Destroy the Scimitar

 A friendly game - the co-operative mission that comes with the Valdore - Destroy the Scimitar!

Three players, each allowed 50 points each take on a high powered, exceptionally sneaky version of the Scimitar in a recreation of the Battle of the Bassen Rift.

Stats for the Scimitar are as follows:

Captain Skill: 10
Attack: 6
Defence: 2 (permanent cloak +4 dice until shields are gone)
Hull: 8
Shields: 8

It randomly moves at speed 3 each turn and gains a free battlestations action each turn.

The players used the following ships:

Romulan player: IRW Valdore
Federation player 1: USS Prometheus
Federation player 2 (me): USS Venture

My full build:

U.S.S. Venture [28]
- Jean-Luc Picard 9 (Captain) [6]
- Shanthi (Admiral) [2]
- High-Capacity Deflector Shield Grid [5]
- Additional Phaser Arrays [5]
- Geordi La Forge [4]
Ship Total: 50 SP

Fleet Total: 50 SP

Setup and turn 1:

All ships moved forward and the Venture attacked the Scimitar doing a slight amount of damage.

In return the Scimitar (being an equal amount of distance from both ships I choose who it fired at), attacked the Venture, I negated 2 damage with the High-Capacity Deflector Shield Grid and took the rest on the shields.

The Prometheus attacked the Scimitar again doing a small amount of damage.

Turn 2:

The Scimitar moved out of my arc, the Prometheus and the Scimitar exchanged fire.

Turn 3:

The Scimitar flanked my Venture and hammered it, all shields gone and hull damage taken.

The Prometheus and Valdore both attacked wiping off a few more shields from the Scimitar.

Turn 4:

The Scimitar out-manouvered the allied fleet and heavily damaged the Prometheus, the Venture started its slow turn to bring the Scimitar back into arc.

Turn 5:

Again, the Scimitar movement profile sends the allies into chaos.

Turn 6:

Finally, the allies manage to get the Scimitar in arc, leading it to lose its last shields.  In return it damages the Valdore, not quite destroying it.

Turn 7:

The Scimitar claims its first victim - the Prometheus finally succumbs to the onslaught.

The Valdore hammers the Scimitar in return, leaving it on a few hull points.

Turn 8:

The Valdore is destroyed, leaving the Venture to face the Scimitar alone.

Turn 9:

The Venture finally brings the Scimitar in arc, its first salvo brings it down to 2 hull points remaining, thanks to the secondary phaser array it gets another shot with 2 attack dice - 1 hit, 1 miss.  Shanthi's fleet action allows the re-roll, a hit is scored!  The Scimitar is destroyed and the Earth is saved.

All in all a very entertaining game, the co-operative nature made for a nice change of pace from the OP bloodshed that had occured earlier in the day.

The Void OP

This weekend saw four players, each representing a different faction, heading into the void!

The rules for this OP were all about collecting and maintaining resources whilst battling the opposing force, at the end of each round you either lose a resource, disable an upgrade or take a hit.

Fistly, my Dominion list for the event:

Reklar [26]
- Weyoun 7 (Captain) [5]
- - Remata'Klan [3]
- - Amat'Igan [2]
- Gul Madred (Admiral) [5]
- Aft Weapons Array [4]
Ship Total: 45 SP

1st Wave Attack Fighters [24]
- Support Ship [4]
- Flanking Attack [3]
Ship Total: 31 SP

Dominion Starship (Cardassian Galor Class) [24]
- Gelnon 5 (Captain) [3]
Ship Total: 27 SP

Dominion Attack Fighters (Hideki Class Attack Squadron) [20]
- Flanking Attack [3]
- Support Ship [4]
Ship Total: 27 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

I've always struggled against multiple attack fighters and wanted to give them a shot myself.

I purchased a second Reklar and a second set of 1st Wave Attack Fighters the week before the tournament just to see how they would fare.

Game 1 vs Klingons

The first game was against the starter set player from the last OP.  No mistakes this time, first game of the day and I was determined to exact vengeance for my defeat in the last tournament.

My opponent was running the Maht'Ha, Chang's Bird of Prey and the Korinar, each of the Captains had a high skill, Chang, Kor and I think Martok.

Second turn in the Reklar and the two sets of Attack Fighters combined fire and destroyed the Maht'Ha, return fire wiped out Gelnon's Galor.

A turn of manouvering and a few shots exchanged, the Reklar managed to finish off the Korinar and Chang's Bird of Prey moved too far past the pack to return fire.

This left the (very nicely repainted) Klingons with the following ships out of the game:

A turn later and the Bird of Prey took a couple of hits from the Reklar, then another shot from the 1st Wave attack fighters managed to roll this:

The Bird of Prey couldn't roll enough defence dice to negate enough damage to prevent its destruction, so the last shot of the game looked a bit like this:

So the Bird of Prey was the last ship to fall and the battle was won for the Dominion.

Round 2 vs Romulans

The old enemy - the Romulans, a force and a player who I had now faced on a regular basis and going into it I knew he would be prepared for my one-hit-wonder strategy.

No photos of this one - was too busy concentrating on staying alive!

Romulan fleet consisted of the IRW Valdore, a generic Valdore, the Haakona and the Prototype.  Placement was key for this one and I did my usual "keep them all together" line, whilst my opponent spread his forces out, the Prototype in one corner, the D'Deridex in the middle and the two Valdores in the other corner.

Immediately I knew that part of my plan had gone out the window - you can only pull the same trick a certain number of times before people get wise to it and my opponent had been burned once before.  This turned out to be a very scrappy game, with all ships throwing their all in to each attack.  The first thing I had to do was get rid of Salatrel - Gelnon moved in close and used Madred's fleet action to remove her from play, I could not afford to let the Romulans fire first.

Gelnon's Galor was first to fall, combined fire from the Valdores and Haakona tearing through it.  The generic Valdore was next, combined fire from the Reklar and the Hideki squadron doing enough damage to finish it off.

The turns from there on consisted of each ship doing small amounts of damage to each other, slowly whittling away shield and hull points form each other.

As the last turn was called, the Reklar managed to destroy the Haakona and the Prototype managed to drop the 1st wave attack fighters to their last hull point.  Unfortunately due to the effects of the void, that last shot on the attack fighters spelled their doom, and they were destroyed.

A noble effort by both fleets, the victory was determined in the end by the resource tokens, for me a very narrow loss, only 12 points seperated the two fleets.

So, going into the last round the standings were as follows:

Romulans - 2 wins
Dominion - 1 win, 1 loss
Federation - 1 win, 1 loss
Klingons - 2 losses

So the last round would see the Romulans and the Klingons face off, my last foe would be the Federation...

The Enterprise-D, the Equinox and... Voyager.

My nemesis.

Turn one: each ship moved toward each other, collecting the resources along the way.

In the second turn, both fleets moved into point blank range of each other.

My hatred of Voyager led me to do a few things.  Firstly Madred captured Chakotay and politely asked him how many lights he could see.  Chakotay was never seen again.

Then, the Reklar combined fire with the two Hidekis against Voyager, and with battlestations managed to roll this:

The result was the following:

The Voyager was gone, blown away with the first salvo.  With its destruction my Voyager curse was over.

Return fire from the Equinox and the Enterprise did impressive damage to the Reklar, disposing of its shields and doing a point of hull damage to it.

The next turn of manouvering would be critical, I knew that I had to stay in front of the Federation fleet - if they got behind me it would take forever for me to turn around.  Dials were set and the movements were made.

Every single ship moved forward one.  The two battle lines converged, Gelnon used his action to roll two attack dice at the Equinox, scoring one hit and gaining a battlestations action.

The Reklar attacked the Enterprise, eliminating its shields.  The 1st wave attack fighters stuck next and managed to destroy the Enterprise.  The Hidekis fired at the Equinox damaging it further.

The Equinox fired back at the Reklar, damaging it again but not quite enough to destroy it.

Gelnon's Galor fired last, at point blank range at the Equinox, four hits later and the last Federation ship was no more:

A quick, brutal game landing me a hefty score and a second win.

Over on the other table, the Klingons and the Romulans were involved in a very bloody affair, each turn seemed to bring with it a new casualty.

Shortly before time would have been called, the Maht'Ha managed to destroy the Prototype for the win.

So, with all battles fought, the standings were as follows:

1st Place - Dominion - 2 wins, 1 loss, 431 points
2nd Place - Romulans - 2 wins, 1 loss, 300 points
3rd Place - Klingons - 1 win, 2 losses 199 points
4th Place - Federation - 1 win, 2 losses, 88 points

All in all, a very hard fought tournament.  It saw the Federation player win his first battle and against a tough Klingon opponent at that.  It saw the Romulans take a victory in our ongoing war.  Ultimately, it took a Klingon victory over the Romulans to give the Dominion a second tournament win.

I think that, for now at least, the time of the Dominion is at an end.  Better for them to go out on a high note, than allow decline to set in.  One day the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant will open again.

Next OP, the Klingons will make an appearance...

Xindi Reptilian Warship Review

Hi everyone, here's a quick review of the Temporal Cold War OP3 Xindi Reptilian Warship!

Firstly a shot of the ship herself:

 It's a very large miniature, far bigger than I'd have expected but it could be due to the many spikey bits sticking out the back.  If they had made it smaller then it might have been a tad fragile but as it is it's quite solid.

On to the ship cards:

 The named ship "Xindus" has a prety good stat line, very Klingon in fact along with the movement profile.  The named ability allows you to place one less time token on a photon torpedo upgrade after firing it... still not sold on the photons myself.  As usual the generic loses the ability, a shield and weapon upgrade slot.  The only issue with this ship compared to the Aquatic Cruiser is the firing arc - back to a 90 degree front arc instead of the 180.

Next up, the upgrades:

 Sensor Encoders gives each friendly ship within ranges 1-3 an extra defence die when your ship is destroyed.  Not sure if this is good or not... in a faction pure fleet it might have synergy with Kiaphet Amman'Sor from the Aquatic ship, but an extra die for one turn - I'm sure there are better upgrades for the cost.

The photon torpedoes are the same as many others - not worth it.

Next we get to the more interesting upgrades:

 Now Damron, I really like.  Hit a ship, spend a target lock to discard a crew upgrade on that ship.  Re-usable, appropriately costed and can be deadly to crew heavy builds (Federation).

Dominant Species is a discard that forces your opponent to re-roll two defence dice - very situational and for 5 points a tad expensive.  Could be pretty good if timed well though.

Finally, on to the Captains:

The usual Xindi Generic and Kolo.

For three points you get a five skill captain with an elite talent.  So far so good.  The best bit is his ability which allows you to redirect an attack from a friendly ship within range one to Kolo's ship.  This is excellent. You can use him to draw fire away from a key ship at a key moment.  You can keep a ship on its last hit point alive for that one extra turn, it could be the difference between a loss and a win.  Excellent card.

So, to sum up, a medium sized aggressive ship with a couple of excellent cards in the pack.  Very good and works well with other Xindi ships.

Until next time!

Star Trek Three-Player Friendly 1

After the OP event a few of us ran a three player game just for fun, unplanned, 130 point fleets, we all happened to have enough with us!

 The Fleets:

My own "Pale Reflection" fleet, almost entirely Mirror Universe, excluding Picard on the Regent's Flagship and Detonation Codes on Smileys' Negh'Var:

The Klingon/Romulan/Tholian Alliance fleet:

The Future Federation fleet:

First moves, the fleets close in, the Klingon/Romulan fleet splitting to face both opposing fleets:

 The fleets are now in range and first shots are exchanged:

Quick shot as the fleets open fire:

First casualties removed from play, including Kurn, felled by the scheming Evil Sisko in Voyager:

As the game went on Smiley's Negh'Var was taking a hammering from a multitude of sources:

Regent Picard finished off another Klingon ship:

Things were now getting really close up, it was becoming clear by this point that the Federation fleet had a bit of an advantage, no-one could get through their shields:

Evil, beardy, normal-universe Sisko aboard the Voyager managed to get a full range one attack on my courageous Mirror Universe Sisko:

Unfortunately for me Evil Sisko rolled as if his life was in the balance:

Stunned, Good Sisko (mine), was cut down in his prime by the false pretender and his beard:

The Tholian ship also met its end in that fateful turn, as did Smiley:

 The next turn it was clear who would take the day, but Picard wasn't finished yet:

Time and time again, Picard had to listen to Worf whining on about his Klingon honour, had to save his precious Empire from themselves and then, after all that Worf still threatened Picard's life when he was being perfectly reasonable in First Contact.

Well, Picard had heard enough from Worf and proceeded to finally silence the cowardly Klingon once and for all!

The next turn Picard choose to valianty leave the battlefield and time was called shortly after.

An entertaining game, showcasing how utterly evil Evil Sisko and the Voyager are.  From this day onwards I call Vendetta against the Voyager!  It will be the target of all my rage and red dice!

Until next time good readers, when a review of the Xindi Reptilian ship will be up!

Temporal Cold War OP3

Welcome back for the last report in the Temporal Cold War Series!

Last weekend the battle lines were drawn and once more brave souls were called upon to wage war among the stars...

Four attendees so a nice three games each.

This particular scenario recreated the battle to destroy Sphere 41 in the Delphic Expanse.  Automatic damage or crew discard each turn for eight turns, during which time you had to destroy the sphere or all ships are destoyed.

I had to amend my usual list for this one - out went the Hidekis and in came the Scimitar - full list was as follows:

Scimitar [38]
- Donatra 6 (Captain) [4]
- Secondary Shields [6]
Ship Total: 48 SP

4th Division Battleship [36]
- Jean-Luc Picard 9 (Captain) [7]
- Aft Weapons Array [4]
Ship Total: 47 SP

Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser) [32]
- Gelnon 5 (Captain) [3]
Ship Total: 35 SP

Fleet Total: 130 SP

Quite an upgrade light fleet, I was hoping that the shields would be enough of a barrier to keep me alive long enough to finish off the opposing fleets.

Rule 1: No plan survives contact with the enemy...

Game 1 vs Assimilated Borg Vessels.

Yeah, my shields can't really outlast shields that regenerate. I didn't manage to get photos of the full lists this time around but let's just say that as they went on the board my inner child wanted to hide under the sheets, then started hearing the usual nightmare fodder of "Resistance is futile" and whirring mechanical sounds...

Both fleets set up in opposite corners of the board and as my shields started to disintegrate around me I realised I was in trouble from the start.

My fleet started to close on the objective in the middle and started pouring fire into it:

Unfortunately my opponents' ships ended up in a far better position than I to finish it off a couple of turns in - here is a shot of them closing in:

After the objective was destroyed and the fleets closed a heavy barrage of shots from the Galaxy and Galor managed to finish off the Cruiser, in return the Battleship and the Scimitar exacted revenge and finished off the Galaxy.

With time quickly running out the Scimitar was poised in an excellent position but unfortunately her aim was off and the Borg ships managed to destroy the Battleship literally in the final action of the game.

The survivors:

So, the first game was a loss but a close one and hard fought by both fleets.

Game 2 vs Federation.

Not too many photos of this one, I was against my usual Romulan playing opponent who had chosen to ditch them for this OP.  This was a tough game.

The Voyager, Equinox and the Prometheus, all outfitted with unbelievably tough upgrades, both shield and hull ones:

Also, the beardy ones: Riker and Sisko (more on this in a later report)...

I took a different approach to this one, and immediately went for the objective, taking it out on the second turn which effectively turned this into a straight up battle.

Both fleets closed slowly, trading shots until they were within point-blank range.

The Voyager and Prometheus managed to fell the Cruiser, in an apparent fit of vengeance for past actions (remember the one shot on the Scimitar from the Wrath of Khan report?) and in return the Battleship and Scimitar hammered the Equinox and Prometheus but not quite doing enough to finish them.

The following turn the Battleship and the Prometheus both reached the end of their respective roads, leaving the Scimitar as the sole remaining ship of my fleet, facing the Equinox and Voyager alone.

Time was running short and I knew that I had to do something drastic if I had any hope of winning this fight - I cloaked the Scimitar and chose my target: Equinox.

Two turns later the Voyager was out of range of the Scimitar and thanks to my decision to cloak, a sensor echo put me in range one of the Equinox.  In the last exchange of fire in the game, the Scimitar just managed to destroy the Equinox, giving me a very close win.

This Federation fleet was my toughest game this tournament - the build worked perfectly and even though I did win this one, it was by the skin of my teeth and all credit to my opponent I was on the ropes for the majority of the game.

Game 3 vs Mixed Starter Set.

No photos here unfortunately, but it's also a very quick report!  High skill captains and very bad rolls on my part (me making an inexplicable error early on) saw my fleet wiped off the table by turn 5.  The Scimitar fell first, followed closely by the Cruiser.  In my haste to run away with the Battleship I flew too close to the edge and then in the next turn, straight off it.

Epic failure on my part.

The more entertaining game of round 3 was happening on the other table, with the regenerative Borg vs the plucky Federation...

It ended up with the Federation fleet running away from the Borg:

The Borg were left to finish off the objective and not a moment too soon, it was destroyed in the last turn before time was called, giving a very low scoring win to the Borg.

It's a testament to how well built both of these fleets were that not a single ship from either side was lost...

So, all in all, one win and two losses.  The first two games could have gone either way both being right down to the wire.  The third game I'll put down to bad luck and judgement on my part and my opponent playing his fleet exceptionally well.

Next time will be the free for all three player game we had after the tournament!