The Power of 4: Attacking

Four is a key number in ST:AW because in most situations, 4 is what you want to achieve in terms of attack dice, hull or shields (Not evade, since 6 is the magic number here – I’ll write more about this later). Attack (red) dice in STAW are split 1 crit, 3 hits, 2 Battlestations and 2 blank, so when you roll four attack dice, just based on basic probability, you are likely to roll 2 hits (which may or may not be critical hits) 1 BS and 1 Blank. If you have dice efficiency of any type, this means that 4 attack dice, more often than not, result in 3 hits. (If you have both re-rolls, from whatever source, and BS, you can almost guarantee 4 hits, since the average on 4 dice with both TL and BS is 94%, or 3.9ish hits). The more dice that you have on an attack, the less useful the increased efficiency becomes, primarily because you have more dice to re-roll. Certain cards like Dimitri Valtane and (young) Kor, allow you to re-roll a specified number of dice, (2 in Valtane’s Case, more often than not 2 in Kor’s Case). These limited re-rolls allow you to increase the efficiency of a 4 dice attack to around the same level as a full re-roll would, as long as you don’t have too many dice. It’s one of the reasons I like 4 dice Photon Torpedoes, since the one BS to Crit conversion that it allows you is functionally the same as a BS on 4 dice anyway (You just need to find a way of getting the benefit of re-rolls too, since the TL is used to fire the torpedoes in the first place). A 4 dice Photon Torpedo roll would hit or crit twice (on average) with the BS being converted into another Crit, thanks to the torpedoes’ written ability. When you go to 5 dice on Photon Torpedoes, you would ultimately be better off with a standard attack with BS rather than the no BS crit conversion that Torpedoes offer. There are other issues with Torpedoes (the main on being action efficiency on every turn after the Torpedoes are fired) but in terms of damage output, a 4 dice attack with Photon Torpedoes is a little better than a 4 dice Primary Weapon attack with BS conversions. As soon as you get beyond 4 dice this advantage disappears, and you would be better off just firing primary weapons, also, the lack of a BS token means that such an attack would not be able to benefit from Boheeka and his ilk. A 4 dice Photon Torpedo attack on a ship that has a primary weapon value of between 1 and 3 is a tactic that many players eschew given the cost of the torpedoes themselves as well as the action economy cost of using them multiple times, but for that first alpha strike, they shouldn’t be discounted out of hand. A tactic I’ve considered using is a small Federation ship (think the Pegasus, Equinox or similar) with 4 dice Photons and Malcolm Reed. In the first turn of an engagement, use the Photon Torpedoes for on average 3 hits (including 2 crits) and then in the second turn of your engagement use Reed’s ability to discard the disabled Photons to add 2 dice to your PVW, and take a BS as the ship action for a similar quality attack. Depending on captain (I’d suggest Sisko, for the extra re-roll per turn to add even better efficiency) this ship is a potent, manoeuverable little ship that doesn’t cost all that much.

For example:

U.S.S. Equinox [U.S.S. Equinox] (20)
Benjamin Sisko [U.S.S. Defiant] (4)
Malcolm Reed [Enterprise NX-01] (3)
Photon Torpedoes [U.S.S. Excelsior] (3)
Total (28)

Fleet total: 30

For 30 points you get a 4 attack Photon Torpedo attack with the BS-Crit conversion the first time that you fire (with a re-roll from Sisko), a 4 Dice Primary Weapon Attack the second time that you fire, with a BS action and a re-roll for Sisko and hopefully by that point you are in range 1, so you get a 3 dice Primary Weapon attack with a re-roll from Sisko and BS. If someone shoots this ship then they aren’t shooting something else in your fleet, meaning you have a relatively reliable 4 dice of damage each turn – It’s great for taking on Borg, since they don’t generally roll any evade dice or have the evade action. It also pairs well with the Yaegar Torpedo boat that gives you similar efficiency:

U.S.S. Yeager [U.S.S. Yeager] (22)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Photon Torpedoes [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Total (30)

The torpedoes used on this ship are not disabled and are of the 5 dice variety. Since they don’t disable and Spock gives you the free TL every turn, you can fire torpedoes every turn (as long as you keep in range 2-3) and take a BS Action. These two ships together pack a good punch for 60 Points, meaning you can fill the rest of your build out with 60 points of tougher, harder to kill ships (or a single ship if your meta allows) or even a carrier and some fighters. I’ll try the second option for now:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Christopher Pike [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Phil Wallace [U.S.S. Pegasus] (0)
Elizabeth Shelby [U.S.S. Yeager] (0)
Kyle [U.S.S. Reliant] (0)
Hikaru Sulu [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (1)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (38)

Federation Attack Squadron [Fighter Squadron 6] (20)
Coordinated Attack [Fighter Squadron 6] (3)
Total (23)

The Enterprise is designed to survive, and the Fleet Captain resource along with Redshirts, Shelby, Pike and Sulu means that you are going to take a lot of damage before you do die. This is exacerbated by Cheat Death. Type 8 Phasers means that you are rolling those all-important 4 red dice each turn, and Phil Wallace and Kyle provide some flexibility to heal and manoeuvre. With all the reductions in play, you actually get the Equinox down a point and can still afford to take a set of Federation fighters, with coordinated attack, so they also benefit from BS conversions. It’s an interesting little fleet that I may have to try out sometime and it’s all based on the power of 4.

I’m going to come back to the power of 4 again, to look at hull and shields, but for now, I’m still not Picard.

D