Capt's Log - Stardate - prepared to be boarded!
While I am working on a big ship review post here are some random thoughts about the different camps that tend to play most games and are certainly present in STAW.
The shop I have been playing at started the Dominion War OP series again last night. I already have the participation prizes from these but its also one of the few ways to get in multiple games.
But the OP environment is also where the competitive game exists. The OPs are not normally casual events. Which means when I bring a non tuned fleet to one of these I am going to get stomped on.
For this event Borg were disallowed. I don't recall an exception being made for the Soong ship but quite often a distinction is made. And since one player was allowed to take one I am presuming the ruling was for independant since the ship had no borg upgrades.
I have been wanting to start flying the Romulans for a bit so made the wild hair choice that I would play them in this OP.
The T.O. wanted faction pure only but then decided that he would not make it mandatory. I ended up playing faction pure simply by nature of my build but for the next DW OPs I will be tweaking my fleet load out and will most likely end up non pure.
Right now in the game faction pure hurts the borg/federation the least and Romulans the most it seems. But since no borg were allowed anyway this wasn't an issue. The Feds have a TON of cards to choose from so faction pure doesn't really hurt them much at all.
My fleet for this looked pretty laughable really. I am well aware going into these that I am going to most get stomped on.
The build for this event is 100 pts. I have to say I do prefer the 120pt game. And am hoping soon to play some even bigger pt value games.
I apologize for lack of pictures, I am writing this post in a place I don't have access to my Dropbox.
I will instead provide links to the cards in question where I can find them.
My fleet was 3 ships, the Named Valdore , with The Romulan Cmdr(no link) his ability is as an Action you can allow him to fire first in the attack phase. This didn't come into play but only because the two times I should have used it, I forgot about it hehe..opps.
Next I had The Khazara, with Toreth , her ability came into play a lot.
And finally I had the generic D'Deridex with Valdore and was able to use his ability several times over the three games of the OP.
Before the OP started I did get in a few turns with a friend who is just starting the game. mainly to help him get some table time and to start getting a feel for what I had concocted.
Right now the Romulans are kind of shafted in STAW , hmm a lot like in Trek Online, ooo Conspiracy Theory!!!.... but I digress... like I do.....
Romulans lack a big hitter in their faction pure fleet. The Valdore is the biggest they have at 4 attack, followed by the D'Deridex, and then a bunch of small ships. I don't have all of them and I have I think four with at least one more to get to complete what is available currently. The big hitter for Roms in hopefully coming in November with the released of the Scimitar.
He was using Klingons so there was a whole lot of cloaking going on. I have some pics of the first few turns, I will put up a battle report of the incomplete game soon. I feel like even when you do not get to finish a game there is useful information to be learned.
What I learned, or rather what we confirmed was that to make this even remotely workable I was going to have to fly well and keep the ships flying together. And shooting the same target was going to be a must. But even that turned out at times to not matter.
This fleet build of mine , not really even close to optimized for this Scenario, let me set the stage.
Standard 3x3 table, the DS9 token is in one corner, the wormhole token in the other. In between are 8 mine tokens set out by the players as part of the set up.
Now my fleet that needs to stick close together has to dodge mines. Mines that replicate, if you hit the mines you roll one attack die, if it is a hit/crit you roll again, repeating until the result is not a hit. no evading...Translation, DON'T HIT THE MINES... um.. duh?
Thankfully Romulans are pretty darn maneuverable but still puts a kink in the ol' battleplan.
First game of the OP I hit exactly the topic that sparked this long post. My opponent was flying a totally tricked out two ship Fed build, Enterprise and Voyager with all the trimmings, Flagship And Admiral Kirk, Sulu, some other cards. Basically every turn he was getting free battlestations, free scans, shooting first, and just generally kicking my ass all across the table. I think the game lasted three turns and that was just because he whiffed a couple rolls.. of course he was also rolling 6 and 7 attack dice and getting all hits due to the battlestations, and when you are only rolling 4 to 6 defense die, you LACK battlestations and scan, and your opponent is rolling like a madman... not a lot you can do. Multiple times he would end up with 6 dice that had read 4 crits and 2 hits. You really just can't fight against that no matter what you do really :) The Dice Gods are fickle. And one of the factors in STAW is being able to manipulate your die rolls, re rolls, etc.
The first game ended in flames for me, as I expected as soon as I saw the fleet across the table.
Second game did not go a whole lot better. This time I faced Bioship Alpha with Gowron piloting, and the Soong borg ship with a Gorn Capt.(from the Arena OP prize ship)..
This time I deviated from the "stay together" plan and sent the generic D to capture the station, in the previous game I had felt the shooting from that and it was not pleasent. But fast as they are there was no way my Romulans were beating Voyager to the station. In this second game my opponent had already decided to mostly ignore the station.
I targeted the Bioship and began to slowly chink away at the shields...easier said than done. The Dice Gods were still not smiling upon me, and they were smiling across the table. Again faced with highly modified rolls and rerolls.
Now before we go any further let me state for the record that yes I knew this going in. I could have take a two ship build and tooled it up. However I was testing, and attempting to stick with the event organizers preference of faction pure. haha but not being able to get a shot off is always frustrating. And the Romulan ships are a bit on the expensive side for what you get. 30 for the Valdore compared to 28 for the Enterprise-D.
I was able to whittle the Bioship down to 4 hull left before all three of my ships were destroyed.
My worry here is the price of entry into STAW is climbing if you want to be competitive at all. If you want to have even an outside shot at winning an event. The causes of this are numerous. From power creep in the ships to poor testing and planning by the company. Placing very powerful cards in prize ships is a horrid idea. Only a small percentage of the player base will even get these cards/ships. Thus you start to narrow down the field considerably. I am all for unique and/or limited prizes. Just not game changing ones(ie Conditional Surrender).
Third game I finally matched up against another mostly casual player. Note we are in the bottom end of the brackets :) I won that game due mainly to be a better pilot. My opponent was playing Dominion and had the 4th Division Battleship and the Gor Portas. Can't recall what crew he had on them.
This time I said hell with the station and flew all three ships together and kept them together as long as possible. It was only when I had to split them to go around a couple sets of mines that I jaunted the D'Deridex over and took the station.
So what in all this long post am I trying to say? In some ways I am not sure. It started out as one thought and kind of wandered around as I went. Overall, the point is this. As a casual player, if you are going to play in the Organized Play events you have to go into knowing that you are going to be outgunned most if not all the time. These are the current STAW Tournement scene and as such bring out the ultra competitive, and every type of 'nightmare' player out there. But they also do bring out the casual player, the trick is helping the casual player to not get discouraged when he gets romped by the power player. And some of the best game conversations I have had have been with the ultra competitive types. I like to discuss the meta..just don't like trying to make sure I have the biggest and baddest all the time.
Its frustrating but its also a challenge. Can I maintain my own playstyle and still come up with a build that does decent? Honestly I don't know. But I do know that trying to set into that power player mindset leads very easily to a whole bunch of ugly. I personally just don't need to win so bad that I will nitpick my opponent to death or quibble over whether or not that corner of the base is over the line or if I am placing the range template in such a way that as long as you are looking at it from the angle I have placed it, then it appears I am in range. Or the quick measure and call out of range hoping your opponent won't notice. Or the not wanting to show the card you are attempting to play. hahaha nope not gonna take your word for it on a card I have never seen :) And yes I have seen all of that and more. But I know that going into it. and going into it I make up my mind to do what I came here to do. Play the Romulans and start seeing if they can be workable. and have fun. Always always always have fun.
Again I realize much of this sounds like I am complaining. haha and I somewhat am but NOT at the players themselves. Its not the players fault that the Borg are so powerful. Or that certain card combos are broken. Do I think you shoupld play certain combos? no...but there is nothing against the rules about it.
It is however something that has to be dealt with by those chosing to play the game.
It's also a bit of a now win situation for the T.O.s. You want to make sure you keep people playing in order to keep the game alive. But you can't go making house rules that penalize players to much. I think we are seeing that quite a bit too. As much as I hate the borg being overpowered I also hate having to be in a position to rule them non allowable. Either way you go someone is going to get angry.
Not a problem that can be solved quickly for sure.
Until Next time - Spend the points , use Picard :)
shadoe42
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Somthing Wicked this Way Comes
Capt's Log Stardate - oh Holy Crap!
“The Borg are the ultimate user. They’re not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They’re simply interested in your ship and its technology. They’ve identified it as something they can consume.”
“The hall is rented; the orchestra engaged. It’s now time to see if you can dance…”
—Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2: Episode 16 “Q Who”
And with those words Q blasted the Enterprise and Crew into the delta quadrant and sparked the first encounter with what was at the time and really probably still is the most terrifying enemy Picard, his crew, and the Federation have ever faced. The unfeeling, compassionless, cyborg juggernaut.. The Borg. The final line of that quote sent chills down my spine then and is still one of my favorite lines from the show.
And that block of text is also what prefaces the rules sheet for The Collective OP event 1. And boy was it a whopper.
This event was a blind draw booster event. You made a 90 pt fleet and then you received a blind booster with a ship in it. You had to build your last up to 30pt ship from the ship in the booster for a total of 120 max fleet pts. I drew the Vorta Vor a TOS era Romulan Bird of Prey. While I was hoping for the Yeager I was just as pleased to get the Romulan ship as they need all the help they can get :)
Before my booster draw my fleet looked like this...
So with have Picard on the Voyager with Dimitri Valtane, Photon torpedoes, and Cheat Death. While Spock is in the Enterprise's center seat with Tom Paris and another set of Photons. Putting right on 90 pts. The Voyager setup cost 49, the Ent-D 41. Let the Games begin.
My opponent had Klingons and pulls the Yeager as I said. I am sure Lt Shelby came in useful later when he was playing the Borg player. heh. Here is his fleet. He had Martok in the Neg Var and Worf in the vorcha with drex as crew.. this is a wicked combo.(more on this later)
we deployed. He had initiative which really didn't come into play a lot anyway. We both deployed to the left of the BCT(Borg Cube Token) and hoped for the best and that that damn cube would hopefully not cause to much havoc. In this scenario you cannot do anything to the cube. In order to have a shot at avoiding its attack you must spend an action and put a resistance token on your ship. And then during the end phase when the cube attacks you roll one attack die. If the die result is a critical you resist the attack. Otherwise if you have any crew or upgrade the cube assimilates one at random. If you have none it makes a 5 die attack.
Now at first I thought I had screwed up on my initial move... I found out in the third game it was possible i had in fact been victim to a loose maneuver dial. I had put all three of my ships on a straight 3 to just move out and get engaged with the klingons. But when i turned them over the Vorta Vor's dial was on a curve... this cause the Voyager to bump into it. Again at the time I thought I had simply chosen the wrong maneuver. but at any rate I had to live with it. So Voyager lost its action.
Spock however got a target lock on the Vorcha as it was coming in. this game however for the entire game my shooting was mostly ineffective. The few times I manged to score good rolls so did my opponent evading everything :) Who knew Klingons were so agile ....
And as it turns out they can shoot TOO! First turn my opponent strips the shields off the the Enterprise and part of them off the Romulan .... Then the borg cube moved in and took the photon torpedoes off the enterprise... that was the only casualty the cube in the first turn.
So the picture below is the Second as we started. You can see where the cube went as we prepared to move. you will not the aux token on the Romulan ship and that she is still cloaked. the advanced cloaking device allows you to put an aux power token on and keep from flipping your cloak if you attack.
In order to clear the way I kept the vorta vor comin around in a tight turn. Moved the enterprise on forward and had a lovely rear arc shot on the vorcha or a 360 degree shot on the neg var. The Voyager i did a turn and burn to attempt to get it out of range of the cube.. as you can see that did not work out so well. Second turn firing I chose to take my 360 degree arc shot at the vorcha since I no longer had the torpedoes. I manged to burn off more shields but that was about it. Meanwhile the poor vorta vor took a pounding nearly blowing up this turn escaping with one hull left.
For the rest of this game I have no pictures as somehow I managed to delete them. But the story they tell is not pretty. The next turn the romulan was destroyed, a turn later so went the enterprise. I did manage to do a bit more damage but never was able to get any of my opponents ships destroyed. Not an auspicious start to the event for sure. The cube is just ugly, very hard to avoid the attack and the way it moves keeps it always in your face unless you get some decent moves in. Had I designed this scenario I would have changed the mandatory movement of the cube slightly so that instead of only putting the random move tokens down on valid moves I would have put them down on all four and if the arrow came up in an arc that had no ships the cube would simply not move that turn.
Getting your ships into the right position was more important that ever. I found it however impossible to keep my ships in good firing position and OUT of the range 2 or less of the danged cube. Which of course is the point as this scenario is replaying the initial encounter whereupon the Enterprise barely manages to escape. It was certainly a terrifying thing to try to avoid.
The second game I put up a win. I was facing another Klingon this time with the maquis raider as thier random ship. I destroyed two ships to his one and so put up the W.
This shot is about midway thru that game just before ships started blowing up. Again the cube is just mangling the enterprise...something oddly poetic about that really as it was truly doing a bit of show reenacting hahah. Next turn after this picture I destroyed the raider, and got the Bird of Prey the turn after that. Meanwhile my ships actually survived the encounter allow with much gear and crew assimilated.
This third and final game I did not get any pictures of. i did have more of the first two games but those files were deleted before I could upload them...my own fault for not paying closer attention when I went to upload them to dropbox for safe keeping... irony...
The third game I lost but did mange to score some more pts. The cube itself tried to destroy the Enterprise by ramming it twice. And in a bit of getting tired and not paying close enough attention I managed to fly one of my ships just over the boundary line thus leaving the play field..
Even still I came close to pulling this game out as we were left with one ship each in the third game I had a badly mauled Enterprise and he the Dominion Battleship. My opponent did a lovely comeabout move putting him right on the tail of the Enterprise..however in an effort to just move away from the cube I had myself done a reverse 2 which put me in a beautiful position and for once my shots hit home savaging what was left of the battleship... had I had one more turn I think I would have gotten it because the ship is not fast enough to get away.
What did I take away from these games that would help the new player/tactician?...
One..check your maneuver dials. Remember those two missed moves I mentioned up there. After the second one when I was 99% positive the move that showed on the dial when I turned it over was NOT the one I had chosen, I checked the dial and it was very very loose and would not tighten down. I put it on the move I wanted and just used my normal natural move to turn it over and it was enough to move the dial to the next option. Will have to be really careful of that in the future.
Next - in this scenario while your upgrades may not do anything they will suck up assimilation attacks leaving your capt intact.
Again, maneuvering is the most important aspect. When you get a ship out of position it can take several turns to return it to the fight if the ship doesn't have a come about on the dial.
Never underestimate the utility of just backing up. Saved me a couple times and as noted above once put me in perfect position had I not run out of time.
Learn the cards. Even I was annoyed with me having to constantly ask what crew/upgrades/weapons/etc did. Plus it a lot easier to plan tactics when you know what those cards are by name.
And finally.. Borg just suck. Not the cube token, the playable ones. The two highest pts scored were both Borg players and no one else was really even close. Right now as the meta stands they are rough to beat. BUT I still do not think it impossible. One of the Klingon players hung in for a long time. Federation I am still looking for the secret.
Okay so this one was long...but oddly not near as long as had ALL my pictures gotten uploaded. Once again I can only promise to do better. I think next event though I will only take detailed pictures of one game and try to make sure I get everything.
Next event is in two weeks and the shop is replaying the Dominion War. Next Collective Event is next month. I plan on trying hard to get to the DW event as well as some pick up games.
And finally tell me what you want me to cover. I have planned things like Card reviews which also detail some possible uses. Repainting "guides" or at least repainting posts showing what I did and how. More battle reports, Ship reviews same as card reviews. Possible fleet list options... but what do you want to see? I know there are people reading which is exciting. Help me spread the word also. There is not a whole lot of STAW stuff out there in general and even less for the more casual player who wants to not get wiped off the table but is not interested in making sure they have the most powerful fleet.
Until next time - beam me down to the planet and lets find the bar!
shadoe42
“The Borg are the ultimate user. They’re not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They’re simply interested in your ship and its technology. They’ve identified it as something they can consume.”
“The hall is rented; the orchestra engaged. It’s now time to see if you can dance…”
—Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2: Episode 16 “Q Who”
And with those words Q blasted the Enterprise and Crew into the delta quadrant and sparked the first encounter with what was at the time and really probably still is the most terrifying enemy Picard, his crew, and the Federation have ever faced. The unfeeling, compassionless, cyborg juggernaut.. The Borg. The final line of that quote sent chills down my spine then and is still one of my favorite lines from the show.
And that block of text is also what prefaces the rules sheet for The Collective OP event 1. And boy was it a whopper.
This event was a blind draw booster event. You made a 90 pt fleet and then you received a blind booster with a ship in it. You had to build your last up to 30pt ship from the ship in the booster for a total of 120 max fleet pts. I drew the Vorta Vor a TOS era Romulan Bird of Prey. While I was hoping for the Yeager I was just as pleased to get the Romulan ship as they need all the help they can get :)
Before my booster draw my fleet looked like this...
 |
| Ent D with Capt Spock |
 | |||
| Picard shanghai's the Voyager. |
My opponent had Klingons and pulls the Yeager as I said. I am sure Lt Shelby came in useful later when he was playing the Borg player. heh. Here is his fleet. He had Martok in the Neg Var and Worf in the vorcha with drex as crew.. this is a wicked combo.(more on this later)
we deployed. He had initiative which really didn't come into play a lot anyway. We both deployed to the left of the BCT(Borg Cube Token) and hoped for the best and that that damn cube would hopefully not cause to much havoc. In this scenario you cannot do anything to the cube. In order to have a shot at avoiding its attack you must spend an action and put a resistance token on your ship. And then during the end phase when the cube attacks you roll one attack die. If the die result is a critical you resist the attack. Otherwise if you have any crew or upgrade the cube assimilates one at random. If you have none it makes a 5 die attack.
Now at first I thought I had screwed up on my initial move... I found out in the third game it was possible i had in fact been victim to a loose maneuver dial. I had put all three of my ships on a straight 3 to just move out and get engaged with the klingons. But when i turned them over the Vorta Vor's dial was on a curve... this cause the Voyager to bump into it. Again at the time I thought I had simply chosen the wrong maneuver. but at any rate I had to live with it. So Voyager lost its action.
Spock however got a target lock on the Vorcha as it was coming in. this game however for the entire game my shooting was mostly ineffective. The few times I manged to score good rolls so did my opponent evading everything :) Who knew Klingons were so agile ....
And as it turns out they can shoot TOO! First turn my opponent strips the shields off the the Enterprise and part of them off the Romulan .... Then the borg cube moved in and took the photon torpedoes off the enterprise... that was the only casualty the cube in the first turn.
So the picture below is the Second as we started. You can see where the cube went as we prepared to move. you will not the aux token on the Romulan ship and that she is still cloaked. the advanced cloaking device allows you to put an aux power token on and keep from flipping your cloak if you attack.
In order to clear the way I kept the vorta vor comin around in a tight turn. Moved the enterprise on forward and had a lovely rear arc shot on the vorcha or a 360 degree shot on the neg var. The Voyager i did a turn and burn to attempt to get it out of range of the cube.. as you can see that did not work out so well. Second turn firing I chose to take my 360 degree arc shot at the vorcha since I no longer had the torpedoes. I manged to burn off more shields but that was about it. Meanwhile the poor vorta vor took a pounding nearly blowing up this turn escaping with one hull left.
Getting your ships into the right position was more important that ever. I found it however impossible to keep my ships in good firing position and OUT of the range 2 or less of the danged cube. Which of course is the point as this scenario is replaying the initial encounter whereupon the Enterprise barely manages to escape. It was certainly a terrifying thing to try to avoid.
The second game I put up a win. I was facing another Klingon this time with the maquis raider as thier random ship. I destroyed two ships to his one and so put up the W.
This shot is about midway thru that game just before ships started blowing up. Again the cube is just mangling the enterprise...something oddly poetic about that really as it was truly doing a bit of show reenacting hahah. Next turn after this picture I destroyed the raider, and got the Bird of Prey the turn after that. Meanwhile my ships actually survived the encounter allow with much gear and crew assimilated.
This third and final game I did not get any pictures of. i did have more of the first two games but those files were deleted before I could upload them...my own fault for not paying closer attention when I went to upload them to dropbox for safe keeping... irony...
The third game I lost but did mange to score some more pts. The cube itself tried to destroy the Enterprise by ramming it twice. And in a bit of getting tired and not paying close enough attention I managed to fly one of my ships just over the boundary line thus leaving the play field..
Even still I came close to pulling this game out as we were left with one ship each in the third game I had a badly mauled Enterprise and he the Dominion Battleship. My opponent did a lovely comeabout move putting him right on the tail of the Enterprise..however in an effort to just move away from the cube I had myself done a reverse 2 which put me in a beautiful position and for once my shots hit home savaging what was left of the battleship... had I had one more turn I think I would have gotten it because the ship is not fast enough to get away.
What did I take away from these games that would help the new player/tactician?...
One..check your maneuver dials. Remember those two missed moves I mentioned up there. After the second one when I was 99% positive the move that showed on the dial when I turned it over was NOT the one I had chosen, I checked the dial and it was very very loose and would not tighten down. I put it on the move I wanted and just used my normal natural move to turn it over and it was enough to move the dial to the next option. Will have to be really careful of that in the future.
Next - in this scenario while your upgrades may not do anything they will suck up assimilation attacks leaving your capt intact.
Again, maneuvering is the most important aspect. When you get a ship out of position it can take several turns to return it to the fight if the ship doesn't have a come about on the dial.
Never underestimate the utility of just backing up. Saved me a couple times and as noted above once put me in perfect position had I not run out of time.
Learn the cards. Even I was annoyed with me having to constantly ask what crew/upgrades/weapons/etc did. Plus it a lot easier to plan tactics when you know what those cards are by name.
And finally.. Borg just suck. Not the cube token, the playable ones. The two highest pts scored were both Borg players and no one else was really even close. Right now as the meta stands they are rough to beat. BUT I still do not think it impossible. One of the Klingon players hung in for a long time. Federation I am still looking for the secret.
Okay so this one was long...but oddly not near as long as had ALL my pictures gotten uploaded. Once again I can only promise to do better. I think next event though I will only take detailed pictures of one game and try to make sure I get everything.
Next event is in two weeks and the shop is replaying the Dominion War. Next Collective Event is next month. I plan on trying hard to get to the DW event as well as some pick up games.
And finally tell me what you want me to cover. I have planned things like Card reviews which also detail some possible uses. Repainting "guides" or at least repainting posts showing what I did and how. More battle reports, Ship reviews same as card reviews. Possible fleet list options... but what do you want to see? I know there are people reading which is exciting. Help me spread the word also. There is not a whole lot of STAW stuff out there in general and even less for the more casual player who wants to not get wiped off the table but is not interested in making sure they have the most powerful fleet.
Until next time - beam me down to the planet and lets find the bar!
shadoe42
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Colored Bases
Capt's Log Supplemental - Those bases cost what?
I am still writing the battle report from last nights Collective OP 1 event. Was a fun time had by the players it seemed. I went 1 for 3 but manged to score pts in 2 rounds. The Borg Cube in that event is brutal. But we will get to that later.
Anyway this is just a quick write up. I like the concept of faction colored bases but but paying 5 bucks for 4 bases wasn't really something I was inclined to do. I have also seen a method of use a sharpie to color them but as I do not have a bunch of colored sharpies I went another route.
What i DO have are several of the Tamiya Transparent colors. Including green, red, and blue. Right now I am not worried about Dominion as I don't have many of them yet. And not sure I will actively play them when I do although they seem a solid fleet when i have played against them.
So while taking a break from certification study for my job I grabbed some bases and went to work. These paints dry quickly so it doesn't take long to get two coats on. Each on of these is two coats of the given color.
I think they turned about pretty well and will look great in the table. I promise in the future I will make sure to shrink the images down. hehe.
Until next time Come about and set heading for home!
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I am still writing the battle report from last nights Collective OP 1 event. Was a fun time had by the players it seemed. I went 1 for 3 but manged to score pts in 2 rounds. The Borg Cube in that event is brutal. But we will get to that later.
Anyway this is just a quick write up. I like the concept of faction colored bases but but paying 5 bucks for 4 bases wasn't really something I was inclined to do. I have also seen a method of use a sharpie to color them but as I do not have a bunch of colored sharpies I went another route.
What i DO have are several of the Tamiya Transparent colors. Including green, red, and blue. Right now I am not worried about Dominion as I don't have many of them yet. And not sure I will actively play them when I do although they seem a solid fleet when i have played against them.
So while taking a break from certification study for my job I grabbed some bases and went to work. These paints dry quickly so it doesn't take long to get two coats on. Each on of these is two coats of the given color.
I think they turned about pretty well and will look great in the table. I promise in the future I will make sure to shrink the images down. hehe.
Until next time Come about and set heading for home!
Monday, July 14, 2014
another teaching game
Capt's Log StarDate - how long can he keep making pseudo witty statements,
I was going to take pictures of tonight's game but ended up more focused on making sure we were getting things right than anything else. Tomorrow I will take a few at the event I promise :)
Played a teaching game tonight with a friend to introduce him to the game. It is often said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. This game actually did help me quite a bit start to cement in the basic rules. Still a lot to learn and I expect that in the OP event tomorrow I will not do well. But one never knows, stranger things have happened.
right now I am concentrating on playing Federation. My opponent tonight brought Dominion in the form of a 4th Division Battle Ship and the Gul Portas. I had the Enterprise-D and Voyager Capt by Picard and Riker respectively.
Mainly it was again run up and get into combat. he did try a bit of fancy maneuvering as we began.I very nearly manged to turn the Portas into atoms on the first turn of shooting but could not quite get all of it.
I kept my ships in firing position for two turns then made a slight tactical error and the voyage remained out of position for the rest of the game. My opponent very nearly destroyed the Enterprise but in the end I manged to get both of his ships mainy due a tactical error on his part and the slow plodding battleship was unable to get turned around in time to get any more firing off.
It was a good game that helped both of us. I think at this point I will not make a complete failure of a showing at the event tomorrow. Looking forward to it. And have been wanting to add the counter attack die to my arsenal :)
And I am still seeing being able to move properly as more important than the cards you have. He never was able to use his energy disappators on me as he was out of position by the time he wanted to use them. Although his positron beam ignoring shields rather sucked when it hit :)
Now back to doing re-paints. will post some more pics along with a bit a methodology for what I did. I also plan soon on starting to post card reviews. Once I get a few more games in and have a better handle on what the abilities do, when they fire, how they fire, etc. We are only getting started folks so hang on for the ride :)
Until next time, Exit spacedock 1/4 impulse!
Shadoe42
I was going to take pictures of tonight's game but ended up more focused on making sure we were getting things right than anything else. Tomorrow I will take a few at the event I promise :)
Played a teaching game tonight with a friend to introduce him to the game. It is often said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. This game actually did help me quite a bit start to cement in the basic rules. Still a lot to learn and I expect that in the OP event tomorrow I will not do well. But one never knows, stranger things have happened.
right now I am concentrating on playing Federation. My opponent tonight brought Dominion in the form of a 4th Division Battle Ship and the Gul Portas. I had the Enterprise-D and Voyager Capt by Picard and Riker respectively.
Mainly it was again run up and get into combat. he did try a bit of fancy maneuvering as we began.I very nearly manged to turn the Portas into atoms on the first turn of shooting but could not quite get all of it.
I kept my ships in firing position for two turns then made a slight tactical error and the voyage remained out of position for the rest of the game. My opponent very nearly destroyed the Enterprise but in the end I manged to get both of his ships mainy due a tactical error on his part and the slow plodding battleship was unable to get turned around in time to get any more firing off.
It was a good game that helped both of us. I think at this point I will not make a complete failure of a showing at the event tomorrow. Looking forward to it. And have been wanting to add the counter attack die to my arsenal :)
And I am still seeing being able to move properly as more important than the cards you have. He never was able to use his energy disappators on me as he was out of position by the time he wanted to use them. Although his positron beam ignoring shields rather sucked when it hit :)
Now back to doing re-paints. will post some more pics along with a bit a methodology for what I did. I also plan soon on starting to post card reviews. Once I get a few more games in and have a better handle on what the abilities do, when they fire, how they fire, etc. We are only getting started folks so hang on for the ride :)
Until next time, Exit spacedock 1/4 impulse!
Shadoe42
Friday, July 11, 2014
Random break at work post ---- The Borg
Break time log.. stardate almost time to leave for the day. well closer than when i got here this morning.
At this point in the ST:AW "meta" game many players feel the borg are broken. I have not yet had a chance to play against them(won't play as them) but looking at the stats and then looking at what I have to fly against them I agree. Conditionally...
I always enjoy the challenge of trying to be able to consistantly defeat the undefeatable. But right now there are few borg countering abilities out there. And I would prefer that the other factions did not have to rely on card combo's alone to get it done. I have always loathed it when put into game situations that require only one specific counter forcing you to plan only for that situation. I have always preferred to make my fleets/armies/etc more general in their ability to handle opponents. I would rather rely on my skill as a player than on having the exact correct ability combo.
With that being said I think much of the issue surrounding the unstoppable borg has to due with a couple things. One The wave style release. We don't really know what the developers have to play with but its easily conceivable that they have way more ships and cards than the players and so may not even see the problem.
The other issue is lack of external testing of new ships and cards. I do believe that Whiz Kids is testing. I just question the amount or depth of those tests. When you are testing a game and you are the designer you have to consiously go outside the rules. As the designer you know how the game "Should" be played. You know what the "spirit" of the rule is as well as the "letter". Players only really have the letter of the law and have to often ask what a rule really means. If this were not the case then an official FAQ and Errata would not be needed.
When you allow regular players to test you game you will quickly discover holes you never knew existed. Players will find every loophole and quirk. because they think like players not as designers. they are only taking thier best guess at a rules intent. Sometimes they will break things unintentionally and others they will abuse it on purpose.
having external testers has its own risks. Disclosure early of material is the obivous one. But all to often testers will find a broken ability and not report it. keeping it to themselves so they can get a leg up on players for a few days until the rest of the world figures it out. Not the point of testing at all but it happens... a lot.
Point of all this is two fold.. one I would like to see more testing before releases. But two.. wait and see before the final verdict is rendered on the Borg being broken. Of course NONE of that helps when you are getting thrashed by them over and over now :)
until next time... scan for life signs and load the torpedo tubes!
At this point in the ST:AW "meta" game many players feel the borg are broken. I have not yet had a chance to play against them(won't play as them) but looking at the stats and then looking at what I have to fly against them I agree. Conditionally...
I always enjoy the challenge of trying to be able to consistantly defeat the undefeatable. But right now there are few borg countering abilities out there. And I would prefer that the other factions did not have to rely on card combo's alone to get it done. I have always loathed it when put into game situations that require only one specific counter forcing you to plan only for that situation. I have always preferred to make my fleets/armies/etc more general in their ability to handle opponents. I would rather rely on my skill as a player than on having the exact correct ability combo.
With that being said I think much of the issue surrounding the unstoppable borg has to due with a couple things. One The wave style release. We don't really know what the developers have to play with but its easily conceivable that they have way more ships and cards than the players and so may not even see the problem.
The other issue is lack of external testing of new ships and cards. I do believe that Whiz Kids is testing. I just question the amount or depth of those tests. When you are testing a game and you are the designer you have to consiously go outside the rules. As the designer you know how the game "Should" be played. You know what the "spirit" of the rule is as well as the "letter". Players only really have the letter of the law and have to often ask what a rule really means. If this were not the case then an official FAQ and Errata would not be needed.
When you allow regular players to test you game you will quickly discover holes you never knew existed. Players will find every loophole and quirk. because they think like players not as designers. they are only taking thier best guess at a rules intent. Sometimes they will break things unintentionally and others they will abuse it on purpose.
having external testers has its own risks. Disclosure early of material is the obivous one. But all to often testers will find a broken ability and not report it. keeping it to themselves so they can get a leg up on players for a few days until the rest of the world figures it out. Not the point of testing at all but it happens... a lot.
Point of all this is two fold.. one I would like to see more testing before releases. But two.. wait and see before the final verdict is rendered on the Borg being broken. Of course NONE of that helps when you are getting thrashed by them over and over now :)
until next time... scan for life signs and load the torpedo tubes!
Thursday, July 10, 2014
First repaints
Personal Log Stardate still friggin today get on with it....
As I mentioned in my first post. the paint jobs that come on the ST:AW figures are... less than stellar...
So tonight I set about repainting. However when one has not put brush to a mini in over two years and has let his paint case sit in the garage.. not to many pots survive and after that long they do NOT want to be reconstituted. But I did manage to get one done.
For reference here is where we start..
Oof those are hard to look at. Now even after just some shading these thing start looking better....
Just that alone is a huge improvment. And honestly I thought about just giving them all a couple coats of wash and calling it a day.. BUT NO! It was around this time when I start to move to detailing that I starting discovering dead paint pots..one after another... I think in the 4 tray case I may end up with one tray. Again this is what happens when you sit them in an Oklahoma garage for two years :)
But I did get the Intrepid finished and I think it came out pretty decent for someone who hasn't painted in two plus years. My hands were very shakey though making a lot of this even harder haha.
This picture is actually slightly darker than the mini actually appears. overall I am please. this looks way better than the stock paint job and makes my ship easier to pick out on the table.
I will continue to post the results of my repaints unless people tell me they enjoy the in between pics as well.
Next game is Monday, then an OP event on Tuesday that includes a blind draw booster. That should be interesting.
So until the next post. Stand down from red alert and head to 10-forward!
Shadoe42
As I mentioned in my first post. the paint jobs that come on the ST:AW figures are... less than stellar...
So tonight I set about repainting. However when one has not put brush to a mini in over two years and has let his paint case sit in the garage.. not to many pots survive and after that long they do NOT want to be reconstituted. But I did manage to get one done.
For reference here is where we start..
Oof those are hard to look at. Now even after just some shading these thing start looking better....
But I did get the Intrepid finished and I think it came out pretty decent for someone who hasn't painted in two plus years. My hands were very shakey though making a lot of this even harder haha.
This picture is actually slightly darker than the mini actually appears. overall I am please. this looks way better than the stock paint job and makes my ship easier to pick out on the table.
I will continue to post the results of my repaints unless people tell me they enjoy the in between pics as well.
Next game is Monday, then an OP event on Tuesday that includes a blind draw booster. That should be interesting.
So until the next post. Stand down from red alert and head to 10-forward!
Shadoe42
First Game
Capt's Log..Stardate..day after last post
So as I mentioned in my first post I played my first game last night. I had a 100 point Federation Fleet while my opponent had 110 pts of KDF. I took Picard on the Excelsior with Tom Paris. Sulu on a Miranda with Dimitri Valtane .. and Riker on a Nova with Saavik .All three ships were equipped with Proton Torpedoes.
Across the table were Worf in a Bird of Prey, and a couple other Klingon Capts in a Vorcha and a Raptor.
We deployed pretty evenly as this was a learning game and unless you engage with the enemy you won't learn much. I had the nova and miranda on the right side of the play table directly opposite his Raptor and BoP. I had placed the Exelsior right around the mid line of the table and that ship was more or less directly across from his vorcha. My plan was to get forward fairly quickly and engage since again can't really learn how the combat works if you never get into combat.
This was a straight up fight, no mission objectives.
We started across the table the first turn both players more or less just moving a bit forward. I put Riker and Sulu a bit out front and kept Picard just slightly behind them moving all three out in a straight line.
My opponent moved similarly and I was surprised he did not cloak up. I suspect that was mainly just to help me learn the game. A friendly Klingon..who'd a thunk it :) No one was in range to do much the first turn.
Second turn I did a short turn to port with the nova and miranda anticipating the KDF moves and bringing both those ships into firing position. The Exelsor also moved into range and I target locked all three ships one to one. Honestly the one "big" mistake I made was spreading my fire around. I know from previous games that concentrated fire is often the key. During this turn I fired proton torps from two ships...whiff..didn't hit a thing and my phasers from the nova didn't do much either.
My opponent was not so unlucky. he did concentrate fire and managed to strip all but one shield from the Excelsior in his first turn of shooting.
Then in a bit of a lucky break the Klingons manuvered such in the next turn that he did not have a clear shot while I managed to keep two out of three ships in firing position. Unfortunately my helmsman still could not hit the broadside of the spacedock but I did manage to strip off some shields.
Third turn I misjudged my own movement a bit and the nova bumped the miranda so could not take its action. I did however maintain a target lock with the Excelsior and did a scan with the miranda. the KDF forces on this turn got all three ships into firing position on the Excelsior though and she went down in a nice firey explosion(at least in my mind)... Meanwhile i whittled away at Worf in his BoP...GO ME!
The following turn saw the end of Rike in the Nova while I finally managed to strip the shields from the BoP. This was it though as the KDF forces blew Sulu and his miranda out of the sky and ended the game.
For a first game I am not displeased. I did make some moves just to see how the game mechanics worked and/or how my card abilities functioned. And I learned a lot about how the game flows. Once you get into combat things can turn hairy pretty quickly. I can also see now a bit better how to load out the ships.
The game is good deck building skills combined with good tactical abilities. All the great cards in the world won't help much if you can never get into a position to use them. I love the aspect of having to out guess where your opponent will fly. Reminds me a lot of games like Clix Crimson Skies. The mechanic is almost the same except you have a manuver dial instead of a manuver deck of cards.
Looking forward to a game on Monday then my first event play on Tuesday.
Until then keep rotating shield frequencies and don't run relationship programs on the holodeck!
So as I mentioned in my first post I played my first game last night. I had a 100 point Federation Fleet while my opponent had 110 pts of KDF. I took Picard on the Excelsior with Tom Paris. Sulu on a Miranda with Dimitri Valtane .. and Riker on a Nova with Saavik .All three ships were equipped with Proton Torpedoes.
Across the table were Worf in a Bird of Prey, and a couple other Klingon Capts in a Vorcha and a Raptor.
We deployed pretty evenly as this was a learning game and unless you engage with the enemy you won't learn much. I had the nova and miranda on the right side of the play table directly opposite his Raptor and BoP. I had placed the Exelsior right around the mid line of the table and that ship was more or less directly across from his vorcha. My plan was to get forward fairly quickly and engage since again can't really learn how the combat works if you never get into combat.
This was a straight up fight, no mission objectives.
We started across the table the first turn both players more or less just moving a bit forward. I put Riker and Sulu a bit out front and kept Picard just slightly behind them moving all three out in a straight line.
My opponent moved similarly and I was surprised he did not cloak up. I suspect that was mainly just to help me learn the game. A friendly Klingon..who'd a thunk it :) No one was in range to do much the first turn.
Second turn I did a short turn to port with the nova and miranda anticipating the KDF moves and bringing both those ships into firing position. The Exelsor also moved into range and I target locked all three ships one to one. Honestly the one "big" mistake I made was spreading my fire around. I know from previous games that concentrated fire is often the key. During this turn I fired proton torps from two ships...whiff..didn't hit a thing and my phasers from the nova didn't do much either.
My opponent was not so unlucky. he did concentrate fire and managed to strip all but one shield from the Excelsior in his first turn of shooting.
Then in a bit of a lucky break the Klingons manuvered such in the next turn that he did not have a clear shot while I managed to keep two out of three ships in firing position. Unfortunately my helmsman still could not hit the broadside of the spacedock but I did manage to strip off some shields.
Third turn I misjudged my own movement a bit and the nova bumped the miranda so could not take its action. I did however maintain a target lock with the Excelsior and did a scan with the miranda. the KDF forces on this turn got all three ships into firing position on the Excelsior though and she went down in a nice firey explosion(at least in my mind)... Meanwhile i whittled away at Worf in his BoP...GO ME!
The following turn saw the end of Rike in the Nova while I finally managed to strip the shields from the BoP. This was it though as the KDF forces blew Sulu and his miranda out of the sky and ended the game.
For a first game I am not displeased. I did make some moves just to see how the game mechanics worked and/or how my card abilities functioned. And I learned a lot about how the game flows. Once you get into combat things can turn hairy pretty quickly. I can also see now a bit better how to load out the ships.
The game is good deck building skills combined with good tactical abilities. All the great cards in the world won't help much if you can never get into a position to use them. I love the aspect of having to out guess where your opponent will fly. Reminds me a lot of games like Clix Crimson Skies. The mechanic is almost the same except you have a manuver dial instead of a manuver deck of cards.
Looking forward to a game on Monday then my first event play on Tuesday.
Until then keep rotating shield frequencies and don't run relationship programs on the holodeck!
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Welcome - Star Trek Attack Wing first thoughts
Capt's Personal Log, Stardate... seriously? those things never make sense anyway so just skip it....
Welcome to my new blog. Huzzah! Why do we need a another blog about miniature gaming? Well we don't but like many folks I feel like maybe I have something to say that others might find interesting. Maybe even crack a joke or three at times. So here we are :)
What are we going to talk about? Star Trek Attack Wing mostly. I have recently dove head first into this game. I have played various miniature wargames for many years but due to life and other pursuits(namely my music) I have not had a lot of time to do much gaming. So my minis collected dust on the shelf. Due to some big changes in my life recently I am hopefully going to have a bit more time to indulge in gaming. But not a great deal so i plan to concentrate on ST:AW as my game of choice.
I will say right up front I am a fan both Star Wars and Star Trek. And the two mini's games are similar. I will also admit that the Star Wars pre painted figs look far better the Attack Wings ones. ALL my ships will be getting a repaint. Jeez some of these are just embarrassing I managed to not get hooked by the SW game but just could not resist the Trek one. mainly because my personal bend in space ship games is capital ships over fighters. However in all likelihood I will end up at least trying the Star Wars one at some point... I know me :)
Anyway tonight I played my first game. Took a 100 pt Federation fleet against 100 pt KDF fleet. I will give a few more details in my next post but overall I was very pleased with how it went even though I lost the game itself. This game allowed me to start seeing how the game actually works instead of just reading the rules and thumbing thru the cards.
I have also spent a bit of time on the forums for the game trying to absorb information. While I do not play the game for anything other than fun i do find myself fascinated with the discussions of the "meta" game. The general consensus at the moment is..UGH BORG.I will also state for the record I have no plans to play Borg in any other capacity than using them in designed scenarios. I personally believe the Borg should be kept as the "Big Bad" and not be a playable faction. That is just my thoughts and not everyone agrees :) I have also made it my mission to figure out how to reliably defeat them.
Its late so I will leave this tonight with a final repeat of Welcome. Set Phasers to whatever you like and lets talk about the game. Comments are always welcome, even disagreeing ones. But lets keep it civil. I will discuss/debate/etc any topic as long as it stays calm and the anger is left elsewhere. at the end of the day its a game and we should play to have fun :)
Till Next time.. keep your shields up and the polarity on your deflector dish ready to change!
Shadoe42
Welcome to my new blog. Huzzah! Why do we need a another blog about miniature gaming? Well we don't but like many folks I feel like maybe I have something to say that others might find interesting. Maybe even crack a joke or three at times. So here we are :)
What are we going to talk about? Star Trek Attack Wing mostly. I have recently dove head first into this game. I have played various miniature wargames for many years but due to life and other pursuits(namely my music) I have not had a lot of time to do much gaming. So my minis collected dust on the shelf. Due to some big changes in my life recently I am hopefully going to have a bit more time to indulge in gaming. But not a great deal so i plan to concentrate on ST:AW as my game of choice.
I will say right up front I am a fan both Star Wars and Star Trek. And the two mini's games are similar. I will also admit that the Star Wars pre painted figs look far better the Attack Wings ones. ALL my ships will be getting a repaint. Jeez some of these are just embarrassing I managed to not get hooked by the SW game but just could not resist the Trek one. mainly because my personal bend in space ship games is capital ships over fighters. However in all likelihood I will end up at least trying the Star Wars one at some point... I know me :)
Anyway tonight I played my first game. Took a 100 pt Federation fleet against 100 pt KDF fleet. I will give a few more details in my next post but overall I was very pleased with how it went even though I lost the game itself. This game allowed me to start seeing how the game actually works instead of just reading the rules and thumbing thru the cards.
I have also spent a bit of time on the forums for the game trying to absorb information. While I do not play the game for anything other than fun i do find myself fascinated with the discussions of the "meta" game. The general consensus at the moment is..UGH BORG.I will also state for the record I have no plans to play Borg in any other capacity than using them in designed scenarios. I personally believe the Borg should be kept as the "Big Bad" and not be a playable faction. That is just my thoughts and not everyone agrees :) I have also made it my mission to figure out how to reliably defeat them.
Its late so I will leave this tonight with a final repeat of Welcome. Set Phasers to whatever you like and lets talk about the game. Comments are always welcome, even disagreeing ones. But lets keep it civil. I will discuss/debate/etc any topic as long as it stays calm and the anger is left elsewhere. at the end of the day its a game and we should play to have fun :)
Till Next time.. keep your shields up and the polarity on your deflector dish ready to change!
Shadoe42
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