Greetings! Last weekend I had the opportunity to play what amounted to my first “full-speed” game of Star Trek Attack Wing (STAW). By that I mean I got to play with all the rules against an opponent (MBS member Creon) who was also an experienced gamer. I have to say, I really enjoyed it, and it gave me a lot to think about. So, I thought I might share a few of my thoughts with all of you here on the blog.

The Lists

We played at 100 points. I didn’t write down exactly what each of us was using, but in general Creon went with Klingon list that emphasized running as many ships as possible at the expense of having a bunch of upgrades. He had a total of 4 ships; 2 D-7s, a Vor’cha, and a Negh’var I, on the other hand, took two large Federation ships (the Enterprise-D and the Sutherland) and packed them to the gills with upgrades, auxiliary weapons, and crew cards.

The Game

The game was very suspensful, as we jockeyed for position to try and get our ships lined up for the best shots. In general, my fleet was very defesive in nature, as I took crew cards that allowed me to repair damage and/or reduce the incoming attack dice pool. Creon also used cloak effectively, making it difficult for me to land hits. Ultimately, it came down to which one of us could get two (or more!) of our ships lined up on the same target at the same time; with only one ship firing on a target, the result was typically that the target would lose its shields, but not suffer much, if any damage. In this, the Klingons had an advantage, as their ships were all much more maneuverable than mine. However, thanks to some dice luck, I was able to kill off enough of Creon’s fleet to get the win!

Observations

So, here are some things I noticed as well as some random musings from the game:

• Both of our approaches to list building seemed to be perfectly valid, which is cool I think. I enjoy it when a game rewards players who are creative with their list building and tactical thinking.
• The game lasted a fair bit longer than I expected! Granted, both Creon and I are not the most experienced STAW players around, but even so there was a lot more maneuvering than I’m used to seeing with other games like Firestorm Armada.
• Aft-firing weapons are pretty awesome. I should have upgraded the Sutherland to have them, as I would have had a lot more shot opportunities that I wound up having.
• Just like with X-wing, there is a lot of fun to be had here with trying to out-guess your opponent when it comes to maneuvers!
• I can definitely see how someone who is very well versed in what all the upgrade cards are and how they can combine would have a distinct advantage. There is a lot of possible rules interactions that can be used to your advantage! I managed to stumble into a few when I selected the cards I used for the game, and it really made a difference.

Conclusion

I had a great time playing STAW with Creon! I’m definitely looking forward to my next game. I will have to sit down and get a little more familiar with the available cards so that I can plan out my list a little better though! Until next time…