I'm totally new to the game. I plan on playing Faction pure (house rule at both venues, and I'd play that way, anyway) and era specific.

Right now I have the Enterprise, later today I'm getting the Reliant. (I've got cards for the crew of the Defiant...'cause hey, "Trials and Tribblations!")

I do NOT want anyone to give me builds...the fun of this is that I get to learn/customize a game for the first time since Vs...but:

Can Kirk and his trickery cut it against TNG era stuff?

Oh, and Kirk stole a Romulan Cloaking Device once, so I might do the same every now and then.

Seems to me that Spock, McCoy, Sulu, and Scotty all pair very well with each other.

Corbomite Maneuver + Scotty (and maybe McCoy, too) = Keeping the ship going against bigger, more powerful ships.

The TOS crew are great, sulu is good with any ship. The reliant is another expansion that's useful for federation builds.

They can but you have to play them cautiously. They do not have the firepower to joust with the big dogs.

The Excelsior expansion will also help TOS era fleets considerably.

Yeah, what he said. Sulu, Spock, and Scotty are all must-have crew for Feds, IMO. And the Reliant is a great little ship...it's really fragile so you need to be careful with it, but it's a staple on my Fed builds. Even the generic version of the Reliant (Miranda class) is very playable. And of course Khan and Terrell are good captain options as well.

Someone other than Kirk gets to call themselves "Captain?"

How odd...

I just put the original Enterprise on Black Friday. Looking through the cards, I put together a build to try and run against the Kobiashi Maru scenario.

The key, as stated, is caution, planning and defense.

I think played defensively, ToS can hang with anyone.

The ToS ships rely more on the "crew" than the ship itself (hence the MANY crew upgrade slots).

I think Kirk as a captain can be very potent especially with the newer elite talents (and cheat death is an AWESOME card).

The thing that hurts the ship is the 3 damage, but this can be offset by torpedo upgrades.

With the new expansion and the Sutherland coming out soon it can only get better for the feds!!

Like the others have said....yes you can.....but it will be a bit touch and go.

The Enterprise Crew is fantastic......some of the best in the game.........Kirk is going to be the most powerful Captain in the game as more Elite Talents pop up.

With the Excelsior dropping next week you're getting another good bunch of options to play with.

It will certainly require more strategy and planning, but you should be able to be competitive.

Defense certainly seems like the best option for them. With Sulu, Scotty, and Cheat Death, they can take quite a beating.

It's interesting (for lack of a better term) that ToS is so Crew dependant, while other ships rely more on weapons/tech/talents.

Wizkids has done an AMAZING job of capturing the feel of the characters. Attack Wing has jumped way past Heroclix in terms of how I'd like to spend my game nights!

I know this feeling well. We had to catch up on fear itself tournies because of a mishap with prize support, and then with local cons, we have only had sealed heroclix to play. That really took the wind out of my sails for heroclix and I focused on Attack Wing. Added to the fact that my Romulans feel like Romulans in attack wing, with the whole cloak and dagger tactics, I really just gave up on tactics.

If you like TOS era Klingons, the Ktingas are great ships. I picked up three just so I can have the standard three Klingon battle cruiser fleets.

Feel and scenarios, as well as no blind purchases swayed me big-time. Kirk being able to come up with new strategies on the fly (shown by keeping his upgrades face down) is just perfect.

I've played Clix long enough to know exactly how almost any game will play out. I still enjoy it, but in small doses. Attack Wing is a different animal entirely.

In Clix, I feel like I'm playing against templates. AW actually feels like I'm playing against other people.

Yeah, I'll echo others and say that, from my experience so far, TOS Federation crew are excellent, and can make an OK ship perform really well. Kirk is only going to get better as more elite talents are released, too, so that's something to look forward to (although you will have to either buy some non-TOS ships, or trade, to get them).

Also, if you're build extends to TOS-movies, then the Excelsior looks like it's going to be a really strong addition to Federation fleets, and has a nice dynamic with the Reliant (the smaller, more maneuverable ship geared towards getting in close and harassing with the larger long-range attack ship to launch torpedoes from further back).

I think the only trouble you're really likely to run into is that there probably won't be that many 100 point builds with only TOS-era stuff, so they might feel a bit stagnant after a while. But, if WK releases a USS Yosemite or Grissom (which we know they have a sculpt for), that ship model was in use for TOS movie era, so there would be another option. Is the Nebula class that early, as well? If so, and you get a USS Sutherland, you can use that ship, too.

Also, depending on how picky your play group is, you could always use TOS-era miniatures from somewhere else on top of TNG-era stands as "counts-as" ships. The "A Call To Arms: Star Fleet" minis are nice, if a bit pricey:
http://www.thewarstore.com/mgpstarfleet.html