FINAL FRONTIER.

My gaming group tend to plan a year ahead which games are played. We are currently ¾ of the way through a tranche of Star Trek Attack Wing. David has consistently played Romulan, Del Klingon and, more recently, Borg. I played Kazon, Vulcan and Independent.

Here are photos from previous games.       

STAR TREK ATTACK WING: DESTROY THE SPACE STATION.

This Thursday's game saw me taking on Del's Klingons with my Cardassians. The scenario we chose was 'Destroy the Space Station'. We managed to play this twice in the evening, with different results in each case.

The Klingons attack. The Nor class station is defended by a Galor class and  a Keldon class  ships.

One Klingon ship is destroyed, but the Negh'Var manages to add to previous hits to the station 

The first game was over in three turns. Del had concentrated on the space station, to kill it well before the ten turns allowed. I had assumed that he would go for my ships first, and had lots of defensive upgrades, as the Cardassian ships are brittle. For the second game, I reorganised my upgrades and gave the station Tetryon Emissions, which gave three defence die for each attack. As the station has no intrinsic defence dice, this would prove useful.

Starting positions. 

The defending ships close in for a fire fight. The middle Klingon ship took fire from the station and the Galor class ship. It was destroyed. 

The remaining Klingon ships kept up fire on the station. The three defence dice added by Tetryon Emissions managed to save most hits. The Klingons lost their Negh'Var ship and the remaining ship retired heavily damaged.

The second game lasted longer. The Klingons used the same plan. This time the station was able to absorb hits that would have got past the shields before. That, coupled with Del's frankly dire defence dice rolls meant a victory to the Cardassians.

A prime example of making good use of your upgrades!

STNG: FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE.

 On Wednesday, David & Del played the 'For the glory of the Empire' mission twice. David was using Romulans against Del's Klingons. Del had to destroy the outpost (mission was delayed 70 years, as the cryo plant malfunctioned). David had to save the outpost by either persuading the Klingons to stand down, or by destroying them. To stand the Klingons down, David had to be able to attack, but give up his attack dice to take an objective token.

The Klingon ship evades the Romulan defenders to destroy the outpost.

In the first game, the Romulans managed to get an objective token, but were unable to stop the Klingons. This was mostly due to Del managing to save 6 hits with his defence dice. This won him a Counter Attack die for his efforts.

The Romulan Ship scores 6 hits, but Del's defence dice rolling cancels them all!

The Klingon ship damages the outpost at the start of the second game.

Already damaged and with auxiliary power tokens the Klingon ship is an easy target for destruction.

In the second game, The Romulans destroyed the Klingon ship after it had damaged the outpost. David earned an Elite Attack dice for the feat of scoring 5 hits in one attack, which destroyed his foe.

Two good, and different games. We are getting too attached to this game. Will we be able to move on?

STAR TREK ATTACK WING: SKIRMISH IN THE CONTESTED ZONE.

Estremis system 2275: Two Constitution class starships along with the Reliant have away teams on Estremis III and IV preparing loads of a rare ore for beaming up. The ore loads are worth 5pts each. losing an away team costs 5pts. To beam up, a ship must be within range 1 of the planet and use an action. 

Their operation is interupted by the arrival of two D7 class cruisers and a K' T' Inga class starship, which I controlled, Rick took the Federation.

Early in the game, the three Federation ships are busy beaming up ore and away teams when the Klingon ships appear.

Reliant fires at a D7, but fails to register a hit.

The Constitution class ships pull a full asterm manouvre to move out of range of the Klingon ships.

The Reliant moves slightly, keeping within orbit of Estremis IV, and getting another shot at the D7, taking out it's shields.

Enterprise manages to defeat the other D7s shields to score two hits. The fire from the D7 does not penetrate Enterprises shields.

General combat is joined.

Constitution takes two hits from photon torpedoes from the K' T' Inga.

The Enterprise moves onto the rear of a D7, scoring a hit!

The new starship Constellation was the distant support for the operation and arrived after six turns. There was a chance that the engines would malfunction, but they didn't.

Constellation scores hits on the K'T'Inga class, which has no shields and can no longer cloak.

The surviving ships of both sides make their way out of the combat zone.

Although, in the end, no ships were destroyed, the Federation met their mission goals, getting all their away teams and most of the ore aboard, thus scoring a decisive victory. Rick generally managed to keep a planet between his ships and the Klingons whilst concentrating on beaming up. Both sides had heavily damaged ships in the end.

STAR TREK: ATTACK WING: ATTACK ON DERNA.

Not having played Attack Wing for a while, and recently having acquired some Hideki Class and Federation fighters, I decided to put on a game for last Thursday.  

Starting positions from the Bajoran side.

 I used the 'blockade' scenario for inspiration. A Dominion battleship, controlled by Rick, had to deploy marines on the Bajoran moon Derna. It was escorted by three fighter groups. The Bajorans had two interceptors and support from a Federation Nova class science vesel and two fighter groups.

Bajoran interceptor and Federation fighters manage to get the battleship in their sights, but are blocked by Hideki fighters,

 The battleship moved relenlessly forward. The fighters cleared the way by taking out one of the interceptors and the Nova. The battleship had it's shields overwhelmed and some of the Dominion fighters took damage.

The Federation fighters find the battleship effectively screened by Dominion fighters.

 The other Bajoran interceptor was dispatched. The battleship carried on it's inevitable progress, but not without taking hits.

The remaining Federation fighters break through the screen to attack the battleship as it lands the first marines.

The battleship managed to get within range 1 to begin landing troops. By this time only one unit of Fedaration fighters was left. They managed to inflict some hull damage before being wiped out.

Mission accomplished, the battleship limps away after taking considerable damage.

The battleship managed to land three units of marines. It limped away, victorious, escorted by the two remaining groups of fighters.

This was a very attritional, but enjoyable game. I had designed the scenario and chosen the ships without really considering things from a gameplay point of view. This became apparent when the Hideki fighters destroyed the three larger Baj/Fed ships in two turns. Fighters have as much firepower as larger vessels; they have four damage steps, which means no matter how many hits they take from one source, they only lose one step. Of course, they can be countered by taking hits from more than one ship per turn.

The squad building rules restrict fighters to only one per force. We discussed other ways of reducing their power, from using three models to represent each fighter unit, to starting them with reduced damage steps. We may try these out in future games.   

ST:AW. THREE WAY FIGHT.

The scenario for our Thursday evening game was a continuation of Neil's introductory game. Neil carried on with Defiant, with Rick doing Dominion. I handled the 'neutral' Klingons.

 

The Defiant continued it's pursuit of the Dominion ships. Unfortunately, it runs into two Jemhadar patrol craft, which themselves are about to be intercepted by two Klingon Birds of Prey.

The Klingons were cloaked and waited to see what Defiant's intentions were before taking part in the action.

Defiant carried on attacking the Dominion forces and ignored the Klingons.

The Dominion forces attacked the Klingons, however, and suffered for it. They lost three ships whilst causing minor damage to the Klingons and Defiant.

 

In general, the current Dominion ships are too lightweight. Hopefully they will have some reinforcement for the next battle. 

DEFIANT ASCENDANT

A couple of weeks behind now!  Before our Thursday game, to familiarise Neil with the Star Trek: Attack Wing rules, I set up a game. A Breen battlecruiser and two Galor class cruisers have come across USS Defiant and a Galaxy class cruiser engaged in crew change and resuply. The Defiant has been on a reconnaisance mission to find out what is happening in the are  since the Klingons took over DS9                                                                                                                                           

The inital encounter.

The consternation caused by the surprise appearance of the Dominion ships almost caused a collision.

In the inital pass, hits were scored by both sides, most of them absorbed by shields.

               Defiant's photon torpedoes score hits on one of the Galors.

        The Galaxy also chips in with  a hit. The Galor was destroyed.

The Breen Battlecruiser was the target of both Federation vessels and took heavy damaged.

Victory was not without price. The Galaxy was damaged and forced to flee. It was merely a parting shot, as the two remaining Dominion ships attempted to evade the Defiant.

 

I decided that the continuing chase would form the basis of the scenario for our Thursday evening game. 

 

THURSDAY GAME: PURSUIT INTO KLINGON SPACE.

This past Thursday, I put on a game of Star Trek: Attack Wing. Although not running a campaign, the scenario for each game is influenced by the outcome of the previous scenario.

 

With the Klingons having taken DS9 in the last game, they are agressively patroling the surrounding space. At the same time, A Romulan Science vessel came across a concentration of Dominion ships in the region of Cardassia Prime. A pursuit force has been dispatched and they catch up with the ship just as it enters Klingon space.

 

After some early manoeuvering, the Dominion and Klingon ships began to engage each other.

This allowed the Romulans to slip through unmolested.

The Klingon commander was so confused that he took a wrong turn and headed away from combat.

This left the two Vor'Cha class to take on the two Breen and one Jem' Hadar ship.

Breen battlecruiser and Jem'Hadar patrol ship almost come together.

The other Breen battlecruiser manages to overhaul the Romulan ship and destroy it

The Dominion forces, having achieved their objective, bug out of Klingon space, but not before the triumphant Breen battlecruiser is destroyed.

This was the first outing for the Breen and the Jem'Hadar ships. They were a bit brittle compared to the Klingon ships, but I am sure that if  Rick's attack rolls had been better, the Klingons would have suffered more damage as their shields are disabled whilst cloaked, though they roll four extra defence dice. I did make a big mistake with my Nekh'Var class ship, choosing the wrong arrow on the dial, sending my commander in the wrong direction. He did redeem himself later, by using one of his upgrades to take an extra manouver and heavily damage a Dominion ship.

The next scenario is taking shape as I write this. Klingon raid as they consider the Dominion ships weak or the bringing forward of the Dominion attack as it has been compromised? Watch this space.