Play testing for Q Continuum OP2

Upon reading the rules set for Q2 my first thought was that the ship with Q on board would be useless. Having read the clarifications on WORF (Wizkids online rules forum) I don’t necessarily think it is useless, but waiting a minimum of 4 turns for a ship to enter the fight could be a huge deal. So my first thoughts on Q2 were to make a list that had a high hull ship that could be the Q ship (NB: Old naval term for heavily armed merchant ships used as decoys) and whose offensive power I wouldn’t miss, so that I could do the rest of the fleet designed to kill my opponent. The q ship itself could still head for the moon and try to complete the mission whilst the rest of my fleet engages the enemy. Enter the Olympic Class…

Olympic Class [U.S.S. Pasteur] (20)
Mirror Universe Captain [I.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Total (20)

I.S.S. Defiant [I.S.S. Defiant] (24)
Flagship: Independent (Romulan) [Flagship Resource] (10)
William T. Riker [U.S.S. Pasteur] (4)
Adm Worf [Regent's Flagship] (2)
Strafing Run [I.S.S. Defiant] (5)
Rebellion [I.S.S. Defiant] (5)
Elim Garak [Regent's Flagship] (3)
Jennifer Sisko [I.S.S. Defiant] (3)
Julian Bashir [I.S.S. Defiant] (2)
Improved Deflector Screens [Gornarus] (4)
Dorsal Weapons Array [Prakesh] (2)
Total (64)

I.S.S. Avenger [I.S.S. Avenger] (16)
Mr. Spock [I.S.S. Enterprise] (5)
Starfleet Intelligence [U.S.S. Pasteur] (3)
Alyssa Ogawa [U.S.S. Pasteur] (2)
Hikaru Sulu [I.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Enhanced Hull Plating [I.S.S. Avenger] (4)
Plasma Cannons [I.S.S. Avenger] (2)
Total (36)

Fleet total: 120

The idea with this list was to have Q on the Olympic whilst the Defiant and the Avenger did their thing. The Defiant is flagged for +1 Attack, Defence and Shields, and gets access to Improved Deflector Screens (Since it is dual faction Mirror/Independent thanks to the flagship bonus). Riker’s battery ability makes the first few actions of a game worthwhile, and can mean that I’m attacking with 5 dice, BS and TL every turn, with an ability to cancel one hit or crit due to IDS and another due to the ship’s ability (at the cost of an auxiliary power token). With 3 evade basic, hopefully the now 3 hull 4 shield defiant will last long enough to hold onto those points, because 64 points is a huge investment in a potentially fragile ship.

Another fragile ship is the Avenger, which also has a multi-action captain in the form of Spock, whose ability each turn will grant the APT needed to trigger the ship’s ability (+2 attack dice), meaning that the ship will again fire with 4 dice, TL and BS.

The thing that worries me most about this list is that it is really quite fragile, and a few poor defence rolls, coupled with an opponent running high skill captains, could mean the end for the fleet in pretty short order. I do like the idea of running a Mirror Universe fleet for this event, but I don’t think this is quite the ticket.

Idea 2: Federation

Having read the clarifications on the Wizkids Online Rules Forum (WORF) I see that a ship’s secondary weapons are not negatively affected by Q. This got me thinking that a torpedo boat may be the right path to go down. Enter the Excelsior…

U.S.S. Excelsior [U.S.S. Excelsior] (26)

Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)

Tuvok [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)

Dmitri Valtane [U.S.S. Excelsior] (2)

Lojur [U.S.S. Excelsior] (1)

William T. Riker [U.S.S. Enterprise-E] (4)

The Doctor [U.S.S. Voyager] (3)

Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)

Quantum Torpedoes [U.S.S. Enterprise-E] (6)

Total (52)

Federation Attack Squadron [Fighter Squadron 6] (20)

Squad Leader [Fighter Squadron 6] (4)

Total (24)

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)

Jonathan Archer [Enterprise NX-01] (3)

Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)

Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)

Nyota Uhura [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (2)

Phlox [Enterprise NX-01] (1)

Jack Crusher [U.S.S. Stargazer] (1)

Phil Wallace [U.S.S. Pegasus] (1)

Beverly Crusher [U.S.S. Enterprise-E] (2)

Pavel Chekov [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (2)

Eric Motz [U.S.S. Pegasus] (1)

Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)

Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)

Total (44)

Fleet total: 120

This list relies upon a lot of crew and as such taking the Klingon Fleet captain seemed like a good idea. The Excelsior herself fires Quantum Torpedoes every turn with 1 extra dice thanks to Tuvok, BS as the ship’s action and a free scan thanks to the ability. Spock makes the Torpedoes lock on, and Lojur stops them from disabling. Valtane allows two re-rolls meaning that the final load out is 6 dice, bs conversions and 2 re-rolls for almost 90% accuracy. If any of those hits get through, I add another hit making it potentially 7 damage a turn.

The Enterprise uses Archer’s action to disable 2 crew (usually Motz and Wallace) to add +2 CS and +2 Attack. With Type 8 Phasers this makes it PWV 6 and CS 7, disable Uhura to add another 2 to the CS to all but guarantee that first strike at CS9. Chekov disables to give re-rolls and if the fleet is positioned correctly, then the fighter squadron can support the Enterprise with squad leader so that Archer’s action is free, allowing the ship to take BS too. At the beginning of the next turn, Phlox disables to take all of the disabled tokens from the crew, with Crusher disabling to stop that from happening, meaning that ever turn, all of those crew can be disabled over and over.

Fighters are fighters, but they give the extra action to Archer that helps the whole fleet to work, and two ships firing 6 dice a turn should do some damage, especially when the opposing fire coming back is potentially reduced due to Q.

Once Q is gone, both the Excelsior and Enterprise are free to engage at will, the only problem I forsee is an opponent using a cloaked fleet, where the Target Lock from Spock will be difficult to achieve in the first place.

So there are some ideas I’m working on at the moment, comments are welcome

I’m still not Picard.

D