Friday, 31 January 2014

List Building Interlude Part 2

Today I'll continue my build request for OP5. To reiterate- Admiral's orders are in effect, the person generally plays Klingon lists, and OP5 has OWPs that are going to shoot at range 1-2, and can be blown up. 
I think we want 3 Klingon Ships, and we're going to want then to be completely faction pure, as we'll be using the Admiral's orders to get us 10 extra upgrade points. I obviously think that Vor'Cha is a fantastic ship, and I'm going to include two of them in the list. The Negh'Var is also a great ship for weathering a beating, so I'm going to include the Neg'Var as well. That brings us to a pretty standard 1 Neg'Var, 2 Vor'Cha build. 

The Klingon Flagship upgrade is something that I think we're going to want to put onto the Neg'Var, to ensure that it gets a free cloak action every turn, and every other ship makes their attack extra efficient. Here it is. 

Klingon
Attack: +1
Agility: +1
Hull: +1
Shields: 0
When attacking, all other friendly Klingon Ships within Range 1-2 of your Flagship may convert 1 blank result into 1 [Hit] result.
Action: Cloak
Upgrades: Crew, Tech

The upgrade costs 10 points. Remembering that we have 110 points to play around with, we are now at 90 points and have 20 points of Klingon upgrades left. 

For the Captain slot of the Neg'Var, we'll be looking at either LE Martok, or regular Martok. LE Martok will bring the attacks of both ships up to 6, but it'll cost you your action. You'll get a free cloaking action with the flagship upgrade, so LE Martok's usual downside is lessened. That being said, count me a sucker for regular old Martok. His ability to give another ship a free action is great. All of the other Klingon captains will be lower skill, and so it'll work on all of the Klingon ships. I'm going to use regular old Martok in this list. He costs 5 points. 15 points left!

Obviously, in any Klingon Attack Build, you're going to want Gowron. He's such a great combo with regular Martok. He costs 4 points. 11 points left!

The third captain is going to be a toss up between Nu'Daq or Worf, and if someone has the numbers on these bad boys, that would be greatly appreciated. Consider these 3 points up in the air. 8 points left. 

From here on out, we have to decide what we want to do with those final 8 points. I have a few ideas which I'll list below:

Once More Unto the Breach-5 pts- you would equip this onto the Neg'Var and get two attacks at 5 attack each. I'm not too fond of this plan, as you cannot modify the attacks, and the consistency is rather low. 

Double Drex- 8 points- I much prefer the Drex option on a ship with Picard or Dukat. I'm not sure that they would be all that great in this build given that actions are going to be at a premium. There is definitely an argument to be made here. 

Barrage of Fire- 5 pts- I don't like it, never have, but it could be good with two stacked ships just for the sheer weight of dice. When all stacked together, you'd be looking at about 12 attacks, which is pretty crazy. Unfortunately, it makes the final 3 points not as good. 

I really want to get the most out of every upgrade available, and the Klingon offerings at 3 points are pretty weak. Alexander is an option, but as Rich as pointed out previously, he's great on paper and not necessarily going to activate a whole lot throughout the game. 

I would also consider playing around with the Captains, as Martok may not be best on the Neg'Var. You may want to consider putting Worf on the Neg'Var, so that you can reroll blanks. I think that is how I will finalize this provisional list. In addition, Martok gets to shoot from a pretty buffed out ship. 

So the initial list looks something like this:
Admirals Orders- United Force
Resource- Klingon Flagship 10pts, attached to Neg'Var

Neg'Var 28pts
Worf 3pts
Drex 4pts

Vor'Cha 26pts
Gowron 4pts

Vor'Cha 26pts
Martok 5pts
N'Garen 4pts

Total- 110 points

And there you go. Your total attack dice possible (range 1), will be 21 attacks. I'm iffy on Worf on the Neg'Var over the Vor'Cha, and am iffy on whether only one Drex is needed. Let me know what you think.

Thursday, 30 January 2014

List Building Interlude

My friend would like me to design a list for him. I'm going to take this opportunity to design a pretty badass Klingon Attack Build. 

The first thing we have to keep in mind is that this guy is looking to win OP5. He doesn't have a lot of time to win each match because the venue keeps the tournament very strict on time. At the location I play at, the matches are an hour and fifteen minutes long. I've only ever had one match that went to time, and that was mostly due to a horrifying error on my part that dragged out the game to excruciating lengths. 

The second thing we have to keep in mind is that my friend's location will be using the Admiral's Orders, so we want to get the most out of them as possible. 

We will take a look at what I think is the more important Admiral's Order for the purposes of a Klingon Attack Build, United Force. Essentially, you get 10 extra points to spend on upgrades, as long as all upgrades and captains on each ship are from the same faction. You can have a full Klingon Ship, a full Federation Ship and a Full Dominion Ship and still use United Force, as long as the upgrades on each ship are the same as the ship they are on. Got it? Good. 

We also have to take a look at OP5. Here's the link. 

http://wizkidsgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Month-5-Special-Rules.pdf

In this scenario, players place the OWP. They are going to be spread out in the middle of the field. If they haven't yet, I'd imagine that the OWPs are going to be errata'd to count as ships for the purposes of Cloaked Mines. Bit of advice- leave the Cloaked Mines at home. 

OWP will shoot at the closest ship within range 1-2. Your ships are going to take a LOT of punishment. You CAN blow up the tokens, which you may want to consider doing. I haven't tested the scenario yet, but I'd imagine that this is going to be a very viable strategy if you're playing for the long game. With a Klingon Build, it may benefit the Klingon player to go slow and blow up the OWPs asap. I don't think that the mine player is going to be able to blow up the OWPs AND lay the mines, but if you think that's incorrect, let me know.

Okay, apologies for the short article. Has anyone tested out OP5? Any thoughts? I'll return tomorrow with what I think is a decent list to go through this scenario.I don't think it's that big a spoiler to suggest that I'm going to think that most lists playing this scenario are going to need to be playing the long game OR blowing up OWPs.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

EXCELSIOR!


Full Speed... ahead!

We're continuing our look at Wave 2 ships, and today we'll be looking at the Excelsior. It's an old ship, but a very good one that is "newish" enough to float around with the ST:TNG crowd and not seem completely silly. With the amount of Sulu popping up in federation lists you'd think that Time Travel is pretty much a standard occurrence, and that Sulu is basically a man lost in time.
Anyway, here are the stats for the Excelsior:

U.S.S. Excelsior (Excelsior Class)/ Federation Starship (Excelsior Class)
Front Firing Arc: 180° Rear Firing Arc: 90°
A: 3
E: 1
H: 5
S: 4 (3)
After you move, if no enemy ships are within Range 1 of your ship, you may perform a [Sensor] Action a a free Action.
Actions: Evasive Maneuvers, Target Lock, Sensors, Battle Stations
Upgrades: Tech, Weapons, Crew, Crew, Crew
Points: 26 (24)
fff
Pretty standard Federation load out. You've got three attacks, 5 hulls and 4 shields. It's actually quite a good spread for a ship of 26 points. It also feels thematically correct, which is a big plus. When you play the excelsior, you're playing a pretty good, but dated, model of ship. Not bad work on the part of the design team. 

The Excelsior special ability is really where the ship shines. I wouldn't necessarily want to run this as a generic ship, but I really like the special ability. You just need to keep it free of other ships and you get a free scan action! So, as I've said before, free actions are pretty much the holy grail of Attack Wing. There's a point where there's too much of a good thing, (a point at which, say, you'll have a bunch of free actions and nothing to do), but if you're in that position you're usually doing quite well. What the Excelsior does is essentially set up a great way to get Spock or other scanning crew members, without having to expend your action. At the same time, you can take another more useful action, such as Target Lock or Battlestations. 

As per usual, the big problem with Federation ships is that they yearn to be equipped with good captains, crew and weapons in order to compete with the much easier to play Klingons and Romulans. Since they are at a disadvantage cloak-wise, the Federation ships typically need far more utility than the "Cloak and shoot" style of the Klingons. Unfortunately, that makes 3 ship builds very difficult to pull off. The Excelsior is a great ship to have leading a 3 ship Federation charge. You actually don't need to bog it down with too many upgrades (Spock is definitely on the list though), and you can still lay down some serious firepower. If you have a way to boost your attack, such as Scotty, the Excelsior becomes a beast. A captain with Engage is only okay on the Excelsior, since the maneuver dial isn't as great as say, the Enterprise - D for sheer speed. With two other ships, captained by Donatra and Terell, you have a decent 3 ship force that can put a hole into any Klingon Fleet. 

Take it for a spin. It definitely is more of an intermediate ship, but I think it's definitely a step in the right direction for the Federation.

Monday, 27 January 2014

Koraga Conclusion


Today we're going to move on with our Koraga review after my weekend off. Things are getting a bit busy, so we'll have to see about keeping up a 6 day schedule. At any rate, I'm slowly catching up, and should be done another ship by the end of the week. We're going to look at some of the other upgrades that came with the Koraga package.

EM Pulse (Klingon/I.K.S. Koraga Expansion)
Action: Disable this card to target a ship at Range 1-2. The target ship rolls 1 less attack die and 1 less defense die this round.
Cost: 4


First up, the EM Pulse. In comparison to the Ferengi EM Pulse, which has the same range band and also costs an action, this is VERY underpowered. The ability to throw an auxiliary power token onto a ship that hasn't moved yet- that may be about to undertake a red maneuver- is very strong. Sure, it'll 99% of the time not work that way, but the threat alone- and the MANIPULATION of that threat- should get you a lot of mileage out of that 4 point upgrade. The manipulation of that threat is going to be where the rubber meets the road, so if you're just learning the ropes of attack wing, this is probably not the strategy for you (I don't even know if I'm there yet, to be honest).

The Klingon EM Pulse is all of the headache, none of the fun. If you're targeting the ship with a barrage of fire, or with a combined arms strategy, sure, the EM Pulse can get you some mileage, but it's very middle of the road. I've never run it, and I don't think it's particularly good. If you put it into an optimized Klingon Attack Build, sure, it can probably do some damage- but you're winning because of the awesome Klingon ships, not because you pulsed someone.

Moving on,

... oh wait...

There's nothing left! I forgot that all that was left in the package was the Pulse and the Photon Torpedoes.

To be honest, the Koraga is a bit of a mixed bag. I think it's a great buy, but I would have rather THIS be the LE prize instead of the Ch'Tang. The Ch'Tang is just leaps and bounds better than the Koraga. There aren't going to be many instances where I would want a named Koraga over a Ch'Tang. There are a few standouts- a second drex, Alexander, the Koraga itself, but the Captains and the rest is the usual Klingon stuff. Going into a Klingon expansion at this point, is to tread familiar ground. There's a great ship, some mediocre upgrades, and that's about it. Klingons don't really break out of their mold, which is a good thing at this point. I'd like to have a bird of prey swarm be a viable build at some point in the future, but we're probably going to be waiting for about a year. The bird of prey model is, in my opinion, a license to print money, so I would expect to see multiple versions of this thing get released as the game continues. We haven't seen the last of this sculpt!

Friday, 24 January 2014

The Koraga Crew!

Today I'll take a look at the rather meager crew offering in the Klingon Koraga Expansion. I'll generally agree with a recent commenter in that the Klingons haven't really been given a whole lot to do since they were released- although I don't bemoan this fact. It's very good for the game that there is a "beginner" faction. I bet most would agree that the Klingons aren't exactly for "beginners", but they certainly are understandable to beginners, and that's a good thing.
A player staring the game can be given the Klingons and told "shoot at things in your arc, try to stay together, if you're not cloaked, cloak" and that's kind of all you need to do. You will do relatively well at most tournaments and as you get better, you'll do even better. The Klingons scale with experience nicely, but often leave the more experienced player looking for something more- there really isn't too much there, and if you start bogging down your list with upgrades, you're kind of missing the point. The Klingons are a perfect tool for teaching Formation Flying, Action Economy, and the value of attacking and cloaking. A player that learns these lessons early on, can very easily apply them to other factions and see their relative strengths (Federation gets to do WHAT with Engage?) and weaknesses (These Dominion ships sure are underpowered!) right off the bat.  

Let's take a look at the crew:

N'Garen (Klingon/I.K.S. Koraga Expansion)
Action: When attacking this round, you may convert 1 of your [Battle Station] results into a [Critical] and all of your other [Battle Station] results into [Hit] results.
Cost: 4

Remember Drex? This is Drex. Drex, while great on paper, is again pretty swingy. I generally don't like effects that require an action, but vary in utility or are good/bad dependent upon dice rolls- See: a reason why I really like Engage. That being said, you kind of are dependent every time you take Battlestations as an action (or pretty much any other action) so this criticism doesn't have a lot of legs. The fact that Drex doesn't apply to your defense rolls makes Drex very limited. Klingons would kill for Battlestations as an action not because they affect the attack roll, but because they affect the defence roll. Klingons don't need a whole lot of help in the attack department. If you don't land your first salvo, you have two other ships of pretty much the same strength waiting to lay waste to your opponent. You generally destroy or cripple a ship/turn if you're able to focus fire. What I desperately want as a Klingon Commander is a way to make my ships NOT DIE. It's why I don't usually consider Drex- I can Target Lock and get (kind of) the same effect. Sure, you could Target lock and then use Drex's ability to land a whole boatload of hits/crits on your opponent, and that's a decent enough strategy, but it takes a lot of resources and turns to get going. Meh.

Moving on,

Alexander (Klingon/I.K.S. Koraga Expansion)
Each time your ship is hit for at least 1 damage, place 1 [Battle Station] token on this card. During an Activation Phase, you may take 1 [Battle Station] token off this card and place it beside your ship.
Cost: 3

Worf's son and the reason why so many episodes of TNG are pretty bad, Worf's son brings his Federation sensibilities to the Klingon Bridge and says "Hey guys, we should probably get to our battlestations", but only after you take a damage- He should have spoken up sooner. Take a look at Alexander though- he doesn't take up an action. A few people don't like this card, but I think it's great. Your Klingon ships will usually not die in one salvo- Cloak makes sure that you'll stay alive for at least a short period of time. Alexander makes sure that next turn, you're well protected. This is a great crew card, and an example of the kind of crew card that I'd rather have on my ship- passive ability, big effect, no drawback. Great stuff. 

If he's not seeing a lot of play now, I bet he will soon.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

The Thong Song- Review of the Gal' Gath'thong

We're interrupting our regularly scheduled Koraga review to take a look at the new Romulan ship, the Gal Gath'thong (or, "Thong" for short).
It's an oldy, but a goody...

This ship is the first true torpedo boat. The fact that is has to be cloaked when shooting a torpedo is not really a downside, since this ship should always be cloaked anyway. Will this finally make torpedoes a viable option? Essentially, you'll be paying at least 24 points for a 5 attack ship- not too bad actually!. 

Aside- I don't want everything to be amazing in this game, since it would lead to the balance of the game shifting all of the time. I like that there are decent, middle of the road options that fill in some gaps, and cause you to think about making your lists. 

There's a 5 pt plasma torpedoes already in the game. You should take those instead of the ones that come with the expansion. Paying the two extra points for an extra attack is exactly how much you should spend for an extra attack!

Moving on, a topic that I'm sure will become quite controversial- Is Romulan Commander any good?

I think his name was technically Keras...

And the answer? We'll see. Romulan Commander is going to be great tech against lvl 9/8 heavy lists. This is where he is absolutely going to shine. If you're facing a low captain swarm-esque list? Not so much. But he gets two elite talents!!! I'm not particularly impressed. I expected that Kirk would probably be an anomaly, and he works sooo much better with Elite talents than the Commander. Without getting into it too in depth- Romulan Commander's power level is very swingy and very much depends on what your opponent has brought to the table. 

That's a pretty pointless helmet...
PIC OF OFFICER

Not great, although you can combo him with the Thong, torpedoes, and get 7 attacks, rerolling blanks. Not bad right? It costs you 28 points before captains, but combo this with Donatra and other shenanigans, and the Thong becomes a SERIOUS threat. 

The Thong's best use is going to be as the lead ship in a swarm- we'll see how good the movement dial is before we commit to this conclusion. 

Double Back could be great, but probably won't see a whole lot of play. Decoy takes a lot of resources to work. 
 Future turn? What does future turn even mean? This thing is much worse than Cloaked Mines. Apparently the Thong will come with minefield tokens! Hurrah!

That's it for now, I'll look at these cards more in depth in a few weeks.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

The Captains of the Koraga- The Brothers Mogh!

You can just google "Worf Funny" and have your pick...


Moving on with our review of the Koraga, we move onto the Captains. We've got that third Worf that everyone was DYING to get their hands on, and his brother, Kurn. Let's take a look:

Worf (Klingon/I.K.S. Koraga Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 5
When attacking, you may re-roll all of your blank results one time.
Cost: 3
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

Okay, so Worf as a Captain is pretty fantastic. He doesn't have a great skill or an elite talent (what would his Elite Talent have been? RAMMING SPEED???), but his ability is fantastic on a Klingon Ship. Throw him on a Vorcha with Gowron/Donatra support and Worf is going to shine. If you can find a way to get a battlestations token over to him, he's going to land 6-7 hits every turn. That's crazy. He really is a great captain that you should consider as your third or fourth captain in any list containing klingons. I don't get why they gave us a close-up of his face though, the art department can be consistently counted on to drop the ball. 

As an aside, while it would have cost more money to have an artist work on Star Trek conceptualizations, I think the path taken by X-Wing with respect to their card art is SOOOOO much better. Ships can be drawn in awesome circumstances, evoking their essence- the Star Trek ships are usually dark and just shown floating there. The crew cards in x-wing are bright and look great- the crew in Star Trek Attack Wing are usually just dark. It would also help to not have to rely on mid 90s photos for some of the tech stuff, and instead have new art for those pieces. Of course, there may be an issue of likeness and rights etc., which is preventing them from doing this, but if there isn't- WOE to the art department. At least brighten things up.

MOVING ON TO KURN!

Kurn (Klingon/I.K.S. Koraga Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 3
Action: When attacking this round, gain +1 attack die. Plance an Auxiliary Power Token beside your ship.
Cost: 2
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

Kurn is Worf's brother. No real reason to mention that as I think you all have a pretty good grasp on who Kurn is, but you never know. He costs two points, and is captain skill three. So he's going to be limited in terms of what he can do. He costs an action, and you get an extra attack dice, you then also get an auxilliary power token. I'm not loving it. Just because these captains cost a small amount of points doesn't mean you have to make them unattractive. You could easily take out the auxillary power token component and this guy wouldn't be over powered at all. I probably still wouldn't use him except in a desperate situation. The action isn't that good, but it's still PRETTY DARN GOOD for the alpha attack. You won't use him often, but you could find much worse things to do with 2 points in a list with 1 skill captains. 

Tomorrow, the Crew!

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

The Koraga- Day One!


This is one of my favourite things that exist...
I'm four weeks away from being all caught up on the Attack Wing releases. At some point I'm going to slow down on the article front so that I don't burn out, but we're not there yet. I am going to mix it up a bit and start with the Klingon offering, which I think is quite good, but kinda flawed (a novel position in comparison to my previous reviews).
Here's the ship. 

I.K.S. Koraga (K'Vort Class)/Klingon Starship (K'Vort Class)
Front Firing Arc: 90° Rear Firing Arc: 90°
A: 4
E: 1
H: 5
S: 3 (2)
Each time you defend while Cloaked roll +1 defence die.
Actions: Evade, Target Lock, Cloak, Sensor Echo
Upgrades: Tech, Weapon, Crew, Crew
Points: 26 (24)

The attack is good, the hull is good and the shields are okay- you'll be cloaked most of the time so it's not so bad. The ship comes with a front firing arc and a rear firing arc which is quite good, and gives the Klingons a bit of an excuse to use those torpedoes. Cloak and sensor echo are always useful, and the Evade and Target Lock are standard on Klingon ships. It's essentially a smaller Vorcha, and that's not bad at all! For two more points the Vorcha has the all important 5 attacks, which makes it a much better ship. The movement dial is okay, and the upgrade slots are perfect. There's no need for too many tech or weapon upgrades, and two crew is about right for the ship. 

There's not too much to say actually. It's a klingon ship, and it's good. There you go. Review of the Koraga finished. 

BUT WAIT

I actually have a gripe with Wizkids on the Klingon Bird-of-Prey front. I don't get why this wasn't a small, 14 pt cloaker. You would think that a small Klingon attacker would have sold like crazy. With a stat line like the following

A: 3
E: 1
H: 2
S: 1

I think that would be something that would be worth running at 14 points. It would definitely be a glass cannon and wouldn't throw things off too much. it would make a great swarm, the ships could cloak, sensor echo, evade and target lock, and have a weapon slot and a crew slot. Done. Package it with a decent Worf captain, a Duras Sister and a Riker crew member and I think you have something that would have sold like CRAZY. I bought one Koraga, and have no intention of buying a second one. Obviously, I appreciate the fact that I don't have to spam things in Attack Wing; each list looks different from every other list (mostly). I am, however, left scratching my head at why they thought they needed two romulan science vessels and no small bird-of-prey option for the klingons. 

For future releases- push out a small Klingon ship. Everyone who plays this game has at least thought of playing that fleet. HECK, most people who play this game were thinking the Jem'Hadar ship was going to be small enough that we could have got a few in without breaking the bank. 

An additional awesome idea would be to put out a Bird-of-Prey with a TOS crew. Alternative Kirk, Spock etc., If anyone is listening from Wizkids, do that. I have a feeling it would sell very well. 

On a conceptual level, I don't think the Klingons needed a 24 pt ship. I absolutely think that they needed a small cloaking ship to compliment the large battlecruisers that are already part of the line. To be fair, the Klingons are a fantastic faction that are well designed- I just think they could have blown it out of the water with this one. 

Ah well, tomorrow Captains!

Monday, 20 January 2014

Wave 1 Awards

It's time for the Wave 1 Awards.
Wave 1 was a very cool wave, but a tad disappointing. Let's jump into the awards!

Most Flavourful Card: The most flavourful card, I think, is the Cloaking Device that came with the Defiant Expansion. It allows a Federation ship to cloak, but also comes with a steep price. This could have been done poorly and broken the game wide open, especially since Styles was coming down the pipe, but I think the designers did a good job of making sure that this was a moderately unattractive option on anything but the Defiant. I think they did quite a good job on this one.

Best Ship: The best ship from the expansion is probably the Kronos One. It has shown up in way more of my builds than any of the other ships have. It has 4 base attacks and can cloak. The Defiant requires upgrades to make viable, the Praetus ALWAYS hits a battlestations when cloaking, and the Jem Hadar ship is a bit too expensive for what it is supposed to represent.

Worst Ship: I'd have to say the Praetus, but it's not all that bad. It can be a very viable ship with Cloaked Mines or even Torpedoes.

Best Captain: In this slot, I'm going to put Weyoun, but I think there's a decent argument for either Valdore or Sisko. I think Weyoun will be a card that you have to look at every time a new set comes out, whereas Valdore and Sisko do what they're going to do until the end of time.

Card Most Likely to Completely Change How You Play the Game: Cloaked Mines. Meta Defining card. I'm hearing that they are appearing in multiples in lists. I don't quite think they're amazing in the OP scenarios, but they definitely are a card to contend with.

Best Crew Member: Jadzia Dax! HA! No. OmetIklan is pretty good, Nothing really stands out here.

Best Secondary Weapon: Quantum Torpedoes. My goodness do they pack a punch.

Best Faction: The best faction continues to be the Klingons. They are easily playable in faction. You could do worse than picking up Klingon ships.

Worst Faction: The worst faction continues to be the Dominion. They didn't get enough love in this expansion.

Needs To Do Better: Again, the art department. I think a LOT of people think that the playtest department could have done better as well with respect to cloaked mines.

Best Ship Sculpt: The Defiant. A bit big, but quite nice.

Worst Ship Sculpt: The D7 for that bridge that was off. Too bad about that because if you go on some forums you'll NEVER hear the end of it.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

The State of the Game at the end of Wave 1

Today, instead of talking about Concussive Charges, which I don't think too much of when I'm making lists, I'll instead talk about the general state of the game. I admit, that my opinion is going to be somewhat restricted to what I've been seeing in the local Toronto area and what I've read around the internet. I won't really be talking too much about wave 2, although wave 2 certainly made a pretty big splash when it hit.
As I've said before, the meta for this game is constantly changing. For the most part, there isn't too much of a competitive environment outside of the Organized Play events. If your local scene has Attack Wing nights that aren't Organized Play events, that's pretty good. Support that store! So far, the OP events have each had a different scenario every month. I appreciate that these scenarios are released well ahead of time, and that they, for the most part, don't involve random elements that shake up the game too much. The OP events can be planned for, can be tested, and you can make lists that are tailored to the event. Pretty good overall. I don't really play Attack Wing outside of the OP events except as a way to test for the OP event. I have pretty limited hobby time and a bunch of other games I like to play, so it's nice to have a focus for my gaming time. 

The OP events mix things up nicely. You aren't going to be facing the same lists over and over again, as scenario change generally means that some lists are going to be good one month, and others are going to be good the next month. Unlike in X-wing, where the meta is fairly static, the Attack Wing meta mixes things up enough that you don't see a lot of copy cat lists. 

There are, however, a few very strong builds that rear their heads from time to time. They fall into two categories:

The Klingon (Romulan) Attack Build

and 

Two Ship Hero Builds

These two types of lists can do very well against most other builds. There are a few other builds that are starting to take shape- such as Photon Torpedo Spam, and I expect that elsewhere in North America Small Ship Spam dominates a local area, and in the future we'll be looking at some form of Jem Hadar Attack Build. 

Some random thoughts:

I expected that Weyoun would make a much bigger splash than he did. So far, I haven't seen him in a lot of winning lists. 

We're a few months past the release of Cloaked Mines and as expected, I haven't seen them pop up as more than one-offs in the local scene. I've got data from a few stores in the area, and they aren't making that big of an impact. The OP Scenarios have been set up to generally dissuade their use. This is a good thing. Cloaked Mines, if allowed to run rampant, could be quite bad for the game- mainly because I'd rather that Attack Wing be a game where you don't have to buy multiples of one terrible ship to stay competitive. 

Engage is a bit too good. 

Picard is not as prevalent as I thought he would be. Martok and Gowron show up a lot more, as does Donatra. 

So far, I haven't seen anything come out as an LE prize that breaks the game. Everything has been quite reasonable. The best thing they released as an LE prize has been the Ch'Tang. If it had been an actual retail release, it would have sold like HOTCAKES. It's a great pack. Do yourselves a favour Wizkids- add a few more things into this pack and RELEASE IT and make some MONEY. If they released the Ferengi ship, it would probably sit on the shelves like the Gor Portas! The Romulan ship was okay, but Romulan Pilot is really the only thing worth grabbing out of that package. The Sutherland was mostly terrible. LE prizes haven't broken the game. Until something comes out that does, let's all stop saying that LE prizes are bad for the game. They haven't been so far. 

There is some pretty big stuff coming down the pipe, and I think the biggest change is going to be a once/month release schedule. I'm not sure how I feel about a faster rate of release. At some point, store owners are going to have to clear space, which means that either the older stuff is going to go away, or the not-selling stuff is going to go away- I'd rather the whole line be available, so I'm hesitant to jump up and down for joy at the prospect of approximately 20 ships coming out this year. I'm VERY happy to see that Wizkids intends to support the game at this level, however. There will be a point at which an analysis of the meta game will be pretty useless, as it will be obsolete after a few weeks. I'd rather that Attack Wing have 2 month breaks between releases. That gives everyone a chance to breathe and take in what they've purchased. 

/rant over

Attack Wing is getting a lot of good reviews and whenever we bust it out at the store it gets a lot of second looks. The game is very teachable, and if you have a few ships, you're well on your way to getting another person involved and hooked. The game's prospects are great for the future. Keep playing!
Tomorrow I'll hand out some Awards for Wave 1!

Friday, 17 January 2014

Once More Unto the Breach!!!!

Today we ask the following question, is "Once More Unto the Breach" any good? It certainly has an awesome name. It's a really fluffy throwback name that evokes Chang's awesomeness. It should be a really great card.
Here it is:

Once More Unto The Breach (Klingon/I.K.S. Kronos One Expansion) 
ACTION: Discard this card to allow your Primary Weapon to make a total of 2 attacks this round at -1 attack die each. You may not roll any defense dice this round.
Cost: 5

It costs 5 and as a drawback, you don't get to roll defense dice. Okay, so you won't use it immediately. Can this card be good?

Yes. 

Is it amazing? No. It is most definitely not amazing. 

The issue here is that you want to be in a position where you can't be fired upon in the attack round, or deliver such a devastating blow that it won't really matter. For the Klingons, you're mostly going to be looking at delivering devastating blows, and working out the defense dice later. Here is something that I think can really get behind an awesome Alpha Attack. 

Neg'Var 28
Picard 7
Once More Unto the Breach 5
Romulan Pilot 3

Vor'Cha 26
Gowron 4 

I.K.S Ch'Tang 22
Donatra 5

This list should hold you in good stead. You blow your Romulan Pilot to get a Scan and a free Green Maneuver. That should get you into good position to be targeted by none to one ship. Gowron and Donatra should get you +2 attacks, and Picard should net you a Battlestations. At that point, you're looking to fire 12 shots, with 6 Battlestationable shots, at a ship that is at -1 defense. If you're really good, you'll pop OMUTB at Range 1, and get 14 shots. That's bring down almost any ship. You want to go first, as you want to deliver an INSANE alpha attack. That kind of firepower will get past most defenses. 

Try it out, let me know what you think.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

New Releases- The Somraw

The Somraw in monochrome
Big news for Attack Wing fans: There's another wave on the horizon. Is it just me or are they releases coming a bit too fast? I enjoy the release schedule for the most part, but could definitely use a breather. They could widen the release window to 4 months and I don't think anyone would be all that upset. Far be it from me to decry a company putting it all on the table, today I'll be looking at the Somraw. The Somraw is a pretty neat ship. Take a look:

I.K.S. Somraw (Raptor Class) Front Firing Arc: 90° Rear Firing Arc: NA A: 3 E: 1 H: 3 S: 2 Each time you defend, you may convert up to 2 of your (battlestations) results into (dodge) results. Actions: Evasive Maneuvers, Target Lock, Sensors Upgrades: Tech, Weapons, Crew Points: 18

The ship is odd for the Klingons. There's no cloak, and only one evade- this thing is fragile. With two shields and three hull points, it'll go down to a stiff breeze. The idea, I suppose, is to possibly spam them, although I'm not sure that that's a great tactic. You could conceivably fit 5 of these into a list with Donatra and shooting 20 shots per turn, I just don't think that it'll hold up into the late game. The text is very defensive, but most of the time you're going to only be rolling one defense dice without cross faction upgrades. I can think of a lot better places for Sulu. 

I often see builds that are constructed without the mid to late game in mind. These spammy lists NEED to win in the first few turns or they start playing a war of attrition that they really can't win- especially without upgrades. Be mindful of the late game- think about how your spam list is going to deal with the loss of 1-2 ships. Certainly, spam lists can take some players by surprise, but I find that lists with 5 ships tend to have very large blind spots that can be exploited. My Engage Builds wouldn't have too hard a time against big packs of ships given the blind spots that these builds are going to have. 

Anyway, moving on, 

**Captain**
Somraw Commander (Klingon/I.K.S. Somraw Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 5 Each time you attack at range 3, if you do not have an auxiliary power token beside your ship, you may add +1 attack die. If you add the attack die, place an auxiliary power token beside your ship. Cost: 3 Elite Talent Upgrades: 1
**Elite Talent**

Klingon Honor (Klingon/I.K.S. Somraw Expansion) 
ACTION: Disable this card to add +1 attack die and convert 1 [hit] result in to 1 [critical] result during any one attack you initiate this round. You cannot roll any defense dice this round.  This upgrade can only be purchased for a klingon captain. Cost: 5

Somraw Commander is not particularly good, and Elite Talent is also not very good. There are too many restrictions on the Commander's ability. I don't expect this to show up a whole lot in lists. Klingon Honor when paired with the Commander can net you 2 extra attack dice, no defence rolls, an auxilliary token and cost you an action, all at range 3. COME ON. Who is going to play that?

**Crew**
Bu'Kah (Klingon/I.K.S. Somraw Expansion) 
If you performed a green maneuver this round, discard this card to repair up to 2 damage to your hull. Cost: 4

Not bad. You'll often be performing green maneuvers with Klingon ships- their dials are quite good. 2 damage to the hull is VERY useful on a Klingon Ship. Bu'Kah could easily make the crew of a Neg'Var and make his points back very easily. It's a great card. Worth the price of the expansion if you run Klingons with any regularity. 

**Tech**
Shockwave (Klingon/I.K.S. Somraw Expansion) 
Instead of moving normally during the activation phase, you may discard this card and disable 1 of your torpedoes to disregard your chosen maneuver and perform a Red 1[Reverse] full astern maneuver instead. This upgrade may only be purchased for a raptor class ship. Cost: 2
Tactical Sensors (Klingon/I.K.S. Somraw Expansion) 
ACTION: Disable this card to place a [battlestation] token and a [scan] token beside your ship. This upgrade may only be purchased for a raptor class chip. Cost: 4

These cards are decent until you notice that they can only be purchased for the Somraw. They will gather dust in your binder. 

So without getting into these cards too deeply, I don't see a whole lot of reason to buy the Somraw. There's Bu'Kah, which is quite good, but the rest is underwhelming. I suppose the Klingons were due for a ship that wasn't worth purchasing so I'm not that upset.

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Kronos One Review Day Two: Captains

I laughed at this one, so up it goes!


Moving on with my review of the Kronos One, today we're going to look at the Captains that came with the pack. We'll start with Chang, because I think he could have filled a niche quite well, but is mostly a failure.

Chang (Klingon/I.K.S. Kronos One Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 6
Action: Spend your target lock to perform this Action. Disable the Captain Card on the ship that was target locked.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 1

The Shakespeare quoting villain from Star Trek VI has made a decent appearance here. You need a target lock and another action. That's already a lot of resources. Target Locks are very good, especially on Klingon ships, and Chang is more often than not going to get put onto a Klingon ship. Most of the time, Target Lock is the only way you're going to get rerolls of your attacks, and having played the Klingon Attack List quite frequently, I am always looking for ways to get rerolls. So you've got to give up one of your best offensive actions, AND another action. You then get to disable the captain card on the ship that was locked. An interesting aspect of this ability is that there is no range requirement, so you could be at range 1-3 or even outside the range when you disable the card (unless this has been FAQ'd). The best Captain in the game, Picard, doesn't really get hosed by this card since he gets two actions and can use one of them to re-enable himself, and then use his Picard action to get something good. Kirk gets hosed, but Kirk isn't proving himself to be all that great these days. 

The Elite Talent is probably a waste of points, since most elite talents require an action, but if you can find a decent one that doesn't need an action and is useful, this could be a good place for it. 

Chang is designed to hose good captains like Martok, Picard or Kirk. The problem is that Chang needs SO many resources to work, that you're almost in as terrible a position as your opponent. For every two actions you have to spend using Chang, your opponent has to use one to re-enable Chang. The key to using Chang is to wait for just the right moment to pop his ability. You don't necessarily have to build a list around him- if you're facing a lot of two ship high captain skill builds, I'd probably think about putting Chang on a Science Vessel and letting him fly around being a pain in the butt. Otherwise, in a take all comers list, I don't think Chang has a place. He is designed to hose a certain kind of build, but the ability isn't THAT good and requires a LOT of skill to use properly. 

Moving on, Chancellor Gorkon is an interesting Captain with a very odd skill. 

Gorkon (Klingon/I.K.S. Kronos One Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 6
Action: Disable Gorkon to perform this Action. Your ship and ever ship that attacks you this round rolls 2 less attack dice.
Cost: 3
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

Same skill as Chang, but less pricey, Gorkon is an anti-attack bubble. He requires an action to use. I think he would have been a bit more useful if he didn't require the action. As it stands, burning an action is always something that needs to be analyzed carefully. You want to be able to use the GOOD actions on your action bars every turn. Gorkon can get himself out of a jam pretty easily, but if you get in the Jam in the first place, you may be screwed. This is the same kind of insurance as the Corbomite Maneuver, except not nearly as good, and you can't spring it on your opponent a-la Kirk. Your opponent is hardly going to waste their attacks facing down Gorkon, but if you plan it correctly, that may be part of the point. 

Gorkon's usefulness is not going to be apparent in every build. He, like Chang, is going to be a captain that would have been useful in Hindsight, after you've faced a build that could have been hosed quite easily by their ability. In the planning stages, it's very hard to find a place for these two captains in take all comers builds. If there's a scenario at some point that requires you to keep a ship alive to the end of the game, that would open up Gorkon as a useful Captain. Currently, these two are pretty niche captains that won't end up in your builds or across the table from you very often.

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Kronos One Review! Day 1


A bit crass, but still funny...

Today, I start my review of the Kronos One. I actually really liked this set when it first came out. The ship is actually decent, and the upgrades are pretty good. There's a lot of chaff in the expansion though, so let's dive right in and get to the good stuff.
First of all, the ship is pretty decent. Here are the stats:

I.K.S. Kronos One (K'T'Inga Class)/ Klingon Starship (K'T'Inga Class)
Front Firing Arc: 90° Rear Firing Arc: 90°
A: 4
E: 1
H: 4
S: 3(2)
Any ship attacking you at Range 3 rolls 1 less attack die.
Actions: Evade, Target Lock, Cloak, Sensor Echo
Upgrades: Weapon, Weapon, Crew, Crew
Points: 24 (22)

We've got a lower end attack (for the Klingons, of course). Any other race would DIE for 4 attacks. The rest is the pretty standard Klingon fare- hull and shields are what I expect from this point level. The ship can cloak, which is always nice on a 22/24 point ship. 

The double weapon slot is pointless, as I've discussed before. You should not equip this ship with two weapons. I feel like a broken record, but there are lessons that bear repeating. Maybe at some point in the future there will be a weapon upgrade that is particularly awesome in combination with another weapon upgrade, or an upgrade that makes another weapon upgrade better, but at this point such an upgrade doesn't exist (or I haven't read about it). The double crew is fine, but this is probably not where you want to throw your Klingon crew. 

The Kronos one suffers by comparison to the rest of the Klingon Fleet, but I think that is unfair- just because the other Klingon ships are amazing, doesn't mean that this isn't still a very good ship. Unfortunately, at around the same time, the Ch'Tang came out and showed us all what a 22 point ship can REALLY do. This thing doesn't really stack up to that awesomeness, but it does a serviceable job of giving us a decent TOS ship. If you're looking to play in a TOS event, or start a TOS campaign, this ship is great. 

The movement dial is the usual Klingon fare and is quite good. You can get four of these in a list, with two captains that can upgrade attack and you'll have about 22 attacks, which is about as good as it gets. 

It's hard to write about Klingon ships and be unimpressed. If you're looking to build a three ship Klingon Fleet and don't want to pay for another starter set to get the Vor'Cha, you could do worse than the Kronos One. I used it in a fleet in OP2 and was able to bring home the win. It's decent enough for the points.

Monday, 13 January 2014

Resource Review ~ Elite Attack Die

If you’ve been attending the OP events at your FLGS, you’ve probably been amassing ‘resources’. Every OP event, each participant receives a ‘resource’ to use in regular or organized play. You may only include 1 resource in your fleet, and you may only use said resource once per game round. How useful are these resources? Let’s find out, in a series I’ve lazily named ‘Resource Review’.

Starting with the OP1 resource: Elite Attack Die (EAD)

At first glance it seems killer - a stacked attack die that has no blank side, and that has the potential to hit twice! But taking a numbers approach, is it worth it?

Someone much smarter than I has already run the numbers, and the bullet points are as follows:

  • Probabilities for the Regular Attack Die:

Hit: 3/8 = .375
Critical Hit: 1/8 = .125
Battle Stations: 2/8 = .25
Miss: 2/8 = .25

  • Probabilities for the Elite Attack Die:

Hit: 3/8 = .375
Critical Hit: 2/8 = .25
Battle Stations: 2/8 = .25
Double Hit: 1/8 = .125

  • The 'Hit' and 'Battlestations' values have no effect in comparison to the regular die, as both die have the same ratio.
  • Based on a value assigned to each outcome, an expected value for the particular die can be calculated:
Expected value of Regular Attack Die: 0.6875 per roll
Expected value of Elite Attack Die: 1.125 per roll

 Looks pretty sweet, doesn’t it? But hold on. A little more number crunching and we find that the Elite Attack Die roll is worth 1.64 Regular Attack Die rolls. When compared to an upgrade that would provide you with +1 attack die, and you’re comparing 2 regular attack dice to 1 elite attack die (worth 1.64 regular attack die). And since 2 > 1.64, it would appear that rolling 2 regular attack dice trumps 1 elite attack die. The elite attack die costs 5 points, so if you can accommodate an upgrade that gives +1 regular attack die for those points or less, the numbers say go for that upgrade.

So the numbers say +1 regular attack die is the way to go. Of course, there is more to it. 

First, the Elite Attack Die is versatile, able to be used among your entire fleet. Most upgrades that provide an extra attack die have some limitation (must be within range 1, must be a friendly Klingon ship, must be a ship with a lower captain skill, etc.) or require the use of an action. The EAD is not restricted in any way - at any point during your attack phase, you may use the EAD on any ship, without spending an action.

Second, with a battlestations you are guaranteed a hit. No way around it, when you’re rolling with the EAD and a battlestations, or a battlestations heavy list (i.e. Spock), a guaranteed hit will ensue. And because of the first point above, you’ll always be able to use the EAD on any of your ships – why not make it that one with battlestations?

Third, the EAD has 2 critical hits. Twice the chance of landing a crit can sway the game. And when those crits are … critical (i.e. Attack Pattern Delta) the Elite Attack Die can pay dividends.

All in all, the EAD is a versatile tool that can come in handy. Numbers-wise it may not be better than rolling an extra attack die, but there are many builds where the versatility of the EAD will best that one extra die.

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Jem Hadar Attack Ship- Conclusion

Today I'm going to wrap up my review of the Jem Hadar Attack Ship. A few commentators have pointed out some of the shortfalls of my review and I appreciate that. This is actually a pretty decent expansion, that brings us some very interesting ways of playing a dominion fleet. I think it's flawed, but a step in the right direction. The point costs on a lot of the upgrades, and especially the ship, should have been lower, but that doesn't kill the expansion in my eyes. I still dropped money on it so that I could have a copy, which I don't always do for the more terrible expansions.
First up, the Phased Polaron Beam

Phased Polaron Beam (Dominion/5th Wing Patrol Ship Expansion)
A: 3
Range: 1-2
Attack: Disable this card to perform this attack. All damage inflicted by this attack ignores the opposing ship's Shields. This Upgrade costs +5 Squadron points for any non-Jem'hadar ship.
Cost: 5

Unfortunately, it's not very good and over costed. The problem with a card like this, is that you can't make it too good, or else it becomes an auto include. Three attacks is a bit weak to begin with, but not terrible. Range 1-2 is again serviceable. The ability itself is pretty darn good and if there were 4 attacks, or it cost 4 it would be pretty much an autoinclude. I think it's well balanced for what it does, but I don't see it making many lists. It just doesn't provide enough bang for your buck. This falls under the category of balanced because it better be!

The photon torpedoes are back, and they aren't a bad buy for a Jem Hadar ship mainly because there are no range restrictions. The base attack level of the ship makes this a decent buy. I wouldn't go looking to throw these into your lists, but if you're looking for some extra oomph, then this could be an upgrade for you. 

Overall, I think this is a good expansion. Weyoun is the standout and should start making some of your fringy-type lists. I think he has some great potential down the road. The ship itself is overcosted, and has an ability that is not very good to begin with. I like them as back-up ships for a larger, 50 point ship, but they aren't going to win the battle on their own. The Jem Hadar crew will be great if they release some decent ships down the line that can be equipped with some fat crew members.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Jem Hadar Attack Ship- Tech

Was this a metaphor? DS9 blowing up the Enterprise? Me thinks Mr. Moore was making a statement...

 Today, I'll take a look at the Tech upgrades that come with the Jem Hadar Attack ship. I'm not entirely sure that one of these should have been a tech upgrade over a weapon upgrade.

First up is the Suicide Attack:

Suicide Attack (Dominion/5th Wing Patrol Ship Expansion)
Action: At the end of the Activation Phase, you must make a 1 [Straight] Manuver and place an auxiliary Power Token beside your ship. If your ship overlaps an enemy ship destroy your ship and roll 8 attack dice to damage the enemy ship. That ship rolls defence against this attack. This Upgrade may only be purchased for a Jemhadar ship.
Cost: 5


There's a whole lot to say about Suicide Attack- until you actually use it a few times. Following that, you're left saying "Boy, that doesn't really work all that great does it?" Sure, you're going to absolutely destroy a ship once in a while, but most of the time, you're going to land about two hits, and you're going to be out at least 25 points. The problem is that the 8 attack dice are very hard to manipulate, given that the attack requires an action. Sure, you can pair the attack with Martok and get an extra action, and that's probably a decent way to try to get this thing to actually be decent. There's a whole lot of talk on the internet about pairing this thing with Cheat Death. It's not a bad plan, but you're looking at a 35+ point ship, that has very few hull points, and may or may not get off a suicide attack before it finally dies. There are much better ships that are a lot more consistent than a Cheat Death Suicide Attack. I think if you're looking at that option, you've gone down a dark hole and need to turn around and walk back towards the light.

If you're dead set on running Suicide Attack, remember not to blow your top off too quickly. With every hull point you strip off the opponent's ships, your Suicide Attack becomes more powerful. Save it for a situation where you absolutely HAVE to use a Suicide Attack. This is a last ditch effort, and I think you'll find that you get far more mileage out of your points if you use it as such.

Moving on, we've got an upgraded scan option:

Long Range Tachyon Scan (Dominion/5th Wing Patrol Ship Expansion)
When attacking a ship at Range 3, you may spend 1 [Sensor] Token to force that ship to roll 2 less defense dice this round.
Cost: 2


It costs two, and if it cost any more it wouldn't be even worth considering. As it stands, two points is what this upgrade should cost. It's not great, and it's especially not great because you can only use it at Range 3. This upgrade would be fine if they dropped the Range 3 restriction. It would give the Dominion a decent Sensor option upgrade. It may have to be bumped up to cost 3-4, but it would be a very good card. As it stands, I don't expect to see this very often across the table. I'll certainly almost never use it.

Tomorrow- Weapons!