Last Sunday I played in my second Peak
performance event, at Wayland Games in the UK. I’d been throwing around a
number of ideas of what I was going to take (you can read about that here). And
I have probably play-tested this list more than any other list for any other
event. I was writing the list to the restrictions that the venue used at the
time (They’ve changed, more on that later) which were as follows:
- · All upgrades deployed to a ship must match the faction of that ship.
- · No resources are disallowed by retirement. Independent flagships and Fleet Captains may be deployed to any ship or captain and give that ship or captain dual faction independent.
- · There is no limit on the SP you spend on a particular ship, nor is there a requirement to take a minimum number of ships in your fleet.
I have been an avid follower of
anything to do with STAW for the last year or so, and as such I followed Tucker
Cobey’s coverage of the World Championships at Origins with a degree of
interest. I’ve always enjoyed movement as a phase of the game, love the ability
to outmanoeuvre my opponents and thought that games were often won or lost in
this part of the game (I should note at this stage that Borg were rare at the
venue before the recent changes). When I saw the builds that won worlds it
seemed to me that it was a perfect opportunity for me to embrace the Borg and
enjoy movement again. You can take a look at my play-testing for Peak
Performance here. This is the list I finally settled upon:
Soong [Soong] (38)
Karr [Alpha Hunter] (5)
Admiral Borg Queen [Queen Vessel Prime] (5)
Full Reverse [Alpha Hunter] (2)
Evasive Pattern Omega [Val Jean] (3)
Tuvok [Val Jean] (3)
Power Node [Queen Vessel Prime] (3)
Magnetometric Guided Charge [Scout Cube] (5)
Total (64)
Scout 608 [Scout Cube] (24)
Flagship: Independent (Dominion) [Flagship Resource] (10)
Khan Singh [GenKhan] (4)
Research Mission [U.S.S. Raven] (2)
Research Mission [U.S.S. Raven] (2)
Dispersion Field [Scout 255] (2)
Sakonna [Gavroche] (2)
Improved Deflector Screens [Gornarus] (4)
Ramming Attack [Val Jean] (1)
Proton beam [Scout 255] (2)
Magnetometric Guided Charge [Scout Cube] (3)
Total (56)
As you can probably tell, this build
was heavily influenced by Peter Smith’s World Championship winning build, with
a few flourishes of my own. The Soong was designed to give me non-cardinal
movement and the Flagship resource gave me the opportunity to sling shot the
Soong at people (which would prove very useful). Also, the Soong was the only
ship I could get that would allow me to have two dual faction Borg/Independent
ships in the fleet, which allowed for some interesting shenanigans.
Game 1: Steve – Mirror/Dominion
I’ll say before I start this stage of
the report that Steve had a few issues with his list that became clearer as the
game went on. He spent most of the game using the Dominion battle cruiser dial
for his battleship and the USS Enterprise Refit base-plate instead of the ISS
Enterprise one. When looking at his list after the event I also noticed that he
had miscalculated his points and was slightly over. I don’t think this had a
massive effect upon our game, and I’m certain that the errors were genuine; I
just thought I’d say so before we got going.
Steve’s List was as follows:
4th Division Battleship [4th Division Battleship] (36)
Flagship: Independent (Klingon) [Flagship Resource] (10)
Gul Dukat [Koranak] (5)
Amat'Igan [Battle Cruiser] (3)
Breen Aide [Gor Portas] (2)
Long Range Tachyon Scan [5th Wing Patrol Ship] (2)
Antiproton Scan [Kraxon] (4)
Photon Torpedoes [4th Division Battleship] (6)
Photon Torpedoes [5th Wing Patrol Ship] (5)
Volley of Torpedoes [Battle Cruiser] (6)
Total (79)
I.S.S. Enterprise [I.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
William T. Riker [Assimilation Target Prime] (4)
Tantalus Field [I.S.S. Enterprise] (6)
Bareil Antos [Regent's Flagship] (2)
Ezri Tigan [I.S.S. Defiant] (4)
Photon Torpedoes [I.S.S. Enterprise] (3)
Dorsal Weapons Array [Prakesh] (2)
Total (43)
Fleet total: 122
Steve deployed both of his ships off
to one side of the planet and so I deployed on the opposite side. I was
relatively certain that I could outmanoeuvre him and felt that with a bit of
speed I could get behind him. When we eventually engaged he did some damage to
the Scout Cube (I lost two shields) and more damage to the Soong (3 shields)
but I remained relatively unscathed, In exchange I was able to take out the ISS
Enterprise and do some damage to the Battleship.
The Enterprise then re-deployed, and
due to its captain skill was able to zip up to the Soong and Tantalus Field
Karr into the abyss. This meant that the Borg Queen took over as Captain and
that wasn’t the worst trade-off in the world – Since the Soong then obliterated
the Enterprise in return.
The Battleship had been able to fire
in its first pass, but that was it for the remainder of the game. It was as
Steve was trying to bring the Battleship around that we noticed he was using
the wrong dial. A judge was called over and we agreed that the best course of
action was to swap his white 2 turn on the battle cruiser dial he had just
revealed for a red 3 turn on the battleship dial. Unfortunately, since he
already had a APT by the ship, this would allow me to choose the manoeuvre, and
I left the lumbering ship pointed in the direction of the board edge with
little to do about it.
I killed the Enterprise again, and not
having learned the lessons of last time, it steamed up to the scout cube and
killed Khan. It was at this stage that we noticed the base plate was wrong on
the enterprise (although I doubt it had much impact on the outcome of the
game). As with the last time, the MGC from the Soong and Cube together took the
Enterprise out for a third time.
Final Result: Steve 0 Me 228
Round 2: Dan - Borg
Dan and I are old friends and I have
recently introduced him to STAW, this was his first OP event and whilst I’d
given him some pointers and feedback on his list, he had mainly come up with it
himself. Of all the things that I could face in the event, 360 Borg were the
most worrying as it stopped being a game of “get out of arc” and instead became
a trade off (If my two ships could shoot whilst only being able to be shot by
one ship in return, that was the best it was going to get) I assumed that Dan
would take double MGC, but thankfully he only had one of the cards, so his list
was as follows:
Queen Vessel Prime [Queen Vessel Prime] (42)
Borg Queen [Tactical Cube 001] (6)
Vinculum [Assimilated Vessel 80279] (5)
Borg Shield Matrix [Queen Vessel Prime] (8)
Borg Ablative Hull Armor [Borg Sphere 4270] (10)
Feedback Pulse [Borg Sphere 4270] (8)
Total (79)
Scout 608 [Scout Cube] (24)
Third of Five [Scout Cube] (2)
Magnetometric Guided Charge [Scout Cube] (5)
Total (31)
Flagship (10)
Fleet total: 120
I miscalculated the first pass here
horrendously and lost the Soong whilst only marginally damaging the QVP in
return. What I should have done is to concentrate all of my efforts onto
killing the scout cube and tried to keep out of range of the shorter ranged
diamond. Instead I lost the Soong and left the Scout in a perilous position on
its own.
Thankfully the speed of the Soong
allowed it to rejoin the battle quickly and the slingshot flagship together
with the extra manoeuvring provided by Full reverse meant that I could keep the
Soong out of arc for most of the remainder of the game. The Power Node in
particular was a star as it allowed me to perform 4 come-about manoeuvres in
repeated turns. This, together with careful positioning of the Scout, allowed
me to essentially guarantee killing the opposing scout every turn, especially
by the point that it had lost all of its shields (only 2 hull made it very easy
to pick off).
Final Result: Dan 69 Me 180
Had this game not had the
‘destroyed-ships-return-to-the-game’ mechanic I fear that my errors on the
first pass would have given Dan the game – although he did note later on during
our encounter that he was getting bored of not being able to shoot me, thanks
to the scout’s manoeuvring ability – and I hope that means that had it been
Scot cube vs. diamond that I may have been able to engineer a situation where I
could have won eventually.
Round Three: Mike – Klingons
Mike and I have played a number of
times before and I always enjoy our games. Most frequently we have both played
Federation so when he lined up with Klingons and I lined up with Borg, it was
something of a surprise to both of us. Mike’s list was the following:
I.K.S. Ch'tang [IKS Ch'tang] (22)
Martok [I.K.S. Negh'var] (5)
Konmel [Starter] (4)
Advanced Weapon System [Starter] (5)
Total (36)
I.K.S. Negh'var [I.K.S. Negh'var] (30)
Flagship: Independent (Federation) [Flagship Resource] (10) Korok
[Assimilated Vessel 80279] (4) Phaser Array Retrofit [I.K.S. Pagh] (5) Total
(49)
I.K.S. Maht-H'A [Starter] (28)
Gowron [I.K.S. Negh'var] (4)
Kerla [I.K.S. Kronos One] (2)
Total (34)
Fleet total: 119
As with the game against Steve, Mike
lined up on one side of the planet and I lined up on the other. He barrelled
forward whilst I edged forward hoping he’d choose to turn towards me giving me
the opportunity to slip behind him. When
Mike turned his fleet like this, I seized my opportunity.
As with the scout cube in the second
game, the Ch’tang became a very easy target once it had been destroyed a couple
of times. I again used the Soong and the slingshot effect from the scout cube
to ensure that I was able to deliver a 6 dice attack against it every turn (at
least) if not also a 3 dice MGC (with target lock). This meant that for 5 turns
in a row I managed to kill the Ch’tang (it already having died), also managing
to dispatch the Negh’var and the Maht’h’a once each into the bargain.
Final Result: Mike 130, Me 434
(possible miscalculated this, but I won, big).
So overall I won and was 420-odd
points ahead of second place, my round 3 opponent.
1st – Borg – 2 ships
2nd – Klingons – 3 ships
3rd –Borg/Vulcan (OXP) – 2
ships – One/Sopek
4th – Fed – 2 ships
Chroniton Torps on a Sovereign
5th – Borg – 2 ships
6th – Mirror/Dominion – 2
ships
After the event we had a chat amongst
the group and decided that in future we would run penalty pure rather than ship
pure, which I’m pleased with. As with any changes that we run, it means that it
could change if it doesn’t work out, but a change in restrictions will create
innovation in fleet building so that is a good thing, IMHO.
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