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...