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

After Action Report: Q Continuum OP1 - Dominion

When I first got into ST:AW I wanted to play Federation. The 'good guy syndrome' rests strong with me (in Warhammer Fantasy, God rest its soul, I played Empire, in X-Wing rebellion and even in Twilight Struggle I prefer USA to USSR) so off I went to buy a federation fleet.

Before too long though I was tempted by the other factions and began to play Klingons, Romulans and then Dominion. Deep Space Nine is my Favourite ST series and the option of having Gul Dukat (one of TV's most multi-faceted villains) fly my ships was too good to miss.

So with OP 1 I decided to play Dominion, and you can see my testing process elsewhere, eventually I settled on this list:

Trager [Assimilated Vessel 64758] (26)

Gul Dukat [Battle Cruiser] (5)

Breen Aide [Gor Portas] (2)

First Officer [Officer Resource] (3)

Aft Weapons Array [Reklar] (4)

Total (40)

Reklar [Reklar] (26)

Gul Lemec [Reklar] (3)

Adm Gul Madred [Reklar] (5)

Boheeka [Koranak] (2)

Aft Weapons Array [Reklar] (4)

Total (40)

Hideki Class Attack Squadron [1st Wave Attack Fighters] (20)

Total (20)

Hideki Class Attack Squadron [1st Wave Attack Fighters] (20)

Total (20)

Fleet total: 120

Many have counselled me that I have too many upgrades and may struggle to deal with the quixotic nature of Q, but practice games have taught me that as soon as you reach the central area (outside range 3 of a board edge) the effects of Q are easily dealt with. Having captains disabled might be annoying, but with an admiral and first officer in the fleet, I'd probably have a higher captain skill than my opponent.

So I rocked up to Wayland Games on Sunday ready to take whatever the worst Q had to throw at me was and was faced in round one with Borg.

Round One: Dan - Borg

Assimilated Vessel 80279 [Assimilated Vessel 80279] (26)

Flagship: Independent (Klingon) [Flagship Resource] (10)

Third of Five [Scout Cube] (2)

Advanced Weapon System [Starter] (5)

Total (43)

Assimilated Vessel 64758 [Assimilated Vessel 64758] (30)

Drone [Borg Sphere 4270] (0)

Total (30)

Soong [Soong] (38)

Drone [Borg Sphere 4270] (0)

Feedback Pulse [Borg Sphere 4270] (8)

Total (46)

Fleet total: 119

Dan and I often bounce list ideas off one another so when I was drawn against Dan round one, it was reassuring to know I'd be in for a good game. Dan and I go way back too, having known each other first of all through playing Warhammer fantasy (rest in peace). 

This first game was characterised by only being able to move 1 ever, and whilst all of my upgrades were disabled in turn one, by the time we made contact with each other everything was re-enabled and my captains were in play so I was able to take out the B'rel first and then the Galor. The Soong did offer some resistance, but went down to fighter fire soon enough.

The main lesson from this game was that having a captain skill higher than 1 was key, as it allowed me to concentrate fire and remove a key threat before I came under fire.

Result: Me 120-0 Dan

Round Two: Rich - Species 8472

Rich is the venue's TO and only plays when an odd number of people turn up. He'd played at nationals and is no slouch as a commander, we've played twice before, the first my scimitar killed his J'H battleship and the second my Klingons killed his Tholian. For this event he'd also gone down the no upgrades route with this list:

Species 8472 Bioship [Bioship Alpha] (36)

Species 8472 Captain [Bioship Alpha] (0)

Total (36)

Bioship Alpha [Bioship Alpha] (38)

Flagship: Independent (Klingon) [Flagship Resource] (10)

Species 8472 Captain [Bioship Alpha] (0)

Total (48)

Species 8472 Bioship [Bioship Alpha] (36)

Species 8472 Captain [Bioship Alpha] (0)

Total (36)

Fleet total: 120

This game was a similar game to the last- by the time we were in range of one another all of my upgrades were operational and I was able to concentrate firepower on the flagship and take it down before it had chance to fire. Afterwards, the fighters did their thing and I came away again unscathed.

Result: Me 120-0 Rich

Round 3: Mark - Romulans

Mark had the only fleet that really scared me, since he had 3 sets of cloaked mines  and a lot of upgrades too. 

I.R.W. Haakona [I.R.W. Haakona] (30)

Miles O'Brien [I.S.S. Defiant] (2)

Adm Mendak [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)

Tasha Yar [Prakesh] (2)

Brunt [Regent's Flagship] (1)

Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)

Total (42)

I.R.W. Valdore [I.R.W. Valdore] (30)

Donatra [I.R.W. Valdore] (4)

Jennifer Sisko [I.S.S. Defiant] (3)

Romulan Pilot [P.W.B. Aj'Rmr] (2)

Interphase Generator [R.I.S. Apnex] (3)

Total (42)

Prototype 01 [Prototype 01] (24)

Gareb [Prototype 01] (0 overridden to 3)

Shinzon [Scimitar] (6 overridden to 0)

Counter Attack [Starter] (3)

Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)

Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)

Total (36)

Officer Exchange Program (0)

Fleet total: 120

The first turn saw Incredible Power and Very Advanced from Q, which nullified the effectiveness of Jennifer Sisko, since that card would have caused me to disable all of my upgrades anyway. In the second turn the movement limiter came up again, and whilst my captain was captive of an Honored (sic) Judge, I was able to re-enable Boheeka and Breen Aide. A third turn of limited movement allowed me to re-enable both Aft Weapons arrays, meaning that by the time I engaged, all of my initial upgrades were re-enabled, and I was firing at a higher captain skill that my opponent.

The middle of the board was peppered with cloaked mines, and whilst I was relatively sure that in the end the mines would get me, I was confident that I could remove the enemy before that happened. The first round of firing got rid of the Valdore before I received any return fire, and the second round of shooting got the Prototype too. All that was left was getting the Haakona, which has considerably less firepower once the rest of the fleet are gone. Flying through the minefields hurt me a lot, but I was able to kill the Haakona before my whole fleet died.

Result: Me 120-80 Mark

So 3 games, maximum points from all three games and what did I discover? Aft Weapons Array with some quality (Boheeka and BS) is brutal, as are fighters. Whilst mines do damage fighter builds a great deal, I was still able to eek out the win thanks to some 8 HP carriers.

I'm still not Picard though....

D

The OP Elephant in the Room.

I have been playing staw for a lot longer than I’ve been able to attend OP events. I can remember Wave 2’s release with fondness – it was the first new wave to be released since I started playing the game and I was excited to see the game grow. Most of the time I played at a friend’s house and it was very thematic –We’d think up our own scenarios and missions builds and play through a campaign together (The Campaign is still going by the way, I may blog about it at some point). It wasn’t until I moved to Chelmsford in Essex that I found a relatively local store that hosted OP events, the first I was able to attend being Arena (the report of which is available here).

So I won the S’Gorn, a ship with cards I’d never seen before, from a race that didn’t have any retail releases at the time. I was hooked on a new drug- Limited Edition Ships.

It took a while for the next OP event to take place, and I was more than a little concerned when I didn’t hear anything because I feared that I wouldn’t be able to win any more Prize Ships. They’d given me a taste and then cut me off, a classic drug dealer trick! Also, I missed 7 Months worth of OP ships, especially the Sutherland and Ch’Tang. How was I going to make sure I had access to all of these wonderful cards!?!

So I started to trawl the secondary market looking for the OP ships that I’d missed out on. First I managed to get my hands on the Aj’Rmr, Additional Weapons Array and Romulan Pilot? Great! Then I splashed out for the Sutherland (3 times retail…) High Energy Sensor Sweep and Secondary Torpedo Launcher and the Ch’Tang DefCon1, Barrage of Fire and Synon. I absolutely loved have cards that not everyone else had. I loved being a completionist and having everything more though, and that meant that I shelled out on the secondary market for the Akorem, Krayton, Rav Laerst and Tholia One, not necessarily for cards (There are some great ones, Kira, Conditional Surrender, Invaluable advice and, eh, Plasma Torpedoes (!) respectively) but because I wanted to make sure I had the cards in case one day I needed them.

Since I started playing at OPs regularly I haven’t had to spend money online, with the exception of Resistance 1, I’ve won a prize ship at every event I’ve been to. Having been there in the past, though, I understand the anguish that people go through to get the OP ships. It’s a two pronged thing: They want the cards that make them competitive AND/OR they want all of the cards. I completely get that – on both counts.

I like the trend at the moment to release similar or expanded prize packs as retail packs. The way that the Gornarus, Tholia One and Kreetcha releases were done were all slightly different, but certainly helped to give the people access to some of the cards that are on those difficult to find OP ships from months ago. The trouble is, this isn’t enough. It’s great that I can get Faked Messages and Impulse Overload in a retail pack, but the named ships is the Gornarus, not the S’gorn. I can’t run a fleet with two named Gorn Raiders in it. Plus, if I was a Gorn superfan, I’d really dislike the fact that I couldn’t get Gorn Pilot or Gorn Commander in a retail pack. The competitive player may be satisfied with the release, (although no CS in the Kreetcha sucked) but the collector is still raging that he can’t get the other cards. In this way I actually feel that the Tholia One retail release, which contained everything from the prize ship –and more- was a better solution than the S’Gorn/Gornarus release.

I know some people have complained about the Tholia One release being too similar to the prize ship that they worked ‘so hard’ to get, but at the end of the day, I’d rather know that if I missed a prize ship, it’d be along in the retail version eventually; it’d certainly stop me scouring the secondary market before events to make sure that I had a backup plan should I fail to win one.

What do people think about this issue- Should Prize Ships be re-released in retail or would that be doing the OP winners a dis-service?

I'm still Not Picard,

D