Chappell's Wolfden

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

New Wolves... yea?

So far, the most enthusiasm I can muster is "Eh". Looking at the leaked pages we have a so so flier that costs more than the Storm Raven, some DNs, a new "it's not Plasma" weapon.... So, looking like more of the same.

The Wolves were my first 40K army back in the late 80's, before they became space vikings who were afraid of "magic" like teleporters and other things that might make their role as a planetary assault Legion a bit easier... Though, ironically, they never had a problem with actual magic per their extensive use of Rune Priests (Librarians). So, I'm pretty disappointed that they seem to be looking like regular Marines with a few different options and without access to much of what makes the Marine Codex actually pretty good. Seeing some reviews of "Murderfang" being so awesome, then reading the stats... Well, obviously none of them play or play against Blood Angels where this is simply a named, unique Death Company DN... More expensive and not as good... And let's be honest the DNs are simply not good. 3 Hull Points to kill them instead of the 3-6 Wounds at a high T that the Tau/Eldar GK get with their MCs? Just have to glance AV 12, really not that hard when you have say, a flying tank that shoots 4 twin linked S6 shots followed by d6 + 1 Str 7 twin linked (assuming at least one of the scatter laser shots hit) shots... So, the DN's time on the field is limited at best. The game as it stands now has passed the paradigm that the Marines as a whole are based on...

What exactly do I mean here... Well, mulling it over the last few days/weeks it seems that 40K has become the game of Monstrous Creatures, Fliers and/or Super Heavies. Not bringing or having a really good way to deal with the above means you are going to have a short and frustrating game... Been assembling my Imperial Knight, have to admit I think it is going to be pretty darn powerful locally, probably on par with the Eldar Knights. But with the new "unbound" ability to simply pick and choose whatever you want, all of it being scoring, it almost punishes you for bringing the frankly sub standard "Troops" to the field. OK, not "almost", it really does punish you. Marines specifically have expensive basic Troops. Most of whom cannot even begin to harm the things that are hitting the field. Sure, they can really hold Objectives, but only while they are alive. Cover rules tightened up and there are so many things out there that either throw out so much firepower or simply ignore the 3+ save the Marine has... A lot of armies frankly can do both. The basic Marine Codex has the new Grav weapons that do a decent job dealing with the MCs and Vehicles overall, but of course, the Wolves do not get them... They get a "cold" weapon that forces a STR test if you caused a Wound, else it dies... Eh... Maybe, but most of the things I am concerned about have Str 6+, T7+, so a long chain of things followed by a 6 (auto fail Str Test) on their part to remove a single MC... Frankly, I'd rather have the Marine Centurion's uber Grav weapons and just shoot them off the table myself. So, we have a nice new $50 book for the Wolves that completely fails to address the issues making any Marine based army sub standard, or at least as far as we can see before the book is fully released :-)... Maybe I'll be surprised, but I am very much doubting it at this point...

So, found what I think are all of my old Warmachine minis... Will try to wander out to at least observe some games... Need to get updated cards for the things I know... But given the amount of metal I found in the "Basement of Doom" I am fairly sure I could field a very sizable force immediately. Now, not having played since last edition, not likely to be an effective one mind, but...

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

So, this week... STAW, 40K Wolves, etc...

So, the Borg OP 1 event is over and done… J I did fairly well, with a solid second place… Still not sure what to take against the Borg frankly. I’ve come close to getting it with Federation and Dominion fleets. I think the Klingons have the right tricks going against the Borg if they build their fleet with ONLY the Borg in mind. I suspect the Dominion could throw out the amount and consistent levels of damage required to simply punch through the layers of shields and ablative armor…. REALLY liking the things available to modify the dice results on the Dominion fleets. NOT liking the lack of maneuverability that they seem to have as their standard. Didn’t make much difference in 2 of my three battles, the “tactic” of rush right at them and shoot like you are voting in Chicago (“Early and Often”) works well enough in general against the things that I can kill in that single exchange/volley. Borg Cubes are not among the ships that I will likely be able to do this with. Usually there is the “Feedback Pulse” which starts by nullifying an attack, with half of the damage being redirected BACK at the firer.. Probably a bit overpowered for the game as it stands now. 8 points is a lot, but to completely negate a strong attack? Especially since it is virtually impossible to kill anything Borg in a single attack. So, a lot of the ways I can think of to kill off the Borg involve disabling upgrades or lots of attacks, all of which are threats, but none overpoweringly so… Klingon ships all get to the 5-6 Attack range without issue (OK, their “modern” ships of the line, support ships not so much, nor the TOS ships), so a “swarm” of 3-4 decent Klingon ships should be able to concentrate fire on a single target and expect to throw out the 15-24 Attack dice that should be able to deal with anything. VERY different I think than the Star Wars version where the TIE swarms seem to be the build to beat. The Klingons are good here, but not impossible to defeat in detail as you can maneuver fairly well and frankly the Klingon ships are NOT the most resilient. Cloak can help against Torpedo boats, but there are ways to still fire Torpedoes at a cloaked ship… And of course, you can simply fire your normal weapons. Cloaked ships have no shields, so 3-5 Damage kills them off for the most part… The Dice in this game are weighted to the Attack over the Defense with one more “Hit” result than “Evade” result on the dice themselves… So, even assuming each side gets to throw 5 dice for their attack or defense, statistically the odds favor the attack. And far more things that modify Attack than Defense so… A little of the “Rock Paper Scissors” that most games seem to have where the thing that kills the “rock” of the Borg is vulnerable to something that cannot itself deal with the Borg… J Yeah, the “deck building” aspect of the game is one of the things I find more appealing…

So, next game will likely be at Gen Con, I am signed up for one of the 100 point events, we’ll see… Hoping to see demos of the Dragon version of the game and maybe pick up some of the previous exclusives… We’ll see J… Pack of Cloaked ships coming in at $40 might be something to snag…

Missed out on this week’s 40K game… Wiped out and just not feeling up to playing after playing Sunday… To be honest, 750 points is hard to actually play in any case. Too many “gimmick” armies can do too well, and just not enough on the table to cover the “oops, I lose” roll with so few dice being rolled… Looking like I’ll actually get my Knight finished up at some point. I DO think it will be fun to play, and really not too hard for a prepared opponent to deal with. Titans on the other hand might be more difficult for players not playing “slightly more aggressive” Marines like me… Really liked how my Fleshtearers worked last game, if I remember to actually fire my weapons, you know ALL of them, it would probably have been an easy victory for me… The DC DN dropping onto the Heavy Weapon Teams and only firing the Flame Thrower was a major “oops” J The Melta and Magna Grapple would have each likely killed another Team leaving him without weapons realistically to take me down before I moved into his Infantry… The other lads did well, just that 6 Marines can only kill so many before the odds catch up with you between Overwatch and CC…

Wolves are next up, and based on the rumors so far, I am completely underwhelmed. The ONE big consistent strength they had over the years was that their lads remembered that they could bring a rifle, close combat weapon AND a bloody sidearm. If this goes away, I have a whole bunch of non-WYSIWYG minis in my army and frankly I am not so sure I’ll bother changing them. Hell, the 30 Legions have this option, as do the Chaos Marines, so pulling it from the Wolves would likely be a deal breaker for me. They’ll continue to be painted in their original Legion colors, not that silly baby blue crap and I’ll use them as a Legion list I guess. They DO get a Flier, though it looks like the Cestus Assault craft, though only a single “hull”… Rules sound “eh” so far, but I like it better than the Storm Raven… Saying that, my conversion for a Storm Raven I do like, and it works well enough for me J…

Did dig up my old Warmachine things, I was somewhat surprised how many I have... I did not remember them all, but there they are I guess... Cleaning them off, mostly dusty, not damaged really... No clue how many points in a modern game of course, but a lot of metal there... Time to get some MKII cards and see about setting up a game or three with Joe and company to get the initial rounds of having my ass kicked to learn the hard way out of the way :-)... Since I left the game near the top of the standings for most leagues, etc., good I think to be starting at the bottom and learning the correct way...

Diet and exercise moving along... Getting up early to hit the weights and elliptical while my lovely wife rides her bike and hits the weight machine... Seems to be a VERY good thing, regaining some of the strength I lost over the last year of not working out, etc... Silly heart attack and other stresses... But feeling pretty good these days :-) And getting to work out with my wife is always a good thing...

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Borg OP 1...

So, a few options for the OP starting this evening at the Gopher...

I call this "Fuck you, we brought a Battleship":
Dominion 90 Borg 5

4th Division Battleship (36)
Gul Dukat (5)
Remata'Klan (4)
Boheeka (2)
Photon Torpedoes (6)
Volley of Torpedoes (6)
Dorsal Weapons Array (3)
Shroud (1)
Ship SP: 63

5th Wing Patrol Ship (22)
Gelnon (3)
Breen Aide (2)
Ship SP: 27

Total Build SP: 90

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

Turns like a tug boat, but if I wind up in a Joust with two ships I can fire a 7 dice Torpedo attack from the Volley and then a 9 (!!) dice attack at a second target which I do not need a Lock on... So, Cloaked, whatever... Boheeka should get at least one guaranteed hit, will likely have Battle Stations ready for that on one... With a bit of luck, should be able to cripple or kill 2 ships and the other 2 ships are just there to keep things off my back...

This one is more balanced:

Dominion 90 Borg 1

Koranak (26)

Weyoun (5)

Breen Aide (1)

Remata'Klan (3)

Cloaking Device (4)

Ship SP: 39

4th Division Battleship (36)

Gul Dukat (5)

Boheeka (2)

Omet'Iklan (5)

Dorsal Weapons Array (3)

Ship SP: 51

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder

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

Two good ships, should throw out a lot of damage, the Kornak loaded out to surprise 2 ships from a cloak... More likely the one I play if I go Dominion...

And a Federation build...

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

Two good ships, the potential to mess up other folks combos with Admiral Kirk... 360 degree firing arcs, decent damage, and fast ships...

NOT sure either can take down a fully loaded Borg ship, but they'll at least know they were in a fight and it will be fun to play...

Monday, July 14, 2014

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

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

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...

Saturday, July 5, 2014

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...

Friday, June 20, 2014

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.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

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...

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

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...

Thursday, May 22, 2014

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…

Monday, May 19, 2014

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 :-)...

Sunday, May 18, 2014

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 :-)

Monday, May 12, 2014

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...

Friday, May 9, 2014

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…

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

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…

Monday, May 5, 2014

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…

Sunday, April 27, 2014

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...

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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...

Thursday, April 17, 2014

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.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

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...

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

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 :-)...