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!