Battle of Wolf 359

  As promised last week, the guys at the shop played the Battle of Wolf 359 in Attack Wing.  They used the massive Borg Cube and tons of Federation ships.  I missed it because I had pneumonia, but the guys were cool enough to post a pic and some descriptions.

  First, they made sure to limit the ships that could participate in the battle.  This is important because it would be weird to have Romulan ships out there.  Remember, the Federation lost 39 ships (which, before the Dominion War, was a huge amount).  

  Here's the AAR and the plan for the next one...

"Resistance is not futile! Today we had the battle of Wolf 359 where the federation fleet ran by Joe and myself engaged and destroyed the Borg fleet operated by Jan, Bud, and Jared, recapturing Capt Jean Luc Picard."

  Being the smart guys they are, they already planned for the next battle.  

  "Next week we will move on to the battle of sector 001 from the first contact movie. It will be a 400 point game Borg vs Federation using only ships that were involved in the fight. These ships were Nebula, Miranda, Galaxy, and Saber class ships. Also the Enterprise-E, Defiant, and Yeager named ships were there from the ships available through STAW. Fighter squadrons where also involved in the battle. It was decided for the named ships that it must have crew that was assigned to it as best as possible. Also once the Borg cube is destroyed a sphere will pop out of it and attempt to run to make a temporal vortex to travel back to the 22nd century. This will work very similar to the way the Collective Month 3 OP worked. Federation objective is to eliminate the Borg fleet and prevent the sphere from exiting the board. Borg objective is to eliminate the Federation fleet or make it to the 22nd century. Like this week- no crew or captains from the original series era. Any changes made for canon accuracy will be posted here if my research brings up anything. Hope to have a great matchup like we did this week."

I think my guys are better at designing these campaigns than Wizkids!!!  Stay tuned for more storyline action from America's Heroes!

And, as always, Happy Gaming!

To Infinity and Beyond!

  Did you honestly think that I was talking about the Disney movie?  I hope not.  I'm actually talking about a miniatures wargame on my hobby gaming blog.  It just so happens to be called Infinity as well...

  My buddy got the starter set, Operation Icestorm, for Christmas and brought it over to play.  A few of the guys in the game group had gotten into it many months ago and I avoided it like the plague.  I didn't need to get into another mortgage-crushing habit of buying everything there is for another game.  But having now seen the starter set and even played a game, I have to say that I may have been mistaken in my aversion to this game.  

  Let's talk about starter set first.  As you can see by the artwork on the cover of the box, this isn't a 'grimdark' game and it's definitely SCIFI, not futuristic fantasy like our favorite wargame universe.  All of the artwork in the game shares the same feel, being almost anime in style but mostly just typical scifi stuff.

  Inside the box comes a great deal of stuff considering  how small the box is.  It comes with a 2'x32" gaming mat, 4 single-story buildings, 6 shipping crates, 2 forces of 6+1 models each(the box also contains an 'exclusive' for each faction) , 3d20 themed for each of the forces, cardboard tokens, and a starter rulebook that actually works very well.  The normal game is meant to be played on a 4'x4' table, but this set is based on starting small and getting into the action even faster than normal!  The scenarios are laid out in a progressive manner, introducing more and more rules with each advance.  Both players start off with 3 regular troopers in the first scenario and then continually add more until they're using all the models in the kit.  And by that point, it's just a visit to the website to get the entire rulebook and start playing real games!  It's really that effective as a starter kit.  I was impressed already.

    I got to use the PanO guys from the set, shown below.  I do have to admit that these models are absolutely ridiculous.  First, they're metal.  I know that doesn't matter to most people (and it really doesn't matter to me), but I appreciate the timelessness of silver models.  Beyond that, the detail is phenomenal, their poses are usually pretty spot-on (the lady checking out her fingernails is my favorite; I named her "Triggers" because of her nonchalant lethality).  And only having a half dozen models to paint up in any force (that's not 'starter kit small')...  Well, we all know how good that can make a hobby day!

  I am going to pick up a force at some point in the future and bring that to you, but for right now I'm just dipping my toes in the water.  Admittedly, I may be late to a really good party, but it's better than never.  Check it out if you haven't already and let me know what you think!  The starter kit is worth it...

  Happy Gaming!

DS9 moves now?!

  Recently, our new Admiral picked up the DS9 model to round out his extensive collection.  After some slow gaming at the shop one day, he decided to bust the sucker out and get a game on.  

  He and some of the other core players donated a number of ships to the battle, re-enacting the Battle of DS9 as close as they could in this ad-hoc situation.  We even had a new guy walk in and get sucked into the battle.  These guys are good like that...

Here's the beginning of the battle, with just a few ships out (or so it seems).  Romulans, Klingons, and Federation guarded the space station against the Dominion attack.  

After a couple of rounds and nearly time to close up shop, the station had moved toward the center of the board and starship debris was everywhere as a result of firepower galore!

  Nice easy post today.  these guys did this battle well over a month ago and used it as an excuse to set up the Battle of Wolf 359.  I can't wait to see that one myself.  And, of course, all credit to these guys.  I've bragged about the game group before, but they deserve it.  Game days don't suck!

  Let me know about some massive battles you've had and look forward to the 359 battle coming up!

Happy Gaming!

The Romulans CAN fight!

  For some time, I've complained that the Romulans are terribad in Attack Wing.  I already don't like that that D'deridex class is FAAAR underpowered compared to its canon.  For the longest time, all I wanted was three D'deridex warbirds, but I found that I couldn't seem to win with two.  

  A buddy won the first Attack Wing OP, the Donimion War, with Romulans.  He was extremely successful at using the 'sensor echo' action to avoid being shot, while also taking advantage of several Muon tokens.  It was like he was playing with his opponents, and we all hated him for it.  But he did prove me wrong in the most irrefutable way.  

  Sadly, that didn't mean anything for me.  I didn't realize how effective sensor echo was until I was playing a game of X-Wing (go figure) and my TIE fighters had to take advantage of 'barrel rolls' (the same thing, different game).  It was then that I realized how effective Romulans can be with their Federation-like resilience and amazing mobility.  If only we had something that could put out some firepower...

Enter the Reman Scimitar!!!

  This malicious beast of war was designed by Shinzon, clone of Picard, and built by Reman slaves to exact vengeance on the empire that tortured and forgot them.  It was so powerful, in fact, that two Romulan warbirds AND the Enterprise-E could not defeat it!  That's a beast for sure!

  In game terms, it definitely fills any weakness in the Romulan fleet.  Its firepower of 6 make it the most powerful there and one of the most powerful in the entire game (Klingons and Dominion have that covered).  The agility of 2 is refreshing on a battleship like this and definitely the trademark stat of the faction, making their reliance on cloaking that much more prevalent.  A hull of 7 and 4 shields mean that this baby can take some damage before finally going down.  The best part, even beyond the upgrades, is that this ship has a rear firing arc!  That is something that no other Romulan ship has!!!  Awesome!!!!!

  Included is also Shinzon.  My buddy used Captain Picard on his Khazara in the first couple of scenarios during the Dominion war and we made fun of him, saying that he was only getting away with it because there was a clone in the movies.  As it turns out, Wizkids would have that covered too!  With a captain skill of 9 and a Kirk-like ability to take many expensive elite talents, he definitely has his value.  But I don't care about that as much as just having a ship with real stats...

My fleet

This is following the 90 point format of the current OP tournaments, and also following the suggested format for tournament fleet builds.

• Scimitar, Reman Warbird  38 (6, 2, 7, 4, after attack, take aux to keep cloak token green)
• Salatrel  3 (5, choose 1 faction to be skill 10 during combat phase against)
• Counter Attack  3 (if damaged in front, free attack against shooter)
• Secondary Shields  6 (3 extra shield tokens to replenish through game)

• IRW Valdore, Valdore Class  30 (4, 2, 6, 3, +1 attack if green maneuvre)
• Donatra  4 (friendly ships within range 1 get +1 attack)
• All Forward Disruptor Banks  4 (disable for +1 attack)
• Romulan Pilot  2 (discard to place scan token and perform green maneuvre free)

  The idea behind this fleet is simple- get the Scimitar in range to crush somebody.  As Donatra keeps range with the Scimitar, she makes its firepower even more effective.  With Salatrel's ability to shoot first AND get the counter-attack (hopefully with that bonus), that could make the Scimitar twice as effective.  That upgrade really comes into its own with a ship as resilient and maneuverable as that Romulan battleship.  Adding those additional shield tokens keeps that ship around just a bit longer, which allows it to cloak longer and survive longer, dishing out damage the whole way.

  I didn't make the Scimitar more than 50 points, as per those restrictions above.  If I could, I would have to add torpedoes to take advantage of that rear firing arc.  

  I also have a few ideas for other fleets, but this is the one I'm focused on at the moment.  I can't wait to see what it can do (the one game I played was unfair and saw this fleet mop up two B'rels quickly...).

  You can also play around with this awesome army-builder program for Attack Wing.  It's called STAW Builder and can be found here.  This program even allows you to print out your fleet lists on Wizkids approved tournament sheets!  Give it a go and all credit to the developer, Dracos Software.  I don't think Lone Wolf could have done it better...

  Let me know what you guys think and happy gaming!