Post OP5 Thoughts

I've got a few minutes here to draft an update. I attended at my OP5 yesterday at 401 games in Toronto and as usual had a great time. The guys there are great to play with and everyone is getting along nicely. As you can probably tell from my lack of updates over the last few weeks, I hadn't done too much testing (mainly because my testing partner has a case of the "real lifes") and just brought my usual Engage Build with Chekov in the pilot seat on the Valdore- (UGH).

Of course, without proper testing, I got my deployment all wrong in the last game. Usually when I deploy with the Engage Build against non-independently moving ships, the key is to separate deployment. This is why I didn't take the flagship upgrade, because the bonuses generally apply to ships in formation. The spread deployment forces the opponent to make a decision on where they are going to focus their fire, and then Engage lets me get out of arcs and attack their rear. That's how it's SUPPOSED to work, when I'm not being a goof. I also underestimated my opponent and he played a KILLER game. He had a very interesting build that in my opinion was perfectly situated for bringing down my Engage Build.

1. He used a stacked Gor Portas with an Energy Dissipator, Scotty, Picard and a Flagship. It's not hard to bring down IF you have initiative.

2. 98 points!!!! FUUUUUU... Part of the Engage Build is ensuring Initiative. You need to see where your opponent is going prior to using Engage, so that you can use it to maximum power. It's very difficult to play an Engage Build against an opponent with a higher initiative than you. I've done it to great success on most other occasions, but on this occasion my opponent correctly guessed all of my moves.

3. If the Enterprise gets hit with an Energy Dissipator it's goodbye Enterprise. HOLY MOLY.

The Command Tokens were MVP as usual- saving my ass on more than one occasion. The game I lost came down to movement 100%. Most games come down to movement, but this was very clearly a movement centered games- he made all the right moves, and I made all the wrong ones.

You HAVE to read this article by Clint over at the Metal Bikini:

http://www.themetalbikini.com/2013/02/maneuvering-as-formation-part-1.html

That's part one, and I'm sure you can follow the links for part 2 and 3. I went up against a really tough Dominion list, but my opponent wasn't too familiar with the consequences of tight formation and issuing the same movements. When someone is moving in tight formation ALWAYS get them to measure out the moves. If you're planning on running a tight formation, those articles are essential.

I won 2 games and lost 1, but the loss doesn't put me off the Engage Build. I've got a few tricks in mind for future games. What I'm seeing a my local store is a very varied mix of lists, and a lot of crazy and fun tactics. I also haven't seen another Engage Build pop up yet- maybe it won't!

There's a crazy combo that came up in my discussion with the Tournament Organizer. It involves the following:

Flagship that allows elite Talent, original Weyoun and Conditional Surrender, with a crew member.

From my understanding, you discard the crew member to pop conditional surrender, and then use Weyoun to keep your crew member from being discarded. If it hasn't already been FAQ'd, I anticipate that Conditional Surrender will have a condition placed on it that the crew member must actually be removed from the ship before it works. Something like- Conditional Surrender checks to see if the crew member has been actually removed from the ship prior to activating. I don't think it's a game breaking combo, but it certainly is weird enough that I'd like a FAQ saying that it can't be done. The potential for abuse is not particularly bad at this point, but I don't like what it could potentially do on the Dominion Cruiser coming out, or even the potential for it making a Borg Cube invincible.

So those are my thoughts post-OP5. OP5 itself was not a very good scenario, as it just involved turtle speed play to make sure that you could wipe out the OWPs. Not very exciting or interesting.