Different Ways to Play 6: The Trick Build

Welcome back to my irregular multi-part series on playing STAW in different ways, today I deal with perhaps my preferred way of playing, certainly for the last few OPs, the Trick Build.



The Basics

The trick build is often based around an upgrade that robs your opponent of his ability to attack, and often his shields too, although this isn't always the case. For me at least, the trick build is about getting an advantage in the game very quickly so as to ensure that your opponent is a ship down before the game really gets under way. It's easiest for me to explain using a build that I used to win TCW 1 and TCW 2, so some explanation on that build first before I post it (and some explanation of our weird system of house rules too.)

House Rules: When I first started playing at my current venue, the only house rules in place were a general acceptance to not go over the top, which quickly disappeared (certainly my first game was a baptism of fire when a 100 point Borg Tactical Cube came flying across a planet across the board at me turn 1 and nuked one of my ships before I even got started) but as time on we've tried to refine more and more what it is that we want from the game, leading to our current set of house rules. We have a number of experienced players on board, so we made the decision relatively early on not to retire resources, since a new player could easily borrow those resources from us if needs be, we also don't enforce the 50/3 limit, so as to distinguish our own store from others. It's surprising how much fun you can have with only a 120 point dreadnought! As well as these two rules, the other ones of note are that ship purity is enforced, with the exception of independent cards, that can go anywhere, and for the Reinforcement booster missions, we made the decision to go to 160 points (120 plus blind) to mitigate the impact of having a poor blind.

My favourite trick build, is the following:

I.K.S. T'Ong [I.K.S. T'Ong] (24)
Koloth [I.K.S. Gr'oth] (4)
Klingon Boarding Party [I.K.S. Negh'var] (5)
Projected Stasis Field [I.K.S. Gr'oth] (5)
Total (38)

I.K.S. Maht-H'A [Starter] (28)
Martok [I.K.S. Negh'var] (5)
Fleet Captain: Klingon [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Lure [U.S.S. Dauntless] (1)
Tactical Officer [I.K.S. T'Ong] (2)
N'Garen [I.K.S. Koraga] (4)
Total (45)

Vor'cha Class [Starter] (26)
Kor [I.K.S. Ning'tao] (5)
Tactical Officer [I.K.S. T'Ong] (2)
Drex [I.K.S. Negh'var] (4)
Total (37)
Fleet total: 120

The idea here is that you use lure to make sure that the opponent's most expensive/hardest hitting ship is in range, then you use the two additional actions that CS 10 Martok gives out to trigger first Projected Stasis Field and then Klingon Boarding Party. With the opponent's shields down, all of their upgrades disabled and unable to shoot, the two Vor'Chas then open fire with Drex/N'Garen for BS conversions and tactical officer, if needed, for re-rolls. There are problems here, since KBP doesn't work on cloaked ships, so a Romulan ship with multiple Interphase Generators may prove a hard nut to crack. I used this build to great effect against a Federation Voyager evade build, reducing it to just 4 durability and then removing all of its agility upgrades. Lure was used to ensure that it was in place for the PSF/KBP hit and then the two Vor'Chas firing at 6 dice thanks to range with great quality easily got rid of it. 

The eponymous tricks in play here are: Lure, PSF, KBP, Klingon Fleet captain and Martok. You can achieve similar without the fleet captain, but you have to change Koloth for GenKhan to ensure simultaneous movement with Martok, and it isn't nearly as reliable in this case, but still do-able and it fits into 50/3 (although not fleet/ship purity). 

Tactics:

As with most of the builds I've been cooking up for this series, this fleet is scuttled by having key aspects of it removed, such as Martok, PSF or KBP. If anything, writing this series has really opened my eyes to how important it is to have things in your build that can scalpel out key aspects of an opponent's build. It should also be noted that the trick build isn't limited to PSF combos, but could also work with Kor 6, Mirror Bashir, Breen Energy Dissipator...basically any card that messes with your opponent's fleet, either in how they can fire, how they can move or what actions they can take. The new Ceti Eel Elite Talent from Wrath of Khan's Indy Reliant prize ship is a great example of a card that can mess with your opponent's plans, and that is essentially all that the Trick Build is about, find new and interesting ways of messing with your opponent.

It's been difficult to give a full and thorough account of this way to play simply because there are so many variants of it. Certainly it is something to consider when playing, as a canny opponent with a good grasp of what to do to mess up your plans can really ruin your day! So make sure to build your fleet with PSF, Madred and Lure in mind, since not planning to deal with trick may be your undoing!

NEXT TIME: Combined Arms Builds

Different Ways to Play 5: Durability and Repairing

I know it's been a while, and this might not be as highly anticipated as I'd like it to be, but...Welcome to the Fifth edition in my series of articles encouraging you to find different ways of playing STAW!
Previously I've spoken about High Quality Attacking, Defence Dice Stacking, Repeated Attack Cancellation and Multiple Movement Upgrades. Today, we look at a very Borg way of playing the game: Durability and Repairing (D&R for short). I actually think that this way of playing is a pretty reliable way of playing the game since it allows you the opportunity to out-last your opponent in the same way that DDS does, but without as much of the associated cost, and reliance upon those ever so fickle green dice!

The Basics
You want ships that are big, and I mean really big; Borg Tactical Cube and Dominion Battleship type big. Okay, so those aren't perhaps the best examples, but the internal logic is that you want large numbers in both the Yellow and Blue boxes at the side of the ship stat card. You used to want higher numbers in the Blue box (Shields) than the Yellow Box (Hull) since Critical Hits did little extra to shields and could devastate a ship if you let them get to the hull. Nowadays, thanks to the shield ignoring upgrades that exist like Phased Polaron Beam and Proton Beam, the balance is less clear cut. Regardless of the balance of the two, you want to have a combined hull and shield value (lets call this Durability) of more than 10; and the higher it is, the better your D&R build will be. This sorts the "D" side of "D&R";Next we have to consider the "R" side.

In addition to having loads of durability, you also want to be able to get it back during the engagement. Both Borg and Species 8472 ships have this ability as standard, although it comes with a huge drawback; the Regeneration action will allow you to repair a hull point, but it will stop you from firing that turn, so ideally you want another way of growing your durability back.

Staying with the Borg faction (who do D&R really well, by the way) we have the upgrade Vinculum, As an Action/Disable, you can repair one damage, which may seem a steep cost, but it doesn't cost you your attack and there is nothing on the card stopping you from healing a face up damage card. I played a game against someone using Vinculum on a Borg Sphere not long ago, and it proved to be the difference between the game ending on turn 4 or turn 8. The Sphere was down to 1 hull and had the Damaged Sensor Array Critical hit. This meant that he couldn't use the actions on his action bar, meaning no regeneration action. As it was, he used Vinculum to repair the damaged sensor array and as a result he was able to use regeneration in subsequent turns that he wouldn't otherwise have been able to. On the turn he did use Vinculum I was able to hit his ship for 1 damage; had he not had vinclum to use, that one point of damage would have destroyed him, as it was he stayed in the fight for another 4 turns (at least).

Other repair cards are available, and most factions have access to them: Glinn Daro, Mirror O'Brien, Charles Tucker III, Bu'Kah, Mirok, Micro Power Relays...the list goes on. The point is that in this type of build you have as many of them as possible simply to ensure that you can heal over and over again. If you are playing Klingons in D&R, go for a ship with Bu'Kah and Tritium Intermix, since they are both discards, having multiples helps. In Romulan D&R, Mirok and the Drone ship both heal for free.

Some factions, however, suit D&R more than others. Both Klingons and Romulans are mainly cloaking fleets, and D&R doesn't really want to cloak, since that will cost you a lot of your durability from disabled shields. The Two factions that do D&R best are Federation and Borg:

List 1:
Federation D&R 120 Points

U.S.S. Excelsior [U.S.S. Excelsior] (26)
Data [Sakharov] (2)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)
Unimatrix Shielding [Delta Flyer] (5)
Micro Power Relays [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Immersion Shielding [Delta Flyer] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Total (50)

U.S.S. Hood [U.S.S. Hood] (26)
Federation [U.S.S. Enterprise-E] (0)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Eric Motz [U.S.S. Pegasus] (2)
Immersion Shielding [Delta Flyer] (3)
Micro Power Relays [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Unimatrix Shielding [Delta Flyer] (5)
Arsenal [U.S.S. Phoenix] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (50)

Enterprise NX-01 [Enterprise NX-01] (16)
Clark Terell [U.S.S. Reliant] (1)
Adm Hayes [U.S.S. Thunderchild] (3)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (0)
Total (20)

Fleet total: 120

The idea here is that you have two incredibly durable ships, since both the Hood and Excelsior have 5 hull and 8 Shields for a total durability of 13, with the ability to heal themselves (thanks to Micro Power Relays). The third ship hands out both defence dice (Terell) and attack dice (Hayes) each turn and can take a bit of a pounding (although not much) thanks to Enhanced Hull Plating. Both the Excelsior Class ships swing at 5 dice basic, with an extra 1 (2 against Borg) from Hayes. Whilst you will be using your actions for Micro Power Relays most of the time, the first turn engagement will allow some quality on those dice, thanks to Data, the Excelsior's named ability and a ship action that won't otherwise be used. 

List 2:

Borg D&R 90 Points

Borg Sphere [Borg Sphere 4270] (38)
Tactical Drone [Borg Sphere 4270] (3)
Vinculum [Assimilated Vessel 80279] (5)
Total (46)

Borg Sphere [Borg Sphere 4270] (38)
Tactical Drone [Scout Cube] (1)
Vinculum [Assimilated Vessel 80279] (5)
Total (44)

Fleet total: 90

Very simple and straightforward: One cube has Tactical Drone 4270 for re-rolls without needing to spend a target lock and the other has the Counter Attack tactical drone to make attack the cube even more futile than resistance normally would be. Both spheres have Vinculums, either to heal up the 13 durability that both spheres have or to replenish Drone Tokens that are needed to use captain abilities. Obviously it needs to get into range 2 to do its dirty work, but Borg players seem to like things down and dirty.

Is D&R a viable tactic? I certainly think it has some legs, and it's a tactic that won't rely on dice rolls the way that DDS does. Reliably being able to regenerate one point of damage a turn whilst not necessarily being pillow fisted in return means that in an attrition battle, you might just come out on top over a pure HQA fleet. Having the upgrades that aid healing on board certainly give you the flexibility to do more than one thing on turns that you haven't engaged your enemy, that perhaps HQA doesn't have. As with all of these builds, going all-in on one strategy might not be the best way of doing things, and I think a combination of both D&R and HQA might just be the ticket. More on that later though....

EDIT: the regenerate action only allows hull to be healed, not shields. This makes some difference to the utility of Borg/Species builds but also reinforces the point about wanting extra repair upgrades.

NEXT TIME: The Trick Build