The Battle(s) of Wolf 359

Today was a good day to die, at least for my Miranda class. Scenario was to do more damage to the Borg than your opponent, my list was:

Miranda Class
- Pleb Captain

USS Enterprise - A
- Picard (CS 8)
- Quantum Torpedoes

Constitution Refit
- Mr Spock
- Quantum Torpedoes
- Federation Fleet Captain

K'Tinga Class
- K'Nera
- Qapla'
- Kunivas

As you can see my random ship was once again not the USS Yeager, but the Klingon ship IKS B'Moth. To be fair it isn't a bad little ship for the points, it's just really slow. However I did manage to trade the Vorta Vor I got last time for a Federation Attack Fighter Squadron.

The basic tactic was to fly the Constitutions up and hover around range 3 firing off Quantum Torpedoes whilst the K'Tinga and Miranda ram into it and keep firing until they die. This worked up until the last game.

ROUND 1 - Federation (myself) VS Federation (Andy)

I faced off against Andy in the second round last time, this time round though he was my first opponent. Having played the scenario a few times for practice I had the upper hand, Andys downfall this game was that he was too scared of the Borg to get close enough to damage letting me get a good few rounds of shooting in first. Final score 46 - 22.

ROUND 2 - Federation (myself) VS Federation (Ashton)

This was Ashtons 6th maybe 7th game of Attack Wing. We'd played the day before so he could get used to the scenario and he narrowly beat me. Today things were different and I managed to win 60 - 54

ROUND 3 - Federation (myself) VS Borg/Federation (Jason)

The one person I did not want to face, especially with the stupidly powerful Officer Exchange Program resource. Yes lets make it legal to put Picard and Spock on Borg ships AND make them cheaper than putting them on Federation ships, why not? I ended up losing this one 70 - 80 thanks to the second picture stopping my big guns from firing for a turn.

Final position was 4th place. It was a good event and the winner has said he'll trade me a Jem Hadar ship for the prize one if I want it. It might not be the best of ships but I might take him up on that. Final scenario is the Battle of Sector 001, kill a Cube and then a Sphere. More points for the less ships you loose and the more damage the Borg take the harder they become to kill.

Skitarii Starter List

So with 2 boxes of Skitarii being on order for me I've been looking at how I can build them. My initial thoughts were for 2 units of 10, that way I've got 10 of each. But thinking about it I want to try out as much of the new toys as I can so this is how I've decided to start off. This comes in conveniently at 450 points so with another 50 for a cheap HQ that's a nice 500 point allied detachment.

10 Vanguard - 100
2x Plasma Caliver - 60
Enhanced Data-Tether - 5
Refractor Field - 5
Power Sword - 15
Phophor Blast Pistol - 5
- 190

5 Rangers - 65
2x Transuranic Arquebus - 50
Enhanced Data-Tether - 5
Refractor Field - 5
- 125

5 Rangers - 65
2x Arc Rifle - 30
Enhanced Data-Tether - 5
Refractor Field - 5
Arc Maul - 20
Arc Pistol - 10
- 135

The idea here being that the squads are all geared up for a job and I get to use all the toys :)

Anyway I've got my second Trek tournament tomorrow so I'll post some pics (if I remember to take any) and give a brief write up of that.

Another Space Marine and Skitarii Thoughts

This is my second Red Hunter. Looking much better than the first although his base and a purity seal still need doing.

Still a pain to do all the highlighting but it's worth the result. Shame my phones camera isn't so good.

Thank god for Khorne Red spray paint! Makes things so much quicker, for these guys at least. Can't wait to get the rest of them done but I don't want to do them just because of the time it takes.


Now onto what I really want to talk about. Skitarii. I've got Mechanicus for 30k so I'm really excited by this release and looking at the leaked rules from White Dwarf I will not be disappointed. Their basic troops seem to be able to deal with anything and with only 100/120 points for the 10 man units that's not a bad price at all. Their weapons are all really funky as well, I think all of them if not most come with their own fluffy rule.

The thing is, they have this rule called Doctrina Imperitives. No one has found out what this does yet and I'm not sure anyone cares as they're too busy looking at everything else. But they probably should be concerned. The Skitarii are quite cheap for what they do, they must have a downside. I think that Doctrina Imperitives is their downside. I think it'll be something similar to the Tyranids Instinctive Behavior where if you don't have a Techpriest near by they go off and do their own thing if they fail a leadership test.

I think with what's been revealed so far the Skitarii will be quite a short range shooty army, ideally mechanized in transports to get them up the field quickly. Not sure how those walker things will work yet but I think units of 3 will be minimum so they can survive long enough to do some damage.

God Damn it GW!!!

I thought I was in the clear. Get a couple of Star Trek ships, a takeaway on friday, maybe a character to sooth my Red Hunters itch. Besides that all of my money goes into my Salute fund for lots of shiny new toys. Then what does GW go and do? Announce the release of the Adeptus Mechanicus, one of the armies I've been waiting for. Now I'm not going to be able to spend as much at Salute. I mean thanks GW for releasing them, but thanks a lot for the crappy timing. Couldn't wait until a month or so after could you?

......

So any way Mechanicus is coming and I'll be buying a shit ton of it!!

I painted a Space Marine!!

As you might have guessed from the title, I've spent today painting a Space Marine. Why is this worth writing a post about though, you might be asking. Because this is my first Space Marine where I've used more than 8 paints. Typically I use about 5 in total, characters go up to about 7 or 8. Basecoat, drybrush, few details, wash, base, done. That looks ok for tabletop standard and I can easily get through a Tactical squad in about a day. Problem is it's not challenging me. So I've decided to up my game, which is where this guys comes in.

20 paints. I used 20 different paints on this guy. Not even my best painted models have 20 paints on them and he's definitely not one of my best. But he's just the tester, the first of many. He's the first time I've ever done any layering and edge highlighting.

He might not be much, especially compared to Alun and Matt, but I'm proud of him and have already learned a couple of things from him. Once I get a few more practices done I'll start work on a small army, only getting 1 unit at a time (Tale of Many Gamers here I come!) so I don't overwhelm myself.

Who is this guy though?

He's from the Red Hunters chapter. I chose them because I like their colour scheme and with their VERY close ties to the Inquisition I can throw in an Inquisitor and his warband and use some of the Forge World Inquisition doors for my vehicles to make the army look even better. Once I've got the techniques down and a fair sized force I'll be picking up Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex from Forge World. No idea where to find his rules but that model is absolutely badass!!

Battle of the Mutara Nebula

After the first move the Enterprise was in the nebula where as the Reliant was skulking around the edge, unsure whether to enter.

The Enterprise moves deeper into the Nebula while the reliant continues to move around the edge.

Right on the edge of the Nebula the Enterprise prepares to attack the Reliant. Soon after the Enterprise emerges, blasting a hole in the back of the Reliants shields and being to close for return torpedo fire,

To avoid the return fire next turn the Enterprise ducks back into the Nebula, forcing Khan to follow them in.

With both ships now in the Nebula it was only a matter of time until a brutal broadside severely damaged the Reliant, but the Enterprise suffered a Warp Core Beach and was almost destroyed. They did however manage to eject the core in time, meaning the ship could now only run on emergency power.

Unable to maneuver very well the Enterprise struggles to bring itself into weapons range.

Eventually the ships get near to each other, however the interference from the nebula means only short range attacks are possible.

The Enterprise just manages to get into the Reliants blind spot, saving it for 1 more turn.

And then it was over. The Enterprise failed to destroy the Reliant  which allowed Khan to fire off a volley of Torpedoes, destroying the Enterprise. One of the torpedoes misfired thanks to the Nebulas interference though and also took the Reliant out resulting in both ships getting destroyed.

Vulcans

So having picked up a Vulcan ship as first prize in the last tournament I decided to pick up the other 2 retail Vulcan ships and they have some nice tricks. Firstly all of their ships have 180 forward fire arcs. Secondly they have a lot of Tech upgrades and a 3 point captain that makes all Vulcan Tech 2 points cheaper. Free tractor beams for everyone!! They also have a fair few upgrades for screwing with your opponent. One captain hands out disabled tokens to their upgrades, another disables their shields while a third brings discarded crew back from the dead which goes well with Vulcan Commandos who get discarded but give you bonus attack dice against a ship AND disable it's upgrades. Their only problem is that they're slow and their big ship (the D'Kyr) turns about as well as a brick. So with my new toys I've made another list for Wolf 359.

D'Kyr - 26
Sopek - 4
Aft Particle Beam - 1
Vulcan Commandos - 3
Vulcan Commandos - 3

Ni'Var - 20
V'Las - 3
Combat Vessel Variant - 3
Tractor Beam - 0

Ti'Mur - 20
Vanik - 3
Combat Vessel Variant - 4
Tractor Beam - 0

With this list I can knock out any 2 upgrades from 1 ship (or get bonus attack dice against the Borg) and a Crew from another ship. I've also got some decent hull points and attack power at different ranges with all 3 ships gaining an attack dice for different reasons. Tractor Beams then give me some defensive power by letting me force my opponent to re-roll attack dice when they shoot me at range one. Only problem is the turning isn't great but with the great fire arcs on all the ships that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Shame I don't have an extra Tractor Beam card for the D'Kyr to have one too but I might see if I can borrow one from someone else. In theory this could work, but I'll need a few practice games first. Thankfully the Excelsior(s) wont show up for a couple of weeks so I'll have time to play about with the Vulcans.

Coming Soon: Battle of the Mutara Nebula Battle Report.

Wolf 359

The next Trek tournament isn't until the end of the month but I'm already looking into lists and gathering ideas. The next one is co-op competitive, which is a bit of a weird one to play. With the scenario being Wolf 359 you already know you can't beat the Borg. The mission is basically this. You and your opponent deploy on one table edge. The Borg are centered just off of the other one. You can use abilities on your opponent HOWEVER you cannot do ANYTHING that causes them to take damage to their hull or shields, killing off their crew or stealing their weapons is perfectly fine however. The Borg don't move but can shoot you at infinite range. Whoever does the most damage to the Borg at the end of the game wins. The game ends once the time ends or BOTH players fleets are destroyed which means that if your opponent is wiped out you can keep going and potentially beat them if you were loosing.

So this one is all about brute force. The more damage you can put on the Borg the better. I'm simply refusing to take Voyager or the Enterprise E after the last one, but I think I'll still use feds. The list I've come up with has 2 good advantages. Firstly it's got a lot of damage output. 2 of my ships are firing out 4 dice at range 1 while the 3rd is shooting out 5 at range 2-3 and putting on an additional Hit so long as I don't completely cock up. The second advantage is that all 3 ships have 180 degree firing arcs on the front. This means I can get some shots in from almost any angle and if I misjudge a maneuver I should still be able to fire. There is a major downside though, 2 of my ships turn like freaking buses. On to the list though:

Miranda Class - 18
Jean-Luc Picard - 6
Quantum Torpedoes - 6

Excelsior Class - 24
James T. Kirk - 5

Excelsior Class - 24
William T. Riker - 4
Maxwell Forrest - 3 (admiral)

The Excelsior is one of my favourite ships. Like I said before it moves like a bus but it's built like a tank and has the firing arc to make up for it. These 2 get in close and start pumping out shots and Forrest gives them some extra maneuverability just in case. Kirk then starts to be annoying "Oh you want to fire those torpedoes? LOL nope disable them!!" while Riker hits the Borg back when they shoot him for some extra damage. Picard then sits back at long range firing off torpedoes every turn from his fragile little Miranda class. I'm also shooting quite quickly with a 7, 8 and 9 for my captain skills.

I actually hope the random ship is the Federation one though, not just because it's another Fed ship but because I already know what I'm going to take on it and with my loadout it'll be the best option out of all of the random ships. It'll have a constant stream of Torpedoes and a defense bonus just because fuck the Borg!!