, but I think that with the Drop Pod AND the DN being super scoring (“Objective Secured”), having the flier and troops that simply do NOT run away…  Could null deploy, but risky as you still lose when you have nothing on the table at the end of any Game Turn…  But still…  Could be hilarious J… 

Like I said though, I have almost NO confidence that I can do much other than die with a book so badly outdated, but this is pretty much the opposite of the “standard meta” would say I should bring.  750 points is simply too small to try to cover more than the most basic stuff, hoping that it is a fun list that does not get swept or alternately sweep people off the field and give them the (mistaken) impression that the BA book is somehow overpowered J…

Sunday is the first month of the 6 month Borg OP event…  Looking at bringing either a Federation or Dominion fleet to the field, and leaning heavily toward the Federation…  With some of the things I have I can field:

Fed Borg 2

USS Voyager (30)

Mr. Spock (4)

Adm. James T. Kirk (5)

Hikaru Sulu (3)

Pavel Chekov (3)

Ship SP: 45

U.S.S Enterprise-D (28)

Jean-Luc Picard (6)

Engage (3)

Dmitri Valtane (3)

Montgomery Scott (5)

Ship SP: 45

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder

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

Gives me 2 pretty decent ships that can fire 360 degree arcs (if needed), repairs, good fast movement and a few tricks and frankly disposable upgrades to keep the Borg off my back for a bit while I deal with the opposing fleet…  We’ll see I guess J

7th ed 40K Escalation League and Borg OP for STAW

So, I guess I will see how silly the seventh edition is...  Not a lot else going on gaming wise at the moment, pick up games of STAW mostly...  Like I said I will likely break out my old Cygnar stuff to get in some games.  Cheap option as I have a really big force from first edition of that game...  Just not entirely sure where they all are in the Basement of Doom ™... I hesitate to think how much I spent on that game, though they did a good job getting cheap/free stuff to the Volunteers back in the old days...  Still, I suspect I can field quite a large force of them...

But back on target as the caffeine hits...  I think I will break out my Fleshtearers again.  They are just odd enough not many people currently playing remember them really and some of the rules in the current edition work well for them.  Yes, they are coated WAY high given their book was written two editions ago and early in that one I think...  Still, Deep Striking onto objectives and having the only things AFAIK that can Assault out of Reserve might make it possible to get in a few quick victories...  League rules for "fully painted" are a breeze as my lads have been repainted since their last book...  I think a few Vehicles need finishing but there will be a LONG time before we get to that level...  I know I have my Jump Troops (20+) and Sternguard ready with all of the HQ options I would use...  Death Company, more than I can field at this level, and "a few" Dreadnought options...  The Sanguinary Guard I picked up in a random trade are not painted but I am unlikely to use them...  Storm Raven is ready and it is still looking amazing in this edition I think...  I do not have the "real" model, just a mod I made, but it looks good I think...  So I am confident that I have a decent force for 1500 point battles...  And we will see I guess...

Have the Borg OP coming up in a few weeks at the Gopher, so looking at a few options for Fed and Dominion:

Dominion Borg 1

4th Division Battleship (36)
Gul Dukat (5)
Boheeka (2)
Omet'Iklan (5)
Dorsal Weapons Array (3)
Ship SP: 51

Koranak (26)
Gul Evek (2)
Remata'Klan (4)
Cloaking Device (4)
Tetryon Emissions (3)
Ship SP: 39

Total Build SP: 90

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

The BB can guarantee 2 hits with the Primary weapon...  Starting at 6 Dice, 7 at Range 1, seems like a fairly decent damage output for that.  The Cloaking Keldon class vessel has some potential to do a 5 Dice attack to 2 targets (6 at Range 1) from cloak...  Between the 2, I should be able to throw down a lot of damage to a few targets...  Like to kill one/turn if I can catch them...  And since those ships are among the fastest in the game...

Working on a Federation build as well....  Will make the "game time" decision I suppose WRT the build I use...  Locally, the TO is allowing us to bave a few builds ready so depending on the blind pull as we are playing "faction pure" otherwise...  No real advantage for the most part, but a lot of us would rather play that way than the "all stars" builds...

Motorcycle front...  Not a lot.  Vacation last week, catching up this week.  Need to get the Title straightened up for the Magna to sell that one.  Great bike, but not for me...  The Silverwing is still chugging along.  Hope to get the both sold and a Goldwing to replace, so we'll see I guess...

Vacation in MI, 40k and STAW...

Mkay, been in MI for the week...  Was fun and great being here with the family.  :-). Ready to get home though.  Missing the cats, dog and sleeping in a real bed....  Really missing the motorcycle as well...  So many going by here, and not helping that there are several really nice Goldwings for sale here.  Ah well :-)

Gaming wise, new 40k league starting Monday...  Looks like an escalation league.  Eh, not so sure, but lacking other games to play...  Might break out my Cygnar and see how they play these days...  Or just play the Crimson Fists for now.

40k was pretty dead for a while here.  I do not think that it was one person really...  I know several of the newer players were frustrated trying to play against the Tau player and the Necron/Chaos player...  Heck, the older players pretty well stopped playing when it became obvious that there were really only a few "power" armies...  Only one Eldar player actually used the power lists, and he was a fairly new player who changed away from it quickly after a few games.  Our older Eldar lads played "fluffy" forces that were powerful but not even close to over the top...  The new edition hit and chatting with Dave, GW sales at the store were pretty poor.  Too many of us in wait and see mode I think combined with the extremely high cost of the new books...  This coming right after several expansions that are now in the rulebook leaving several of us feeling like we were ripped off and burned by GW...  Feel bad not buying more, but honestly not so sure I will buy more 40k stuff ever again...  Well until the next shiny thing at least :-)

STAW is coming along...  Next OP event is the 20th, and really looking forward to that...  New stuff to buy when I get back :-). Battleship and Battle Cruiser hit, along with an Enterprise refit...  Will not play Borg, so no interest in that...  But the game is a LOT of fun to play...  Really kind of looking forward to the Dragons version of the game...  Will be hitting Gen Con for one day this year, and hopefully it will be demonstrated there...

STAW and 40K... Which will last?

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

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

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

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

Star Trek Attack Wing event Sunday

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

List Name "We Shoot Things"

Resource: Flagship Klingon (10)

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

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

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

Total Build SP: 100

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

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

List Name: Random Stuff

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

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

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

Total Build SP: 100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...