This has been fun and enlightening.

Before I go gangbusters into the two biggest periods (TNG Battle and TNG/DS9 Skirmish, which I will explain later), I would like to revisit the previous posts and ponder what has been learned (and since bought).

The house rules used are;

• All upgrades, even the Captain’s are hidden until revealed/used.

• As an option, in some periods where it suits (TOM, TOS, Ent, Voyager), the players may buy from their upgrade choices “as they go”, until their points or slots are exhausted. This give Kirk, Khan or Chang for example more choices per game.

The Original Period.

The TOS period(s), including the Animated Series and Kelvin timeline have proven to be most satisfying and surprising. The TAS (1970’s Animated Series) has fleshed out TOS with some tasty Tech and Weapon upgrades, fully allowable as they are for the same ships and timeline, but the animated Crew and Ship cards are kept segregated.

The same for the Kelvin timeline. The Weapon and Tech options can be interchanged for a little spice, the Crew and Ships not. The Kelvin Enterprise let loose on the other original ships would be just mean.

The Mirror Enterprise (the dark one, not the Kelvin), also adds options which can partially, go both ways (no Agony Chamber for the USS fleet please).

By spreading the Tech and Weapon upgrade love, each sub-faction of the TOS period is deeper, with no harm done to any (for example there are no Federation Photon Torps in the Kelvin pack!?).

Reviewing this period (or periods), apart from soothing my doubts that it was not really a going concern on it’s own, did lead to some more purchases. A third Gorn ship, the Mirror Enterprise, the Animated Series pack and making a commitment to repaint some D7’s to fit the period better (and I do have lots!), has rounded out the range nicely.

Cheap ships with powerful upgrades are this period’s vibe. The Enterprise loaded with the original cast can pack a real punch and stay under 50 points, so 2-3 ship a side jousts, at 80-100 pts are the realistic limit (the whole Federation fleet comes in at 95pts, as do many others).

The Enterprise Era.

This one always sat quite nicely on it’s own. The models are great and largely in scale (avert your gaze from the Xindi Aquatic now) and the faction choice is interesting, balanced and diverse.

Separating it from other periods has only made it better. The NX is a weak ship in some company (actually equal to a Tie fighter in X Wing, see below), but it is a solid option here thanks to good upgrades. The emerging Romulans and Klingons, the paranoid Xindi and frenemies such as the Vulcans and Andorians make the squadron builds thematic, flexible and appealing.

Cheap and relatively weak ships, there are still agile (NX, Insectoid, Romulan), powerful hitting (Xindi, Andorian), robust (Xindi, Vulcan) and tricky (Romulan, Tholian) options. Crew are important here as is an awareness of individual ship strengths and weaknesses, which fits in well with the series.

There is actually more variety in this era than most, even though the power level is generally low.

A second Muritas found by accident while searching for something else has completed this period, which in turn helped rekindle my waning interest in STAW generally. A second Romulan Drone was also added to go with the new card pack, because damn they are nice to fly.

This period lends itself to small fleet actions, both thematically and mechanically (100 pts goes a long way).

The Original Movies.

To be honest this was my least favourite period and probably still is. Not a huge fan of the movies at the time, I have watched them with older eyes and appreciated their legacy, but the STAW offering was seen more of an annoyance than a benefit.

I will admit to judging it too harshly. Sure there are limited factions (2 and a half) and limited ships, but nice ones and more than in the same factions in TOS. The models are nice-ish (love the Excelsior, but the Enterprise refit has moulding issues, which I have bought a couple of Deep Cuts to fix).

What the ships lack in variety, they make up for in upgrade options (53 in my collection). Chang in his BoP has multiple tactical choices and powerful ones, Khan is not faction limited and Kirk is a powerhouse with Crew to match, in fact most of the major characters have more than one option (Gorkon has 3!).

This is a good period I feel, for simulating the deeper tactics shown in the movies. Full of flavour, it is just begging to be used thematically.

Nothing added here because as it turns out, it is pretty healthy, but lots of re-paints.

1:1 duels in complicated, tactical scenario’s are best here.

The Delta Quadrant.

The first of the Next generation periods and one of the two “skirmish” options*, the Delta Quadrant at first looks like the graveyard of Federation dreams. The lone Voyager, with the later Delta flyer for support is a neat and strong little combo, especially when you look at the upgrades on offer, but the catch is, the Delta Quadrant is dangerous enough to give even the Borg pause.

Species 8472, The Krenim, Hirogens, Vidiians and even the Kazon are capable of giving a single ship as good as the Intrepid class, even with a little support, a good run. Add in the Borg and things start to look over whelming, as they are meant to.

To add variety and survivability, there are options for the Feds other than alliances. Other ships, stranded in the Quadrant, such as the Val Jean (destroyed), Equinox (destroyed) and even the Dauntless (fake) could be pressed into service or used as another enemy, to keep games interesting (maybe a Hirogen allied Equinox or Kazon allied Val Jean?). The Klingons and Romulans (the nearest Alpha Qd neighbours?) can also be used, as they were (lost experimental Drone ship anyone?) and the enigmatic Tholians it seems can pop up anywhere and anytime. You could even switch out the main ship entirely (lost Defiant?)

Optionally other factional conflicts, maybe between the already demonstrably combative Borg vs Sp 8473, Kazon vs Hirogen or the Vidiian vs the Krenim, allow you to pit the quadrant’s power houses against each other. Other Skirmish scale ships could also be added including Enterprise era/Xindi or even TOM ships as they will fit well enough size wise and could make for interesting scenario games.

Like the Enterprise series, the ships are nice and if kept to their designated grouping*, well scaled (the Borg are always a stretch, but are too much fun to ignore).

I have not re-painted one ship in this period, but relented and purchased the Dauntless for variety and a second Krenim Time ship to empower that faction a little.

Small squadron actions are good here as are the excellent scenarios provided.

*

*The TNG period has been split into “Battle” for big ships and “Skirmish” for smaller ships.

The Battle category has the bigger BoP (K’Vort or bigger) is the smallest big ship used, even though it looks a bit out of place and genuinely small ships such as the Hathaway are included as the minnows of this group. The core assumption is a ship will be in the 500ft+ class. Battle has fighters, representing a full squadron strength per unit.

Skirmish considers the Voyager or a B’Rel BoP to be the “big guns” of the group with most ships coming in at 100-200 ft maximum. Fighters represent wings, with 2-3 making a squadron. Generally more agile and fragile, this is the dog fighting group. WizKids seem to have settled on two scales to make most ships look the same on the table. Often within one period there is only the odd exception to this, and many are up for debate anyway, but in the TNG era, the big ships are really big, the smaller ones quite tiny in comparison.

The Ex Astris Scientia or an equivalent size chart is used for a loose categorisation, but the micro scale knit-picking is ignored.

*

In comparison to X Wing.

They may share the same movement system, turn sequence and even some terminology, but STAW has a very different feel to X Wing. The ship to upgrade dynamic makes upgrades the primary tool for an enjoyable and competitive game and better connection to story. This has the benefit of greater customisation within a single ship type (the equivalent of separate Pilots and even more upgrades for X Wing), so a few go a long way. Even when strictly limited as here, the build options are many, allowing for a more epic style long game vs a manoeuvre for the first strike feel of the dog fight designed X Wing.

Somehow STAW is just less hard edged than X Wing. We have made some allowances in our games to reduce the built-in competitiveness of X Wing, where STAW tends to start with a scenario idea and grow from there naturally.

Why is it STAW generally starts with an “ok what is A trying to do that B is trying to stop” while X Wing has a “how many points and what’s in or out” feel?

The greater reliance on upgrades, but their lower individual impact on the game, allows for a lot of “soft” experimentation and build options.

The Action Bar dynamic is also very different.

In X Wing the Action Bar is a large differentiator between ships.

In STAW, the bulk of ships have the same bar (BS, Sc, TL, Ev), with the “alternate” being the cloaking capable ships who swap out BS and Sc for Cloak and Echo. Some (few) ships have fewer than the basic 4 options, but not many. These actions are more in line with larger ships so there are no Boost, or Barrel Roll actions.

By comparison, lets look at the NX-01 Enterprise (16 points) vs the standard Tie fighter (12-18 pts).

Base Stats

NX 2 3 3 0 vs 2 3 3 0 Tie

Action Bar

NX Ev TL Sc BS vs Br Ev Tie

Moves

NX 4 GR, 7 Wh, 2 Rd vs 4 Gr, 10 wh Tie

Manoeuvres

NX Red 3 and Wh 2 K-Turns, Sp 3 vs Red 3 and 4 K-turns, Sp 5 Tie

Upgrades

NX 4 Crew*, 1 Weapon, 1 Tech**, 1 Elite* vs Elite (some) and Mod Tie

*with Archer as Captain.

** with T’Pol

So very similar in some ways, totally different in others. These two really highlight the differences between the design goals of the two games.

The tie is faster and can be more agile (Roll), the Enterprise has 4 Action options (Crew not withstanding), but is considerably slower (on par with it’s contemporaries). They can both turn, the NX maybe even better and tighter, but has 2 Red moves to the Ties none.

The most expensive Tie/ln in the Game is a 26pt Howlrunner (usually 23 though and 18 in Bare Bones).

The Enterprise can come in at 33pts with a multitude of choices and free Hull Plating.