Monday 11 November 2013

Building Towards your Strengths- List building 101



It came up when I googled "Strength Star Trek"... that's how the magic happens people
I spoke about this topic in yesterday's article on Kirk but it inspired me to do my second article on list building theory. Away we go!

Most ships have something that another ship can't do, or only handful of ships can do. For instance:

The Enterprise D has a 360 firing Arc;

The Vor'cha has a great maneuver dial, fantastic attacks and has a tech slot;

The Romulan Science Vessel has a white 2 come about;

The Galor has... well... a straight 5!;

Okay, so some ships have some obvious strengths, and others not so much. When you're putting together your list, you want to ask yourself: What will my list do very well? Will it fire 18 attack dice per turn as efficiently as possible? Will it have an insane amount of defense dice? Will it absolutely ruin your opponent's plans through trickery?

You pretty much have to decide what you want your list to do before you build it. Just throwing ships together is not a good strategy in Attack Wing- there are so many synergies to be exploited that list building becomes an important exercise. 

New players, or players without the time to invest in analyzing each and every card and the intricate interplay between them will usually gravitate to the easiest build possible. In that case, a Klingon Attack Build is what we've been seeing recently. This build uses Martok and Gowron, and usually Donatra, to boost all ships up to 6-7 attack dice. Why is it so effective? Because of the Klingon Ships innate attack value. The build is so good because it enhances the already substantial strengths of Klingon ships- their attack value. 

This is the most obvious strategy in the game- and is a very good one as well. In order to win the game, you have to lay down more hits against your opponent's ships before she does the same to you. The Klingon Attack Build says "okay, I can do that, and I can do that without you having to make a lot of decisions." This is why the Klingon Attack Build is so popular - it's very beginner friendly. 

Another reason why the Klingon build is so effective is the very forgiving movement dial of the Vorchas and Neg'Var. I mean, they already made fantastic attack ships, but they also made them some of the most maneuverable ships in the game. Clearly these things are geared towards easy, no nonsense play. 

There are other strengths to be exploited, and I'm going to be looking at some of them in the coming articles, but keep in mind what you're trying to do when you're building your list. Don't use the Romulan Science Vessel if you're trying to build a beefy slugging it out list. Don't take a ship with only 4 green movements if you're trying to exploit Engage. See the strength of your ships and try to enhance them as much as possible.

1 comment:

  1. The Galor has a 180 firing arc, which is its real strength. That said, it'll be outshined by the even more shooty Keldon in a few days, which also adds the fascinating 4 bank maneuver to an otherwise clumsy dial. The potential of a Cardassian attack fleet as an alternative to Klingons is there - much weaker at dodging but the Kraxon makes it harder to get early kills, the broad arcs make it easy to concentrate fire despite the clumsy turning, and they have Battlestations innately on the Keldons. Sadly, Gowron doesn't work with them - but Donatra and the Kraxon are practically made for each other.

    Or for really stupidly simple, 3 Keldons and the Kraxon throw 15 dice with battlestations plus 4 more with scan and (probably) a Breen aide boost. Probably still won't beat the traditional Klingon attack fleet due to initiative, but it'd be a close fight. Kraxon probably dies in the first exchange, and then it all comes down to whether the Klingons lose Gowron or Donatra the same round or if they dodge well enough to survive for a second shot.

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