Xindi Aquatic Cruiser Review

Straight from the Temporal Cold War, the Xindi Aquatic Cruiser!

It is a very nice looking ship, my personal favourite of the Xindi forces.

A quick look at the named and non-named ships:

Turns like a brick but with pretty good stats overall and a 180 front arc I can see this getting quite a bit of use.  The named Azati Prime can discard a token to force an attacker to roll one less attack die - I'm not entirely sure how useful that's going to be as usually you're going to want to keep that token handy.  An attack value of 4 means it can pack a nice punch at range one, and a combined defence value of 8/9 means it can go toe-to-toe with larger ships for a couple of turns.

Now on to the upgrades:

The Prototype Weapon is very interesting, it lets you launch a mini version of the Xindi weapon and fire in a straight line at all ships up to range 2, with each ship being attacked with 1 less die than the previous.

The Escape pod is quite useful, allowing a discarded crew member to be passed to another ship upon its destruction.

The next set of upgrades:

 The Aquatic Councilor allows you to disable it to roll an extra defence die, or two extra if you discard it.  Very situational but could be used to keep your ship around a bit longer.  The Ibix Dynasty is excellent if used at the right time.  Anything that can cancel an attack is usually worth its weight in gold.  An expensive card and ability but could be a game changer.

Next up - the Xindi generic captain:

Nothing to say here, other than SPACE MANATEEEE!

... Well.  On to the next captain:

This captain is fantastic.  His ability is good enough on the Azati Prime, if you play him cross faction though and put him on a cloaked Romulan ship however - he is priceless.

As a quick cross-faction build, for a single ship try this:

I.R.W. Valdore [30]
- Kaiphet Amman'sor 5 (Captain) [4]
- - Counter Attack [3]
- Mendak (Admiral) [4]
- Tom Paris [5]
- Amat'Igan [4]
Ship Total: 50 SP

Stay cloaked and this would give you 8 defence dice with battlestations and re-rolls on the blank dice.  There are not too many build that could even hurt this ship consistently.  In the current state of play that would still give you 80 points to play with as well... nasty.  I'll have to get hold of Tom Paris and try this out.

So to sum it up - a very nice expansion with some interesting cards, I think the ship looks fantastic and a 180 arc is excellent as it can pack a good punch.  Brilliant ship and I can't wait for the retail release!

Temporal Cold War OP 2

Hello again! This weekend just gone I took part in a small OP event at a local gaming store.

Only 3 attendees so this was a straight round robin game using the rules for the "Temporal Cold War" organised play event - part two (part one was an event I unfortunately could not make).

In the event, the aims were as follows:

To tractor an objective at the centre of the table, then attempt to recover it.

To eliminate the opposing fleet.

Pretty standard fare, although I didn't have a chance to amend my fleet from the last OP, which means:

The Dominion has its chance again to prove why they rule the Gamma Quadrant!

Firstly my list:

4th Division Battleship [36]
- Gul Dukat 8 (Captain) [5]
- Aft Weapons Array [4]
- Amat'Igan [3]
Ship Total: 48 SP

1st Wave Attack Fighters [24]
- Flanking Attack [3]
- Support Ship [4]
- Escort [4]
Ship Total: 35 SP

Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser) [32]
- Weyoun 7 (Captain) [5]
- - Omet'Iklan [4]
- - Remata'Klan [3]
- Shroud [1]
- Corak [2]
Ship Total: 47 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

Round 1 Vs Federation:

I was prepared enough to take photos for this OP and my first opponent was kind enough to allow me to do so.

U.S.S. Voyager, U.S.S. Enterprise-E, 2 sets of Attack Fighters (named and non-named).

They were loaded out as follows, Attack Fighter 1:

Attack Fighter 2:

U.S.S. Voyager:

 

U.S.S. Enterprise-E:

I knew I was going to be facing an uphill battle as having fought against two squadrons of Attack Fighters in my last OP I knew they were going to give me trouble.

The view from the Federation perspective at the start of the game, showing the objective:

Close up of the opposing fleet:

As the fleets closed in on each other, the Dominion ships exchanged fire with the Voyager, doing very little damage to the surprisingly sturdy ship, both of the Dominion large ships taking a fair amount of damage in return.

The Enterprise had, until the third turn, hung back from the main body of fighting but made its mark by inflicting a massive amount of damage to the Battleship.  The Attack Fighters flew in to finish off the crippled starship, leaving the Dominion in a very precarious situation:

In the very next turn, the Voyager recovered the objective and obliterated the Dominion Cruiser.  The Hideki squadron was now on its own, not in a good position, with no way to win:

 A close-up of the beleaguered fighters:

Trying to save some face, the Cardassian ships choose the better part of valour and ran away:

Unfortunately, they could not outrun Voyager:

The Federation fleet, victorious:

The firepower of the Dominion could not match up to the sheer defensive abilities of the Federation task force.

Result: loss, utterly torn apart.

2nd Round was a bye, the Federation fleet faced off against a Romulan fleet commanded by my first ever competitive opponent, from 2 month ago.

The fight was closely fought for the most part, with the Federation fleet eventually gaining the upper hand and claiming victory over the Romulans, although with losses on both sides.

So, with the Federation having claimed the day, the only thing left was for the Dominion and the Romulans to face off to determine second place.

Round 3 Vs Romulans

Opponents list was almost identical to the first time I played against him, I.R.W. Valdore (Salatrel as captain), an additional Valdore class ship, the Gal'Gath'Thong and the Prototype.

Unfortunately my camera battery had died by this point, so descriptive only...

My forces setup exactly as I have every other game with them, Cruiser then Hidekis' then Battleship with the Cruiser remaining within range one of the Hidekis and range two of the Battleship.  My opponent had the two Warbirds in the centre, with the Gal'Gath'Thong and the Prototype taking up flanking positions at each corner of the map.

Second turn in, the two cloaked Valdores closed to within range of my entire fleet.  Corak, Remata'Klan, Omet'Iklan, Battlestations provided by the Battleship and Flanking Attack from the Hidekis gave my Cruiser a range two, 12 dice attack (with battlestations) against the I.R.W. Valdore. 10 hits and 2 criticals later and the Valdore was dust without ever firing a shot.

The Cruiser took return fire from the remaining Warbird, the Battleship took hits from the Gal'Gath'Thong and the Hidekis took fire from the Prototype, without any taking serious damage, mostly losing shields.

The following turn Romulan Cloaked Mines were deployed and I managed to recover the objective.  Fire was exchanged between all ships but nothing of consequence.

The Romulans continued to pour heavy fire into the Hidekis eventually managing to drop them down to their last counter, in return the decloaked Warbird was caught between an aft shot from the Battleship, then attacked by the Cruiser from the opposite side - caught in a crossfire it joined its partner in oblivion.

The Prototype was the next to fall, again finished off by the Cruiser whilst being attacked from astern.  The Gal'Gath'Thong attempted to rally, charging at the Cruiser but the Battleship had now closed to within firing range.  Out of arc only an aft weapons array shot was possible - 3 hits and a critical - the final Romulan ship was without shields and sitting directly in front of the Cruiser.  Another roll of the dice and the Gal'Gath'Thong was no more.

A thoroughly entertaining game, which was far closer than the result would have you believe.  Until the second Warbird fell this game could have gone either way and I was fully expecting to lose this one going in.

Again my opponent had not faced my build before and I had the advantage of having seen his in my very first game - I knew roughly what he was going to do and luckily my combo worked perfectly in this game, as it had failed to do so in my first.

Result - Win, objective recovered and fleet destroyed.

So, overall with one win and one loss a very good tournament.  My first opponent completely outplayed me.  By holding the Enterprise back and the Attack Fighters being so slow it prevented me from using my one-shot wonder and forced me to spread out the attack over two rounds, wasting them against a defence-orientated Voyager.  A ship I will never underestimate again.

My Romulan opponent had the roughest losses with both games being a lot closer then the results showed.  Only on the last two turns did the Federation fleet secure its win over the Romulans and in my game it was when the second Warbird was caught decloaked between the Battleship and the Cruiser.

All players walked away with the Xindi Aquatic Cruiser as a prize and everyone had a good time.  Lessons were learnt (Voyager is tough as nails) and thoughts on how to deal with with things like this in the future are already forming in my mind.

Thanks for having a look and if you've gotten this far for reading through that wall of text!

Next up (in a few days), a quick review of the Xindi Aquatic Cruiser!

Wrath of Kahn OP Prize

Hi all,

Just a quick look at the Wrath of Khan OP prize cards.

This includes an alternate version of a classic ship and characters from the earlier U.S.S. Reliant expansion.

Starting off with the Reliant herself:

This time, the Reliant comes to us an an independent faction starship, giving you the ability to re-roll an attack die at the cost of an active shield.  You can do this to all of your attack dice but at range one this will disable all of your shields.  I can see it being useful in certain circumstances, especially if you are not in an opposing ships arc.

As you can see in the photo above, you also get a generic Federation Miranda class starship in the pack.

Moving on to the elite talents:

Ceti Eel is a nasty little card, causing your opponent to choose one of three equally unfortunate effects.  It's quite expensive for a discard but played at the right time I can see it being useful.

Fire! gives you 2 extra attack dice and allows you to re-roll them at the cost of a discard and a auxiliary power token.  Again it's quite a hefty price to pay, but played at the right time could be game changing.

Crew and weapon:

Joachim at 5 points and a discard I think is too expensive for what it does. The +3 captain skill is nice but can be achieved in other ways.  Not convinced, although it may synergise with another card combo that I'm not yet aware of.

All power to phasers is another 5 point discard which gives you +2 attack dice for one turn.  Disabling all remaining shields.  Hmm.  In era specific games, adding the effects of these cards together could get you a one off 7 dice attack at range 1.  Enough to kill most TOS era ships, and to hurt most TNG era ones, however the cost would be very high and not entirely justified.

Last but not least, we come to the focal point of the pack:

Khan makes everything in this pack better.  You can equip the Ceti Eels or Fire! and both of the other upgrades for 4 points each.  A 4 point saving on that group of cards makes them all the more playable.  U.S.S. Reliant, Khan, Fire!, Joachim & All power to phasers will set you back 36 points instead of 40.  Much better.  Still not brilliant, but for era-specific games probably a lot of fun.

Overall I really like the theme of this pack, it's all about Khan making things work for him.  I love the Reliant, it has always been my favourite Star Trek ship and I'm happy to say that this is an excellent rendition of her.

Hope you enjoyed the run through! Until next time, thanks for having a look!

Wrath of Khan OP Report

Wrath of Khan OP, 130 pts.

3 Rounds, battling in the Mutara Nebula...

Just a quick list recap:

4th Division Battleship [36]
- Gul Dukat 8 (Captain) [5]
- Aft Weapons Array [4]
- Amat'Igan [3]
Ship Total: 48 SP

1st Wave Attack Fighters [24]
- Flanking Attack [3]
- Support Ship [4]
- Escort [4]
Ship Total: 35 SP

Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser) [32]
- Weyoun 7 (Captain) [5]
- - Omet'Iklan [4]
- - Remata'Klan [3]
- Shroud [1]
- Corak [2]
Ship Total: 47 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

1st game vs a mixed fleet consisting of the Scimitar, a Bioship and Federation attack fighters.

Very close game that went all the way down to the wire, in the end pulled off a win by the smallest of margins, only one set of attack fighters from either side surviving.  Word best used to describe it: Scrappy.  Thoroughly entertaining game.

2nd game vs a pure Romulan fleet, Scimitar, Vrax and Haakona.

This game played out as I hoped it would.  My strategy was to stay out of the nebula for a first pass and then to pull in to chase down whoever survived.  My opponent choose to fly straight at me, outside the nebula.  Thanks to the combination of Corak, flanking attack, Remata'Klan and the Battleship's ability managed to get an immense attack off with the Cruiser at range 1 on the Scimitar - one shot and it was off the board.  The Battleship smashed the Vrax and from then on it was just a hunt through the nebula - in fairness to my opponent he kept going for it but just couldn't overcome the initial shock of losing the Scimitar.

These were the only pictures I managed to get of any of the games and my opponent was very gracious in allowing me to take a shot of it (battlestations token already removed):

Also, the dice roll that stunned us both (after using battlestations):

3rd game: Vs Borg Sphere (Picard), Regent's Flagship, one Federation attack fighter and one Dominion Attack Fighter.

I went for the same tactic as before, and my opponent (who had won both of his matches as well) flew the Regent's flagship and the attack fighters straight into the nebula, the Sphere came right at me. First round of firing, 11 dice attack on the Sphere, took it down to around 4-5 HP remaining. Finished it off with the Battleship in the same round (after taking a bit of a hit back).  Then spent the rest of the game trying to get rid of the attack fighters which I eventually did.  Ended up losing the Cruiser to the Regent's Flagship outside the nebula with a few turns left to go, just kept the Battleship and the Hideki out of range until time ran out.  1 HP left on the Battleship so my opponent both hated and admired my manouvering.

So, to sum up, got first place in my first ever OP which I was really chuffed with.  I have to say that every person who I played against was fantastic - everyone had a really good day and there was no animosity or hassle which can happen at some tourneys.  The OP itself was very thematic and really gave the feeling of fighting in the Mutara Nebula.

Lessons learned from the day:

Know your enemy.  I think the only reason I won two of those games was purely because neither of my opponents had played against a Dominion fleet before and were not aware of the alpha strike you can build up.  Without a doubt the Cruiser combo was utterly devastating.

Attack fighters are a pain.  Playing against multiple attack fighters is very difficult.  Thankfully they were the basic variety, not the named one.  It was an uphill battle the entire 3rd game to get rid of them.

I went to this OP fully expecting to get blown out of the stars in every game.  I'm still in a bit of shock that I actually won the event and honestly everyone there was so supportive and friendly I cannot stress enough how positive an experience it was.  Truly the best event I've ever been involved in, in every way.

Up next, a quick look at the tournament prize...

KHAAAAANNNN!

So my first Organised Play event was going to be the Wrath of Khan.

Two thirds of the map would become the Mutara Nebula, no shields, no target locks, range one attacks only and some strange sensor echo business going on.

I was informed that in keeping with Wizkids new OP rules, this would be a 130 point event.

This meant either amending my existing Mirror Universe list, or running something completely different.

I'd been purchasing a few Dominion ships and hadn't yet even looked at building a list with them, so I set about amending my Mirror Universe fleet and also creating a Dominion fleet.  Then I'd give them a test run against each other to decide which fleet to use.

Mirror Fleet:

The one apparent weakness that my MU fleet had was relatively low captain skill - even though I'm a bit of a faction purest, even I couldn't give myself that much of a handicap in a proper tournament event, so I did cave in and use Picard on the Regent's Flagship.

The relatively high hull value of the MU Negh'Var ships would seem to fit this OP event as shields would be next to useless for the majority of the game.

I upgraded the I.S.S. Defiant to a MU Negh'Var, even with the attack reducing effects the Defiant unshielded would prove too much of a soft target.

So the fleet looked a bit like this:

Ship 1: Regent's Flagship (45 points)

Picard brings a high captain skill, an extra action and an elite talent.  Garak increases his skill further, almost guaranteeing that he'll fire first.  Make it so! is there to add even more possibilities with actions.

Ship 2: MU Starship (Negh'Var) (43 Points)

Almost the same setup as the I.S.S. Defiant build, replacing the Rebellion talent with Detonation Codes - this was purely to negate those Romulan Cloaked Mines that slaughtered me in my last encounter.

Ship 3: MU Starship (Negh'Var) (42 points)

Now that I had understood the game a bit better, this build for my third Negh'Var seemed to have more synergy with itself - Jennifer Sisko was there to cause a bit of mayhem at the start, then just become dice fodder for "I will deal with them myself" and the following turn for Sisko.  Brunt was there to use up a point and could be used himself for extra dice with the aforementioned cards.

Hopefully, that fleet could dish out a fair amount of damage whilst staying alive long enough to kill anything thrown at it.

Dominion Fleet:

This is the great experiment, I knew that the Battleship moves like a brick, but the Attack Fighters and the Cruiser were mobile enough to counteract it.

Ship 1: 4th Division Battleship (48 points)

The Battleship's ablity would be the cornerstone of my list.  I'll explain it shortly.  Dukat was there for the high captain skill alone, the action would rarely if ever be used.  Amat'Igan I would not normally use on the Battleship, but an extra defence die in the nebula would possibly prove to be the difference beween a win and a loss.

Ship 2: 1st Wave Attack Fighters (35 Points)

I went for the named version in order to get the extra hit point, along with the support ship should keep them alive for a long time.  Escort is there to provide extra defence when needed.  Flanking attack is there to provide a one off boost to an alpha strike from my last ship.

Ship 3: Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Battlecruiser) (47 points)

Right, here we go.  The lynchpin of the entire fleet.  The generic version of the Battlecruiser (no need for the extra shield or its ability).  The plan is to use its own action to use Corak to boost Weyoun to captain skill 10.  This will almost ensure it fires first.  Keep it within range two of the Battleship to gain the extra action - Battlestations.  Then add to it the Flanking Attack from the 1st Wave Attack Fighters with the possibility of using Remata'Klan's ability to add two more to the captain skill and two attack dice.  This should give me one attack at captain skill 12, with 13 attack dice.  If I could catch just one ship in each game with this, It has the potential to be utterly devastating.  Weyoun's ablity to make two Dominion upgrades cheaper is what makes this build possible.

The test game proved which build was more effective.  Decisively.

All hail the Dominion.

Next up, the Wrath of Kahn OP report...

Star Trek Report 1

Here is a quick run through of my first casual gaming session...

First my list again:

Regent's Flagship [32]
- Kira Nerys 4 (Captain) [2]
- - I Will Deal With Them Myself [5]
- Elim Garak [3]
- Brunt [1]
Ship Total: 43 SP

I.S.S. Defiant [24]
- Miles O'Brien 5 (Captain) [3]
- - Rebellion [5]
- Aft Phaser Emitter [1]
- Jadzia Dax [2]
- Julian Bashir [2]
Ship Total: 37 SP

Mirror Universe Starship (Negh'var Class) [30]
- Benjamin Sisko 4 (Captain) [2]
- Tractor Beam [3]
- Aft Phaser Emitter [1]
- Bareil Antos [2]
- Rom [2]
Ship Total: 40 SP

Fleet Total: 120 SP

Only three people were in attendance so we each played two games and had a break whilst the others played.  I waited out the first game and observed two Romulan fleets in action.  Then it was my turn...

Game 1 vs Romulans

This was a bit of a slaughter.  My opponent was using the Valdore, GalGath'Thong, Haakona and another ship (cannot remember which one) and made very good use of the Romulan cloaked mines.  Sisko's Negh'Var went down in the second turn of firing to a concentrated attack from the Valdore and Haakona, the Regent's Flagship fell a couple of turns later after taking a warp core breach basically on top of the mines.

The Defiant was the one saving grace of this game, and even though I didn't quite manage to kill anything did survive two full turns of firing from all of my opponent's ships.  Eventually I ran out of space and time, the Defiant was destroyed in the turn before I would have ended up flying off the edge.

Loss.

Game 2 vs Romulans

Opponent's fleet consisted of the Vrax and two D'Deridex warbirds.

This game was played against another first timer who had suffered a complete disaster in his first game and like me had been wiped out.

This game went a bit better for me - the Defiant using Bashir's effect caused the Vrax to miss a turn of firing and one of the D'Deridex warbirds fell early on to concentrated fire from the two Negh'Vars.  A lot of fire was exchanged between the remaining Romulans and the Negh'Vars, and soon enough another Romulan was dead in space.  The Negh'Vars were proving to be for more durable in this game, not entirely sure why but I think not being bombarded with mines probably helped.

The Vrax was eventually killed off by a close range shot from Sisko's Negh'Var.  A far closer game than the end results showed - this was all about concentrated firepower and the Defiant shrugging off hits.

Win.

So, 1 Win and 1 Loss on the day.  Not bad.

Lessons learned: Cloaked Mines are Evil.  Other than that my second game proved that my basic premise for my fleet was sound but not having encountered the mines before I was completely unprepared for them.  My first opponent was very good at placing his ships exactly where mine needed to go and the mines just killed me.

Ah well, live and learn!

Next up, Star Trek Attack Wing: Wrath of Khan OP selection...

Star Trek Selection 1

Hi all, here is the selection portion of my first Attack Wing game!

Firstly, due to me coming late to the party as it were, faction selection was proving to be a little limited, basically the only choices I had to me were whatever was available at my local gaming store and a few online retailers.

As a consequence, I immediately ruled out Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Borg- the ships simply were not available.

I will add at this point that I try to play faction pure wherever possible, only where there are major gaps would I consider using cross-faction cards.  I don't mind others mixing factions, however someone wants to play the game is entirely up to them, I just try to play it the way that sits right with me.

So, the choices open to me initially were:

Kazon - I do quite like the look of the ships, but I can't see me being competitive with them.

Bajoran - The quaility of the crew far exceeds the quality of the ships, for this reason I'll avoid them for now.

Species 8472 - I like the bioships a lot, but with only two ships available, I chose to skip them.

This left me with two choices, Mirror Universe & Dominion.  Both factions that I really like.

A roll of the dice later - Mirror Universe it was.  A few purchases later and a 120 point list came into being:

Ship 1: Regent's Flagship (43 points)

The alternate universe version of the Negh'Var is a really good ship with an excellent named ability, allowing it to attack two different ships at range one regardless of the arc. Tie this in with the Intendent and a few upgrades as below to get up to 43 points:

In retrospect, better choices could have been made but its all learning!


Ship 2: I.S.S. Defiant (37 points)

A very tough little ship, with a named ability that negates damage, coupled with a captain that can repair damage and some upgrades that reduce the attack values of ships attacking it will hopefully make sure it sticks around:

Rebellion as an elite talent is very cool, essentially gives you a free attack against someone who has just fired at you (also causing them to roll less dice).

Ship 3: Mirror Universe Starship (Negh'Var) (40 points)

Evil Sisko for the win.  I love his ability, sacrifice up to two upgrades and gain an attack die for each one discarded.  Has some really good uses although again in hindsight I could have set the ship up a bit better (photo incoming - will update when available):

Mirror Universe Starship (Negh'var Class) [30]
- Benjamin Sisko 4 (Captain) [2]
- Tractor Beam [3]
- Aft Phaser Emitter [1]
- Bareil Antos [2]
- Rom [2]
Ship Total: 40 SP

Again, if I'd played a few more games in advance I could have refined the ships a bit, but as it was I was good to go.

Here is one final shot of the fleet ready to take on the invaders from the other side of the looking glass:

Hope you enjoyed the post, the next one will be a short summary of the two games played - cheers!

X-Wing Report 1

Ok, here we go.

Four rounds of X-Wing, my first time playing against other people.  I know, bit of a loner.

Anyway.  Firstly, here is my list again:

Dash Rendar (YT-2400)
- Veteran Instincts
- Heavy Laser Cannon
- Outrider Title
- Engine Upgrade

Prototype Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit

Prototype Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit

Green Squadron Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit
- Adaptability

Now on to the games...

Round 1 vs Rebels

My opponent was running Poe Dameron, another T-70 and a Dagger Squadron B-Wing.  Not entirely sure what all the upgrades were but for my first game this was a close one.

After jousting a bit at the start I lost one of the A-Wings to Poe, then a round or two later another to the other T-70.  I was busy flying Dash around the outside of the map firing inwards, eventually taking out the B-Wing.  In what turned out to be the last round, Poe ended up on top of an asteroid and all I had to do was be in a position to hit him to take the lead.  Unfortunately, inexperience showed and with Dash coming back towards me, I set the dial to a 3 left bank instead of a 3 right bank and proceeded to fly off the map and into oblivion.

Loss.

Round 2 vs Empire

Krassis Trellix, Whisper, Mauler Mithel and another TIE.  This was a very frustrating game.  I lost an A-Wing early on to combined fire from Krassis and Whisper.  I spent most of the game being hen-pecked by Whisper and only doing mediocre damage to Krassis in return.  Thankfully towards the end of the game my opponent made a slight miscalculation and landed Whisper on an asteroid which I took full advantage of - Whisper died and I managed to do enough damage to Krassis with an A-Wing to get the half points.  Again time ran out on the match, a very narrow victory, only 4 points.  Still, my first win and very unexpected it was!

Win.

Round 3 vs Scum

Serissu, Talonbane and (I think) Dengar.

Yeah.  Started out spread out over the map, I made an extremely unsound tactical error with one of my A-Wings.  Flew straight at my opponents ships and thought I was being clever in doing a k-turn, hoping that one of his ships would pass by me.  They didn't.  This happened:

It didn't end well.  I was on the back step the entire game and as soon as Dash was in a close enough position my opponent tore through him like a hot knife through butter.  I was unfortunate with the critical hits I was pulling from the damage deck as well - managed to pull two of the "deal no damage on your next attack" cards in a row.  I was completely outplayed but as time was coming to an end my last remaining A-Wing just turned tail and ran to save me some face!  My only consolation from this game was that my opponent was quite complimentary about my manouvering with my A-Wings and gave me very good advice relating to the build I'd selected.  Even though I lost, this was probably my favourite game of the day.

Loss.

Round 4 vs TIE Swarm

Vader, Soontir Fel, Mauler Mithel & 2x TIE Fighters (Cannot remember which ones)

This was just one of those games.  I was playing against a younger player who'd been eyeing up Dash the entire day and had made it his one goal to kill Dash.  I could do nothing.  He flew really well and kept some combination of TIEs inside range one of Dash the entire game.  Eventually he killed him, he was overjoyed!  I managed to kill two of the TIE's but it was too little too late. Again, I didn't mind the loss, learnt some valuable lessons on this one!

Loss.

So to sum it up, first tournament, 1 Win, 3 Losses.  Came in 8th place out of the 9 attendees (was informed that there are usually more but this was ideal for me).


Lessons learned:

Dash, whilst very agile, with the heavy laser cannon leaves himself far to vulnerable with the doughnut effect.  Have since acquired a mangler cannon which I might use should I run him again.

A-Wings, they are fast, exceptionally manouverable but they lack punch.  I only flew them well in the third game but I really don't think I did them justice.  There was no point in having the Green Squadron A-Wing in there - he died first in every single game.  I was using him far too aggressively and think the points could have been better spent on a different ship.

Now that I've had my baptism of fire, all I can do is take what I've learned and get ready for the next one!

If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with it, any comments are appreciated!

Next up will be the Star Trek Attack Wing fleet selection for the organised play tournament.

Until next time!

X-Wing Selection 1

Not having played X-Wing outside of a test game, selecting a list to play at my first tournament was tricky.

Firstly, the choice of which faction to be used had to be made.  From my limited understanding, the factions play very differently from one another:

Imperial - high risk, win big or lose big.  Each roll of the dice has the ability to make or break any plan you have in place.

Rebel - Less flashy than the Empire, a lot less variance, seems to be a safer option.

Scum - A very mixed bag, some very powerful combinations and you never know what will be coming at you.

At the time of the tournament I had a very limited amount of Scum ships, so I ruled them out immediately.  I'd played a few test games with the Empire against a few different lists of Rebels and, due to my inexperience, had great difficulty arc dodging to get into a good firing position in order to be effective.

So, I settled for Rebels.  After browsing through a few forums it seemed to be that the Rebels are a little under-represented at tournaments due to other factions having some exceptionally powerful combinations but that didn't put me off.  After all, you've got to play to learn and losing games teaches you the most!

My selection process went a little like this: pick something that can hit hard, then a few things to cause my opponents a headache.

With this in mind, and looking at the ships available I settled on the following list:

Dash Rendar (YT-2400)
- Veteran Instincts
- Heavy Laser Cannon
- Outrider Title
- Engine Upgrade

Prototype Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit

Prototype Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit

Green Squadron Pilot (A-Wing)
- Chaardan Refit
- Adaptability

100 Points.

The list above seemed to perform reasonably well in play testing but against another gamer? Only time would tell.

Next up, the tournament report...

Far beyond the stars...

Hello out there!

Recently I've taken a bit of a break from my 15mm gaming to have a try at something a little different: X-Wing & Star Trek Attack Wing.

Both games are very similar to each other due to Attack Wing essentially being a re-dress of X-Wing (although there are differences).

A lot of people seem to play one or the other, whether because they are more a fan of one fictional universe or they prefer the way one game feels.  Personally I'm a big fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek so naturally I've chosen to dive straight in to both of them, feet first.

I've been playing X-Wing for about two months or so, only got one tournament game played so far and I'll be doing a recap of it shortly.

Attack Wing I've had one small gaming session and then went in at the deep end and played in an organised play event, again I'll be doing a recap and a more in depth look at how I chose my fleet for the day.

I'll try to get some pictures up of any gaming sessions that I take part in, it can be a little difficult at a tournament but hopefully casual games and my "test runs" I'll try and get as many up as I can.

To finish off this first post, I've got two photos which sum up my tournaments so far:

X-Wing (yes, that is my A-Wing):

Star Trek (yes, that is my dice roll!):

Be back very soon with my tourney write-ups!