Reciprocity...

Well hello once again fellow travellers!

Just a really quick post this time, a shout out to one of my comrades-in-arms Byron, whose Youtube channel "Industrial Light & Plastic" I highly recommend you check out over at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmmKd2yyNDdtp-1KLa8bvew

Top guy and excellent Attack Wing player!

I do love this photo... any excuse to use it!

IRW Terix Review

The Terix, a Romulan Warbird from another time - a false reality... This ship is fabulous.

First up, the ship cards:

The Terix has exactly the same stats as the real universe Warbirds but the ship ability to get a free scan action if you perform a green manouver is not something the Warbirds can normally do.  Very nice.

Now, unusually for me, the Captains:

If there is a scan token next to your ship, Tomalak can re-roll blank results.  Excellent.  So on the Terix, that is essentially a free scan and target lock action.  If only there were a way to get a battlestations token on it as well...

What's that? There is? Excellent.  Deception is a 5 point discard which can be used to give you a battlestations token and, in addition, if you are cloaked it also gives you an evade token even if you already have one!  So just to re-iterate, turn one, you cloak. Each turn thereafter, move forward any green manouver, gain a free scan token. Use the Evade action. Then, when you need to, use Deception to give you a battlestations token and another evade.  So you'll have 2 evade tokens, 6 defence dice, a scan token to drop the defender's defence by one, a battlestations token and re-rolls of blank dice from Tomalak.  That is fantastic.

Taibak is your standard fare steal-a-crew card, which could be useful but after the revelation that is the rest of this pack a bit "oh there we are then"...

The only thing really holding the Terix back now is the attack value.  I mean, its all well and good having the quality of dice, but without the quantity what's the point?  3 dice just isn't enough...

Yet again, this pack just keeps on giving!  Additional Phaser Array, 2 points and adds +1 to your primary weapon value.  Perfectly costed upgrade and just fits so well with the other cards in this pack.  Can only be used on a D'Deridex class ship so you can use it for your Romulan ships, it'll just cost an additional point (so worth it).  Long Range Scanners allows your D'Deridex class ships to perform a scan action and retain the token by discarding the upgrade. Not as fussed on this to be honest.

So, to sum up - this ship is fantastic.  So much synergy here and - Tomalak!

Until next time, thanks for having a look!

All Good Things... - Q OP3

Never has an OP event more suited my experience of it.  Had I been able to look back and forward in time I could have avoided oh so many mistakes.  As they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Due to events beyond my control I was, shall we say, unprepared for this event.  As such, I had to run a list more or less selected last minute from a previous OP event.  Choosing to run a Reman Warbird and two Vor'cha attack cruisers again, my list looked a little like this:

I.K.S. Maht-H'A [28]
- Khan Singh 7 (Captain) [5]
- - Remata'Klan [4]
- - Fire! [4]
- - Additional Phaser Arrays [4]
- Shroud [1]
- Corak [2]
Ship Total: 48 SP

Reman Starship (Reman Warbird) [36]
- Jean-Luc Picard 9 (Captain) [7]
- Mendak (Admiral) [4]
- Miles O'Brien [3]
Ship Total: 50 SP

Klingon Starship (Vor'cha Class) [26]
- Karr 8 (Captain) [6]
Ship Total: 32 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

A very similar list to the first Q OP event, the only changes being a slight modification to the Reman Warbird, losing the Romulan Security Officer and Charging Weapons and adding in the starter set Miles O'Brien (had a feeling interphase generators would be making another appearance)...

So, 4 players in attendance, the usual suspects!

Game 1 vs Borg/Dominion:

Yep, that's right.  The Cube, the Koranak and 2x Hideki attack fighters.  This was going to be a tough match whatever the end result.

Quick shot of my starting positions:

Early on I was helped by my opponent's positioning of his fleet.  Due to my higher Captain Skills across the board he'd set them up quite spread out, which enabled me to basically select a target - had to go for the Cube really, the highest point target on the board and I was fairly certain I could kill it.  After both fleets closed with one another I let loose with attacks from my entire fleet at the Cube, taking it down to one hull point remaining after the first round of firing.  In return the Cube hammered Khan, again reducing him to one hull point.

The second round of firing was also quite telling, I managed to kill the Cube and Dukat finished off Khan's ship:

The next few turns went as expected, I concentrated firepower on the Hidekis and managed to kill one off, I took some fire in return but not enough to kill any of my ships thankfully.

It ended up in the following position as time was called:

The Warbird had reduced the Hideki to one token left, the Vor'cha only needed to give me one hit to finish it off - 4 hits, my opponent had one evade token and three dice to roll... all 3 landed on evades.  After totalling up the scores (including the warp shell bonuses), it was 76-78 in favour of my opponent.  A very close game and one more round would have won it for me - darn you timekeeper!

Round 2 vs Federation/Dominion:

A similar fleet to what my opponent had used in our previous game, with the big exception being the Hidekis and the Prometheus.  Flanking attack with the Hideki and the Prometheus with a possible Captain Skill of 13... I had a feeling I knew where this was going.  Couple that with Donatra, Hayes and the Holo-projector on Donatra's ship... For once in these tournaments I was feeling outgunned.  It's a strange feeling.  I don't particularly like feeling like this - it means I'd actually have to outfly my opponent.

So, instead of sticking together, I decided to seperate my fleet and attempt to outflank my opponent:

This did actually do its job - my opponents' fleet headed straight for the Warbird - this meant I could at least blindside him with the Vor'chas and hope to do enough damage to carry me onwards to victory.

As the fleets closed, I used Miles to disable Worf on the Prometheus, which dropped the Captain Skill to 10 instead of 13, which meant I would at least get one shot in with the Warbird.  I attacked the Prometheus and hammered it, not managing to kill it but putting it in a very precarious situation.  I'd resigned myself to the fact that the Warbird would be gone in the first round of firing, I've done the same enough times to know how fragile ships can be to combined fire.

Sure enough, the first round was brutal.  I killed Hayes, my opponent managed to roll this whilst attacking the Warbird:

Bye, bye Warbird!

This did leave me with enough punch to finish off the Prometheus though, so by the time we'd got to the second round, the Warbird, Hayes and the Prometheus were all gone.  The next few turns were a game of cat and mouse, eventually:

The Hidekis were eliminated the turn after the picture above, then time was called with the Vor'chas and the Defiant class still surviving.  A win, 128-56.

Game 3 vs Romulans:

Interphase generators...  no problem.  Had sort of prepared for them and have dealt with them in the past.  Initially, this game went really well.  Closed into range.  Used O'Brien to disable the interphase generators on the Scimitar:

Had to make attacks with every ship to kill it...  reasonably poor rolling, eventually managed to get this though:

Just enough to kill it.  From this point onward though, everthing went downhill.  Cloaked mines, EPIC failure on my part, the two Vor'chas being blown away, then... well... just... remember that comment about time travel earlier?  I think I need to go back in time to when I was really young, then teach myself the difference between left and right.  It's a simple thing really. Unfortunately, it's the simple things that sometimes trip you up.  Meant to turn left, turned right. Warbird off the table.  Epic failure on my part.  Head was just not in the game and a simple mistake put it out of reach.  Everyone makes mistakes every now and again and in fairness to my opponent, he lost the Scimitar without it firing a shot and still put me in a position where he killed both Vor'chas - very well played.  In fact, I think a little bit of complacency on my part probably helped him a bit!

Well, the battle was lost, 156-50.  Lesson learnt and very, very well played to my opponent in that last game.

So, to summarise:

1st place - Romulans
2nd place - Borg/Dominion
3rd place - Myself
4th place - Federation/Dominion


Managed to come away with the IRW Terix for coming 3rd (this was the one I was after more than the last few OP's) so I was chuffed as bits to get it.

This is the last scheduled OP event for a bit, so the next thing up will be a review of the Terix and then it'll possibly be a little campaign series I've been writing - one of my comrades in arms will be put through his paces in a series of missions I've designed.  There are a few RPG-esque elements to it and hopefully if it works as intended I'll write up the reports and the series notes themselves in the future.

So, until next time, thanks for having a look at the report and I hope you enjoyed it!

IKS Korinar Review

A little later than planned, a quick review of the IKS Korinar, the OP prize from the second of the Q Continuum series.

Firstly, a quick look at the ship cards:

The Korinar itself has a really nice ability, giving you an extra attack die at range one over the usual as long as you are cloaked - so if you can get into a flanking position, the Korinar can realy dish out the damage.  As always, a generic B'rel is included.  Excellent movement profile coupled with the cloak/sensor echo means you can pull some really good manouvers with this ship.

The first set of upgrades:

Cloaked mines, always nice to have.  The Klingon version isn't quite as good as the Romulan variety due to the placement restrictions, still they are a nightmare when used correctly.

The Klingon Stealth Team has some very interesting uses and can play havoc with upgrade heavy builds.  A 5 point discard that I think is actually worth it!

The next set of upgrades:

The first upgrade "Ambush Attack" I would never use on any Klingon ship, the only real benefit is the automatic battlestations conversion, but for 5 points I'd rather use something like General Orders or Admiral Gowron, both of which are more effective and have action economy.  Mauk-To'Vor is a weird one, if you've got a crew member like Worf or Riker who can take over from your Captain, then I can see the use of it.  Not entirely sure if it uses the amended Captain Skill or not though... In theory you could bump up you Captain Skill, then sacrifice them for the full +3 dice attack and still have a Captain to fall back on.  Hmm.

Finally, the Captains:

The Generic and Kurn.  No faction penalty for assigning to any ship, but his ability can only be used whilst on a Klingon ship.  Am I missing something here?  As previously stated, you'd have to bump his Captain Skill up to about 6, sacrifice him for the +3 attack dice, then make sure you have a card in play to replace him.  Thematic, yes, expensive, yes, worth it... Not so sure.  Especially when there is a different version of Kurn with a higher Captain Skill and the ability to re-roll battlestations dice on defence.

Overall, a mixed bag here.  The ship is nice, the cloaked mines and the stealth team are nice.  Kurn, the ambush attack and Mauk-to'Vor are very situational.  If you can see any other uses for them, please let me know!

Until next time, here are a couple of shots of the ship:

Cheers!

Deja Q - Q OP2

It's that time again folks!  A short OP report this time, alas a low turnout, only two players so just the one game to run through.

The OP this time essentially cripples your highest hull ship by dumping Q aboard it causing all sorts of chaos - auxiliary tokens for the first 4 turns and halving both offensive and defensive capabilities of your ship for the entire event.

First up, the list:

Federation Starship (Excelsior Class) [24]
- Donatra 6 (Captain) [5]
- Miles O'Brien [2]
- Julian Bashir [3]
Ship Total: 34 SP

U.S.S. Voyager [30]
- Khan Singh 8 (Captain) [6]
- - Fire! [6]
- Shanthi (Admiral) [2]
- Romulan Security Officer [2]
- Remata'Klan [4]
Ship Total: 50 SP

Dominion Attack Fighters (Hideki Class Attack Squadron) [20]
- Flanking Attack [3]
Ship Total: 23 SP

Dominion Attack Fighters (Hideki Class Attack Squadron) [20]
- Flanking Attack [3]
Ship Total: 23 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

The idea is for the Excelsior to just fly around keeping in range one of the Voyager (yes! I now have the Voyager!) and causing chaos with the opposing fleet with Bashir and O'Brien.

The Voyager has a CS of 10, raising to 12 when Remata'Klan is in effect so would hopefully get the first shot off and with the help of either or both of the Hideki's kill something quite soon in.  The Hidekis are there for pure annoyance value.

So, first and only game vs Federation

The opposing list included the USS Voyager, the USS Defiant, the USS Valiant and the USS Equinox.

A quick couple of shots of my fleet:

My opponent's fleet:

Turn 1 consisted of both fleets moving toward each other cautiously, so no photo of that!

Turn 2 both fleets closed into attack range:

My Voyager got to fire first combining fire with one of the Hidekis against the Valiant, so a total of 13 dice were rolled, and after my battlestations token was used (Khan 8 turning them into critical hits rather than normal hits) I ended up with:

Immediately eliminating the Valiant and Donatra - this would have a telling effect for the rest of the game.  The return fire knocked a token off one of the Hidekis and my opponent opted to miss the rest of his attacks to "move the asteroid" to gain some points.

This left the following opposing ships on the table:

The next turn of moving was a bit of a mess as neither of us had realised until the first turn of firing that the object was treated as a planet - this had prevented many shots in the first turn and made a good old mess of things when the fleets closed!

We ended up in the following positions:

Again, the Hideki damaged the Defiant, my Voyager took a pot shot at the other one, not having too much effect.  In return the Hideki lost another token.  We all recovered some point by "moving the asteroid"...

A turn later:

My Voyager takes a shot at the Defiant, and with Khan converting the battlestations to crits (then the Defiant changing them back to hits) managed to do another 4 damage to it, finishing it off.

This left the following ships on the table:

 By the time we had worked everything else out, time had elapsed and the score ended up as 128 vs 45; a win for me in a very strange OP game.

We discussed this one in depth afterwards and neither of us felt that this event had the same thought put into it as some of the previous ones.  The wording of the Q effects were quite confusing in some places and didn't really capture the essence of the episode it was trying to emulate.

Regardless of the actual event itself, we both walked away with the prize ship, the IKS Korinar and the played a friendly one on one 50 point test game afterwards.

The test game was purely to see how one of my highly defensive builds for Voyager fared against an offence orientated ship - in this case a Borg Tactical cube (58 points).

I won't detail the entire build here, but with a couple of photos from the game:

 The Voyager spots the Borg closing rapidly.

 The Cube and the Voyager circle each other for about 9 or 10 rounds exchanging fire.

 The final shot of the game - Voyager at range one manages to finish off the Cube!

 Closeup of "The Dice"!

USS Voyager leaves behind the wreck of the Cube and continues on its way home...

All in all, not a bad day gaming at all.  The event could have been better but fun was had and we now have a plan going forward for when the current run of OP events comes to an end.

Next up will be a quick review of the IKS Korinar - in a few days anyway!

Until next time - thanks for having a look!