Breaking Star Trek Attack Wing into timeline and faction limited fleets has created a group of basically similar, but also quite different games.
One thing it has allowed me to do is consolidate points costs. The game evolved, but I feel many weaker ships were costed out based on their performance against newer ships. If you play true to the era, these changes often become redundant.
Each of these has usually either a generic and/or unique named ship list, or in some sets, a bit of both.
TOS, or The Original Series has had a little boost lately.
Using named ships in preference, each faction has at least two ships.
The Feds have the Enterprise and Intrepid, Captains Kirk and Pike and a generic, most of the series crew (including an added Mirror Chekov one I had as there is no Fed one), 5 elite talents including the new “Live Long and Prosper” (a Vulcan upgrade, but I will adapt) and “Explore Strange New Worlds”, a pair of photon torps which max them out and thanks to the more science themed Intrepid, 2 tech options. The sheer number of Crew allowed (4) fully enable the Enterprise, while the Intrepid is more tech-support.
The Romulans have the Gal Gath’Thong bird of prey and Algeron D-7 Cruiser filling similar roles as above, a core ship and a support. We have 3 captains and an admiral plus generics, 5 elites, 7 crew, mostly generics, but I added an excess Selok from TNG (she looks right, they do live quite a while), 7 weapons and 2 tech (one is Cloaked Mines, which pre-date the TOS period). Cloaking effects and trickery are their thing, with lots of clever tactics.
the Klingons get a special addition to make up for my shortage of named D-7’s. The freshly launched brute flag ship Kronos One as the first K’Tinga class (with it’s action bar changed to a non cloaked one for this period), which sports the highest primary attack in this set, more resilience than the Gr’oth, but the lighter D-7 moves better, is considerably cheaper as well as adding a tech slot.
We have 3 named captains and a generic, 4 elites, 5 weapons, 2 crew and a tech. I am short a crew option or two, but as the cosmetics are quite different to later periods, it is hard to fudge that.
Not a nice situation considering one gave the Enterprise a run. Hope the Feds bought backup, or they might be lunch or at least invited to a corny wrestling match. The Mirror Constitution is a sweet little model.
The Gorn are the toughest faction with the Gornarius and the crew friendly Gress’Sril. They have 4 named captains with 3 elite talents, 7 tech, 6 weapons, 6 crew and 2 (?) Meridor Ale.
These ships can hit hard and for tricky tactics they rank along side the Romulans.
I fleshed this set** out re-buying the Gress’Sril expansion to go with a second physical ship I was kindly gifted. The newer ship has had its point cost increased to match the old one as they are the toughest ships in this period.
The enigmatic Tholians, the web builders and control freaks are weak on a ship to ship basis, so they have 3 and an apparently quite common house rule that the “Tholia One” card refers to a generic-named ship class (like a specific group of ships), the reason being the true generics have a single weapon slot, which means they can either weave webs or pack another weapon (or I could use the option below*).
That may work well with a larger fleet, but it limits a smaller build far too much. It also breaks the named ship rule for this set, but works well enough. For captains they have Loskene, two Tholian Pilots with skill 2 and shield regen and 2 generics. Upgrades are 9 weapon (3 web and some nastier stuff), 2 elites for Loskene only to select from and………. that’s it.
If the Tholian Pilots with named as generic Tholia One’s are used they become quite capable with free web sewing and shield recovery available on a slow move and punchy weapons in reserve.
The ships are weak and slow but move well, the numbers give some benefit and their other weapons, including Tricobalt Warheads that pack 6 attack at range 3, are brutal in this time line.
The last faction for this set is the Mirror ISS Enterprise, one of only two Mirror universe options (the other is the Kelvin set below). This is a 5 upgrade ship like the USS version but instead of 4 crew, it packs 2 crew, 2 weapon and 1 tech, basically being it’s own tech support.
With 2 captains and a generic and 2 elite talents, the pack benefits from splitting out some other mirror cards, but I bought two, so I have also added to other sets.
It has 4 crew including a slightly manic Chekov and an Orion tactician-from the DS9 mirror ships, 2 tech including enhanced hull plating and 2 weapon. Just a few extra cards make the build unpredictable and when generic ships are used, I can build two or even three ships.
A well rounded and balanced scenario based set, full of nostalgia and the birthplace of many core Trek concepts. The Feds rely on Kirk/Enterprise and crew synergy, the Gorn are tough with 4 shields, the Romulans slippery and elusive with cloaking and agility, the Klingons hit hard with the only 4 primary, the Tholians add a point of difference and the mirror Enterprise allows for some hijinxs.
*
The Kelvin timeline Feds are a Mirror faction, so they get some help from split packs. Both Enterprise options and the generics are much stronger than the TOS versions to match the physically massive models (longest Enterprise in the game, while the TOS version is the smallest).
The Federation has 4 captains that all have an alternate side (3 are crew and 1 admiral), 4 double sided crew and 2 of the captains still have an elite talent when crew. With 6 weapon, 4 tech and a lowly 2 elite cards (which I have added as the set comes with no Fed elite cards), it has plenty of builds. The TOS series elite upgrades could also be added if needed, but the captain and crew skills are enough.
This is a truly massive model, has a deep and robust build and is fun and thematic to play.
The more conventional Kelvin Klingons have 2 captains (the ubiquitous Kang and Kor) and an added generic, 2 ships that are a little weaker but also cheaper than the Feds, 6 elites, 4 crew (single sided), 2 tech and 4 weapon.
There is enough to trouble a fully built-out Enterprise and possibly another ship “in distress” or surprised vs two full strength Klingons, but the set is very much as scenario based one.
*
The last set I will cover in this article is the TOM or original movie period.
When I sold off some stuff, the TOM period was the most sought after by the buyer and least liked by me, so Chang’s BOP and Singh in the Reliant both went. I was keen to let the lot go as a clean break, but the Excelsior and Kronos One packs were multiples and still available so I kept the most tenuous toe hold in the period with options to expand.
The “These are the Voyages” set however replaced basically every name I had shed from the Federation and added more (Tuvok!), even though their abilities varied from previous iterations. I chased a Kirk captain card for months and paid way too much for it, let it go cheaply, then back it came in the TatV set for relatively little. Karma?
Suddenly I have 3 Enterprise builds (but need to paint a deep cut refit ship), the Excelsior and the Tian An Men Reliant class, a half dozen captain options, an admiral, 5 elites, 16 (!) crew, 5 weapon and 5 tech with the Systems Upgrade (?) card.
From basically a token Excelsior pack to a fleet. Crew are again the strength of the faction.
I would have preferred they add more to the original series in the TatV set, but that was not to be and as it goes, it turned out ok.
Enter Kronos One. Like the Kelvin set, this is purely a Fed vs Klingon dynamic, but also like that set, there is lots to work with.
For the Klingons, Chang and Gowron are both present in the Kronos One pack and Chang’s, so I have one version and the “Blood Oath” set added a few useful bits. The only thing I regret is the loss of a couple of elite cards from the Chang’s BOP pack, but otherwise there are 2 named and several generic captains, 5 elites (really need to run “an eye for and eye” with Chang!), 3 crew (I may add some more generics), 5 weapon and 4 tech which can only be used by a BOP or an aging D-7 (advanced weapon system allows the Chang’s BOP-like ability to cloak and attack).
For named ships, basically any K’Tinga or D-7 is usable, so several can be fielded, but the BOP, a B’rel class with K’vort move dial is a decent fudge. The strength of the faction comes from potentially 4-6 ships with an offensive lean.
The Klingons are not as strong as they could be, but are still a handful for any Fed build and the extras that came in the TatV pack (Q etc) add scenario options.
*Originally, I only wanted a single ship per faction made up of left over duplicates, but realistically, they are weak ships, so they were heavily dependent on a good scenario.
**I often apply a house rule that a ship may be built up to a squad value, even if that exceeds its upgrade slots (maybe limited to ship point value), but may only have active, upgrades equal to their symbols. This includes multiple of the same crew or Captain options, but any card that disables or removes them, affects all options.