Is Resistance Futile?

  Well, it's coming up to the third Saturday of the month, when our game group happens to play the Attack Wing OP events.  This month sees us play "The Endgame", where players have to both keep their ships alive and try to slip at least one away before the transwarp conduit is destroyed.  Just like the other scenarios in this series, the Borg that are involved are real jerks and players have to deal with THEM while also having to fight each other.  The rules for the scenario can be found here:

Resistance is Futile OP

  But that's not what I really want to discuss.  Right now, we have a surprisingly robust core group of gamers for the this game, from Bud of Borg to Captain Charles of the Enterprise.  All of the factions are represented and all of the players are actually pretty skilled at the game.  But we've all realized something about Attack Wing- 

The game is not balanced!

  This isn't news to anyone who plays this game as the cries of "Cheeze!" abounded as the Borg were introduced.  Then the Federation were set up to match them and things started to spiral out of control.  It wasn't like the game was terribly balanced to begin with, but c'mon, man!  It was so bad that Wizkids produced the Admirals Orders, which were designed to give the outclassed fleets the opportunity to keep up.  But it didn't work and only exacerbated the Federation silliness, so they were quickly overridden after that OP.  

  Now, with the release of recent waves, it's so apparent that the fleets aren't terribly well-represented in some factions, meaning that the 'power creep' only got worse and worse with a seemingly random release schedule for every faction but the most powerful- Federation!  Wizkids attempted to rectify this with a suggested format for fleet building in tournaments.  We used this for the last two scenarios of this OP and there was much complaining about it.  I have much experience in FAQs and Composition as a TO (in the much more grueling world of wargaming), so my response to this is simple:

  It's meant to curtail the unrealistic advantage that certain fleets such as the Borg and especially the Federation have over the other fleets.  It prevents 'Dreadnoughts' that can completely dominate the game and there's little that Independent or Vulcan ships can do about it.  By requiring three ships and limiting the amount of upgrades, EVERYONE is equally screwed and it should bring a little more parity to the game.  

  Ironically enough, my biggest complainers were my Federation players, but I could always have some sympathy- Romulans finally got a dreadnought-class ship with the Reman Warbird and yet I couldn't use it with these rules myself!  They still didn't agree but complied with the restrictions, and then placed very well.  But we discussed it after the tourney and the group seemed to be fine with it, but didn't really want it either.  That leaves me with the question:

Do we use the restrictions or not?  

  Let me know what you guys think about these rules and whether the group should use them for this last scenario.  In the meantime, I want to make a 'Dreadnought League' that is literal space battles with no restrictions and just make a time of it.  But those things can come later...